Clay Shirky: The Shock of Inclusion

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“If you were in the news business in the 20th century, you worked in a kind of pipeline, where reporters and editors would gather facts and observations and turn them into stories, which were then committed to ink on paper or waves in the air, and finally consumed, at the far end of those various modes of transport, by the audience.

What’s going away, from the pipeline model, isn’t the importance of news, or the importance of dedicated professionals. What’s going away is the linearity of the process, and the passivity of the audience. What’s going away is a world where the news was only made by professionals, and consumed by amateurs who couldn’t do much to produce news on their own, or to distribute it, or to act on it en masse.

We are living through a shock of inclusion, where the former audience is becoming increasingly intertwined with all aspects of news, as sources who can go public on their own, as groups that can both create and comb through data in ways the professionals can’t, as disseminators and syndicators and users of the news.”

Looxcie wearable camera

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“The Looxcie is not a high-definition camera. It records at a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels at 15″ frames a second. But it has a special button that makes it ideal for taking video of unexpected moments. When the camera is running in continuous-capture mode, and the wearer suddenly sees a goal scored at a hockey game, for instance, a quick push of the button will tell the camera to automatically save a clip of the preceding 30 seconds. The camera weighs about an ounce and stores up to five hours of video.”

Scott Adams: Eliminating Political Parties

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“Now imagine what would happen to campaign funding if political parties didn’t exist. In our current system, a union can give a million dollars to the Democratic Party and it doesn’t seem too wrong because the party represents about half of the voters in the country. But if political parties didn’t exist, unions or corporate interests would have to donate to individuals. And a large donation to an individual campaign would either be illegal or it would look so much like a bribe that it would be counter-productive.

I think political parties made sense in pre-Internet times. It was a good way to organize and to produce candidates who had a legitimate chance of getting elected. Now it’s easy to imagine the Internet being a better platform for electing the right people. The problem is that there’s no way to get to a different type of system from here. The major parties are too entrenched to give up power, and belonging to organizations is a fundamental freedom.”

Changing Education Paradigms

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A couple of things. I don’t think I would have listened to this presentation (10 min?) without the animation. Because of the animation, I listened much more closely. Focused. Much better than watching the speaker at a podium or –god forbid– Powerpoint slides.

Secondly, I am really grateful my nephews and niece were home schooled. Well done Blane and Tonya. If you have children in school –or plan to– you should watch this.

Thanks to Rebecca Landwehr