Seven Days Blogs: 802 Online

Tuesday Deadline Linkdump

Still recovering from a marathon weekend... of work, not running. A few good finds:

Enron's Press Pass, an LAT story about how and why journalists failed to scrutinize Enron while it was riding high. A good read for any aspiring citizen journalist.

Another reason to love living in Vermont. From my old hometown paper, the Detroit Free Press.

Guacamole. Via As Seen In VT.

Flicks and chicks, and laundry on Memorial Day. Via Deadbeat Club.

A fair and balanced look at net neutrality. Via She's Right.

"I can't imagine — Entertainment Weekly?" Via DTWOF (follow the YouTube link in the post.)

A novelist on the novelization of Rich Tarrant. Via Vermont Daily Briefing.   

How broad is the band?

Broader than it's been.

From the AP:

Broadband adoption increased 59 percent from March last year to March 2006 among U.S. households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000, according to a survey to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

It increased 40 percent in households making less than $30,000 a year. Among blacks, it increased 121 percent, according to the study...

Overall, 42 percent of adult Americans, or 84 million people, have broadband, compared to 30 percent a year ago.

Net policy news

Two new developments that are worth noting:

The 6th District Court of Appeals just ruled that bloggers can protect their sources, same as journalists can. (Thanks, Bill, for the tip.)

From Boing Boing: EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and its allies at cyber-law clinics argued this case, and it's an important win for bloggers and other citizen journalists who now know that the courts will give them the same respect afforded to big corporate news-gatherers.

And  on Thursday, a bi-partisan majority on the House  Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 5147, the  Internet Freedom and Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, protecting net neutrality. Rep. Zoe Lofgren explains the bill, which she introduced, in a guest post yesterday on the Save the Internet blog:

The bill requires broadband providers to operate their networks in a non-discriminatory manner and makes sure that the phone and cable companies cannot favor or block access to the Web sites or online services that they pick instead of the consumer. It will keep the Internet an open and free marketplace of ideas and services chosen by consumers instead of big corporations. It will also guard against those who own “the pipes” gleaning profits by creating a virtual toll road...

The next hurdle for Net Neutrality is whether we will have a full vote on the House floor. If you care about the freedom that Net Neutrality protects, contact your Member of Congress and ask that H.R. 5417 be scheduled to come before the full House of Representatives as either a separate bill or an amendment. Urge them to vote for Net Neutrality protection!

UPDATE: A post on the EFF case from Markos at Daily Kos:

Now, to be perfectly clear, this is a California case. It only applies in the Golden State. But this is new legal territory, and courts around the country, including the feds, can and will look to this decision for guidance as similar cases arise in their jurisdictions. Coming in the heels of the FEC's decisions to grant bloggers and other internet media practicioners the media exemption, a solid body of law is being developed upholding the principles that citizen media deserves the same First Amendment protections as "professional" journalists.

Vermont's political bloggers plan BBQ

Philip Baruth of Vermont Daily Briefing and Green Mountain Daily are sponsoring a political blogger BBQ July 9.

In a post yesterday, Baruth writes:

And because we expect not only political bloggers but blog readers, active political candidates, underfed campaign staff, journalists, moaners, kvetchers, and junkies of all stripes — more than even the mightiest single site could handle — VDB will partner with Green Mountain Daily to bring you the event.

The key information:

First Annual VDB/GMD Political Barbeque
and Hamburger Summit

When:  July 9, 2-6
Where:  North Beach, Burlington, Vermont
Who:  You (and Us)

More information will be forthcoming as the event comes together, and you can always email VDB or GMD with questions or with an RSVP.

Burlington Telecom opening today

Burlington Telecom, the Queen City's very own, municipally owned fiber-to-the-home network, will be holding its grand opening today from 4-6 p.m. in Contois Auditorium at Burlington City Hall. A bunch of folks will be on hand to speechify, and Bill and the Candleblog gang will be recording a podcast.

Channel 17 will apparently be broadcasting the thing live on their BTV-only live channel.

B.J. Snowden at the Radio Bean Sunday

This is off-topic, but I'm passing it along. Singer/songwriter B.J. Snowden is playing Sunday at the Radio Bean. My interview with her is in this week's 7D.

Listen to her strangely compelling music here. I think my favorite is "New Brunswick."

Incidentally, the flyer she sent me (right) says the show's at 7:30, but Lee said 7.

The Weekly Post: from Open Heart Farm

I've been wondering all week how those farmers in the floodplain in Burlington's Intervale have been handling all this rain. RD (Josh?) from Open Heart Farm fills us in:

I finally made it to our field, on top of a little rise (and how very clearly vital these little rises have become!) and saw the PEAS! happy to be drying off and shaking it out...

and then the BEETS! and ONIONS! dear friends from early days on the field this year (gee, really it's only been 2 months...) - they're AOK, a little muddy but standing tall - high-riding! - also, okay...

LETTUCE, SPINACH, BACHLOR BUTTONS, RADISHES, DAIKON, NAPA, and many rows of greens!

ALL INTACT!

More here, and on the Letters page of this week's Seven Days.

School district monitoring student blogs

Teen bloggers beware — a school district in Illinois is instituting a new policy.

From an AP report:

The board of Community High School District 128 voted unanimously on Monday to require that all students participating in extracurricular activities sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.

The rule will take effect at the start of the next school year, officials said.

District officials won't regularly search students' sites, but will monitor them if they get a worrisome tip from another student, a parent or a community member.

Mary Greenberg of Lake Bluff, who has a son at Libertyville High School, argued the district is overstepping its bounds.

"I don't think they need to police what students are doing online," she said. "That's my job."

Associate Superintendent Prentiss Lea rebuffed that criticism.

"The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron," he said. "It is called the World Wide Web."

BFP/Gannett immigration blog

Interesting. I guess Gannett's feeding it to them.

Tuesday Deadline Linkdump

I should really do a Monday deadline linkdump, but I'm usually so buried under all my work that I don't have a chance. So Tuesday...

• Listen to the podcast of the call-in show I did with Charity Tensel of She's Right last week. We talked about blogging. We took a call. About blogging. It was fun.
• Alison Bechdel blogs about BookExpo America. She was there to promote her new graphic memoir, Fun Home, which I haven't gotten a chance to read yet. We did get an advance copy here, though, and I saw that Alison thanked me on the Acknowledgments page for working as her assistant those last two years as she was finishing the book. My 15 seconds of fame. The picture is of Alison and Harvey Pekar, from her blog.
• Got questions about Burlington Bread, the Queen City's local currency? Get answers at their new online forum. Or visit the Bread bank.
• Eva gets towed.
• Flatlander of False 45th goes to a VPR communitiy forum and has this fascinating report. Read it if you love VPR.

An excerpt: The interesting thing was that, as each table reported what they had talked about, almost each table mentioned that VPR should attract a younger audience. Hey, it sounded encouraging! At least everyone's thoughts were in the right spot. However, my encouragement quickly dissipated when they opened the floor to individual comments from people. Anyone could suggest something to add or remove from the VPR schedule.

All of these people that had twenty minutes earlier had said they wanted to bring in younger listeners, now stood up and said "MORE OPERA ON SATURDAYS!" or "BRING BACK SUNDAY MORNING BACH!" or "I WANT MOZART ON MONDAYS!" What the fuck?!?! These people wanted to pull in younger audiences with dead musicians? Obviously, they really didn't give a rats-ass about bringing in a younger audience. Just wanted more of the same. At this point, I felt my hopes sink through the floor as I looked for a wall to bang my head against.

Don't worry, it has a happy ending. As a regular VPR listener, I say more power to you. Although I do enjoy Sunday Bach. And what the hell happened to Sunday Baroque?