A good discussion underway at Crooked Timber on the history and future of American civil society.  I’ve always been puzzled by what the proper role of civil society ought to be in 1) a democracy and 2) global institutions like the UN.  I know it has an important role, but it’s a tricky question as to…

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What was previously known as Safer Together ’04 is now Win Back Respect.  Still the same clever writing to their weblog (“new name, same great product”?)  They’ve gotten some good press in the UK.

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I like the blog-like First Read from MSNBC on election-related news.  The entries are quick to read and point to further reading elsewhere — including outside of the MSNBC universe.  Something of a politics-focused version of Slate’s historically excellent Today’s Papers, with somewhat broader reach in terms of news sources.

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If you’d like to talk weblogs today on the radio, Here on Earth is running a live radio show right now regarding weblogs (it’s Sunday, July 11) from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EST.  You can call in at 800-642-1234 (in US and Canada), or 1-608-263-1890 (other countries).  The host is Jean Feraca, based at Wisconsin Public Radio.  You can e-mail…

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Today, at the ITU’s anti-spam conference with 60 nations represented, one of the uncontroversial themes is that spam will only be solved by cooperation by people in different countries.  (What is still controversial is who should be cooperating exactly, and where resources should be best placed.)  The most striking moment to me was the statement…

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A speaker from the Internet Society of China, Mr. Yuxiao Li, just said that, for Chinese users over the past year (I think he said), Chinese-language spam received has gone down from 65% to 56%, while Engligh-language spam is up from 30% to 41% of all mailed received.  He chalks up this result to strong…

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Just ahead of the July 4th weekend, regulators in Australia, the UK and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to fight spam.  A copy of the 11-page MoU (in pdf) is here.  While I am critical of the CAN SPAM Act in the US and many other anti-spam laws (mostly because…

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This summer’s alumni magazine for HLS is devoted in large measure to IP, including a piece on the Fisher-Nesson-Zittrain differences of opinion on how to resolve the digital media crisis and on the K-12 initiative that Prof. Martha Minow has been pursuing with Berkman Center involvement.  There’s also a short-form version of the amazing acceptance…

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The FCC is getting serious about being involved in Internet regulation.  One modest indication: a part of their site is now devoted to the History of the Internet (thanks to Scott Bradner for the pointer).

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Perhaps the most clever writer I know is Matt Wood, who is contributing to the new Safer Together ’04 weblog. 

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The public is invited to comment on the proposed budget for ICANN for 2004 – ’05.  The new budget proposes a substantial increase in funding as compared to the current year.  I’m particularly interested in the $2.45 MM for “providing a forum for the bottom-up development of policy to ensure continuous improvement in the DNS”…

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In cased you missed it, Gator, under its new name of Claria, has filed with the SEC to go public.

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