Kevin Marks points us to a BBC piece about Afghan women blogging their way back into the daylight, and Halley reruns a related blog entry. It’s one of those things that makes you think this Internet stuff might actually make a difference.

Graeme Thickins points us to a Salon review (By Andrew Leonard) of a book — Ruling the Root by Milton Mueller — about the way in which the special interests that control ICANN control the DNS and thus inhibit free speech. Sounds interesting although the review makes it sound as if the regrettable advantage the incumbent brands have in holding onto their names and variants means that the Internet is doomed. To me, the most alarming point in the review is:

“With the emergence of domain name-trademark conflicts, the WHOIS protocol took on a new function,” writes Mueller. “It became a surveillance tool for intellectual property holders…Copyright interests now view expanded WHOIS functionality as a way to identify and serve process upon the owners of allegedly infringing Web sites”

Sounds like a must-read.

Ryan Ireland wants to start a group read of the book Empire by Hardt and Negri. If you’re interested, head on over.

Steve Yost disagrees with my comment about why companies aren’t adopting collaborative software at the pace at which reason would seem to dictate.

Michael O’Connor Clarke links to a very funny database of chat quotes. Be sure to see what Michael selects as his favorite. Very funny. (Kudos to Michael for having the least visible permalink on the Web. Runner up: Eric Raymond.)

Categories: Uncategorized dw