This year’s Idea Festival is just barely more than halfway finished, and the presentations so far have been far-reaching, well-attended, and largely topical.  If you haven’t made it down yet—it’s one of Louisville’s most interesting annual events, after all—you’re due for a check-in.  Here’s a redux run-down of the ideas being pondered:

Tiffany Schlain — “Connected: A stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind”:  The founder of the Webby Awards—the international awards honoring excellence on the internet—and independent film maker is working on a new project called “Connected: A Declaration of Interdependence,” excerpts of which were screened at the opening event of IF 2009.

The film itself, done in Schlain’s distinctive documentary style, discusses the inter-connectedness of systems in nature, the social sciences, and in human behavior.  Into the documentary, she weaves an intensely personal story of her pregnancy with twins during her dying father’s final months battling brain cancer.

The film is still looking for financiers.

Kembrew McLeod -- “Copyright Criminals”:  The most interesting issue raised at IF so far—copyrighting culture.  McLeod’s new documentary “Copyright Criminals” examines, through the prism of sampling in hip-hop, the question of whether artists should own what they create.

The film highlights the problems with American copyright laws—under which the sampling royalties for the drum beats in a particular James Brown track are awarded to the record company that released the song and not to the drummer whose creativity launched the song in the first place—as well as the hypocrisy in claiming that artists across time cannot legally influence each other.

Brilliantly arranged, and boasting a bumping soundtrack, the film will appear on PBS’s Independent Lens next year.

Read More After the Jump…

Bob Berman -- “Life…Consciousness and the Nature of the Universe”:  My choice for the “Most Likely to Shake Up Your Worldview” award.  In the new book Biocentrism, Berman contends that conscious life creates the universe, and not the other way around.

More precisely, he says, the way that conscious animals have been designed over the years gives the physical world its existence.  Even further, our consciousness actually affects the way that particles in the physical world behave, nullifying time and space as the backdrop against which we experience the world.

Dr. Moira Gunn — “All About You … The New Genomics and the Nature of Being Human”:  Dr. Gunn began with a mercifully short description of DNA (double helix), its history (Drs. Watson and Crick), and its function (your height and hair color), before hyper-driving to the Human Genome Project, which is where the story gets interesting.

Using examples of leukemia patients, breast cancer patients, cystic fibrosis patients, and color-blind squirrel monkeys, Gunn was pretty convincing in her (admittedly broad) contention that genome-centric treatment courses represent a sticky moral situation.

Given the genetic concerns we know about currently—standardization of humanity by gene insertion, “super-humanness” achieved by genetic enhancements, genetically modified foods, warnings of looming illnesses as indicated by gene mapping—to say nothing of future concerns, Gunn rightly thinks that genetic technology will be the defining issue of the coming century.

It turns out this is a case of much ado about very little. That’s not to diminish its importance. After a meeting last week, WHAS agreed to allow the videos to reappear on YouTube. We agreed to do a better job of linking to their website when we post their videos.

To recap, on November 7th the mainstream media jumped on our story. Louisville Eccentric Observer ran a feature news story about our battle for the freedom of speech in new media. We welcomed and encouraged the publicity. We love publicity. Any news is good news – that’s us.

The problem, as we understand it, was that our video excerpts were attracting a significant audience, web viewers that some at the station believed could have been watching the same video directly through WHAS11.com. We’re all competing for eyeballs on the web, so in their eyes we were a threat. And, one of our videos (like this McConnell story, for instance) did attract more than 22,000 views. So they were probably right to be concerned. Of course, a closer look at the traffic statistics shows that about 65% of our readership comes from outside the Louisville media market– not WHAS11′s core.

We’re not sure if the LEO story was the catalyst for resolution, but we were quickly invited to a meeting with WHAS11′s new President and General Manager, Mark Pimentel, shortly after the paper hit newsstands. We met in his office last Friday.

That brings us to today.

There’s no other way to say this: Mark Pimentel has his proverbial ducks in a row, and a solid background in journalism. He is uniquely equipped to bring the station back from the depths of the Bob Klingel/Aaron Ramey news era. He’s filled the news director slot with Genie Garner, whose reputation as a solid journalist who embraces the Internet bodes well. We like that. The station seems ready to reclaim the high ground in news. In other words, no more live coverage of pot-roast fires. (Woah, we’re being positive– something that rarely happens with us bitchy critics.)

He chose his words carefully in our meeting, but there’s no mistaking that he’s aware of the chaos that preceded his arrival. It’s too bad the station lost so many solid reporters and anchors in the last year, but expect the exodus to slow now that there’s a professional in charge.

That said, WHAS is making it a point to welcome criticism. The station is doing the right thing.

We’re pleased to report that as of 6:07 P.M. last evening all video is restored and we’re once again in full swing. Mission accomplished. Free speech prevails. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with all media outlets in Kentucky. And we hope this now-passed and unfortunate dust-up with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act serves as a sticking point for old and new media alike when it comes to happily coexisting.

We’re glad the mainstream media is finally giving this story the legs it deserves. When the printies write about an issue it actually starts to mean something, right? So please take time to read the story and spread it around the blogosphere. And encourage your friends to pick up a copy from newsstands. Sticking up for new media is of major importance to us all.

Update: As a result of this story WHAS11′s management have approached us. We’re optimistic that a resolution is just around the bend!

www.YouSue.com: WHAS-TV goes after Louisville bloggers for posting its video. How far will the station go?

By Jennifer Oladipo

Right now on YouTube, you can find clips of WHAS-TV newscasts, everything from a story about a boy who died from electrocution by a garage door to an interview with the grown-up members of Hanson or footage of a cute but nervous puppy hurling on the anchor’s desk. Keying “WHAS11 video” into Google brings up hundreds more hits.

But there are 10 clips you won’t see, those posted by Louisville blogs The Ville Voice and Page One Kentucky, both published by Full Signal Media. The clips were used in commentaries about news coverage and other issues at WHAS. Page One co-owner Jacob Payne said he believes that’s made them a target: Two weeks ago, the station filed a copyright infringement claim with YouTube against Page One and Ville Voice for using those clips.

Click here to read the rest…

Oct 31, 2007 6:31 PM
Dear Jacob,

Thank you for your counter-notification. It has been forwarded to the
party that sent the takedown notification. If we receive no response, your
material will be restored between 10 and 14 days from today.

Sincerely,

Harry
The YouTube Team

WHAS11 has 14 days to do the right thing or further stifle free speech and criticism in that they have as many days to contest our counter-notice. Should be noted, however, that nearly all blogs and publications that have undertaken similar battles have won their cases. Freedom of speech in the Fair Use form of discussion and criticism is crucial to our society as a whole and we intend to go to court if that’s what it takes.

Stay tuned to Page One and The ‘Ville Voice for updates to this story.

Over the past 24 hours we have heard from numerous reporters, producers and employees at WHAS11 and BELO both expressing outrage at the situation and supporting our right to use video clips under Fair Use. Two other local television stations and one in Lexington have offered support.

Click here to read the rest of this story…