The US Government and the NSA, the UK government, Etc. are behaving badly and of course they are used to getting things their way. What I mean is that in public relations you have clients that understand that when the truth comes out, not matter how awful the best thing to do is to get out in front of the story with the actual real truth. Then you have clients who run from the truth, that is a bad client.

Telling more lies, half lies, lies of omission, threatening witnesses and reporters who are covering the story, Etc only make it worse.. Indeed that is what is happening here.. The government clearly isn't accepting that but until they do, there story will grow and grow and those telling the story will get stronger, gain more respect from the publics, Etc.

I didn't promise nor did I describe an Utopian system. WIth the current system they could be blackmailing anyone, using it for insider trading, Etc. Etc., The NSA has said they can't SEARCH their own email system. They can search YOURS.. but not THEIR OWN.. http://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-says-it-cant-search-own-emails

Thus, even with a legitimate suing of them there just isn't any discovery! No opportunity to learn what they did, and when they did it.

My point again, if you can't stop them, and I just don't see how that is possible, the best case left is to pour in the sunlight..

For me the only viable solution is making the NSA's work/effort and all of their data capture completely transparent with audit trails, Etc. not to stop them, but so when the abuses do come we can figure out who did want and seek redress.

It's hard to explain for layer Antifragility are best built on layers of fragility.. meaning cells in a body are fragile but the body itself get's stronger when stressed (lifting weights, Etc.). The Netflix example is good, it's a bit like randoming pulling parts of a plane in flight and then after the crash making the next planes stronger.. it also leads to antifragility, but it's a strong stressor. .

The UK has always tapped their cables since the dawn of the telegraph.. This isn't new, and certainly isn't news to anyone who studied history.

The government has long wanted better, meaning highly reliable means of conducting traffic analysis... who knows who, who talks to whom, etc. You can use this data for good or bad.. you can use it to break past the limits in typical "cells"... you can find the path/person who links from one cell to another..

My own take is there is a enough personal data and information in meta data that use of it deprives us of our rights to be secure in our home and in our papers.. our communications with others, Etc.

Back in the days of the Clipper chip, the chip had done into wide spread use it's use would have given the NSA, Etc nearly perfect traffic analysis since each chip would have it's own unique and cryptographically signed ID. Fast forward, everyone walking around with a cell phone has an unique ID, several in fact including their phone #, and that's the value of all the meta data.. it's often more important than what is being said, it is who is talking to whom...

Knowing everyone who talked to OBL in say 1995 or 1990 or 1985 would be helpful to find his network in 2001 or 2002, Etc. It can be helpful when tracking bad guys, but it can be used to track anyone for any reason and find their entire network of friends and family.

My Gen III Prius is rated for 50 MPG highway. I regularly take extended trips where I get 52-54 MPG. Even my daily highway driving is in that same range, depending on traffic (heavy traffic = less MPG.). Typically the worse I do is 47-48 for combined City/Highway. Of course I can drive like a maniac and get mileage in the low 40's.

yes. of course, and if something doesn't get picked up, they can crowd source fund a few episodes.. and they should use more of the British model where a 'season' might be just 3 to 4 episodes.. all done with quality..

They should sign people up for subscriptions and allow them to watch anywhere, any time.. and be part of the process of picking what they wil be watching.. after all if you ask nicely most people will tell you what they think.

They are basically creating content (by buying it or paying for it) and then finding advertisers to fund it.. that's a model that easier to do online than offline, esp. now that people are time shifting, Etc. They need to forget that they are going out Over The Air and start to incorporate everything they can do when they to OTT (over the top)..

Let's hope they are not all frozen in the basement.. ;)

Today in new media hmmm I mean social media, it's very popular to "engage" the audience, something you did exceedingly well.. You basically went out and found your audience... It was heroic and it made the experience that much more awesome, that we could ask you questions and they were answered. I asked about how the Narn had defeated the Shadows and even though that was a major turning point of plot you still answered, "That would be telling..."

My question is today's humans 25 like to think that they invented everything in media that is social; can you give us any examples where you feel a TV show is or isn't doing a good job with audience "engagement" and any tips or suggestions on how to do correctly?

For me you basically invented the genre of the audience being able to communicate with the producers/writers of a show, which is now far more common... for me it made TV very interactive and I of course I still remember you answering a question I asked (that's for another day)...

Do you know of any earlier examples of this that influenced you to "engage" with the audience?

While I haven't read the Posterous TOS i doubt they "own" people's content... however, the issue I think that Mike was trying to highlight is while you own your content you might not be able to migrate it and/or loss access to it..

We need a postal service but we don't need one that is cheap or subsidized in anyway. All bills can be sent and paid for using a computer. Ditto letters.

No one is ever happy to pay more, but starting tomorrow they should only charge what it costs to operate the system. They should deliver 4 days a week and anything else should cost even more. They should charge 100% plus 15% of what things cost. The profit should be used to pay back the tax payers all the money we have pumped into the system.