Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education

Viva Carterfone

This article rightly celebrates the Carterfone story.  This is the successful mix of technological innovation and policy transition, which established the idea of adding applications to someone else's network.

See also the Hush-a-Phone decision (1956) and Betamax case (1984), for crucial technology policy wins, without which the Web's existence would have been unlikely at best.

Nice final paragraph:

It was June 26, 1968 when the FCC acted on Carterfone. Robert F. Kennedy had been buried two weeks earlier. In Czechoslovakia, followers of the "Prague Spring" fought against Communist rule. Students revolted against mindless bureaucracies at Columbia University, in Paris, in Seoul, in Mexico City. In these stormy times almost no one noticed as the FCC's Commissioners quietly rebelled against the world's biggest telco, unleashing the future.

An oral history of the internet

There's another history of the internet out there.  This time it's an "oral history", based on "speaking with scores of people involved in every stage of the Internet’s development, from the 1950s onward."  Very good stuff.

Along these lines, don't forget Howard Rheingold's Tools for Thought.

Twittering Bhutto's assassination

Twitter was used for information and responses around Benazir Bhutto's assassination this week.  There's a classic mix of journalism sites using Twitter (Breaking News) with individuals tweeting to point towards more information, confirm reports, or react.

Dennis Howlett argues that the tweet cycle is faster than the blog one, with implications for business.  I'm with Doc Searls on this, who sees it as "proving useful for getting some live information out to some people.".

(via Doc Searls)

Blogs versus New York Times, 2002-2007: neither wins

In 2002 a bet was placed: five years hence, in 2007, the top Google search results on selected topics will either be blog posts or New York Times articles.  This week one blogger determined a winner. Roger Caidenhead calculated that blogs nudged out the NYT in the majority of 5 cases, 3-2.  Victory, blogosphere!

However.
1. Neither Gray Lady nor Blogistani Republics lead the results.  The Wikipedia, which emerged over the long bet's lifetime, came in far ahead of both.  Heh:

our most trusted source on the biggest news stories of 2007 is a horde of nameless, faceless amateurs who are not required to prove expertise in the subjects they cover.

As another blogger writes: "Watch out for secondary characters with more interesting stories than your protagonist."

2. Mainstream media articles from sources other than the NYT led blog posts.

3. The blogosphere has emerged more as a source of commentary and linking, than as reportage.  Dave Winer sees this.

4. Those leading blogs aren't individual amateurs, but corporate-owned groups, often enough.

5. The New York Times' opening of archives should boost their results, as Jason Kottke and others note.

Ten years of bloggery

The blogosphere is ten years old today, if we start from Jorn Barger's use of the term, says the BBC.

A generation of virtual worlds and episodes of tv

Pop culture and virtual worlds: Aaron Delwiche explores the long arc from MUDs to CSI.  It's a rare perspective, and a handy summary of one internet history arc.

24 from 1994

This is very clever, and a fun shot of history: 24, as if filmed in 1997.

(via MetaFilter)

World of Warcraft beats farming for Americans

More Americans play World of Warcraft than farm their lands, apparently.  Which does make for an interesting historical moment in a few ways.  For one, it points to the continued dwindling of farming in the US.  For another, it should remind folks just how widespread social gaming is.

Evan Williams in Technology Review

Evan Williams, cofounder of Blogger, Odeo, and now Twitter, is profiled in Tech Review this week.

It would be fun to bear this article in mind while reading Dreaming in Code, in order to think about different emergent strands of the modern Web.

A history of modern mashups

"Remix Culture: The Early Years" samples a series of mashups and related art from the past few years.  A useful blitz history - and with a copyright argument at the end.

(via Brian Lamb via his del.icio.us)