Thursday, December 14, 2006

Yochai Benkler webcast (Cornell Computer Policy and Law Program)

This archived webcast is long (1.5 hours) but well worth watching for anyone interested in intellectual property, social networks, open source/open repository movements, etc.

This is relevant to the New Research Summit because Professor Benkler dishes up lots of food for discussion/debate not only about law, politics, and culture, but also about education. For example, what does it mean to the academy when "critical evaluation is moving from academic seminars to blogs and wikipedia?" What does it mean for pedagogy and curriculum when virtually everyone can be a content creator as well as a consumer? How should we prepare our students for citizenship and employment in a world where "the means of production are radically decentralized" and "social sharing and exchange are a third mode of production, and the market (which responds to price signals) and the firm (which responds to managerial signals) are moving and adjusting as a result?"

It isn't all lecture, BTW -- watch for some lively and provocative remixes, including The Black Lantern's video remix of the Legendary KO's "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People," which is a mash-up of Kanye West's "Golddigger," which is a mash-up of.... well, you get the idea.