On air: The end of the office?

I’m just back from the opening reception at WeMedia and I wanted to share on conversation I had while there. Ritchie Lucas runs a company called Think Factory. He believes that the way we build our working lives around offices is incredibly inefficient (and believes the net can connect the unemployed with those who could use their ability). As well as that, he told me that information is now more important to all of us than people and relationships with them. We don’t need to see the person who’s providing us with a service, and we don’t need to see the people we work with he argued. We just need the information they can give us. It’s a radical idea that would change how we work and how we get others to work for us. Now of course, he ‘s hoping this will happen as his business is built on this, but do you think Ritchie’s logic holds?

On air: Violence in Nigeria

Two questions appear to be at the centre of your discussions of the weekend’s shocking violence near Jos. They are: 1) Why is it happening? and 2) why isn’t more attention being paid to it? (Though Hillary has now commented.)We’ll ask both, as well as hear about our sister’s show Africa Have Your Say’s discussion on what now needs to be done to present such massacres happening again. Questions and comments welcome… and pls leave your number if you want to come on air. We won’t publish the number online.

On air: Do women need extra help to succeed?

A law that has been reintroduced in India which would reserve a third of all seats in the national parliament and state legislatures for women. Its progress is being delayed by protests today in the upper house. It again raises the issue of whether women require this kind of assistance to achieve the same success and power as men. (And an interesting bit of context to this story is that it was original proposed back in 1996 and 14 years in clearly some Indians still feel it’s very necessary.)

Net access is a ‘human right’. Really?

Just seen this story on BBC News. A survey has found that 80% of us think getting online is a ‘human right’. (I felt like pointing that out to the night porter when the advertised wifi in our rooms didn’t work this morning.) I’m suprised, and am very interested to hear from those of you who’d argue this is the case. Does net access now fall into the same category as fredom of speech and access to food?

How are we doing?

At the World Service, we have something called Annual Reviews. This is where the editor of a programme (so Mark in the case of WHYS) goes to see the most senior editorial people in the organisation (they’re called commissioners and directors)

Thursday’s venue

Many thanks to the Gyllyngvase Beach Cafe for hosting us at very short notice.

Joe explains how we’ll get on air

On air: Can a country dictate the place names that we use?

That’s what Iran is attempting to do. It’s warned airlines that they won’t be allowed to fly through Iranian airspace (let alone land…) unless they use the term “Persian Gulf” on their in-flight monitors.

As our correspondent Jon Leyne puts it: ‘To call it the Gulf, annoys the authorities; to call it the Arabian Gulf, infuriates them even more.’ Do you support their insistence? And in your country, do you want a strong stance taken on the correct names being used?

Is the pursuit of profit crucial to solving the world’s problems?

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On air: Is the Internet constraining how we develop as individuals?

I’m very excited about today’s programme. Jaron Lanier is one of the great thinkers on the Internet and technology and he’s going to be with us for the full hour. (He has a book out – which is being discussed extensively online.) he’s asked to talk to you about three things.