From the monthly archives:

September 2009

September 2009

Will the FCC regulate wireless phone rates?

by Jerry Ellig on September 30, 2009 • View Comments

Over the past decade, the lightly regulated wireless industry has produced price reductions far greater than we could expect under even the most enlightened, efficient, and perfectly operating regulation.

Recovery.gov almost there, but not yet

by Jerry Brito on September 30, 2009 • View Comments

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A redesigned Recovery.gov is up, but there’s little new data, and it’s not available in structured formats. The good news is they’ve promised to have it later this month.

Lagging Behind in Airborne Cell Phone Use

by Gabriel Okolski on September 30, 2009 • View Comments

As wireless phone technology remains taboo on American airline flights, foreign carriers have been experimenting with in-flight wireless phone technology with surprising success.

Grills! Grills! Grills! … Surprisingly Free!

by Jerry Ellig on September 29, 2009 • View Comments

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Technological change confers enormous benefits, even for those of us who do not rush out to buy the latest neat new thing. My collection of surprisingly free barbecue grills and smokers is one example.

Anticommons debate Friday live on SF

by Stan Tsirulnikov on September 29, 2009 • View Comments

On Friday, October 2, the Information Economy Project at the George Mason University School of Law will hold a conference on Michael Heller’s new book The Gridlock Economy. We’ll be streaming live video of the the conference kick-off debate between Heller and Richard Epstein at 8:30 a.m. right here on Surprisingly Free.

Sidewiki as Sunstein’s electronic sidewalks

by Jerry Brito on September 29, 2009 • View Comments

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Google’s new Sidewiki tool allows users to annotate any page on the web. It is essentially a private fairness doctrine for the web a la Cass Sunstein’s “electronic sidewalks.”

In praise of Twitter

by Tyler Cowen on September 28, 2009 • View Comments

I am surprised how many people still think Twitter is a fad or a waste of time. I view Twitter — or some modified future version thereof — as everlasting.

Apple rejected my iPhone app, and I’m glad

by Jerry Brito on September 28, 2009 • View Comments

As a developer, it’s a little frustrating that we now have to find a new icon, resubmit the app, and likely wait another couple weeks for such a small thing. As an iPhone user, though, I’m glad Apple is manning the quality control station.

Tim Lee on bottom-up processes, innovation, and the future of news

by Jerry Brito on September 26, 2009 • View Comments

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 Episode 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tim Lee, a graduate student in computer science at Princeton and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, discusses bottom-up processes, the theme of his new blog. The discussion also turns to the innovators dilemma, the link economy, and the future of newspapers.

Amanda Michel on Distributed Reporting

by Ethan Zuckerman on September 21, 2009 • View Comments

Amanda Michel, the Director of Distributed Reporting at ProPublica, a non-profit investigative news agency, explains to IBM’s Transparent Text symposium, how her newsroom is using crowdsourced reporting. She shows that, in addition to using crowdsourcing for reporting efficiently, it can also be used for dynamic quality control (assessing the quality of government information), accessing novel information you couldn’t find otherwise, and increasing the accountability in journalism.

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