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May 30, 04:51 pm: [Net2] Disrupt

(live blogging with all the attendant misspellings, mistakes and missed contexts)

Making the most of disruption. With Howard Rheingold and Paul Saffo aul-saffo-director-and-roy-amara-fellow-institute-for-the-future. Immoderated by Lucy Bernholz.

Bits:

• new technologies scale the ability for good and bad ideas to get picked up
• technology changes the way we can interact with people (as well as discover them)
• MySpace helped to organize the marches but did it actually change any of bills coming out of the conference?
• but how do you take advantage of all of the energy that was generated by the MySpace activitites? Rheingold – connect the people who showed their interest to other things that are happening. Connect them to the public sphere.
• Saffo: very good time to think of the world you want for your children 20 years from now
• Saffo: fastest wonk is going to win
• Network Neutrality
• Saffo: need the elites. The people who bring their charisma and public energy to these issues. Thought leaders.
• Bernholz: can these new tools help the thought leaders emerge in different ways?
• Bernholz: the real power of these tools end up coming from unintended consquences. What are these unexpected areas?
• Rheingold: new kinds of leaders? leaders who are not charismatic generals but tom-sawyer-help-me-paint-my-fence types (reference). Energies go into indentifying a community and then putting your trust into them
• Saffo: need to figure out how to “talk” in new mediums. That’s the challenge.
• Saffo: This is not going to usher in world peace. Putting way too much hopes into this new technology.
• Rheingold: pays to reject utopian hopes but need to remain hopeful
• question from the room: have we made ourselves vulnerable by using all of these technologies? what happens if the corporations carrying our information and giving us tools change the rules?
• From the room: What everyone should know about state repressions

tagged: net2, conference, disruption