Feedback on mefeedia

A second very interesting post about mefeedia today.

From: A Zulu In Silicon Valley

I like mefeedia. Why?

Because unlike Yahoo! Podcasts (which I like), I can accumulate all my video feeds into a single feed which I can stream into my iTunes player. And this is great because I can only add video posts within feeds that match my tags selected.

And tags are well structured by place, topic, person, language or event. I find this service really easy to use. I can browse video podcasts or add my own feeds. It's nice and easy.

I also like their 'related tags' section which allows me to browse forever.Outside of adding feeds, you can manually add individual videos by clicking a 'queue' button.

This service is not pretty, but it's fun to use and easy to get going. I have no idea how they intend to make money though...

PR on mefeedia

Interesting profile of mefeedia: Under the Radar » Blog Archive » Feed Me Meedia one of two interesting today.

MeFeedia
Sector: media search

Secret Sauce: Mefeedia is a small startup company based in New York City whose mission is to make independent video on the internet easy to find and share. Mefeedia is a videoblog directory on the web, considered by many to be the first of its kind. In 2004, Jay Dedman and Peter Van Dijk started the videoblogging mailing list. Today, Mefeedia is building a ?kind of IMDB for independent video. Make independent video easy to find.? To find your way around our 248,616 videos, Mefeedia has tags and an extensive directory of vlogs (6,813 videoblogs). The service is free with future optional pro features in the works. Peter Van Dijck, founder of Mefeedia: ?Quite a few people have told me they?ve temporarily stopped watching regular television altogether, at least for a while. There is too much good stuff out there.? Mefeedia focuses on the video that is being produced by ?videobloggers?, thousands of people who are creating all sorts of short videos and publishing them on their blog. Mefeedia functions as an aggregator, a portal where you can discover these videoblogs.
Peter Van Dijck: ?The future is here: the video iPod, iTunes video, the PSP, the upcoming XBox: people are getting access to millions of channels of video. And at the same time regular people can now finally publish video online easily. In this future, your favourite tv channel might soon be someone you know.?

Competitors: PodZinger, PodScope

Headquarters: New York, NY

Founded: 2004

Management: Peter Van Dijck is the founder ? he is a well known information architect and author.

Seen and Heard: Named ?Best of the Web? by BusinessWeek and Forbes. Also Time wrote, ?If video blogs are your thing, try Mefeedia.?

ZDNET video rant calling for a boycott of DRM

I know if this is on Digg probably everyone's seen it, but this is the best explanation of DRM I've ever seen. Here's the biggest irony of all. This anti-DRM rant is delivered to you via DRM protected Windows Media Player. That said, this finally breaks down the DRM issue in terms everyone can understand. It's 100% absofuckinglutely on the money. Enjoy.

ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests that CRAP or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection, is a catchier phrase than DRM - Digital Rights Management. Why does he think this technology is crap? Once you've bought music or other content to play on one device, it won't play on any other device because of the proprietary layer of CRAP.

Host: David Berlind, executive editor, ZDNet
Length: 00:03:00

Link: A load of C.R.A.P. - At The Whiteboard - ZDNet

Via Digg

Technorati Tags: DRM, sony, apple, Microsoft, zdnet, boycott, rant, hilllarious

The fascinating history of the Amen break beat

How six seconds from 1969 changed the future of music and jumpstarted a whole culture.

In an age when musicians are getting sued for sampling single beats a whole musical, commercial and advertising culture can be traced back to one beat.

If you're interested in remix culture, sampling, music and copyright you'll find this piece absolutely fascinating. At 20 minutes with perhaps the most simplistic visual track ever it's superbly well done. In fact, I'm listening to it a second time as I write this.

"Can I get an Amen? - Nate Harrison"

Watch movie (Quicktime, 20 min, 34.4 MB)

Original post, from DVBlog.org:

Can I Get An Amen? (2004, 34.3MB, 18:08 min.) from Nate Harrison. This documentation, of an installation by Nate harrison, includes an in depth lecture on the history of a single breakbeat. It...

(Reblogged with Mefeedia)

Today, March 25th Josh Leo cellebrated his first year of video bloging with this 7.6 minute action packed remix. Congratulations Josh!

"1 year recap"

Watch movie (Quicktime, 7.6 min, 42 MB)

Original post, from blip.tv (beta):

one year of vlogging!

(Via Mefeedia)

A vernon Robinson for Congress add that's been going around. Real deal or parody I don't know, but it's hilarious.

"BlogsNowFeedMov vernonrobinson.com - twilight - 320x240 0:60"

Watch movie (Quicktime, 1.1 min, 2 MB)

Original post, from BlogsNow Videos:

BlogsNowFeedMov vernonrobinson.com - twilight - 320x240 0:60

(Via Mefeedia)

"Blow Pop"

Watch movie (, 1.1 min, 5.2 MB)

Original post, from Film Threat Video:

Some questions just shouldn't be answered, and I thought owls were supposed to be wise about that sort of thing.

(Via Mefeedia)

I'm just going to have some fun tonight and post random videos I enjoy.

"Don't fuck with love"

Watch movie (Quicktime, 2.9 min, 5.9 MB)

Original post, from BlogsNow Videos:

BlogsNowFeedMov www.dontfuckwithlove.com - dfwl-new

(Via Mefeedia)

"social media"

Watch movie (Quicktime, 5.9 min, 30.8 MB)

Original post, from Media Nipple - Visual Communication:

This video clip is from Demitri Martin and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. It is included here for discussion because it is a very insightful look into the world of social media.

(Via Mefeedia)

Zen and the art of media in the global village

Let's just call this this media theory zen. I'm sick of the old boring media rant. Thank god we have people like Ryan North at Quantz.com to bring it all home in a fresh perspective.



My two cents? What you thought you might escape for once? :)

To me, this comic is all about the infinite variety of taste, the infinite market for it, and now, finally an inifinite capacity in the ether.

No longer must we settle on what TV, radio and newspapers offers us.

We are free to make and consume and LOVE all manner of art and media, as is the case here.

Who ever thought childhood love love of dinasaurs and my adult love of disruptive media threory would come together in such a beautiful way. Had it been left up to so called professionals, the suits, the executives, the script writers, and the traditional institutions of print, radio and TV such beautiful art as this would never be made and never truely be appreciated as it can be in new media... blogging, podcasting and video blogging.

The channels are now as infinite as the capacity of those whom are participating.

Thanks for the heads up Bullemhead! :)

Technorati Tags: media-theory, zen, evilvlog, comics, dinasaurs, global-village, podcasting, videoblogging

The mass distribution of communications and innovation

We will undergo another revolution when we give 100 million kids a smart cell phone or a low-cost laptop, and bootstrap the way they learn outside of school. We think of games as a way to kill time, but in the future I think it will be a major vehicle for learning.

Creative expression (is another area). No longer will just a few write or create music. We will see 100 million people creating the content and art shared among them. Easy-to-use programs allow kids to compose everything form ringtones to full-fledged operas. It will change the meaning of creative art in our society.

We are already seeing early signs of it in blogs. The source of creative content is coming from the world. That revolution will go well outside of the written word to all forms of visual and performing arts.

I don't know anymore wether I'm just slanted because of the part MIT and Nicholas Negroponte have played in inspiring my own interests in architecting media as an instrument for social change, but this Business Week interview with the new head of the Media Lab, Frank Moss, hit on the heart of why it is I do what I do.

Growing up with a knack for arts and going to school to study the arts I've always been endowed not only with a tremendous love for the artifact, but especially for the systems that support and encourage them. So much so that my "art" has shifted to the mediated systems that support the arts themself.

From film, to music, to painting to language and storytelling a passionate mind needs access to not just the tools but an audience, an endless bounty of knowlede, and most importantly of all, a group of peers whom are as passionate as they are. The biggest obstacle to young minds in the past was access to peers with common special interests. The internet is creating a revolution among young minds by breaking the bonds of geographical and real world isolation giving them a new ecology who's only obstacle is their own patience, passion, and interest. To put it in short... any mind can find it's match.

But as I like to put more poetically since I never had a musical talent, "What audience does a gifted young tuba player have?" Who truely appreciates a tuba players craft? What peers does one have? If they're lucky beyond the support of a parent, perhaps a band teacher. If they're really lucky a few fellow students in their junior high or high school whom are less than critical and more than disinterested. Luckier still they might see another across the field of competition whom they see not as an adversary, but as an equal.

Now along comes the internet and a whole world of special interests is open to anyone. Increasingly the student has access to specialized peer groups around the world, and this of course changes everything because this tuba player is in ALL of us. We never stop being a student... we never stop learning, evolving and we never stop following our passions now matter how obscure. I can only speculate that many only stop wanting on their death beds if they don't carry their passions with them into the afterlife. Clearly many even pass them on in their legacy so that their passions never die.

But, for many of us our passions are not defined by the most popular notions of our culture. They are in fact ground by the constraints of, and general lack of capacity in the systems and fabric that support our society. Often they are ground untill we "accept" our place in a homogenous society.

These systems that are ever incresingly coming to defining our culture have until recently lacked the capacity for the diversity of our interests. Our passions ARE in fact by definition as diverse as our numbers, even infinitely more so. The equation for human capacity is no longer constrained by geography, or by the band, the airwaves, the channels on the telivision, the number of editors on staff... Our capacity for culture and humanity is now at least theoretically constrained only by our minds. The capcity of the pipe is the capacity of the participants itself. Now for every art there is an audience.

And this much is obvious... for every thing we create will always consume infinitely more. After a century or more of being "consumers" it's un-thinkable that we'll ever spend more time creating than we do consuming. There can never be to much music, to much art, whatever we create we can consume, for every art there is an audience... if you don't have one, then you just haven't found it yet, keep looking.

Therefore I suspect just from looking at the surface of this move to a media rich two-way world that creativity and innovation is just beginning to explode and that the student will find their diverse paths faster and truer, and be spurned on with increasing energy to reach new heights, and to sustain their interest and wonder far longer before being worn down by time and age.

Mass media is the new frontier of literacy, language and culture. Todays children will be bold and fluid communicators in all forms of media and the bounty of this metaverse will not only be spurn further innovation, not only further democratization of mass communications, but with a little luck and hard work a more equitable distribution of wealth and power for all humanity.

Anyway, thats the sort of big fluffy idea that pops into my head at 7am when I've been up working all night. I have to have something to justify the time and lack of sleep. :)

Read whole BW interview, it's good really: How the Masses Will Innovate

Disclaimer: I didn't proofread or spell check. Deal with it.

Technorati Tags: MIT, news-bits, negroponte, frank-moss, innovation, lightnet, media-theory, bootstrap

Backlash against the Intel - Skype insult open source style

People have been alarmed by the agreement between Skype and Intel that only Intell users could do 10 way conference calling. It seemed an obvious slant at AMD, Intel's primary competition, but while it seems to imply that no chips other than Intel can handle the processing it's undoubtably bunk. In fact AMD has sopenaed Skype for information regarding that agreement with Intel in their anti-trust case.

I'm happy to point out that a user has discovered the logic in the Skype prgram which basically descriminates agains any GPU that's not "GenuineIntel" and doesn't have at least a dual core. He then patched it and has released a downloadable patched version of the latest Skype. Everyone can now have 10-user conference calling... well, everyone using windows. No patch for the Mac version. :(

Recently, Skype and Intel have announced a deal that would limit Skype's functionality on all but specific Intel processors. Currently, Skype 2.0 offers 10-way conference calls only on Intel's latest dual-core CPUs, while other chips, including all AMD chips, will only allow for 5-way conference calls. It is argued that only those Intel dual-core CPUs meet the requirements - which would imply that no AMD CPU is fast enough.

Now, what are these requirements? Is there some kind of micro-benchmark built into Skype which measures the processing speed? Or does Skype look for a specific hidden CPU feature? As the details on the patch reveal, the code logic behind the limitation is quite simple:

If it's a CPU with 'GenuineIntel' branding and has at least two cores, then allow 10 users; else limit to 5 users.

More info: Unleashing 10-User Conferencing in Skype 2.0 / Windows for all CPUs

P2P TV

PBS's Robert X. Cringely crunches the numbers on video over the internet and finds that it'll take 20 years given Moore's Law to even begin to reach the bandwidth requirements to deliver real-time TV over the internet. That is given the current centralized server distribution model. The solution, P2P.

Bittorrent can scale to meet the needs of distribution already, but it doesn't stream video. Cringley goes into several potential P2P options in this amazingly informational article coming to the culminating point that ISP's though now fighting a battle for control over the data that flows over their networks will eventually grow to be big supporters of P2P distribution as ultimately increased network usage will prove a windfall.

Link: PBS | I, Cringely . March 2, 2006 - Peering into the Future

My take...

First of all I've been talking about this issue of the adoption of TV over cellular networks to anyone who will listen... So called mobile TV is at it's present state completely inept. The single greatest reason is because cellular carriers are trying to control everything that crosses their networks allowing only exclusive video content over their networks... there is therefore now very little choice and very little offerings for video over cellular networks. Very few options means very little incentive for adoption. On the other hand there's another model... allowing anyone to author content for delivery over cellular networks... even encouraging it. This will create a myriad of options for consumers and all sorts of options driving adoption. Meanwhile, much like in Cringley's scenario the carriers will make MINT based on the demand for bandwidth. This want for a hand in content has one simple reasoning, greed, and it's actually hurting them as it slows adoption.

As for cringley's article. I must respectfully point out the following points.

1) While cringley does prove that mass distribution of video over the internet is possible, he fails to compare it to the cost of delivering popular media over current broadcast mechanisms. The internet has a long, long way to go before it even begins to compete with satellite and cable in delivering populist media.

2) Therefore big TV and Cable satellite markets have no incentive to jump into delivery over the internet in mass given the much cheaper cost of broadcast delivery, even if it is in the interest of ISP's, which may be true but they don't necessarily have a clue.

However, it does make sense for the other 99% of the world that doesn't own or have access to broadcast mechanisms... it's here that innovation will happen and indeed it already is... especially on the fringes with small and midsize publishers and businesses just outside of the reach of broadcast. In talking to midsize publishers I find that such technologies as audio and video podcasting are just what they ordered, and what with over 20,000 audio podcasts and 6000 video podcasts it's hard to say otherwise.

Innovation does NOT happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up... sometimes in the middle... but always where there's the greatest disparagement in the network. With broadcast media... it's those publishers just outside of the loop.

3) Bonus round... While I'm very interested in these other P2P technologies cringley mentions ultimately I think bittorrent and open standards have the edge. In short I believe bittorrent will be the first likely candidate for reatime streaming media. Indeed there are already people working on it though their are tremendous technical considerations, especially given the average up-speed on most home DSL and cable modem connections, but those on highspeed connections could be able to watch a video in real-time in within the year. Then all we need are video aggregators and players with integrated bittorent like the Windows version of FireANT

Technorati Tags: p2p, pbs, cringley, iptv, vlogging, podcasting

Crooks & Liars video blog on Chicago Tribunes top 50

Good to see the vlog Crooks & Liars on the Chicago Tribune's list of the 50 best websites. It's a great example of using fair use and video blogging to recontextualize the political debate, and by recontextualize I mean deconstruct it's absurdities and eccentricities.

From:Chicago Tribune | Steven Johnson

Crooks & Liars (www.crooksandliars.com): Video links to all the cable news nonsense that goes on during the day. Usually has clips of politicians embarrassing themselves.

Crooks & Liar's has been getting an increasing amount of attention, even beating out Rocketboom, Mobuzz and other popular vlogs for a Bloggy (or was that a Webby I can't remember and their websites are unforetunatly very poor.)

The political debate is no longer ruled by only cable and sattelite powers. In fact I bet it burns them to no end any punk with a blog and some bandwidth can now pick apart their absurdity piece by piece. Who are we to dare think we should have an equal say in the political debate. :)

Me I'm just glad we can have a little more depth in the national political debate than the talking points, soundbytes and polarized amped up news shows pioneered by CNN & Fox which favor controversy over substance. Pundants beware, your mistakes and misdeeds are no longer relegated to the vaults.

This is just one of many great examples why the Broadcast Flag must be shot down. Like it or not the national political debate has been dominated by television and yet everyone has as much a right to participate in that debate as Rupert Murdock. The broadcast flag would put a litteral technological wall around television, and under a strict interpretation of the DMCA it would be illegal to break the copy protection scheme's and post such TV clips as Crooks and Liars does for the sake of discussion and debate. This is the very reason why fair use law exists and corporate rights should not userp citizens rights. These clips which are accessible and referenceable from anywhere in the world are a very important and understated part of the national political debate and will become much more so by 2008.

Politicians are now vlogging and podcasting. I can't name them all, but have you checked out Barack Obama's Podcast or Al Gore's videoblog? I know there's dozens, perhaps even a hundred more out there already but we've barely just begun to scratch the surface of a huge change in national political discourse.

By fundamentally changing the mechanisms by which national political discourse takes place we are fundamentally changing the power structure ant the political process. We saw it most obviously with the rise of a political dark horse, John Edwards rising quickly from relative obscurity to national poltical power in 2004. Even though he did not win his parties endorsement for presidential candidate it marked a change in politics as he most famously gained huge groundswell through a grass roots fundraising effort in large part do to blogging and the website meetup.com. Specifically, the $50 million he raise was not only a new record, but it was raised primarily in small contributions of fifty dollars or less.

As dynamic as the change was in 2004 it's going to be a whole new political process in 2008 with the advent of podcasting and video blogging. Never before have politicians been able to speak directly to their constiuents regardless of place and time. The impact of widespread and near limiteless direct discourse will in combination with new media undoubtedly heighten the level of political discussion.

Much like blogging I expect these new mediums of podcasting and video blogging to really come into their own in an election year.


Technorati Tags: crooks-and-liars, videoblogging, vlogging, vlogs, podcasting, politcs, chicago, barack-obama, al-gore, john-edwards, ruper-murdock, media, dmca, broadcast-flag, media-reform

Detroit Free Press blames cell phone on fatal crash, despite presence of cocaine, marijuana and ampetamines

I don't know why I'm posting this. Perhaps because I found it to be a new low for mainstream journalist standards. It deserves some sort of award.

From an article titled Fatal crash blamed on cell phone user and fully dedicated to the ills of using a cell while driving.

In a case that underscores a national effort to restrict handheld cell phone use while driving, Macomb County prosecutors said Tuesday that they have charged Cates, 20, of Hazel Park with negligent homicide in the death of 55-year-old Diela Lucaj. They say Cates was talking on his cell phone when he drifted across the center line in Warren and killed the restaurant cook from Sterling Heights.

Since then, prosecutors said they have learned that Cates had drugs in his system -- cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines -- which will likely up the charge to involuntary manslaughter, punishable by 15 years in prison.

Number of times "cell phone" is mentioned in this article?

Twenty one.

Number of times it's mentioned the guy had cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines in his system?

Just once.

The entire article is dedicated making a case for banning cell phone usage by drivers despite the fact that the guy was likely severly impared by the presence of three different drugs in his system. Great reporting... truth is what you make it.

Way to go Ben Sxhmitt and Amber Hunt of the Detroit Free Press. Excellent journalism.

You know, I agree. If banned cell phone usage while driving all the those people completely wacked out on drugs would certainly stop chatting on the cell phone and pay much more attention to their driving.

Aeropress Coffee Machine

(Trying out Flickr blogging)

From Alan Adler, the scientist, professor, engineer and inventor of the Aerobie... a coffee maker that claims to be the most efficient coffee maker ever. While I love the design, quite similar to a french press coffee maker, and the price ($30) is quite affordable, I wonder how efficient and useful this really is. They claim it takes less than 30 seconds to make a cup of coffee, but obviously that doesn't included the time and energy it takes to boil some water. So, while it may be much more efficient to use a traditional drip style coffee maker for any multi-cup brewing I'd still go for this over a french press for camping or such times when electricity is scarce, or I only need one cup of coffee. But honestly, when do you only need one cup of coffee. :)

Oh, Just as long as it comes in Lexan and not just glass that is.

Fancy gadgets. :)

Spotted on digg.com, original article at www.gizmag.com/go/5051/


On a side note, a little ranting on copyright.

Turn back now all ye' whom are faint of patience.

You've been warned... I wouldn't be me if I didn't bitch about copyright issues.

Consider this a liberated image. I hate gizmag.com's website, it sucks tremendously, way to much advertising and crap to the point of making it hard to read and navigate. I had to dig this image out of their website and download it to my HD in order to get it onto flickr and of course they put their crappy watermark on the image like they own it, but it's really just a promotional image from the manufacturer that they likely have no right to alter at all.

This sort of reminds me of the thinking of the so call broadcast treaty (aka. "the re-distributors copyright") big media lobbyists are trying to get pushed through congress. (Side note: I wish EFF would give a standardized name to... and initiate wikipedia articles on these things to make them more accessible. It's impossible to find and keep abreast of these issues.)

It's basic reblogging 101... Respect the original photographer or copy right owner. Just because you're redistributing something doesn't mean you own it. In fact I'd be willing to bet that while this image is specifically for this sort of promotional usage that altering the image is a violation of the original copyright owners granted usage rights.

Sadly, this sort of thing is standard practice these days among gadget blogs. Watermarking product images has become the new tyranny. I'm not against all watermarking, just stick to watermarking content you actually own rights to folks. :)

On a final positive note, at least we're talking about improper watermarking instead of the tyranny of digital rights management technologies. If certain powers get what they want I want have the luxury of bitching about having to liberate media, I'll have to bitch about not being able to liberate media, or at the very least spend much more time liberating it so i can reference it.

Most newspapers have learned a long time ago that they can't control who copies the text of their articles or images, and in fact 99.99% of all redistribution, copying and quoting of texts and images are very beneficial to them. Meanwhile blatant and habitual abusers are actually EASIER to identify and take legal action against... just read any old news article in the past year on plagiarism in education. Googling for suspected plagiarized phrases is about as easy as it gets. Images are a little trickier, but I guarantee you theft of images... nor articles is a business concern for online newspapers.

Yet here we are... hypocritically it's blogs like gizmag who are abusing copyright law and watermarking technologies by slapping their logos on ALL pictures wether they own them or not. Cheers to the great gadget blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget for doing a better job.

The Minnesota Republican Party's spyware CD

From Digg.com...

This week the Minnesota Republican Party is distributing a new CD about a proposed state marriage amendment. The problem ? the CD sends your answers back to headquarters, filed by name, address, and political views. No mention of that in the terms of use. No privacy policy at all.

I found this really stunning, but the most recent blog posts by senior editor Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio (1, 2, 3, and 4) reveal that the extent of the issue is actually much worse.

In addition to the offenses mentioned on Digg.com the collected data is being posted to an insecure and publicly accessible web-server, including a spreadsheet with all 25,000 names and addresses on the mailing list. All of it is publicly accessible by someone with the right technical know how.


From MPR: Polinaut: The GOP CD

I played around with it some more to try to figure what information is being gathered. The first clue the GOP was tracking was the fact when it starts it says something like "Welcome, John Smith." And if you're not John Smith, you can "apply" for an activation code (see photo). The data you have to submit is: Name, spouse's name, district, address, e-mail and phone. Only name, address, and phone are required.

I filled out this information using Tim Pawlenty's address and it gave me a code to allow me to continue further.

The first section "our culture" features a presentation with Mary Kiffmeyer, and then asks "which of the following BEST describes your position on abortion." The answers are "all abortions should be legal, abortions should be legal but only in the first 3 months, abortions should be illegal except in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother is threatened; and abortions should be illegal.

It then gives you another blurb of Kiffmeyer and then asks if you support the amendment on marriage. And then asks if you believe in the 2nd amendment. It does not say you can just hit SUBMIT and skip the answer. And it doesn't say the results are being transmitted.

And from the latest post as of this writing, GOP CD accumulates data, but data is not secured

... Now that's pretty basic stuff: what your IP is, what your CPU is, what your operating system is. But is it possible for me to find out how you vote in elections? What your position on abortion is? Or even how long it takes you to answer those questions? ? Can I get your private phone number, your address, your name, your spouse's name, your IP?

Yes. Someone did.



Using the stream indicated above, people way smarter than me were able to figure out the destination for the data being accumulated, and then poked around and found the site. And the data was not secured at the site.

I checked to see if two entries I made via the CD -- one for Tim Pawlenty and one for Joe Blow -- showed up in the database. Yep. this must be the place.

In typical "blog storm" fashion all this information has turned up following an original feature story yesterday (Feb. 27th), entitled GOP steps up efforts for constitutional amendment on marriage on Minessota Public Radio which mentioned the interactive CD. Interestingly the focus of the amendment would be to abridge the definition of marriage to being a "union between one man and one women". This and many other questions regarding political viewpoints from abortion, to gun control, to voting preferences were all contained in the interactive questionaire. All of this data compiled with name and address were then uploaded to a 3rd party web-server which is insecure and therefore publicly accessible.

Anyway, it would appear the GOP has done their constituents a HUGE disservice. Shall we recap the offenses?

1. There is no disclosure the information is being collected.
2. There is no disclosure of what's being done with the information, in other words no privacy policy.
3. The collected data including a vast amount of personal and political information can be publicly accessed from an insecure web-server by any individual with a bit of technical know-how.
4. INCLUDING the entire original mailing list of more that 25,000 names and addresses
   

There's no denying that this goes beyond foolish, to the point of being malicious. This isn't just some crackerjack programmer slapping together some code. It is according to the original editor Bob Collins very professional package, and therefore I assume a very deliberately put together package which is completely out of protocol with normal polling practices.

Even if there is a printed cover letter or some packaging that was overlooked that discloses the collection of information and it's intended use this is still one hell of a misguided attempt by the GOP to poll their constituents. I'm more than a little amazed and curious as to how this will play out.

Speaking of which, the story is continuing to unfold on Bob Collins blog on Minnesota Public Radio's website.

Technorati Tags: spyware, minnesota, public radio, privacy