So here’s his response (short and sweet).

Elizabeth,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. The more I thought about it the more I don’t think there’s much to update on to be honest. I can pretty much sum up how I feel about it in one line:

Facebook is still a Truman Show style democracy.

You can quote me on it.

Micah

Today, while searching on IGN, it seems that I might have been mistaken. The gaming site posted an article stating that Sony might possibly be putting out a phone and tablet to rival the Apple iPhone and iPad. Furthermore, there is said to be a special Sony Online Service that is to be launched by the end of March. Could this be their version of the Apple App Store, but instead to be full of traditional games?

Here’s the Wall Street Journal article with more detailed information.

This will definitely be a telling story to watch unravel, and I’m interested to see if the device will match the patents listed on LatestPatents.com!

Wed, Mar 3rd – CC Salon NYC: Opening Education

Eric Frank, Neeru Paharia & more

The Creative Commons Salon NYC is back in action on March 3rd at the Open Planning Project’s uber cool penthouse space from October. The theme for this salon is “Opening Education”, and if you don’t really know what that means, think CC licenses as applied to various learning contexts and you’re off to a good start. To learn more, come by for a good time and free (as in beer) beer.

THE DETAILS (RSVP for updates!):

Wednesday, March 3rd, from 7-10pm
The Open Planning Project
148 Lafayette St
Between Grand & Howard
New York, NY

Thu, Mar 4th – Collaborative Futures Book Launch & Talk

Michael Mandiberg & Mushon Zer-Aviv

March 4, 2010; 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm.
Eyebeam – 540 W21st Street, New York

Upgrade! NY presents:
Collaborative Futures Book Launch & Talk
a book about free collaboration written collaboratively in 5 days

Watch the live video stream on March 4 at 7:30PM (EST) and participate in the discussion!

Over 5 days in mid January 2010 the Transmediale festival locked 6 writers and 1 programmer in a Berlin hotel room to collaboratively write a book about the future of free collaboration; the authors started with only the title, and ended the week with a book.

Transmediale Artistic Director Stephen Kovats will be on hand to join Eyebeam Senior Fellow Michael Mandiberg and Eyebeam Honorary Resident Mushon Zer-Aviv, to talk about the process of writing the book, and some of their discoveries in the collaborative process. Stephen Kovatz will also talk about the ‘Futurity Now’ concept of TM10 in general and particularly in the context of the Collaborative Futures book sprint.

Fri, Mar 5th – Trolls Among Us: From Phreaking to Trolling

Gabriella Coleman

ITP
721 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10003

Why have geeks been compelled to protest the Church of
Scientology vehemently for nearly two decades? This talk starts with
this question to  present a cultural history and political analysis of
one of the oldest Internet wars, often referred to as “Internet vs
Scientology.” During the 1990s, this war was waged largely on USENET (a
large scale messaging board system), while in recent times it has taken
the form of “Project Chanology.” This project is orchestrated by a
loosely defined group called “Anonymous” who has led a series of online
attacks and real world protests, often using a variety of media, against
Scientology. I argue that to understand the significance of these
battles and protests, we must examine how the two groups stand in a
culturally antipodal relation to each other. Through this analysis of
cultural inversion, I will consider how long-standing liberal ideals
take cultural root in the context of these battles, use these two cases
to reveal important political transformations in Internet/hacker culture
between the mid 1990s and today and finally will map the tension between
pleasure/freedom (the “lulz”) and moral good (”free speech”) found among
Anonymous in terms of the tension between liberal freedom and trollish trickery.

“I think what excites me most is being able to access everything and change everything… the ultimate form of collaboration. It means I can collaborate without necessarily having to agree with people”. -Jay Cousins

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please RT!

On February 9th Google have unvailed Google Buzz, a service that involuntarily transforms every Gmail user’s private contact list into a public social network. While Google has suffered from privacy concerns in the past, Buzz is considered by many angry users to be crossing a line. Many loyal Google users including myself have hence chosen to disable the service. I present a list of reasons why you and your contact list should do that too.

Read on (and feel free to comment) here: #BuzzOff: 10 reasons to turn Google Buzz off

Here’s the site: http://chatroulette.com/

Here’s an article about the founder (a 17 year-old kid!): http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/chatroulettes-founder-17-introduces-himself/

And an article posted today on Mashable, just better explaining the gist behind it: http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/chatroulette/