By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. My First DMCA Takedown
YouTube has gone from being something that was pretty neat to something that is evil. Yes, I can understand the owners wanting to remove violations of copyright. However, criticism requires quotation, and this is as true in video as it is in print. Quotation is clearly an area covered by fair use. But the YouTube copybots don't see it that way, and so one person's right to free expression is summarily trampled upon. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. SecondLife: Revolutionary Virtual Market or Ponzi Scheme?
People who renege on their obligations, banks that disappear overnight, gerrymandered exchange rates, and a completely unregulated investment environment. This is the Second Life 'economy' where (we are told) millions of dollars are being made every day. "SecondLife is a giant magnet for the desperate, uninformed, easily victimized. Its promises of wealth readily ensnare those who can least afford to lose their money or lives to such scams." Do read the comments for some raucous discussion. See also this item, which notes, "If you can actually collect your SLLs from your counterparty - which turns out to be an enormous problem - you can't cash them out for USD easily or profitably."
While I'm on this topic, it is worth noting that because Second Life is bogging down when it gets crowded (where 'crowded' means about 38,000 people - hardly the million the legends are made of) Linden Labs will be to "paying accounts". More and More. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Wii Report
I still think that the introduction of the Wii is a much bigger story than Second Life and possibly even bigger than mobile computing (though there may be some overlap between Wii and mobile). This article points to this, describing not only its use as a game but also the personalized Mii (virtual avatars for each user) to email to web access. More...