I’m posting this while the Q&A session after Lessig’s talk is going on. I thought it was pretty interesting, both in what he said and how it was presented. Here’s a link to the web site for it; I think a recording of the whole thing will be available soon, and if it is, I’m liable to include it as one of the “texts” for the unit about YouTube coming up after break. Stay tuned….
Anyway, Brian and Dave made it tonight– what are your impressions?
Update: The video is now indeed available!
Go to this page on the “Flumotion” web site, or, if you just want the video in a slightly larger format, click on this link.
I thought it was quite interesting and I found Lessig to be pretty engaging, both as a speaker and in how he used the multimedia aspect of the presentation. Admittedly, there were a few topics/references that I just wasn’t that familiar with, but all in all I think it was very informative and thought-provoking.
I really liked how he framed the whole copyright/fair use debate as it applies to a remix culture. I don’t want to go into too much detail, especially if we’re going to watch this later in the term. But essentially, I just took from it that although it’s important to protect the IP of artists and their corporate counterparts, it doesn’t have to be at the expense of the amateur artists’ right to create new art using existing cultural references such as songs, movies etc.
I also really enjoyed his take on the old business model vs. the newer business model that corps. like Amazon use, encouraging their consumers to be creators as well and giving them a role to play in the overall success of the business. But, Lessig does a better job of explaining these things than I ever will, so I’ll just let him do it when you watch the presentation. He had interesting takes on a lot of the issues that came up when we talked about fair use a couple weeks ago, so it’s definitely worth checking out.
I thought it was pretty great too Dave. I guess I’ll comment on the “wireside” event itself as I thought that to be amazing. It was well worth going. Basically, we got together, there were snacks, coffee, good conversation and we watched a really interesting presentation by an engaging person. The allusion to the fireside in wireside is really apt, and I would probably do this every week and I don’t even think it would be geeky.