Art is a Verb, Not a Noun

I attended the SF Music Tech Summit on Monday. I was invited to speak on a panel in the late afternoon, but spent all day hanging out and listening to lots of brilliant people talk about music, tech and the intersection.

One of those great minds was John Perry Barlow, who was given a broad microphone to express his theories on everything from copyrights to Bob Weir. His biggest, obvious point was that copyright used to be a lot more successful when it was difficult to copy things.

He pointed out that while most media is moving online into a free form, there are still people figuring out ways to use the new medium to spread the message and raise awareness for their goods which are paid for (read: Radiohead).

John has been through a lot in the past year. He recently underwent major back surgery and is consistently traveling around the country taking meetings, speaking at conferences and rallying for electronic freedom.

He's a man with a deep appreciation for the history of things and a keen awareness for where they're going as well. I admire his philosophical perspective and always appreciate it when he tells his stories.

Not to mention, he wrote some pretty fantastic songs back in the day.

Most of the panels (including mine) are archived over at the conference's UStream page

Thanks to Brian, Shoshana and everyone involved in the conference for a great day in the city!