Episode Notes

Writer Paul Ford (a.k.a., Ftrain.com) joins Kevin and Deb to talk about the Egyptian revolution, whether Arianna Huffington is a tummler, and the ultimate question of the entire Internet: Why Wasn’t I Consulted?

Paul on Twitter: @ftrain

Quote of the Week: “There is a new role for individuals in the web who serve as ‘antennas’ who collect and feed back to the crowd” – Paul Ford

More links and comments from this episode:

• Danah Boyd on Orkut and flag-waving
• Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim’s electrifying interview
• UK Open Rights Group pledge conversation
• Cory Doctorow responds to Evgeny Morozov’s The Net Delusion – We need a serious critique of net activism
• Douglas Rushkoff says “we’d write for free for Arianna, but not AOL” – Huffington Post and AOL: the end of Web 2.0
• The leaked AOL “master plan” memo – The AOL Way
• Farhad Manjoo in Slate echoes Paul Ford’s doubts about the Huffington Post business model – HuffPo’s Achilles’ Heel
• Paul Ford’s instantly influential post that pegged “Why Wasn’t I Consulted” as the fundamental question of the web – The Web Is a Customer Service Medium
• Paul says The Awl looks like a blog, but it is actually an important magazine about culture on the web [not that blogs aren’t important]
• Readability, an incredibly useful tool with a new model for rewarding producers of great writing
• See also Longreads, Arts & Letters Daily, and the collective highlights of Instapaper
• Kevin Marks recommends Among Others by Jo Walton to “understand how books can love you back”
• Paul Ford’s entertaining and informative Ftrain FAQ