Founders of The Huffington Post Sued for 'Stealing Website Blueprint'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Two Democratic political consultants have claimed that The Huffington Post's founders stole their blueprint for the popular news-and-views website.
Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer called the claims "pure fantasy." Photo: The Daily Telegraph
Peter Daou and James Boyce claim they came up with the site's signature blend of blogs by prominent people, news aggregation, original reporting and online community-building, originally envisioned as a liberal counterpoint to such conservative-tilting sites as the Drudge Report.
In a statement, Huffington Post co-founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer called the claims "pure fantasy."
The site has become an online colossus, built on the idea of shared effort. It has made the top 10 current events and global news sites, launched city-specific pages and developed a roster of sections such as food and books. The work of its 70-person paid staff is augmented by content from news outlets and 6,000 bloggers who write for free. >>> | Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Times Loses Almost 90% of Online Readership
THE GUARDIAN: Less than three weeks after the Times paywall went up, data shows a massive decline in web traffic
The Times has lost almost 90% of its online readership compared to February since making registration mandatory in June, calculations by the Guardian show. >>> Josh Halliday | Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
New Media Empowers Iran Opposition
YNET NEWS: On Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and via text messages: An inside look on how the Iranian political struggle is really being fought
The name Ahmed Maher may not mean much to the average Iranian, but there is a direct link between the 25-year-old Egyptian engineer and the events of the last 48 hours in Iran. Maher was one of the organizers of the 80,000 people-strong rally in Cairo last April that also became know as "the bread riots." This protest was organized mainly through Facebook.
In Iran, where Facebook has been blocked for two weeks, it was Twitter. Anyone following the recent elections in Iran and the clashes that ensued could not overlook the central role the internet and the new media played in the events, especially at the hands of the opposition.
In an interview to al-Jazeera, Saeed Shariati, one of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reformist opponents, said: "For us the internet is like the air force in a military operation. It bombards the enemy's outposts and lays the ground for the invasion of the infantries – our activists, to win the battle."
By this time Shariati has most likely been locked up and silenced.
But nevertheless, it is impossible to keep everyone quiet, especially given the fact that about half of the 46 million voters in the Iranian elections were under the age of 30, the age group that comprises the majority of internet users in a country where the technology's penetration rate has already reached, by some estimates, to 34%.
110 million text messages a day
The Iranian authorities didn't take any chances: Ahead of the elections any website that was deemed likely to jeopardize the regime – from Facebook to Ynetnews – has been blocked. The opponents then turned to another effective mass media tool: The text message, which allowed them to organize rallies supporting the opposition and to update their Twitter accounts, in which they told the world of the developments taking place behind the Persian iron curtain.
However, the government quickly blocked this channel of communication as well, after more than 110 million text messages had been sent on a daily basis in the days preceding the vote.
This was when Twitter, the hottest update service in the Western hemisphere, was recruited for a more noble purpose: Protecting freedom of speech and freedom of choice.
Iranians who own smartphones (like Israelis, the Iranians are big technology buffs), or surfers using services that bypass the blocking imposed on internet providers, continued to use Twitter to organize mass protests against what was later perceived as election fraud by the regime.
Iranian web activists have also managed to develop Twitter navigation tools like the twazzup website, which concentrates all Iran-relevant updates according to categories. >>> Niv Lilien, Nir Boms | Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Niv Lilien, editor-in-chief of Ynet's Computers and Internet channel
Nir Boms, vice president of the Center for Freedom in the Middle East
YNET NEWS: As opposition protest continues in post-election Iran, Revolutionary Guard announces websites and bloggers must remove any materials that 'create tension' or face legal action
Iran's opposition announced a third day of street demonstrations Wednesday as the country's most powerful military force warned of a crackdown against online media in its first pronouncement on the deepening election crisis.
Blogs and websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests over Friday's disputed election.
The web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran.
The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said through the state news service that Iranian websites and bloggers must remove any materials that "create tension" or face legal action.
The Guards are a separate military with enormous domestic influence and control of Iran's most important defense programs. They are one of the key sources of power for a cleric-led establishment that has been pushed by the crisis into an extraordinary public defense of the Islamic ruling system. >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, June 17, 2009
