Austin Technology Matters is a brand new public access show that covers community technology events and issues.

About Community Technology

Community technology means those technologies that promotes civic and cultural participation, employment and life-long learning. On Austin Technology Matters, we want to examine ways new technologies help us live and learn, and the people who are leading the way.

It may seem obvious technology can be approached that way, but the community-focused view is rare. The mainstream media often tends to pigeonhole technology one of two ways. Sometimes, when reported in the business section, they are concerned soley with the financial impacts. Otherwise, they seem to focus on the more superficial style and trend issues.

We don't want to omit those things, but we want to do so much more. Our goal is to take a more informed and encompassing look at technology and how it affects us.

For more information, see the resources page.

About Chip Rosenthal

Chip Rosenthal is the producer and host of Austin Technology Matters.

He is, by training, an engineer, and works by day as a consultant and software developer. He has been active in community technology issues in Austin for over a decade. In 2005, he was nominated for a Dewey Winburne Community Service award for his work co-founding Save Muni Wireless. He currently serves as vice-chair on the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission, which advises the Austin City Council on technology matters.

Visit his weblog to follow his adventures in open source software, community technology, and Texas living.

(Photo courtesy Wendell Ramsey.)

The Theme Music

The show's theme song is "The One to Make You Whole" by Eponymous 4. Here is a brief sample. You can listen to the entire song here.

Eponymous 4 is the home studio project of Greg Bueno, a web developer with a college degree in music. He's been writing songs since he was a teenager, but it wasn't until the advent of affordable recording technology did he make a serious effort to record his own work.

Thanks to Greg for the use of the music. For more information (and more music) visit the Eponymous 4 web site.

The Julia Fractal

The spinning galaxy graphic used in the show credits isn't from outer space at all. It's from mathematical space. It's called a fractal.

A fractal is an endless mathematical pattern. The pattern continues no matter how far you zoom in or out.

The image used is derived from the Julia Set, a mathematical relationship discovered by Gaston Julia in 1918. The displayed image was generated by Bakasama and released under a Creative Commons license.

You may view the original animated image here.

Creative Commons

The Austin Technology Matters show and the contents of this web site are released under the Creative Commons non-commercial license.

Here is what that means: Chip Rosenthal, the creator of these works, is asserting his ownership rights to them. But he's giving you permission to copy, modify, and redistribute the works subject to a few restrictions. The chief restrictions are you may do so only for non-commercial purposes, and you need to attribute the original author.

Creative Commons is a great middle ground between the "Hollywood copyright" (we will eat your first born if you try to copy our stuff) and the anything goes permissiveness of the public domain. It allows the author to protect and nurture their work, while allowing open use (and re-use) by the public.

For more information, visit the Creative Commons web site.