(Hear the MP3, which contains far more detail.)

New Shows

I posted three particularly popular sessions this week:

• Brewster Kahle (rated an amazing 4.7 by IT Conversations listeners), Digital Librarian, Director and Co-founder of the Internet Archive, has been working to provide universal access to all human knowledge for more than fifteen years. Advances in computing and communications mean that we can cost-effectively store every book, sound recording, movie, software package, and public web page ever created, and provide access to these collections via the Internet to students and adults all over the world. By mostly using existing institutions and funding sources, we can build this as well as compensate authors within what is the current worldwide library budget. The talk offers an update on the current state of progress towards that ideal, which would allow us to bequeath an accessible record of our cultural heritage to our descendants. [A presentation from the terrific SDForum Distinguished Speaker Series]
• Dan Gillmor (4.1), author of We, the Media: Journalism By and For the People and former Business and Technology Columnist for the San Jose Mercury News at the Accelerating Change 2004 Conference. Grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media’s monopoly on the news, changing it from lecture to conversation. Dan Gillmor discusses the importance of this emerging phenomenon, a deep shift in how we make and consume the news. We the Media is essential reading for all participants in the news cycle: Consumers learn how they can become producers of the news through web journals (weblogs or blogs), Internet chat groups, email, and cell phones.
• John Buckman (3.9), the founder of Magnatune Records, is interviewed by Dave Slusher on Dave’s series, Voices in Your Head. Magnatune Records is an online record label with the slogan "We Are Not Evil." As a company, Magnatune has embraced Creative Commons licensing, internet streaming and distribution of music, and introduced innovations such as customer-chosen pricing for albums. As of this writing, their catalog consists of 185 artists with 356 albums available and climbing. In this interview we discuss his motivations informing Magnatune, his experiences and surprises in the first years of operation, the potentials for online distribution of music, and much more.

I posted three more sessions from the Web 2.0 Conference this week:

• Cory Doctorow (3.5) of the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented "Does Web2.0=AOL 1.0?" in which he explains how the sneaky forces of darkness are criminalizing the Web in smoke-filled rooms that you can’t get into.
• Dale Dougherty (2.6), VP, Online Publishing and Research for O’Reilly Media, asks and answers the question, "What happens when books become online platforms for learning?"
• Marc Benioff (3.3), the bombastic and outspoken CEO of Salesforce.com is always entertaining and surprising, In this conversation from the Web 2.0 Conference, Marc describes how his company has become a force in the enterprise platform space.

And of course, we have three new Tech Nation shows from Moira Gunn. The first two are about gaming and how gamers and gaming are changing the world.

• Dr. Henry Jenkins explains how video games will revolutionize education. Dr. Jenkins is the director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-editor of Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition (Media in Transition).
• John Beck, a Senior Research Fellow at USC’s Annenberg Center of the Digital Future, warns that the "Gamer Generation" is about to enter the workforce — and that means change.
• And in this week’s Biotech Nation segment, Dr. Belinda Clarke talks about her beliefs that scientists have a moral obligation to communicate science. Dr. Clarke is Science Liaison Manager at Norwich Research Park, Norfolk, England.

Since I publish the Tech Nation segments too late for reviews, from now on I’m going to tell you avout the previous week’s shows instead of those just launched on the same day as these announcements.

• David Bodanis (3.7). This week on TechNation, Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with David Bodanis, a writer for Popular Science and the author of Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity. This time around he’s explaining man’s fascination with electricity — from entertainment in the courts of French Kings to the modern day.
• Sir Roger Penrose (3.5). Moira also speaks with Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Professor of Mathmatics, Oxford University. He shares the Wolf Prize with Stephen Hawking. They discuss his new book, Road to Reality — A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe.
• Tim Cook (3.1). And in this week’s BioTech Nation segment, Moira speaks with Tim Cook, managing director of Isis Innovation. Tim tells us how university scientists view industry, and vice-versa.

And a matched set of two of my favorite shows from the archives:

• Joe Trippi (3.8), the man whose ground-breaking use of Internet-based campaigning propelled Howard Dean from obscurity to early front-runner, takes Teach-In participants inside the campaign’s unconventional experiment in Internet politics, and looks at both victories and lessons learned. The other candidates are rushing to emulate Trippi’s Internet strategy–as Wired News declared, “Internet politics is dead. Long live Internet politics.” This presentation was followed by a Q&A session (3.8) [recorded live at the O’Reilly Digital Democracy Teach-In].

Other Stuff

• Sound Policy: A new IT Conversations series with Denise Howell. The first edition features Cory Doctorow, Robert Scoble and Martin Schwimmer in a heated debate over Google’s AutoLink feature. Look for it within 48 hours.
• Help Wanted: Producers, Editors and Engineers. I’ve had a good response, but I still need more volunteers. Help produce IT Conversations and make some spare change, too.
• SXSW/ETech Double Header. If you missed one or both of these great events this past week, you’ll be able to hear the best presentations here on IT Conversations over the following months.
• A Creative Commons Update: Yes, I’m keeping the CC license. It’s just a matter of which variation.