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

New Programs Last Week

Listed in increasing order of listener rating.

• Robert Denaro – Driving the Mean Streets (too late for ratings) For the last 18 years, NAVTEQ’s employees have driven the national road system to capture real-world information about its layout. In the last year alone they drove about 10,000 miles every day – for a total of over 3 million miles – to capture the existence of 120,000 dividers and 50,000 gates that couldn’t be seen in satellite images. In this presentation from O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference, NAVTEQ Vice President Bob Denaro discusses his company’s tools, practices and business model.
• Tim Bajarin – Looking Back on 2005 (rated 2.5 by our listeners) January 1 is just a date on the calendar but it’s a good time to look back and look forward. And who better to reflect and prognosticate than Tim Bajaran, one of Silicon Valley’s leading tech analysts? In this brief podcast, Tim and host Larry Magid talk about how consumer technology and media is evolving and what we can expect in 2006 and beyond.
• John Hanke – Google Earth (2.5) Google’s suite of location tools includes local search via mobile phone or the web and rich mapping applications at Google’s site. The granddaddy of Google’s mapping tools, though, is Google Earth – a downloadable client that allows the user to virtually fly over the world and view satellite imagery from almost anywhere. Prior to its acquisition by Google, John Hanke was CEO of Keyhole, the company that built the application that is at the core of Google Earth. In this talk from Where 2.0, he demonstrates some of the secrets of Google Earth.
• Jerry Paffendorf – Brave New Virtual Worlds (4.0) What would it be like if the Internet were a 3D immersive experience, if browsing the internet felt like walking down the street in a virtual town? In this introduction to the Exploration sessions at Accelerating Change 2005, Jerry Paffendorf discusses the convergence of 3D modelling and Internet interactivity. Programs like Google Earth and games like Second Life offer a glimpse of what the internet may be in the future.
• Bran Ferren – Web 2.0 High Order Bit (4.0) Bran Ferren believes that there are still many things that ‘suck’ in Web 2.0 but that many of these will suck a lot less by the time we reach Web 3.0. In a stimulating short talk from this year’s Web 2.0 conference, Ferren explains why he believes the computer revolution has not yet started.
• Barry Diller – In Conversation at Web 2.0 (4.5) Owning 34 Internet brands offers as many opportunities for failure as for success. In a freewheeling and provocative conversation, Barry Diller – legendary media mogul, chairman of Expedia and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp – explains his own recipe for success and speculates about the future of business on the Internet.

The O’Reilly Pick of the Week:

This week’s pick is from August of 2004:

• MGM v. Grokster MGM v. Grokster: On August 19th, 2004, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided whether distributors of peer-to-peer filesharing software, such as Grokster and StreamCast, could be held liable for the copyright infringements of their users. The court said that, under the circumstances, no. The case has many ramifactions for technologists and innovators. Ernest Miller discusses the decision with four leading legal analysts, including Fred von Lohmann of the EFF, who argued the case.