So even though racism via color may not be as prevalent, racism of knowledge is.

Derrida also talks about something called the “graphosphere,” which I took to mean the general everyday environment in which paper is used. I’m honestly not sure if I grasped this concept properly and I had lots of trouble reading this part, since I didn’t fully understand what he meant by the graphosphere, and by the whole “The Paper is Me” thing. I understand that a passport can be considered “you,” but I don’t see how it relates to anything other than that.

I do worry when ISPs start to block certain types of traffic on their networks. Sure, they may be blocking BitTorrent today, but they may block other Web sites in the future. And as a consumer if I pay Comcast for broadband, I want to be able to control my Web experience. Source

As you can see, by restricting Comcast users from using a certain type of software or protocol is hindering their web experience. If you pay for something, you should get the full use out of it, whether its a product or a service. What if the next time you purchased a car you found out you were only allowed to go to a select list of shops to have the car repaired when something went wrong? Some people wouldn’t be affected by that, but I know I would – especially since I do a lot of the work at home. What Comcast has done is similar to this – they’re stopping me from fully enjoying my purchase (if I was a Comcast Cable Internet subscriber). Next thing you know, it will be a crime to e-mail one of your friends who uses another internet service provider.

Bakken, a lawyer, defended his use of Mr. Yuk. He said federal law allows some use of copyrighted material for satire or academic criticism. He said he found Yuk-like images spread across the Internet. Source

This is what I would consider fair use – the “violator” isn’t trying to use the original work in an effort to destroy it or harm the copyright holder. He is, instead, using it to help people make a legal decision. Since people know that the symbol means danger, he uses it to sway the people into thinking the bill or law being passed is dangerous. The meaning of the symbol remains the same – danger. The copyright holders aren’t affected by it, since the meaning is the same as it was before he used it. And its all for academic use – to teach the public about the dangers of a certain law.

Like the iTunes Store, Corbis isn’t even a particularly good example of third-order organization… Corbis give us only a taste of the revolution that’s under way. Just take a look at Flickr to see one way this is unrolling… Yet it is remarkably easy to find photos at Flickr on almost any topic and to pull together collections of photos on themes that mix and match those topics at will.

So even though Corbis’ photos are taken by professionals, organized by professionals, the amateur photography is better? I don’t know, I would prefer to use a professional photograph for my projects and presentations than something taken by someone like me. Sure, he makes a valid point that its easier to search, but the point also shows bias as he discredits a larger, more well known authority on photography for a social photography posting site.

But the problem is that gatekeepers — the agents, editors, recording engineers — these are the very engineers of talent

I’m sorry to interrupt, but where can I find a local agent so I can go and buy talent? I’d love to be able to sing, play guitar, and play drums all at the same time. Is Keen saying that these people – agents, editors, and recording engineers – are talent gods?? That’s quite a statement, especially considering that a person who plays in a coffee shop can have just as much talent as a person who’s being paid millions of dollars. If we start measuring each others talent by measuring each other’s pocketbook, then by far Bill Gates is the most talented person in the world (as of 2/9/2007) – a college drop out. I know several people who have talent, whether it be musical, artistic, or anything else in the world, who don’t have nearly as large a pocketbook as main stream artists.

Crucial staff members were either forced out or resigned in mid-stream, and its ambitious goal — to produce “the most comprehensive knowledge base to date on the scope, limits and best practices of crowdsourcing” — had to be dramatically curtailed in order to yield some tangible results when Assignment Zero ended on June 5.

When the staff themselves are resigning from such a project, it pretty much shows the lack of planning and structure put into it. Had there been a set of stricter rules and an easier-to-follow structure, the project could have been a success. In my opinion, people aren’t ready to develop content on their own – they still need guidance, and probably always will.

Some experts say Facebook and MySpace, along with photo-sharing sites like Flickr and the ubiquitous video sharing site YouTube, are a legitimate part of young people’s social lives. But as the idea of sharing your life virtually with friends and family continues to appeal to a broader and older demographic, you probably will end up Facebooking your mom.

Do you really want your mom to know what you do on the weekends? If its something you know she wouldn’t approve of, probably not. So if your mom is on your Facebook friends list, you will probably try and keep that kind of stuff off of your profile, even though she may not be watching you all the time. Simply put, Facebook is the new panopticon. Without constantly policing yourself to make sure you don’t put any type of offending or incriminating material on your profile, you run the risk of getting in trouble, whether it be with your parents or your employer. Big brother is always watching.