Future of the Web

[HTTPS Everywhere 1.0 has been released, and the project is out of beta. Version 1.0.1 includes support for over 1,000 new sites, a better UI, and performance improvements. Click here to install it!]

For those who care about Web accessibility, here is an opportunity to provide feedback on some accessibility tools for one of the most widely-used web services. The message deserves wide distribution. The contact email address is on the linked page.  The linked tool set should also be of interest to those doing mashups or embedding YouTube videos in web pages. Hi all, I'm the co-developer a YouTube third-party tool called EmbedPlus. It enhances the standard YouTube player with many features that aren't inherently supported. We've been getting lots of feedback regarding the accessibility benefits of some of these features like movable zoom, slow motion, and even third-party annotations. As the tool continues to grow in popularity, the importance of its accessibility rises. I decided to do some research and found the WAI Interest group to be a major proponent of accessibility on the web. If anyone has time to take a look at EmbedPlus and share feedback that could help improve the tool, please do. Here's the link: http://www.embedplus.com/ Thank you in advance, Tay

[Written by Aaron Swartz, who faces 30 years in prison for copying scholarly article, in July 2008, Eremo, Italy Aaron Swartz: "Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.]

¿Cuantos datos generamos los usuarios en la red?

[Usuarios y páginas de enlaces pueden saltarse fácilmente estas normas La pasada semana conocíamos cómo Reino Unido aseguraba que no adoptaría una ley para cerrar y bloquear sitios web con enlaces a material con copyright por considerarlo un esfuerzo inútil. El regulador británico evidenció que con varios métodos a adoptar por los usuarios y las webs de enlaces estas leyes son prácticamente nulas,,,]

[.... What is tagging? Why is it important? Tags allow information from around the community to be aggregated together. They are labels that can be added to forum posts or Wiki articles to tie pieces of content together to make relevant information easier to find. ...]

Still at the experimental stage, but here's a screencast of GTK+ desktop apps and widgets running in a web browser, via HTML5 magic. Lots of collaboration and remote operation potential. The disruption potential here is huge. GTK+ is one of only three major multi-platform desktop widget toolkits that have accessibility baked in (the ATK library). Thousands of desktop apps have been developed with it. Coming to a browser near you?

[The EU Parliament just started discussing a resolution and oral question to the Commission on Net Neutrality. Make your voice heard to ensure that your EU representatives make a strong commitment for a free and open Internet against pressure from the telecoms industry. ...]

[Enésima prueba de la inutilidad de la Ley Sinde. La norma creada por el Gobierno con el apoyo de PP y CiU para cerrar páginas web de enlaces ha sido puesta en ridículo por David Bravo, abogado especializado en propiedad intelectual, ante la propia industria del cine gracias a un exitoso experimento que se ha propagado por las redes sociales. ...]

[04.10.2011 19:00h - 20:30h Place: Medialab-Prado. Plaza de las Letras, C/ Alameda, 15 · Madrid Una nueva sesión de #redada con la participación de David García Aristegui (programa Comunes en Radio Círculo), Ignasi Labastida (Creative Commons España) y el abogado Javier de la Cueva sobre la posibilidad de crear una entidad de gestión de derechos de cultura libre. [streaming en directo] Hashtag: #redada Se recomienda llegar a las 18:45h para evitar problemas de aforo. ]

[from the for-shame dept With all the talk of the EU's decision to retroactively extend copyright from 50 to 70 years, despite no evidence that this is needed or useful, very little attention was paid to the massive harm this causes. Multiple studies showed that such an extension wouldn't provide much, if any, money to musicians, but most of the money would actually be diverted from artists to major record labels. And it gets even worse. Copycense points us to some reports about how copyright extension is guaranteeing that plenty of classical music won't be heard: ]

*History Repeating. [German music royalty collecting agency GEMA has once again stepped up to enforce their strict copyright regime. But this time they picked the wrong target. The group mistakenly demanded money from the nonprofit organization Musikpiraten for publishing five Creative Commons licensed tracks. Musikpiraten is baffled by the false claim and is considering filing a complaint for copyfraud. ...]

Google throws in the towel on desktop search, just as Microsoft somehow reached into my WinXP Pro (which never runs with automatic updates turned on) and killed the file search functionality, replaced by a message that file search is no longer supported in Explorer 6, with an invitation to upgrade MSIE or use Bing. As though I would ever let MSIE outside my firewall! Somehow, the ability to search the cloud just isn't enough for me.  

*Aclarando el Manipulado (por la Industria y las representantes de "l@s Creadores") Concepto de "Ánimo de Lucro" en los Intercambios no-comerciales entre usuari@s de Internet...

[Copyright by Mike Masnick Mon, Oct 3rd 2011 3:55pm from the thank-goodness-for-little-things dept Ah, ASCAP. The music collection group that keeps getting more and more desperate, seems to have finally and completely lost its quixotic attempt to claim that a music download represented a "public performance," which required a separate license, beyond the mechanical reproduction license. The group had been in a legal fight with Yahoo and Rhapsody over whether or not those companies had to pay extra to songwriters (whom ASCAP represents) in addition to the money they were already paying to license songs from the record labels for downloads. The district court sided with ASCAP and presented a bizarre formula involving a percentage of all revenue (such that Yahoo would have to pay some of its search revenue to ASCAP for no clear reason). Thankfully, an appeals court overturned the ruling, noting that a download is not a public performance, and that the bizarre calculation rate didn't make much sense. ]

[Fundamentos Legales ............., ciudadano español, con e-DNI ........, cuyos datos expresamente solicito sean reservados y amparados por el párrafo cuarto del artículo 4 de la Ley 4/2001, de 12 de noviembre, con domicilio a efectos de notificaciones en la dirección de correo electrónico ............., y postal en calle............... , en nombre y representación propia. Ante el Excelentísimo Señor Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados y ante todos sus diputados comparezco, y en virtud de lo establecido en el artículo 3, párrafo primero, y siguientes de la Ley 4/2001, en el ejercicio del derecho fundamental de petición y en atención a los siguientes antecedentes FORMULO PETICIÓN que desarrollo a continuación. Antecedentes: ...]

[Abstract The Media Value Chain Ontology (MVCO) is an ontology for formalizing the representation of the Media Value Chain. It couples naturally with the MPEG-21 multimedia framework, and its standardization as Part 19 of this ISO/IEC standard is underway (at the editing time of this document). Although hooked on the broader framework of the MPEG-21 standard, the MVCO ontology is complete and useful on its way. The MVCO is quite a relative small ontology, (less than 60 classes and 20 properties), simple to understand and accompanied by a forthcoming Java API. It has been coded as an OWL Ontology.]

[Temáticas y programa 2011 ÍNDICE JUEVES 27 de OCTUBRE: Los OXCARS, el mayor show de cultura libre de todos los tiempos (4ª edición) VIERNES 28 de OCTUBRE: modelos sostenibles para la creación en la era digital SÁBADO 29 de OCTUBRE: retos y herramientas de defensa de internet y del compartir ]