Last Friday, National Public Radio top execs came to San Francisco for a “Digital Think In” to pick the brains of some Silicon Valley types about where the public radio icon should go, digitally speaking.

While NPR actually has been pretty fast-forward with podcasts and a robust Web site, it still has to think about what social networking means to it and whether a day is coming when broadcasting online will be bigger than offline.

Also, what’s up with Twitter?

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This morning, BoomTown was on the very terrific National Public Radio talk show, “On Point,” along with Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain.

The program, moderated by Tom Ashbrook on Boston’s WBUR station, was titled “From Desktop to the Digital Cloud” and dealt with the increasing move of data of all kinds online and into the so-called “cloud.”

In other words, eventually, a completely virtual life for music, photos, records and more, and the end of packaged software.

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All the news is already out about the new Yahoo homepage, which was launched today for users in the U.S. It features customizable apps, as well as a cleaner look.

But, just in case you are not satisfied yet, here is the full press release on the new front page for Yahoo.

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We consider Jill Sobule to be the musical muse of ATD–which we desperately need since we are obviously way, way too jacked into the matrix.

And, tomorrow, Sobule’s Internet-funded album, “California Years,” produced by the legendary Don Was, debuts. I urge everyone to click the link here and get a copy–online, of course.

Let’s cheer on efforts like Sobule’s and hope for a hit. Because hers is indeed a small but mighty effort, as all kinds of content creators try to figure out businesses in the new digital age, unafraid of the changes inevitably coming (AP might want to take notes about this).

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Speaking of Rafat Ali, here is a video of a panel I did at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Calif., on April 26 at paidContent.org’s conference, “The Economics of Social Media.”
Our session covered how mainstream media looks at the explosion of social media, but really was about the woes of the traditional news business [...]

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The interview Walt and I did with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs last week at D5 is now the No. 1 podcast on Apple’s iTunes, beating out National Public Radio’s “Car Talk,” “This American Life” and the Best of YouTube.

The link to the joint interview on iTunes is here, in video and [...]

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