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Highlights

     Release 1.0 print tv
EContent print online
The New York Times print online
Digital Media Wire online
Washington Post online
Worth online print
Mademoiselle
Wired News online print
Silicon Alley Reporter print
Boston Globe print
Yahoo!'s Picks of the Year online
Salon online
George print
LA Times online
Boston Globe online
Boston Globe Editorial
Lycos Technology News (Reuters) online
The New York Times print online
Wired News online
Silicon Alley Reporter print
Morning Edition - NPR radio online
Salon online
Cybertimes - The New York Times online
MSNBC.com online
Yahoo! Internet Life online


print tv
Release 1.0, July/August 2004
Politics on the Net: A Three-Way Digital Divide, by Christina Koukkos (Adobe Acrobat, 60KB)

Encouraging dialogue and political discourse online where "multiple competing ideas and voices can flourish."

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printonline
EContent, July 2002
Keeping a Civil Tongue: Web Lab's Plan to Extinguish Flame Wars, by Steve Smith

While the rest of us tended to yell at each other online throughout much of the late 90s, the New York Internet think tank Web Lab was evolving a better way...

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printonline
The New York Times, September 26 , 2002
Vox Populi, Online and Downtown

Less chronicled is the experience of 800 people who could not make it to the Javits Center that day but instead convened over the Internet over a two-week period to discuss many of the same questions, at more length and perhaps with more nuance . . . the 10,000-odd messages produced by the online groups are also being scrutinized as a model for civic engagement on local and national issues...

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online
Digital Media Wire, February, 2002
Non-Profit Web Lab Hosts "Crossover" New Media Creation Retreat

Web Lab, a non-profit new media think tank, announced on
Thursday that it will host a creative retreat bringing independent film and videomakers together with new media producers...

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online
Washington Post, February 1, 2001
MTV: Battling Hate Online

Groups like Web Lab are building new kinds of Web forums designed to foster a more useful debate...

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online print
Worth, July, 2000
Beggars can now be Choosy

.... This presentation of panhandler market values invites the rest of us to consider more fully our reactions to these people and the moral and philosophical prejudices that underlie them....

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Mademoiselle, July, 2000
The Art of Asking for Change

....If the idea of critiquing panhandling strategies seems crass, well it's supposed to. Needcom (one of several sites funded by PBS, all accessible at www.pbs.org/weblab) is Davies' ironic way of getting folks to look at poverty in a different light...

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Wired News, January 22, 2000
Resurrecting a Dying Art

....In fact, the chaos of the bulletin board and the chat room can have a profoundly negative effect upon the overall quality of conversation, a new study concludes. But when the talk moves into a less freewheeling environment, the level of the debate seems to improve....

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Silicon Alley Reporter, January, 2000
Silicon Alley 100 Top Executives

     Amidst the sky-rocketing IPOs and e-commerce boom that have characterized the Internet over the past year, there are still a few people weighing in to offer meaningful content online. That's what Marc Weiss is attempting to do...

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Boston Globe, December 1999

....But some folks offered a counterpoint to all the online ads and e- commerce schemes. A nonprofit organization called Web Lab continued to fashion itself as a sort of PBS of the Internet; this year, it launched online discussion groups about the PBS documentary An American Love Story, bringing together strangers to participate in intimate - and volatile - debates about race and class....

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print
Yahoo!, December 27, 1999
Picks of the Year
VAGUEpolitix - raw, exciting political material explored through a variety of voices. (Featured June 21)

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online
Salon, December 16, 1999
Panhandling Made Perfect

      Still wondering what to get mom for Christmas? How about a Panhandler Gift Certificate -- it may not be as luxurious as a silk bathrobe or trip to the spa, but it might just open her mind.
      OK, so perhaps it's not likely that you'll stuff relatives' stockings with "gift certificates" promising prepaid quality time with your local homeless person -- but Cathy Davies, the mind behind NeedCom, hopes to encourage you to at least consider the plight of the panhandler. Five-month-old NeedCom, which offers "market research for panhandlers," uses irony and a splashy design to educate people about stereotypes surrounding poverty -- and impart valuable information to panhandlers. The Panhandler Gift Certificate is merely Davies' most recent innovation.

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George, October, 1999
Web site of the Month

      ...VaguePolitix delivers a satirical presentation of today's major political issues. Although the approach is often light --quirky quizzes and video games--the subject matter is not.

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LA Times, October 3, 1999
Dealing With Differences, by Lynell George

      ...Since the 10-hour documentary "An American Love Story" aired Sept. 12-16 on PBS, the "lovestories" Web site has hosted a series of sustained, intimate group dialogues. The hope: to continue and expand discussion about the series and the thornier issues of race, relationships and differences that the series raised. 
     ...The resulting on-point discussion can be rare in the anonymous and newish world of the Web. But the film, and topics that bloom from it, provoked a free flow of ideas, advice and self-searching

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The Boston Globe, September 17, 1999
A Safe Place to Sound off about Race, by Patti Hartigan

      ...None of these people have ever met in person, but for the past week, they have been revealing emotional details about their personal lives in a unique online forum. Spurred by the engaging PBS documentary series, ''An American Love Story,'' these intimate strangers have volunteered to participate in an ongoing dialogue about race, relationships, prejudice, and other provocative topics. It's an experiment masterminded by a New York operation called Web Lab, which aims to show that the Internet, despite its crass commercialism, can foster intelligent communication among diverse groups.

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Boston Globe Editorial, August 2, 1999
Elevation on the Internet

      The Internet is technology's golden child, but it hasn't achieved its legendary potential. Too often the Web is seen only as a convenience - an easy place to shop, check stock quotes, read newspapers, or chat. Innovations are emerging, but they need research and development support...
      Another Internet invention comes from Web Lab, which supports new uses of communications technology...Web Lab's projects can't be called digital libraries, museums, or other common nouns because they are unique - and as-yet unnamed - forms. A new site called ''NeedCom'' (www.pbs.org/weblab/needcom/), subtitled ''Market Research for Panhandlers'' is devised by California photographer Cathy Davies. This site exemplifies the word interactive. Visitors take a panhandling effectiveness survey - deciding based on photographs and sound clips how much money to give each of a group of panhandlers. The site gets users to review their criteria - how factors like race, gender, signs, clothing, point of contact, and verbal appeals affect their decisions.
      The rest of the site is an information hybrid. Interviews of panhandlers detail how long they've been soliciting, why they do it, and daily ''salaries.'' Users who answer poll questions - such as ''Do you prefer panhandlers who perform a task for you, like opening a door?'' - can go to a page that compares their answers with the votes and comments of other visitors. It is a way, Davies says, for Web users to learn about themselves.
 
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online
Lycos Technology News (Reuters)
, September 11, 1999
NetDestinations: 'Love Stories' On The Internet, by Jonathan Oatis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ``Love conquers all things,'' the poet Virgil wrote. That may not always be so, but a collection of heartfelt firsthand accounts on the ``American Love Stories'' Web site shows that love is a potent force against potential obstacles like race, age, disability, distance -- and even death

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The New York Times, July 5, 1999
Improving Dialogue on the Internet, by Denise Caruso

      Thanks to the Internet, as some very wise person has noted, we have at least disproved the old saw about a thousand monkeys at a thousand keyboards eventually producing a Shakespeare play.
      And all the millions of nodes in all the broadband, packet-switched, fully synchronous networks in the world apparently cannot prevent people from exchanges that are the digital equivalent of "Your mother wears Army boots."
      Internet snobs may be inclined to dismiss the inanity of most public conversations on the Web as irrelevant in their larger, more commercial vision of the Internet.
      But others, noting a seemingly insatiable appetite for public messaging, argue that the future of even the commercial Internet depends on making this crucial component more satisfying for everyone...

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online
Wired News, January 29, 1999
Fund Gap for Public-Interest Net, by Steve Silberman

      Welcome to the World Wide Web of the future, where AOLscape, YahooCities, and MicroBucks fight for your eyeballs with wide-screen video portals and product placements in your palmtop. Marc Weiss, the founder of the Silicon Alley-based Web Lab, took up arms against that way-new wasteland last year. Building on his track record as the man who brought the vision of independent filmmakers to the home screen with the public-TV showcase POV, Weiss launched the Web Development Fund as a Web Lab project to nurture sites emphasizing community building and complex social issues...

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Silicon Alley Reporter, January, 1999
Silicon Alley 100 #73: Web Development Fund

      Excerpt: A few years back, whimsy and innovation were cornerstones of the evolving Web. Then people started losing money. Webshops closed. A new sort of pragmatism crept into the Alley. Ever since, people have focused on more down-to-earth pursuits: advertising technology, e-commerce, and business-to-business solutions. But if making money (and simply staying afloat) are the concerns of the day, how will we continue to break new ground? Which is just what Marc Weiss wanted to know...
(full article available upon request)

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radio online
Morning Edition - NPR, December 18, 1998
Impeachment Discussions on the 'Net (an unofficial transcript archived on Reality Check), by Margot Adler

      NPR's Margot Adler reports on what people are saying about impeachment over the Internet. You can listen to the piece in Real Audio from the NPR site.

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online
TechWeb Internet, July 27, 1998
PBS: One Old-Media Dinosaur That Gets The Net, by Brooke Shelby Biggs

      Excerpt: New-media critics, myself included, tend to focus too much on the myriad traditional-media outlets and practitioners who misunderstand, misuse, or misinterpret the Net. I think it's fair to say we've established by those examples how not to approach the Net as a medium. But there is a fairly reputable school of thought that dictates people are more motivated by the carrot than the stick. So I thought I'd offer an example of an "old-media" organization that is revolutionizing the Web in more productive and impressive ways than the old standbys, such as Time-Warner (with its Pathfinder), or even the hipster digital originals, such as CNET. Surprise: pays not to be in it for the money... (full article available upon request)

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online
Salon, July 27, 1998
A lab for online experiments, by Spencer Ante

      Does the Web need nonprofit funding to keep its edge? In the summer of 1995 I was hired right out of graduate school to produce content for the online division of PC World magazine. This was the early days of the Web, and my boss told me I could devote half of my time to developing something new and different. After thinking deep thoughts for a few weeks, I proposed an online magazine called the Annex: a space for thoughtful reviews and feature articles aimed at a general audience interested in the human side of technology ...

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online
Cybertimes - The New York Times, May 4, 1998
Web Development Fund Announces Grant Recipients, by Lisa Napoli

      The Web Development Fund, a nonprofit group dedicated to financing Web sites, will announce on Monday the first group of projects it has decided to support. More than $150,000 in grants will be distributed to nine projects, which cover topics from the complex issue of suicide to a "cultural museum" exploring the effect of the cold war. "This is the first glimpse at what we hope the Web Development Fund is going to become," said Marc Weiss, the creator of the fund...

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online
MSNBC.com, April 19, 1998
A content Lab for the Web, by John Flinn

      On the radio dial, hit-driven Top 40 and shock-jock talk shows have National Public Radio holding up a higher standard. Few shows on the commercial TV networks, even cable's niche channels, display the creative freedom of public television's cultural and educational programming. But where is the Net equivalent of, say, "Great Performances" or Ken Burns' "The Civil War"? A spinoff of PBS Online, called WebLab, is about to fund the answer...

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online
Yahoo! Internet Life, March 19, 1998
The Web Gets Its Edge Back, with a Little Help from PBS, by John Motavalli

      Excerpt: As stories proliferate online about the death of Web content as we know it, a lonely voice has arisen saying that the Web needs more edgy material, not less. Is he nuts? We think not, and thankfully he's got some influential people behind him...
(full article available upon request)

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