Self-reflexivity

When media turns its attention on itself the results can often be pretentious. Hopefully we're going to avoid that this week. I've found a couple of interesting pieces about the Web 2.0 phenomenon on also about video the web. I'm hoping this will be of interest to you as well...since you're here watching some video on the web.

The first is a talk that Al Gore gave in the days following the election at the 2008 Web 2.0 summit.



The second video is a lecture given by Silicon Valley exec Peter Hirschberg, who looks at how the Internet is naturally supplanting TV as the medium of the masses.

Peter Hirschberg: The Web and TV, A Sibling Rivalry

The Thom-Thom Club

A couple months back I featured a lecture by Thomas Barnett on the deployment US military might in a post-Cold War world. Below is a talk he gave in Maine where he moves from a diagnostic to a prescriptive point of view on the the topic. It's a fascinating point of view, proffered by a guy who seems to have genuine fun giving his presentation.

Then, another sequel talk of sorts. I'm sure most followers of this blog know Thomas Friedman, who penned The Lexus and the Olive Tree and, more famously, The World is Flat. He takes a different look at some of the issues Barnett touches on, but from an economic (specifically petro-political) perspective.

Modern Day Piracy

A couple of weeks back, I was reading an article in the Economist on pirates. I have read similar news bites in the past, but still piracy for me was limited to RIAA/MPAA propaganda or one half-decent Johnny Depp film (don't talk to me about the two sequels). But the videos I'm posting today have helped reshape my understanding.

Modern Day Pirates



Then a different point of view on the issue, this one from the Voice Of America. I find this exploration of the issues considerably drier, but perhaps a bit more substantive. If these guys were outside a Indonesian brothel, I'm guessing there wouldn't be cameras around (you have to watch the first one to understand that).


On the Line: High Seas Piracy

Sostenibilidad

Gonna return to environmental themes this week with a couple of videos about how the Spanish are tackling sustainability. The first looks at the Canary Island of El Hierro, which is supposedly on track to be fully sustainable by the end of 2009.

Canary's Eco Island



Next is a video from GreenEnergyTV (so note the potential bias) looking at Barcelona's efforts to achieve sustainability.

Barcelona: Sustainable Energy City



The final video is a talk by Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Recorded in early 2005, he discusses why we must ween ourselves off foreign oil. I don't agree with everything he says (his reference to biofuels ignores the intensive water needs of that 'solution') and the age of the talk shows in his statistics on fuel costs. But what is interesting is what he has to say about the mechanics of conservation for automobiles.

Amory Lovins: We Must Win the Oil Endgame