Meet me at Ars Electronica 2008: Symposium on the Limits of Intellectual Property

Joichi Ito and the Ars Electronica people have invited me to join them for this conference that is promising to be very unique.  I will be giving a talk on September 5, 2008 - join me if you are somewhere close by (this event is held in Linz, Austria).  This is what Joi says about it: 

"Computers and the Internet has lowered the cost of communication and the creation and distribution of information so much that many fundamental notions of organizations, economics and property have completely changed or require major upgrades. There is a new generation of youth across the globe which lead the charge into this changing world, modifying their basic behaviors to adapt to technology as it develops. Some businesses and artists have been able to keep up with these trends while other struggle and fail. The much slower to adapt legal system is being pushed to its limits with organizations on all sides of the issues trying very hard to adapt outdated laws. Most of the new behaviors and organizations creating value have a completely different notion property. Intellectual property, while key to the post-industrial revolution nature of the firm, is more of an encumbrance than an asset to the sharing oriented mode of creation now central to the Internet. This year, we will bring together the users, artists, businesses, policy makers and academics involved intentionally or beyond their control in this change to understand this new world and to try to adapt to it."

(Joichi Ito)