Berkman Buzz: March 1, 2013

The Obama White House today directed federal agencies to develop open-access policies within the next six months. The directive comes from John Holdren, President Obama's chief Science Advisor.

This is big. It's big in its own right, and even bigger when put together with FASTR, the bipartisan OA bill introduced into both houses of Congress just eight days ago. We now have OA mandates coming from both the executive and legislative branches of government.

One of the most useful results of Bono's ode to factivism could be his use of the term. I'd like to see evidence-based everything, whether science, journalism, politics – you name it. Science is, for the most part, based on evidence, even if other interests twist the data to demonstrate falsehoods, or create uncertainty where the evidence overwhelmingly points to a conclusion.

But we live in a world where evidence, which can conflict with the imperatives of the rich and powerful, doesn't always impel those influential people to change their ways.

New post: Open letter on the White House public access directive http://hvrd.me/Vevgeq
—Stuart Shieber (@pmphlt)

Noted freedom of expression scholar Cherian George has been denied tenure by the Singaporean government against the wishes of his faculty. His error was explaining basic tenets of political philosophy in an editorial. I’m writing about it because this is an American problem.

Sitting with a group of graduating high school seniors last summer, the conversation turned to college roommates. Although headed off to different schools, they had a similar experience of learning their roommate assignment and immediately turning to Facebook to investigate that person. Some had already begun developing deep, mediated friendships while others had already asked for roommate transfers. Beyond roommates, all had used Facebook to find other newly minted freshman, building relationships long before they set foot on campus.

Many of you who have followed the adventures of the Citizen Media Law Project know that we have been contemplating a change of our project's name for quite some time (the eagle-eyed will have seen our new name and logo appearing in stealth fashion here and there on our site and elsewhere). The change from "Citizen" to "Digital" is a profound one for us, reflecting an ongoing discussion within our project (now and hereafter the "DMLP") about the nature of the online journalism and publishing ecosystem and our role in supporting those involved in it.

How teachers are using tech at home and at school, from @pewInternet http://t.co/WkLV6ArCsT
—David Weinberger (@dweinberger)

Last week, blogger and corruption fighter Alexey Navalny was on top of the world, after he published information that led to the eventual resignation of a Duma deputy. The Russian Internet, however, is a fickle mistress. Today, Navalny is himself the victim of bloggers.