David Weinberger has been posting detailed notes from what sounds like a fascinating conference at Annenberg (Pennsylvania) for anyone with an interest in what makes the web different from other media. Some posts: links, mapping, mainstream linking.
From a panel moderated by NYT’s Saul Hansell with Martin Nisenholtz (NYTCO), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Ethan Zuckerman (Global Voices) and Nicholas Carr:
-- Carr: “I worry that understanding something will mean understanding it in how Google’s Larry Page’s algorithms understand the world.”
-- Zuckerman: “There’s been a revolution in mobile phones in Africa, but not laptops. Mobile phones are relevant to people lives because it’s an economic tool: Should I bother going to a market, etc. Laptops are not relevant that way.”
Jeff Jarvis, blogging away as usual, said the discussion turned into a panel on economics. One quote from Wales as he and Nisenholtz talked business models: “Communities can come together and they can build content that other people want to see and they can do it in a business model that is radically cheaper.”