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If somebody forwarded you a link to a silly video recently, there’s a good chance you watched it on YouTube. The site has been around for only a year, but it already has more than 12 million visitors every month. Brooke speaks with San Jose Mercury News reporter Michelle Quinn about what YouTube is all about, and why it’s so cool.
A couple of months ago, we discussed the possibility that the Internet would become a two-tier system: a fast lane for websites willing to pay, and a slow lane for the rest. It appears that fateful day may be coming sooner rather than later, thanks to legislation making its way quickly through Congress. NYU professor Siva Vaidhyanathan explains to Brooke the stakes of the Communications, Opportunity, Promotion and Efficiency Act of 2006.
In March, intelligence agencies began making some 48,000 boxes of documents removed from Iraq, gradually available online. Nobody knows for sure what information may be found inside those boxes, but journalists both mainstream and fringe are diving in with the help of translators to find out. CIA veteran Michael Scheuer likes openness but thinks this is a bad idea. He joins Brooke to discuss why.
For the past two and a half months, the Wisconsin State Journal has been inviting readers to its website every day to vote on one of five stories they’d like to see featured. The winner winds up on the next day’s front page. Editors had been prepared for a spike in front-page sports stories – and so were surprised by a strong preference for hard news, especially news about local politics. State Journal editor Ellen Foley talks with Brooke.
Specialty plates are not the only means available to drivers for rear-end self-expression. There are also vanity plates – the personalized arrangements of numbers and letters that tell other drivers a little something about you. Five years ago, Bob explored the uniquely American phenomenon and its particular popularity in the Old Dominion.
Currently, all online information - be it a page from EBay or a porn site photo - travels at roughly the same speed. But watchdogs are warning that some data will encounter speed bumps if internet service providers can charge content providers for access to a fast lane. Advocacy groups are outraged, claiming the internet's "network neutrality is crucial to its egalitarian nature and innovative spirit." Medley Global Advisors analyst Christopher Stern tells Brooke what's at stake.
It's estimated to be the third largest industry in Nigeria, grossing hundreds of millions a year, and it may be the most successful confidence game in the world. It's the Nigerian e-mail scam. Victims are often left with no legal recourse, due to corruption in Nigeria and the high price of international investigations. And so they've banded together to take the law into their own hands. Legal Affairs contributor Josh Rosenblum explains to Bob how an online posse was formed.
In the summer of 2003, articles started popping up about a curious recurring phenomenon in New York City. Large crowds, organized via forwarded emails, were congregating in public places to perform absurd acts that were over almost as soon as they began. The so-called "Flash Mobs" were imitated in other cities, and countries. Through it all, the man who hatched the idea remained anonymous. Until now. Flash Mob inventor (and Harper's senior editor) Bill Wasik reveals to Brooke what the stunt was all about.
