Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business, discusses his new book, co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson, entitled, “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy.” The book looks at the interplay between unemployment and fast-paced technological innovation. In the book, McAfee and Brynjolfsson propose that technology is outpacing humans, and they discuss whether humans can keep up. According to McAfee, technology is encroaching on skills that once belonged exclusively to humans. He believes that entrepreneurial thinking, different institutions, and new organizational structures can prevent humans from being left behind by the machines.

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Related Links

• “Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy”, by McAfee & Brynjolfsson
• “More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People”, New York Times
• “Race Against the Machine* and TGS, a comparison”, Marginal Revolution
• “Are You An Internet Optimist or Pessimist? The Great Debate over Technology’s Impact on Society”, Technology Liberation Front

Johnny Ryan, Senior Researcher at the Institute of International and European Affairs, discusses his recent book, “A History of the Internet and the Digital Future.” The book is a comprehensive overview of the Internet and where it came from. Ryan discusses some of the core concepts, including what made the Internet revolutionary, and how many of these ideas came from RAND Corporation researcher Paul Baran. He explains that the initial concept for packet switching did come from the need to build a communications system to withstand nuclear attack. The discussion then turns to the advent of communication between computers, which sprang from a group of graduate students who used a collaborative process to create the network. Finally, Ryan discusses Web 2.0, and how technologies like cloud computing and 3-D printing will disrupt industries in the future.

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Related Links

• A History of the Internet and the Digital Future, by Ryan
• “Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet”, Rand Corporation
• “Is collaboration the future of invention?”, CNN.com

Sonia Arrison, writer, futurist, and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, discusses her new book entitled 100+: How the Coming of Age of Longevity Will Change Everything from Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith. The process of aging, according to Arrison, is not set in stone, and the way humans experience age can be changed as technology evolves. She discusses the different types of technology, including tissue engineering and gene therapy, which are poised to change numerous aspects of human life by improving health and increasing lifespan to 150 years and beyond. She also talks about how increased lifespans will affect institutions in society and addresses concerns, such as overpopulation and depletion of resources, raised by critics of this technology.

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Related Links

• 100+, Sonia Arrison’s webpage
• “Living And Working To 100″, fastcompany.com
• “Living to 100 and Beyond”, Wall Street Journal
• “The World Will Be More Crowded — With Old People”, foreignpolicy.com

Michael Nelson, Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, developed, along with colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, “Memento,” a technical framework aimed at better integrating the current and the past web. In the past, archiving history involved collecting tangible things such as letters and newspapers. Now, Nelson points out, the web has become a primary medium with no serious preservation system in place. He discusses how the web is stuck in the perpetual now, making it difficult to view past information. The goal behind Memento, according to Nelson, is to create an all-inclusive Internet archive system, which will allow users to engage in a form of Internet time travel, surpassing the current archive systems such as the Wayback Machine.

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Related Links

• Memento site
• “Old Dominion U. professor is trying to save Internet history”, Washington Post
• “Memento Project wins Digital Preservation Award 2010″, Digital Preservation Coalition

Ryan Calo, a scholar at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, discusses his new article in the Maryland Law Review entitled “Open Robotics.” Robots are frequently used in war, manufacturing, warehouse management, and even in surgery. Now, personal robots are poised to be the new explosive technology, and Calo anticipates their social effect to be on par with that of the personal computer. He discusses why he believes personal robots are more likely to thrive if they are built on an open model–rather than closed or proprietary framework–even though robots open to third-party tinkering may be subject to greater legal liability than closed, discrete-function robots. To protect open-model innovation, Calo recommends immunity for manufacturers of open robotic platforms for what end users do with these platforms, akin to the immunity enjoyed under federal law by firearms manufacturers and websites.

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Related Links

• Open Robotics, by Calo
• willowgarage.com
• Robotics and the Law, Stanford Law School’s Blog

Tim Harford, economist and senior columnist for the Financial Times, discusses his new book, Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure. He argues that people and organizations have a poor record of getting things right the first time; therefore, the evolutionary process of trial and error is a difficult yet necessary process needed to solve problems in our complex world. Harford emphasizes the importance of embracing failure in a society focused on perfection. According to Harford, one can implement this process by trying different things in small doses and developing the ability to distinguish success and failures while experimenting. A design with failure in mind, according to Harford, is a design capable of adaptation.


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Related Links

• Adapt: Why Success Starts With Failure
• “Tim Harford on failure”, Washington Post
• “No, statistics are not silly, but their users . . .”, By Harford
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/07/12/tim-harford/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:00:58 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3555

Steven Levy, a columnist for Wired and author of the tech classic Hackers, among many other books, discusses his latest book, In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Levy talks about Googliness, the attribute of silliness and dedication embodied by Google employees, and whether it’s diminishing. He discusses Google’s privacy council, which discusses and manages the company’s privacy issues, and the evolution of how the company has dealt with issues like scanning Gmail users’ emails, scanning books for the Google Books project, and deciding whether to incorporate facial recognition technology in Google Goggles. Levy also talks about prospects for a Google antitrust suit and the future of Google’s relationship with China.


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Related Links

• In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
• “The Problem With Success: With a market capitalization of $184 billion, can Google maintain its reputation as a brash iconoclast?” Wall Street Journal
• “Life ‘In The Plex’: The Future Of Google,” NPR
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/06/14/steven-levy/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/19/gavin-andresen-on-bitcoin/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/19/gavin-andresen-on-bitcoin/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:00:45 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3173

Gavin Andresen, project lead of the open source, decentralized, and anonymous virtual currency project Bitcoin, talks about the project. Andresen explains how the peer-to-peer currency functions and talks about what allows Bitcoin to operate without a central bank, why it doesn’t have to rely on intermediaries, and how it overcomes the double-spending problem. He also discusses the project’s implications for government regulation, what attracted him to the project, and Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakomoto’s motivation for creating the currency.


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Related Links

• “Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks,” by Jerry Brito
• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (pdf), by Satoshi Nakomoto
• ClearCoin, Andresen’s startup Bitcoin escrow service
• “How to Start Your Own Private Currency,” The Atlantic
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/19/gavin-andresen-on-bitcoin/feed/ 1 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/12/rob-carlson/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/12/rob-carlson/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:00:32 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3146

Rob Carlson, principal at Biodesic, an engineering, consulting, and design firm in Seattle, and author of the book, Biology is Technology: the promise, peril, and new business of engineering life, discusses his book. Carlson explains what he means by “biology is technology” and gives a few examples of how humans have been using biology as technology for thousands of years. He then discusses a few modern biotechnology applications, like antibiotics, biologics, genetically modified organisms, fuels, and plastics. Carlson also talks about why more biotech garage innovators are needed, what the industry might be able to learn from open source software and hardware, and how legal and regulatory barriers to innovation in biotechnology might be minimized.


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Related Links

• Biology Is Technology: the promise, peril, and new business of engineering life
• “Learning to ‘Fly’ Biology,” American Scientist
• “A Life of Its Own: Where will synthetic biology lead us?,” The New Yorker
• “Biohacking: Hacking goes squishy,” The Economist
• Book review: Robert Carlson’s Biology is Technology, Journal of Evolution and Technology
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/04/12/rob-carlson/feed/ 2 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/29/mark-stevenson/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/29/mark-stevenson/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:00:32 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3118

Mark Stevenson, writer, comedian, and author of the new book An Optimist’s Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer “What’s Next?”, discusses his book. Stevenson calls An Optimist’s Tour of the Future a travelogue about science written for non-scientists, and he talks about why he traveled the world to try to draw conclusions about where human innovation is headed. He discusses his investigation of nanotechnology and the industrial revolution 2.0, transhumanism, information and communication technologies, and the ultimate frontier: space. Stevenson also discusses why he’s hopeful about the future and why he wants to encourage others to have optimism about the future.


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Related Readings

• “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future,” Stevenson’s blog about the book
• “A Key Lesson of Adulthood: The Need to Unlearn,” by Matt Ridley
• “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future by Mark Stevenson – review,” The Guardian
• “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future,” Financial Times
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/29/mark-stevenson/feed/ 1 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/22/patri-friedman/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/22/patri-friedman/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:00:16 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3099

Patri Friedman, executive director and chairman of the board of The Seasteading Institute, discusses seasteading. Friedman discusses how and why his organization works to enable floating ocean cities that will allow people to test new ideas for government. He talks about advantages of starting new systems of governments in lieu of trying to change existing ones, comparing seasteading to tech start-ups that are ideally positioned to challenge entrenched companies. Friedman also suggests when such experimental communities might become viable and talks about a few inspirations behind his “vision of multiple floating Hong Kongs”: intentional communities, Burning Man, and Ephemerisle.


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Related Links

• Seasteading: Institutional Innovation on the Open Ocean, by Friedman and Brad Taylor (pdf)
• “Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap,” Wired
• “Homesteading on the High Seas,” Reason
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/03/22/patri-friedman/feed/ 1 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/15/jaron-lanier/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/15/jaron-lanier/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:00:58 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=3019

Jaron Lanier, pioneering computer scientist, musician, visual artist, and author, discusses his book, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. Lanier discusses effects of the web becoming “regularized” and dangers he sees with hive mind production, which he claims leads to “crummy design.” He also explains why he thinks advertising is a misnomer, contending that modern advertising is more about access to potential consumers than expressive or creative form. Lanier also advocates for more peer-to-peer rather than hub-and-spoke transactions, discusses why he’s worried about the disappearance of the middle class, claims that “free” isn’t really free, talks about libertarian ideals, and explains why he’s ultimately hopeful about the future.


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Related Links

• “Book review: Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget”, by Adam Thierer
• “Caught in the Web”, The Wall Street Journal
• “A Rebel in Cyberspace, Fighting Collectivism”, The New York Times
• “The Geek Freaks: Why Jaron Lanier rants against what the Web has become”, Slate
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/15/jaron-lanier/feed/ 1 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/01/joseph-reagle/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/01/joseph-reagle/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:00:05 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2976

Joseph Reagle, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, discusses his recent book, Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia. Reagle talks about early attempts to create online encyclopedias, the happy accident that preceded Wikipedia, and challenges that the venture has overcome. He also discusses the average Wikipedian, minority and gender gaps in contributors, Wikipedia’s three norms that allow for its success, and co-founder Jimmy Wales’ role with the organization.


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Related Links

• “Good Faith Collaboration: How Wikipedia works”, Boing Boing
• “Define Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia’s Contributor List”, The New York Times
• “In Rancorous Times, Can Wikipedia Show Us How to All Get Along?”, The Atlantic
• Wikipedia article on Good Faith Collaboration
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/02/01/joseph-reagle/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/01/18/don-norman/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/01/18/don-norman/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:00:36 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2943

Don Norman, a former Apple vice-president, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, and one of the world’s most influential designers, discusses his new book, Living With Complexity. Norman talks about differences between complexity, something being complicated, and simplicity, and suggests that people who bemoan “technology” don’t actually seek simplicity. He also discusses differences between designing a product and designing a system, using examples of iPods and iTunes, the Amazon Kindle, and BMW’s Mini Cooper — products whose success depended upon the success of larger systems. Norman also notes the difference between a forcing function and a nudge, explains how complicated rules can weaken security, and comments on sociable design in realspace and on the internet.


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Related Links

• “Simplicity Is Highly Overrated”, by Norman
• “Living with Complexity: How Apple Reinvented Music Distribution”, by Norman
• “Simplicity Is Not the Answer”, by Norman
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2011/01/18/don-norman/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/12/07/milton-mueller/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/12/07/milton-mueller/#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:00:58 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2862

Milton Mueller, Professor and Director of the Telecommunications Network Management Program at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, discusses his new book, Networks and States: The Global Politics of Internet Governance. Mueller begins by talking about Wikileaks’ recent leak of diplomatic cables, using the incident to elaborate on the meaning of internet governance. He notes the distinction between traditional centralized systems of authority and peer-produced, distributed governance that rules much of cyberspace. He also discusses global democracy, contradictions in cyber libertarian views, judicial checks and balances on the internet, and future issues in internet governance.


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Related Links

• “Mueller’s Networks and States = Classical Liberalism for the Information Age”, by Adam Thierer
• “Why Wikileaks polarizes America’s Internet politics”, by Mueller
• “How to Discredit Net Neutrality”, by Mueller
• “‘Networks and States’ at the Internet Governance Forum”, by Mueller
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/12/07/milton-mueller/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/30/peter-thiel/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/30/peter-thiel/#comments Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:00:13 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2802

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, early investor in Facebook, and president of Clarium Capital, discusses the stagnation of technological innovation. Thiel gives reasons why innovation has slowed recently — offering examples of stalled sectors such as space exploration, transportation, energy, and biotechnology — while pointing out that growth in internet-based technologies is a notable exception. He aslo comments on political undercurrents of Silicon Valley, government regulation, privacy and Facebook, and his new fellowship program that will pay potential entrepreneurs to “stop out” of school for two years.


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Related Links

• “Technology = Salvation”, Wall Street Journal interview with Thiel
• “Investor Peter Thiel asks Silicon Valley: Where’s the innovation?”, L.A. Times
• “The Education of a Libertarian”, by Thiel
• “Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies”, Wired
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/30/peter-thiel/feed/ 2 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/02/tim-wu/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/02/tim-wu/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:00:13 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2724

Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, the chair of media reform group Free Press, and a writer for Slate, discusses his new book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Wu’s book documents the history of media industries in the United States and speculates on what that history teaches us about the future. On the podcast, he discusses Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of innovation, cycles of open and closed competition within industries, the history of government-backed monopolies in telephone and radio, and his thoughts on the future of information empires, the internet, and regulation.


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Related Links

• The Internet’s Mid-Life Crisis, Wu speaking about the state of the internet
• Tim Wu on communication, chaos, and control, The New Yorker
• “Thoughts on Tim Wu’s Master Switch“, by Adam Theirer
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/11/02/tim-wu/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/19/kevin-kelly/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/19/kevin-kelly/#comments Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:00:39 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2560

Kevin Kelly, a founding editor of Wired magazine, a former editor and publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, and one of the most compelling thinkers about technology today, talks about his new book, What Technology Wants. Make no mistake: the singularity is near. Kelly discusses the technium–a broad term that encompasses all of technology and culture–and its characteristics, including its autonomy and sense of bias, its interdependency, and how it evolves and self-replicates. He also talks about humans as the first domesticated animals; extropy and rising order; the inevitability of humans and complex technologies; the Amish as technology testers, selecters, and slow-adopters; the sentient technium; and technology as wilderness.


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Related Links

• “What Technology Wants”, by Kelly at The Technium
• “Building One Big Brain”, by Robert Wright
• “Do Machines Have Minds of Their Own?”, The Wall Street Journal
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/19/kevin-kelly/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/12/don-tapscott/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/12/don-tapscott/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:00:51 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2675

Don Tapscott, writer, consultant, and speaker on business strategy and organizational transformation, and co-author of the bestseller Wikinomics, discusses his new book, Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World. In the book, Tapscott and his co-author, Anthony Williams, document how businesses, governments, nonprofits, and individuals are using mass collaboration to change how we work, live, learn, create, and govern. On the podcast, he discusses an Iraq veteran whose start-up car company is “staffed” by over 45,000 competing designers and supplied by microfactories around the country. He also talks about how companies are using competitions for R&D, and how mass collaboration can improve government regulation and universities.


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Related Links

• Macrowikinomics: The Choice Between Atrophy or Renaissance, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams
• The wiki way: Two cyber-gurus take a second look at how the internet is changing the world, The Economist
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/12/don-tapscott/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/04/joanne-mcneil/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/04/joanne-mcneil/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:00:22 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2543

Joanne McNeil, a science and technology writer living in Brooklyn, New York, and curator of Tomorrow Museum, a collection of images and speculative essays exploring how technology, science, and economics are affecting the fine arts, discusses online introversion and curation. McNeil discusses realspace introverts turned online extroverts, explains the lack of social media presence of many extroverts and celebrities, and parses the distinction between shyness and introversion. She also talks about Hanoi Wi-Fi and other technology encountered on her recent trip to Southeast Asia and addresses online curation, link blogs, and Tumblr.


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Related Links

• “Caring for Your Online Introvert”, by McNeil at Tomorrow Museum
• “Caring for Your Introvert”, by Jonathan Rauch
• “The Editor and the Curator (Or the Context Analyst and the Media Synesthete)”
  , by McNeil at Tomorrow Museum
• “You Are Not a Curator”, New Curator
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/10/04/joanne-mcneil/feed/ 1 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/09/27/nick-bilton/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/09/27/nick-bilton/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:00:23 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=2013

Nick Bilton, Lead Technology Writer for The New York Times Bits blog and a reporter for the paper, discusses his new book, I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works.  In the book, Bilton examines how technology is creatively disrupting society, business, and our brains.  On the podcast, he talks about neuroplasticity and reading, a debate with George Packer about Twitter, innovators’ dilemmas in the porn industry, why many CEOs and movie producers bristle at how the future works, and “ricochet working.”  He also discusses effects of combining human curation with computer algorithms, hyperpersonalization, informational veggies, and serendipity.  He concludes with his theory about today’s news (and the reason he doesn’t worry about missing tweets): “If it’s important, it will find me.”


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Related Links

• “A Tech World That Centers on the User”, by Bilton
• Bits, the New York Times technology blog
• “The Conversation: Nick Bilton Explains the Future”, ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer
• “Stop the World”, by George Packer
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/09/27/nick-bilton/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/08/16/peter-sunde-on-flattr/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/08/16/peter-sunde-on-flattr/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:32 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=1909

Peter Sunde, co-founder of BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay and creator of Flattr, a new online social micropayments system, discusses Flattr.  Sunde explains the Flattr concept, how it differs from previous micropayment platforms, and why it’s more meaningful than the Facebook “like” button.  He also briefly discusses progress of the Pirate Bay case.


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Related Readings

• Flattr
• “Pirate Bay founder aims to make a Flattr world”, Financial Times Tech Blog
• “Is Flattr the new Facebook Like, but this time with real money?”, Tech Crunch Europe
• Teh Flattr Blog
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/08/16/peter-sunde-on-flattr/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/26/perry-chen-on-kickstarter/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/26/perry-chen-on-kickstarter/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:00:38 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=1853

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.


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Related Readings

• How to Use Kickstarter to Launch a Business, at Inc.com
• The Kickstarter Effect: Fundraising as Game Theory, at documentary.org
• At Play: Kickstarter is a Web site for the starving artist, at the Washington Post
• The Kickstarter Blog
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/26/perry-chen-on-kickstarter/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/05/eric-frank-on-flat-world-knowledge/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/05/eric-frank-on-flat-world-knowledge/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:00:11 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=1803

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.


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Related Links

• Building a Better Model: Eric Frank on Flat World Knowledge (.pdf)
• “Flat World schools textbook publishers with free Web editions”, at Ars Technica
• “Textbook case”, Westchester County Business Journal
• “Flat World Knowledge: The Textbook Case for Disruption”, at bNET
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/07/05/eric-frank-on-flat-world-knowledge/feed/ 0 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/06/14/clay-shirky-on-cognitive-surplus/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/06/14/clay-shirky-on-cognitive-surplus/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:00:38 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=1760

Clay Shirky, adjunct professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, discusses his new book, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Shirky talks about social and economic effects of Internet technologies and interrelated effects of social and technological networks.  In this podcast he discusses social production, open source software, Wikipedia, defaults, Facebook, and more.


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Related Links

• “Does the Internet Make You Smarter?” Shirky at WSJ.com
• Here Comes Everybody, Shirky’s first book about organizing without organizations
• Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet
• Shirky talk from Web 2.0 Expo NY on information overload versus filter failure
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/06/14/clay-shirky-on-cognitive-surplus/feed/ 5 http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/02/22/daniel-h-kahn-on-social-intermediaries-identity-and-code-backed-norms/ http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/02/22/daniel-h-kahn-on-social-intermediaries-identity-and-code-backed-norms/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:00:44 +0000 Jerry Brito http://surprisinglyfree.com/?p=993

Daniel H. Kahn, a recent Harvard School of Law graduate and clerk on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, discusses his new article forthcoming in the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review on social intermediaries and their potential to radically improve the social life of the Web. The discussion also turns to portable identities, code-backed norms, and trolling.


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Related Links

• Social Intermediaries: Creating a More Responsible Web Through Portable Identity, Cross-Web Reputation, and Code-Backed Norms by Daniel H. Kahn
• Online Comic xkcd on YouTube Comments
• Slashdot
• Social Network at Wikipedia
• Identity Disaggregation and Mob Aggregation from Cyber Civil Rights by Danielle Keats Citron
• OpenId at the OpenID Foundation
• Open Social at the Open Social Foundation
• A New Open Stack: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts by Joseph Smarr at JosephSmarr.com
• Trademark Law and the Social Construction of Trust: Creating the Legal Framework for Online Identity by Beth Simone Noveck
• Phishing at Wikipedia
]]> http://surprisinglyfree.com/2010/02/22/daniel-h-kahn-on-social-intermediaries-identity-and-code-backed-norms/feed/ 0