Anil Dash of dashes.com offers up this provocative companion to NMDNet’s subheading,
Dash has a keen post-ironic edge to his writing and lecturers. I’m particularly drawn to a recent technologist/civilian call to action, written on the eve of the iPad launch,
Right now there are a lot of hopeful, and possibly deluded, people in the old-line media businesses who hope that an Apple tablet will prop up their failing magazine, newspaper or television businesses. Those of us who are digitally savvy are probably having a chuckle at their expense, snickering at their wishful thinking. But Apple will invest a lot more in saving any given book publisher than they ever will in saving civic society, in protecting individuals’ rights, or in engaging in diplomacy to neutralize the threat of violent extremists.
I’m gonna try to spend at least as much time advocating for issues I care about as I do for the purchase of new gadgets. I hope that even those who disagree with me on those issues do the same. Maybe there’ll be an app for that.
Full text at http://dashes.com/anil/2010/01/free-publicity-who-do-we-help.html