(Re <http://interconnected.org/home/2003_08_10_archive.shtml#106059328057699010>)

From: Clay Shirky <>
To: matt@
Subject: Radio is the future
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 16:04:53 -0400


Years ago Richard Foreman, a director and playwright given to staged
philosophy, put on a play called "Film is Evil; Radio Is Good."

The thesis of the play, or at least the thesis of the title, was that  radio
allows you to do other things while listening to it, so that a third thing,
a thing that comes from the combination of whats on the radio and whats
happening in your mind, can occur. Television, on the other hand, is a total
medium, requiring both immobility and attention, so the difference between
what's on television and what's in your mind while you are watching
television is far more limited.

I remember this play whenever I hear about how essential video is about to
become because of foo, where foo = ( video-conferencing, videophones,
cuseeme, mbone ,etc ). There are few places where real-time video is
important, and many fewer where people need to interact in real time around
that video.

-c