Radio Berkman

A lot of e-ink has been spilled about how the Internet has fundamentally altered content industries. TV, film, news, books; all are still experiencing growing pains. But, no other industry has experienced more trauma and volatility than music. One of the first victims of the electronic piracy epidemic, music companies, along with artists and policymakers, have been scrambling to find new solid strategies for success. Meanwhile, innovation has flourished in the form of new means of delivering content, new ways of connecting artists with fans, and evolving models for digital music sales and touring, all of which present countless opportunities and risks. Next spring, the Berklee College of Music and MIDEM, in association with the Berkman Center, are hosting the Rethink Music Conference, bringing together artists, industry representatives, policymakers, educators, and innovators to discuss this very issue: the future of creative works, their distribution, and the laws that regulate them. Berkman and Berklee have also announced a Call for Papers seeking innovative proposals to amend US policy regarding creation and distribution of musical works. And, Berklee and the Harvard Business School are offering a $50,000 award for the best new music business model. We sat down with two people who have been very involved in preparing for the event—Allen Bargfrede, a digital music lawyer and Assistant Professor in the Music Business Department at Berklee, and Chris Bavitz, Assistant Director of the Berkman Center’s Cyberlaw Clinic and Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School—to discuss what the Rethink Music Conference is all about.

The future of video lies within our grasp, people. Powerful new technologies and web services are available that not only make video available anytime, anywhere, but also make sharing and creating easier than ever, all over the world. Think of the smartphone revolution; the explosion in high bandwidth connectivity; and the millions of channels available to make your video available to your friends, or the world. But this future is still elusive at best. Think of remixers sued for using copyrighted content; the fact that most networks in the world are still choked or filtered; and a simple, but threatening lack of media literacy. Today we report back from a conference meant to redefine the future of video for the good. The 2nd Annual Open Video Conference brought together filmmakers, students, thinkers, inventors, hackers, businessfolks, and lawyers for panels, screenings, performances, and exhibits, all focused on the future of video. We talked with Tiffiniy Cheng and Holmes Wilson, co-founders of the Participatory Culture Foundation, about some technologies in the works to make video more accessible. We spoke with keynote presenter Adam Chodikoff, senior producer of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about the value of the mainstream media. And we put together our own ad hoc panel to help us define what Open Video means and how we can get it.

Whitney Harper is the central figure in one of the most recent anti-piracy court battles being waged by the Recording Industry Association of America. She’s only one of any number of accused illegal downloaders. But what makes her case different? Whitney could be considered an “Innocent Infringer”—because she did not understand she was illegal filesharing. But whether this distinction matters depends on the outcome of her trial, which may soon be headed to the US Supreme Court. Charles Nesson spoke with both Whitney and her legal counsel, Kiwi Camara.

Net Neutrality. What started out as a high level policy debate among internet service providers and telecommunications geeks has since blossomed into an all out war, with battle lines ostensibly drawn between those who value free expression and innovation on one side, and free market advocates on another. The idea is that ISPs should not be allowed discriminate between any kind of content that comes over the wires to your home. The implication is that some regulator needs to step in to make sure this idea is enforced. But as with any contentious debate there are subtleties, complications, and hints that the discussion should be steered in a completely different direction. And few have a better acuity for the nuances of such a geeky topic than Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig.

What should be the mission of universities in cyberspace? What can universities contribute to the future of the internet? How can our educational institutions promote ideals of free exchange of information yet cope with the complex intellectual property challenges presented by the net? A group of academic experts, University professors, administrators, and innovators met up to discuss solutions to this very issue at a conference entitled University and Cyberspace: Reshaping Knowledge Institutions for the Networked Age earlier this summer. Charles Nesson was one of those participants. He joined David Weinberger in the studio to talk about how the University can tackle these challenges head on.

So it looks like you guys liked “Zittrain and Lessig Take On… Competition!” Last week’s season premiere of Radio Berkman drew the largest number of listeners and tweets in our show’s history! Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig co-host a definitive tour of how the competitive landscape for the digital technology market has evolved in the 12 years since the famous Microsoft antitrust battle. Give it a listen if you haven’t already. Are you ready for a second helping? Ever wondered how Microsoft got in trouble in the first place? Google’s got all those little apps and widgets that run our lives — is that legal? And could Apple’s Steve Jobs be the next to get hauled in front of a federal judge? This week segment producers (and non-lawyers) Daniel Dennis Jones and Molly Sauter take on “Competition” in plain English, with viewpoints from Ken Auletta, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Gary Reback, Phil Malone, and Brian Chen.

The year was 1998. Cher’s autotune anthem Believe was one of the year’s biggest hits, Titanic had swept the Oscars, and in some sterile software campus in the Northwest, Bill Gates was rehearsing a deposition. It’s been over 12 years since Gates’ and Microsoft’s anti-trust battle with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission first hit the courts. It is still seen as a watershed for the management of technology companies in the dot com age. But in the dozen years that have passed, people are still speculating whether the anti-trust case against Microsoft made any difference, and whether the software and technology companies of today are engaging in anti-competitive practices similar to or more risky than the ones that got Microsoft in trouble. Who are the Microsofts of today? Facebook? Apple? Google? And how do we manage competition in the digital age? Today, two of the leading minds on the internet and law, Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig, take on competition.

Noise is distracting and irritating enough in the real world. Our focus is easily disrupted by unwanted clutter and sounds from our surrounding environment. So we often find ourselves turning to digital spaces to try control the chaos, and concentrate on tasks. But noise still exists in the virtual world, and is often more insidious. Digital distractions disguise themselves as useful information — posts from friends on Twitter and Facebook, text messages, email, and instant messaging. Separating the noise from the signal is often an arduous and personalized task. And as a new generation of youngsters grows up with mobile phones and uninterrupted network connectivity, researchers fret about a possible information overload and its effects on attention span. Today’s guest, Kate Crawford, is an Associate Professor in Media Research at the University of New South Wales. She has spent some time researching how noise inserts itself into our lives, particularly through mobile technologies. She spoke with David Weinberger about the history of noise and how noise lives on in the digital world. Music this week from Clone: “Private Reserve” (composed by Kate Crawford and Bo Daley)

In the early days of the LLC launching a business might have been a simple task. After all, chances are your partners were close by and you probably worked within the laws of your state. It was mostly a local task. Setting your shingle out in the 21st Century might be a bit more arduous. You’ve got partners in different time zones, and where once you might have met face to face, now you’re making decisions over conference call, IM, maybe even Twitter and Facebook. And all of the paperwork and record keeping involved with staying legal seems somehow past its expiration date. Today’s guest says the LLC was probably one of the greatest inventions of all time, on par with the steam engine and electricity. This legal infrastructure for operating a business helped promote innovation by pinning the cost of risk to a collective entity rather than to the individual. But the humble LLC has a lot of growing to do if it wants to keep up with the digital revolution. Oliver Goodenough — of the Law Lab at the Berkman Center — talks with guest interviewer Zeba Khan about the evolution of business law, and a new initiative he’s been working on with the State of Vermont to let new businesses function online. CC/Public Domain Music from: Learning Music Monthly Morgantj – Café Connection

What are you doing with your spare cycles? You know, the bits of time you spend on the web when you’re not really being productive? Maybe you’re waiting for a file to download. Maybe you’re playing a game. Maybe you’re even filling out a form. All of these little moments could in fact be put to good use. In some cases, they are. And you might not even know it. For instance, when you type out a Captcha — those little squiggly words on a web form you transcribe to prove you’re human — you are in fact transcribing a word from a scanned book. A word that is illegible to a computer’s eye. Here, you’re simultaneously proving you are a human being (not a robot), and also doing a good deed (helping to transcribe text). You can thank today’s guest for that little innovation. Luis von Ahn — professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert in the field of human computation — explores the little innovations on the web that are harnessing the power of millions to change the world. Not always for the good. CC/Public Domain Music from: Learning Music Monthly State Shirt – Computer Neurowaxx – Carioca

Take a look at the headlines of any major newspaper or news magazine. Check out the non-fiction bestsellers at Amazon. The net is on everyone’s minds. Or more specifically, the way the net is on our minds is on our minds. Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows paints a bleak picture of what the net is doing to our plastic brains, cheapening our relationships, and ruining our attention spans. Clay Shirky’s recent release Cognitive Surplus on the other hand celebrates the web’s power to enable quick, smart, crowdsourced action and creativity. Hundreds of other authors and thinkers have responded with their own variations and theories on what the internet is doing to us, and what we are doing on the net. With all of this thinking on the net, we thought it was time to do some thinking on the thinking on the net. And luckily we have two great thinker thinkers in house. Our very own David Weinberger has suggested jokingly that there should be a Myers-Briggs test for net fanaticism, while memetracker and ROFLCon founder Tim Hwang has grouped net thinkers into schools. Today, they explain how different thinkers think on the net, and importantly, why the heck everyone’s so interested. What kind of net thinker are you? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

MMORPGs may maim and pwn but words will never hurt me. In online gaming environments you may be getting shot at, impaled, or run over by tanks. But the more serious damage may come in the form of the offensive chatter bandied about casually between players connected remotely via headsets. Racist, homophobic, and sexist language proliferates as gamers trash talk. But often such language and name calling is used, not to offend, but to distract and gain attention. Such “Griefing” behavior is meant to be ironic. “I am not racist/sexist/homophobic,” a griefer will think, “therefore, my use of an offensive term is just a joke. If you interpret it any other way then you just don’t get it.” But that doesn’t mean griefing doesn’t have an impact. Lisa Nakamura — Professor in the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and author of the book Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet — spoke to David Weinberger about the origins of griefing, and how online communities are dealing with it. CC Music this week: Scott Altham: Hear Us Now Learning Music: Ovulation

With the estimated 250 to 450 million soccer fans now descending upon South Africa for the World Cup, we can expect to see billions of dollars of spent in local communities, benefitting the entire region. Locals and soccer fans alike are also looking out for an increase in crime that comes with such a dramatic increase in population. Vandalism and mugging come with the territory. But NGOs and public agencies are also looking out for an increase in crimes that prey on South Africa’s vulnerable young population. In a country already facing high instances of child abuse, rape, and sexual violence towards women — children can easily stumble upon pornography and pathways to abuse by way of broadcast, internet, and mobile phones. Nadine Naidoo of Visionaries in Africa was concerned about the potential for the World Cup to bring with it a dramatic increase in sexual violence towards children, enabled by the media. So she is running a 30 day multimedia project of her own, coinciding with the World Cup and incorporating video, podcasts, interviews, and a live concert to raise awareness about the dangers facing children. CC Music this week: Arslkhan: “Love Odyssey” Greg Williams: “Teagarden, Blues, and Rain”

Let’s admit it: the advertising world we once knew is long dead. In a couple short decades, the digital revolution has fundamentally undermined all of the old arbiters of image, from Madison Avenue to Hollywood to K Street. Companies have been quick to jump ship and join the social media bandwagon. Even without clear proof that Facebook and smartphone apps will garner them an audience. It’s almost enough to make Don Draper roll over in his scotch glass. But it’s not just Facebook and smartphones that companies have to worry about. Be it the blockbuster movie producer trying to find ticket buyers, the multinational pizza company seeking hungry consumers, or the home-based graphic novelist looking for readers — the ways of reaching an audience are now limitless. And there is a premium for “sticky” experiences that engage consumers, over the old-fashioned billboards and banner ads which consumers are more likely to overlook. And building these experiences can be risky, and costly. Still, companies are taking the gamble, buying up companies with no clear revenue model, and investing in experimental outreach strategies for which “success” has only a few solid metrics. To navigate the muddy waters of digital outreach you need a guide. Sarah Szalavitz is one of the more informed and experienced folks in the social media world. Founder and CEO of 7-Robot — as well as a former Berkman Fellow, Harvard Law Graduate, and media mogul with too many credits to mention (we put some links in the Reference Section below) — Sarah swung by the Berkman Center not long ago for a conversation about what she calls “social design” and the cooperative evolution of brands, people, and social media spaces. CC Music this week: Podington Bear: Jackie and Floyd General Fuzz: Acclimate Jaspertine: Pling Coconut Monkeyrocket: Accidental Beatnik

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and video moves at 30 frames per second, how many words could you get for 24 hours of footage? Today’s guest started a project that may have the answer to that question. The Global Lives Project picked ten subjects from around the world, followed each of them with a camera for 24 hours straight, and is now sharing the footage of their lives with the world, uncut, unaltered, in museum exhibits and online. It’s fascinating enough as an art project. But for David Evan Harris – a trained sociologist and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future – the project also raises interesting questions about the role multimedia can play in the more traditional world of academic research. If you’re near San Francisco you can experience the Global Lives Project for yourself at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts until June 20, 2010. Listen in here for a sneak preview. CC Music this week: Neurowaxx – Carioca & Pop Circus