Escape from Illinois

Sufjan Stevens needs to go to work for IDOT. Dude writes an entire album about Illinois, but can't find the time to pen a song about how to get out of the city on the Friday of a holiday weekend. John Wayne Gacy be damned, Stevens – this is more important! Can't you see that the Dan Ryan is torn up, and the Skyway is no better. Write a delicate precious little tune about how I can follow Lake Shore Drive down past Hyde Park through the twists and turns of South Shore to eventually meet up with the Indiana Toll Road at the border. And make me cry with your heartfelt lyrics while you're at it. Now if I go buy your album Michigan, there better be a song about the best place to stop for dinner between Holland and South Haven.

Who Should Michael Barrett Punch Today?

I'm looking to unleash my hero Michael Barrett upon the unsuspecting meatheads of the world. He's locked down in my basement and I've been poking him with a stick now and then to keep him angry. So who's next on the list, now that AJ Pierzynski has been tenderized? The American Sector has been reading a lot about user generated content, so I've decided it's time for you to do the work for me. Should Michael Barrett go big-picture and punch Karl Rove for the good of the nation? Or maybe he should keep it local and hit Steve McMichael in the jaw. Or better yet, what about just letting him loose at the Cubby Bear after a Cubs night game. But now it's your turn. You tell me – who should Michael Barrett punch today?

Hanging with Steve Inskeep at the Empty Bottle

Who said NPR was out of touch? Who said they had become too corporate? Well, whoever that was, I hope they're wearing their mint flavored shoes today because NPR is shedding it's stuffy image. How? With Pabst Blue Ribbon, that's how. It turns out that PBR is now sponsoring the program All Songs Considered, the online ghetto where NPR execs send anything that smells "hip" or "indie". In recent years, PBR has become the fave beer of the emo set, thanks to $1.50 bottles at places like Club Foot. They have backed into what the marketers call a "powerful non-brand" – and as we all remember from marketing 101, non-brands are worth their weight in oil. What does NPR get out of the deal?… snarky blog posts from member station employees! What's next, Urge Overkill on Prarie Home Companion? 

There Goes My Hero

My father once told me that a punch received square in the jaw is one of the rites of passage into manhood. Well, AJ Pierzynski is alls grows up, thanks to my new hero Michael Barrett. Let me be clear here… my joy in Barrett's sucker punch does not stem from the Cubs-White Sox rivalry. Despite my historical allegiance to the north siders, I am more than willing to admit who has the better team and I have nothing but harsh words for the Cubs this year. But Michael Barrett did something special – he punched a meathead in the face. AJ Pierzynski is exactly the kind of meathead that needs to eat a knuckle sandwich now and then. Barrett had no valid motive to hit AJ, but man it must have felt good. He deserves a big suspension from the league – but when he returns, you can bet on a standing O at his first at bat. Let this be a warning to all the meatheads out there. We're mad as hell, and we've got Michael Barrett on our side.

Net Neutrality: The War at Home

"Do you want Washington lawmakers to give yet another handout to big business? If no, press 2 and leave a message to tell your representative to vote no on net neutrality."

That was the automated phone call that I received last night. I am assuming it was from the telecom companies. They are painting Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo as the big business villains who have to pay their "fair share". While the telecoms can't prevent you from visiting any websites, they want the ability to charge providers for the amount of bandwidth they use up with all those visitors. The fear is that the more a company pays, the faster their websites will load on your computer (much better explanations can be found here) And I found it amusing how the call made sure I came away thinking it was a bad bad thing (hmm.. I don't like that Microsoft, so net neutrality must be an awful plan). Here's a flash cartoon about the supposed evils of net neutrality (hmm… I like cartoons, so this net neutrality must be an awful plan… I better call my congressman!). Study up, my fellow American Sectorians – there will be a pop quiz.

A Reminder From the Management

The Stan Lee of Fair Use

At Beyond Broadcast, Jake Shapiro of the Berkman Center plugged the publication of Bound By Law: Tales From the Public Domain. It's a comic put out by the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and follows the struggles of a documentary filmmaker trying to get the legal rights to distribute their film. Little things like a scene with a cell phone going off with a copyrighted ring-tone can run a filmmaker thousands of dollars. Costs like these have kept documentaries like Eyes On The Prize out of circulation for years. Click here for an interview with Duke's James Boyle on WUNC about the comic. And in related news, at the conference, the Berkman Center was handing out the new Podcasting Legal Guide from Creative Commons for all to use. Here's a link to it online.

Beyond Broadcast 2006

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society hosted Beyond Broadcast in Cambridge last weekend. The goal was to explore the future of public media in a participatory culture. It was an interesting mix of public radio/tv types, social activists, internet thinkers, and techno geeks (a term used with much love). Participatory media has the potential of changing not just our business, but redining who is included in public media. Personally, I spent the two days on a roller coaster of fear, excitment, hope, and optimism. Everyone at the conference really wanted to jump into the issues and try to come up with some solutions. A few highlights do stand out in my mind:

• The keynote address given by James Boyle, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. He brought both humor and insight to the opening of the conference. He explained that the Internet can be read as an accident of history – and intellectual property claims are essentially an attempt to undue this happy accident. He hit on net neutrality, tarzan business models, waterhole searching, and how letting the telecom industry shape internet law is like asking the whale oil companies to decide whether electricity should be legal.
• Ethan Zuckerman gave a great cliff notes 5 minute history of the the internet. He dates it back to early email messages in 1965. My favorite year was 1982, and the French government's attempt at an interactive television network, Minitel.
• A healthy dose of reality was offered by Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University (and a favorite group blog of mine, Crooked Timber). She outlined how the internet is being used by the "average" user. Let's just say Daily Kos, Technorati, and Second Life are nowhere to be found. The most common online activities: getting info for school work, downloading and listening to music; looking up a word or definition; finding a fact about this or that. So despite all the enthusiasm in the room, it was clear that the attendees are going to have to wait for the great leap forward.

All in all, hats off to the Berkman Center for organizing Beyond Broadcast. It was a valuable addition to the conference calendar for those of us trying to figure out whether we will still have a job in 5 years.

Dad Always Wanted Me to Go to Harvard Law

And I did… for 2 days this past weekend. I was there for Beyond Broadcast: Reinventiing Public Media in a Participatory Culture (more on the conference later). And sure the Harvard tradition is grand, the buildings were actually covered in Ivy, and Cass Sunstien was found wandering the halls – even though he doesn't work there (true story!). But I was a little shocked to find that once inside, it kind of looked like my junior high. In between the classrooms were hallways filled with colorful lockers. I guess that's so you've got a place to put up your poster of John Roberts. And if you don't help Cass with his report on Marbury v. Madison, he's got somewhere to rough you up and give you a wedgie.