Uptown

Last week, the New York Times announced that it would make its editorials and op-eds available on the Web for free. In a message to subscribers of the (now defunct) service TimesSelect, they explain their shift from access-restrained to freely available content:

"Since we launched TimesSelect, the Web has evolved into an increasingly open environment. Readers find more news in a greater number of places and interact with it in more meaningful ways. This decision enhances the free flow of New York Times reporting and analysis around the world. It will enable everyone, everywhere to read our news and opinion - as well as to share it, link to it and comment on it."

So instead of logging into TimesSelect, copying an article and then pasting it into a Blog, from now I will commit one less copyright infringement and link directly to articles on the Times website.

This comes only a few months after Prince (one of my favorite rock stars) distributed free copies of his new CD Planet Earth with a British tabloid newspaper. Much like Prince, the Times is discovering that traditional business models don't hold in this era of information ubiquity and accessibility. Hopefully many other movers and shakers will follow their lead.

I discovered this on Emmanuelle Vaast's blog: There really are social networking sites for all age groups. Not only do baby boomers connect virtually, but so do plain and simple babies, thanks to sites like Club Penguin or Barbie.com. Will that speed up the acquisition of reading and writing skills? I will observe my statistically not significant but otherwise perfect sample of one and report back when the time is right...

I have two chapters in "Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government", edited by Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and David Lazer. The book just came out with MIT Press. An excerpt from the intro describes the chapter I co-authored with David Lazer:

"David Lazer and Maria Christina Binz-Scharf look at the process of evaluation [of the consequences of changes in information flow in government] from within the system. Rather than offering another method of evaluation, they examine the mechanisms and structures that may help spread evaluation information on the use of information and communication technologies in the public sector. Utilizing network theory, they highlight the role that a variety of intergovernmental organizations play in connecting otherwise distant parts of the informational ecosystem regarding information technology and government."

Here's the book announcement by David Lazer on the Complexity and Social Networks blog.

(Crossposted at Complexity and Social Networks Blog)

While the baby boomers are slowly taking to online networking (see my earlier post here), some youngsters should probably do a little less of it.
Apparently too much use of Facebook does not have a positive effect on "real-life" (or traditional) networking. An article by Michael Schulman in this week's edition of the New Yorker talks about an NYU freshman seminar entitled "Facebook in the Flesh". The aim of the seminar, part of a series of seminars during freshman orientation, was to re-introduce the Facebook generation to face-to-face meetings. Participants were given a few questions ("What drew you to NYU?") they had to ask each other in pairs. This excerpt from the article nicely summarizes the outcome:

"[The facilitator] blew a whistle. 'Thoughts? Feelings? Reactions?' he said. 'Was it hard?' 'Harder than Facebook,' one girl said."

Some food for thought.

(Crossposted at Social Networks and Complexity Blog)

An article in today's New York Times discusses the emergence and popularity of social networking sites aimed at the 55+ population. Very interesting, I thought, in particular the hypothesis that while these sites might take longer than myspace or facebook to reach high levels of usage, baby boomers are likely to "hang around". This resonates well with investors...read the full article here.