I spend a lot of time reading and posting (on Twitter and elsewhere) about the politics of the Internet, particularly issues regarding online speech and the open architecture of the web. I am vocal about my positions on many “offline” political matters as well, and try to back them up with action, but there’s something about advocating for the web that feels more communal, more urgent, and maybe ultimately, more effective. I don’t mean this in the illusory quasi-utopian sense put forward by techno-activists in the early days of the web (not that the days aren’t still early), but rather in the very concrete sense that the web’s history, technology and body of stakeholders are unusually harmonious.
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I recently had the surprising privilege of attending South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) in Austin, Texas. For those of you in the know, SxSW needs no introduction. In its 25 years, it has grown from a small local festival to a global industry conference covering music, film, and technology (the latter being the “Interactive” part, which starts a few days prior to the big music and film fest). I’m not going to write much in…
Judging by my Google Analytics, I get a lot of hits on this site from people looking to learn about Thomas Jefferson and his views on the free press and newspapers. My bounce rate, perhaps combined with an active imagination, suggests that such visitors are just downright pissed that this site is even returned as a search result and maybe even that I would have the temerity to claim a domain name that could be…
Let’s get one thing out of the way now: I believe that copyright serves a legitimate purpose in our society. If an artist or creator puts their labor into a work, they deserve some degree of control over that product, including over distribution, sales, and so on. This article (and all original works on this site) use a Creative Commons license that reserves certain rights of copy, while forfeiting others in manner that seems sane…
Collecting Records and Walter Benjamin I recently picked up a copy of Walter Benjamin’s Illuminations. I was completely struck by the first essay, “Unpacking My Library”, where Benjamin discusses book collecting. And while I myself take pride in my ever growing personal library, I almost immediately began to translate all his references to books as pertaining to record collecting. Not only this, but Benjamin’s words somehow summed up, far more eloquently than my own I…
