MBTA problems for commuter rail, continued

there is an online survey at manager@easypaydaycash.com (form number 05357). They are trying to get an idea of how many people use the trains on the weekends. If you don't want to see the service go away completely, PLEASE fill out the survey and share it with everyone you know.

Best,
Yvonne

PLEASE help in the fight "against" the MBTA...

We can't let them get away with taking their troubles out on their consumers. PLEASE write to them and/or call them - we can't let this service keep getting worse and more expensive:

from them to me in response to me asking them how they could possibly consider taking away weekend commuter rail service:

"I have read your email regarding the possible service cuts in the commuter rail service.

The announcement and press release about an increase in MBTA fares along with a possible reduction in evening and weekend service on the commuter rail are options that are being discussed by senior managers at the MBTA and the Office of Transportation. It has been well publicized that the MBTA currently has a 160million dollar deficit going into next year which it needs to reduce.

I suspect that there will be an opportunity for passengers and residents to attend public meetings regarding these proposals. Past experience has shown that any such meetings are normally posted on the MBTA website beforehand. www.mbta.com

Thank you for your comments; please be assured that I have forwarded your concerns to the MBTA for consideration.



Sincerely,

Linda Dillon
MBCR Customer Service Manager"

A Must Read

Hey everybody,

Check this story out.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/new-tech-could-make-consoles-obsolete/1299562

Aaron Stenton

"Facebook Owns You"

Does Facebook, now with more than 175 million users worldwide, have a content death wish? Perhaps.

Just read its newest terms of service. What you'll find is that all content posted at Facebook belongs to, well, Facebook. But it's worse than that. New phrasing makes clear that, even if you leave Facebook, your rights don't leave with you. Quoting:

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other. [Emphasis added.]

To be fair, Facebook officially is asking only for a "non-exclusive license" to your creations hosted at its site. I can understand that. Facebook isn't a publication and posting original writing there shouldn't result in royalty checks.

Claiming permanent dominion is another matter entirely. This move would position Facebook as a content owner a la New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), Washington Post (NYSE: WPO), or Gannett (NYSE: GCI), rather than as a service provider a la Twitter, which doesn't claim content rights. That's, at best, insipid.

Think about it. If, like News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, Facebook's business is advertising, and advertisers are only interested in reachable audiences, former Facebookers are irrelevant to its business.

Even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), another ad-driven business that specifies similar terms in its usage policy, recognizes limits to its rights to content. "This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services," the policy reads.

Facebook, for its part, responded with a blog post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Quoting:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created -- one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear. In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want. [Emphasis added.]

OK, but I'm not sure that's the point. What is? I should own my content, Facebook, not you. When I'm gone, my content should come with me. So archive if you must, but don't claim rights to distribute and profit from the archive -- it isn't yours to profit from.

More Foolishness about Facebook:

• Don't get too down. There's at least one reason to like Facebook more today.


• 
  MySpace is so yesterday.


• Is Facebook polling for dollars?

Do you use Second Life?

"We are looking for Second Life users who are 18 years of age or older and
living in the Boston area to participate in a study aimed at understanding
how people create their avatars.

Eligible participants will be asked to come to the Psychology Department
at Harvard University for 2-3 hours to complete an interview about their
avatar and answer a number of questions about their moods, habits, and
behaviors.

Participants will be paid $40 for their involvement in this confidential
study.

To learn more, please email Stephanie at sgironde@wjh.harvard.edu"

Want a/need a TV Converter Box coupon?

My mother sent this to me and I am going to post it everywhere: "I have an extra TV Converter Box coupon. I heard that the government ran out and many people will have to pay full price for a box.

The coupon is worth $40. It is illegal for me to sell it. I'd rather give it away for free than to see it go to waste. Someone on Ebay is selling "information" on how to get a coupon. Pretty clever but I decided it wasn't worth it. This is the government they're f**king with.

Do you know anyone who needs one? It's only for people who use an antenna for their TV....

googlemail2003@yahoo.com"

Thanks for your time (btw - feel free to share this post with anyone you think it might help)! -Yvonne

Multiple Sclerosis MySpace Link

If you have Multiple Sclerosis and/or know & care about someone who does, PLEASE join our group (The MS Angels) at Xhttp://www.myspace.com/ms_news_channel

Thank you SO much for your tme!

Video- YouTube Tutorial as citizen media tool

A Portal to Media Literacy

Free Wi-Fi Plan

Just thought this would be of some interest.

Thanks,

Aaron Stenton


It seems that some Democrats and the Bush administration have finally found something to agree on: opposition to the FCC’s free Wi-Fi plan. On December 18, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote on a proposal that would auction off the AWS-3 wireless spectrum that becomes available in February 2009 after television stations go all digital. The winner of the spectrum would be required to use part of it for a national, ad-supported free wireless Internet service. The free Wi-Fi would have to be implemented within a few years of winning the auction and requires the company to construct filters that protect minors from adult content.

To Read more go to : http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081212/tc_pcworld/fccsfreewifiplanwillitfly

Hey everyone! I saw this site on a show on G4 and just wanted to share:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/
One True Media - "Somebody's going to look like a creative genius in a few minutes (hint: it's you). It's just so simple to mix your video and photos with our fresh, stylish effects to create wow-worthy Video Montages."

Best,
Yvonne

HTML

html Codes Tutorial to help understand HTML and Webdesign. enjoy
1st Tutorial
2nd Tutorial
3rd Tutorial

Speaking out for Net Neutrality...

Got this at my yahoo account today and wanted to share:

Dear Friend,

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Net Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress, they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Visit the URL below to learn more about what's at stake and send a loud message directly to Congress:

https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?id=162
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?s_oo=BiMcpwV7HGJluXEzviVUQQ..&id=162
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

New Google Video/Voice Chat Feature

Hi all! Just saw that Google now offers a video/voice chat feature. Go to http://www.google.com/mail/help/videochat/learnmore.html for more information if you are interested. (NOTE: when I made this URL into a hyperlink it doesn't work but it should if you copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your browser. Feel free to contact me if this doesn't work for you).

Best,
Yvonne

Vyew meeting dates (11/08 to 12/08)

Future dates for meeting in Vyew...

11/14/08, 11/21/08 and 12/05/08 at 8pm in Vyew

My 1st website

http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/~Sara%20Hamadane/acote.html

Agenda for November 6, 2008 Conference Call

Agenda for November 6, 2008 Conference Call

Link to Tactical Syllabus: http://fredjohnson.mwg.org/?page_id=21

Tactical Media Wiki: http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/


• Chair/call facilitator?

• Additions to agenda?

• General discussion, clarifications, and feedback on the Web/Internet class

• Reminder Web/Internet class meetings next week:
November 10th, 12th, 17th and 19th?

• (3)Future on-line gatherings: Tutorials and Reports [Jay Cleary]

• Discussions of other on-line venues

• Setting dates for future meetings
http://tacticalmedia.wikispaces.com/Calendar

Discussion of assignments – Identifying Reporters
Reporters will use the capabilities of the on-line web tools chosen to make the reports.

Assignment #1
Two members of the group make a presentation discussing our work with Community Media and comparing and contrasting elements of the report.

The Council of Europe has recently released a study of community media that treats it as a “Third Sector”. The report, titled, Promoting Social Cohesion: The Role of Community Media, by Peter Lewis, can be downloaded as a PDF at this address:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/media/MC-S-MD/H-Inf(2008)013_en.pdf


Assignment #2
Two members of the group make a report on the potential of new citizen and activist on-line media tools for strategic communications purposes.



___________________________________________________________

Current Assignments

Primary competencies:
Media and Community Building, Communications Policy and Developing a Media Strategy.

Below are the activities I would like participants to undertake for Tactical Media. They are an updating of the criteria in the Tactical project outline.

• Actively engage in the social networking experiments undertaken by Tactical Media

• A community based media project

• Research and writing

• Engagement with the on-line presences of Tactical Media

Theory work [all papers are a minimum of 5 double spaced pages]:

• One paper defining and discussing Community Media, key references the text Community Media and What’s Going on in Community Media, and other references that you identify and choose to use.

• One paper on Communications Policy that picks out and issues [net neutrality for example] and discusses it while placing it within an outline of the process of communication policy formation at the local, state and federal level. Key references will be identified, starting with the Benton Communications Policy headlines.

• One paper exploring some aspect of citizen media, citizen engagement, activist media strategic communications and use of media for empowerment.

• One strategic communications outline and plan for one of your projects.

What you have to do to demonstrate these competencies.
• Prepare and share the short definitions listed in this syllabus
• Complete the research assignments and make them available on and the Tactical Media blog.
• Participate in the on-line discussions and activities.
• Contribute to the on-line experiments and projects that fit your competencies.
• Actively use the Tactical Media Blog.

Security Alert

'Experimental' security fix is malware, Microsoft says: Scammers are sending out phoney emails
that claim to include critical Windows security alerts, Microsoft warned last Monday. The fake alerts
describe themselves as part of a new "experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft
Windows OS users," Microsoft said in a note on the scam, posted Monday. [13 October 2008;
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=009117078&in
tsrc=hm_list

Just wanted to pass this along to you all.

Thanks,

Aaron Stenton

short definitions % Media terms

Community Media: Community Media is inherent to community issues and dedicated to community building by allowing community members to find solutions to problems encountered within and create opportunities to develop and prosper the community. Community Media has for a purpose creating ties between different members of the community through communication and community reaching by using Public Access TV and radio station and Internet.

Participatory Media: Participatory media is an active social Media that allows people to create and consume media. The Revolution of Media put in place accessible technologies and platforms that allowed users to step little further and not limit them to receive but to also participate in delivering messages.

Citizen Media: Citizen Media is Media produced by private non professional journalist citizens. It uses different forms of Media Production like Blogs, Vlogs, Pod casts, Wikis, forums, Participatory video etc and distributed via Public Access TV and Radio Stations, Internet.

Citizen’s Media: Citizen’s Media is when Media content is created and controlled by citizens. Citizen’s Media allow people to control and voice their opinions and help communities getting together. Content isn’t subject to editing and mostly emotionally driven. Citizen’s media is broader, open, and produced at low cost.

Development Media: Development Media is information and knowledge brought by Media, aiming at developing a critical thinking and encouraging the use of technology to enable independents Media to reach, empower and engage people in matter that affects them to establish a democratic society.

Democratic Media: Democratic Media drives its origin from the fact that the coverage of Media to important issues is bias and the lack of an open none influenced Media. Because Media plays a crucial role in shaping people’s opinion, it can influence their decisions, and favors a group of people over another. Democratic Media has for purpose bringing Democracy to people by promoting an open access to a diverse media sources allowing citizens to make informed decisions.

FCC open meeting Oct, 2008

FCC Open Meeting (Oct)
Open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Nashville, Tennessee.