Internet companies (including Google, Wikipedia, Firefox, Wordpress, Reddit and Creative Commons, among others) are concerned that SOPA and PIPA, if passed, could be used to target legitimate sites where users share content.

The issues are complex

• A great, succinct overview from The Washington Post WONKBLOG looks at the top issues.
• The Washington Post also provides a bigger picture on what SOPA is, and what the stakes are.
• A concise post from technorati highlights today’s happenings.

The issues are confusing

Uploading movies, music, original artwork and sharing them without consent are more clear cut issues of copyright infringement. But the Internet, especially with the evolution of social media, are based on sharing and spreading content.

Tech companies argue that there must be warning before legal action or punishment, but the legislation on the table favors immediate shutdown.

How will this affect the Internet of the future?

Important upcoming dates

• January 24, 2012: Senate votes on PIPA
• February: House Judiciary Committee continues its markup of SOPA

Would this strangle-hold actually empower the infringement extremists? How do you feel about these potential changes?

Ms Duarte visuallizes the speech – mapping phrases, phrasing, patterns and content to illustrate why the speech has remained so iconic and powerful – and ultimately influential for change.

Which part(s) do you remember most or find most effective?

What’s your message for 2012?

Make your point thoughtfully and creatively, and connect emotionally with your audience. That’s how Greenpeace ever-so-slightly suggested that Mattel might take its corporate responsibility more seriously. Their warning to Mattel: Get green or go red.

Using Twitter channels, videos, clever imagery and brilliant storytelling, Greenpeace’s Barbie It’s Over Campaign generated over 500,000 views, extensive media coverage and thousands of letters to Mattel chiding its non-ecofriendly packaging.

Result: This month, Mattel announced it is revamping its packaging – including more recycled materials and buying fiber from companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Well done. And don’t screw with Greenpeace. They know how to make waves.

Image: © Greenpeace

In honor of Marshall McLuhan’s 100th birthday, Marketing Magazine/Canada dissects and applies five of his predictions. (Read full article here.)

• The medium is the message. McLuhan’s point was that the impact of the medium itself is more significant than the content it carries; that each medium, from light bulbs to computers, conveys a message to its users. Think Internet.
• The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village. McLuhan was specifically referring to electronic media shaping collective, “tribe”-based identities. Twitter and Facebook users organize themselves into groups of followers.
• We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. We now have meaningful interactions with people and brands online as well as in “reality.”
• The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do it yourself.’ Blogging has made everyone a publisher, and message boards and social media mean consumers don’t just passively accept advertisements that tell them what they want.
• We drive into the future using only our rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. Think you’ve identified cool? That means it’s not cool anymore. Still wrapping your head around social media? By the time you do, it won’t be about Facebook and Twitter anymore.

McLuhan never knew YouTube. Yet, the trends he identified within the TV generation are deeply ingrained in the current generation who were raised knowing only social media. Watch McLuhan in action.

Now that many of McLuhan theories have been realized, what would he think of the 2011 world? Or would he be onto the next big thing?

Photo illustration: © Janet Giampietro, my dog-eared copy of The Medium is the Massage

What unites people more than a place to chat freely – and a common enemy?

Fed up with Silvio Berlusconi’s corrupt and ineffective government, thousands of Italian voices were heard via the “4 Sí” campaigns on Twitter, and in Facebook groups such as Questo pomodoro avrà più fans di Silvio Berlusconi (This tomato has more fans than Silvio Berlusconi) and Un’Italia senza Berlusconi (Italy without Berlusconi).

While Berlusconi owns about 70% of the country’s media, social media is still firmly under public control.

The voting results bear that out. Italians used social media platforms to create viral campaigns. As a result, they turned out in record numbers. Nearly 95% voted “Sì” to all four referendums:

• Sì to keeping water public (x2),
• Sì to stopping a return to nuclear power,
• Sì to holding government officials accountable to the law.

While no one is predicting his downfall, it was “the day Italians finally said no to Silvio Berlusconi.”

Viva Social Media!

Illustration on website home page: © 2011 Janet Giampietro. La Bocca della Veritá image is in public domain.

The constitutional council’s weekly meetings are broadcast live there and with two-thirds of tech-savvy Icelanders on Facebook, it seemed the most logical place to go to get attention and feedback.

While all recommendations need approval from the 25-member council, some have been incorporated into the June draft, which will be presented to the Parliament for debate and approval.

Iceland has upped the game. Read the complete story at USA Today World.

Is social media the future for democratic governance? Could crowdsourcing government work elsewhere?

Illustration © 2011 Janet Giampietro

Text image via Wikimedia Commons by Max Naylor under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.