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.

For the past 10 days, a movement has been growing in Crawford, Texas in support of Cindy Sheehan's challenge to President Bush. Japhet Els has been on the ground there for the past few days; Tim Jones and Michael Silberman spoke with him Tuesday afternoon to find out what's going on.

• Japhet is blogging on The Crawford Update.
• You can learn more and help out at MeetWithCindy.org.

Photo from upfish on flickr

Most of the world knows Chuck Brown as the man behind the 1971 hit 'Bustin Loose'. In Washington DC, locals know him as the godfather of Dodge City's best native music scene: DC Go Go.

Chuck took a few minutes to talk with EchoRadio about his life, his music, and his plans for the future.

Photo by Erin Zima

We Skyped in Kid Kameleon from California to talk about his DittoEcho mashup mix and how the online international mashup scene is revolutionizing pop music.

K recommends:

• BoomSelection.info
• Culture Deluxe
• Get Your Bootleg On

Bumper music courtesy of DJ C

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

Ed and Tim talk to Ian MacKaye about his life as a musician, the ever-present deterioration of copyright, Ian's marxist references on "Straight Edge," The DC Music scene, and words that he feels are important to take back. Ian is the guitarist/vocalist in Fugazi, Minor Threat, and now The Evens. Ian owns the record label Dischord.

Soundtrack: Fugazi, Minor Threat, The Evens, The Soft Pink Truth

Photo via Rory 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

Michael interrogates Tim and Mike about their experience at South By Southwest Interactive.

Links:

• "Pave The Cow Paths"
• DanceFlash
• SXSWi Spotcasts
• "Whuffie"
• OReilly's ETech conference
• Bradlands.com
• Technorati XFN Metrolling

Soundtrack: RJD2 and LCD Soundsystem

Bruce Sterling totally schools me.