Chatter

Internet 2020: Font of World Peace or Killer Robots?

The Pew Internet American Life Project of competing visions and predictions about what the Internet will look like in 2020 and its impact on lives, society and governments. Get the full report by and see the coverage at the , and .

Or, tag alone, as we take a pull out bits and pieces relevant to tech policy...

.

Around the Horn: The OK, Go Edition

Another trip around the diamond just in time for Labor Day Weekend..

.

What does it mean when: In the 50's, 62% of the nation could be found snuggled in front of their television sets for Lucy; in the 80's, still 51% saw the Cosby Show; but today, only 25% sit to watch a top-rated show like CSI. ( )

• Is SpiralFrog the love child of and Jamster's ?

  Don't know. There's lots that we don't know about this yet-to-be launched online music site that will compete with music subscription services and iTunes by offering free tracks with the support of . Yet, it seems to be clear that the music will be ad supported and DRM'd.

  How much so is the question of the hour. . that the 90 second ad will be a video shown on actual download of the track.

  Healey also is brave enough to say: Now for the non-obvious point: SpiralFrog's service is made possible by digital rights management technology, and that's a good thing. Back to the haters: One industry watcher wonders whether by making the tracks promotional , . that the music expires after six months.

10. When he's not , Sumner Redstone is apparently reading New Economy business tomes. In his speech last night, Redstone referred extensively to and noted that Anderson wrote his book in hopes that folks like me would pick it up.

Redstone endorsed the economic opportunity of back catalogues -- but only under a regime of strong copyright controls. 9. If she wants it, FTC chair has a long, successful political career ahead of her.

She has the one-two punch of showing smarts and a warm personality and in smaller settings. Majoras also is clearly inquisitive. She attended most sessions and stayed for the entire conference.

Some keynoters are wheels-up 15 minutes after their speech. 8. I'm wheels-up in 15 minutes is a normal thing to say in Aspen.

...

Those were the days when my generation was getting all the attention and hype ( , and anyone?). But as touched on in our post, Gen X's big new role might be playing interpreter between the massive generations that surround it on either sides.

No small task considering the wide gulf largely caused by usage of technology that separate the Millennials and the Boomers.
Figuring out the new, constantly changing technology is hard enough. But, then combine that with the often Quixotic mission of understanding what kids are doing with their time and why, and you begin to realize how much interpreting that needs to get done.

is doing its part this week with a five-day series on how 12 to 24-year-olds view and consume entertainment. We'll wrap up the complete report when it's done, but wanted to tease it with this interesting list of unconventional wisdom about today's youth.
(list after the jump along with Kim Wilde's generational echo from the 1980s.

..) Being a communications consultancy that bridges the two worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, we're often asked by media about the impact of blogs on the public policy advocacy process.

Most of the questions come in reference to the perceived power of blogs in shaping the net neutrality debate.
We don't think there's a right answer here. The Web, the numbers who use it, and how it's used is just evolving too fast.

But, we won't duck the question and will continue our history kick...

Despite the fascination with bloggers, bloggers blogging about net neutrality and bloggers blogging about themselves blogging about net neutrality, there has been online activism almost as long as there has been a public Web.
The net neutrality fight has many parallels to anti- battle that raged beginning in 1995. Online activists were emboldened by free-speech issues and teamed with established companies to fight the legislation.

The activists lost the fight in Congress and with President Clinton who signed the bill, but generated enough momentum and support that they rallied considerable resources to their side to win in the Supreme Court, .
The activists..

.
Just when you thought you were understanding the new, participatory Web, everything is changing again. From a thought-provoking post today by chartreuese:

The era of the geeks is coming to an end.

...

Hate MySpace? Too bad.