We’re Still Digitally Divided

The digital divide, a term coined by President Clinton and Vice President Gore, is alive and well, according to a recent survey. Some eye-opening results: 30% of American heads-of-households have never created a document on a computer 21% of American […]

Internet & Society Now a Legit Couple

We are gathered together today to honor a union that has been 10 years in the making. By taking this brave step, these two — the Internet and Society — have acknowledged their ongoing devotion to one another, the profound […]

Web 2.0 — The Vital Echo Chamber

Skeptics keep you honest, and should be celebrated. A skeptic about Web 2.0 is David Crotty, author of the Cold Spring Harbor Protocols blog “Benchmarks.” In a recent post, he pointed me to a review of Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes […]

The Rise of Blogs, the Death of Newspapers

In a superb article by Eric Alterman, the New Yorker has assessed the state of American newspapers, and the rise of the Huffington Post. The (r)evolution is viewed through the lenses of Walter Lippmann‘s debates with John Dewey in the […]

Web 2.0 Critiqued in “First Monday” Issue

The March 2008 issue of the online journal First Monday is entitled, “Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0.” It’s worth a look. Some pieces are especially provocative, including “Loser Generated Content: From Participation to Exploitation,” “Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance,” […]

Mixed Media & Founding Fathers

This may not be entirely germane, but I like seeing history and scholarship moving into the mass market, especially when it’s well-executed. This might be one such case, given the source material. HBO and the US Postal Service are teaming […]