The Open Road Blog

“Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom.”

—Bette Greene

Today marks the start of Banned Books Week, a weeklong celebration of the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Sponsored by the American Library Association since 1982, this week shines a light on the benefits of intellectual freedom and raises important questions about the themes, ideas, and concepts resonating—for better or for worse—in the cultural consciousness.

In anticipation of the week ahead, we asked a diverse collection of authors to share their thoughts and experiences related to censorship. Hit play to see Pat Conroy, Bette Greene, ...

This is a special year for me. After years of coming up with one pretext after another for why I couldn’t attend the RWA conference, I told myself that this year was THE YEAR! No excuses, no apologies.

The decision that this was THE YEAR wasn’t ...

Oliver Reichenstein of IA makes an astute case for a "Business Class for News," which, as a long-time happy subscriber to Ars Technica's Premium Service, I think has much greater potential to be a viable business model for publishers than does a traditional paywall. 

Cory Doctorow in the Guardian has a great, quick write-up of the recently-released "Media Piracy in Emerging Economies" report: 

"This weighty, 440-page report took thirty-five researchers three years to produce, and it is a careful, thoroughly documented rebuttal of practically everything you've ever heard or read about copyright infringement in the ...

Fizz, Cartagram and Planetary are neat tools by Bloom, a company that is pairing visualization tools with elements of game design. Fizz lets you see your Facebook or Twitter feed develop via big or small bubbles, indicating people and updates, and swarming hives. Cartagram displays instagram photos in a map layout. While Bloom's cool projects are news from earlier in 2011, the update is that Planetary, which looks the neatest, will be available on Monday. It is described as "an all-new, stunningly beautiful way to explore your music collection." They have some examples with Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, ...