Dictionaries may look like books, but they don't act like them. In this presentation of the O'Reilly Tools For Change conference, Erin McKean, Chief Consulting Editor for American Dictionaries at Oxford University Press, explains the characteristics of books, why the book isn't a good form for dictionaries to take, and how the information in dictionaries could better be disseminated.

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The Technological Singularity - the moment when artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence - is coming. According to Vernor Vinge, who invented the term, it will occur sometime around 2030. In this interview with Spectrum Radio's Harry Goldstein, mathematician and science fiction author Vernor Vinge discusses his latest novel "Rainbow's End" and the concept of the Singularity as depicted in his book.

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November 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of RFC 2445, the iCalendar specification that governs the exchange of calendar information on the Internet. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell invites one of the authors of RFC2445, Derik Stenerson, to reflect on the history of the venerable standard, and to consider new ways it might be applied in our era of personal publishing.

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Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Frank Wilchen, Nobel laureate and professor at MIT, about his latest book, "Lightness of Being," and how the recently activated Large Hadron Collider might confirm or dispel some of his most recent theories.

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Gaining weight leads to increased risk of becoming a diabetic. Dr. Moira Gunn asks Dr. Christian Weyer, of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, to explain their new combined treatment for diabetes and obesity.

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It's a Yeggethon! Joel and Jeff sit down with Steve Yegge to discuss Google, programming languages, writing code, and just plain writing. This episode runs long as a tribute to Steve.

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Micah Sifry discusses his work with the Sunlight Foundation, an organization using the power of the Internet to strengthen the relationship between citizens and their elected officials and to foster public trust in Congress. He talks about the technical details of the site, including its API and how it makes its data available.

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Steve Cousins, President and CEO of Willow Garage, wants to build an open source platform that will allow enthusiasts to get inside the code and experiment with robotic devices in the same way that early automobile enthusiasts were able to tinker with their cars. The goal is to provide more opportunity for individuals and groups to build practical robotic applications.

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Rails 2 has a lot of things to feel happy about. Jeremy Kemper, one of the earliest and one of the largest contributors to the Ruby on Rails framework, gives a detailed explanation of the new features in Rails 2.0 and 2.1.

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Allvoices bills itself as "the first open media site where anyone can report from anywhere," but two things that really set it apart are its geolocated citizen media posts from any device, and the zeal of its founder, Silicon Valley veteran Amra Tareen. Learn how her journey from computer scientist to venture capitalist to stereotyped Muslim woman to startup CEO shaped Allvoices.

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Many of us feel that the Web is ushering in a new era of global consciousness. But Howard Bloom thinks life has been a collective mind from the very beginning. He made the case in his book "Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang To the 21st Century." Host Jon Udell speaks with Bloom who reviews the themes of that book -- group selectionism, complex adaptive systems, collective learning -- and considers what has, and hasn't, changed since the book was published in 2000.

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Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Tim Sanders, author of "Saving the World at Work," and asks how to combine doing good, with working.

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Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Mari Baker, CEO of Navigenics, about their latest service: they take your DNA, examine it with current and future science, and inform you about any possible health risks for the rest of your life.

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Joel and Jeff conduct a special NYC roundtable discussion with every member of the Stack Overflow team present: Jarrod Dixon, Geoff Dalgas, and Michael Pryor.

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Bob Blakley of Burton Group discusses relationships and how they are important to identity, privacy, and digital security. He gives an overview of how relationships and identity are related, as well as his belief that the primary purpose of a digital identity is to enable relationships.

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TerraNet hopes to bring cell phones to villages in developing nations. CEO Anders Carlius describes TerraNet's ad hoc GSM mesh networking technology and business model. He envisions local entrepreneurs rolling the technology out one village at a time.

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Behind every successful boss there is a trusted advisor. The TV series "West Wing" illustrated just how important and exciting this role can be. At last, someone has written a book about it. Spectrum Radio's Susan Hassler interviews management guru Jim Lukaszewski about his new book "Why Should the Boss Listen to You: The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor".

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The Singularity is near; it will arrive in 10, 50, or 100 years depending on whom you talk to. Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google, examines the value of expertise in predicting the future, and discusses his thoughts on artificial general intelligence, based on his past experiences at NASA and current work with Google.

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One of the presentations at the DEMO fall 2008 conference was not like the others. Amidst a flock of Web 2.0 startups, Microstaq showed a MEMS (microelectromechanical system) device that controls the flow of coolant in air conditioners. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell speaks with, Microstaq's VP of Engineering Mark Luckevich, who explains how silicon-based MEMS valves can improve process efficiency and reduce cost in a wide range of flow control applications.

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Brian Greene is well known for writing about our universe. Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Greene about his latest book "Icarus at the Edge of Time," and asks him why it is an entirely different book than we are used to.

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BioMS is working on a number of ways to treat multiple sclerosis. Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with the President & CEO of BioMS Medical about two of the most promising ways of treating MS.

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Dr. Moira Gunn asks Deborah Eppstein, from Q Therapeutics, to explain what exactly having multiple sclerosis (MS) means for a patient.

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Joel and Jeff discuss the Stack Overflow team's expedition to NYC, the seven crucial mistakes we made during development, and how to bridge the skill spectrum between beginning and expert software developers.

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Other frameworks have cloned features of Rails. But according to its creator, David Heinemeier Hansson, the Rails philosophy of convention over configuration and abstracting the user from making choices, continues to give its developer community a competitive advantage. The only parallel that can compete will have to be something that is significantly better than Rails which, although it is a possibility, doesn't seem very likely.

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Clayton Christensen tells all about his work at a semiconductor fabrication plant which was in a need of a rethink. On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, the Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration, and author of "The Innovator's Dilemma," outlines his principles for making the world more efficient.

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Do you appreciate when someone brings a fresh perspective to a complex and daunting issue? Well can you imagine an issue more impenetrable or discouraging then the Singularity? From the "How Far are We from Advanced AI?" session of the 2007 Singularity Summit, Paul Saffo offers some new advice. He recommends that we find some poets and novelists and whisper in their ears about this stuff. Then hopefully they will help shape what the Singularity should be, rather than what we hope it will not be.

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Jock Gill is an entrepreneur who's thinking broadly and acting decisively to help create a decentralized energy system that makes appropriate use of biomass. In part two of a two-part interview, he and host Jon Udell discuss zero-energy houses, micro combined heat and power, peer-to-peer resource sharing, and the relevance of Thomas Malthus, Benjamin Franklin, and John Nash -- among others -- to our current energy predicament.

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Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with the author of "Crowdsourcing," Jeff Howe, who explains the concept of sourcing work or requests out to a crowd on the internet.

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Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Patrick Casey, from Therapy Cell Limited, about the new technique of growing tendons from our own cells -- it's being done right now on horses.

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Joel and Jeff cover the launch of Stack Overflow, and have an extended discussion with Josh Millard of MetaFilter on how to design social software on the web.

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