If you’re like me you will likely never be famous (or perhaps astute) enough to be invited to the Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from last fall’s discourse and the 70 page report is a great way to ”almost make it”.
David Boullier does a great job of synthesizing the conversation of folks like John Seely Brown, Esther Dysan, Joseph A. Schumpeter, John Hagel and 22 other net-inteligensia. The discussion freely ranges along topics related to the emerging economy, government and education systems in which consumers pull products rather than have them pushed to them by vendors, educators and media suppliers. The emerging ‘pull’ economy distributes content and product along the long tail of the Net in response to consumer ‘pull’ as expressed and defined in virtual communities of practice, production and consumption.
The conversation ranges through the usual and the fascinating – from information abundance, to user created content, to the flat world and intellectual property paradigms.
All and all a great read, so while you wait for your invitation to next year’s Aspen Institute, enjoy this year’s report!
Thanks for passing along this report, Terry. I’m so far outside the famous/astute circle that I hadn’t even heard of the Aspen Institute. But I’ll never again miss attending vicariously. This definitely is a good read, and a worthwhile document for starting a rousing local conversation about the issues in our own grad program.
Rick