Josh Petersen, typist at the Robot Co-op, goes for it and I think does a pretty good job of making some creative connections between Ben Franklin, the age of the amateur, and what’s going on with the web today. Listen to the MP3 (17.5 MB MP3) of his talk at Idea Day in Seattle.

An especially great insight was tearing apart the word “company” and finding that it really means “who you want to break bread with.” I find that to be true. He also spends some time talking about why they built 43things, People, and Places. It’s always a pleasure listening to someone who knows why they’re doing what they’re doing, but also acknowledges that sometimes they have no clue what they’re doing. Josh is a smart, down-to-earth, humble guy worth learning from.