Search Engine is a collaborative radio show produced by the CBC, which includes a novel combination of radio show, podcast and blog.The show describes itself as ”your open source to all the surprising and significant ways the Internet is transforming our world…a look at politics and culture through the lens of the Net.”   The collaborative element comes about through the fact that the show invites (and pays for) citizen journalists, and uses the blog entries of its community to create part of the content of its weekly podcasts.The podcast is smart and funny.  The blog is even better, combining transcripts and audio files of extended version of the interviews heard in the show, as well as videos, images and links to relevant sites, in addition to providing a space for the Search Engine community to respond to stories, provide additional information, and submit their responses to the “mobdocs” (the invitations for the show’s collaborative citizen journalism projects).The show isn’t so much about technology and gadgets as it is about how technology and gadgets and the Internet affect and change our lives.Recent topics include:

  • P2P file sharing and copyright protection.
  • Net neutrality - laws that restrict traffic-shaping by public ISPs to limit use of technologies like BitTorrent.
  • The cyberattack on Estonia - how suspected Russian cyberterrorists attacked Estonia’s infrastructure.
  • Chinese “gold farmers” - sweatshop workers in China that play Warcraft online for a living - collecting and selling Warcraft gold.

It’s worth a listen!