Year: 2005

Aftonbladet has one of the best online editions of all Swedish media, but I have been questioning why it doesn’t come with an RSS feed. Via Networkers.se I read that Aftonbladet is finally beginning to experiment with RSS. The first feed is for premium content only and requires a subscription.

If you are in Stockholm this weekend and have nothing to do, let me recommend a visit to the club Debaser tomorrow evening. My old favourites the House of Love is back together and performing live. I would love to go, but I’m too old to stand in line (that’s not the only reason I’m not going…). Seriously, entrance is only 90 SEK but you can’t order tickets in advance.

I had totally missed that Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers were back together again until just recently when I found out about their new album Days Run Away. The single Gotta Be That Way is vintage House of Love stuff – excellent pop. In the name of decent music, go out and buy the album.

Listen to some of the songs here.

Travis Nep Smith – Top Ten Reasons for Reading a News Site:

1. My news site has never stained my clean shirt or my car seat.
2. Anywhere I travel, my news site goes with me. It doesn’t pile up
while I’m away.
3. I can listen to my news site’s podcast while standing, while
eating, while riding a bus, OR while I drive my car.
4. If I read a story I like, I can send it to a friend without a stamp.
5. My news site doesn’t just have sections — it’s customizable, and
it shows my wife and I exactly what we’re interested, separately.
6. I’ll give you the battery advantage. But my news site has each
apartment listing with detailed descriptions, photos and a precise
map. My newspaper says “Downtown, 2 bd/2 bt, 5 appl., ht & ht wtr,
balc, d/i pool, n/p, n/s. $1200″
7. My news site never gets stolen off my doorstep or delivered late. Or wet.
8. My news site doesn’t need to be recycled.
9. If my news site is makes a mistake, they correct the original
story, and when I read that story later, I will see the corrected
version. My newspaper may not be broken, but it could be wrong.
10. I can read my news site in a light breeze.

Ken Ficara – Top 10 Reasons for Reading a Newspaper

1. My newspaper has never crashed, gone down, or flashed animated ads at me.
2. Anywhere I travel, my newspaper goes with me. I don’t need a laptop or a wireless connection or a PDA.
3. I can read my newspaper while standing, while eating, while riding a bus, but not while driving my car, which is just as well since I should be paying attention to the road.
4. If I read a story I like, I can tear it out and save it, and not have to pay to read it 30 days later.
5. I don’t have to sign in or customize or register or remember passwords to read my newspaper. And I often enjoy articles in my newspaper on topics I wouldn’t normally think I’d be interested in.
6. My newspaper has high-resolution picutres and type on large pages that load almost instantly, making it easy to browse and enjoy.
7. My newspaper is cheap, disposable and easy to replace. If it’s lost or stolen, it’s no big deal.
8. My newspaper is not made of unrecyclable toxic materials.
9. If my newspaper makes a mistake, the correction is posted with an explanation. It’s not sneakily applied to the original story after I’ve read it.
10. I can read my newspaper sitting outside on a nice day in the sun, even if a breeze is blowing, because I know how to fold a newspaper.

[Via CyberJournalist.net]

A Swedish blogger has been reported to the police for libel. The background to the story is that the Church of Sweden made a decision on 27 October to bless partnerships between homosexuals. Blessings were supposed to be voluntary and the church will not force a priest to perform this act against his or her will.

Some found this decision to be very controversial and Yngve Kalin, a priest in Hyssna outside Gothenburg, started an online petition for priests that refused to make this blessing and disagreed with the decision of the Church of Sweden.

The topic has been widely discussed in media and in the Swedish blogosphere. There is currently a counter-petition here. But Kalin found that one blogger went too far, by for example calling him a “devil in a cassock” so he reported the blogger to the police and demanded that the blog should be shut down.

The blogger also posted a photo of Kalin’s family which made a family member report him to the blog host for abuse and the blog host (Blogsoft) apparently removed the photo from the blog without notifying the blogger.

This story raises a number of interesting questions (that I’m not entirely sure how to answer):

– How does freedom of speech protect a blogger from legal actions?
– What right does a person have to not have his photo published on a blog against his will?
– What information about an individual can you publish on a blog without breaking the personal data protection act?
– What right does a blog host have to edit the intellectual property of a blogger without prior notification?

In the user agreement for the blog host (webblogg.se by Blogsoft) it says that they have the right to delete information on a blog, that breaks a number of rules, like for example publish photos of drunken people, or advertise commercial services (!). No corporate blogs on Blogsoft in other words?

“Portalansvarig har rätt att i efterhand granska all information som läggs ut på webblogg.se, samt ta bort den information eller de inlägg som strider mot dessa regler.”

We will definitely see more conflicts regarding blogs and freedom of speech in the near future. My advice to bloggers is to stay out of trouble – be careful about using very negative descriptions of other individuals and don’t publish photos without asking for permission.

Sören Sehlberg, head of information at MHF (Swedish Abstaining Motorists’ Association) tonight won the award for lobbyist of the year for his work with implementation of alcolocks in cars.

N24.se, a collaboration between daily Svenska Dagbladet and tabloid Aftonbladet, plagiarised an article by the fashion blog Manolo.se, the blog recently acquired by local daily Sydsvenskan.

The article had entire paragraphs that were copied from the blog article. A comment to the original article brought the issue to Manolo’s attention and after some contacts the article on N24.se was taken off the website.

Dagens Media has more info (in Swedish) and some screen shots.