Blogger.com Makes It Too Easy to Censor Blogs - What to Do?

First, please read these two articles:

• The Wrath of Blogger
• Gates of Vienna Blocked by Blogger

What is the current status? As of 4:30 Eastern Time (US) 7/18/07, Gates of Vienna was back up.

So why be concerned about it now? Because other bloggers need to know about this situation, and because it's time for Blogger to do something to prevent its blogs from being shut down either maliciously or by mistake. Gates of Vienna is a respected counterterrorist/antijihadist blog that in no way deserves to be treated as a "spam blog." This situation also shows how easy it would be to misuse Blogger.com to censor another blog.

How did this happen? It is possible that someone unintentionally clicked the "flag" button in the Blogger.com toolbar while attempting to navigate. But then, if a single error like that can cause a blog to be blocked, something is very wrong with Blogger.com! More likely, Gates of Vienna was maliciously flagged as a "spam blog" multiple times by one or more individuals who object to antijihadistist messages being made available to the public. Either way, Blogger.com is allowing de facto censorship, and this is wrong. It allows wrongdoers of every stripe to muzzle anybody who may be trying to warn the public about the crimes they have committed or are preparing to commit. It also will intimidate some bloggers into keeping silent - though not this one!

Does this remind you of anything? It should! The Digg "bury brigade" has aroused intense controversy for exactly the same reason: because it became too easy for a few anonymous users to muzzle opposing points of view or to cover up uncomfortable facts simply by clicking on a little button.

What are we asking Blogger to do? Blogger should add safeguards to prevent the same thing from happening again to this or other blogs in the Blogspot domain. If Blogger.com fails to take action, then other blog owners will have reason to worry about losing access to their blogs. They'll migrate to other blogging systems and and hosting providers that will help them to safeguard their ownership.

You may recall that I've blogged before about the issues that Blogger.com has with spam blogs (see Does Blogger.com think your blog is spam?) but this is a different situation. There is a very big difference between the minor inconvenience of requiring the blog owner to enter Captcha characters before posting to the blog, and the major intimidation Blogger.com causes by blocking the blog entirely.

Now please do this:

• Link to the stories at Gates of Vienna and Foehammer.net from your own blog.
• Ask everyone else you know who has a blog to do the same.
• Publicize the story in every other legitimate way that you can think of: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Twitter, Pownce, word of mouth, chat rooms, you name it.
• If you wish, post a comment here indicating where else this article is being publicized.

Contacting humans at Blogger.com: Google makes it especially difficult to contact anyone at Blogger.com directly. But at least for now, you can contact them at support@blogger.com. And here's a website with rolling updates on how to contact Blogger.com: How to Contact Blogger Support. So if you are not happy about the way Blogger.com is misidentifying Gates of Vienna and other blogs as spam, you can still let them know what you think.

Also see:

• Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog
• Jawa Report
• Blackshards
• Atlas Shrugs
• Blogjunkies
• DH Chaos

Keep the pressure on Blogger.com to do something to safeguard their blogging system against being hijacked by the same "bury brigade" that has rendered Digg.com all but useless! And for what to do about THAT, see How to Bury Digg.com.

Stumble It!

Technorati tags:
1389
Blogger.com
blogging
Blogger.com
Bury Brigade
censorship
counterterrorism
current events
cyberjihadism
Digg
e-jihadis
Foehammer's Anvil
Gates of Vienna
jihadism
MSM corruption
politics

Why StumbleUpon 'Owns' Digg

After all of the endless hype surrounding Digg, I was surprised to read this article by Darren Rowse at Problogger: Why StumbleUpon Sends More Traffic than Digg.

Hmmm, I thought, time to try it out! So, after finding out that StumbleUpon doesn't accept an all-numeric user ID, I signed up as 1389AD. I set up the little toolbar and started using it. Then, I ran across an article that came out a few months ago, but is still very much worth reading, so I used the toolbar to submit a review of the article on StumbleUpon: My Thoughts on Our Children's Children's War.

I was surprised at what happened next, and you probably will be too. Read all about it here: How to Bury Digg.com.

Stumble It!

Technorati tags:
blogging
censorship
Digg
Foehammer's Anvil
politics
social media
StumbleUpon
Web 2.0

COUNTERTERRORIST BLOG SWARM WANTED!

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN MOVED TO http://1389blog.com.

The blog name has been changed to 1389 Blog.

Click here for this article on the new blog!

Please update your links, feed subscriptions, and favorites. Thanks!

This article by Julia Gorin is a must read for everyone:

Ending the Balkan Quagmire at American Thinker

This article is all about how US and EU counterterrorism foreign policy went so horribly wrong. It explains how jihadist terrorism has succeeded in overrunning Europe and in attacking the US. It's particularly important for Americans to read this article, because it cites news stories from reputable sources that have had some exposure in Europe, but haven't made it into the US media.

So why am I asking for a blog swarm?

Exactly because this information isn't getting around in the US, and I want this story to get some exposure!

Why is this story being kept off the radar screen in the US?

Simple: It's a catalogue of errors and misdeeds that makes the US media conglomerates look bad, and the US government (i.e., nearly everyone on both sides of the aisle) look even worse. It reveals an ongoing foreign policy fiasco that makes the Bay of Pigs Invasion look like a victory by comparison. And it isn't just a fiasco for the government, it's a fiasco for the American and European public, because it has greatly increased everyone's vulnerability to jihadist terrorism.

What to do?

• Link to the original story on your blog.
• Ask everyone else you know to do the same.
• Publicize the story in any other legitimate way that you can think of.
• If you wish, post a comment here indicating where else this article is being publicized.

This story has been submitted to Digg as How US and EU counterterrorism foreign policy went so horribly wrong. We'll see how long it stays there before Digg's censors and bury brigade get to it, as recently happened with Foehammer's Anvil.

Technorati tags:
1389
blogging
bury brigade
Bush
censorship
Clinton
counterterrorism
current events
cyberwars
Digg
fraud
Kosovo
jihadism
MSM corruption
politics
Serbia

TinyURL for this blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yqzhnl

Stumble It!

Blogs and Websites that have Posted or Linked to:
Ending the Balkan Quagmire at American Thinker:

1. Gray Falcon
2. Foehammer.net
3. Byzantine Sacred Art Blog
4. Ft. Hard Knox
5. Erik with a "K"
6. Intergalactic Source of Truth™
7. Orthodoxy Today
8. Eastern European Forum
9. Jillosophy
10. SerbBlog
11. Allah's Willing Executioners
12. Israpundit
13. JBlog Central
14. New Serbian Optimism
15. Right Wing News
16. Fiery Spirited Zionist
17. Liberty Post
18. Free Republic
19. Sulekha
20. US Political Opinions (UK)
21. Icerocket Blogs
22. The Black Kettle
23. American Council for Kosovo
24. The Lighthouse
25. Phanari
26. 2nd Anagennesis - A Blog of Townhall.com
27. Our Children are the Guarantors
28. Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog
29. Brucified
30. EagleSpeak
31. The Conservative Razor
32. Atlas Shrugs
33. Noisy Room
34. Dumb Ox
35. Geek Orthodox.org
36. Ironic Surrealism
37. Panhandle Poetry and Other Thoughts
38. View from Minas Morgul
39. Open thread on The Pirate's Cove
40. Political Mavens
41. Giltner Review
42. Sokotica (full text of article)
43. pjungwir at del.icio.us
44. The Outraged Spleen of Zion
45. Strategic Board
46. Noblesse Oblige
47. Field of Blackbirds
48. Open thread at Little Green Footballs

Updated: Is the U.S. government finally ready to confront cyberjihadism?

See this entry on My Pet Jawa, a prominent antijihadist blog.

It has certainly taken awhile for the U.S. government to start paying attention to cyberjihadism.

1389 wants to know:

When will they begin to look at the relentless pro-jihadist intimidation and censorship at social news and Web 2.0 sites, such as Digg?

When will they recognize that the site's owners and staff are responsible for allowing this activity to run rampant?

When will they start looking at the backgrounds and connections of these staffers, including contractors?

Allowing our self-proclaimed enemies to take control of, and to censor, our social news sites is giving them waaaaay too much power, and it has to stop!

Update (6/16/07):

• From Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) comes more evidence that this threat is significant: Global Islamic Media Front Instructs Islamists to Infiltrate Popular Non-Islamic Forums to Spread Pro-Islamic State Propaganda. We can only guess how many sites have been infiltrated thus far. (Stein hoist to littlegreenfootballs for this information.)

Update (7/5/07):

• Counterterrorist website littlegreenfootballs warns of a new software package for cyberjihadists: Get Ready for the Next Wave of E-Jihad. No skill or experience required!

Update (7/10/07):

• Doctorbulldog assesses our current predicament: Cyberterrorism, by whatever name: It's on the increase!
• My Flanders Fields shows how the leftist/jihadist alliance has extended into the battlefield of cyberspace: Marx Kisses Mohammed on the Internet. This amounts to a high-tech Hitler-Stalin pact, and it's time for the rest of us to figure out how to combat it effectively.

Next article on this topic:

The Battle Against E-Jihadis: Why we need to know what we're up against!

Stumble It!

Technorati tags:
1389
bury brigade
censorship
conservative
counterterrorism
current events
cyberjihadism
cyberwars
Digg
e-jihadis
Jawa Report
jihadism
littlegreenfootballs
malware
politics
Web 2.0

Twitter vs. Pownce - With Rolling Updates

Rolling updates follow the main body of this article.

As you may have noticed, 1389 is a frequent Twitter user. While I don't claim that Twitter is perfect - it does suffer occasional glitches and outages - I find Twitter to be a useful and entertaining social networking tool, and one that has significant political, business, and educational uses as well.

Recently, several people associated with Digg showed up on Twitter to promote Pownce, which they consider to be a competitor to Twitter. I wondered whether the name Pownce was meant to suggest some beclawed feline predator capturing every Twitter bird that happens by.

Of course, I'm the last person who could claim to be unbiased here; I have leveled some heated criticism at Digg, its owners, its admins, its investors, and a good (or not-so-good) proportion of its user base. On the other hand, seeing so many Twitterers headed in that direction, I finally (and somewhat reluctantly) requested a Pownce invitation and signed up.

Well, guess what! I established an account, loaded up an avatar graphic, filled in my profile data, and clicked on a URL that allowed me to start adding friends. But that was it. As of today (7/3/07, 12:05 AM Eastern Time US), whenever I have tried to get into my own Pownce home page, namely http://pownce.com/1389, Pownce's 404 screen has appeared every time. My guess is that the error has something to do with my having signed up with an all-numeric Pownce user ID. Even though Pownce allowed me to do that, this may have caused some other process within Pownce to break later on. Of course, once you sign up with a user ID, Pownce doesn't let you change it if you find that it isn't working properly.

But that's not all. To my disgust, I found out that the only way I can see the messages I received earlier in the day is to rummage through the huge pileup of e-mail in my inbox. If I shut off the email option, then I can't see if anybody is trying to send me a message. So I filled out a tech support form and haven't gotten an answer. If they don't fix it soon, I'll have to chuck the whole thing, because all of that inbox e-clutter interferes with everything else I'm trying to do.

Status update as of 7/4/05:

I just want to assure everyone that everything has been fixed, and I'm now on Pownce as 1389. Thanks for fixing everything, and hope to see you all there!

Well, enough about me - you're probably wondering what the rest of the folks who have used both Pownce and Twitter have to say. Which do they prefer, and why?

• Joshua Treviño's take on Twitter vs. Pownce
• Tamar Weinberg asks, Twitter Vs. Pownce: Who Pwns?

Rolling Updates: More News and Opinions

• Stewart Mercer asks:
  whither pownce? (and jaiku, frazr, et al)
• Evo_Terra provides a rundown on the
  Social Media Showdown
• Sean P. Reiser breaks down the technical features in
  Pownce - Twitter on steroids or another excuse for 'roid rage?
• Eric Rice discusses My actual usage of Twitter/Pownce/Facebook/Jaiku/Tumblr
• Here's a must read:
  Twitter vs. Pownce and the value proposition of social media is a comprehensive article by Jim Long, a/k/a newmediajim of Verge New Media. Jim invites you to visit this article and to post your own comments about your experiences on Twitter and Pounce. Look for Jim on Pownce as newmediajim also!

Be sure to read the comments for this blog post!

Stumble It!

Technorati tags:
1389
Digg
Pownce
social media
Twitter
Web 2.0

TinyURL for this blog post: http://tinyurl.com/2btrt8

Social Bookmarking Made Easy with Browser Links

Those of us who enjoy social networking through bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, and Newsvine are familiar with those little shortcut buttons, chicklets, and quicklinks that allow us to submit, vote for, and comment on our favorite web articles quickly and relatively easily.

But what if we’re reading an article with no shortcuts? Yes, we could still bookmark these the “old-fashioned” way (sign on to the various social bookmarking sites, and post the information using the url…sigh…yawn…)

OR we could take advantage of our browsers’ “links” button. Newsvine has posted a 10-second demo on how to do this with its Seed-the-vine service. It works exactly the same way with Socializer 2.0, which allows you to bookmark to multiple sites from a single page with its “Socialize this” link (Don’t forget to check out the “Create a Short Socializer Link” feature, which saves time when posting to multiple sites by providing a short url and pre-formatted post title!).

It takes a couple of minutes to set up the links initially, but for active social networkers, these little buttons will save a lot of time over the long run. All you need to do when you are on a page you want to bookmark or submit for promotion is click on the link!

Technorati tags:
blogging
Digg
Jenn Sierra (author)
social bookmarking
social media
Socializer 2.0
tech tips
Web 2.0

Socializer 2.0

You know that long list of little icons at the bottom of some blog posts? They usually represent Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, Technorati, slashdot, and other social bookmarking sites. Socializer 2.0 simplifies that process. Socializer is free, by eKstreme.com webmaster tools and tutorials.

Socializer 2.0 provides several different convenient ways for surfers and webmasters to use the service.

One thing that's missing is a usable button. Maybe they'll have one soon.

Technorati tags:
blogging
Digg
Jenn Sierra (author)
social bookmarking
social media
Socializer 2.0
tech tips
Web 2.0

Why Conservatives Need to Geek-Up (Part 3)

(Go to Part 1 of 3)
(Go to Part 2 of 3)

(This Third Installment is by Jenn Sierra and TXPoet, with research assistance from 1389.)

This is the third and final installment of this series explaining why Conservatives need to become more active in the Web 2.0 environment. Part One discussed the generational gap, generally between liberals and conservatives online, while Part Two discussed the how this gap is creating an imbalance of information readily available online through a typical search engine query. We will finish this series by highlighting a few of the major figures supporting Web 2.0 financially, showing how their political leaning is further compounding the imbalance in the information war.

Online social networkers are familiar with Digg.com, the current top social bookmarking site, which has enjoyed unprecedented success in social networking, through its use of bookmarking and syndication, with over 15 million visitors per month.

Where does a site like Digg get funding? Who are its investors? Primary Greylock Partners and the Omidyar Network. The Greylock Partner team is an international investor in primarily technology and medicine, with a special interest in Israel. The Omidyar Network “has invested in a variety of areas, including microfinance, participatory media, open innovation, open source and transparency in government.”
In addition to investing financially, the Omidyar Network is on mission: “Ultimately, we hope that people everywhere will constructively engage with each other to pursue what they care about most, resulting in a global society that is continually advancing social progress.”

If the name Omidyar rings a bell, it’s because Pierre Omidyar is the founder of e-Bay, a philanthropist who is #43 on Forbes’ list of billionaires, and a benefactor of a microfinance fund at Tufts University.Omidyar’s COO is Iqbal Paroo, a Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili, whose interests involve complex healthcare and higher education. He has a long history of involvement with the Aga Khan Foundation (1977-2000), and “From 1977-1980, he served the Aga Khan Foundation as both director of commissioning for the initial phase of the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan,” which has “teaching and research programmes in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom,” the university is billed as “an agent of change” and “an important force for pluralism.”

Omidyar and Paroo are champions for the left’s most sacred causes, and now their organization is one of the primary investors in the largest, most influential social-networking site on the web.

Where is the conservative counterpart?

Technorati tags:
conservative
culture wars
cyberwars
Digg
Jenn Sierra (author)
politics
social media
social news
Web 2.0

Digging Negativism

By Analyze

Are Diggers informative, negative, or positive? I wanted to know so I took a recently popular article with the criteria that it must have over 1,000 diggs. My goal was to analyze it using some very powerful text analysis software, SPSS for Text Analysis. I used this article:

VP Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, was a client of the escort service...

Here's what I found: 76% of the words used in posts were negative such as impeach, criminal, burn, evil, and so forth. Only 24% used positive words such as excellent, positive, better, and so forth.

It was obvious that Diggers are a negative bunch by about 3 to 1. Many diggers could learn from the words of George Washington:

The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.

Technorati tags:
Analyze (author)
Cheney
Digg
Halliburton
impeach
incivility
liberal
negative

Why do Diggers hate so much?

By Analyze

Today's front page political news on Digg has multiple stories lambasting Bush, Cheney, Republicans, Lott, Giuliani, Rove, and any other deemed Conservative by the Digger elitist. The liberal elite who argue that Fox News is "unfair and unbalanced" are the first to throw fairness and balance out the window. But have you ever wondered why they hate so much?

Consider the comments in those posts. They speak of "murdering idiots," "Bush's daily ass f***ing," and the denigration goes on and on and on. It is an endless diatribe of insults and, yes, violence. Rarely are the posts thoughtful or supported with facts. They are just petulant.

We can find the answer in some research done by Dr. Evan R. Harrington. In his work titled, The Social Psychology of Hatred, he points us to three reason for group hatred to help explain the vitriolic language of liberal Diggers.

The first approach may be thought of as a general model of social influence...The second approach might be termed an interpersonal attitude approach, in the sense that individuals are measured in the degree to which they hold attitudes corresponding to authoritarianism and social dominance, which in turn relate to social hostility and prejudice...The third approach focuses on social cognition or the way in which humans perceive the social world in a biased manner due to limits on the brain’s information processing capacity.

Let me interpret that in laymen's terms for our liberal friends: 1) You follow like lemmings; 2) You have a bad attitude; 3) You are dumb. So now we know. How sad they have come to the point that their social status is dependent on posting some diatribe about Bush et al. that few in society will ever notice or care about. Next time you see those hate-filled posts, just understand they are sadly lost. Those liberal haters on Digg are to be pitied.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says it best: "Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture."

Technorati tags:
Analyze (author)
Bush
Cheney
Digg
hate
hatred
incivility
liberal
politics
research
social hatred

The Conservative Ghetto

By Analyze

Being a Conservative on Digg is analogous to living in the Warsaw ghettos of Nazi Germany. We have been relegated to one section of Digg (the upcoming stories) and any resistance is met with extreme counteraction.

As a regular contributor of Conservative articles to Digg, I have been repeatedly buried. I've been keeping records for weeks and average 25 "bury hits" per day. Obviously, there is a systematic and organized group who bury Conservative article. If my submissions are not being buried, Conservative comments outside the ghetto are dugg down at the speed of light. Any attempt to move articles or comment outside the ghetto is met with provocation.

If one disagrees to vehemently they are sent off to the gas chamber—banned forever. Not even their remains (i.e., comments, submits) are visible. I can't even begin to count the number of Conservative friends who have met this fate.

In studying the bury brigade, the bury rate is approximately 5-to-1. One bury is worth 5 diggs. So, for every bury one gets, subtract 5. Consider LittleGreenFootballs.com (LGF). They are the ghetto resistance. As a result, they are also hit the hardest. They will get upwards of 50 buries for ONE article. I've seen as many as 276 buries for LGF over the course of 3 hours. Truly amazing! I did a comparative study of LGF to TheDailyKOS.com (KOS) one day. It was a 70-to-1 ratio. For every 70 buries of LGF, there was 1 bury of KOS.

Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe I should accept my ghetto status. That means we then have to accept that Conservative news will rarely, if ever, make the front pages of Digg and will, therefore, never be seen or discussed openly. Should Conservatives be the muted minority on Digg relegated to the "upcoming news" ghetto? Is that what we truly want to accept?

It is interesting that liberals are quick to espouse free speech and minority rights but when given the power, they become like Nazi Germany. Grant it, most Diggers do not bury but they also don't do anything about it. They are the vast majority of willing accomplices who accept the "rules" without thought. Power in the hands of liberals (at least at this micro level) is dangerous and oppressive. Imagine if they had power at the national level?

Maybe it is time for a ghetto uprising.

Please see the Comments section for this post.

Technorati tags:
Analyze (author)
anti-Semitism
bury brigade
censorship
conservative
counterterrorism
Digg
incivility
jihadism
littlegreenfootballs
Nazism
politics
social news

ABC News on the cyber-riot and other troubles at Digg

ABC News reports not only on the cyber-riot at Digg, but also on other serious troubles at the site, including the infamous "bury brigade."

This ABC News article correctly points out that the conservative site littlegreenfootballs has been especially victimized by the self-appointed censors on Digg's "bury brigade."

Unfortunately, the ABC News article omitted to mention that LGF is primarily an antijihadist site. Nor did the article note the revealing fact that antijihadist articles are being targeted for burial with especially relentless vigor.

Apparently, Digg is perfectly satisfied with this coverup of everything that might alert the public about the jihadist threat. Isn't it time to ask why Digg has never made even the slightest attempt to put a stop to this pro-jihadist censorship?

Technorati tags:
1389
bury brigade
censorship
conservative
counterterrorism
current events
Digg
DRM
jihadism
littlegreenfootballs
online riot
social news
software piracy
Web 2.0
U.S. law

News roundup: Digg users run amok in massive online riot

The Register (UK) reports: Digg buried by users in piracy face-down.

Forbes.com explores Digg's dilemma in all its ramifications, and discusses the online uprising at Digg and what it means for Web 2.0.

Australian news website news.com.au covers the huge revolt at Digg.

Charles Johnson, of the famed antijihadist website littlegreenfootballs, laments the rise of mob rule at Digg.

Gadget and tech news site Gizmodo covers the enormous digital riot at Digg.

Tech industry blog Techcrunch tells why Digg capitulated to the demands of its angry members in what appears to have been a spontaneous online rebellion.

Ryan Block tracks the online revolt that erupted when Digg's admins tried to stop its users from porting the HD-DVD cracking codes.

Wired warned that Digg was melting down.

The story even appeared in the New York Times.

And here are two stories on where it all started, at doom9.

Technorati tags:
bury brigade
censorship
current events
cyber riot
Digg
Digg meltdown
Digg user revolt
DRM
littlegreenfootballs
online riot
social news
software piracy
U.S. law

MySpace News Beta - Great, but Just One Problem...

MySpace has launched a news aggregator called MySpace News.  Although it has similar features to other social news sites, and was predicted to be a major competitor to Digg.com, it is a little different from Digg, in that there is currently no "friends" feature, there are a lot more news categories, there is no membership (users do not have an ID), and users do not submit stories – they simply vote on what stories are available through the feed.

 

Even though MySpace News is owned by MySpace, users of the news beta are not required at this time to have a MySpace account to vote on stories, and there is no way to know who has voted on a story to make connections with other users with similar interests. (On the plus side, there is also no way to accumulate cyber-stalkers, since no one knows who has voted for which stories.)

 

The aggregator is very good, and I have been pleased with the stories I'm finding in my favorite sections.  Using MySpace News is very easy; just go to http://news.myspace.com, select your categories, and start reading and voting.

 

It might actually replace some web users' current social bookmarkers or news aggregators, except for one problem:  Many places of business, schools, and libraries have blocked MySpace…and this includes the MySpace News Beta.  For MySpace News to ultimately be successful, they will have to find a way around this.  My suggestion?  Change the name.

 

JennSierra

Technorati tags:
Digg
Jenn Sierra (author)
MySpace News
social news

Do YOU want to write about social news sites?

Here's your chance to have your say!

Hi,

I'm David Cohn, aka Digidave on Digg and Netscape -- and I often write about social news sites for Wired, NewAssignment or my blog.

I'm writing to you because I know you are interested in social news sites like Stumbled Upon, Reddit, and others.

And that's exactly what we are trying to cover at Assignment Zero, a collaboration with Wired -- and you can help. With just 10 minutes of your time, you might just end up in Wired.

We are trying to do networked journalism -- anything you contribute will be like notes on a reporters notebook. Everything is licenced under the creative commons -- and a Wired magazine writer, Jeff Howe, will produce a large feature using this reporting. If he uses anything you produced, he will link back and give you credit. He may even quote you -- who knows.

In addition to research, we also have writing assignments -- and Wired has agreed that any writing assignments that meet their editorial standards could get published on Wired news, so it might be a neat way to become a writer for Wired. You can contribute in 10 minutes -- or if you have more time, you can pick up a writing assignment.

And one of the topics that we are covering is " Social News Sites: The Crowd is the Editor, Duking it Out Over the Day's Top Stories." It's an interesting story, no? Editors used to decide what the most important news of the day was. Now, collectively we decide - and we can decide by whatever measures we want.

It's real easy to contribute -- Just visit this page and click to join the team.

The editor of this page is Christine Riedel, a senior news producer at AOL. And there are already people who have signed up to be members of the team.

If social news sites aren't your thing, we have other topics (from music, to cars, science and film). You can see the entire story shaping up from the homepage just under the latest blog post, or you can search by your interest here.

So what are we looking for? We have specific assignments. Questions about weaving together a timeline of Digg, or looking for other examples of social news sites, explaining what Netscape's meta-journalism is -- Anything is helpful. You can even just re-submit old blog posts that you have written as filed reporting.

Why? Not only to get your name in Wired (or any other blog or news organization that also dives into our reporting) -- the real reason why to do it -- because we are trying to figure something out. Social news sites proved that people want to engage with the news -- directly. Well, here is a way to engage in it too -- by helping to produce it.

And if you have a blog -- why not invite your readers to help you out too? It's an interesting way to engage your readers in a new way. Instead of telling them what's important, you will be inviting them to join you in an ongoing investigation. It will be a challenge in some sense, can you and your readers come together to tackle a specific subject together? You will meet them on a new playing field -- and I bet they'll appreciate that.

Anyways. If you have questions or concerns or anything of that nature -- don't hesitate to email me: david.newassignment@gmail.com

This is a project I really believe in (and I know it can work) -- and as someone that has been swept into social bookmarking for the same reason -- I think you might find some value in it too.

Best,
David Cohn
dcohn1@gmail.com
AssignmentZero.com
Digidave.org

Update: First Take on Assignment Zero

Technorati tags:
blogging
Digg
Netscape
social news
Web 2.0
Wired.com
writing