MediaBerkman

Mapping Main Street is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through a dynamic visualization of stories, data, photos and videos recorded on actual Main Streets. The goal is to document all of the more than 10,000 streets named Main in the United States.

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Few dispute that the web will be the dominant medium of the 21st Century – swallowing whole newspapers, books, radio, television, and the cinema. And even as the web grows virtually – over a trillion unique urls and growing – it shrinks physically – from laptop, to netbook, from cell phone, to even tinier and ubiquitous communication devices.

The growth of the web seems radically different from that of television, radio, and newspapers. It seems like it was so grassroots, so rapid. But Professor W. Russell Neuman of the University of Michigan argues that to predict the growth of the web in the future we need to take a good hard look at just how those 20th Century technologies and infrastructures came to be so dominant.

So, what does history have to say about how this tiny little medium will grow?

Listen:
or download
…also in Ogg!

CC-licensed music this week:
Neurowaxx: Pop Circus
General Fuzz: Warm Steel

The Reference Section:
Russell Neuman’s bio
Russell Neuman’s research
Russell Neuman’s recent talk Theories of Media Evolution at the Berkman Center

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See a partial transcript after the jump.

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Author and Professor of Public Policy Viktor Mayer-Schönberger believes that digital memory is a little too perfect. Every word you post on the web, every picture, every video, tweet, and email is set in stone, archived, permanently findable. Like the proverbial elephant, the digital world doesn’t forget.

There are incredible benefits to this. And there might be consequences as well, ranging from invasion of privacy, to the impairment of human memory.

David Weinberger spoke with Viktor about some of these consequences, and how we might help our machines learn to forget.

Listen:
or download
…also in Ogg!

The Reference Section:
Viktor on the web
Viktor’s book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
A Full interview with Viktor on CBC’s Spark

CC-licensed music this week:
Neurowaxx: Carioca
Jaspertine: Pling

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See a partial transcript after the jump.

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John Clippinger and Oliver Goodenough of the Berkman Center’s Law Lab discuss the progress made this year by the Law Lab – especially three specific projects that develop new digital institutions and research tools to foster innovation and deepen our understanding of trust, transparency and human cooperation.

Liveblogging from the talk by David Weinberger

Click Above for Video
…or download the OGG video format!

John Clippinger and Oliver Goodenough of the Berkman Center’s Law Lab discuss the progress made this year by the Law Lab – especially three specific projects that develop new digital institutions and research tools to foster innovation and deepen our understanding of trust, transparency and human cooperation.

Liveblogging from the talk by David Weinberger

Download the MP3

…or download the OGG audio format!

Clay Shirky describes the changing news landscape that has put accountability journalism at risk, and outlines a “journalistic ecosystem” that is needed to preserve essential watchdog role of the press.

This talk was sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Find links to the summary and transcript of this talk at:
 http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/news…

Video by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society

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…or download the OGG video format!

Television recorders are going online. Device manufacturers are starting to produce consumer devices and software that can be connected to Internet at consumers’ homes. New models of innovation are starting to emerge. This talk proposes the social enrichment of TV offerings may prove to create disruptive innovation to an industry accustomed to control the consumption of content.

Click Above for Video

Television recorders are going online. Device manufacturers are starting to produce consumer devices and software that can be connected to Internet at consumers’ homes. New models of innovation are starting to emerge. This talk proposes the social enrichment of TV offerings may prove to create disruptive innovation to an industry accustomed to control the consumption of content.

Download the MP3

…or download the OGG audio format!

Ownership structures for creative works – such as Copyright, Creative Commons, Fair Use, Public Domain – abound. This week, Kenneth Crews, the director of the Copyright Office at Columbia University, speaks with us about some of the distinctions, and the ways to make sure your work is protected as much or as little as possible.

Listen:
or download
…also in Ogg!

CC-licensed music this week:
Jaspertine: Pling
Greg Williams: Teagarden Blues and Rain

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See a partial transcript after the jump.

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Internet access. Anymore, it’s something many of us take for granted. Like water from the tap, power from the plug, outrageous outbursts from Kanye West. It’s there, it happens – why question it?

Sure, there’s a lot of buzz about broadband and net neutrality going on in Washington, and in Geek Caves around the country. But the Net users on Main Street haven’t yet hit a tipping point. The fact is, your average consumer’s web connection isn’t very fast or cheap. But it is just fast and cheap enough that they won’t question, complain, or demand better.

What is the ideal web? And how do we get past the consumer complacency to build it?

Well, Clay Shirky has some ideas. And we were lucky enough to get an exclusive with him on One Web Day earlier this week. Listen in as he lays out a few visions for the potential of the web.

Listen:
or download
…also in Ogg!

There was more from Clay than we could fit in this week’s podcast. Check out some extras from him on Radio Berkman Supreme: or download
…also in Ogg!

Reference Section:
Clay lives on the web here
Notes and audio from Clay’s talk at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School on Tuesday
Video from Clay’s talk last year at the Berkman Center

CC-licensed music this week:
Coconut Monkeyrocket: “Accidental Beatnik”
Podington Bear – Jackie and Floyd

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