Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Inchoate Imperialism. Part I: A New Narrative
The Need for a New Narrative
It is hardly a secret that the nature of our involvement in the Middle East has changed significantly over the past few years. This change, which has manifested itself in both American military and diplomatic involvement and in the interest and education of individual Americans, is likely to be long lasting. In the early phases of this education process, most Americans who had not exhibited much prior interest in the region took their cues from leaders they trust: those partial to the Bush Administration took most of its assertions at face value, while those who dislike it rejected most of those assertions with equal ease, and turned instead to leaders of the left.
Over the past several months, however, an increasing number of bright, educated people of various political and philosophical orientations without deep prior backgrounds in Middle Eastern history who have reached a common conclusion: there’s something wrong with the stories we’ve been hearing. Those reaching this conclusion may or may not question the veracity and the good intentions of the leaders they once chose to follow, but they all question the quality of the lessons.
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Friday, March 02, 2007
Coming soon to the Commonwealth Club—really
Some of you may recall that I was supposed to speak at the Commonwealth Club in November, but publicity problems forced us to reschedule. Well, we’re back on track and I’m set to go on Wednesday, March 7th; we’ll start with a small reception at 5:30, with the program beginning at 6:00.
The Club’s formal announcement, official abstract, and a “make a reservation” link, are on their 6-week Calendar.
Here’s the inside scoop. This talk plays off some of the themes from my book, Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How it will Rise Again (MIT Press, 2005; soon to be available in Chinese).
Digital Phoenix explored some of the formative stories of the information economy, including the dotcom adventures so near and dear to our own hearts. My general goal in writing the book, though, was to see the patterns of opportunities and conflicts that arose when information technology ushered us into a new era of communication and globalization. The book’s last chapter projects these patterns into other arenas, including broader business settings and the political arena.
This talk will pick up on that theme. (No, you need not have read the book to follow the talk). What I hope to show, in the space of less than hour, is that the relationships among technology, opportunity, backlash, and conflict that Napster introduced to the world of music also characterize the ongoing conflict about the offshoring of jobs, and even the phenomenon of international Islamic terrorism. I contend that understanding these patterns will help us spot new opportunities and adapt to predictable challenges. Then I’ll take questions from the floor (just in case there are any).
You’re invited to see how well I do.
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Thursday, March 01, 2007
Eminent Irony
My second “urban issues” piece is now available in Cities on a Hill.
In it, I explore the interplay of San Francisco’s discovery that it owns part of the land in Santa Clara slated for the 49ers new stadium and the current brouhaha over eminent domain.
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Friday, February 23, 2007
Copyright v. The Free Market
The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (BCLT) invited me to give their lunchtime seminar yesterday. The audience was mostly students, and my host requested a copyright-oriented talk, having recently overloaded the crowd with patent speakers. I chose the title: Copyright v. The Free Market: A Clash of Titans. (Hey, the invitation came on Tuesday for a Thursday talk--cut me a little slack).
I promised to make my slides available. Feel free to use them subject to the following conditions:
1. You attribute Bruce Abramson as the author.
2. You direct listeners/viewers to www.theinformationist.com, where they can get their own set and see my other musings.
3. You let listeners/viewers know that I discuss these issues further in both Digital Phoenix and The Secret Circuit.
Note that my name and the website appear on every slide, and the book information appears on the last slide. Simply incorporating my last slide and leaving my footer information untouched will satisfy these minimal requirements.
For those who see some irony in my placing conditions on distribution of a talk that takes a sanguine view of copyright law, I can only say three things:
1. Removing my name and claiming independent authorship constitutes plagiarism--an issue entirely independent of copyright law.
2. None of my conditions interfere with market conditions.
And most of all. . .
3. A little bit of common courtesy never hurt anyone. People who like my presentations might also like my books.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
New Gig: Cities on a Hill
I seem to be moving into a whole new arena. Fred Siegel, perhaps best known for The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life
his 2005 book about Mayor Giuliani (or about New York City, depending upon whom you ask), is Editor-in-Chief of the blog Cities on a Hill. Cities on a Hill is a project of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation. The blog discusses urban issues in cities across America, or as I like to put it, “free-market theory meets socialist practice.” Fred has graciously invited me to be an occasional left-coast correspondent--pushing me, for the first time, to keep an eye out for local issues.
My first piece--an impressionistic celebration of my first year as a San Franciscan--appeared today.
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Monday, February 19, 2007
Every Now and Then. . .
I just discovered that the editors of the Claremont Review of Books decided to publish my letter to Larry Arnn. (Maybe I should go ahead and renew my subscription after all).
That defies not only my original prediction, but also years of experience.
Added to my 2005 success at getting into the IHT, that makes two.
Those MSM walls are just a-tumblin’ down. . .
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Radio Play in Boston
I’ve been delinquent in commenting on the ripple that Steve Jobs threw into the DRM debate last week. Nevertheless, some folks in Boston found me--with the diligent help of Kimberly Hataway (of Hathaway PR).
I’ll be talking about DRM with Craig Peterson. The show will play in the Boston Area, on WGIR, WGIN, and WGIP, on Saturday February 19, and on WLMW during the week of February 19.
Here’s a blurb:
What is Digital Rights Management? Why is Steve Jobs calling for its elimination? Why has the RIAA been unsuccessful in stopping the “sharing” of music? What is the future of the music and movie industries’ distribution and sales? Selected guests will appear on pre-recorded telephone interview segments on “Tech Talk With Craig Peterson.”
I’m one of the “selected guests.” Stay tuned. . . I’ll post a podcast link when I get one.
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Monday, January 29, 2007
The Informationist Decides, 2008 (or at least he starts thinking about 2008)
As long-time readers know, I severed my longstanding affiliation with the Democratic Party in January 2005, when President Bush used his inaugural address to properly orient American foreign policy toward the promotion of liberal democracy abroad. The Democratic response varied from tepid to negative. To make matters worse, just as Bush was trying (with limited success) to get the Republican Party in line with his vision, the Democrats appointed Howard Dean DNC Chair. Eighteen months earlier, I had told Dean supporters that, had the Democrats chosen him as their 2004 nominee, I would volunteer to help reelect Bush. The party’s subsequent choice of John Kerry struck me as a bottom-of-the-barrel but still palatable choice. My take on Kerry from December 2001 (when friends first broached the possibility of his becoming the next nominee) was that he was weak and unimpressive, but likely an improvement over Bush. I did a bit of (unenthusiastic) volunteer work for the Kerry campaign during the fall of 2004, but spent the entire period wondering whether I was backing the right candidate. More than two years later, I remain uncertain.
So where does that leave me in 2007, looking forward to 2008? It frees me to consider the entire field, without reference to party labels. Here’s my current categorical ranking—with plenty of ties (listed in alphabetical order) because a fair amount of pertinent information remains unknown:
1. Rudy Giuliani (R)
John McCain (R)
[large gap]
2. Hillary Clinton (D)
Newt Gingrich (R)
3. Joe Biden (D)
Bill Richardson (D)
[enormous gap]
4. Barack Obama (D)
Mitt Romney (R)
Tom Vilsack (D)
[large gap]
5. Sam Brownback (R)
6. Chris Dodd (D)
John Edwards (D)
Al Gore (D)
[large gap]
7. Mike Huckabee (R)
[unbridgeable gap]
8. Chuck Hagel (R)
If you’re wondering, foreign policy dominates my thinking. Here’s a bit of preliminary analysis:
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