Update to a development discussed in the Conclusion to Internet Politics. In March 2005, a Santa Clara County Superior Court decision ruled that bloggers were not entitled to the same First Amendment protections as regularly employed journalists. The case involved Apple Computer's subpoenaing of three gossip blog owners on the grounds that the sites published trade secrets about forthcoming Apple products. The company sought the names of the sites' 'insider' sources. The fact that these blogs act as wonderful free publicity for the company seems to have escaped their notice, but the longer term implications for more overtly political blogs could have been significant, had it not been for today's decision.

Looking at how MoveOn is developing, attempts to seamlessly integrate the transnational appear to have given way to a much more traditional focus on national politics. The MoveOn peace campaign founded in the aftermath of 9/11 has been gradually downplayed in the organization's public profile. This presents us with some interesting questions around the necessity of establishing transnational 'credentials' as part of constructing successful online networks. Claiming three quarters of a million overseas supporters adds symbolic weight to the campaign, but how many of these supporters were or are truly essential to the predominantly national campaigns MoveOn now organizes?

• DoWire.org list of e-democracy blogs
• CivicSpace
• IPv6 Summits
• Commonbits.org
• Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
• Free Expression Policy Project(NYU)
• Journal of E-Government
• Zebralog
• Wireless Internet Institute
• Work Foundation I-Society
• Crossing Boundaries
• Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Bertelsmann Foundation Balanced E-Government Project
• Commonwealth Centre For Electronic Governance
• Riley
• Local Futures
• Yougov.com
• Digital4Sight
• Center for Digital Government
• Centre for Democracy and Technology
• e-gov.com
• APSA Information Technology and Politics Section
• Association of Internet Researchers
• IPv6 Summits
• ICANN
• ICANNWatch
• Michael Froomkin's home page at UM Law School
• Opendemocracy.net
• Cyber Society List
• E-government bulletin
• Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
• NSF Digital Government programme
• Ipop
• Institute For Politics, Democracy & The Internet
• Convergence Centre at Syracuse University
• Oxford Internet Institute
• The Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations
• E-Governance Institute at Rutgers
• International Centre for E-Governance
• Stanford Law School for Internet and Society
• Berkman Centre for Internet & Society
• Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
• Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies
• Free Expression Policy Project (NYU)
• European Digital Rights
• James Boyle's Intellectual Property page at Duke
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Chilling Effects
• Internet Democracy Project
• Statewatch
• Foundation for Information Policy Research
• DoWire.org list of e-democracy blogs
• MySociety.org
• Minnesota E-Democracy
• Democracy 2.0
• Project EVE
• Government Computer News (US)
• SOCITM e-government index
• eGovlinks
• The Register
• The Living Internet
• SOSIG Political communication resources
• The Scout Report
• Commonbits.org
• Digital Governance
• International Teledemocracy Centre
• The Center for the Study of Technology and Society
• Politicsonline
• World Bank Public Sector Group e-Government site
• Wired Encyclopedia of the New Economy

A nice article by Bill Thompson on the benefits of free and open source software (FOSS) in India, with some original and provocative arguments about FOSS's compatibility with western capitalism:

Until now free and open source software has been one of the ways in which the US spread its values around the world, the soft guy approach that seems to oppose but in fact is symbiotic with hard-edged capitalism on the Microsoft and Intel model. Both are firmly embedded in US cultural values, and the free market is as important to Linux as it is to Microsoft.

But also how the developing countries might subvert this:

These programmers will take today’s Linux code and make it far more useful to the people of India and other developing countries than today’s predominantly Western developer community ever could. And when that happens the centre of free software development will soon begin to move from the US and Europe.

Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world’s population, and amounts to a massive flow of intellectual capital into the developing world.

A thoughtful and detailed new report from the Center for Democracy and Technology on challenges to privacy (pdf). Very US-focused but brings some of the stories in Chapter 11 up to date.

Details on the latest Zapatista FloodNet hacktivist virtual sit-in are here. Over 100,000 participated. See also the story about the denial of service attacks on the site of Save Our State, a right-wing anti-immigration movement.

An exciting trailer article for the new book. See also Jeff Jarvis's interesting article from the week before.

After the government's meltdown in the local elections, Blair has given Hazel Blears the job of revamping the party's website. The aim is to appeal to younger voters through greater interactivity:

"We must move from a mainly passive relationship...to one where supporters interact with us, with local party members and with each other."

It'll be interesting to see if this means convergence on the US Democratic Party model.

Update: more evidence for a potential 'culture shift' from Nick Anstead?