Berkman Buzz: September 13, 2013

Yesterday was my first day as a Berkman Fellow. The day was full of excited, passionate conversation about all the things we care about, finding potential points of intersection and collaboration, and making fast friends. But throughout my conversations yesterday, I sensed some underlying anxiety, some tension. We are all coming together because we love the internet, and we love what it enables in our society. But the internet as we know it is changing.

Time to tame the NSA behemoth trampling our rights | Yochai Benkler http://gu.com/p/3tm46/tw via @guardian = read it!
—Jeffrey Schnapp (@jaytiesse)

I’m pleased to share that, in conjunction with SeeClickFix and Kaggle I’ll be sponsoring a predictive data competition using 311 data from four different cities. My hope is that – if we can demonstrate that there are some predictive and socially valuable insights to be gained from this data – we might be able to persuade cities to try to work together to share data insights and help everyone become more efficient, address social inequities and address other city problems 311 data might enable us to explore.

Today, the Digital Media Law Project launched a new research study on media credentialing practices. Developed with Free Press, the National Press Photographers Association, Journalist's Resource, the Investigative News Network, and the Nieman Journalism Lab, this new study is designed to learn more about how federal, state, and private organizations issue media credentials to newsgatherers and journalists of all types.

Yesterday's conversation with @joi about media and innovation inspired thoughts and reflections from @davewiner: http://scripting.com/2013/09/13/howToMakeInnovationWorkInNews
—Ethan Zuckerman (@ethanz)

Regardless of how we got here, the NSA can’t reform itself. Change cannot come from within; it has to come from above. It’s the job of government: of Congress, of the courts, and of the president. These are the people who have the ability to investigate how things became so bad, rein in the rogue agency, and establish new systems of transparency, oversight, and accountability.

Any solution we devise will make the NSA less efficient at its eavesdropping job. That's a trade-off we should be willing to make, just as we accept reduced police efficiency caused by requiring warrants for searches and warning suspects that they have the right to an attorney before answering police questions. We do this because we realize that a too-powerful police force is itself a danger, and we need to balance our need for public safety with our aversion of a police state.

Also this week in Internet history: Google born, 1998. http://bit.ly/1aHvjI8
—John Dieghton (@HBSmkt)

China has stepped up its crackdown on online rumors by issuing a judicial framework for prosecuting offenders. Internet users who share false information that is defamatory or harms the national interest face up to three years in prison if their posts are viewed 5,000 times or forwarded 500 times, according to a judicial interpretation released on September 9, 2013.

The new guideline, issued by the Supreme People's Court, defines the criteria for convicting and sentencing offenders. This includes causing a mass incident, disturbing public order, inciting ethnic and religious conflicts, and damaging the state's image.