(Hear the MP3 version with additional commentary in beautiful monophonic audio.)

New Programs This Week

Listed in increasing order of listener rating. For descriptions, visit the IT Conversations home page.

• Shane Robison – Software 2005 (rated 2.8 by our listeners). Companies are still spending up to 70% of their IT budgets on infrastructure and application maintenance, which is impacting their ability to support new business opportunities. Shane Robison, Chief Strategist for HP, shares his company’s views on enterprise software and tells what they’re doing to support the adaptive and real-time enterprise. They are investing in open source software, web services and utility computing.
• Sir Christopher Evans (3.0) On last week’s Biotech Nation segment, Moira Gunn spoke with Professor Sir Christopher Evans, a microbiologist and the Founder and Chairman of Merlin Biosciences, the largest BioTech venture capital fund in Europe.
• Brendan Eich – Web 2.0 (3.1) If you’re not a Firefox user yet, listening to this Web 2.0 session may get you to switch, and if you are a user, you might discover many of Firefox’s greatest capabilities most people are unaware of. Brendan Eich, creator of the JavaScript language and one of the first people at Netscape, now at the Mozilla foundation, speaks about Firefox’s greatest capabilities, how Windows Longhorn might impact Firefox, and what the future versions of Firefox are likely to hold, such as the tag.
• Seltzer & Schultz – Endangered Devices (3.1) Add devices, gizmos and gadgets to the endangered species list. This presentation by Wendy Seltzer and Jason Schultz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlights technologies threatened by a climate hostile to innovation. Learn about the legislation that is threatening technology developers and find out what can be done to fight back.
• Stephane Maes – palmOne (3.2) Portable media is the new personal computer. With the PSP, iPods and Smartphones/PDAs taking over the world, people like to do everything on a handheld device: listen to music, talk to their girlfriends, play games, check their e-mail, and even watch movies. Host Larry Magid speaks to Stephane Maes, Director of Product Management for Handhelds at palmOne all about portable media.
• Mark Ramsey – Mercury Radio Research (3.3) In conversation with Rob Greenlee, Mark explains his vision for the coming Digital HD Radio platform and whether it fills a need in the radio market. He also talks about whether the improved sound quality of AM Digital Radio broadcasts are really needed and why broadcasters are deploying it, and he considers how podcasting will be embraced and how it will impact broadcast radio. Mark is a terrestrial broadcast radio consultant and audience researcher.
• Harry Dent – The Next Great Bubble Boom (3.4) Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Harry Dent, the author of "The Next Great Bubble Boom." He sees another boom coming, and he says that technology and the Baby Boomers are behind it!
• Cory Doctorow – Author, Blogger and Internet Activist (3.7) What does free WiFi have to do with revenge? And what can you do with last year’s high-tech gizmo that is worth less than a dollar today? Science fiction author, blogger and Internet activist Cory Doctorow speaks with Dave Slusher about wireless community networks, high tech art made from trash, free speech and his brand-new novel, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
• Tom Standage – Technology Editor, The Economist (3.9) Moira also speaks with Tom Standage, the science and technology editor for the Economist. They’ll talk about what makes the Economist unique, as well as his new beat: The Technology Quarterly.

This week’s Doug’s Favorite from the IT Conversations archives:

• Tim O’Reilly on Open Source (4.0) This week’s Doug’s Favorite is a great session from last year’s OSCON. Tim looks at the deep trends underlying open source, and some of the cool projects and ideas that are keeping folks at O’Reilly up at night. He also presents the results from O’Reilly’s recent market research efforts, combining information from book sales patterns with other indications of technology adoption and interests. OSCON 2005 starts August 1, so register now. We’ll see you there.