Arts + Labs advisor Andrew Keen will be the closing luncheon speaker at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum, scheduled for August 22nd - August 24th.  Keen will offer remarks on "The Creative Economy or a Tragedy of the Creative Commons?" focusing on the importance of intellectual property rights for the Internet and the possible consequences if we lack systems to enforce such rights.  He will join other influential industry leaders and policy experts at the event to discuss key issues affecting innovation in the technology and communications sectors. 

The Aspen Forum will be held at the St. Regis Aspen Resort, August 22nd - 24th.  To register, please visit www.techpolicyinstitute.org/aspen2010. For additional information, please contact Jane Creel at jcreel@techpolicyinstitute.org. Members of the press can contact Amy Smorodin at asmorodin@techpolicyinstitute.org

Andrew Keen had some interesting thoughts on the Internet and politics after the recent Personal Democracy Forum:

"I dearly hope that politics won't have to fix the Internet. But the online world is too precious to the 21st century to become purely a festering source of perpetual subversion for the discontented. If we can balance the demand for individual rights with the need for personal responsibility -- in everything from intellectual property theft to the vitriol of anonymous online posting to an intuitive disrespect for other people's opinions and beliefs -- then the Internet can become a politically positive force in our nascent digital century.But this won't happen if we turn the Internet into a religion and regard its technology as eschatology. Rather than being about peddling conspiracy theories or swapping stolen songs or posting videos of your skateboarding cat on YouTube, citizenship is about recognizing the moral consequences of one's own actions. That's how the Internet can fix politics. That's how it can be a force for the public good."

Arts + Labs Advisor Andrew Keen debates the Internet and democracy at the National Press Club.

Art's + Labs advisor Andrew Keen participated in a debate at the National Press Club on the discuss the topic "Is democracy threatened by the unchecked nature of information on the Internet?"

Here are some of the highlights:

On the notion that the web can harm democracy:

It depends, of course, what you mean by democracy. Jimmy [Wales]'s definition of democracy was an anti-federalist position, a sort of an idealized, direct-democracy rhetoric which suggests (and I'm quoting him now) that "It's all about the people deciding." But of course at the foundation this country is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy, in which the federalists won over the anti-federalists.

The premise of democracy is not about the people deciding; it's about finding educated, high-quality political figures who will make wise decisions about the community. So I think Jimmy is falling into the old trap of appropriating democracy for his own ends.

On the notion that the Internet is, fundamentally, technology:

One of the mistakes we make about the Internet is that it's technology. It isn't; it's ideology. The Internet was built by people who questioned authority. The Internet is bound up in a fundamental assault on the notion of expertise, on what Jimmy calls 'the mainstream media,' which includes shows like this, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. And the idea that representative democracy, experts -- whether in media, in politics, in the arts, in legal affairs, in intellectual affairs -- are unreliable and need to be replaced by what Jimmy calls 'the people' is deeply dangerous.

What I most fear about the Internet -- which...we all use; I'm as addicted as everybody else -- is the way we take this technology, which has no center, is flattened, has done away with authority and expertise -- we take this technology to prove the ideological, idealized theories of Jimmy Wales. The truth is, we need expertise, we need authority, we need to remind ourselves of the foundations of representative democracy."

Read more here.

A debate on the topic "Internet and Democracy: Democracy is threatened by the unchecked nature of information on the Internet."  will be held tonight at 7 PM ET at the National Press Club.  The event can be viewed live online by visiting the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

The debate will be moderated by Paul Solman, Business and Economics Correspondent, PBS NewsHour, and the participants will include:

Andrew Keen, Arts + Labs advisor and author of "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture"

Farhad Manjoo, journalist for Slate, and author of "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society"

Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia

Micah L. Sifry, editor, Personal Democracy Forum

Andrew Keen, author of The Cult Of The Amateur, led the discussion which included Richard Bennett (research fellow at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation), Larry Downes (fellow of the Stanford Law School Center For Internet & Society), Michael Masnick (CEO and Founder of Techdirt) and Gigi Sohn (CEO and Founder of Public Knowledge, who came in on Skype).

"The Digital Economy: Threats and Opportunities" at the 2011 Media Summit in New York. on March 10th, moderated by Arts + Labs advisor Andrew Keen.

Speakers:

Brian Napack, President, Macmillan Publishing
Channing Dawson, SVP of Emerging Media, Scripps
Rick Cotton, EVP & General Counsel, NBCU
Jeff Turner, Founder & CTO, Interstream
C. Lincoln Hoewing, Vice President of Internet and Technology Policy, Verizon

.

Francine Hardaway of FastCompany writes:

Andrew is a highly educated dude who spoke without notes, slides, or external props. He actually used his brain in his talk. No Prezi, no Powerpoint. And he provoked much thought inside me on the nature of innovation.

Read the entire Article here.

Arts + Labs advisor Andrew Keen Spoke at SXSW 2010 on the "fairness of innovation".

"Innovation doesn't lead to justice and fairness. I'd argue there is a more dramatic inequality now then there ever was during the industrial revolution. We have fetishized change, but we are unfettered. If anything, the new media is less transparent and less accountable...I don't have a problem with Twitter or new media, my problem is that digital utopians have dressed up their ideology to sound like democracy...Google has become the master of seeming like an altruistic and public company and yet laughing all the way to the bank."

Read a recap of his presentation at ReadWriteWeb

Arts + Labs will be hosting a themed dinner, "The Digital Economy: Treats and Opportunities" at the 2010 Media Summit in New York. on March 10th.  The event will be moderated by Arts + Labs advisor Andrew Keen.

Brian Napack, President, Macmillan Publishing
Channing Dawson, SVP of Emerging Media, Scripps
Rick Cotton, EVP & General Counsel, NBCU
Jeff Turner, Founder & CTO, Interstream
C. Lincoln Hoewing, Vice President of Internet and Technology Policy, Verizon

Mr. Keen will also be participating in a panel discussion, "Defending the News and Media Industries: Restructuring, Recovery and Technology - the Role of the Media Industry, Wall Street, Government and Non-Profits" on  March 11 with the following speakers:

Timothy Karr, Campaign Director, Free Press
Steven Waldman, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, FCC
Michael Wolff, founder, Newser and Columnist, Vanity Fair
Jane Mago, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, National Association of Broadcasters
George Mahoney, Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel of Media General, Inc.
Anne M. Swanson, Member, Dow Lohnes, Moderator

See full details here.