This morning, a New York Times editorial is helping get the word out. Deep thinking is alive and well on the web:
There is a lot of talk about how the Internet is driving culture ever lower, but it also makes a wealth of serious thinking available. From the comfort of home, one can download free audio books by authors like Jane Austen and Joseph Conrad and free podcasts of university lectures (openculture.com has an assortment of both).
The rest of the piece rightly focuses on a BBC podcast called In Our Time (iTunes — Feed — Web Site). It’s listed in our Ideas & Culture Podcast Collection, along with many other thoughtful programs that make meaningful subjects relevant to a broader, global audience. (For something similar in video, see our collections of Intelligent Video Sites and Smart YouTube Channels.)
Yes, intelligent media doesn’t dominate the web. But, it’s flourishing in the niches and crevices, and we want to bring it to the surface. Perhaps you’ll want to join us? If you’re interested in contributing to Open Culture, we’re always looking for your suggestions. I have put together a page that outlines our editorial approach. Take a look, and if you find great pieces of intelligent media while surfing the web, please send them our way. We thank you in advance.
Thanks to the NYT! This is refreshingly exciting!
The NYT article brought my attention to openculture and I was very happy to discover such a rich resource. Thank you Dan.
Thank you for telling us about this great site.
What a great idea! I look forward to visiting your site often. And I promise to send along any material that may be of interest to others who share my ethical and aesthetic predilections
I couldn’t agree more. In the end, it’s all about the options we have and the choices we make among them.
A few months ago, I wrote an article for GOOD Magazine, arguing precisely for those “deeper” resources on the web as tools for liberalizing “liberal arts education” and our intellectual development. It’s good to see more mainstream recognition of this incredible wealth of human knowledge and wisdom available to us today.
You rock, OpenCulture!! Congrats on the great placement and recognition!