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http://wiki.ros.org/roslaunch/XML/param

"You can also set private parameter across a group of nodes by using the ~param syntax (see ROS names) in a tag. The declared parameter will be set as a local parameter in the <node> tags that follow that are in the same scope (i.e. group or ns tag). "

You're making it a private param. In example 1, what do you get when you run the node and enter in the following command:

rosparam list