May 24, 2003
PopTech sets lineup for October
PopTech has published this announcement of its program for this fall:
Pop!Tech Unveils 2003 'Sea Change' Conference.CAMDEN, Maine -- Pop!Tech, the world's premier conference exploring the impact of technology on society and the future, today unveiled its 2003 program, outside program chair, and new speakers for its fall conference, taking place October 16 - 19, 2003 in Camden, Maine. ...
Penn State prez on file sharing
Penn State President Graham B. Spanier, a leading figure in addressing the issue of file sharing on university campuses, discussed the topic May 22 in an online chat session hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's the transcript. Spanier shared his thoughts on how colleges should resolve the problem of file sharing on campuses, and whether or not it is a problem they should deal with at all. Spanier currently co-chairs a joint committee of the higher education and entertainment communities. In addition, here's the text of his recent testimony on peer-to-peer file sharing on campuses before the U.S. Congress.
Here's an excerpt from the chat:
Spanier: I don't think universities should block all P2P file sharing, since it is a legitimate technology that can have important uses, especially for research, collaboration, and education. The problem is how to prevent inappropriate uses, such as pirated music, videos, movies, and software. Few universities at this point actually block such material, and it is debatable whether there is a technology out there that could prevent a determined person from gaining access to what he or she wants. But there is pressure from Congress and from the owners of IP to block piracy.
And here's the Chronicle of Higher Ed's story: A President Tries to Settle the Controversy Over File Sharing. Penn State's Graham Spanier wants to make a deal with the music industry.
From across the media landscape
Recent pointers in IWantMedia:
Jimmy Guterman in Business 2.0: Return of the Dotcom Media Flameouts. The Wall Street Journal Online is adopting blogging conventions for its reporting.
Penton Media: The monthly print edition of Internet World will be discontinued with some services continuing on the magazine's website and email newsletter.
Columbia Journalism Review: The Lies We Bought: The Unchallenged 'Evidence' for War. The success of "Bush's PR War" was dependent on a compliant press that uncritically reported many fraudulent administration claims.
Business Week: The Faint, Fading Voice of the Left. Conservative voices in American media will become even louder if FCC chairman Michael Powell succeeds in easing ownership rules.
New York Daily News: College students shouting "God Bless America" pulled the plug on a New York Times reporter who gave an anti-war speech at an Illinois graduation.
Sad times we live in.
In your dreams, W.
What utterly preposterous gall.
Here's PBS's Online NewsHour with a segment on the White House's efforts to manage the message.
And as for a real patriot, here's Bill Moyers on candor in journalism and Memorial Day 2003.
Is a wi-fi bubble building?
News analysis in Business Week: Is a Wi-Fi Bubble Building? As one of tech's few growth areas, it's luring startups and VC cash -- in a familiar pattern. First to feel a pop may be consumer outfits.
Armies of the Right
Scary stuff: Armies of the Right: What campus conservatives learned from the '60s generation. In Sunday's NY Times Magazine.
bernie said:
A teeny-weeny little crack in the far-left hegemony that has stifled academia for three decades, and it gets labeled "scary stuff"? So much for intellectual diversity! Sounds like another case of SAD (Sixties Arrested Development).
JD said:
To each his own. When I look out at the political landcape, it appears that the right wing is in control of the presidency. In control of the Senate. In control of the House. In control of the Supreme Court. It's not enough that they control the political agenda and set the media agenda. Now they're coming after our kids by funneling tens of millions of dollars (wonder where those Bush tax cuts for the rich are going?) into recruitment efforts on campus.
As the article says:
>As with college conservative movements in the past, the recent wave has been fueled and often financed by an array of conservative interest groups, of which there are, today, almost too many to keep straight: Young Americans for Freedom; Young America's Foundation; the Leadership Institute; the Collegiate Network; the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. These groups spend money in various ways to push a right-wing agenda on campuses: some make direct cash ''grants'' to student groups to start and run conservative campus newspapers; others provide free training in ''conservative leadership,'' often providing heavily subsidized travel to their ''publishing programs''; others provide help with the hefty speaking fees for celebrity right-wing speakers. Through these coordinated activities, these groups have embarked in the last three years on a concerted campus recruitment drive to turn temperamentally conservative youngsters into organized right-wing activists.
Disposable DVDs go to the dumps
Katie Dean in Wired News: Environmentalists have one word about one movie studio's plans to market disposable DVDs: nuts.
What we have here is a solution in search of a problem.
Will the FCC add to media monopoly?
William Safire: The Great Media Gulp. Excerpt:
Many artists, consumers, musicians and journalists know that such protestations of cable and Internet competition by the huge dominators of content and communication are malarkey. The overwhelming amount of news and entertainment comes via broadcast and print. Putting those outlets in fewer and bigger hands profits the few at the cost of the many.Does that sound un-conservative? Not to me. The concentration of power ó political, corporate, media, cultural ó should be anathema to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the greatest expression of democracy.
Why do we have more channels but fewer real choices today? Because the ownership of our means of communication is shrinking. Moguls glory in amalgamation, but more individuals than they realize resent the loss of local control and community identity. ...
