Events

I drove into the Weisman Art Museum last night to listen to Harry Boyte and Don Shelby talk about re-inspiring citizenship in the 21st century. Boyte just released a book called the Citizen Solution about the growing movement to reconnect ourselves to politics and the communities we inhabit. Shelby started things off by recapping an anecdote about his third grade teacher from the forward to the book. He speculated about Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg address - especially the emphasis on the famous phrase “of the people, by the people, and for the people.

So what went well at PublicRadioCamp last Saturday? Back in February Dan Gillmor stopped by Minnesota Public Radio to talk about the future of journalism. The setup was standard interview fare - two people at microphones in front of a crowd sitting in an auditorium. The reaction to the event was immediately negative - people complained about the lack of interaction with the audience and the back channel chat on Twitter was devastating.

Published late on 7⁄14 Reading Enclosure Public Goods both from Wikipedia Discussion - does a historical perspective add anything to our definitions of the commons, how about the possible ways of managing the commons. On enclosure - note the changing dynamics of the economy in England - the shift toward sheep farming; the importance of historical particularity - it’s clear that many different forms of enclosure were pursued and many forms of commons governance as well.

Reading Notes About the commons The commons is a new way to express a very old idea—that some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good and all. The commons are the things that we inherit and create jointly, and that will (hopefully) last for generations to come. The commons consists of gifts of nature such as air, oceans and wildlife as well as shared social creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific research and creative works.

I volunteered at the Push 2008 business conference earlier this week. Overall I give it a mixed review. Some things went well, others were less impressive. Some of the good things. Good speakers and performers. There were few flameouts, everyone knew their stuff and presented well. I really appreciated the musicians and performers that were on the program; it helped to liven up the days. The venue. The Walker Art Center rules.

I left off my NCMR coverage after yesterdays midday report. Saturday afternoon started off with my late entry to a history session looking back at some of the big media reform successes of the past. Randall Pinkston talked about his rise to become the first black weekday anchor in the South during the late 1960s and early 1970s. They showed part of a documentary about the WLBT struggle, a lengthy effort to get the station’s license revoked by proving racial bias.

Here are a few blog entries I found through Google Blog Search and Technorati. Girlmedia Maven on Bill Moyers and the missing female voices and the power of collaboration. Harold making fun of Bill O’Reilly at WetMachine. Funferal on the keynote and grassroots organizing. BitchPhD on copyright and fair use LocalMN with some in-depth panel coverage. PF Hyper covering Minneapolist WiFi and the opening Listics with some short comments. Uppity Wisconsin also has some interesting notes and praise for Bill Moyers.

Up early this morning to get into town in time for the 8a.m. plenary talk by Bill Moyers. Moyers has spoken at all four NCMRs to date, hosts a rocking show on PBS and spoke eloquently today about the abdication of responsibility by the dominant media over the last 8 years plus. Some great quotes: “the 4th estate has become a 5th column against democracy”; “capitalism breeds destruction unless tempered by an intuition of equality.

I went down to the Minneapolis Convention Center for day 1 of the National Conference on Media reform this afternoon. I skipped the Larry Lessig morning plenary and arrived at about 1 p.m. I wandered through the displays in the ballroom, ate half an over-priced burrito and then headed for the first afternoon panel session. Panel 1 - Free Speech in the 21st Century Josh Wolf kicked things off with his account of being imprisoned for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in 2006.

I spent most of Saturday hanging out at Coffman Memorial Union on the University of Minnesota campus at MinneBar 2008. I must say that the union has a pretty nice suite of conference rooms for gatherings like this. I started the morning at Social Search for the Enterprise. Rich Hoeg from Honeywell discussed a nifty use of ConnectBeam to create an internal social bookmark store that integrates directly with Google search results.