Activist Library

Browse a wide range of reading materials relating to the policies, politics and philosophies of the media, communications and Internet environment.

Creative Content, Information Culture & Social Change

General

Articles

David Bollier and Tim Watts, "Saving the Information Commons: A New Public Interest Agenda in Digital Media" (PDF), 2002

Andrew Spencer Goldman, “When New Media Turns Old” August 2001

Online Publications

OpenDemocracy: Remix World

Reports

American Library Association, "Principles for the Networked World" (PDF), February 2003

Nancy Kranich, "The Information Commons--A Public Policy Report"

Spitfire Strategies, “The Activation Point

Adrienne Russell, Mimi Ito, Todd Richmond and Marc Tuters “Networked Public Culture

Books

Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture (New York University Press, 2006)

Henry Jenkins Fans, Bloggers and Gamers (New York University Press, 2006)

Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (New York, NY: Random House, 2001)

Newton Minow and Lawrence Grossman, A Digital Gift to the Nation: Fulfilling the Promise of the Digital and Internet Age (New York, NY: Century Foundation Press, 2001)

Kathryn Montgomery, Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007)

Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community (MIT Press, 2000)

Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (Perseus Books Group, 2002)

Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life (MIT Press, August 2005)

Peter Karoff, The World We Want" (AltaMira Press, Jan. 2007)

 

Digital Divide/Universal Service

General

Federal Communications Commission, Universal Service

Articles

Mark Glaser, “Your Guide to the Digital Divide”, January 2007

Waleed al-Shobakky, “PCs for the Poor: As Good as Their Hype?”, July 2006

Online Publications

First Monday: Peer-reviewed Journal on the Internet

Reports

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, "Americans in the Information Age: Falling Through the Net" October 2000.

Children's Partnership, "Online Content for Low-Income and Underserved Americans: The Digital Divide's New Frontier", Wendy Lazarus and Francisco Mora. March 2000.

MIT Conference, “Race in the Digital Space” 2001. AUDIO

Benton Foundation, “Great Expectations: Leveraging America’s Investment in Educational Technology”, (PDF) 2002.

Books

Benjamin M. Compaine, The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth? (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001)

Barbara Monroe, Crossing the Digital Divide: Race, Writing, and Technology in the Classroom (New York: Teachers College Press, 2004)

Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Mary Stansbury, Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003)

Pippa Norris, et al, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Lisa J. Servon, Bridging the Digital Divide: Technology, Community, and Public Policy (London: Blackwell Publishers, 2002)

Mark Warschauer, Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003)

William Wresch, Disconnected: Haves and Have-Nots in the Information Age (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1996)

Digital Marketing & Privacy

General

Child Online Protection Act (COPA)

Russel Shaw “Behavioral Targeting 101” iMedia Connection

Michael Garrity “Behavioural Targeting – ‘Smart’ Marketing or Dangerous Privacy Violation?” September 2006.

 

 

Articles

EPIC. “Tools for Protecting Online Privacy

The.Next.Net “Eyeballing the Value of Web 2.0 Startups

Agency Presse France “New Era Online Ads Target Consumer Tastes”, 2007

Jeff Cole “Tracking the Online Community”, AUDIO, March 2007

Cecile Daurat “AOL Offers Ads Linked to Results of Searches”, Washington Post, April 2007

Michelle Megna “Oh Behave: Do Ads Work Best Out of Context?”, E-Commerce Guide, November 2006

David Armano “It’s the Conversation Economy, StupidBusiness Week, April 2007

Business Week The Sell-Phone Revolution” April 2007

Catherine Holahan “Taking Aim at Targeted AdvertisingBusiness Week, November 2006

Richard Waters "Google's DoubleClick Bid Draws Complaint" Financial Times, April 2007

Andy Chen "Targeting the Social Behavior"

 

Online Publications

ClickZ: Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers

IAB Smartbrief,, Interactive Advertising Bureau

paidContent.org: The Economics of Content

Privacy Times

Media Post

iMedia Connection

E-Commerce Times

Search Engine Land: A news and information site covering search engine marketing, searching issues and the search engine industry.

Search Engine Watch: Provides tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search engine industry and help to site owners trying to improve their ability to be found in search engines.

Giga Om

Tech Crunch

 

 

 

 

Reports

Ariel Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, Edward W. Felten “Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine” (PDF)

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Online Privacy Technologies Workshop

Oppenheimer “The Digital Consumer: Examining Trends in Digital Media” (PDF)

Yahoo! Summit Series, OMD “Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged” (PDF)

Akamai, “Successful Social Networking and User-Generated-Content Applications: What You Need to Know” (PDF)

Forrester Research “The Reality of Behavioral Ad Targeting” (PDF)

PiperJaffray, “The User Revolution” (PDF), February 2007.

Books

Philip E. Agre and Marc Rotenberg, eds., Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998)

Fred H. Cate, Privacy in the Information Age (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997)

Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2001)

Rob Graham,Fishing From a Barrel: Using Behavioral Targeting to Reach the Right People with the Right Ads at the Right Time (Learning Craft Press)

Joe Plummer, Steve Rappaport, Taddy Hall, and Robert Barocci, The Online Advertising Playbook (Wiley)

Daniel J. Solove, The Digital Person: Technology And Privacy In The Information Age (New York: New York University Press, 2004)

 

 

 

 

Digital Television

General

 

Wikipedia, “Digital Television

Federal Communications Commission, Digital Television, FCC Consumer Facts

Peter H. Putman, "The Basics Of Digital Television", FAQ

Current Briefing, “Digital Television and Public Television

 

Articles

Online Newshour, “TV Goes Digital” Interview April 1997.

Digital Television Testimony of Gigi Sohn, Media Access Project.

Michael Calabrese, “Completing the Digital Television Transition: A Consumer Converter Subsidy Can Reduce the Deficit and Redeploy UHF Spectrum for Wireless Broadband" (PDF), Testimony, June 2004

 

Online Publications

 

Reports

UK Cabinet Office “Digital Television: A Policy Framework for Accessing E-Government Services” (PDF) November 2003.

 

Books

Jeffrey A. Hart Technology, Television and Competition (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Intellectual Property & Copyright

General

 

Wikipedia, “Intellectual Property

Standford University, “Copyright and Fair Use FAQs

Howard Besser, "Intellectual Property & New Info Technology"

 

Articles

Art Brodsky, “Reclaiming the Digital Frontier”, TomPaine.com, April 2007.

Tim Wu, “ Copyright's Communications Policy”, Michigan Law Review, November 2004.

Jenny Toomey and Walter McDonough Interview “Copyright Law in the Digital Age”, June 2000

Ken Fisher “Privately, Hollywood Admits DRM Isn’t About Piracy”, Arstechnica.com, January 2007.

American Library Association, “Copyright Issues: Libraries in the Digital Age

 

Reports

 

Final Report to the Commissioner on the Conclusion of the Conference on Fair Use” (PDF), November 1998.

Center for Social Media, “Best Practices in Fair Use” (PDF), November 2005.

Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles, “Will Fair Use Survive?” (PDF) Brennan Center for Justice, December 2005.

Laura Quilter and Marjorie Heins, “Intellectual Property and Free Speech in the Online World: How Educational Institutions and Other Online Service Providers Are Coping with Cease and Desist Letters and Takedown Notices” Brennen Center for Justice, February 2007.

Digital Cultures Project: Copyright and the Networked Computer: A Stakeholder’s Congress, 2003 Conference VIDEO, AUDIO

Electronic Frontier Foundation “Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA”, April 2006.

Books

Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, (Penguin Press, 2005.)

Lawrence Lessig, Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, (Basic Books, 2006.)

Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (New York: Basic Books, 2004)

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity (New York: New York University Press, 2003)

Litman, Jessica, Digital Copyright (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2001)

 

International Telecommunications Policy

General

Articles

InfoWorld “EU May Seek to Split Telco Monopolies” June 2006

Online Publications

The Public Voice

APCNews, The Association for Progressive Communications

ITU News

Reports

World Summit on the Information Society, "Civil Society Declaration, 'Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs'

OURMedia International Conference Abstracts, (PDF) 2007

Michael H. Ryan “Structural Separation: A Prerequisite for Effective Telecoms Competiton?” (PDF)

Ofcom, “Communications – The Next Decade

Internet & Broadband Policy

General

 

Federal Communications Commission, “Broadband

 

Wikipedia, "Broadband Internet Access

 

Articles

CNet, "Bandwidth Roundtable", 2004

Ben Scott and Craig Aaron, Tom Paine.com, United States of Broadband, July 2005

 

Online Publications

CED (Communications Engineering & Design)

Law Meme, Yale Law School

XChange Online

National Journal's Tech Daily Dose: The standard for news and information on technology politics and policy.

Warren's Washington Internet Daily: Covers everyone -- at any level of government, in industry groups, in the courts or elsewhere -- who is setting rules for the Internet.

Reports

Tim Wu, "The Broadband Debate: A User's Guide," Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law, Vol. 3, No. 69, 2004.

David Isenberg, “The Rise of the Stupid Network”, June 1997.

Communications Workers of America, “Speed Matters: Affordable High Speed Internet for All” (PDF) October 2006.

 

Edward W. Felten “Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality” (PDF). July 2006.

 

Books

Tim Wu and Jack Goldsmith. Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World ( Oxford University Press, 2006).

 

Media Policy & Ownership

General

Federal Communications Commission, “2006 Review of the Media Ownership Rules

The Museum of Broadcast Communications “Public Interest, Convenience and Necessity

 

Articles

Frontline, "Media Giants"

Mark Crispin Miller, "The Big Ten", The Nation, January 2002.

Alison Gregor, “What’s Spanish for ‘Big Media”, 2003.

Global Issues, "Corporate Influence in the Media"

 

 

Online Publications

Online NewsHour “How relaxing FCC ownership rules have affected the media business

Media Access Project, Comprehensive 2002 Media Ownership Proceeding in the FCC

Journalism.org, Media Ownership and Deregulation

Media Channel, "Why Ownership Rules Matter And What You Can Do"

XChange Online

Communications Daily: The authoritative service dedicated to covering telecom regulation, legislation and policy development. Written by journalists who understand the industry inside and out.

 

 

 

Reports

Federal Communications Commission, Media Ownership Working Group Studies

Free Expression Policy Project. “Fact Sheets on Media Democracy

New America Foundation, “Citizen’s Guide to the Airwaves”, July 2003.

Books

Ken Auletta, Backstory: Inside the Business of News (New York: Penguin Books, 2003)

Ben H. Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004)

Erik Barnouw, Conglomerates and the Media (New York: New Press, 1998)

Elliot D. Cohen, News Incorporated: Corporate Media Ownership And Its Threat To Democracy (New York: Prometheus Books, 2005)

Mark Cooper, Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age, Center for Information and Society, Stanford Law School

Mark Cooper, The Case Against Media Consolidation (pdf), 2006.

Gillian Doyle, Media Ownership: Concentration, Convergence and Public Policy (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002)

Dan Gillmor, We the Media (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2004)

James T. Hamilton, All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News (New York: Princeton University Press, 2003)

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 2002)

Robert W. McChesney, Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997)

Robert W. McChesney, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004)

Robert W. McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (New York: New Press, 2000)

Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media (New York: Seven Stories Press 2002)

Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media (New York: Basic Books, 2004)

Kathryn Montgomery, Target: Prime Time (Oxford University Press, 2001)

 

 

New Media

General

TechSoup “Everything You Need to Know about Web 2.0

Tim O’Reilly “What Is Web 2.0”, September 2005

Wikipedia, “Web 2.0

 

 

Articles

Patricia Aufderheide, Is Wikipedia the New Townhall, March 2007.

Netcentric Campaigns “Why Organize in Second Life?

Apophenia, “Web 1-2-3

Online Publications

PaidContent

Mashable!

Techdirt

First Monday: Peer-reviewed Journal on the Internet

Red Herring

Venture Beat

Wired 

Nonprofit Online News

TechSoup

Mobile Crunch

New Media Gulp

 

Reports

Dotorganize.net, “Online Technology for Social Change: From Struggle to Strategy” September 2006.

The New Media Consortium, “Horizon Report” (PDF), 2007.

Marty Kearns, Green Media Toolshed “Network-Centric Advocacy” (PDF)

David Bollier “Political Advocacy and the Networked Culture” (PDF), March 2006

Cynthia M. Gibson “Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement” (PDF) Case Foundation

Jillaine Smith, Martin Kearns, Allison Fine "Power to the Edges: Trends and Opportunities in Online Civic Engagement " (PDF), 2005

 

Books

Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (Yale University Press, May 2006)

Jeff Chester, Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy (New Press, 2007)

Doc Searls, David Wienberger, Christopher Locke, Rick Levine Cluetrain Manifesto (Perseus Books Group, 2001)

 

 

 

 

Public Broadcasting/Media

General

Wikipedia “Public Broadcasting

 

 

 

Online Publications

Current

Reports

Jerold M. Starr “Public Television in the Digital Age: Townhall or Cyber Mall?” (PDF) 2002.

Center for Social Media “Beyond Broadcast: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture” (PDF), May 2006.

Books

Robert K. Avery, ed.,Public Broadcasting in a Multichannel Environment: The History and Survival of an Ideal (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1993)

David Barsamian, The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting: Creating Alternative Media (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2001)

James Day, The Vanishing Vision: The Inside Story of Public Television (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995)

Ralph Engelman, Public Radio and Television in America: A Political History (Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996)

William Hoynes, Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market, and the Public Sphere (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994)

James Ledbetter, Made Possible By… The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States (New York: Verso Press, 1997)

Michael P. McCauley, Eric E. Peterson, B. Lee Artz, and Deedee Halleck, eds., Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2003)

Jerold M. Starr, Air Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001)

 

 

Public-, Educational-, and Government-Access Cable Channels

General

Bill Olson “The History of Public Access Television”, 2000.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications “Public Access Television

 

 

 

 

Articles

Scripps News, “Youth Journalists Talk About Public Access TV”, March 2007.

Democracy Now! “Local Public Access TV Under Attack From Trio of Congressional Bills”, 2005.

 

Online Publications

Community Media Review

 

Reports

Douglas Kellner “Public Access Television and the Struggle for Democracy” (PDF)

Kelly Anderson and Annie Goldson “Alternating Currents: Alternative Television Inside and Outside of the Academy” 1993.

Manhattan Neighborhood Network “Save Access TV Toolkit: Tools for a Democratic Media” (PDF) 2006.

 

 

Books

Laura R. Linder, Public Access Television : America's Electronic Soapbox (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1999)

 

Spectrum Reform

General

Federal Communications Commission, Spectrum

Greater Democracy, Open Spectrum FAQ

Wikipedia, Open Spectrum

 

 

Articles

Michael Calabrese, "Spectrum Reform an Urgent U.S. Priority," The Hill, 4 Feb. 2004

International Telecommunications Union, "Spectrum Reform"

Peter Pitsch, "The Future of Radio Spectrum Policy," (PDF) Technology@Intel Magazine

Clay Shirky, "The Possibility of Spectrum as a Public Good" August 2004.

Gregory Staple and Kevin Werbach, "The Coming Spectrum Explosion--A Regulatory and Business Primer" (PDF)

 

 

Online Publications

IEEE Spectrum Online

 

 

Reports

New America Foundation “Speeding the DTV Transition: Facts and Policy Options”, (PDF)Wireless Future Program, May 2005.

Ellie Rennie, “Community Spectrum Taskforce” (PDF), March 2006.

New America Foundation & Center for International Media Action, “Building Constituents for Spectrum Policy Change” September 2006.

 

 

 

Books

G.R. Faulhaber, The Future of Wireless Telecommunications: Spectrum as a critical resource, (2006)

Jennifer A. Manner, Spectrum Wars: The Policy and Technology Debate (Artech House, 2003)

 

 

State/Local Telecommunications Regulation

General

 

Articles

Carol Ellison, EWeek, “Municipal Broadband Bills Come Under Fire

Bob Wallace, Xchange, “Municipalities take FCC to Court in Video Franchise Fight”, April 2007.

Art Brodsky, “FCC Actions on Video Franchise Won’t Help Consumers”, December 2006.

 

 

 

Online Publications

Xchange Online

Government Technology’s Digital Communities

MuniWireless Magazine

 

Reports

Sharon E. Gillett, William H. Lehr, and Carlos Osorio, "Local Government Broadband Initiatives" 2003.

 

James N. Horwood and Allison L. Driver, Spiegel & McDiarmid, "Legal Issues Understanding the Challenges - Municipal Entry: What is Really at Stake", (PDF) March 2003

Books