I'm back from my errand, and dinner is over. They group has broken up into several tables to discuss specific topics. After 20 minutes, Robert Leaver of New Commons shuffled them around to create new groupings. In a few minutes, they'll report back with their nuggets, and the storytellers will comment on the findings.

The Topics

1. Digital music and copyright issues
2. The role of the Internet in politics and democracy (in the year of the first YouTube debates)
   
3. Social networks (Is it just a generational thing?) 
4. Changing business models in the digital world
5. Social production, remixing of the culture, and the opportunity for individuals to be a producer
6. The downsides of the digital world (misinformation, wrong information)
7. Youth in the virtual world and the pressures inherent in it

BTW, I've posted many of the photos to my Picasa Web page.

The Nuggets

Table 2 - Ken Payne: Says they abandoned democracy, leaving only a few stragglers. Is politics involvement or is politics making a choice in an election cycle? Question ran through both sections of the table. Internet is changing democracy by facilitating donations from many small donors. Internet impact highly dependent on the type of government, ie, US v China.

Table 3 - Becky Ramos: Conversation more interesting than notes. Every generation has its own favorite way of communicating, but social networks do cross generations. Allows easier connection but also easier disconnection, withdrawing from socializing. You gain some things, but you lose some things.

Table 4 - Wanda Miglis: Remote access, particularly in health. "New" first efficiencies then processes. Internet is ever reaching to customer base. Governance just being affected. Connectivity and capacity is the muscle behind the Internet. Ubiquity lets it affect and connect everywhere.

Table 6 - ???: Much further ahead in understanding upsides than downsides. More important to emphasize importance of critical thinking to find good information. Easy to create a lot of information, but proving the veracity exceeds the benefit of the data themselves. 

Table 5 + Security - ???: Security issues impede freedom of education. Even thought there's lots of information, but the security is so difficult it slows us down. Should be social, not legal, guidelines.  Social Production - DRM vs Creative Commons. Dec of Indepencence is remix of borrowed ideas and concepts.

Table 7 - ???: Issue of teen suicide from adult's fraud. Early digital footprint starts at birth - infant pictures. No expiration date on those photos. People will do anything to be noticed online. The table was, in general, scared. Digital property laws don't always fit the circumstances.

Table 1 - Tyler: Primary revenue source has always been and will continue to be live performances, excepting the slim minority of recording stars. Profit model still works. Unauthorized copying and distribution is nothing new, cassettes in the 70s/80s. Increase in distribution is a positive for most artist, a negative for a very few.

Well, that's all 7 tables. You'll have to wait for a wrap-up to see what the storytellers said. I've got to go on Daddy duty.

Thanks for letting me sit in. Cheers everyone.