Thursday Meetings at Berkman Blog

Recently, the popular social blog service Livejournal was sold, transferring ownership from Six Apart (who also own Typepad, Movable Type, and Vox) to the Russian company SUP. What does this mean for Livejournal users and for social websites in general?

Livejournal is the most popular blogging platform in Russia, where the Russian for Livejournal, Zhe Zhe, is synonymous with the blogosphere. Does Russian ownership of Livejournal endanger the speech of Russian activists using LJ to express politically dangerous ideas? LJ’s many subcommunities of longtime users have widely varying opinions on the sale and other recent changes.

Erica (a Livejournal users for nearly 6 years) will lead discussion. Here are some background links:

InformationWeek: Is LiveJournal Deal Part Of Putin’s Putsch? (thanks Ron for the link!)
Wired article from 2006 (when SUP began collaborating with LJ) on Russian users’ concerns
Analysis from a former LJ volunteer

Also:
Press releases from Six Apart and SUP
Official “LJ 2008″ community for SUP to update LJ users on the transition
ZDNet: Six Apart “jettisoned” Livejournal
“Sold down the Volga” and followup post by longtime LJ user daweaver (thanks Chris for the link!)
Archive.org: Livejournal’s “Social Contract” from its pre-sale-to-Six-apart days
EFF’s deeplinks post
danah boyd’s post
an LJ user goes to the SUP buyout party

* * *
Berkman will be closed on Dec. 27. We will not have a formal meeting then. We should be resuming normal meetings on January 3.

Brett, Erica, and j are working on lining up some great speakers and topics in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned! As always, if you have suggestions or people you can arrange to bring in, please do!

Upcoming events of interest:

• See the Berkman Calendar for upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Various upcoming & potential stuff on our schedule:

• Beth Kanter - 1st or 2nd week of January
• Erica is working on bringing in a group from Somerville wanting feedback in building a good online news forum & placeblog.
• Streaming radio - how to make your own streaming radio station, the new rules around it - Sooz, early 2008.
• OpenID - Why you should use it, why you should develop with it (Erica is trying to schedule Rod Begbie)
• What’s the latest in the Free Culture movement? (and Miro player? and ROFLcon?)
• Skype: How does it work? Why use it? j can lead something
• Dan Bricklin, known for his work on VisiCalc and wikiCalc
• People to do sessions on maps & mapping: Ben Sheldon / Adam / Tracy Rolling of Platial
• Digital natives / what kids are doing online: Miriam Simun - ask in the Spring
• Video: Steve Garfield? / David Temez of Boston Media Makers?
• Principles of design/UI, how to learn as a beginner?
• Latest tools for blogging / Latest mashups and widgets / How have tools changed in the past year or so?
• you?
• If you want to help shepherd a potential future topic or if you have ideas of your own, please talk to Erica or j. We’d love - and could really use - your help!

Don’t go to the Berkman Center this week, either. Jesse and Brett propose an outing to the Brattle Theatre’s showing of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory In Smell-O-Vision! on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p. Look for Jesse in the seats. The Brattle only has a few tickets left. The box office opens at 6:30 p.

We’ll probably have a ‘normal’ meeting next week at Berkman. Let us know if there’s something in particular you’d like to discuss.

Berkman will be closed on Dec. 27. We will probably not have a formal meeting then.

Brett, Erica, and j are working on lining up some great speakers and topics in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned! As always, if you have suggestions or people you can arrange to bring in, please do!

Upcoming events of interest:

• See the Berkman Calendar for upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Various upcoming & potential stuff on our schedule:

• Erica is working on bringing in a group from Somerville wanting feedback in building a good online news forum & placeblog, possibly December 6.
• Streaming radio - how to make your own streaming radio station, the new rules around it - Sooz has volunteered.
• OpenID - Why you should use it, why you should develop with it (Erica is trying to schedule Rod Begbie)
• What’s the latest in the Free Culture movement? (and Miro player? and ROFLcon?)
• Skype: How does it work? Why use it? j can lead something
• Dan Bricklin, known for his work on VisiCalc and wikiCalc
• People to do sessions on maps & mapping: Ben Sheldon / Adam / Tracy Rolling of Platial
• Digital natives / what kids are doing online: Miriam Simun - ask in the Spring
• Video: Steve Garfield? / David Temez of Boston Media Makers?
• Principles of design/UI, how to learn as a beginner?
• Latest tools for blogging / Latest mashups and widgets / How have tools changed in the past year or so?
• you?
• If you want to help shepherd a potential future topic or if you have ideas of your own, please talk to Erica or j. We’d love - and could really use - your help!

We’re competing against two events of note some group members are attending, so we’re suggesting people go to them, then join us at Smile Thai on Eliot Street in Harvard Square around 7 p for dinner. Yes, this means there will be no meeting at the Berkman Center.

Pam Samuelson lectures on “Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform” on Thursday, December 6 from 5-7 pm in Austin East Classroom, Harvard Law School. When it’s over, we’re heading to Smile Thai for dinner.

The Social Media Club hosts an open discussion about the future of social media, 6:00pm - 9:30pm, Boston Ballroom, Colonnade Hotel. Sign up on their wiki. You’ll probably see some familiar names there already.

Jesse and Brett propose that we go on an outing to the Brattle Theatre’s showing of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory In Smell-O-Vision! on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.

Berkman will be closed on Dec. 27. We will probably not have a formal meeting then.

Brett, Erica, and j are working on lining up some great speakers and topics in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned! As always, if you have suggestions or people you can arrange to bring in, please do!

Upcoming events of interest:

• David Weinberger leads a Web of Ideas discussion on “Is the Web Changing the Nature of Leadership” on Wednesday, December 5 at 6:30 pm. RSVP is required, as space is limited. To RSVP, please send an email to rsvp [at] cyber. law. harvard. edu.
• See the Berkman Calendar for upcoming Berkman stuff.
• Feel free to publicize related events here! Let Erica or j know, comment, or add them yourself if you have an editor account.

Various upcoming & potential stuff on our schedule:

• Erica is working on bringing in a group from Somerville wanting feedback in building a good online news forum & placeblog, possibly December 6.
• Streaming radio - how to make your own streaming radio station, the new rules around it - Sooz has volunteered.
• OpenID - Why you should use it, why you should develop with it (Erica is trying to schedule Rod Begbie)
• What’s the latest in the Free Culture movement? (and Miro player? and ROFLcon?)
• Skype: How does it work? Why use it? j can lead something
• Dan Bricklin, known for his work on VisiCalc and wikiCalc
• People to do sessions on maps & mapping: Ben Sheldon / Adam / Tracy Rolling of Platial
• Digital natives / what kids are doing online: Miriam Simun - ask in the Spring
• Video: Steve Garfield? / David Temez of Boston Media Makers?
• Principles of design/UI, how to learn as a beginner?
• Latest tools for blogging / Latest mashups and widgets / How have tools changed in the past year or so?
• you?
• If you want to help shepherd a potential future topic or if you have ideas of your own, please talk to Erica or j. We’d love - and could really use - your help!