Disqus - Latest Comments for Kevin Donovan

Re: Djibouti and Eritrea Edge Towards Open Conflict

Kevin Donovan — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:59:13 -0000

It's from the article to which I linked in the NYT. Implicit credit. (Probably could be improved, so I will.)

Re: Book Review: Infotopia by Cass Sunstein

Kevin Donovan — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:00:43 -0000

I'll do one better - bring the book to you. 20 pages of reading should solve your question.

And even though you are tired of hearing about it, a FotI review is coming.

Re: Police State 2.0

Kevin Donovan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:57:41 -0000

I think it was some Russian leader, but I Googled it and found no solid references...

Re: Police State 2.0

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:25:19 -0000

There were a couple stories about how open they were, particularly in comparison to the 1970s earthquake that very few people were aware of though its scale was similar.

In comparison to the Tibet crackdown, the earthquake was very open. What is becoming evident is that the state can adjust quickly to different political goals - vilifying violent protest or seeking humanitarian aid.

Re: Book Review: Infotopia by Cass Sunstein

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:28:00 -0000

I can definitely do a better job w/ book reviews but I've found out something: it's tough work!

For a much better reviewer, check out Ethan Zuckerman: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2006/11/30/c... and the link he provides at the bottom.

(Full warning - my next book review will be even more superficial because it is such a mathematical book... check back soon.)

Re: The Mother of Invention

Kevin Donovan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:28:42 -0000

Good find. On the other side of the argument is Jeff Sachs who is a prolific dev. economist at Columbia who thinks we need to make a final push of billions of dollars. I just can't get over my pessimism and support him.

Re: International Institutions

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:07:13 -0000

Good point... I certainly hope we don't, but history suggests those are the only times these things happen.

The problem with that is, today, we are facing important issues which demand international institutional responses (AIDs, terror networks, global warming, nuclear nonproliferation). In other words, if WWIII caused new institution to rise up, would they be aiming at those persistent problems or would they be fixing WWIII's?

Re: Book Review: The Starfish and the Spider

Kevin Donovan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:54:54 -0000

Chris - good article. It is definitely advocating the decentralized response to Al Qaeda. The leader of this month's Wired had the same premise: fight the ideological battle against Al Qaeda online. The problem, though, is that if another attack happens, it will be very hard to not bunker down again and therefore regress in the struggle.

Re: Musings on Individual Thinkers and Social Knowledge

Kevin Donovan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:37:46 -0000

I think the medium influences us, but it is far from deterministic. It has a tendency, but it is not going to happen for everyone and to the same degree. But, yes, as for the general sentiment, I agree that the medium matters.

Re: Book Review: You Can Hear Me Know

Kevin Donovan — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:42:26 -0000

Thanks; it's definitely worth checking out.

Re: Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

Kevin Donovan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:43:43 -0000

Haha good point. Proofreading is boring and I often quit half-way through...

Re: Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

Kevin Donovan — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:38:50 -0000

Can't find anything at WSJ.com about Quadir... can you?

Re: Sovereignty and Self-Determination

Kevin Donovan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:12:52 -0000

Oh, good catch, Blaise.

Re: Register for Microsoft’s ICT for Development Conference in Washington DC

Kevin Donovan — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:28:33 -0000

That looks great; I wish I could go.

Re: 2007/07/03/pownce-rivals/

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:50:26 -0000

I'd love a Pownce invite if you still have one.

Re: 250 servers X 20 Gigs of RAM X 4 cores = cool new thing

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 22:36:20 -0000

It is obviously digg.com. What isn't obvious is what they did.

I'm guessing something with the data visualization. Going out on a limb, I bet they've integrated that third-party 3D functionality which was dugg recently.

Re: Best Political News?

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:10:42 -0000

CNN and the NY Times are doing a really nice job. CNN with the typical sensationalism and the NYT with patience and thoughtfulness.

Re: Thank the Lord for RSS: I hate the new Valleywag design

Kevin Donovan — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:58:08 -0000

That is the ugliest design for a tech oriented site that I have seen in a long time. I can't believe they screwed it up so badly.

Re: Ze Frank helps you survive Thanksgiving

Kevin Donovan — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:25:22 -0000

That guy is brilliant and hilarious.

Re: What Mark Cuban is missing about HDTV

Kevin Donovan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:34:30 -0000

I'm wondering if you think the XBOX setup is easier than the coming iTV (albeit unproven).

With built in wifi iTV already takes our one step...

Re: My first videos from CES

Kevin Donovan — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:59:06 -0000

Seagate is doing AWESOME stuff. Those are great-looking hard drives. If the software is solid, those will be killer.

Re: Do A-list bloggers have a responsibility to link to others?

Kevin Donovan — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:00:20 -0000

I cover digital copyright developments such as Creative Commons, DRM, etc. at http://www.copyrightings.blogspot.com

Re: The bloggers get it wrong, Wired says

Kevin Donovan — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:56:26 -0000

Doesn't the fact that Wired published this story prove that the blog world will be corrected?

Those who were interested enough to blog the subject are interested to hear this follow up and will adjust accordingly.

This is different than in the past because when a major news source errs, the readers hardly see the correction which is a small, hidden blurb.

Re: Welcoming Ken Banks and Dina Mehta to the MobiChange Team

Kevin Donovan — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:44:00 -0000

Congratulations! That's great news.

Re: War 2.0, Propaganda 2.0 or Public Diplomacy 2.0: The Role of Internet and Mobile in Israel’s Gaza Strip Bombing

Kevin Donovan — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:39:06 -0000

Great post, Gaurav. Really well done.

I recall reading a while back about an NGO providing Palestinians with cameras so they could video tape abuse by Israeli settlers. Perhaps a similar effort should be undertaken - for both people in Sderot and Gaza so that they can more accurately tell their stories.

Re: Revisiting Karl Popper: Is Social Media a Clock System or a Cloud System?

Kevin Donovan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:21:28 -0000

This is the first time I've heard of Popper's theory, so I may be off the mark, but as for increased data leading to clouds becoming clocks:

A lot of what I've been reading recently is very much of the belief that we cannot do that. For example, NNT's "The Black Swan" and Bookstaber's "A Demon of Our Own Design" (reviewed here: http://blurringborders.com/2008/12/27/book-revi...) are convincing accounts of our inability to use massive amounts of data and the brightest minds to predict the future.

Now, the question of how to built a robust online community isn't exactly predicting the future of the economy, but as Kevin Kelly points out, increased measurement and data doesn't solve all our questions. Instead, it leads to more questions and more ignorance: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/10/...

So, even if we "clockify" all the new media clouds we currently have, it seems another cloud front will come rolling in.