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Welcome to Bytegeist, Firedoglake.com’s new section devoted to the intersection of politics and technology.
There are many fine publications doing excellent work covering technology in general, including Ars Technica, Venture Beat, Wired, AllThingsD, CNet, TechCrunch and Engadget to name but a few.
It has been apparent for quite some time, however, that there is insufficient coverage of the political deliberations in Washington DC and beyond that are determining the shape of our technological future. And that’s a space tailor-made for Firedoglake to step in.
From our groundbreaking liveblog of the Scooter Libby trial (featured on the front page of the New York Times), to having the only full-time reporter devoted to covering Occupy Wall Street from day 1, Firedoglake.com has been at the cutting edge of online political news coverage since its inception.
Our coverage of issues like the health care bill and mortgage fraud settlement dug deeper and was light years ahead of the main stream media. By talking regularly with a deep bench of sources, attending committee hearings and conducting original research, we’ve consistently managed to synthesize and distill a tremendous amount of complex information and have a profound effect on the public’s ability to understand what was really happening behind all the smoke and mirrors on Capitol Hill.
Enormous amounts of money are being spent buying up vast expanses of the intellectual property sphere, but the issues are so complex the public doesn’t even know they’ve been robbed until it’s over. Our goal is to engage the public in the technology debate in real-time, before their interests have been auctioned off to the highest bidder.
We’re very excited about bringing our political coverage skills to the wild-west tech frontier, which is evolving faster than either lawmakers or the courts can keep pace. We hope you’ll join us in that journey on Bytegeist.
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44 Comments
I’ll be darned. I was just thinking to myself last night that it has been a long time since I have see Jane post anything and here ya are.
Good morning dear, busy as usual I see.
Hey Busted! Good to see you too.
Yeah I’ve been chiming in on tech stuff for a while. Much more interesting than the election stuff, I gotta say.
Outstanding blogname!
Hoping Firedoglake.com makes everyone think more different …
Jane, how exciting this is. You and FDL are still out in front of the msm. They aren’t even trying to play “catch-up” because they are too busy trumpeting the insider propaganda while FDL is doing real reporting. This, of course, will be poo-pooed by the msm because they know that they won’t be allowed to compete.
On a related front, I think that FDL should be in line for some sort of Pulitzer Prize due to all of the groundbreaking work in reporting here.
I don’t yet see bytegeist in the list across the top of the page.
Outstanding idea! I look forward to learning and, as usual, FDL is leading the way. Thanks, Jane.
LOL, I already got the zed.
It was there a few minutes ago, now it’s not there.
Thanks for the kind words everyone! I’m excited for this
It might just take a little bit for your browser to update. You can try clearing your cache or logging out and back-into FDL, or just give it an hour or so and you should start to see it.
Here.
http://bytegeist.firedoglake.com/2012/09/18/welcome-to-bytegeist/bytegeist/#respond
Dagnabbit!
Hahaha, that’s not the same @1 that’s here now, and Bytegeist doesn’t appear on the menu list there either.
Did you have an exclusive beta preview? ;o)
YAY Jane & FDL!
I discovered FDL during Plamegate, it was the only place i could get in depth coverage and analysis of what was going on.
I was pleased to see i was one of the first ten or so followers on twitter.
Keep up the good work.
Early bird special.
That’s not the first time that has happened to me here either.
At least I have proof this time…..
Thanks, Aitch. I think this was your idea, wasn’t it?
;)
It’s coming. The mice in the basement just have to flip the switch.
BIG round of applause for Brian, who worked very hard to make this happen.
You’re too quick. I just can’t type very fast.
Nerds of the world unite! Throw down your DMCA anti-circumvention restraints!
Thanks Jane (and Brian), look forward to reading and being a part of these discussions
Applauding like crazy from the back row. Can you hear it, Brian?
*stands on chair and applauds wildly* A big thanks to Brian and everyone behind the curtain. I’m grateful to all who work so tirelessly behind the scenes making the Lake a wonderful oasis in a desert.
bytegeist is in the menu now.
Tsk, you flatter me. ;o)
It was a suggestion, a comment on one of your threads. It’s how blogs work best, right?
I recall my ‘idea’ was about a Donate button I’d be happy to click.
Terabytes of praise to Brian!
My pleasure! If you notice any technical glitches or anything like that, you can reach me at brian@firedoglake.com. Enjoy!
Technology is (obviously) rapidly becoming the new political weapon of choice for both governments and activists. This section will be good to have as a place to coalesce relevant information.
This is an excellent idea!
How about we start off with a story on TechDirt about how the Feds want Aaron Schwartz to face up to 35 years in prison and $1,000,000 fines for downloading journal articles?
BIG round of applause for all the DFG, dirty freakin geeks.
Yes! Donate button. Reminds me to check up on my automatic.
“That nice blond lady I see on TeeVee”…bangs it outa the park again.
Seems the feds want to scare Swartz into a lesser-charge guilty plea, they also want to ruin him financially trying to defend himself, because in a jury trial he’d be acquitted.
Yep, the Donate button’s there, and I clicked it for this new venture.
great addition to fdl! thanks Brian and Jane.
worth a mention with the above tech sites is the site that invented snark: http://www.theregister.co.uk/
they have timely tech info that could use some analysis and comment.
Well this sound just great. I hope to contribute to this since it’s a area I’m very very interested in.
Nice. This will be a very informative addition to all the other content at the Lake. Will this be a collaboration of all our esteemed writers or will someone be heading the team?
I think this is a great direction for FDL. There’s very little understanding of the political decisions that shape our technology landscape and very little coverage of the forces that influence them.
I would hope, however, you work on going deep. The “Apple Helps DOD Hide Drone Strikes” was an easy shot. The deeper point, I believe, is that we’re creating a technology eco-system where you can’t run the code of your choice on a device you are said to “own”. That goes to the core of technology freedom and, when you express it in terms of property rights, is a ripe area for coalition building across the political spectrum.
Last December, Cory Doctorow gave a talk abou this topic called The coming war on general-purpose computing:
At the same conference was a good presentation about TOR:
Nice addition to your “family” !!! Thanks!
I’ve seen that talk and you’re right, it’s excellent! So much to think about.
ground breaking, cutting edge that is one of the many reasons why FDL is the best Kudos!
Good point.
I’m very worried about the Pacific Rim treaty being negotiated secretly. Word getting out indicates there will be severe controls on using the web.
Please get on this like a duck on a June bug!
Many many people are involved in the negotiations, so they’re not exactly secret. Negotiations don’t work if the draft proposals are available to the public. Sometimes the proposals aren’t even seen by all the parties because they’re proposals or first drafts intended only for one or a few of the parties. The Doha Development Round broke down partly because of leaked proposals.
The huge US entertainment industry exports its products for money, and expects piracy and counterfeiting to be minimized. That much we already know. Every speech or comment I’ve heard Obama make about trade agreements always includes the phrase ‘intellectual property’.
Just found this quite by accident. Bravo. My background is tech (mostly management) so I will be checking here daily.