Archive: Category: TechPresident

Dan Gillmor makes a nice counter-intuitive point in his San Jose Mercury News column today. Jumping off the hyperventilation all over the Internet about the "bulge" in Bush's jacket during the first debate with Kerry, he argues that at some point, we ought to come to terms with the fact that information technology is becoming pervasive, and maybe politicians should be allowed to take more of an "open book" test when they go before the public. After all, we want the President to excel as information synthesizer, not a memorizer. He's got a huge staff at his disposal. As Gillmor writes, "In the Information Age, the ability to find relevant information quickly and use it intuitively will be at least...

The fact that Jon Stewart's blistering appearance on CNN's Crossfire has now been seen by hundreds of thousands of people on the Web (via Ifilm.com and bittorrent) has got bloggers, like Jeff Jarvis, talking about the "future of TV." With photos from Abu Ghraib flying around the Net despite the Pentagon's best efforts to suppress the story; JibJab's "This Land is Your Land" parody of Bush and Kerry viewed over 65 million times; Big Media outfits ranging from the New York Times to 60 Minutes facing continuing assaults on their credibility; and "a little community website" called Craigslist (that's how Craig Newmark described his site to me when we met two weeks ago, even though it gets a billion visits...

I didn't watch the debate last night. Not sure if I will find the time to watch a tape, either. Instead, I caught Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, John Fogerty and crew at the Meadowlands, a fundraiser for MoveOnPac and ACT. The highlight finale was all of them singing, with Eddie Vedder, "People Have the Power," the Patti Smith tune. Irony of ironies--that was and is Ralph Nader's campaign theme song. And in 2000, Vedder was at Nader's Madison Square Garden super-rally singing it. Times do change....