Joi Ito, the friend who first introduced me to blogs and with whom I co-blogged for several years, presents a sneak preview of his upcoming book, Freesouls. This copy, hot off the presses, is one of 50 limited editions of the book that will be released in coming months.

The book gathers photos of Joi’s friends, including myself and many of the world’s digital elite. All photos are released under a Creative Commons license that allows them to be reproduced in Wikipedia, in newspapers, etc.

In addition to the photos, the book includes essays by Howard Rheingold, Lawrence Liang, Cory Doctorow, Yochai Benkler, Isaac Mao and Marko Ahtisaari along with a foreword by Lawrence Lessig.

In this video Christopher Adams, the book’s designer and publisher, talks with Joi about the concept and style of the book.

More on the project and updates of when the book is available can be seen at Freesouls.cc