Fair Use Lab

Visitors at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum can touch the names of those who perished in the attacks. The names are cast in bronze parapets ringing the reflection pools that now fill the footprints of the Twin Towers. It is a worthy example of a universal design element that also provides tactile accessibility to blind visitors. [Source: C-Span live stream]

• 9/11 Memorial Webcam | National September 11 Memorial & Museum
  EarthCam’s live webcam brings into view the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Use the navigation tools to direct the camera. You can also save the high definition image on your computer, print it or share it with friends.
• National September 11 Memorial & Museum | World Trade Center Memorial
• All The Names: Algorithmic Design and the 9/11 Memorial | blprnt.blg 061011
  Jer Thorpe: “The project was to design an algorithm for placement of names on the 9/11 memorial in New York City. In architect Michael Arad‘s vision for the memorial, the names were to be laid according to where people were and who they were with when they died – not alphabetical, nor placed in a grid. Inscribed in bronze parapets, almost three thousand names would stream seamlessly around the memorial pools. Underneath this river of names, though, an arrangement would provide a meaningful framework; one which allows the names of family and friends to exist together. Victims would be linked through what Arad terms ‘meaningful adjacencies’ – connections that would reflect friendships, family bonds, and acts of heroism. through these connections, the memorial becomes a permanent embodiment of not only the many individual victims, but also of the relationships that were part of their lives before those tragic events.”
• Jer Thorp on Algorithmic Design and the 9/11 Memorial | Spark
  On the newly opened 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero in New York City, the names are laid according to where people were and who they were with when they died. Jer Thorp had the difficult task of designing an algorithm for placement of the names, and he talks to Nora about the challenges of using math and computer science to tackle a very, very sensitive problem. (Runs: 13:44)
• Remembering the Twin Towers Using Augmented Reality | Spark 082911
  Brian August has created an app that uses augmented reality to add a silhouette of the World Trade Center to images of New York City’s skyline. He calls the project 110 Stories, and he tells Nora why he thinks this app is about more than the destruction of the twin towers. (Runs: 8:47)
• The criminalization of speech since 9/11 – War Room – Salon.com 091011
  The case is an example of prosecutors’ aggressive use, in the decade after Sept. 11, of the preexisting law that bars providing “material support” to officially designated terrorist groups. In a landmark case last year, the Supreme Court endorsed the government’s broad interpretation of the material-support law in a way that critics say criminalizes speech. The expanded use of the material-support law is an important part of the legacy of 9/11 and the legal regime erected in response to the attacks.
• The Talk Online – Web Offers Both News and Comfort – NYTimes.com 091201
  [Dave Winerlinks to this] NYT writeup, the day following 9/11/01, on the role bloggers played in getting the first information about the attacks.
• Scripting News: My 9/11 | 091011
  Dave Winer: “I realize I am a strange duck from the standpoint of 9/11. I experienced it from California, and blogged it, as my NY counterparts couldn’t. I received their emails and pointed to their pictures and stories. I acted as an online anchor, and learned a lot that day, and grew a lot, all while being scared out of my mind and depressed. The blogging helped me get through it.”
• Scripting News: 9/11/2001
  Dave Winer’s historic blog post from 9/11 — still linked on the net.
• Newly Released 9/11 Audio – On The Media
  This week, Rutgers Law Review published an archive of conversations between air traffic controllers on the morning of September 11, 2001. Jim Dwyer of The New York Times wrote about the newly released audio, and talks to Bob about what we can learn from them.
• Arbitrary Restrictions on Photographers – On The Media 090911
  At times during the last decade, authorities have arbitrarily stopped photographers from taking pictures in the name of national security. For example, University of Maryland student Reza Farhoodi was removed from his seat at a Washington Redskins game because he was using a ‘professional camera’ – even though there is no prohibition against using ‘professional’ cameras at football games. Brooke spoke with attorney Morgan Manning about being forbidden to photograph.
• [webdev] Web Design Update: September 9, 2011
  via Laura Carlson; Volume 10, Issue 11, September 9, 2011. An email newsletter to distribute news and information about web design and development.
• Hugh Herr – ‘The Double-Amputee Who Designs Better Limbs’ : NPR 081711
  Nearly 30 years ago, Hugh Herr lost both of his legs in a climbing accident at age 17. Today, he runs the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab and designs better prosthetic limbs for other amputees.
• Masked Anonymous Protesters Aid Time Warner’s Profits – NYTimes.com
  When members of Anonymous, the hacker group, appear in public to protest censorship and what they view as corruption, they don a plastic mask of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century Englishman who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. What few people seem to know, though, is that Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world and parent of Warner Brothers, owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee with the sale of each mask.
• Remix Breakdown: Turning Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ Into A Summer Jam :  NPR 090511
  “When you’re in the remixing game you look for certain things in a song. Certain songs have a lot going on in them that are really hard to eliminate when all you want is the vocal sample or basic idea,” Dirlam says. “Every single DJ that has remixed ‘Rolling In The Deep’ owes Rick Rubin a huge kiss on the lips. Rubin strips down songs and exposes them for what they are. Here you have claps, guitars, bass, piano, her voice, and that’s it.”

• Scripting News: New header on Scripting News 082211
  Dave Winer: “ you might want to click this link and have a look at the home page, because there's a new header here. It's notable not just because it looks good, but it's text, not a graphic. I knew when I saw Google Web Fonts that I was going to use it, but it took a bit of experimentation and thinking to figure out how. It's always a good idea to let things settle-in a bit before moving. Your first intuition is not always so good. But after a while, you figure it out. “
• Musicians Reclaim Their Copyrights – On The Media 092611
  In 1976 Congress changed copyright law so that any musician who wrote a song after January 1st, 1978 could apply to reclaim rights to those songs after 35 years. So in 2013 there’s a long line of 1978 hitmakers who stand to regain their valuable songs and albums. Duke professor James Boyle explains to Brooke why the windfall for Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Funkadelic and others is being fought tooth and nail by the record industry.
• Oscar Pistorius win 100m at Beijing Paralympics – YouTube
  Oscar Pistorius, the Blade Runner, win the gold medal at 100m (class T44) at the Beijing Paralympic Games 2008
• BBC Sport – World Athletics 2011: Pistorius denies blades will give an advantage
  South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius tells BBC Radio 5 live's Mark Pougatch that he is feeling "nervous" but insists he is ready to compete in the 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu. Pistorius will become the first ever amputee to race at the highest level after shaving nearly half a second off his personal best to qualify for the Championships. The man known as 'Blade Runner' also insists his prosthetic limbs do not give him an unfair advantage over his able-bodied competitors.
• The ghostwritten op-ed: an unacceptable deception | Dan Gillmor | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk 082611
  Dan Gillmor: “Society has a blind spot about this practice – and applies a double standard. If we catch a student paying someone to write his or her paper for a class, or even if the actual writer does it for free, we give the student a failing grade. Or, in some cases (such as in a journalism school), we might well invite the student (and perhaps the collaborator, too, if it's another student) to quit altogether. One school of thought says ghostwritten op-eds are a lot like speechwriter-written speeches. Since we all know that most famous people don't write all their own lines for speeches, goes this defence of the practice, we should assume the same with a byline – whether on a book or an op-ed. It's a tempting analogy, but wrong in a key way: a false byline is an outright, direct lie. And news organisations that run these pieces are encouraging dishonesty, which they compound, albeit with good motives, by helpfully editing often turgid prose to make it more compelling.
• Major ISPs agree to "six strikes" copyright enforcement plan
  American Internet users, get ready for three strikes "six strikes." Major US Internet providers—including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable—have just signed on to a voluntary agreement with the movie and music businesses to crack down on online copyright infringers. But they will protect subscriber privacy and they won't filter or monitor their own networks for infringement. And after the sixth "strike," you won't necessarily be "out." Much of the scheme mirrors what ISPs do now. It would be much easier to see "education" focus as a principled stand by content owners if they hadn't spent years suing such end users, securing absurd multi-million dollar judgments in cases that they are still pursuing in court. As it is, the shift looks more like a pragmatic attempt to solve a real problem through less aggressive measures after the failure of scorched earth tactics.

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• Barefoot into Cyberspace – The Book! | The Barefoot Technologist
  Barefoot into Cyberspace is an inside account of radical hacker culture and the forces that shape it, told in the year WikiLeaks took subversive geek politics into the mainstream. Including some of the earliest on-record material with Julian Assange you are likely to read, Barefoot Into Cyberspace is the ultimate guided tour of the hopes and ideals that are increasingly shaping world events. Beginning at the Chaos Communications Congress of December 2009, where WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg first presented their world-changing plans to a select audience of the planet’s most skilful and motivated hackers, Barefoot Into Cyberspace interweaves an insider’s take on the drama that ensued with a thoughtful mix of personal reflections and conversations with key figures in the community aimed at testing the hopes and dreams of the early internet pioneers against the realities of the web today. [available as free CC accessible texts HTML, PDF, ePub]
• The Barefoot Technologist | Becky Hogge’s website
  Becky Hogge is a freelance optimist. Her writing on information politics, human rights and technology has appeared regularly in UK political magazine the New Statesman, and she has also been published in, among others, Index on Censorship, the Guardian, Prospect, Dazed and Confused and The Face. View her porfolio. For two years, Becky was the managing editor, and then technology director, of the award-winning global politics magazine openDemocracy.net. During her time with openDemocracy she helped establish the China environment website chinadialogue.net – the world’s first truly bilingual blog – along with editor Isabel Hilton.
• BBC – Outriders: Barefoot with Becky Hogge 081711
  Becky Hogge’s book – Barefoot into Cyberspace follows her journey through Germany’s legendary Chaos Computer Club through meetings with extraordinary hackers like Rop Gonggrijp and Julian Assange and asks some tricky questions about the nature of online new radicals and activists. We talked about the politics of code and the people who work on making our online environment open.

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