Last Friday, I attended a conference sponsored by BU on the legal implications of new media.
What a snore.
Distinguished bloviating attorneys showed how smart they are by (choose one or all):
- Creating long-winded "hypotheticals" about topics from liberty to copyright
- Convincing the audience none of them had ever read a blog, much less written one, or
- Proposing incremental approaches (this largely from an attorney linked to the EFF!) to fixing a completely broken IP legal framework.
Even the keynote speaker, Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, failed to break any ground with his oh-so-predictable this-generation-will-crash-the-barricades rhetoric. I guess I am getting old when I somewhat agree with the supercilious comments at my lunch table that Mr. Moulitsas will mellow with age. (BTW, Kos, I agree with your politics, but not the drama you wrap it up in.)
On the one hand, the fact that the establishment is talking about new media is interesting, but it reminds me of party scenes in TV sitcoms where the young kids do those nasty dances. All the kids in the audience snicker at the lack of authenticity…how tragically unhip the writers were.
Nice try, BU, but next time, just send everyone over to PodCamp Boston.
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