A few hours ago we achieved our goal of 10% of all IT Conversations registered members converting those memberships to The Conversations Network. That’s with 30 hours to go before our self-imposed deadline of the end of January, and not to shabby considering that probably fewer than 50% of all ITC registered members are still active and receiving our update.

If you haven’t already done so, please visit the CN site and convert your membership. It just takes a minute and it gives you free membership in The Conversations Network through March 31.

Much of the inspiration for IT Conversations and The Conversations Network came from Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia: Always-free content, volunteer contributors, and a minimal staff. Now Jimmy is actively seeking donations to keep Wikipedia in operation, so please pull out that credit card and help them out. [Source: JD Lasica]

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

New Programs Last Week

Because of our switch to the new ratings system, we don’t have accurate ratings for our most-recent programs. Here are last week’s programs without listener ratings.

• Kim Stanley Robinson Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of the "Mars Trilogy." In his latest book, "Fiftey Degrees Below" he surmises what it would be like if the Gulf Stream stopped flowing."
• Scott Ritter Moria also interviews Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq and author of "Iraq Confidential" who answers, "How do you look for a weapon of mass destruction?"
• Prathima Archarya Then on BioTech Nation, Moira speaks with Dr. Prathima Archarya from Diosynth Biotechnology who tells us how they turn a promising molecule into a robust drug.
• Ben Laurie – Apache and SSL Security vulnerabilities are something network administrators have dealt with since before the dawn of the web, and now people with less experience have to be aware of the security implications of their software choices. Ben Laurie, Director of Security for the Apache Foundation speaks with Scott Mace about the comparison between Microsoft’s and Apache’s security, how security is implemented within Apache, the future of SSL and other security issues.
• Daniel Golding and Trent Henry – Perspectives on Spam Spam is a daunting challenge. With estimates of lost productivity costs in the US at $10 billion and growing, many IT departments struggle with spam on a daily basis. Burton Group Senior Analysts Trent Henry and Daniel Golding discuss some suggested best practices in dealing with spam and claim that, as hard as it might be to believe it, we’re winning.
• Zach Warren – Laughter in a Time of War In the Fall of 2005, Zach set the World’s Record for running the Philadelphia marathon–while juggling! In 2006, he is gunning to set another world’s record for the fastest100miles on a unicycle–a record that has stood for almost 20 years. In the summer of 2005, Zack Warren, a native of West Virginia, traveled to Afghanistan to work with children as part of the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children. All this while a student at Harvard Divinity School.
• Joichi Ito – The Future of Blogging The Internet is truly becoming an open network with the rise of amateur content and open source software. In this talk, Joi Ito takes us through the growth of the internet as an open network in layers to the point where the killer app is now user generated content. Earlier, it was the little guys around the edges of the internet who created the open standards which made the web work, and today it is those same people who fuel it with their creativity. Joi also shares with us his observations of the remix culture seen on the net.

The O’Reilly Pick of the Week:

This week’s IT Conversations/O’Reilly Pick of the Week is from 2004:

• Bruce Mau – Global Creativity From Pop!Tech 2004: Bruce Mau has gained international recognition for his expertise and innovation in identity articulation, research and conceptual programming, print design and production, environmental signage and wayfinding systems, and exhibition and product design. Recently his studio output has extended to dance performances, video installations, and ventures into the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape design – and most recently education with the founding of The Institute without Boundaries.

After two weeks, 7.7% of all registered members of IT Conversations have taken advantage of the offer for free membership in The Conversations Network through March 31. That’s up from 5.2% after the first week. Can we reach my goal of 10% conversion by the end of the month? We’ll see. Remember, it’s free for all IT Conversations members. Absolutely free.

After nine months of building and improving Team ITC, our volunteer website editors, post-production audio engineers and producers, we’ve switched from an informal mentorship program to a more-formal apprenticeship model. We currently are recruting apprentice editors (writiers) and audio engineers for The Conversations Network.

I’m proud to announce three appointments to the management team of The Conversations Network:

• Darusha Wehm, Senior Editor
• Paul Figgiani, Senior Audio Engineer
• Tim McNerney, Senior Software Engineer

They deserve a lot of the credit for making IT Conversations what it is today, and The Conversations Network wouldn’t exist without them.

I was one of those early Blackberry users and loved it. Over time, however, I became tired of carrying both a pager/PDA and a mobile phone, so a few years ago I switched to the Palm Treo 600 and then the 650. But I always missed the unlimited push email that Blackberry provides. Running a POP3 or IMAP client on a cellphone isn’t even close. I’m planning some foreign travel this Spring, and since my Sprint (CDMA) Treo won’t work there, I decided it was time to shop.

As good luck and timing would have it, Cingular recently started selling the Blackberry 8700c for only $299 after rebates. You have to buy monthly plans for both voice and Blackberry (data), but you can get unlimited email and browser access.

In short, the 8700c is brilliant. I picked up a Jabra Blutooth headset (works great) and the superb PocketMac for Blackberry (free!) that synchs calendar, contacts, etc., with my Powebook. This is the best phone/PDA/email combo I’ve seen, and I find the costs to be quite reasonable. Push email is alive and well once again.

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

New Programs Last Week

Because of our switch to the new ratings system, we don’t have accurate ratings for our most-recent programs. Here are last week’s programs without listener ratings.

• Alex Lindsay – The Next Generation of Digital Craftsmen As ‘Chief Architect’ of PixelCorps, Alex Lindsay merges the very old idea of a guild system made up of independent craftsman with the demands of mastering new and emerging media. PixelCorps serves as ‘a guild for the next generation of craftsmen–digital craftsmen.’ They are currently transfering skills in digital imaging and animation to regions in the developing world, so that those citizens can capitalize on the coming media revolution.
• Tony Gaughan – Open Source Licensing Open Source software has yet to make substantial inroads into the Enterprise market, but when companies as established as Computer Associates not only release a technology as powerful an the Ingres database but also continue to build their enterprise applications on that platform, the combination adds stability to Open Source efforts. In this Keynote from O’Reilly’s 2005 Open Source Convention, Tony Gaughan, Senior VP of Product Development at CA, discusses CA’s decision to release the Ingres database to the open source community.
• Saul Klein – Skype Voice over IP is a technology which is changing the way people view telephony, and Skype is a major player in this paradigm shift. The host of Larry’s World, Larry Magid, speaks with Saul Klein, the Vice President of Marketing for Skype. The talk about changing the playing field for telecoms, Skype’s new video capabilities and what is upcoming for Skype and its partners.
• What is a Sustainable Business for Data? Thanks to the internet, people have access to maps like never before: you just point and click. The data contained within the maps, however, can be much harder to acquire. This panel discussion, moderated by Simon St. Laurent of O’Reilly Media, brings together five leaders from diverse sources to talk about the challenges inherent in the collection of mapping data.
• Jamais Cascio – Personal Memory Assistants More and more people are using mobile phones with integral video cameras to capture events. Some of the most harrowing pictures from the London bomb attacks in July came from amateur video taken underground by passengers with camera phones. We seem to be heading towards a future where everything we experience will be captured and stored for retrieval. Perhaps only the sheer scale of the numbers of people involved will be the biggest safeguard we have against the nightmare of ‘Big Brother’ surveillance.
• Lynn Fritz – Using Supply Chain Innovations to Save Lives A few days after hurricane Katrina hit, Lynn Fritz, Director General of Fritz Institute, opened the Effective Disruption Management Seminar convened by the Stanford Graduate School of Business and shared his vision for the enhancement of disaster relief operations to a floor of highly engaged humanitarian disaster relief actors. Check out the free DVD offer for humanitarian disaster relief organizations.

So what have we learned after one week of The Conversations Network new website and features?

• Listener-Supported Audio Works. Well, it’s too early to declare complete success, but so far the rate at which our listeners have signed up for paid memberships ($25-$200 per year) has met our expectations.
• Communities Give Great QA. As much as we tried to find and fix bugs before launch, nothing is as good as a few thousand people who beat up on your web site. I continue to be impressed that so many people take the time to carefully document problems they find and send them in. Even the typos.
• Restricting Access to Anything is a Delicate Business. Did we make the right decisions as to what features and access to limit to paid members? Again, it’s too early to know for sure, but it may be that we’ll need to loosen some restrictions in the months ahead. For example, since the rating system is now for members only, we’re getting far fewer ratings — not even enough in some cases to provide statistically accurate results. The same may be true in our new discussion forums. Since only members can post, very few people have done so.

We had forums on IT Conversations about two years ago, and they failed to gain traction then even though access was unrestricted. But listenership was very small then, and perhaps we didn’t give the forums enough time to succeed. We’ll be looking at all of these issues over the next 30-60 days and make adjustments as necessary. Ain’t the web great? I love that unlike the old packaged software business it’s so easy to have real conversations with listeners and change course with relative ease when listeners tell you what to do. It’s like Doc Searls keeps saying: The demand side is taking control. I’m just along for the ride.

After one week, 5.2% of the registered members of IT Conversations have take advantage of the offer of free membership in The Conversations Network through March 31. One reason that number isn’t higher might be that as many as half of the members are inactive, but I’m sure we can get the number up to 10% by the end of the month. If you haven’t converted your membership, here’s your chance.