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April 30, 2005

Spreading democracy

: Robert Mayer, the man behind the wonderful Publius Pundit blog on freedom, reports that the Community of Democracies just ended a meeting in Chile and we're both amazed how little this organization -- which should be the real United Nations, the collection of free nations and peoples -- gets coverage in media. He quotes Condi Rice in her speech and I'll do likewise:

Today, all the members of the Community of Democracies declare our deep conviction that freedom is the universal longing of every soul and democracy is the ideal path for every nation.warcraft 2 cd key keygen

The past year has brought forth a dramatic shift in the world's political landscape. Since our last meeting in Seoul, we have seen free elections in Afghanistan and in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories. We have witnessed tremendous developments in places like Georgia and Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon.warcraft 2 cd key keygen

There comes a time when the spark of freedom flashes in the minds of all oppressed people, and they raise their voices against tyranny. The Community of Democracies must match the bravery of these men and women with the courage of our own convictions. We on the right side of freedom痴 divide have an obligation to help those on the wrong side of that divide....warcraft 2 cd key keygen

Democratization is, after all, not an event; it is a process. It takes many years, even decades, to realize the full promise of democratic reform. For nearly a century after the founding of the United States, millions of black Americans like me were still condemned to the status below that of full citizenship. When the founding fathers of America said, "we the people," they did not mean me. Many of my ancestors were thought to be only three-fifths of a man. And it is only within my lifetime that the United States has begun to guarantee the right to vote for all of our citizens. And so we know in the United States that this is a long and difficult process. And every nation in this room has experienced moments of tyranny in its history -- some not too long ago.warcraft 2 cd key keygen

Today, our citizens share the common bond of having overcome tyranny through all our commitment to freedom and democracy. Now, it is our historic duty to tell the world that tyranny is a crime of man, not a fact of nature. Our goal must always be the elimination of tyranny in our world.warcraft 2 cd key keygen

We at the Community of Democracies must use the power of our shared ideals to accelerate democracy痴 movement to ever more places around the globe. We must usher in an era of democracy that thinks of tyranny as we thought of slavery today: a moral abomination that could not withstand the natural desire of every human being for a life of liberty and of dignity.

Well said and bravo. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

(But by the way, Condi, I can't leave this without adding that this is exactly why it was wrong for your boss to go hand-holding with an oily tyrant.)warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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This is war

: At long last the ACLU says it may join the fight for the First Amendment and fight the FCC's censorship. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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Why don't they just appoint Pat Robertson?

: 1115.org reports that Ted Stevens -- the twit who wants to extend FCC censorship to cable and satellite -- now wants to install one of his aides in one of the empty chairs at the FCC. This is war, people. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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Consumer-controlled advertising

: Ross Mayfield (who just raised more money for SocialText... congratulations!) reports that consumer-controlled, sell-side, publisher-driven (whatever the hell we're going to call it) advertising is arriving in France with Les Influencers, which isn't about money changing hands (yet) but is about people recommending what they like. And the brain behind this leaves a comment explaining more and revealing that they're working on the flipside: Demandeurs.net.warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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What blogs are and are not

: Go read Doc's PowerPoint to Les Blogs on why blogs are not content but are speech and why that matters. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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Excuse me, professor, is this jihad on the final?

: The Washington Post reports that terrorism and homeland security are hot on college campuses for both research and teaching. Does anyone yet offer a degree in terrorism? And if so, will that be aimed at preventing and killing it or understanding it? warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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Fall or liberation?

: I seemed to notice more coverageon the 30th anniversary of the fall/liberation of Vietnam elsewhere than here. Bill Doskoch noticed the same thing. The Guardian on the 30th anniversary; the BBC on the celebrations in Vietnam. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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Tagged

: Clay Shirky leads off a new group blog on tagging, which I hope and assume will blossom into a salon on what comes after taxonomy. For example....warcraft 2 cd key keygen

: We are tagging not just content but also people... and behaviors... and processes... warcraft 2 cd key keygen

If I can be assured that I won't be the victim of spam, impersonation, or privacy violations (big if's), I want to be tagged so that as I go from site to site, I get what I want: Give me my local content, give me the ads I'm interested in, don't tell me what I already know, find me the job I want.... It's not a cookie but a tag I control. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

: When I was at the Associated Press for a lunch recently -- among a group of smart execs who will have a big impact on the future of news not just from the wire service but also across the industry and the internet -- we speculated on the need for a content cookie: a tag that travels with content as it is syndicated. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

So, for example, a wire story about, say, Apple could travel with meta data that allows the site that uses it to run contextual ads reliably targeted. And as people read and link to that story in a distributed world, it would be good to gather aggregated meta data, to find out how popular it is, who is reading it, and -- most important -- what other topics (and audience) are associated with it. This allows people to find the story more effectively in search engines and such and also educates the content provider to improve future stories. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

: At Fred Wilson's Exploding TV lunch a few months ago, we also talked about the need for video (and audio) that is distributed openly (not streamed) via BitTorrent and other means to carry tags and other meta data -- content cookies -- with them so that sponsor who will kill to support this content -- they've wanted to turn the internet into TV from the start -- can measure audience and demographics and serve and target ads (cue the people tags). At the same time, like magnets, the content should attract tags and meta data from the audience and their behaviors (e.g., people filed it under a topic or people like this watched it).warcraft 2 cd key keygen

When this happens, the old networks will truly explode, for this allows you to share content and recommend and distribute it more efficiently than any old network can (witness my favorite Jon Stewart example) and it allows creators to be supported. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

: AND: I should have added this and in response to a few frightened comments, I will:warcraft 2 cd key keygen

Transparency and control are essential to this. I should control my tags and use them at my will; that's part of the point of tagging, after all. So I can tell an online service where I am so I can get local news or weather or business listings; that would be convienient. I can tell Google I want results in English and German because I read both (sort of). I can tell employers about me and have them rush to my door because they need a me. That only works if I control the tagging and the use of it is transparent. The same is true of tagging content: It only works if you can see the tags and add them yourself and swarm around the best ones. Sorry. I should have added that. warcraft 2 cd key keygen

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