Aram Sinnreich

Moscow Panel: "Culture: Create or Copy" [video]

Last month, I returned to Moscow to speak at Google's Big Tent Event. My panel, which was entitled "Culture: Create or Copy," was focused on the question of whether configurable cultural practices like memes, mashups and remixes are legitimate and socially valuable, and therefore whether communications and cultural policy should provide a degree of support for them. Obviously, I was there to bang the "yes" drum. This was not an idle "academic" topic; the panel's moderator was Ekatrina Chukovskaya, Deputy Minister of Culture for the Russian Federation.

Here's the video of the panel:

My new book project: PiracyCrusade.com

My new book project, loosely based on my LimeWire expert testimony, is called "The Piracy Crusade." Although it will be published as a paper book next year by University of Massachusetts Press, I'm also publishing draft chapters as I write them on an open, Creative Commons-licensed, comments-enabled platform hosted by the MediaCommons project.

This kind of prepublication is increasingly being used as "peer-to-peer review," a crowdsourced alternative to the traditional academic "peer review" process, in which 2-3 anonymous readers with unclear motives and levels of interest weigh in on your work after 6-12 months of waiting. Obviously, when you're covering something fast-moving like law, technology, culture, or all three, that kind of a waiting process can be deadly.

If you have any interest, experience, or opinions regarding music, intellectual property law, new technologies, or the digital media industry, I encourage you to take a look, and leave a comment. All constructive commenters will get a shout-out in the final version of the book's Acknowledgments section.

The first two chapters are already up, and Chapter 3 is in process. Check it out on PiracyCrusade.com!

p.s. I'm also looking for some cover art -- if you're interested in creating something (I can't pay you, but I'll give you a credit on the cover), let me know.

New article: "Welcome to Alphaville, Avoid the Ghetto"

Truthdig.com just published my new article, "Welcome to Alphaville, Avoid the Ghetto." It's about what happens when smartphones turn our entire life into a giant search engine, and then selectively hide the results without telling us.

...The world we see through our smartphones is a curated world, and its horizons are constricting, rather than expanding. Though they’re often billed as modern-day Diogenes’ lamps, outshining the light of day with the light of truth (or “augmenting reality,” in contemporary geekspeek), they would be better understood as corporate-sponsored guidebooks to our own lives, keeping us on the prescribed path and off the road less traveled....

For more, read the article on Truthdig.

Video of "Beyond the Internet" panel

Last night, I was was fortunate to host an excellent panel on Internet freedom, cyberliberties, mesh networking, and next-gen networks at Rutgers University, with Laura DeNardis, Jonathan Baldwin, Michael Potter, Josh King, and my colleague, Aaron Trammell. ISOC-NY generously offered to livestream the event, which is now archived on their site.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

internetsocietychapters on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Happy American Censorship Day

Today, in honor of American Censorship Day, I've replaced my standard banner with a cheerful black bar.

I do this as a form of protest against the spirit of censorship pervading the regulation of the Internet and other communications platforms -- specifically, the pending legislation known as ProtectIP and SOPA being discussed in a Congressional hearing today. This legislation would criminalize huge swaths of the Internet as we know it today, and put a politically unacceptable degree of censorship power in the hands of government and large corporations. I stand with organizations like Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as publishers like TechDirt and BoingBoing, in opposition to these measures, and I hope you will as well.

To find out more, and to take action, please visit AmericanCensorship.org.

 

"Beyond the Internet" event at Rutgers tomorrow

Tomorrow, I'll be hosting an event at Rutgers called "Beyond the Internet." It continues the themes I've been working on with the MondoNet project, surrounding the potential of new and emerging platforms (e.g. ad hoc, wireless mesh networks) to provide a more robust platform for free speech and the exercise of cyberliberties.

The cornerstone of the event will be a panel featuring some of the technologists and thinkers at the forefront of these issues, including:

• Laura E. DeNardis, American University / Yale Information Society Project
• Michael Potter, Geeks Without Frontiers
• Jonathan Baldwin, Parsons
• Josh King, New America Foundation/OTI
• Isaac Wilder, founder, Free Network Foundation

The event is free and open to the public, hope you can make it!

Time and location:
Wed, November 16
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Rutgers University, College Ave Campus
Alexander Library
4th Floor Lecture Hall
Map: http://bit.ly/t5fDnq 
Event website: technologies.rutgers.edu

R.I.P. Steve Jobs [Video]

A few weeks ago, Reuters TV called me up to record a segment for their Steve Jobs obituary. It's the first time I've ever been asked to eulogize someone who was still living, and I found that task, plus the necessity of boiling down a modern titan's life into a quotable snippet, somewhat unnerving. Nonetheless, i was proud to contribute my little bit to what would undoubtedly be a global outpouring of grief and hagiography, and I tried hard to say something that would both resonate and do some small bit of justice to the man.

I'm not an Apple fanboy -- for instance, I've long been a critic of their music retail strategy, which has served them well and everyone else rather poorly. But I do use a Macbook Pro, iPhone, iPad and several other Apple-produced pieces of hardware and software, and I consider each of them a marvel of engineering and design. This is fortunate, because I probably spend the majority of my waking hours holding, watching, listening to, and communicating via one of these devices.

But to simply point to all the pretty boxes and say "Mr. Jobs made some nice machines" is not enough. It would be difficult to overstate the impact that Jobs had on business and culture at large, especially over the past 15 years since his storied return to the company he cofounded. Socially, he demystified -- and therefore democratized -- computer use, dragging the silicon chip from the desks of dedicated geeks to the pockets of the people.

He did this by meeting his customers halfway -- obliterating the command line prompt and impersonal packaging for the intuitive interface and the sleek, chic curves of haute design. I say "halfway" because he also forced us, coders and users alike, to conform to his vision. We had to adjust our hands and minds to the folder and the swipe, and we had to shun the freer pastures of the GPL and Linux for a walled garden full of proprietary delectables.

Steve Jobs built an empire -- one of America's largest -- on this "halfway" principle, and on the proposition that computers -- the cold, calculating (literally), impersonal tools of eggheads and hackers -- could be reimagined as warm, fuzzy, and even sexy. I'm currently teaching a masters-level course called "Critiquing Marketing Communications," and a few weeks ago I had to institute a ban on using Apple as a brand example, because my students would barely talk about anything else.

Whether we're headed for singularity, cyborgism, fragmentation or obliteration, there's no question that the future of humanity and the future of the digital computer are firmly and irrevocably intertwined. It's impossible to imagine a tomorrow without ubiquitous processing, and yet impossible to fathom the degree to which our fates and those of the machines will continue to blur. If we're able to contemplate this astounding proposition without despair and abject terror, we have Steve Jobs to thank for it. 

Peter Maass lecture at Rutgers SC&I on Oct 3rd

I've somehow bamboozled my friend Peter Maass, the deservedly award-winning war correspondent and nonfiction author, to come give a talk at Rutgers in two weeks. I can't wait. Peter embodies that rare combination of intelligence, experience and humillity that makes for a great journalist, and a riveting lecturer.

The lecture is free! Hope you can make it. (You can download the flier here)

My new laptop policy

We professors in the 21st century have a dilemma: we want our students to use laptops and the internet in class, but we don't want them getting sucked into a digital vortex and missing out on class conversations.

My solution from here on in is to set up a Twitter backchannel, and require that all connected students participate. Then I'll use my iPad to search for the class-specific hashtag, and integrate online student comments into the in-person discussion. Here's the exact wording from my syllabus:

This class has a strict LAPTOP POLICY: If you have your laptop open, you must contribute to the class discussion via the online backchannel as well as verbally. Specifically, you must tweet at least three comments about our readings/discussion per class session. The hashtag for our class will be #[redacted]. If you don’t know how to use Twitter, either figure it out or refrain from bringing your laptop to class.

Let's hope it works. I'll update this post at the end of the semester, and let you know.

Draft Syllabus: Critiquing Marketing Communications

I'm preparing a brand new class for the fall, an online-only, masters-level course called "Critiquing Marketing Communications." It's part of our new masters program focusing on digital media. 

The basic premise is that marketing communications are one of the most common, and most influential, forms of communication in contemporary society. Yet it's largely sequestered in an academic ghetto. Most of the scholarship surrounding these communications either falls into the how-to category (e.g. Marketing 101) or into the realm of pure cultural criticism (e.g. Intro to Consumer Culture). What I aim to do is combine the practical and the theoretical, giving students a sense of how marketing works as an industry, and also access to some of the primary strains of criticism surrounding this form of expression.

Below is the final version of the syllabus. Whether you're in marketing, academia, or both, I welcome your feedback.

9/1-9/6: Unit 1 – Introduction: What are Marketing Communications?

Readings:

• Kleppner’s Advertising Procedure, Chap. 1 & 2.
• Mark Crispin Miller interview: http://to.pbs.org/qUpfQ1

9/7-9/13: Unit 2 – Marketing History & Landscape

Readings:

• Ogilvy, D. Ogilvy on Advertising, Chap. 18 
• Marchand, “Advertisements as Social Tableaux” in Advertising the American Dream
• Kleppner’s Advertising Procedure, Chap. 5.

9/14-9/20: Unit 3 – Foundations: Branding, Creative and Packaging

Readings:

• Ogilvy, D. Ogilvy on Advertising, Chap. 2
• Doug Atkin interview: http://to.pbs.org/ngHAFs
• Kevin Roberts interview: http://to.pbs.org/qzDF81
• NYT Article on Crispin Porter: http://nyti.ms/pXbEmy
• NYT Article on CP/BK breakup: http://nyti.ms/pr5LLQ

Optional, brief and recommended:

• Aaker on Brands (read 5 most recent blog posts): http://bit.ly/pjzy1G
• Video: Mad Men Carousel Scene: http://bit.ly/rdkbpL

Guest Interview: [name], President, [large advertising agency]

STUDENT BLOGGING BEGINS

9/21-9/27: Unit 4 – Foundations: Media Buying & Selling

Readings:

• Kleppner’s Advertising Procedure, Chap. 7.
• Baron & Sissors, Advertising Media Planning, 7^th Ed. Chap. 4 & 12 (thru p. 368)

Guest Interview:

• [name], Group Director, [large media agency]

STUDENT MODERATION OF DICSUSSION BOARD BEGINS

9/28-10/4: Unit 5 – Foundations: Public Relations

Readings:

• PRSA Code of Ethics: http://bit.ly/pLani3
• Bernays, American Public Relations: A Short History
• Boorstin, D. The image: A guide to pseudo-events in America, Intro & Chap. 1

Optional, brief and recommended:

• Article re: Kenneth Cole Twitter Fail: http://lat.ms/qObjN5
• PRwatch headlines: http://www.prwatch.org/headlines

Guest Interview:

• [name], Veteran PR consultant

10/5-10/11: Unit 6 – Critique: Mass & Consumer Culture

Readings:

• Gailbraith, J. K. The Affluent Society, Chap. 10 & 11.
• Schudson, M. “Historical Roots of Consumer Culture.” In Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion.
• Ogilvy, D. Ogilvy on Advertising, Chap. 18

 10/12-10/18: Unit 7 – Critique: Branding

Readings:

• Klein, N. No Logo. Intro, Chaps 1-2.
• Quart, A. Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers. Chap. 1.
• Frank, T. The Conquest of Cool, Chap. 11.
• MIDTERM ASSIGNED

10/19-10/25: Unit 8 – Critique: Race, Gender, Sexuality & Identity

Readings:

• Sivulka, “White Soap and Black Consumer Culture”
• Klein, No Logo, Chap. 5
• Ryder, “Talking Vaginas and Football Heroes: Gender, Race and Advertising” http://bit.ly/qIXGFC
• Sinnreich, “‘This Is What We Do’: Why I Hated Chrysler’s Super Bowl Ad” http://bit.ly/pDREqZ
• Article on Nivea ad: http://on.mash.to/p3LbbB
• Video: Colbert on Summer’s Eve http://gaw.kr/pKEaZ4
• MIDTERM DUE 10/25 at 11:30pm

10/26-11/1: Unit 9 – Backlash: Culture Jamming and Ad Busting

Readings:

• Lasn, K. Culture Jam, Introduction & “Spring”
• White, M. Toxic Culture. Adbusters. http://bit.ly/okEuHz
• Article: Ad-Free Sao Paolo: http://buswk.co/qbUUZ3
• Article: Junaio AR AD TAKEOVER: http://bit.ly/pWza3M
• Article: BP Twitter spoof: http://abcn.ws/pcASCt

Optional, brief and recommended:

• Sao Paolo Flickr set: http://bit.ly/pLugJX
• KAWS interview: http://bit.ly/qYg5z4

11/2-11/8: Unit 10 – Internet Marketing, 1995-2005 (Web, Email & Search)

Readings:

• Johnson, M. (1998). Rational Branding: Building Consumer Relationships Through Service. Jupiter Research.
• Mayar & Ramsay, Digital Impact: The Two Secrets to Online Marketing Success. Chapters 4, 5 & 6

Guest Interview:

• [name], co-founder, [interactive media research fim] 

11/9-11/15: Unit 11 – Internet Marketing, 2006-11 (Social, Mobile & Beyond)

Readings:

• The Hectic Schedule of a Social Media Manager: http://bit.ly/qwn64t
• Charlesworth, D. It’s About Good Link, Not Good Ink. Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications. (pp. 38-43 of http://bit.ly/qbkYFY)
• Mayar & Ramsay, Digital Impact: The Two Secrets to Online Marketing Success. Chapters 7 & 8

Guest Interview:

• Guest Interview: [name], Communication Director, [major social media company]
• [name], [principal, boutique communications agency]

11/16-11/22: Unit 12 – Critique: Digital Rights & Privacy

Readings:

• FB Beacon article: http://bit.ly/oNRsAF
• FB Beacon analysis: http://bit.ly/pfgvf3
• Vaidhyanathan, S. The Googlization of Everything. Chap. 3.
• Zittrain, J. The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It. Chap. 9. http://bit.ly/oOCOGB

11/23-11/29: THANKSGIVING BREAK 

11/30- 12/6: Unit 13 – Epilogue: Ghosts in the Machine?

Readings:

• Lanier, J. You Are Not A Gadget. Chap. 1
• Baym, N. Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Chap. 2
• Video: Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity: http://bit.ly/qM1epu
• FINAL PAPER ASSIGNED 

12/7-12/13: Unit 14 – Conclusion