...is about to begin. Xeni reported that there weren't any plugs in the main room and wifi might be spotty so I think I lucked out finding a plug back in the corner and ran an extension cord and power strip and became everyones best friend in seconds. The wi-fi network is called, ready for this, "internet" which is pretty funny. I heard some people mention they were getting dropped earlier but it seems OK right now, maybe once more people open their laptops it will be harder to stay connected. I'll be posting live just in case..

(a quick scan of OurTunes shows that there some pretty scary musical tastes in here.)

OK, Tim O'Reilly is up now and the mic is acting up so he's giving it a shot without. Talking about the "network" and how things happen now that never could have because of the internet and how it's connecting people from all over. Also talking about early days of networks where the offers ranged from "join up, sign here, and give us a %" to "download this, run it on your box, and see what happens" and how we know who won that contest, and that's a window to what is happening now.

Introducing John Perry Barlow now as the guy who coined "cyberspace" as word that applies to the internet, and that they met through the EFF. Next is Dan Gillmor - journalist, author, etc... David Patterson from UCB, and he will be talking about some of the potential dark sides (terrorism and such). Larry Press who has done a lot of work on the internet in the third world and worked on the Mosaic project - lots of work with community networks.

JPB: says it's an honor to be here and feels like he's at a class reunion of the people who wrote the constitution. Like hanging out with Jefferson and Adams after they'd had a chance to see what it was they had actually done. How the original ideas of keeping things open and accepting different kinds of flow, while still maintaining some order was just amazing. [sound system is REALLY jacked right now and hard to hear] He says this is a moment where some sober consideration is needed, as the internet is not an unqualified success just yet. How things are handled right now, what is kept open, what is taken over by companies, or falls apart because it isn't taken over by companies is going to make a very big difference. He said a while ago that the Internet is the most significant development since the capture of fire, and still believes that but by the time that is confirmed no one will know what the internet is because it will be so ingrained and invisible to everyone. He regards spam as a form of speech, not his favorite kind of speech, but if you start to regulate one bit then the next is that much easier which is bad, very bad. Viruses are also very discouraging at this point. Ethics have failed us, so we're still not on safe ground yet.

Dan G: Also honored to be here. Talking about how the slide shown earlier (I'll try to take a cam phone shot of it, it's in the lobby) of what the internet actually looks like reminds him a lot of synapses, and it's not really that far off. He doesn't know if it's the most important thing since capturing fire, but it is the most important development since the Gutenberg Press. In the same way the priesthood could no longer control the "Word Of God" the press can no longer control publication. It's not a "read only" medium, it's "read/write" and that is a good thing. Back up - he's talking only about Journalism but that's just his focus, this a way bigger topic than just text, and everyone knows that. Forget MP3s and napster, remember Midi? It was open and no one owned anything. He used to play music and if the same technology that is available today was available then he probably wouldn't have left. It's opened the doors to widespread amateurism, which is amazing. Who cares about the people at the Capital Records building, it's the people who are making music because they are passionate about it, regardless of if it's legal. Back to Journalism. HE SAID WIKI! And Podcasting! It's TiVo for radio. w00t. He says Journalism has no idea how to deal with it. Journalists are the least important aspect in this whole thing. They don't listen well, and are being forced to learn how, mostly from blogs. They are having to learn that their readers know more than them, and that shouldn't be scary, it should be liberating. CBS will never, never call bloggers "those pajamas people" again. ;) Journalism is evolving from a lecture to a conversation. The newsmakers are the next piece and they are changing just as much. The audience is the final piece. At the beginning of the Iraq war the Guardian, a UK newspaper, found that they were getting a flood of people on their site from the US. The reason for this is that people in the US were looking for an english language news site that was covering the aspects of the war that the US outlets went touching, and everyone was forced to take note of that. Journalism is under attack by things like eBay and Craigslist and has no idea how to deal with that. (Will clairify more, but specifically the revenue they are loosing from people who rather than placing classified ads are turning to the free online options) They are going to be forced to learn. The biggest question is will be be free to do the stuff we do today tomorrow? Copyright has to make sense, and right now it doesn't and it's very threatening and if we need permission, we aren't going to get it. Creative Commons is a solution. Some rights reserved keeps doors open. His book is downloadable for that very reason.

Dave Patterson: Was a grad student when this all happened and is looking around seeing a lot of people who were students and faculty at that time. Back then there was no worry about security because very few people who were using these things. Moores Law - faster, smaller, and bang someone hooks a PC up to the internet and that is that. It's great for all the obvious reasons, connections, sharing info, etc.. but there's also a dark side as it's free reign for criminals. How bad is it? No one knows because companies won't admit their problems for fear they will look bad. So where do we go from here? these are important things to think of here.

Larry Press: Thinks panelist are just as impressive as attendees and hasn't heard anything he disagrees with yet. Some people are talking about the day when all people are connected, he's looking forward more to say 10 years from now when every village on the planet has a connection to the internet. We can do that if we put our minds to it. Mankind put a person on the moon so it just takes people willing to make it happen. We're not talking about fixing all the problem, just making a difference. And that is what is important, and connectivity can do it. We're finally at a place where we can get rid of the digital divide and link up all the villages (keeps saying 3 million but I missed if that is a real number or estimate). Wireless could be a very good way to do this.

Someone just mentioned that JPB used to be a Greatful Dead lyricist and now he's saying that every song ever written is a rip off of something else, and the future of musical creativity relies on the need to have things recycled and the freedom to use and know. DRM is too close to being PLM (political rights management) and that is very scary and very bad.

*claps*

Tim asked David about the Terrorism stuff and he says after 9/11 there was a panel that was put together and were asked if there could be something as catastrophic but on a digital level. The final thought was probably not. There's bad things that can happen for sure, but nothing that bad. However, there's a book that explains how the combo of digital and physical can make the physical attack that much more effective.

[I just got flooded with IMs and Text Messages so I missed whatever just happened. Sorry.]

Dan is now talking about how he doesn't want big journalism to go away, but doesn't take for granted that it won't. The NYTimes for example is an important institution that allows for a lot of things to happen, but the wrong answer is the one that hollywood and the record industry are working towards and that's the idea of shutting down things you can't control. As for newspapers, they just have to find a way to monazite online readers, as that is where things are headed.

End.