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The future of television is digital terrestrial.

On digital terrestrial you see a whole lot of nothing.

The future of television is (seeing) a whole lot of nothing.

(with apologies to the original “Trains whistle/Socrates whistles/Socrate is a train” thing).

I’m a habitual listener of Jamie “jwz” Zawinski’s DNA Lounge podcast, actually it provides a soundtrack for my running (and coding) sessions, in recent news I discovered that:

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is trying to put DNA Lounge permanently out of business. They are accusing us of “running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals”, and are trying to permanently revoke our liquor license.

So this morning I did a small donation, good deed of the day FTW. (plus if I will ever go to San Francisco I’d like to visit one of the best underground clubs on earth)

Support DNA Lounge: Legal Defense Fund.

…I didn’t.

Now let’s take some time to ponder on the question at the end of the video.

Money isn’t always the best motivator, if you leave a fifty dollars check after a dinner with friends you don’t increase the probability to be invited back, and if dinner isn’t entirely obvious, think of sex.

from Yochai Benkler’s TED Talk on “the new open-source economics“.

Thanks to Francesco for pointing to the video in an interesting reflection upon enabling and leveraging “unconscious” collaboration.

Clifford Stool’s talk at TED is an absolutely awesome and brilliant learning experience. This talk reveals all the energy, the passion, the hope that lie in scientific inquiry and in an agile mind. As a side effect this should also make you wonder at the propulsive push to the development of a society/country this sort of attitude brings…

“The first time you do something it’s science, the second time it’s engineering, the third time it’s technology, it’s just being a technician. I’m a scientist: Once I do something, I want do something more.”

“I think if you want to really know what the future is gonna be… If you really want to know what society is gonna be in twenty years, ask a kindergarten teacher. In fact don’t just ask any kindergarten teacher, ask an experienced one.
[…]
“I think locally and I act locally, I feel the best way I can help out anything is to help out very very locally… I teach eight-grade science four days a week… I said to my science students: we are going to do seriuos experiments, none of this “open the chapter seven and do all the problems sets”, we are going to be doing genuine physics.

Interesting initiative by Il Sole 24 ORE (Luca De Biase) in collaboration with Elastic (Nicola Mattina): 10domande | ai candidati premier alle elezioni politiche 2008, that is 10 questions to candidates to the 2008 political (italian) elections. From the site:

10domande è un progetto di giornalismo partecipativo: è una video-intervista di dieci domande formulate e scelte direttamente dagli elettori.

Round I (dal 3 al 23 marzo). Tu proponi una domanda che viene votata da tutti gli utenti del sito. Le dieci domande più votate diventano un’intervista ai candidati premier.

Round II (dal 24 marzo al 13 aprile). I candidati rispondono alle domande. Tu puoi votare le risposte e dire se ti piacciono o meno.

This is a really nice example of what participative media in the internet age are all about (also what means providing a smooth implementation and making a good use of them).