Why? Because Internet journalism is harder to control than traditional journalism. It's much easier to create dissident news organizations online with a hope of reaching wide audiences across fast distances, and it's easy for anybody to blog what they eyewitness around them. An individual blogger can report a police crackdown he witnessed in his hometown, despite the fact that official media organizations have all been forbidden from reporting it. With traditional media, the main mechanisms used by governments to control journalists tend to be pre-publication or pre-broadcast: the issuing and withdrawal of media licenses without which a news organization cannot operate legally; political and economic pressures by authorities on editors and publishers to avoid or emphasize certain topics; and hiring processes that try to weed out journalists whose reporting would cause too much trouble. Imprisonment is the last resort when all else fails, or when people persist in setting up unlicensed or dissident publications.

More at RConversation, Rebecca's blog. ]]> http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/online_journalists_in_jail.html http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/online_journalists_in_jail.html Global Voices Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:03:19 -0600 ]]> http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/star_wearing_purple.html http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/star_wearing_purple.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:42:44 -0600 From Counterculture to Cyberculture.]]> http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/were_back.html http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/were_back.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:25:53 -0600 For those of you who are monitoring Weblogsky via RSS or email: I'll be offline for a bit. I have to move the site to a different host, and it's not clear how long that will take - I'm insanely busy with other stuff, so it might be after the first of the year. If I have something to blog in the interim, I'll do it at livejournal: http://jonl.livejournal.com/ http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/taking_a_break.html http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/taking_a_break.html Administrivia Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:20:16 -0600 Sweetriot's chocolate at 219 West. Marsha and I dropped by for chocolate and conversation - ran into Mason Arnold from Greenling and Vinay Bhagat from Convio as well as organizers Bjorn Billhardt of Enspire Learning and Bijoy Goswami of Bootstrap Austin. I'm not sure what we talked about, I'm deaf as a post. We did gobble some chocolate, though.

Bjorn Billhardt, Marsha Lebkowsky, Jon Lebkowsky, Bijoy Goswami

the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together.

The book is catching on; this week there were positive reviews in Wired News (Jenn Shreve's "Saving the World Without Hippies") and Whole Life Times. In my own latest WorldChanging post, I argue that the most extreme dytopian visions of future climate change are detrimental.]]> http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/worldchanging_in_austin.html http://weblogsky.midasnetworks.com/2006/12/worldchanging_in_austin.html Events Fri, 01 Dec 2006 08:04:32 -0600 wrote about the issues with Zillow's market analysis tool. Realtor® Magazine Online reported on October 30 that the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes equal access to credit and capital for underserved communities, has filed a complaint about Zillow with the Federal Trade Commission.

...NCRC insists that Zillow's home-valuation tool is inaccurate and misleading. An audit by NCRC reveals that Zillow's so-called "Zestimates" are wrong over 67 percent of the time, and many home owners have expressed concerns about valuations that are too high or too low.

The last laugh I shared with Altman onstage came when he was discussing A Prairie Home Companion. He said he had upset Garrison Keeler, who thought of the film based on his radio show as a light romp. Altman shook his head and said, "No it's not, it's a film about death. Virginia Madsen plays an angel who keeps picking people off. By the end of the picture she's practically taken the whole cast with her." In retrospect, Prairie feels even more like an elegy for a time past that won't come back. But Altman wouldn't go in for eulogies. "It's just death," he said, "nothing to be afraid of."