] Mark Broatch, Computerworld New Zealand
]
] Monday, March 31, 2003
]
] If you haven't noticed, Weblogs are escaping the world of
] the opinionated scribbler in the wilderness and being
] taken up as a means to extend corporate intelligence
] gathering.
]
] Blogs, as they're known, are no longer just an online
] epistolary sideline. They're joining traditional project
] collaboration tools like document management,
] whiteboards, e-mail, and other online meeting spaces,
] meaning team members within companies and outside can
] contribute regardless of location. Weblog software
] aggregates unstructured information in a Web-publishable
] form, by time and topic, and XML can be used to embed
] links from a variety of information sources.
]
] IM's Example
]
]
] Advertisement
]
]
]
]
]
] While most private bloggers use free or very cheap
] software to produce their Weblogs (like Blogging.com, run
] by the Google-owned Pyra Labs, motto: "Push-button
] publishing for the people"), software vendors sniff a new
] market in the making. Techdirt, Traction Software, and
] others--including the usual software heavyweights--are
] building in things like enterprise-level security and
] management, as they are to another technology that
] started off life as a cult tool, instant messaging.

Blogs Begin Getting Down to Business

As Pentagon press conferences blend into each other and war coverage churns on, Salam Pax, whoever and wherever he is, has captivated the world's attention.
Blending sarcasm and apparent sincerity, Salam Pax, an Austrian-educated architectural engineer, and his Web site, "Where Is Raed?" - http://dear_raed.blogspot.com - has chronicled life outside his Baghdad window since September. His daily Web diary, or Weblog, had so many readers over the weekend, more than 1 million, it crashed the small, free Texas-based Web server he was using to post his photos. Google has since stepped in and offered to be host of the site and its photos through its company, Blogger.

But now, Salam Pax, a pseudonym for the author, is missing. He hasn't been heard from since Monday, and yesterday chat rooms across the country were abuzz over whether or not he is still alive. Many sent messages in case he was monitoring, telling him to lie low and stay safe.

Pax's appeal lies not in just his compelling portrayals of everyday life in Baghdad buying vegetables or waiting in line for gas, but in his disarming (apparent) honesty. He speaks the casual international language of a tech-savvy, disaffected youth.

Salam Pax has gone missing

] Geraldo Rivera says reports of his journalistic death
] have been greatly exaggerated.
]
] Although it was CNN that claimed the U.S. military was
] expelling Geraldo from Iraq for "violating the cardinal
] rule of war reporting Monday by giving away crucial
] details of future military operations during a live
] broadcast," he blamed his old network, MSNBC.
]
] "Some rats at my former network, NBC, are spreading lies
] about me," Rivera told Fox from Iraq.

Geraldo: Network 'Rats' Are Lying About Me

] How does one make sense of the present conflict? As a
] student of International Relations, I am often asked to
] explain or express my opinion of the war. As a
] Portuguese-American, I am divided about the official view
] of the Portuguese government and the decision of the
] American government to mount an attack without a Security
] Council resolution. This action weakens the status and
] the importance of international law and institutions such
] as the U.N.
]
] Under the current operation of "Enduring Freedom," the
] administration has set forth a clear black-and-white
] policy of "you are either with us or against us" in the
] war on terrorism. The administration's goal after 9/11 is
] to rid the world of potential threats to the U.S. and
] western dominance. Thus, the latest operation, "Iraqi
] Freedom," is based on the administration's perception
] that this war is just and correct based on at least four
] justifications: the cruelty of Saddam against his people;
] the military threat he poses to his neighbors and the
] U.S.; his ties to terrorist organizations; his flouting
] of treaties and United Nations Security Council
] resolutions.
]
] Some contend that there is lack of evidence linking
] Saddam to the 9/11 attacks and minimize the threat that
] Saddam poses to the U.S. and its allies. Jimmy Carter and
] others argue that the diplomatic route was not fully
] exhausted, and the heightened pressure on%2

Divided about America's decision to go to war: 3/30/03

] NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Former U.S. president and
]
] Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter on Sunday condemned
]
] preparations for a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq, saying
] it
]
] would be an unjust war "almost unprecedented in the
] history of
]
] civilized nations."
]
] In an article in The New York Times, Carter said profound
]
] changes in U.S. foreign policy had reversed "consistent
]
] bipartisan commitments that for more than two centuries
] have
]
] earned our nation greatness".
]
] Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, said
]
] that during his term he was "severely provoked by
] international
]
] crises."

Unilateral U.S. war on Iraq unjust -Jimmy Carter

] A word of advice to future Oscar winners: Don't begin
] Oscar day by going to church.
]
] That is where I found myself this past Sunday morning, at
] the Church of the Good Shepherd on Santa Monica
] Boulevard, at Mass with my sister and my dad. My problem
] with the Catholic Mass is that sometimes I find my mind
] wandering after I hear something the priest says, and I
] start thinking all these crazy thoughts like how it is
] wrong to kill people and that you are not allowed to use
] violence upon another human being unless it is in true
] self-defense.
]
] The pope even came right out and said it: This war in
] Iraq is not a just war and, thus, it is a sin.
]
] Those thoughts were with me the rest of the day, from the
] moment I left the church and passed by the homeless
] begging for change (one in six American children living
] in poverty is another form of violence), to the streets
] around the Kodak Theater where antiwar protesters were
] being arrested as I drove by in my studio-sponsored limo.

I'd Like to Thank the Vatican...

] By Kristin Hohenadel, Special to The Times
]
] Paris -- When Michael Moore won best documentary for
] "Bowling for Columbine" at last week's Academy Awards,
] his antiwar comments -- "Shame on you, Mr. Bush!" -- were
] met with cheers and jeers. The orchestra cut him off.
] Steve Martin made a joke.
]
] The mood was quite different at the Césars, the French
] Oscars, a few weeks beforehand, as Moore lumbered up to
] accept the best foreign film award. He made the routine
] apology for his high-school French. Then he delivered a
] well-rehearsed, improvisational-style speech in English,
] pausing expertly for the translator. At a leisurely pace,
] he thanked our French allies for the cinema, for French
] fries and French kisses. For helping us in the War of
] Independence and saying no to the war we had not yet
] officially begun.
]
] "One of the best definitions of an ally, of a friend," he
] said, "is that your friend is the one who can tell you
] when you're wrong. So thank you for showing us the way,
] for standing up for something very important."

Los Angeles Times: Michael Moore, the new diplomat

] Let's send Rumsfeld and his hawks to war instead
]
] By Robin Cook
]
]
] This was meant to be a quick, easy war. Shortly before I
] resigned a Cabinet colleague told me not to worry about
] the political fall-out.
]
] The war would be finished long before polling day for the
] May local elections.
]
] I just hope those who expected a quick victory are proved
] right. I have already had my fill of this bloody and
] unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them
] home before more of them are killed.
]
] It is OK for Bush to say the war will go on for as long
] as it takes. He is sitting pretty in the comfort of Camp
] David protected by scores of security men to keep him
] safe.
]
] It is easy to show you are resolute when you are not one
] of the poor guys stuck in a sandstorm peering around for
] snipers.
]
] This week British forces have shown bravery under attack
] and determination in atrocious weather conditions. They
] are too disciplined to say it, but they must have asked
] each other how British forces ended up exposed by the
] mistakes of US politicians.

COOK: BRING OUR LADS HOME

] The number of British troops serving in the Gulf could be
] cut dramatically from 45,000 to 5,000 if the US-led war
] against Iraq drags on for at least six months.
]
] "Because of the massive pressures on our boys all over
] the world we will have to consider our commitment in the
] Gulf very carefully over the coming weeks," the Daily
] Mirror newspaper yesterday quoted a top British official
] as saying.
]
] "If this is dragging on in six months' time I would
] expect forces to be cut from 45,000 to 5,000. Australia
] and the US will have to take more of the burden," he
] said.
]
] Britain's army chief General Mike Jackson has
] acknowledged that sustaining British force levels in the
] Gulf was a problem in the long run.
]
] "It's certainly sustainable while we get this job done
] (but) ... not sustainable over a long period of time," he
] said.
]
] Most of the British troops deployed in the Gulf have been
] in the region for two months at the most.
]
] "Our standard operational tour is six months. Whether
] that is appropriate inside the six months we will make a
] judgement," he said.

Britain may cut troops in Gulf

] BAGHDADÜThe Director General for Planning at the Iraqi
] Ministry of Oil has accused the Bush administration of
] plotting to seize the country's oil resources, saying
] "these people from Texas who rule the American
] administration want to send us to ArmageddonÜjust to get
] their hands on the fields in Iraq."
]
]
] In an extensive interview with Iraqjournal.org, Dr. Faleh
] Al-Khyat detailed what Washington would have to gain by
] bringing down the Iraqi government and replacing it with
] a puppet regime. He highlighted two largely untapped oil
] fields in the south of Iraq, saying they constitute "the
] greatest prizes of the oil industry in the world."

It's All About the Oil