Shifts in power through sharing; The Next Web Conference 2011 Wikileaks panel

On the 29th of april the third and final day of The Next Web Conference 2011 was held in Amsterdam. The first order of the day was immediately one that stuck by me. It was a Wikileaks panel with Alexander Bard and Rick Falkvinge led by Andrew Keen. Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. Alexander Bard is, well, a writer, sociologist, philosopher and TV talk show host. Also; successful record producer, artist and songwriter. This makes him a very interesting person to talk to about file sharing and illegal downloads because he has a foot in both worlds. During the panel, Bard and Falkvinge discussed the importance of sharing, pirates, power, and integrity with a fair dosage of humor.

Tagged with: rick falkvinge, pirats, spotify, record labels, artists, alexander bard,

Intelligence & Integrity

I’ve never really been into conspiracy theories, apart for entertainment reasons, but recently and for me more or less out of the blue the other day, Rogier Brussee mumbled something about Google being the CIA (or FBI for all that matters). Expressions like that make me cynical but also make me question why I am cynical about those ideas. Could it be true? Do you think it is like that? And if Google would be the digitized version of the all mighty watchdog of the US, than who would be the (moral) owners of Facebook, delicious, Foursquare, you name any social media originating from the US? If it really is the security forces of our modern western society, than let us ask what the role of social media in our society actually is.

Tagged with: alexander bard, android, cia, fbi, flickr, julian assange, the next web, facebook, iphone, wikileaks,