Search Engine (radio show)
The show has focused on stories involving copyright, video games, and China, as well as the social impact and technology surrounding them.
Other Internet terms were regularly invoked and adapted to the purpose of attempting to describe unusual or unprecedented technology-related cultural phenomena.
In keeping with an open source theme, the creators of Search Engine utilized the show's online blog to communicate and collaborate with listeners.
In the 2008-2009 season, Brown contributed Search Engine type material as a feature supplement to other CBC programming while producing a weekly stand alone audio podcast of the series along with its blog.
As such, Jesse Brown announced on May 1, 2009 that his podcast would be hosted and supported by the Government of Ontario's public broadcasting network, TVOntario.
As well as in regular contributions from Cory Doctorow, Brown focused on the issues surrounding Canadian copyright.
The show's crew kept in contact with these listeners through message boards and its Facebook page, and confirmed that the blockage was limited to China and was therefore not a technical problem.
Brown broke the story on the air, which prompted the president of the CBC to make an appeal to the Chinese Ambassador, calling for an end to the blockage.
[2] In January 2008, Search Engine began reporting on the controversy between the Internet group "Anonymous" and the Church of Scientology.
After Anonymous held a protest in front of Scientology compounds around the world on February 10, 2008, Brown admitted that they had "proved me wrong.
"[3][4] The nature of the protest was unprecedented - picketers wore masks and refused to divulge names - and sparked a discussion on the show about the meaning of identity.
Brown brought the issue to his own workplace, interviewing CBC's president Hubert Lacroix in reaction to a conflict between him and an anonymous critic who went by the handle "Ouimet.
[10] In the summer of 2006, Brown hosted another CBC Radio show called The Contrarians that investigated the potential virtues of unpopular ideas.
[11] Brown is currently listed as part of the editorial staff on the website FordPoweredByYou.ca, a site created by Ford of Canada for bloggers to post their thoughts on the ways in which the automotive realm intersects with technology, the environment, and everyday life.
