Berkman Buzz: August 15, 2013

The Times' impulse to use an alternative platform was laudable. Among the several stories it posted was a detailed update on the horrendous violence in Egypt, written by an expert journalist who did what Times readers have long expected from the organization's foreign correspondents: a well-reported summary of what we will surely look back on as an important day in Middle East history.

But the venue the paper chose to post its material was ill-advised, for many reasons.

Facebook may have been convenient, but it – not the Times – ultimately controls what appears on its service. Facebook is not hosting this material for the sake of the Times or for people who want quality journalism. Facebook itself is an increasingly threatening competitor to the journalism industry, and it serves its own needs first.

It turns out that the NSA's domestic and world-wide surveillance apparatus is even more extensive than we thought. Bluntly: The government has commandeered the Internet. Most of the largest Internet companies provide information to the NSA, betraying their users. Some, as we've learned, fight and lose. Others cooperate, either out of patriotism or because they believe it's easier that way.

I have one message to the executives of those companies: fight.

Don't set fire to hay & corn stacks in 19th-C. America (if you know what's good for you) http://bit.ly/135vy5H @HarvardLibrary #dplafinds
—Digital Public Library of America (@dpla)

The Digital Problem-Solving Initiative (DPSI) at Harvard University is an innovative and collaborative project piloted in Fall 2013 that brings together interested students, faculty, fellows, and staff and enables participants to work in teams on practicable and concrete digital use cases – problems and opportunities – across the university. The pilot offers students and other participants a novel opportunity to enhance and cultivate competency with digital tools and online activity as teams engage with research, creative production, and policies governing the digital world.

coverage of some research on employment prospects & content people share on FB http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/18/employers-facebook-party-pics-dont-always-reflect-employees-bad-judgment/
—Ezster Hargittai (@eszter)

Many teens ages 12-17 report that they usually figure out how to manage content sharing and privacy settings on their own. Focus group interviews with teens suggest that for their day-to-day privacy management, teens are guided through their choices in the app or platform when they sign up, or find answers through their own searching and use of their preferred platform.

At the same time, though, a nationally representative survey of teen internet users shows that, at some point, 70% of them have sought advice from someone else about how to manage their privacy online. When they do seek outside help, teens most often turn to friends, parents or other close family members.

Egyptian photojournalist Mosa'ab Elshamy was shot at, had a bullet fly over his shoulder, and had his equipment stolen as he ventured into Rabaa Al Adawiya, where a pro-Morsi sit-in was violently dispersed in Cairo, Egypt, today.

He tweets his experience in a series of tweets, which give us a sneak preview of what it was like at the evacuation of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in in Nasr City this morning.