EchoDitto

Alan Rosenblatt writes,

About a year or so after I finished my dissertation on Presidential use of TV to move public opinion in 1992 I was introduced to Mosaic by a housemate. I was familiar with the Internet from my work at American U. I was on a team that prepared the University for becoming an Internet node in 1988.

When I saw Mosaic, I realized the potential impact on politics. I was already teaching at George Mason U. and started talking about the Internet with my colleagues over lunch. From those discussions, Bob Dudley and I decided to teach a course called The Politics of Cyberspace: The Luddite vs. the Technofreak. He played the luddite, I played the freak. We were each a little of both.

Today, Alan continues to teach at American University and heads up The Internet Advocacy Center. Friday afternoon, Joshua and Tim sat down with him to talk about how he's seen the relationship between politics and the internet change in the past 20 years.

On April 4, 2004, Humvee Specialist Casey Sheehan of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry was killed in Sadr City, Iraq.

On August 6, 2005, Casey's mother Cindy Sheehan arrived in Crawford Texas to ask President Bush to take time out from his vacation to answer her questions about why the war that took her son's life was started and why it is being continued.

Earlier this afternoon, JoeTrippi.com hosted a conference call with Cindy. We're podcasting the recording on EchoRadio.

Ed Churchman talks with Travis Stewart (aka, Syndrone, Tstewart, Machine Drum) about his life as an artist, Merck Records, and how musicians make money nowadays. Travis also answers questions from the IDM mailing list and the Ninja Tune forum.

• Let Twerk master your work
• Burnt Toast and other synthesizers
• Soulseek and file sharing
• Warp 100
• Help save Merck Records

Soundtrack: Machine Drum, Skinny Puppy, Ween, Bogdan Raczynski

Ed talks with DC-native Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, about Washington DC and electronic music today. Check out Pauls book: "Rhythm Science."

Soundtrack: Dj Spooky, John Cage

EchoRadio personnel spent Monday podcasting from the Personal Democracy Forum conference in New York City. There are some fantastic conversations here with the new masters of internet and politics. Click on over and give them a listen.

On February 14, the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri triggered a wave of grassroots demonstrations demanding an end to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. These became known as The Cedar Revolution.

In April, EchoDitto COO Harish Rao spent twelve days equipping demonstrators in Beirut with a weblog and photofeed to chrionicle the Cedar Revolution at PulseOfFreedom05.org. He talks with EchoRadio about it all.

Soundtrack: Cheb Mami and Nancy Ajram-- gloriously cheesey music imported directly from Beirut.

Photo via PulseOfFreedom on Flickr

This afternoon, the posse behind BlogTorrent and Grey Tuesday officially launched The Participatory Culture Foundation. David Moore stopped by the office to talk with us about their first project, Broadcast Machine.

Soundtrack: AFX and DJ Die

MGM v Grokster is before the Supreme Court this week. Four of us talked over the technological and commercial implications of the decision, and the ways peer-to-peer software is changing the entertainment industry.

Exciting and relevant web links!:

• TheFuselage.com, the official unofficial website for the ABC TV series Lost.
• ZDNet on BitTorrent in Australia

Soundtrack: Ulrich Schnauss and Matt Herbert

Richard Gibson, Journalist, Talks about the life (and death) of Richard Wright, author of Native Son. He also talks about his role in the life of James Baldwin.

Soundtrack: Aphex Twin, Chris Clark

Yesterday morning, EchoDitto VP of Communications Garrett Graff became the first blogger ever issued a White House Press Pass. Garrett talked with EchoRadio about what the experience was been like, his plans for the future, and what really happened behind the closed doors of Scott McClellan's office.

Links

• The Graff-induced media frenzy
• Graff's blog, FishbowlDC
• Soundtrack: Coconut Monkeyrocket and Groove Armada