Start Thinking Macro!

Well, after delaying it again and again, i finally decided to move to WordPress as my blogging platform and to use this opportunity to change the name of my blog. I got critique of both the name of the current blog, lack of good RSS feeds and i myself felt that WordPress has more features.

So, please update your bookmarks to "Think Macro"! And bear with me until I fine tune the new gadget. There will be an updated website as well, but that may take some time.

The world we "live" in...

This time it is more optimistic and less realistic:


Thanks to Erik for the link. The original is at http://www.xkcd.com/

The world we live in...

I am currently reading a chapter by Lynette Kvasny and Duane Truex about discourse surrounding the digital divide. Setting the context, they explain a shift in world's balance of power. Here is a quote:

Elston (2000) goes even further in stating that the balance of global economic power has shifted from governments to corporate boardrooms. She cites a study by the Institute for Policy Studies that compared corporate sales and gross domestic products, and concluded that 51 of the largest 100 economies in the world are corporations, not countries. This means that General Motors is now bigger than Denmark, IBM is bigger than Singapore, and Sony is bigger than Pakistan. (p. 403)

I find it fascinating and also helping me to build an argument for looking at the role of corporate world in policy making in my research. Any thoughts? Suggestions for additional references?

-----

In case you are interested, the full citation of the article is:

vasny, L., & Truex, D. (2001). Defining away the digital divide: A content analysis of institutional influences on popular representations of technology. In N. Russo, B. Fitzgerald, & J. DeGross (Eds.), Realigning Research and Practice in Information Systems Development: The Social and Organizational Perspective (pp. 399-414). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

And the Elston article is:

Elston, S. Global Economy: Shifting the Balance of Power, Environmental News Network, January 31, 2001 (available from http://enn.com/news/ennstories/2001/01/01312001/economy_41639.asp).

Sprinter

"Sprinter" is a word coined yesterday by Gina. It stands for a sudden visit of winter right when everybody started thinking that spring is already here. Yes, it is April 16 and i woke up to discover an absolutely white street and while i was going to the library i became white as well.

The winter came back for a short but powerful visit. It is massively snowing now, but since it is not as cold as it was a couple of months ago, the snow is really heavy and sticky. So, all the trees are covered with snow now and are bending under the heavy burden. It is so beautiful!!!

Sprinter (April 16, 2007)

I definitely like winter!

re-barbie

Got this link from Veronica. Who could believe that religious emancipation will come from Barbie?

Troubles in the virtual world

There is an article telling a story of FBI going into SecondLife to investigate gambling taking place inthe virtual world. While it may be entertaining to imagine FBI agents walking around as animated creatures of opposite sex and with wings, I think it rises an interesting question about the relationship between the virtual and and the physical.

As far as i understand this, US is trying to regulate online gambling through controlling financial transactions with online casinos. But things are different for SecondLife because people there are gambling with Lindens (L$), which is the virtual money used in this world. But the issue is getting more complex since there is an entire economy associated with SeconLife and L$ are actually having a market based exchange rate with real money (L$266 = US$1 as of yesterday). So the virtual is actually real, or the other way around.

I am not sure i have enough knowledge about the phenomenon, but i think this is really fascinating. How exactly and are we going to apply regulation from the physical world to the virtual one? Not only we had to deal with concepts of identities, nationalities and geographical boundaries in virtual reality, but now we also have to address the virtual economy and its relation to the real world... Just writing this post and picking at all the statistics of economic activity there amazed me a lot. And there is much more going on there in other virtual worlds, such as WoW and other. This is simply very interesting and even fascinating.

We are on the map!!!

Did you ever hear about the Nigerian fraud? So, here is an Israeli version of it. I think it is rather funny:

Private Ward 6,
Rambam Medical Center,
P O Box 151, Beer Sheba 84101
Tel Aviv.
Israel.
Email: jaron.abbas@inmail24.com

Hello,
I am very sorry to embarrass you with this email as I did not mean to intrude in your privacy if not for the peculiar situation I have found myself. As you read this, don't feel sorry for me, because it is the destiny of everyman to die someday. I am Jaron Abbas an Israeli by birth and a business merchant based in Tel Aviv. I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts. I regret that I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone (not even myself), but my trade. Though I am very well to do, I was never open handed; I was always hostile to people and regarded them like they never had hopes of becoming as successful as myself. Now I know that there is a lot more to life than just prosperity.
I believe that when I am given a second chance to come to this world, I would live my life a different way from how I have lived it. Now that death is imminent, I have willed and given most of my belongings to immediate and extended family members, as well as a few close friends. I want Allah to be merciful to me and accept my soul. Hence I have decided to support charity work; this is what I want to be remembered for. So far, I have been able to reach out to a few charity organizations in the Singapore, Algeria and Malaysia. Now that my health has deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself anymore.
I once asked members of my family to aid me in giving of alms to those organizations catering for the less privileged in Bulgaria and Pakistan; they refused and kept the resources to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be contempt with what I have left for them.
The last of my belonging which no one knows of, is the huge deposit of $2.5 Million US dollars that I have in a safe keeping company abroad, which I will want you to secure and bestow to charity organizations.
I have set aside a tenth of this for you.
If interested to help me use this funds to charity organizations please contact me on: jaron.abbas@inmail24.com for more details.
Allah is with you.
Jaron Abbas

We are on the map!

"you know..."

A few weeks ago I transcribed an interview with a local policy maker. If you've never done it, try it. IT is a very "interesting" task and it makes you paying attention to various details of the language a person uses. I was surprised by the amount of times my participants used the phrase "you know".

Since then, i keep on noticing that many people are using it excessively and do not really pay attention to it. Very different people too. Have you ever noticed that? I hear my fellow students using it and today a professor in class also used it all the time. I wonder if i am using it all the time now too, you know...

Shut down day

This is basically a free advertisement for an initiative promoting a day-long abstention from computers. Unfortunately, the organizers do not provide any explanations for why they suggest shutting the computers down for a day. This, and the negative tone of the call for action, may be the reason behind quite a sound opposition to this initiative.

However, i would suggest examining it with a calm head and thinking about this day as a day of re-examining the priorities and proportions in our lives. When i say proportion, i mean proportions of both the great contribution of technology to our lives and at the same time, our growing dependency on it. I will write more on the subject and suggest a little bit different way to approach this issue soon, but in the meantime, please mark you calendars and try making it. You will be surprised to discover that it can be actually nice.

So, here is the date: Saturday, 24 March 2007.
Event's website

And here is a funny video for you to watch, just before you use the "turn off" button:

Light at the end of the storage

A positive sign from Google. They just posted in the company blog that they are not going to save our search history forever... well maybe... unless we ask... or unless the law changes and the big brother asks them... and in general they are going to store the search history forever, but they will blur the personally identifiable information after a couple of years.

I think this is good that the issue is now on the public agenda, though there are still unanswered questions (like why the identifiable information is stored in the first place, unless i asked for that? what is the nature of my relationship with google - am i selling the eyeballs for advertisers, or i am selling information about my behavior?). But it seems like a move in the right direction.

Any thoughts?

Firfox profile

I think it's been over half a year since i completely switched to Firefox and, frankly, do not have any desire of getting back to IE (except for the rare occasions when the site doesn't come up right). Particularly i like it because of all the add-ons. I got this small weather bar at the bottom of the window, which is extremely helpful in the erratic Ithaca weather. I love BugMeNot plug-in and DownThemAll is also very handy. I am checking out a citation add-on from Zotero and am about to switch to del.ish.us as the main favorites manager. And there are more which i don't have the time to look up. I can feel the program getting more and more customized to my needs and it nice.

But there is also a concern. I am still using windows. So eventually i will have to re-install the computer. What will happen to all the personalization i have done to Firefix when i re-install it? The beauty of these add-ons is that they become so "transparent" that you just use them without thinking: "here i am going to use DownThemAll", or "i am checking weather with Forecastfox" (I actually had to look up the name of the add-on, to write about it here). You simply use it.

So here is the idea, and my guts' feeling is that it has been implemented already, but if not, i hope someone with enough coding skills will pick the challenge up. What if we could save a profile of our Firefox? Kind of an image that we could put at a newly installed machine, and it would have all the features we got used to? Such an image could be stored at a third party server, or you could just make it locally and back it up. But the main pint is that you personalized configuration of Firefox would be backed up.

What do you think?

Musical opium for masses?

What is an international cultural event without some drama? What is that drama without Israel being involved in it? So, keeping up with the tradition, the upcoming Eurovision is supplying us with the current drama starring the Israeli entry. It looks like the Israeli song is facing a potential disqualification for containing a political message (more articles here).

Keeping my Israeli identity aside, what is the message conveyed by the Eurovision organizers? Is it that music (or art for this matter) cannot be political? Is the pop culture only about entertaining and once it is getting any message beyond fun and consumerism, it is no longer allowed? Is public forbidden to think while having fun? Is the mainstream musical culture simply opium for masses blocking them from critical thinking?

Documentary on Google

Thanks to Tarleton for this one.

It is a bit long (47 minutes), but i think it is interesting even though i did not form a strong opinion about it. If i had to provide a short synopsis of the movie then it would be that:

- watch the first 15 minutes to see what a cool and fun company Google is
- watch the next 15 minutes to see the great scope of google's activity worldwide
- keep on watching to the next 15 minutes to hear the difficult and interesting questions google's activity rises (my favorite part).

Particularly interesting are the words of Brewster Kahle, the founder and digital librarian for the Internet Archive, reacting to the "Hole in the wall" project usage of google. If you really have no time to watch the whole thing, just listen to this around minute 37:40.



Here us a link to the page on the original website. Ironically enough it is available through google video :)

Library recommenders systems

Have you ever experienced a situation when you've borrowed a book from a library and a week later got an email saying that someone requested that book and you have to return it in a few days? It just happened to me a couple of weeks ago when i was required to return two books of Manuel Castells without even getting a chance to read them well. And i personally got curious about who is that person requesting the same books i am interested in. What else does s/he read?

And this is where i though about Amazon.com and wondered wouldn't it be cool if there was a recommender's system embedded in a library website? For example you search for a book and you see what else people searching for the same book looked at. People could post reviews and comments on particular items, reflecting for example on how useful the book or an article were for a particular course. Moreover, once a new book, supposedly relevant to your interests, would arrive to the library, you could get a notice about that. Etc.

Wouldn't all that and more (take a look at Amazon for example), make the entire library search richer and more engaging? Wouldn't it make the life easier when you start searching for literature on a subject you have no clue about? Wouldn't it get students more involved in the library, thus contributing both to their learning experience and community building? Where is potential flaw in this idea?

What do you think? I have a sense that if such a system is not already implemented somewhere, it is soon going to be...

Talent!

Here is a piece of poetry written by my little, but super talented cousin Nadia. I think this is simply genius!

Hysterical

OH MY GOD, the sky is falling!
OH MY GOD, the kids are brawling!
OH MY GOD, the wind is blowing!
OH MY GOD, the Earth is slowing!
OH MY GOD, the Sun is shining!
OH MY GOD, my brother’s whining!
OH MY GOD, the phone is ringing!
OH MY GOD, the cat is singing!
OH MY GOD, he ate some pie!
OH MY GOD, he’s gonna die!
OH MY GOD, the stars are gleaming!
OH MY GOD, the pot is steaming!
OH MY GOD, T.V. is broken!
OH MY GOD, the fish has spoken!
OH MY GOD, the light has darkened!
OH MY GOD, the dark has lightened!
OH MY GOD, my breath is taken!
OH MY GOD, I’m very shaken!
OH MY GOD, the pen is moving!
OH MY GOD, the coffee’s brewing!
OH MY GOD, the food is rotten!
OH MY GOD, I choked a button!
OH MY GOD, I got an e-mail!
OH MY GOD, I missed a sale!
OH MY GOD, the door is squeaking!
OH MY GOD, my brain is peaking!
OH MY GOD, the glass is clear!
OH MY GOD, the end is near!
OH MY GOD, I’m growing lazy!
OH MY GOD, I’m going crazy!!!!

14 years of abstention :)

Yes, after 14 years of no winter and/or winter sports, i finally went skiing! It was fun! Surprisingly i remembered what to do:

Skiing at Cornell Plantations (11 Feb. 2007)

And in general, the winter is extremely beautiful:

Winter Cascadila Creek (07 Feb. 2007)

Even if sometimes it is so stormy, that they shut down the university:

Snow Storm (14 Feb. 2007)

Political correctness

I just noticed that Barak Obama, who recently officially announced that he is running for presidency, is covered mostly by black journalists. Erik agreed with me that there is such a tendency. Seems like it appears not PC for non-black journalists to cover the black candidate. Interesting...

More thoughts on Google

Here are more thoughts on Google somewhat challenging the Googalization picture i drew earlier.

Sabih Oved as an allegory

If you walk East on the Kazenelson street in Givataim and then turn right to the Sirkin street, you will see a short line of 5-10 people, sometimes more. It doesn't really matter what time of the day you will visit the place, there always will be people. They are standing in line to get sabih from the famous Sabih Oved (the link is to a funny commercial). Although sabih is a relatively simple dish, Oved literally managed to bring it to a level of art, justifying his self-proclamation as "the best sabih in the universe". The secret seems to be simple as well – Oved concentrates on a single product, but he is doing it the best.

However, Jon Stewart from the "Daily Show" thinks that he can do everything and still remain the best. As hilarious as he can be talking about politics and sometimes celebrities, he failed completely trying to talk about technology.

Yesterday, in light of the official lunch of Windows Vista, he hosted Bill Gates. Probably as an act of sophisticated criticism on the business practices of Microsoft, Stewart had MS's logo all over the screen as long as Bill Gates was talking. The entire studio was covered with MS symbols and a shiny box of the newly-released Vista stayed in Stewart's hands as glued. But leaving the studio aside, the content of the interview itself was even more surprising. Well, was there an interview at all? Stewart looked as he was shy or scared asking Gates meaningful questions. He simply let him taking over the stage, boldly promoting Vista and MS. And Gates was great! He is a very good speaker and an impressive marketer. He told everyone how people oriented the new Vista is, how secure it is and how wonderful the world will be thanks to the computers. Stewart remained satisfied with deep satirical remarks, such as asking Gates about his password and if he has flying toasters as his screensaver. And for those who still had doubts about the nature of this 10 minutes episode, Gates clarified it when he simply got up and left the studio the moment his interview was over. What can you do? The man is busy. He has an empire to run.

The entire episode leaves a very bitter taste. The popular satirical show looks as if simply selling itself to promotion of the MS's new product and Jon Stewart appeared as a scared little boy, bathing in the shadow of glory of the one of the richest and most powerful men on Earth. Not a single question addressing the violent business practices of MS, the multiple problems and ambiguities surrounding the new Vista; not a hint on the great similarities of the new system with MAC operating system, no notion of the extension of MS to providing content and getting more involved in our lives; nothing. None of the really important and interesting question surrounding MS was raised in this rather unique opportunity offered to the "Daily Show". Jon Stewart literally set the stage (with huge windows logos) to Bill Gates to promote the new MS's creation for almost 10 minutes.

What was there? Why did the biting satiric show turned into mewing toothless creature carefully following every movement of its master and expressing poor sense of humor? Is it the power of Bill Gate's personality that turned Stewart into a pincher? Or is it the collaboration between Viacom, the owner of "Daily Show", and MS that dictates a scathing provision of infomercial time, mocking the viewers' intelligence? Or is it me not understanding the deep humor and the critical insight of the situation?

Interestingly enough, the next show, "Colbert Report" also addressed a technology related issue involving MS. He was talking about MS paying people editing the Wikipedia entry on the company to make it more positive. However, unlike Stewart, Colbert managed to touch upon a number of critical points. So what was the difference? The actual presence of Gates? The personality of the anchor? Or it is an issue of professionalism? Just like Oved. If you know how to do one thing good, maybe you should stick to it and make it perfect?

Your help needed!

Recently, i've been receiving comments on my blog's name.

Naming this blog, i was thinking about the combination of my name (Dima) and the word blog, hence "Dimblog". The only thing i did not take into account, is that the word "dim" has an "interesting" meaning in EN.

Since i want to keep blogging as part of my academic practice, i think i should shift it to a new domain. It is also a good opportunity to do it now, since i am rearranging the entire thing anyway.

Now, I NEED YOUR HELP in choosing a new name for the blog.

I have a number of my own ideas, but i would like to hear everybody else's thoughts first and at the end i will open the decision to a vote. So please, whoever reads this blog, suggest alternative names (by email, or here).

I only hope it will go better than the naming of the desk :)

Googalization

Yesterday I came to google.com in order to search for something, just to discover that they put an advertisement on their homepage. No worries, they are still sort of true to the concept of having a clean homepage and the advertisement was basically to the new google product. It has a small shopping chart and a link offering $10 if you sign up for the service.

I don't know if that offer is available only in the States or elsewhere, but that is a curios one. What they are offering this time is a limited pay-pal-stile service. You create an account (i bet you can use your existing google account too), store your credit card details there and use it to check out when you shop online. Convenient, isn't it? You don't have to give your credit card details again and again over the net. You just trust google taking good care of security and use this simple and friendly service.

You can do this (and more) today with pay-pal of course, but having everything under one username should be so convenient. You just log into your google account and you have all your news, mail, blog, docs, etc. and now even an option to pay your bills.

But wait a second... What does it mean for my privacy? How much more will google now know about me? Will it help me sleeping better at night? Will it make me a better citizen? Maybe a happier person?

Let see what it already knows if i am using a series of its personalized services:

• If i use google.maps it knows where i live and what the local businesses i am searching for.
• If i search google, especially with the google bar, it knows where i go online
• If i use google.news, it knows what i am interested in
  
• If i use its feeds, it knows whose opinions i am interested in
  
• If i use gmail, it knows what i am corresponding about
• If i use Blogger, it knows what i am writing about
• If i use google.docs, it knows what i am working on
• If i use google.desktop, it knows what is on my computer
• If i use google.finance, it knows where my money or my financial interests are
• If i use picasa, it knows what i and my family and friends look like
• and there is more to it...
  

Now i have the unique opportunity to allow google know what you are shopping for! Why not? Don't you trust google? They will not use your personal data, why would you worry? Google will only use the aggregative data, gathered through all the channels above and crossed, to make your searches more precise. It will ONLY help you making better decision. For it know what you REALLY want and are looking for.

So far is on the sarcastic note. Now the question is where is the line that we draw between getting convenience and jeopardizing our privacy? What google offers is indeed very convenient and is usually of a great quality. But to what extend we are ready to submit our lives to a commercial entity, counting on it helping us to improve our lives and not misusing it? Where is the border line? Is there one?

So much for the innovation...

Skype founders create online television service

Skype founders are Joost in time for online TV plan

Skype founders take TV to Net

Global Internet TV Service by Skype

Right now Google.news shows 278 articles (and counting) with these and similar headlines. All of them are dealing with the recent announcement of Skype founders, Niklas Zennstrm and Janus Friis, that they are going to lunch an internet based TV service they call "Joost". From my reading of a few news articles, what they are offering is to replace your TV screen with a computer screen and your decoder box provided by the cable company by software on their servers. The business model is based on advertisement (means you pay nothing exept for your time and privacy) until they offer a pay-per-view option, and they also promise the service to be piracy-proof (well, that one we'll have to wait and see).

As much as i love Skype and think it was breaking through idea at the time, right now i fail to see the great promise of Joost. Why would people like watching their TV on a computer screen? Does it mean they need to upgrade their computers to have at least 29 inch screen and a decent sound system? Does it mean the computer is moving from the office to the living room? What is the relative advantage of watching commercial based content online, vs. paying a relatively low fee and gaining full control over the content and the settings where one can view it? Today you can buy most of the content that Joost is going to offer on DVD or VoD and it doesn't cost that much (that is assuming you follow the legal way, otherwise it is even less) and you can choose where and when to watch it. One place where watching something in real time worth the effort is sports, but then again comes the question if the computer screen experience worth the $10 for the sports channel on cable? The cable companies start offering bundles of services including TV, phone and internet, so the relative part of paying for the content is probably diminishing even though it is hard to determine. Will people be willing to jeopardize their privacy even more and let also "Joost" follow what they are watching and where they are surfing? Well, the notions of privacy seems to be changing, so maybe the last question has a more obvious answer.

If Joost does go big however, one possible positive outcome from a consumers' point of view may be decrease in pricing of cable TV services. At the same, i think Microsoft's attempt to turn the x-box into a media center by connecting it to the web and actually offering the content, bares the similar, if not greater potential. Anyway, both of them are aiming at the Western, developed countries, which raises a series of additional questions about digital inclusion (divide), but that is for another post.

Even if i am mistaken in my skepticism, and Joost is going to be the next big thing (i.e. people value their privacy, time and limited ability to choose less than few dozens dollars or shekels), i still cannot get rid of the feeling that Joost is the same old thing we all know, just the cover is different (similar to the recent Google-Orange partenership). Unlike Skype that presented an innovative thinking about the technology and people's needs, Joost seems to replicate the old package and just shifting the platform. So much for the innovation...


------------------------
Update, 13:00 - Apparently i am not the only one asking these questions. Take a look here for example (and she has probably different incentives thinking about this things than i do).

Wikipedia?

Here is an interesting post with thoughts on Wikipedia's dark future and there are three points that caught my attention.

First, the idea of commercial forces forcing their models on Wikipedia commercializing it. Basically the argument in the post is simpler and is about commercial entities taking advantage of the openness of Wiki. However, i think that it may even go beyond to a greater influence, such as that described by Schiller in his book - advertising based models taking over new media and new outlets.

Another point is about the bureaucratic structures that emerged in in Wikipedia. The interesting point is that the hierarchy in Wikipedia is activity based - those who edited more got into more powerful positions. The problem with this structure is that once the hierarchy got established, people "in power" channel they energy to preserve the power strucutre.

The thirds point is about lack of incentive for Wikipedians to continue contributing to enterprise - they are getting neither money nor recognition for their effort (which raises interesting questions regarding how they utility from contributing to Wikipedia is constructed).

The last two points made me thinking again about the potential structure we are seeking for the "Human Network". On the one hand, the idea of having a non-hierarchical structure may be workable, but there is still should be bureaucracy that will prevent people from gaining too much power that will allow them to abuse their position. It seems to me that once the main focus shifts from the core activity of an organization to preserving particular power structures, the overall performance of the organizations suffers. At the same time, the issue of incentives is important. We've seen that in the last few years dealing with HN and that is not new, but it is still good to see it shared by others.

Any additional thoughts anyone?

Loving Technorati

I was looking for Erik's blog in Technorati and typed the blog address (www.framingconflict.blogspot.com/) in the search field. The result exceeded all the expectations. Here you can find it and this is the text:

Huh?

There are blogs, and then there's whatever you just typed in. If it's a blog, we don't know about it. Maybe you made a typo. Or maybe it's a blog that doesn't exist. Maybe you don't exist. (In which case, please ignore this.)

I am laughing out loud :)

Blogs I read

Most of the blogs here are my friends' blogs. Some of them are more personal, but the others have more general content. So, looking forward this page is divided into a few sections and some of the blogs appear in both of them. The names are in alphabetical order and all the links open in a new window/tab. I will update the page as time goes by.

Blogs i participate in
Digital inclusion blog
My culinary adventures

Society and/or technology
Danial (EN)
'Gbenga (EN)
Lisa (EN)
Eszter Hargittai (EN)
Tarleton (EN)

Communication research
Erik (EN)

Personal
Alma (HE)
Elya (RU)
Leonichka (RU)
Michelle (EN/CH)
Nadya (RU)
Sean (EN)
Josh (EN)


Last updated: February 2007

Interesting and/or useful websites

Here are some interesting and/or useful website either for me or anyone reading this blog. More will be added or changed as time goes by, the date at the top indicates the last time this page was updated and all the links open in new window/tab.

Digital inclusion (aka digital divide)
Digital Divide Network
Eszter Hargittai

Rearranging the blog

Since i moved to the new blogger i decided to reorganize the blog a little bit. In order to keep the amount of links on the side bar minimal, i decided to have constant pages with lists of the blogs that i read and websites i visit. I will also try having a resource page on the issues that interest me. Here we go...

Interests

A few days ago, when Saddam Husein was executed i looked what were the top topics in various online environments (it just seemed to be the only thing in most mainstream US media).

So, the top story in google.news was about Husein, as well as the top tag at technorati's web page. However, when i checked out digg.com, there was no trace of Saddam Husein's execution on the entire first page. Top stories dealt with gadgets and video games. For those who don't know, digg is a website that allows users to rate the relevance/importance of news items. Some view it as the next step in organizing the huge amounts of information we are exposed to.

Frankly, i was surprised. I just wanted to see what were the different versions of coverage of the execution, but i did not expect to find no coverage at all.

So, looking at the surprising results at digg, i thought. Is it an indication of the true priorities of web users in terms of news content? Or it is a unique feature of digg users?Or it is simply that social classification of news doesn't work?

Any thoughts?