From the yearly archives:

2010

Perry Chen on Kickstarter

by Jerry Brito on July 26, 2010 • View Comments

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 Episode 28: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Perry Chen, co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter, an online platform for funding creative projects, discusses the enterprise. Chen talks about the inspiration behind Kickstarter and its business model, how project creators convince backers (not investors) to fund them, funding success rates, and the most interesting projects funded so far.

Apparently not obvious: neutrality neuters innovation

by Tate Watkins on July 21, 2010 • View Comments

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Neutrality neuters innovation. The playing field is level, it’s just that Google’s algorithm keeps smacking the Jabulani into the upper 90s while the competition can’t stop kicking it out of bounds when trying to make a simple square pass, all while the New York Times whines about not knowing how Google is kicking the ball.

Catherine White on the Noisy Idiot Dilemma

by Jerry Brito on July 12, 2010 • View Comments

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 Episode 27: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Catherine White, graduate student at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she is researching productive participatory discussion, talks about her thesis on the Noisy Idiot Dilemma. White explains the dilemma — how to foster productive online conversation when certain speakers exhibit noisy, unproductive, or unhelpful behavior — and discusses her research on various online forums, weblog comments, effects of humor, anonymity, and empathy online, and characteristics of elastic, oily conversation.

A Speed Bump on the Road to Universal Broadband?

by Jerry Ellig on July 7, 2010 • View Comments

It’s far from obvious how the FCC could legally subsidize broadband with a download speed of 4 mbps.

Eric Frank on Flat World Knowledge

by Jerry Brito on July 5, 2010 • View Comments

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 Episode 26: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Eric Frank, Co-Founder and President of Flat World Knowledge, the leading publisher of commercial, openly licensed college textbooks, discusses the company and its business model, which he compares to that of Red Hat. In the podcast Frank addresses moral hazards of the traditional college textbook publishing model, the company’s genesis, products and services it offers, how it makes money, and why it appeals to students, professors, and authors.

Good Spectrum News from the Obama Administration

by Jerry Ellig on June 29, 2010 • View Comments

The administration announced its plan to find 500 megaherz of spectrum for mobile broadband service by the end of the decade.

Tim Stevens on cyberwar

by Jerry Brito on June 28, 2010 • View Comments

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 Episode 25: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tim Stevens, PhD candidate in the Dept. of War Studies, King’s College London, where he researches the politics of cybersecurity and cyberwarfare, and regular contributor to The Guardian, Forbes’ cybersecurity blog The Firewall, and Current Intelligence discusses cyberwar. Stevens talks about the current cybersecurity climate; nuances between cyberespionage, cybercrime, and cyberwar; the balance between roles of government and private sector; and differences in cybersecurity attitudes in the U.K. and the U.S.

Adrian Johns on Piracy

by Jerry Brito on June 21, 2010 • View Comments

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 Episode 24: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Adrian Johns, professor in the Department of History at the University of Chicago, expert on the history of science and the history of the book, and author of the new book, Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Guttenberg to Gates, discusses the history of intellectual property and piracy. He discusses origins of copyright law in London, the first pirates, and today’s digital piracy. He also addresses the future of books and potential tipping points that could prompt changes in copyright law, citing the Google Books project and pharmaceuticals in the developing world.

Do you know your broadband speed? Do you care?

by Jerry Ellig on June 17, 2010 • View Comments

The 80 percent of Americans who do not know their home broadband speeds may be “rationally ignorant.”

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