Description:

Full Video: Available on Safari Books Online

No corner of modern American life is untouched by technology. And no technology is more transformative than the Internet. This for the simple reason that the Internet is, at bottom, a communications network and communication is the foundation of society, business and government. When you scale up communications, you change the world.

The consultants and evangelists are doing a good job making the case that social technologies (blogs, wikis, Social Networks, Twitter etc.) are a positive force for society and business. The critiques, however, often feel small (Is Google Making Us Stupid, Facebook Addiction etc.) in the face of the tectonic shifts being brought about by social technologies. This webcast will be a discussion of the deeper uncertainties surrounding society's great, headlong rush into the Social Web, such as:

• How will social technologies affect privacy?
• What is the potential for these tools to get used/abused by government and corporations?
• What are the implications for society in a totally networked world?

This webcast is based on a four-part article series published on the O'Reilly Radar in May, 2009:

• The Question Concerning Social Technology
• Captivity of the Commons
• The Digital Panopticon
• Social Science Moves From Academia to the Corporation

This webcast will be highly interactive; a short explanation of Joshua-Michele Ross' points - detailed on the Radar Blog - followed by open Q&A and Debate.

About Joshua-Michele Ross

Josh has spent over 10 years consulting on digital business strategy.

His focus over the last four years has been on applying Web 2.0 principles to deliver competitive advantage (from new business model development to customer engagement and communication strategies). Mr. Ross has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and has spoken at conferences related to technology and digital strategy around the world. Past clients include Washington Mutual, Accenture, Best Buy, Autodesk, and Polycom.

Joshua holds a degree with honors in Chinese Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

About Sam Lessin

Sam Lessin is the founder and CEO of drop.io, the simple private real-time filesharing and collaboration application. Prior to drop.io, Sam worked at Bain and Company, the global strategy consulting firm. He has held positions at RRE Ventures and AT&T Wireless Mobile Multimedia. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College. He is an avid runner, backpacker, skier, and traveler.