Here’s what 1/2 a penny on the dollar buys you, according to astrophysicists Neil deGrasse Tyson: If you listen to nothing else, skip to the 4 minute mark. The best examples of why technologists point out that the future technology and innovation isn’t coming from America. And won’t. Without a radical shifting of our priorities.
The last two years have been instructive for me professionally. When I began working on The Cult of Me, I had every intention of writing a book about how the news industry could save itself from implosion. I thought it a worthy cause, one that I’d spend the better part of the last decade working […]
I was 28 when I graduated from Berkeley. 30 when I left Wired (and San Francisco). I bring that up because 10 years later (or 8 years later if you’re doing the math), I don’t feel particularly smarter than I was back then. I do feel more well-rounded. Which I guess is a way of […]
I am asked to speak to groups regularly. This is something that, years ago, I thought would be very cool. When I first attended the South by Southwest Interactive and Music conferences in Austin in 1994 or 1995 (I can’t ever remember when I began going), I remember sitting in the panel sessions day-dreaming about […]
I’m angry. Well, angry isn’t exactly what I am. It’s not Hulk Smash anger. It’s some weird combination of frustrations, annoyance, alone-ness and emptiness wrapped into a people sandwich. Why? The continued insistence that the world that I exist within – this nebulous world of technology – is somehow not part of the mainstream. *** […]
<1> Last week, I gave a presentation at the Popular Culture Association that didn’t go very well. It was the first public presentation of a project that Brian McNely, Matt Mullins and I had worked on for the better part of this school year. The goal of “The Object Remix”: create a story using publicly […]
In response to the work Brian, Matt and I presented this past weekend (which is now behind a password-protected wall), my friend Evan Ratliff forwarded me this essay written in Harper’s a few years back. It’s a treatise on influence, the commons and remix culture. It says more elegantly what we are beginning to say […]
I’m not a big fan of arguments. Which surprises some people. But only the ones who don’t know me very well. My friends understand this about me. I will absolutely have arguments about the strengths needed to build a winning baseball team or the importance of defensive tackles in football. I will do so vociferously […]
ED Note: I exchanged a few comments and Tweets with Jolie earlier today. She was surprised by the spirited response to her blog post (from the blogosphere; not from me). Our conversation confirmed what I thought: she’s a decent gal. She just waded, unintentionally, into the annual post-SXSW Interactive reaction debate. For all of you […]
It’s been a long day, but there’s but one full day left. I’m too tired to be sad. And too far behind in my work to worry. At some point this evening, I’ll need to get my Media Ethics lecture finished (although it’s possible that will have to wait until tomorrow and instead I’ll put […]
It’s midnight here in Austin, the end of the South by Southwest weekend. It’s a sad day. Not because the event is over. There are still three days left. But there is a shift on Monday and Tuesday. The parties slow, the conference slows. The business begins to set in as the end draws near. […]
South by Southwest (SXSW) is simply seven days of heaven. The weather was gorgeous and the panel sessions really kicked off today. It’s fair to say the conference is under way. I started the day with a nice 3 mile run, although the hamstring is now acting up regularly. I think when I get home […]