Douglas Rushkoff's Blog, page 45

Irish Times Gets Life Inc

Finally, a newspaper review that really does get what I was going for. I'm still holding out for a NYTimes review – even a pan would be nice. (I'm not exactly sure why they've passed on this book so far, when they reviewed other less significant books I've written.)

But this one makes up for it, and reminds me that it's only been out a few months and anything can still happen. I'm scheduling some talks and other events to help promote DIY culture and bottom-up activism. More on that very...

Greenspan Finally Agrees with Rushkoff!

Greenspan Says U.S. Should Consider Breaking Up Large Banks

By Michael McKee and Scott Lanman

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered "too big to fail," former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.

Those banks have an implicit subsidy allowing them to borrow at lower cost because lenders believe the government will always step in to guarantee their obligations. That squeezes out competition and creates a danger to the...

Google's Velvet Rope

No, I haven't been granted any GoogleVoice invitations yet, so quit asking. But I will admit that all the requests gave me the idea for this week's column on Daily Beast:

Ubiquity ain't what it used to be.

For Google, the problem with being a free, abundant, and rather infinite set of services is that it's hard to create much of a stir about anything. There are so many major software service options under the "more" menu on the Gmail page that they've had to go and add a final item called...

Net Effect

I'm working on the proposal for my next book. As I do, I end up churning out little thought pieces. I figure I may as well share them now instead of later, and even let people participate in the formation of these ideas and arguments.

Jay Babcock at Arthur has maintained a place for me to publish these and reach a wider audience, so I'll just excerpt and link to over there.

The first time I worked with a computer, way back in high school in the late '70s, there was no such thing as software...

Media Squat Classics

[image error]We're starting something new on The MediaSquat (my WFMU radio show): Media Squat Classics. Every other week, sometimes more frequently, we're going to be broadcasting a rare lecture from my very strange archive of great MediaSquatters – from RAW and Leary to McLuhan and Fuller.

This will amount to a foundations course in mind and media hacks, complete with commentary by me on what the heck these people might have meant.

Of course, all of this will be archived in the MediaSquat archive at a

Life Inc – Portuguese

Translated by Jose Murilo, from San Paolo, who is organizing a conference called "The Fifth International Conference on Gross National Happiness in Practice." (I'm still searching for a link.)

Google's iPhone

Posted this to Daily Beast today, about Google's partnership with Verizon to bring Android to us all.

I feel a large dose of schadenfreud whenever iPhone users get dropped in the middle of their calls with me. Somehow, the failings of the overtaxed AT&T network (through which all iPhones must currently connect) make me feel better about staying with a cheaper, less feature-rich phone...

Jonathan Lethem Tonight on The Media Squat

Jonathan Lethem, author of the fantastic new novel Chronic City, will be on my radio show the Media Squat, tonight at 6p on WFMU or streaming at WFMU.org or in the archives an hour later.

This is my favorite conversation so far.

The Mob Comes After Twitter

Just wrote a piece for Daily Beast about this annoying new app/game for Twitter, and whether someone is going to have to close something, somewhere, to prevent the spread of more of the same…

…sure enough, it turns out that clicking on the big red button grants Mobster World access to your Twitter account, and gives the game the ability to send invitations automatically to all your followers and everyone you follow. Which it goes ahead and does instantaneously, before you even get to the next...

Equal Opportunity Evades NYU?

I'm looking for a teaching job. I mean a real one, a full-time faculty position with health insurance and everything. A place to do my work with a bit less attention to what the market might be willing to support at any given moment.

Having done some adjunct work at NYU, I figured I would check their job listings for what I might be good for. There's a few dozen departments that list media studies courses. So I tried the "Job Listings" page to see who might be hiring.

Imagine my surprise...