I'll say this; it's an, er, creative idea. That said; I'm against it:
High amount of bandwidth for little more than entertainment purposes. It would be seriously annoying if Super Search took longer because someone started Napstering us.
Entertainment is not the point; distribution of technical (preferably Perl-related) information is. (Okay, we're sometimes entertained while sharing, but that's slightly different.) Let's not stray from our mission.
Why reinvent the wheel? There are existing Internet radio stations broadcasting all sorts of stuff. I'm sure if you look hard enough, you can find a station already broadcasting this type of music.
Licensing questions. Given the current rhubarb between RIAA and Napster, it's clear that there are open questions regarding equitable ways to reimburse artists for their work. Let's wait to see how that little snit plays out before getting into the broadcasting business.
Given the broad range of musical tastes in the Monastery, I really don't think this would entertain many monks. It might be fun for awhile, but the novelty would probably wear off soon. Therefore, the investment in time, resources, licensing, and so forth, would be ill spent. I can think of other ways (this, for instance) to focus the limited resources/energies of The Fearless Leader.
Some monasterial orders include vows of silence.
And so on...
Points for creativity, but I just don't see how this truly helps us.
--f
