The Weekly NetPulse
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The Latest Weekly NetPulse
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Flying Shoes - A Bush
Miss...A YouTube Hit
Video of
an Iraqi journalist throwing two shoes at George W.
Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last
Sunday is being uploaded at an average rate of 209
per hour with over 5,000 versions and a total of 9
million views, over twice the number of Obama's
Change.gov video views for the last month.
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, a 28 year old
correspondent for independent Iraqi television station
Al Baghdadia, shouted in Arabic, "This is a gift from
the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog! This is
from the widows, the orphans and those who were
killed in Iraq." and then proceeded to throw two shoes
at President Bush's head.
Al-Zaidi will be tried on charges of insulting the Iraqi
state with a "barbaric and ignominious act", but has
found thousands of supporters who are calling for his
release. So far, over 200 Iraqi and other lawyers,
including Americans, have offered to defend al-Zaidi,
free of charge. Thousands of protesters are rallying for his
release from prison and the charity group Wa
Attassimou has given al-Zaidi the courage award
because, "what he did represents a victory for human
rights across the world."
Bush's assessment of the situation and his response
to having shoes thrown at his face was, "All I can
report is it is a size 10..." Bush claimed that the shoe-
throwing incident was a display of democracy,
saying "That's what people do in a free society, draw
attention to themselves," as the man's screaming
could be heard outside.
The video is a monumental moment recorded, the
numbers are so high because of the depth of insult
that accompanied this act. It is so culturally profane
that it will probably be associated with George W.
Bush for years to come.
Online games, video mash-ups and
jokes are whirling around
on the Net as well.
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Quote of the Week |
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Cell phone Companies Brace For
Onslaught On Inauguration Day
"It'll
be like everyone
leaving the beach at the same time after the Fourth of
July, all roads will come to a standstill." -
Joe Farren, talking about the
expected logjam on
cellphones during the Inaugural
Address. Mr. Farren is a spokesman for CTIA -- The
Wireless Association, a nonprofit organization that
represents wireless carriers.
Continue Reading
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Stat of the Week |
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Shoe-throwing Video Game Sells on
eBay in Four Days$7,818 is
how much a british media company paid on ebay for
28 year old Alex Tew's internet video
game " sockandawe
" that allows users to try their hand
at hitting U.S. President George Bush's head with a
shoe.
Full Story
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U.S. News |
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For the Web, Change All Sides Can Believe
In
(The Washington Post) President-elect Barack
Obama's call to bring high-speed Internet to all
Americans has set off a scramble among service
providers for a piece of the action.
Building out networks to rural and underserved urban
areas -- with possible help from the economic
stimulus plan being crafted by Congress -- could
create hundreds of thousands of jobs and enrich
telecom, wireless and cable companies whose
businesses have suffered as households tighten
spending.
Full Story
Google Censors
Political-Donation
Transparency Ads
(CNet) Should members of the public be able to pay
for Web advertisements detailing which companies
have donated to politicians? While this seems like a
great way to promote transparency in politics, Google
forbids the practice--we are free to name the
politicians who take money but cannot name the
companies that give
it. Full
Story
Mr. Obama's Internet Agenda
(NYTimes) President-elect Barack Obama recently
announced an ambitious plan to build up the nation's
Internet infrastructure as part of his proposed
economic stimulus package. Upgrading the Internet is
a particularly smart kind of stimulus, one that would
spread knowledge, promote entrepreneurship and
make this country more competitive globally. Full
Story
Interest Groups, Bloggers Remind
Obama They're Watching
(WSJ) With President-elect Barack Obama's
transition team sprinting to the end of the cabinet-
appointment process, anticipation is rising among
public interest groups, unions and lefty bloggers
about who Obama will name for posts at independent
agencies that oversee Internet and media issues,
such as the Federal Communications Commission,
the Federal Trade Commission and the Corporation
for Public
Broadcasting. Full Story
U.S. Not Ready for Cyber Attack
(Reuters) The United States is unprepared for a
major hostile attack against vital computer networks,
government and industry officials said on Thursday
after participating in a two-day "cyberwar" simulation.
Full Story
RNC Pushing Hard on Obama-Blago
Connection (The Washington Post) As the
Republican National Committee
continues its attempt to tie disgraced Gov. Rod
Blagojevich to President-elect Barack Obama, more
high-profile GOPers are rebelling against the strategy.
Newt Gingrich (Ga.), the former Speaker of the House
and a potential candidate for president in 2012, wrote
a letter to RNC Chair Mike Duncan on Tuesday
condemning the Web video circulated by national
Republicans over the weekend that sought to link
Obama to Blagojevich.
Full Story

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Video of the Week |
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Iraqi Journalist Throws His Shoes
President BushThe Iraqi journalist,
Muntader al-Zaidi, a 28 year old correspondent for
independent Iraqi television station Al Baghdadia,
shouted in Arabic, "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is
the farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows,
the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." and
then proceeded to throw two shoes at President
Bush's head.
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International News |
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Estonia to Vote by Mobile
Phone in 2011
(AP) Parliament has approved a law making Estonia
the first country to allow voting by mobile phone.
Lawmakers approved a measure Thursday allowing
citizens to vote by mobile phone in the next
parliamentary elections in 2011. Estonians were
allowed to cast Internet ballots in last year's
parliamentary vote.
Full Story
Iran's Bloggers Thrive Despite Blocks
(BBC) Iran has one of the most vibrant blogging
communities in the world - despite government
boasts that it blocks five million websites. Day-by-day
there is an intriguing cyber-war, as the government
wrestles for control of the internet, and Iran's bloggers
wrestle it back. Iran hosts around 65,000 bloggers,
and has around 22 million internet users. Not bad for
a country in which some remote areas do not yet have
mains electricity.
Full Story
Free
expression grows in China (just don't talk politics)
(Christian Science Monitor) Sitting at a laptop in his
sunlit study, a pair of studded massage rollers
beneath his stockinged feet, Hu Xingdou knows that
the most outspoken pieces he writes will never make
it further than his hard drive. But like thousands of
other scholars, activists, and ordinary citizens in
China, the owlish Professor Hu also knows that each
critical political opinion he dares to publish - mostly
on his website - pushes the door of government
tolerance open a little wider.
Full
Story With Olympics over, China re-blocks
some Web
sites
Israeli Election Hopefuls Seek the Obama
Touch
(AP) The star of Israel's election campaign seems to
be Barack Obama. A religious party has
translated "yes we can" into Hebrew. Front-runner
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's Web page looks a lot like
Obama's, and a candidate for Parliament has his own
version of an "Obama-girl" Internet ad.
Full Story

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Sound Off |
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Technology and Government
Transparency By: Mark D. Drapeau
Dr. Mark
Drapeau is a biological scientist, government
consultant, and regular contributor to Mashable.com
and other venues. These views are his own and do
not represent the official views of any
organization.
Since Barack Obama was elected, many people have
called for a more open, transparent government.
Through my work in Washington, DC on the
interaction between government and emerging social
technologies, I have heard phrases like "government
with the people," "participatory democracy," and "user-
generated government" tossed around. Additionally,
many in the new media intelligentsia have called for
the new Obama administration to use social tools like
Twitter for governance, as they did for campaigning,
for example with Twitter but
also other social technologies like Facebook and
even herculean mobile phone text messaging.
It's started. Some of the Obama transition team's
experimental initiatives like "Seat at the Table" are innovative, putting
aside the issue of people without Internet access
effectively not having a seat reserved for them. On the
surface, this is a very inclusive approach to the
transition period leading to eventual governance in
January 2009. It is still very soon after the election, the
transition team is very busy and mostly in 'receive'
mode, and the inauguration hasn't yet occurred.
Ultimately, the extent to which the Obama
administration uses social tools to govern the United
States remains to be seen; whether they are making
use of social tools during the current transition period is unclear.
Regarding the future, elites in the social networking
tech community have opinions that range from hopeful, to thoughtful, to activist, to critical, to impatient.
Here, I explore using a specific example where the
responsibility for "participatory democracy" lies. In a
social technology empowered world, where does the
government stop and the private citizen begin?
Continue
Reading


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