i202 Fall 2009 School of Information, UC Berkeley

The Guardian reports the story of the Obama administration's attempt to silently discharge one of the signature phrases of their predecessors from political discourse: 'The global war on terror'.

The "echo chamber" effect has been a source of interest and frustration for media and poltical junkies such as myself. This is what happens when Citizen A ("I only listen to Rush") or Citizen B ("I only read Kos") start looking around at for more information, usually from souces linked to or mentioned by their primary news source. As Burkeman's column points out, this is a social science phenomenon known as homophily.

This Economist article describes the use of bar codes in conjunction with mobile phone cameras to provide users with real-time, context-sensitive information. An example of this is the traveller photographing a barcode at a railway station with his mobile phone to obtain train timetables. Despite of varying bar code standards, the author suggests their free, open standard nature will encourage wider adoption.&#1