Christopher Lydon interviews Joi Ito. There are two parts. Part 1 [MP3] makes the important point that weblogs and blogging as a trend is still in its infancy, and the most interesting growth will occur in Africa and Asia, and that growth might come through cell phone technology more than anything. Part 2 [MP3] is the better of the two, where he discusses his online community IRC channel, #joiito. (I'm there every two or three days, usually just to lurk and usually at nighttime Pacific time.) There is also an interesting mini-discussion of positive deviance at the end of Part 2.

Lydon tries to get Ito to comment on both Iraq and Israel—he, Lydon, is very much anti-Iraq war—at least three times, but he, Ito, didn't take the bait. Well, Ito does take the bait in a way, saying that problems aren't best solved by the United States lobbing bombs, but he has ideas on alternatives. A cup of coffee or other tasty beverage is recommended when listening to the interview, as it is about 30 minutes long in total.

The alliteration in the title of this entry is intended.