The Launch of Rewire

Rewire officially launched Monday, and I’ve had the chance to do a couple of radio interviews about the book, with Anthony Brooks at Radio Boston and with Brian Lehrer on his show on WNYC. I had great fun with both radio hosts, and was reminded of how grateful I am for public radio, which is often the best forum for people to talk about books and big ideas to a broad audience. The recording of my WBUR appearance is here, and my WNYC appearance is here.

Two of the web’s best loved and best read sites have been kind enough to feature excerpts from the book this week. Slate is running an excerpt from the book’s opening chapter, “Connection, Infection, Inspiration”, which looks at whether cyberutopianism is such a bad thing. (To echo a conversation I had with Ian Bogost on Twitter, cyberutopianism is certainly an unhelpful word, and not what I really want to defend. I’m arguing more for awareness of the strengths and limits of our tools, and for the belief that we can make better tools.) Quartz is running an excerpt from chapter 5, “Found in Translation”, which looks at how the web has become massively multilingual. I’m grateful to both for being kind enough to feature the book.

The Berkman Center is hosting the formal launch of Rewire this coming Tuesday night, June 25, at Wasserstein Hall on the Harvard Law School campus. I’ll talk about some of the core ideas of the book and three friend who’ve been kind enough to read what I’ve written will offer reactions: David Weinberger, Judith Donath and Ann Marie Lipinski. If you’re in Cambridge, please come… and if you are coming, please RSVP, as space is limited. If you’re not able to come, I’ll be talking about some of the same ideas I shared earlier this month at Personal Democracy Forum – video of my talk at PDF is here.

Two requests:

– I am not doing a formal book tour for Rewire. Instead, I’m doing lots of radio and podcast appearances. If you have a podcast on related topics and want to do a skype interview, let me know. Ditto if you have a radio show. But I am also open to giving talks and readings in person. I’m using a new platform called Togather. Basically, the idea is this: if you want to host a book talk and have me attend, you can propose a talk on Togather. If we can make it work – i.e., if I’m available and if you can promise a certain number of books sold or RSVPs – I am open to either appearing in person or via Skype. I’m much more likely to accept invitations in the MA/Vermont/Upstate New York area, as well as NYC, Boston, Philly or DC, that elsewhere, but I am always happy to Skype. If you’re at all interested, learn more at my Togather page.

– If you’ve read the book, please add a review on Good Reads or Amazon.

Thanks for tolerating my relentless self-promotion, and if you’ve bought the book (or just read a friend’s copy), thanks so much.