Journalists vs Bloggers

Are there journalists who write “objective” facts about events? Yes. Are there bloggers who do the same? Clearly there are. Are there journalists who write opinions about events or news? Yes — and there are plenty of bloggers who do the same. What distinguishes these two groups? Not much, except perhaps the publishing platform they use, or the name on the masthead of the entity they work for.

via No, licensing journalists isn’t the answer — Tech News and Analysis.

What made the Web possible

This is what made the Web possible:

What made the Internet, and thus the Web, possible – the thing that, without which, Tim Berners-Lee would still be watching reruns of “Eastenders” – was a decision. The major carriers of electronic mail, whose business it had become to route messages to each other’s members, collectively reached a truce. They decided that the long, endless fight over who has the biggest volume, the longest distance, the fastest network, so that one could charge the others more postage than it was being charged, was too expensive and was stifling progress. They decided to call off the war.

Unfortunately, it’s not what’s happening now:

Yet rather than decide it’ll all come out in the wash, each player tries to amass more intellectual property than another, driving up the value of their patents. Google buys Motorola because it couldn’t buy Nortel, and someone may yet buy InterDigital, maybe to keep it away from Qualcomm, etc. The objective of this game is for one player to be paid the most penance and crowned king – an endgame that never comes.