Those who fail to understand history

are doomed to repeat it. Not an original line, but one that sums up this post. Tonight, while walking up to The Townie to get a bottle of wine, I saw one of Newtown's ubiquitous street light posters advertising "Sydney's first podcast network".

I laughed out loud at the utter failure of whomever was responsible for the poster to appreciate the death of walled gardens for content of any form, and the circular nature of history and culture. How can a podcaster, benefitting from several decades of revolution in broadcasting, content sharing, culture and consumption, possibly return to the point of thinking a prescribed, force-fed "network" of content has anything going for it that 1960's radio didn't? :-) Seriously, if this is a joke from the corporate cretins at ClearChannel, then that makes sense on a morbid-humour level. But something tells me that it isn't, and that these fiercly independent individuals will soon branch out into equally subversive measures, such as syndication, top-40s, and request nights.

Viva la internet ... and tear down the walls.