Law X.0

Metacrap: An Interview with Cory Doctorow

This is the first of a series of David Weinberger interviews cosponsored by Wired News and the Harvard Berkman Center for the Internet and Society.

Weinberger's first interview features novelist, BoingBoing co-editor, digital rights activist and entrepreneur Cory Doctorow. For Doctorow, piling up information without strict organizational rules can be workable provided that we have sufficiently reliable metadata. The problem is that people don't all use metadata the same way or use tags consistently, and that can be a real obstacle to making coherent sense of piles of information.

Listen to the interview or read the transcript. Cross-posted on Law Librarian Blog. [JH]

O'Reilly Answers His Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct

Tim O'Reilly has posted his Draft Blogger's Code of Conduct on O'Reilly Radar. The draft is a follow-up to his earlier Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct post. Opinions? Leave a comment. [JH]

Survey on Blogger Perceptions on Digital Preservation Set to End May 23rd

Do you blog? If yes, then please consider participating in an online survey from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. The study, Blogger Perceptions on Digital Preservation, is being conducted under the guidance of Paul Jones. Members of this research team are Carolyn Hank (Principle Investigator), Songphan Choemprayong and Laura Sheble, PhD students at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-CH.

The researchers are interested in hearing from all bloggers on their perceptions on digital preservation in relation to their own blogging activities, as well as the blogosphere in general. To hear more about this survey, please visit the study's fact sheet at The Project Site. From there, you can link out to the web-based survey. The survey will be available through May 23, 2007. [JH]

Must Reading for Bloggers: Gant's We're All Journalists Now

We're All Journalists Now
The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age
By Scott Gant

Free Press, June 2007
Hardcover, 256 pages
List Price: $26.00
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9926-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9926-8

Availability: Ships on or around June 12, 2007
Order Now: Free Press or Amazon.com

Description: As the internet continues to reshape almost all corners of our world, no institution has been more profoundly altered than the practice of journalism and distribution of information. In this provocative new book, Scott Gant, a distinguished Washington attorney and constitutional law scholar, argues that we as a society need to rethink our notions of what journalism is, who is a journalist and exactly what the founding fathers intended when they referred to "the freedom of the press."

Are bloggers journalists, even if they receive no income? Even if they are unedited and sometimes irresponsible? Many traditional news organizations would say no. But Gant contends otherwise and suggests we think of these sometimes unruly online purveyors of information and opinion as heirs to those early pamphleteers who helped shape our fledgling democracy. He gives us a persuasive and engaging argument for affording bloggers and everyone else who disseminates information and opinion in the U.S. the same rights and privileges that traditional journalists enjoy.

The rise of the Internet and blogosphere has blurred the once distinct role of the media in our society. It wasn't long ago that the line between journalists and the rest of us seemed relatively clear: Those who worked for news organizations were journalists and everyone else was not. Those days are gone. On the Internet, the line has totally disappeared. It's harder than ever to answer the question, "Who is a journalist?" Yet it is a question asked routinely in American courtrooms and legislatures because there are many circumstances where those deemed "journalists" are afforded rights and privileges not available to the rest of us. The question will become increasingly important as the transformation of journalism continues, and bloggers and other "citizen journalists" battle for equal standing with professional journalists. Advancing arguments that are sure to stir controversy, Scott Gant leads the debate with a serious yet accessible discussion about whether, where, and how the government can decide who is a journalist. Challenging the mainstream media, Gant puts forth specific arguments about how to change existing laws and makes elegant suggestions for new laws that will properly account for the undeniable reality that We're All Journalists Now. For all of us who care about the ways in which the digital revolution is sweeping through our culture, this is a work of opinion that will be seen as required reading.

Editor's Note: I can't wait to get a copy! [JH]

Citing to Wikipedia

Check out what one practicing attorney has to say about this issue. See Tami D. Cowden's Citations to Wikipedia May be Hip, But Are They Reliable?

Today's quiz question: Has the US Supreme Court ever cited to a web publication in one of the Court's opinions? [JH]