CWA is the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Now in it’s 63rd year, the conference brings together scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, artists, and more for a week of fascinating conversations. It’s free, and open to the public. Think of CWA as the democratic version of TEDtalks. I’m at the conference all this week and will be posting and tweeting about some of the interesting things that I learn.
A couple of people have asked about whether it’s possible to watch, or listen to, recordings of Conference on World Affairs panels online. I’m pleased to report that this is, in fact, the case. There’s a live stream—available in video or audio-only versions—from two of the 12 venues this week. Today, you can use it to tune in to panels like:
• 11:00 am Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: Free the Slaves — a plenary speech by sociologist Kevin Bales. I talked with Bales quite a bit last night, and I think you’ll find his approach to the issue of slavery very interesting. One of his current projects—using computer algorithms to identify predictive social and political factors that lead to slavery—is a story that I hope to bring to BoingBoing later this year.
• 2:00 pm Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: Swarm Activism: Social Media and Revolution.
• 3:30 pm Mountain Time on the UMC Center Ballroom stream: What’s Up, Doc: Documentaries in the 21st Century
• 4:00 pm Mountain Time on the Macky Auditorium stream: Ebert Interruptus showing of “A Serious Man”. This is a long-standing feature of the Conference on World Affairs. Usually lead by Roger Ebert—although he’s turned over duties to Jim Emerson this year—the Interruptus is a movie screening where anyone in the audience can, at any time, call for the film to stop so that they can ask questions or make comments.
There’s also audio and video from lots of past years available online in the CWA archives.