Lawrence Lessig lectures on Free Culture

February 26, 2008

The following video is both lengthy (you will likely want to watch it full screen if you can!) and of great importance to our collective future. Definitely worth the watch in my opinion as it outlines a couple of different future scenarios as to how creative works will be protected (but more importantly be freed for many to build on…).

I first stumbled across this video on www.lessig08.org/, a site which it appears was created to potentially support an attempt to be elected to American Congress. You can read the whole story on the site but in the meantime free your mind and learn a little about free culture.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Innovation, theOwen Features, Video, Internet

Net Neutrality

January 7, 2008

On a daily basis I follow a near ridiculous number of conversations on line. It’s only near ridiculous and not actually ridiculous of course as a result of the systems I have in place to track these many conversations across numerous websites, blogs, and a variety of other social media platforms(like Facebook and Twitter as examples).

I have written a little about this system in the past and I will offer some more insight in the coming weeks as well as I continue working towards building an effective means by which we can carry out an ongoing, time shifted discussion of all things Grey and Bruce.

One of the topics that has been increasing in prevalence over the past few weeks is the idea of Net Neutrality. The basic idea being the net should be neutral, that was the original idea and we should stick with it. The fundamental reason the debate is heating up has to do with the wishes of telecom providers (who do own most of the Internet infrastructure) to create a two tiered Internet, with the different characteristics of each tier effectively determined by ones ability to pay to have their information available on line. The following video clips and links will provide anyone interested with the varied details of this debate.

Obviously I am following the issue with great interest. It is the neutral nature of the Internet that allows myself as an independent content producer to easily distribute information and ideas to you, the reader/listener/viewer. Easily might be a bit of an understatement considering the time and money associated with my efforts thus far here at theOwen.com but in principal it is.

As a follow up to this post I will draft up a locally pertinent “future scenario” of how a two tiered Internet might impact your access to local information. In the meantime here’s your homework on the issue.

Do some reading about Net Neutrality. A good place to start would be www.neutrality.ca. Otherwise a quick google search will link you to numerous thoughts on the issue. If you happen to find something you think might be valuable to this discussion please send me a link.

You can also watch the following videos…

CityNews International - Amber MacArthur

Save the Internet. The following is the video that was referenced in the previous interview.

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Written by Ryan · Filed Under Tech + Life, Web Tools, theOwen Features, Internet, Administrivia

An idea for the Festival of Northern Lights

December 20, 2007

There has to be a few handy folks around town that could pitch in to bring a little of this kind of showmanship to the Festival of Northern Lights. If you know anyone with the skills have them contact us.

Chevy Chase ain’t got nothing on this!