18 Jun 2008, Posted by Matthew Reinbold in CouchCast,Thought & Theory, 1 Comments

The Future of the Internet (And How to Stop It)

CouchCast, the Utah biz/tech podcast asked you, the Vox Pop Bloomburst readers, to pick the next tome for our book club. You’ve voted and chosen The Future of the Internet (And How to Stop It) by Jonathan Zittrain. The book is available online for free (legally) so there’s no reason not to read along and join the discussion on a future CouchCast episode in early July.

Like any good futurist with a doomsday prophesy Jonathan has been making the press tour rounds. The first embedded clip is a quick, easy to digest six minute piece from the Colbert Report. While not meaty in details it does reveal that the future of the Internet will be fought between D&D themed Chaotic-Good and Chaotic-Evil forces [rated E for Entertainment]:

The second piece is from the Charlie Rose show and goes into much greater depth on what’s at stake, the driving factors, and why we should fear online enabled appliances [rated G for general audiences]:

Now going from bite-sized to seven course meal, the final video is an hour long talk by Jonathan given at the NYC Tribeca Grand in April of this year. [Please note, this is part of a larger academic production. Skip the increasingly pompous platitudes and begin watching Jonathan at the 7:32 mark - rated M for massive geekouts and Internet cultural references like 'pwned']:

After watching these is Jonathan (and a large number of people like him):
* Chicken Little (the sky is falling)?
* The Boy Who Cried Wolf (the millenium bug will kill us all)?
* The Canary in the Coal Mine?