Tuesday, October 7, 2003

BloggerCon and beyond

Bottom line on BloggerCon: It was one of the best conferences I've ever attended — and I go to a lot of conferences.

Others (see below) give a lot of reasons why. I'll add one that others might not point out, and that's the academic environment. The conference was held at Harvard, on campus, in Cambridge. A lot of Berkman Fellows were there, plus (especially on Day Two) teachers and students who know how to lead and participate in lively intellectual discussions. It was a privilege and a delight, for example, to be part of a Day Two seminar on copyright law, led by "Profblogger" Eugene Volokh, leading co-conspirator of the eponymous blawg.

Links:

Dave Berkman Dean Landsman Halley Suitt Elaine Akma Jeff (bonus audio)Ed Cone Joey Dan Bricklin Betsy Devine Jenny Levine Jessica Enoch Lance Jay Rosen Scott Heath Oliver Alex je_apostrophe Wendy Britt

There's some bad HTML in there (I think, not sure) and I don't have time to find it. So I'll let the list stand in its screwed state for now, and trust ya'll to follow the links to folks I've neglected to include. There are many.

Politics are converations too

Required reading: An Open Letter to Paul Krugman, by Arnold Kling. As usual, Arnold is tough and direct but also, above all, reasonable and open. A rare combination. (Also, it seems to me, more like you'll find with a blogger than a pulpitizing pontificator — which is, to be only slightly unfair, what op-ed columnists are paid to be.)

Arnold makes a very useful and interesting distinction between "Type C" and "Type M" arguments. One is about consequences, the other about motivation. He believes the latter lowers the level of discourse. And he's right. Type M arguments are usually passive-aggressive flamage, when you get right down to it.

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link.

Beyond channels

What if there were not a finite number of available radio and TV channels? What then?

Well, we're gonna have that, thanks to the Net, whether the FCC, the RIAA, the broadcasting industries or anyone else likes it or not. Satellite radio is just the start.

Steve MacLaughlin visits the issue this morning.

Bonus link: Jock Gill on post-broadcast communications.

Remembering democracy

I'm voting against the recall today. Not because I like Gray Davis as a governor (I don't), but because the law making the recall possible is a terrible one and needs to be changed.

As written, the incumbent governor can get 49.9% of the vote and still lose to a challenger getting 13% of the vote. That's a recipe for minority rule, and it's wrong.

[Later...] Dave Aiello has an important response. Pick up the discussion there.