The visualization drew from Twitter use by Egyptians and influential others around the #jan25 uprising. Those writing in Arabic only are represented in red, only in English are in blue and overlap by various shades of purple. Influence, in terms of follows, are represented by lines and those who influence each other are located in proximity.

Super-high resolution PDF here.

According to Boguta, the language choice - most of the bloggers speak both Arabic and English - is an important element. Some make the choice to connect with other Arabic-speakers, probably a function of the organizational use of the Web by people on the ground. The choice of English is, among other things, a choice to spread the circumstances, flight and day-to-day activities of the first group, to the wider world.

"For me, the point is that the activists are cooperating with the west, on their own terms and in a constructive way...(I)n fact that is a key element and what allows this much bigger exoskeleton to tightly interface to the core. This is in contrast to what happened in Iran 2009...where the connections between those in Iran and the rest of the world were very thin and easily severed."

Wael Ghonim is a good example of how the visualization works. Large circle, well connected, surrounded by a large group of Twitter-users whom he influences.

Interesting to notice is the scattered group on the far left, which are mostly U.S. government and corporations like Google. "And that's probably how everyone in the rest of the network would like this future to look."

Street photo via Al Jazeera | thanks to Josh Jones-Dilworth

Suleiman, who blogged under the name Kareem Amer, was sentenced in 2006 to four years of jail for insulting religion and the leadership of Egypt on his blog. He was critical of, among other things, Egypt's treatment of women and of its Coptic Christian minority. Supporters report that during those four years, Amer was tortured, beaten, attacked by other prisoners, disowned by his family and had his books, letters and personal effects taken away. His case is of international interest not just because of his humanity, but because of the political conflict between authoritarian states and a new world of freely self-published bloggers who would challenge them with new Web technology.

Amer's supporters say he is declining interviews while recovering from his detention.

Part of a Larger Trend

Though Kareem Amer was the longest-imprisoned blogger known, detained for most of the history of this young phenomenon called Social Media, he was not alone.

A report by international media watchdog organization Reporters Sans Frontières last year found that there were 151 people in prison around the world because of the contents of their blogs in 2009, a nearly three-fold increase over 2008.

Iranian cultural satire blogger Omid Reza Misayafi is believed to be the only blogger killed in prison to date. He was sentenced in 2008 to 30 months in prison for "insulting Islamic Republic Leaders" but died under mysterious and allegedly abusive circumstances after just six months of detention.

With brave bloggers in mind who are free, imprisoned and deceased around the world, we leave you with the moving short video Iran: A Nation of Bloggers, about just one of many places where disruptive social media and authoritarian tradition clash, and where the stakes are at their highest.

"Once the pay model is implemented next year, the majority of our readers will be unaffected when using the site and will continue to have the same experience they have always had," said Green. "The pay model will be designed so readers that are referred from third party sites such as blogs will be able to access that content without hitting their limit, enabling NYTimes.com to continue being a part of the open web."

Green later commented on Kafka's post, adding that while third-party referrals will count towards a reader's daily limit, it will not prevent them from viewing the content. So if a user reaches the limit via thrid-party links and then trys to browse articles on the Times' homepage, the paywall will then be triggered. Users will still be able to access articles via third-party sites and services at all times, so is the Times' paywall paper thin?

This seems like a pretty significant loophole that would make it fairly simple to get around the paywall once it goes up. If I want to read a specific story on the Times' homepage after I've hit my limit, I can simply search for that story on Google or Twitter search and get around the wall via an outside link from another site.

The Times seems to be focused on monetizing the users that browse their webpage for content on a frequent basis, rather than those that arrive from other sites. So while the key to the front door only works a few times each day, the windows on the side of the house are wide open.

What is also unclear is how the New York Times' paywall algorithms will determine which sites and links will apply to this exemption. As it stands now, it would seem that all sites and all links will not affect a user's daily limit, but whether this applies to search engines or news aggregators is unknown. We have reached out to the Times for comment on this question and will update this post if and when a reply is received.

Disclosure: The New York Times is a syndication partner of ReadWriteWeb.

Photo by Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik.

Facebook account removals criticized. Jillian York wrote an extensive examination of Facebook users around the world who have had their accounts closed out. "Facebook has not spoken publicly about how this process works, but my suspicion is that when a number of users report the same user, their profile is automatically disabled." If this is true, it's disturbing. Because it's mob rule.

Microsoft had a role in media repression that led up to the Kyrgyzstan coup. According to author Jeffrey Carr, writing in Forbes, "Microsoft's Kyrgyzstan agent assisted the Kyrgyz authorities in cracking down on dissenting media five days before last week's uprising." Carr publishes a timeline of online repression prior to the overthrow of Kyrgyz president Bakiev. A Microsoft representative showed up with state authorities to the offices of an internet TV station with the charge that the station used pirated Microsoft products. The authorities shut the station down. This is a strategy that repressive governments use with some regularity.

UK candidate makes "digital pledge." In response to the passing of the Digital Economy Bill in the UK, candidate Tom Watson issued a set of pledges to maintain access to online information and defend user rights.

South Korea institutes gaming curfew. Gizmodo reports South Korea "is disabling internet connections for six hours per night for underage gamers.The ban won't affect most internet uses, just a blacklist of 19 specific games."

Thai government blocks thousands of websites. Building on last week's crackdown, Thailand goes from 36 blocked websites to somewhere between 9,000 10,000. Global Voices says in their headline that they have begun locking up webmasters, but do not elaborate or source the statement.

Top photo by Cdogstar
Bottom photo by Karen Blumberg

Tunisia blocks another video site. The Tunisian government blocked YouTube and DailyMotion. What was left to block? Why, WAT.TV, of course. This one seems to have been blocked for hosting opposition videos.

China's online espionage exposed. A group of Canadian and American internet researchers found and exposed a Chinese electronic espionage group. Ronald Deibert and his fellow ruffians, rakes and ne'er-do-wells at the Information Warfare Monitor kicked open the internet and found spies lining the trunk line from Shanghai to Delhi.

Egyptian police crush April 6 protest. The original April 6 Youth Movement was organized two years ago as a protest against increased bread prices and communicated via Facebook and other social media. Kids, old folks, whomever, many of whom would not be considered traditionally political, got their heads stove in with fists and truncheons around Egypt. Chemins de fer de l'etat Egyptien, indeed.

U.S. Federal Court decision goes against net neutrality. This decision may make it possible for communications companies like the large carrier Comcast to slow traffic coming from competing data-carrying companies and sites. Precedent counts in law and this is a bad one if you believe data should get carried at speed regardless of origin.

Author on book about Google cancels China trip. New Yorker writer Ken Auletta was advised by his Chinese publisher to cancel his speaking trip because a block on coverage of the search engine was in effect. The book's title is "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It." Read more ReadWriteWeb coverage on Google and China.

UK Government passes "Digital Economy Bill." The bill will allow Britain's Secretary of State to block any site on the basis of it being a "location on the internet" where copyright is, has been, or might be, "in connection with an activity that infringes copyright." Now, Orwell was British, right? Probably a coincidence.

Taiwan police request Plurk IP information. Police have been sending letters to Alvin Woon, CEO of microblogging service Plurk, requesting that the company provide IP information on certain users.

Venezuela's president demands digital news site be prosecuted. Despite having no constitutional powers to do so, Hugo Chávez "ordered" the courts to prosecute Noticiero Digital for publishing false information, in this case, the death of a public figure who wound up not having died. The National Assembly hurriedly agreed to el presidente's decree.

Croatian blogger arrested. Marko Rakar, founder of Pollitika, was arrested for leaking a registry of Croatian War veterans.

Thai government censors, well, anything with electricity. Nine television stations and at least 36 websites have been blocked by the Thai government under a "state of emergency" declaration. The so-called Red Shirt protesters provided the excuse to cut the informational lights in that country.

A few other important issues, that took place prior to this week, included U.S. Army Counterespionage's plans to counter Wikileaks; criticism of Australia for its filtering system, the worst in the Western world; two Iranian bloggers who were threatened with judicial murder escaped to France; European Union blocking plans; Turkish reporters protest for the unblocking of YouTube; and an Egyptian activist arrested then released for his Facebook group.

Top photo by Adrian Van Leen
Graphic from Reporters Without Borders

Feel bad? I'm not going to tell you you shouldn't. All this technology we use and write about and enthuse on has higher stakes than we think. Here are some of them.

Vietnamese human rights lawyer and blogger Le Thi Cong Nhan rearrested. In the middle of March, only three days after Le Thi Cong Nhan was released from prison after a three year sentence, she was arrested again. "Police took her to a Hanoi police station for allegedly violating the terms of the supplementary sentence of three years of house arrest that she is now supposed to serve," according to From The Old, which has more information.

Germany blocks content country-wide, imitates China and Iran. Germany, according to the OpenNetInitiative, has instituted "block lists." What starts with porn ends with you shutting the hell up. (What was that thing about the lessons of history? Ah, whatever. Let's dance! Ganz toll!)

Google gets hacked in China. Intermittent hacking and other mysterious interference slows, and in some places, blocks Google. Google stammered in response. More from ReadWriteWeb.

Yahoo gets hacked. In China. Over a dozen Yahoo email accounts belonging to foreign journalists, activists and analysts in China were hacked. Effectively, the email accounts were shut down. More from ReadWriteWeb.

Still. Iranian blogger Hessam Firouzi's still in prison. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is still in prison. Omid Reza Mir Sayafi (murdered March 18, 2009) is still dead.

Top photo by Adrian Van Leen
End photo by FreeKareem.org

The author was a co-founder of the March 18 Movement.

As of today Waggoner may not have the opportunity to change tactics. The developer wrote a blog post detailing a cease and desist letter sent by Shankman's lawyer. As a community with your finger on the pulse of tech launches and entrepreneurial resources, we want to know whether or not you believe Shankman's takedown notice is warranted. Let us know in the comments below.

Most Popular Music Videos on YouTube

1. Pitbull - I Know You Want Me
2. MiIey Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A.
3. Miley Cyrus - The Climb

Click here to see all of these videos on one page.

Top News & Politics Videos on YouTube

1. Taylor Swift VMA Award Moment Ruined by Kanye West
2. Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler
3. Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Congressman Brian Baird

Click here to see all of these videos on one page.

The most popular YouTube videos in the second half of 2009 were the JK Wedding Entrance Dance, the Evian Roller Babies, the Muppets' version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," a video of musicical stairs in Stockholm and "United Breaks Guitars."

You can find our full list of top 10 YouTube videos of all time here.

What YouTube Videos do Bloggers Embed?

Bloggers mostly embed music videos (31%) and entertainment clips (15%). Sports (6%), animation (3.2%) and science videos (2.9%) rank at the bottom of the most often-embedded YouTube videos. Interestingly, the film (3.6%) and how-to (3.1%) categories also ranked very low in Sysomos' index.

We would have thought that how-to videos would have ranked higher, but while videos about how to make a BristleBot can be quite popular, they can't quite rival the popularity of Miley Cyrus and the Muppets.

Who is Embedding Them?

The study also looked at the demographics of bloggers who embed these videos. In general, 20-to-35-year-old bloggers embed most of the videos (57%), followed by teenagers (20%) and bloggers over 35 (20%).

While music videos are the most popular category across age groups, older bloggers tend to embed far more videos in the news and politics categories than younger bloggers.

A few more interesting YouTube stats from the report:

• Videos about news and politics get the highest average number of comments (561), followed by sports (490) and entertainment clips (436).

Sysomos did not find any clear correlation between how high users rated a video and how often they were viewed. The most popular videos actually had rather average ratings (2-3 stars).

• North American bloggers link to a lot more News and Politics videos with a specific interest in health care, global warming and U.S. political issues.
• 20-to-35 year old bloggers are most active in embedding and linking to videos within their posts with 57% of total videos coming from this demographic group.
• The average length of a YouTube video is 4 minutes and 12 seconds.
• The average number of views for the YouTube videos Sysomos analyzed in this report was 99,160.
• European bloggers embed even more music videos than the rest of the world.

Click here to see the most popular music videos on YouTube.

The Most Popular Music Videos on YouTube

Pitbull: I Know You Want Me

Miley Cyrus: Party in the U.S.A.

Embedding for this video is disabled. Click here to see the video.

Miley Cyrus: The Climb

The Top News & Politics Videos on YouTube

Taylor Swift VMA Award Moment Ruined by Kanye West

Embedding for this video is disabled. Click here to see the video.

Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler

Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Congressman Brian Baird

However, a new study from the Pew Internet Project shows that geeks, including IM users and bloggers, are more likely to help neighbors, get out of the house, volunteer, and behave as upstanding members of their IRL communities.

And although the study found that Internet users were less likely to rely on neighbors for help, its findings also tell us that frequent or dedicated Internet users are a mighty friendly and helpful bunch when it comes to giving support to neighbors. Bloggers are almost 80 percent more likely to do small favors for their neighbors than other groups, and they're 84 percent more likely to help a neighbor care for a family member, e.g., offer babysitting help. And while Internet users, including photo-sharing folks and IM fans, are more likely across the board to help and hang out with people in their neighborhood, the study also showed that Internet users are almost 50 less likely to lend neighbors money. Insert a pun about teaching a man to phish here.

Folks who use sites such as BuildingBulletins or NeighborGoods to connect with people who live near them are also more likely to engage with their community, especially in terms of actively discussing community issues, listening to a neighbor's problems, or helping a neighbor with chores or errands.

Bloggers and mobile phone users are also 72 percent more likely to belong to a local group or organization such as a charitable organization, a youth sports league, or a religious group. For example, an average single, white person with no children has a 40 percent chance of belonging to at least one local voluntary group. However, that chance increases to 54 percent if that person users a mobile device and 72 percent if that person is also a blogger and frequent Internet user.

Another fascinating set of findings completely negate the stereotypical image of Internet geeks as agoraphobic recluses. Internet and mobile users are far more likely than non-users to hit up coffee shops, parks, and restaurants in their communities. Internet users in general are around 50 percent more likely to find themselves in public places than non-users, and bloggers specifically are 60 percent more likely than non-bloggers to spend time in a public park.

The study concludes, "As with other local community activities, the relationship between Internet use and participation in public and semi-public spaces is likely a combination of self-selection and an outcome of internet use... The Internet may also enable visits to public spaces through opportunities to coordinate rendezvous and search for new places to visit."

While the FTC will obviously have a hard time enforcing these regulations, there can be no doubt that marketers regularly approach independent bloggers (and especially mommy bloggers) with freebies. When bloggers accept these exchanges, they may not always disclose them in the posts that result. So, while bloggers who are involved in these schemes often tend to say that they would have reviewed the product anyway or that their reviews are often critical, there can be little doubt that payments and freebies influence these stories.

These new rules and rather large fines should bring some bloggers and marketers into line, though others will surely continue to push the ethical boundaries. And blogging Payola is unlikely to go away completely because of these new rules.

This marks the first time the FTC has updated endorsement and testimonial rules since 1980. The new rules also take on celebrity endorsements. If celebrities endorse a product and make false or unsubstantiated claims, or don't disclose 'material connections' between themselves and the advertisers in ads and outside the context of the ads (talk shows, social media, etc.), these celebrities can be held liable under the FTC Act. Judging from this, it would seem that celebrities who tweet about a product they endorse are now risking large fines.

The pair had just wrapped up a panel discussion on social media and the news. Although each provides coverage of overlapping spaces, they both had unique insights on gathering and reporting the news, as well as using social media to reach the public.

Special thanks to Christopher Munton for camera/audio/editing work.

We'll be participating with a post highlighting an inspiring woman in tech tomorrow, but we thought this would also be a good opportunity to share the search engine below, titled Blogs By Women in Tech. It was created using the super simple and very powerful Google Custom Search tool and lets users search just the archives of more than 200 tech blogs written by women. It was seeded by the archived blogroll at Misbehaving.net and has since grown with more people submitting their blogs. I have a link to it saved on my toolbar and use it whenever I can, as a way to make sure to include women's voices in our news coverage.

Feel free to save and use the search engine yourself. If you'd like to suggest your blog or someone else's for inclusion, you can either email links to marshall@readwriteweb.com or volunteer to be a contributor through a link on the site.

So, go sign up to participate in Ada Lovelace Day and let's make sure that the next generation of young women know that there is an important place for them in technology.

No cause of death is yet known, but the Committee says torture of bloggers is common in Iran and they are usually placed in close proximity to the most dangerous criminals in any facility. Misayafi was sentenced in December to 30 months in prison "for insulting Islamic Republic Leaders." The man said he was a cultural blogger, not a political one, and only wrote a few satirical articles that got him into trouble.

We've reported here on a number of bloggers imprisoned in Iran and in Egypt for documenting government abuses or just writing critical words about governments that demand total compliance. In the middle of last year we wrote about Iran's parliament debating legislation that would add the death penalty to the list of possible punishments for using blogs to challenge government authority.

It is a timeless battle all around the world between freedom, art and self expression on one side and authority, expediency and abuse on the other. The rise of the web has made that battle different, though. Blogs give a voice to the previously voiceless, and the historical and moral importance of efforts to save those new voices from arrest, torture and death cannot be overstated.

We would love to see the Obama administration, which has made extensive use of online social media, publicly and explicitly condemn this death at the Iranian government's hands. We'd be surprised if that happened.

Social media is powerful and changing the world; we don't expect that this will be the last person to lose their life over it. Omid Reza Misayafi, brave Iranian blogger, may you rest in peace. May all those imprisoned for blogging in Iran, and around the world, be set free.

For ongoing coverage of this and all-too similar situations around the world, see The Committee to Protect Bloggers and associated organizations linked to on their site.

This affair is also a good example of how much power a vocal minority can have thanks to social media. The controversy has already gone beyond Twitter, and mainstream news outlets will surely pick this story up within the next day or two.

We Feel Your Pain

Motrin, as Seth Godin points out, had a chance here to reconnect with its customers by using social media to reach out to them with its apology, but the company issued a standard press release-style apology on its site instead. That might seem old-fashioned, but for most companies, that's the only way they know how to operate.

Learning from Comcast

More and more users expect companies to reach out to them directly through social media, so just having a social media presence is not enough anymore. When controversies like this one happen (whether deserved or not), smart companies will reach out to consumers directly to stop these fires right where they started. A pioneer of this is obviously Comcast, whose 'Director of Digital Care' Frank Eliason reaches out to any and all Twitter users who tweet about issues with the company's service.

The detentions follow a wave of arrests of Chinese dissidents leading up to the Olympics. The US government pledged as the games began to engage the Chinese government concerning human rights - we wonder what those conversations look like now that China has detained journalists consistently critical of US policy as well.

New online media have opened the doors to people publishing on budgets that would never have supported journalistic efforts in the past. That new generation of publishers has a greater freedom to take risks because they aren't as beholden to the interests of sponsors. That's one way to describe the political impact on journalism of blogging - another way might be that these new media have opened up publishing to activists with less interest in objectivity than traditional journalists have aimed for.

Either way, the impact of blogging and video blogging on the world at large is widely recognized and it's no surprise that the authoritarian Chinese government is taking steps to protect itself. We condemn the detention of any journalists, whether they strive for objectivity or tell stories from a particular perspective.

According to extensive coverage on BoingBoing, the following US journalists and/or activists are all currently missing:
- James Powderly
- Brian Conley
- Jeffrey Rae
- Jeff Goldin
- Michael Liss
- Tom Grant

We're working on creating a widget displaying video, information and a button to call US Congressional representatives but for now we'll leave you with the following video published by Conley in China last week. Update: Ribbit.com doesn't want to give us an account promptly, so we'll just say - if you want to call the US Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee to register your concern about the 5 people above, they are at +1 202 225 5021 and they are waiting for you. We just called them a few minutes ago.