PUBLIC MARKS from filloux

Charging by the Byte to Curb Internet Traffic By BRIAN STELTER June 15, 2008 Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files.

ProPublica opens for business June 11, 2008 10:46 AM ProPublica, the not-for-profit investigative journalism initiative, is up and running. Its editor-in-chief, Paul Steiger, and managing editor, Steve Engelberg, yesterday wrote a welcome to the starting line: Today we take our first concrete step in building an investigative publishing platform that will produce original stories focusing on betrayal of the public trust and abuse of power. Our goal is to do stories that would otherwise escape notice and to follow up on work done by others that demands change or is being overlooked.

For New Journalists, All Bets, but Not Mikes, Are Off By JACQUES STEINBERG Published: June 8, 2008 A 61-year-old woman elbows her 5-foot-2-inch frame to the front of the crowd mobbing Bill Clinton after a campaign event in South Dakota. As Mr. Clinton shakes her hand and holds it tight, she deftly draws him into a response to an article on the Vanity Fair Web site that examines his post-presidential life. “Sleazy” and “slimy” are among the words that issue from the former president’s mouth. Within hours, audio of the three-minute exchange — including the woman’s description of the article as a “hatchet job,” and Mr. Clinton’s description of Todd Purdum, the author and a former reporter for The New York Times, as “dishonest” — is available for the world to hear on the Huffington Post Web site.

June 8, 2008 The Nation The Wiki-Way to the Nomination By NOAM COHEN Barack Obama is the victor, and the Internet is taking the bows. Commenting on the Democratic presidential primary campaign, the blogger Andrew Sullivan praised Mr. Obama’s success in mastering “Facebook politics.” Roger Cohen, writing online in The New York Times, likened the rapid success of Mr. Obama to that of a “classic Internet startup.” And The Atlantic Monthly, in a much discussed article titled “HisSpace,” described what Mr. Obama’s impressive online fund-raising apparatus owes to the enhanced social networking of sites like MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.