One of the things that has both amused and annoyed me in the past 2 months is that there has been humongously more discussion on this list about all the services that someone should provide -- for free and without any effort by the person sending the message -- and hardly any discussion of real research. I'm basically going to stop reading this list until it gets back to its purpose. This is the Association of Internet RESEARCHERS, after all. Given the very uneven quality of the papers I've heard at AoIR conferences, I would urge that efforts be turned towards doing good research. In frustration, Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________
The following comes from "Democracy Now" Radio Station in the US....We ought to be concerned about the violation of democratic rights. In the latest crackdown on the Indymedia network, the FBI with Spanish and Swiss officials oversaw the confiscation of the servers. Indymedia's Internet provider is under a gag order not to talk about what happened. [includes rush transcript] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Earlier this month, two United Kingdom-based Internet servers containing data for more than 20 local Independent Media Center websites were seized A week later, the webservers were returned to Indymedia and their hosting company, Rackspace Managed Hosting. It is still unclear who actually took the servers, the reasons for the seizure, or the legal authority under which they were impounded. Citing a gag order, Rackspace would not comment on what had happened both in the original seizure of the servers or their return. What is known at this point is that the subpoena that resulted in the seizure was issued at the request of a foreign government. Although initial reports suggested that the FBI had taken the servers, the FBI has now denied any involvement. Indymedia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are planning legal action to find out what really happened to Indymedia"s servers. The seizure has come under heavy criticism from civil liberties and press freedom groups. Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, called it "an intolerable and intrusive international police operation against a network specializing in independent journalism ... [that] smacks more of intimidation of legitimate journalistic inquiry than crime-busting." The full transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/18/1438244 The petition http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk/
participants (2)
-
Barry Wellman -
Derek McMillan