A weekly podcast featuring in-depth discussions with an eclectic mix of authors, academics, and entrepreneurs at the intersection of technology, policy, and economics.

Gabriella Coleman, anthropologist and the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy in the Department of Art History & Communication Studies at McGill University, discusses hacktivist group, Anonymous. Coleman begins with an overview of Anonymous starting with its beginnings as a group of pranksters to its evolved state of political activism. The group, according to Coleman, started out pulling pranks, or “lulz,” on the message board 4chan. The pranks consisted of Internet memes and practical Internet jokes called trolling. She then discusses how the group moved into activism using denial of services attacks to shut down websites and issued a series of videos against the Church of Scientology. The discussion then turns to the recent arrest of several Lulzsec members, including Sabu, the hacker turned FBI informant.

Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN correspondent and now Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, discusses her new book entitled, “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.” MacKinnon begins by discussing “Net Freedom,” which she describes as a structure that respects rights, freedoms, and accountability. She discusses how some governments, like China, use coercion to make private companies act a as subcontractors for censorship and manipulation. She goes on to discuss a project she launched called Global Network Initiative, where she urges companies like Google and Facebook to be more socially responsible. MacKinnon believes technology needs to be compatible with political freedoms, and she issues a call to action for Internet users to demand policies that are compatible with Internet freedoms.

Clay Johnson, co-founder of Blue State Digital and former director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, discusses his new book, The Information Diet. According to Johnson, America’s diet of mass-produced unhealthy food has resulted in an obesity epidemic and we may be seeing the same thing when it comes to our media diet. He believes the problem is not too much information, rather it is the quality of information that people choose to consume. Johnson encourages more responsibility in choosing information intake, similar to what is required to make healthy food choices. He ends by outlining a plan of action and offers tips on consuming “healthy” information.

David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society and Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School, discusses his new book entitled, “Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room.” According to Weinberger, knowledge in the Western world is taking on properties of its new medium, the Internet. He discusses how he believes the transformation from paper medium to Internet medium changes the shape of knowledge. Weinberger goes on to discuss how gathering knowledge is different and more effective, using hyper-links as an example of a speedy way to obtain more information on a topic. Weinberger then talks about how the web serves as the “room,” where knowledge seekers are plugged into a network of experts who disagree and critique one another. He also addresses how he believes the web has a way of filtering itself, steering one toward information that is valuable.

Jonathan Coulton, a musician, singer-songwriter, and geek icon, who releases his music under a Non-Commercial Creative Commons License, discusses his thoughts on piracy from an artist’s point of view. Coulton talks about quitting his day job so he could focus on his music. He bypassed the traditional route of becoming a musician, which usually means signing to a record label, and began releasing one song per week on his website. This lead to moderate success, according to Coulton, who now makes his living as a full-time musician by touring and selling his music on his website. The discussion then turns to piracy. Coulton explains why he thinks piracy cannot be stopped and describes what he considers “victimless piracy.” He goes on to discuss the difficulties of addressing piracy issues, especially when taking fairness and practicality into account.

Catherine Tucker, Douglas Drane Career Development Professor in IT and Management, and Assistant Professor of Marketing at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, discusses her paper with Avi Goldfarb in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics entitled, Substitution between Offline and Online Advertising Markets. According to Tucker, the FTC treats online advertising as a distinct market from offline advertising for antitrust purposes. She describes the study she and Goldfarb conducted, where they sought to determine whether online advertising could serve as a substitute for offline advertising. Tucker also discusses Google’s role in online advertising, how its auction mechanism affects pricing, and the difference between search advertising and display advertising. The conversation ends with a discussion on policy implications on how dominate players in online advertising should be viewed.

Reuben Grinberg, a recent Yale Law School graduate now in private practice in New York City, discusses his paper, published in the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal entitled, Bitcoin: An Innovative Alternative Digital Currency. Grinberg first gives a brief overview of Bitcoin, the decentralized, digital currency. According to Grinberg, Bitcoin can maintain sustainability, even though it is not backed by an institution or commodity, but it must overcome several hurdles. Grinberg then discusses the potential security problems and legal issues Bitcoin faces. He also describes some of the unique qualities of Bitcoin, including the ability to conduct transactions anonymously. Grinberg ends the discussion with his thoughts on what Bitcoin could potentially become.

This is the 100th episode of Surprisingly Free! One hundred episodes is quite a milestone, and we thought we’d celebrate it with a selection of some of the best clips from our last 99 shows, featuring some incredible thinkers and doers at the intersection of technology, policy and economics. You’ll hear clips on Wikileaks, criminal hacking, censorship, online porn, and robotics, just to name a few topics. We hope you enjoy this episode and continue to listen for the next 100 episodes!

Michael Weinberg, staff attorney with Public Knowledge, discusses his white paper entitled, It Will Be Awesome If They Don’t Screw This Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology. The discussion begins with Weinberg describing 3D printing: the process of printing three dimensional objects layer-by-layer from a digital file on a computer. According to Weinberg the design method used for printing includes programs like AutoCad and 3D scanners that can scan existing objects, making it possible to print a 3D replica. He goes on to explain why he thinks 3D printing, coupled with the Internet, is a disruptive technology. Finally, Weinberg discusses the thesis of his paper, where he anticipates industries affected by potential disruption will not compete with or adapt to this technology, but rather, will seek legal protection through IP law to preemptively regulate 3D printing.

Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business, discusses his new book, co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson, entitled, “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy.” The book looks at the interplay between unemployment and fast-paced technological innovation. In the book, McAfee and Brynjolfsson propose that technology is outpacing humans, and they discuss whether humans can keep up. According to McAfee, technology is encroaching on skills that once belonged exclusively to humans. He believes that entrepreneurial thinking, different institutions, and new organizational structures can prevent humans from being left behind by the machines.