Here is the main problem with the new networked public sphere that has emerged to replace our national and mostly self-contained public spheres: when one node on the network blunders, all other nodes have to suffer through the consequences. In this case, the blunder is Britain’s and the rest of us have to suffer from interminable Savage coverage on television and the Internet, as both mainstream media and bloggers feel some desperate urge to air Savage’s juiciest and most offensive quotes over and over again. It’s a real pity that the British authorities still believe in a world that recognizes travel bans; whether we like it or not, the only use of travel bans in the world we currently live in is to trigger viral tsunamis.

Blaise Alleyne on false dichotomies in technology policy:

The spectrum of technologies Thierer presents has “tinker-friendly” and “safe and simpler” at opposite ends. Why don’t we demand both? WordPress defies this spectrum; a hosted blog at WordPress.com is safe and simple, but that code is available at WordPress.org for anyone to install and tinker with on their own servers. Few would disagree that Firefox is safe and simple, but it’s also “wide-open” free software with which anyone can tinker.

Hans Rosling on the media ignoring the real global killers:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w]

That is why a new project called GeoCommons is so exciting. GeoCommons is the consumer product that includes “Finder!” and “Maker!”. They allow, as you might expect, anyone to find or make stunning maps of geo-coded data. Data sets are easily exportable to mapping services like Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth. When they unveil Maker! in the coming weeks, expect it to do for geo-visualization what the Google Maps API did for geo-mashups. Take, for example, the map below.

According to TechCrunch who covered GeoCommons today, the orange circles represent carbon emmissions while the darker shaded regions show heavier population densities. Because of this map the amorphous issue of air quality in China is reified. The possibilities are endless and hundreds are already available for examination.

I am incredibly excited to see what geographical data people are able to make concrete. Data is only as good as it is understandable and tools like GeoCommons and Gapminder make data understandable at a glance. They reveal the truth more than a spreadsheet ever could.