'...energy and ideas could be used to shrink autonomously-owned individual time and grow a space of corporate-owned time, to be divided between production and consumption. Two phrases were invented to name the phenomenon: productivity meant shrinking autonomously-owned time. Increased standard of living through time-saving devices became code for the fact that the “freed up” time through “labor saving” devices was actually the de facto property of corporations. It was a Faustian bargain. Many people misunderstood the fundamental nature of Schumpeterian growth as being fueled by ideas rather than time. Ideas fueled by energy can free up time which can then partly be used to create more ideas to free up more time. It is a positive feedback cycle, but with a limit. The fundamental scarce resource is time. The point isn’t that we are running out of attention. We are running out of high-energy-concentration pockets of easily mined fuel. Each new pocket of attention is harder to find...'

'To answer the BBC's question... What American voters are voting for increasingly is more freedom... -- The conversation is shifting. Everything from various sociopolitical "conspiracy theories" to discussions over free-market gold and silver standards are inevitably going to shift as well. Here is the question of the day, dear reader. What happens when the larger sociopolitical frame of reference becomes one controlled by the "facts on the ground" rather than the dominant social themes that the power elite has successfully disseminated in the past? What happens when "dream time" of the past century gives way to the reality of the 21st century Internet era? What happens when average people begin to define their OWN reality rather than allowing it to be defined for them by massive elite promotions? It's already happening in America, and it will happen in Britain as well. Then the BBC will really have something to write about.'

On the 'central banking warfare model', systemic fraud/fraudulent inducement in America and beyond, disintermediation and trust networks -- "Financial fraud as government policy." -- "[Creditors] are buying our paper because we have the weapons." -- "The Red Button problem" (American citizens' complicity in continuing financial fraud to fund their entitlement benefits) -- "The value of the corporate brand is diminishing. The corporate brand has risen with significant amounts of fraud as its source of capital. (Corporates bought market share with leverage). There's a distrust on the corporate brand providing essential goods and services." -- "How could [the mortgage fraud] go on and me not know about it if I was the Assistant Secretary of Housing?? One of the hardest things to do is look into the mirror and say, 'So I'm the patsy here.'" -- "We're watching tremendous political control through dirty tricks (surpressing health and energy technology, etc)." -- "Green = No waste"

'... writer Matt Penniman thinks eventually people will do fun jobs for nothing: "Now, in the previous economic paradigm, it was possible to do work that you would have done for less or for free and still be paid well for it, because it was too much trouble for your employers/clients to find someone who could do the work as well and for free. But the internet drastically reduces that barrier. Imagine trying to find people to write a computer operating system and all the associated applications without expecting payment before the internet - now look at Linux. I wonder if we're heading toward an economy where, to put it bluntly, people don't get paid for doing fun things. If something is fun - for someone in the world who finds it fun enough to become good at it, and to do it without expecting pay - it will no longer pay."' -- 'Twas ever thus

'The Internet crashed the economy. But that's also why the current crisis should be seen as a cause for celebration as well: the Internet actually did what it was supposed to by decentralizing our ability to create and exchange value. This was the real dream, after all. Not simply to pass messages back and forth, but to dis-intermediate our exchanges. To cut out the middleman, and let people engage and transact directly. If I can create an application... without borrowing a ton of cash from the bank, then I am also undermining America's biggest industry — finance. While we rightly mourn the collapse of a state's economy, as well as the many that are to follow, we must — at the very least — acknowledge the real culprit. For digital technology not only killed the speculative economy, but stands ready to build us a real one.' -- Would you like some free free with your free, sir?

'A stream. A real time, flowing, dynamic stream of information—that we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate in them or simply observe we are are a part of this flow. Overload isnt a problem anymore since we have no choice but to acknowledge that we cant wade through all this information. This isnt an inbox we have to empty, or a page we have to get to the bottom of—its a flow of data that we can dip into at will but we cant attempt to gain an all encompassing view of it. ...today history is disappearing given a deluge of flow, a lack of tools to navigate and provide context about the past. The cacophony of the crowd erases the past and affirms the present. It started with search and now its accelerated with the now web. I dont know where it leads but I almost want a remember button—like the like or favorite. Something that registers something as a memory—as an salient fact that I for one can draw out of the stream at a later time'

"Middlemen add value when they bring taste or judgment or trust to bear on a transaction that isn't transparent. Agents that don't do anything but help one side find the other side in a human approximation of Google aren't so helpful any more. To thrive in a world of self-service, agents have to hyperspecialize, have to stand for something, have to have the guts to say no far more than they say yes. No, you can't publish this book. No I won't represent you. No, don't take that flight. No, I won't sell this house, it's overpriced, list it yourself."

"...it’s difficult for a media consumer to care enough about any one thing to stick with it—and for a network trying to build allegiance to a brand, convincing anyone that what you’re showing matters becomes almost impossible. The only thing network television can uniquely offer us non-digitally-optimized saps and dipshits is the promise of immediacy. Leno’s content—like that of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the breakout stars of the past few years—is news-driven, hypertimely, and ultimately disposable, insofar as it loses almost all its value within 24 hours. ...viewers will (I think, and hope) happily continue to pay for quality. Those who don’t will get what they don’t pay for." -- The book was better.

"We are to information overload as fishes are to water; it's just what we swim in. When you feel yourself to be receiving too much information, ask yourself what filter has just broken."

Maggie Jackson: "We are programmed to be interrupted. We get an adrenalin jolt when orienting to new stimuli. Our body actually rewards us for paying attention to the new. But when we live in a reactive way, we minimize our capacity to pursue goals. This degree of interruption is correlated with stress and frustration and lowered creativity. When you're scattered and diffuse, you're less creative. When your times of reflection are always punctured, it's hard to go deeply into problem-solving, into relating, into thinking. ...stillness and reflection are not especially valued in the workplace. The image of success is the frenetic multitasker who doesn't have time and is constantly interrupted. If we forget how to use our powers of deep focus, we'll depend more on black-and-white thinking, on surface ideas, on surface relationships. That breeds a tremendous potential for tyranny and misunderstanding. The possibility of an attention-deficient future society is very sobering." -- *gulps*

'"How can you compete with free? You cant!" - Lawrence Lessig -- "The Firefox add-on "Pirates of the Amazon" inserts a "download 4 free" button on Amazon, which links to corresponding Piratebay BitTorrents. The add-on lowers the technical barrier to enable anyone to choose between "add to shopping cart" or "download 4 free". Are you a pirate?' -- ;^)

"We’ve become so starved for authentic live human contact that when it’s offered up to us we are all to happy to rejoice and tell the world."

"the entertainment industry is going through one of the most radical and exciting shake ups in modern history, with consumer choice and access to ‘content’ fundamentally changing distribution and revenue models overnight and forever. Watch this space"

“When there is a blackout in New York, the first articles appear [on the web] in 15 minutes; we get queries in two seconds”. - Google

'The prevailing paradigm is a seamless integration of content, communication, data collection and targeted marketing. Companies build brands by purposely cultivating this process, creating spaces where they're encouraging people to pour their hearts out.'

"Wikipedia is premised on a contrary theory of truth that would have seemed familiar to George Orwell: if the crowd says that two plus two equals five, then two plus two really does equal five."

ORAL VS LITERARY cultures: "In many ways, good and bad, Britain is like a pub and America is like a university."

"The digital divide has to do with access to technology; the participation gap has to do with access to cultural experiences and the skills that people acquire through their participation within ongoing online communities and social networks."

"Apple says that starting from mid-June, Apple TV users will be able to automatically stream YouTube content onto their televisions."

'If we’re encouraged to rewire the web, we will fall prey to simulacra. Optimising for happiness is not a technology solution, nor is it editorial. Working with the flaws in communication, engagement and interaction makes life richer.'

"As marketers continue to grapple with how to best enter social networks & create relationships with the users within them, they could do worse than consider how to develop really useful & relevant widgets for their audience."

"The guilds and the studios should consider the possibility that 130,000 unemployed artists might find something to do when they are put on strike... they may just start creating original content for the new media because it is easy..."

'Personalization is a mixed blessing: on one hand, personalized information is more useful and relevant to our lives. On the other, it reduces the opportunities for unanticipated encounters with ideas, people or products that may disturb or enlighten us.'

He's right.

The retribalisation of man spelt out in marketing speak. How very (pro)regressive. [Lovely design on the powerpoint]

Quote of the decade: "I got the sense there was a role reversal," says student Kevin Tosh

"MySpace is planning to launch its own news service, in a move that could threaten the dominance of US-based news aggregation and sharing site Digg, bloggers have reported."

And can users mess with videos and upload the results to your centralised store? It's not simple consumption anymore. People want to show off what THEY can do.

"How can you build new audience for free and grow larger than you ever could when you were limited by your own distribution and marketing? How can you enable that growing audience to recommend and share your best stuff?" Answer: Put it on YouTube.