- ‘Scrapers’ Dig Deep for Data on Web (WSJ) — our users’ data comprise a valuable resource to mine and sell, but so do their kidneys. The data world faces serious issues with informed consent, control, and exploitation–it’s not just a shiny new business model, it can also leave people feeling very violated. Again, if you’re not paying for it then you’re the product and not the customer. The majority of humanity is not conscious of the difference between “user” and “customer”. (via Mike Brown on Twitter)
- Journalism in the Age of Data (Video) — Stanford video, with annotations and links, on the challenge of using dataviz as a storytelling medium. (via Ben Goldacre on Twitter)
- webshell (Github) — open source (Apache-licensed) console utility, requiring node.js, for debugging and understanding HTTP connections. (via Chris Shiflett on Twitter, who prefers it to yesterday’s htty)
- Amazon to Launch Kindle Singles (press release) — shorter-form works (think: novellas) as a format to expand publishing market rather than shrink it. Damn near every business book ever written should have been this size instead of 300 pages of tedium.
Four short links: 13 October 2010
Data Privacy, Journalism and Dataviz, Web Shell, and Kindle Singles
tags: amazon kindle, data, data mining, journalism, open source, privacy, programming, publishing, visualizations, web