The Brian Lehrer Show

It will be interesting to see if young people today using myspace, facebook, and open source software will grow up and be like us adults who really do not want to change how we do things, to share information with people we don't know, nor to improve ourselves beyond what is comfortable amongst people we trust.

I read the first chapter of his book on Amazon and it's ironic that two companies he contrasted as one doing the right things and the other the wrong - Sirius and XM - are now the same company due to the poor business models (cash flow) of them both forcing them to merge. This is 'sharing' of competencies, but it is also a monopoly and in the end - poorly serving the public.

So far, noone has gamed a new innovation: Twitter. Why? These things will continue to pop up and we will be better at protecting ourselves from gaming the system.

Does he believe the power of the internet is more potent in the developing world, particularly in areas with less political and press freedom, than in the developed world? It is difficult to shut down YouTube or other large internet sites that can be used to disperse photos, videos, and text from around the world including scenes that otherwise not reported.

Hardware hackers are the new heroes?

Right on! We are losing on innovation because we have been trapped by big corporation to use their products. - Our choices Microsoft or Apple????

You are right on the money. We need more real original thinking.

Thank you

I think Mr. Rushkoff lacks the faith in humanity that brought us the silicon revolution.

Douglas brought up the historical point that the twenty-two-letter alphabet didn't create a generation of readers but that it created a generation of listeners that took in what the priests were saying. Point well taken, but the alphabet did lower the standards for becoming a literate priest. Medieval Europe, while feudal, was more democratic than ancient Egypt, where the priestly class were hand picked at birth to learn tens of thousands of hieroglyphs. Compare that to medieval Europe where after a couple of years of seminary school, one could become a literati.

The Internet, likewise, still promotes a technocratic hierarchy, but each day it's becoming easier to become a technocrat.

Doug's comments about mashup culture not being a truly creative endeavor is as off-base as his comment about the priest class continuing the hold power after advances in writing and printing.

The consumer is now the producer. We don't just mashup old media, we create new media, and we mash that new stuff up, too. It's the "prosumer" paradigm and it will equalize the balance of power between old media and the ordinary citizen.

This guy is onto something. The internet is one big commercial. With the info that are corprate lords allows to obtain

The guest has a point in regards to loss of context and "not learning the codes", but I disagree with most of the rest of his arguments. The commercialization aspect he refers to is simply the "braindead" way to monetize the web. It has little to do with the massive crowdsourcing, open source and ad-supported "free" services movements.

I'm going to add a "you produce" item recommending web broadcasters / journalists who have a broader view of what the internet is today.

I recently discovered an independent broadcaster who I "friended" on Facebook and then met at an event in "meatspace". Her name is Daisy Whitney and she covers emerging internet TV and other media. My "virtual" and "real" worlds DO have important crossovers.

Shameless plug:

http://reechard.vox.com

This guy's arguments seemed spurious and based on nothing.

Please sign this petition and march in parade to free this Moroccan techie arrested for posting false facebook page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOozV-_Z5Vg

(off facebook group)

andrew keene

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2007/06/06/segments/80153

That was interesting.

Next topic, please.