I came across a great metaphor for relationships awhile ago - bricks and mortar. Bricks are the “big things” - the events of life that you share with friends. Mortar is the little, everyday stuff, that the people you are closest to just know about, often whether they want to or not.

As Scheherazade wrote in her original blog post that caught my eye, bricks get all the attention. When we think about communication, we think about the bricks. But mortar is what makes it all stick together, and without it there’s no solid foundation.

For a number of years I’ve been interested in prison systems, particularly the current counter-productive nature of the US system. So, I was really interested to hear this week’s Tech Nation on IT Conversations, which is a discussion with Sasha Abamsky about the state of prisons in the US, the history of the penal system and some of the things going on today that curdle my blood.

Finally, the big news has arrived from the Conversations Network (where I’m Senior Editor).

The channels have now been split to fall under two separate umbrella groups: the Conversations Network and GigaVox Media. As of today, IT Conversations, plus two new channels - Open Source Conversations and the Podcast Academy - are part of GigaVox Media. Social Innovation Conversations continues to be the flagship of the Conversations Network.

Very cool.

Tags: gigavox, conversations network, podcasting

Check out the first glimpses of the MIT media lab’s $100 laptop (the cornerstone of the One Laptop per Child program).

For more info, watch the Pop!Tech 2005 feed from IT Conversations for a talk from Nicholas Negroponte about this project. The talk should be posted in a couple of weeks.

Update: You can now hear the Nicholas Negroponte talk here.

On June 15 & 16, 2006, I’ll be at Yahoo! in Santa Clara, CA at the third Podcast Academy. I’ll be meeting face to face with my co-consipirators at the Conversations Network, and giving a talk about how to make your podcast better by offering your audience more than just audio or video.

Come say hi if you’re there.

Think about the children!

• My previous podcast about internet safety
• John Shehan’s talk at IT Conversations
• pdf of the Cyber Safety for Kids Act 2006

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Cameras… they’re everywhere!

• Panopticon (wikipedia)
• Jamais Cascio on the Participatory Panopticon: text or IT Conversations audio

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Via Slashdot, I learned that the X Prize Foundation is working on new challenges. Personally, I’m particularly thrilled & delighted about new ideas in automotives. X Prize foundner Peter Diamandis gets it right when he asks, “why do we still drive cars that use an internal combustion engine and only get 30 miles per gallon?”

For more info about Diamandis’ vision, check out his talk from Pop!Tech 2005 via IT Conversations.

There’s nothing new under the sun and that includes the internet. Check out another discussion of what’s new and what’s not by Larry Magid.

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