I’m tempted to quote from pieces of his talk. But it’s so meaty that I want to encourage you to take the time to read it for yourself. The lecture ranges widely — including the question of who’ll actually pay for information in the future.

When you’re done reading it, you’ll understand better why the organization Alan leads has deservedly become one of the most widely followed news sites in the English language.

Users of the iPhone in the U.S. have been plaugued by AT&T’s lousy network, but now the telecom company is crowdsourcing what it hopes will help identify the worst parts of the network. It can’t tell if your call has been dropped on purpose — that is, you hung up — or whether it dropped because of the crappy network. So it’s asking users for help, according to Wired News.

There’s a media point to this. AT&T understands the value of its customers’ collective knowledge. Journalists are still missing it, for the most part.