Monthly Archives: January 2012

Asking Works

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

The phone rang. “It’s Elizabeth Warren,” my wife said.

I assumed it was a recording.

It was not a recording. It was the candidate herself, charming and at once folksy and erudite, asking for help on her campaign.

How could I refuse?

Posted in 2012 Election | 3 Comments

Google+ Likely Roadmap ++Ungood

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

I found John Battelle’s astute analysis of Google’s earnings call pretty depressing:

The lead quote had to do with Google+, pretty much, not the company’s earnings, which ended up being a miss (Google is blaming fluctuations in foreign currency for much of that, and I have no idea whether that’s true, false, or silly).

But here’s my question: When is Google going to release actual engagement numbers for Google+? Because in the end, that’s all that really matters. As I have written in the past, it’s pretty easy to get a lot of people signing up for Google+ if you integrate it into everything Google does (particularly if you do it the way they’ve done it with search).

But can you get those folks to engage, deeply? That’d be a real win, and one I’d give full credit to Google for executing. After all, it’s one thing to get the horse to water…another to have it pull up a chair and share a few stories with friends.

Battelle's Search Blog is a prime source for thoughtful analysis of what Google is doing, and there’s more in the post, Google+: Now Serving 90 Million. But…Where’s the Engagement Data!.

I found it depressing not because Google missed its earnings numbers and the stock sank 9% overnight (I don’t own any, perhaps to my detriment), nor because they are playing fast and loose with business disclosures (hardly a surprise), but because it signals to me that Google’s push to force users into Google+ will only intensify.

And I don’t like that at all.

Posted in Internet | 1 Comment

UM Law Review Symposium on the Death Penalty

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

With all our recent hires in the criminal law area, the law school is turning into something of a crim law powerhouse. So it’s appropriate that this year’s Law Review Symposium will be on the death penalty and life without parole. The Symposium will be held on the afternoon of Friday, February 17 and the morning of Saturday, February 18. Topics include:

  • whether the death penalty is near its end in the United States;
  • the debate over new lethal injection protocols;
  • the debate about life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty, and
  • the role of social science in examining the death penalty.

The keynote speaker will be Jordan Steiker of the University of Texas Law School.

Panelists will include Deborah Denno of Fordham, Robert Blecker of New York Law School, Mona Lynch of the University of California at Irvine, Corinna Lain of the University of Richmond, Adam Kolber of Brooklyn Law School, Douglas Berman of Ohio State, Cynthia Brown of the University of Central Florida, Ashley Nellis of The Sentencing Project, and University of Miami law professors Susan Bandes, Mary Anne Franks, Tamara Lave, and Sarah Mourer.

This is a good list of speakers — should be a great event for people interested in the topic.

For more information, or to register in advance, you can contact Farah Barquero or call (305) 284-2464.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on UM Law Review Symposium on the Death Penalty

The Stephen Colbert Phenomenon

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

It began with ‘I am a Super PAC and So Can You’. Then Colbert turned over his Super PAC to Jon Stewart in order to enable the creation of a Presidential exploratory committee … and then Colbert was interviewed on ABC’s This Week about his Presidential ambitions by no less than George Stephanopoulos.

Colbert chewed him up and spit him out.

The Super PAC has hit the ground running. It began its new independent-from-Colbert incarnation with this instant classic advertisement, Mitt Romney (Serial Killer):

Then they went after Newt Gingrich in Double Negative:

And now he’s released the totally unrelated Super PAC has released this latest Herman Cainiod jem:

In addition to these acts of national conscious-raising, Colbert has already forced Huntsman from the race. Huntsman withdrew when polling showed Colbert running ahead of Huntsman in South Carolina.

But wait. Do you think a comedian should not be messing with the important business of picking a GOP candidate? Not to worry, the Colbert Super PAC agrees, and is running an anti-Colbert commercial too:

Posted in 2012 Election | Comments Off on The Stephen Colbert Phenomenon

Message From the Dark

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

David Weinberger on what we learn from yesterday’s Internet blackout activism:

Fourth, there’s a growing “we” on the Internet. It is not as inclusive as we think, it’s far more diverse than we imagine, and it’s far less egalitarian than we should demanand. But so was tbe “we” in “We the People.” The individual acts of darkness declared are the start of the We we need to nurture.

The other three aren’t bad either.

Joho the Blog » Four messages from the dark.

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on Message From the Dark

Groundhog Day?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

The site seems to be serving up the Dec. 24, 2010 version of itself. But only sometimes.

I can only presume this has something to do with a cache problem of some sort.

Unfortunately, I have a very busy day – a radio interview with David Levine of Hearsay Culture that will air soon on KZSU and then I’m on panel that is part of our Diversity Week program, in which I will take the unpopular position that cyber-bullying laws are (1) heavily constrained by the First Amendment and (2) bad policy — better to regulate “bullying” to whatever extent one can, and have a rule that includes ‘cyber’ behavior to the same extent as telephoned, faxed, and typewritten speech. And, of course, meetings.

So it may be a while before I can get to the bottom of this.

Posted in Discourse.net, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Groundhog Day?