ode to twitter happyness!!!

iQuickTwitter - My Quicksilver + Twitter + iChat + Growl Hack

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THIS IS HUGE... After spending a week discussing with the global south about the digital divide, I find my self back in NYC, amazed at Council Member Brewer's staff bridging our own digital divide. To reach out to its constituents more effectively, The Council Member's office is not using a multi-million dollar communications platform developed by a government contractor, but by a simple blogspot blog. Tomorrow is the first meeting of the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee, a committee to hear the problems ALL New Yorkers face bridging the digital divide.

New York City Broadband Advisory Committee will hold its first public hearing on Friday, March 30, from 10 am to Noon, in the Gould Memorial Library Auditorium, Bronx Community College, University Avenue at W. 181st Street. (Directions).

Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. and Bronx Community College President Carolyn Williams will all make opening remarks. The Committee will then hear testimony from members of the general public, including concerned citizens and senior citizens from Bronx senior centers. After the official testimony period, anyone from the audience is invited -- and encouraged -- to speak.

If you cannot make it to the hearing on March 30, we still want to hear from you! You can comment about the issue of broadband in New York City by going to the Advisory Committee's blog (http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/). Comments will then be posted on the Committee's blog for public consumption. Or you can mail any questions or comments to Colleen Pagter, Policy Analyst for the Committee on Technology in Government, New York City Council, 250 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10007.

As a former NY State Senate Staffer to Senate Minority Leader Paterson, now Lt. Governor, I feel the pain of the most populous city in America. Even though New York is the third populous state in America and New York City is larger than Los Angeles and Chicago combined, our municipal and state governments still don't have the tools to communicate WITH it's constituents. If you can't make it to the Bronx, post a comment and by all means pay attention to the Albany Project.

Note - This article is cross posted on Personal Democracy Forum, who's founder, Andrew Rasiej is a member of this Advisory Committee.

Technorati Tags: Council Member Brewer, freedom of speach, freelancers union, future of cities, new york city, online advocacy, open government, transparency, web 2.0

if you're looking for boiled down comments on the value of face to face conversations and how they support your constituency, check out this creating passionate users blog post. i've written before how online connections must meet physically, but in this post, kathy sierra lays out 10 universal components that are golden rules in building ANY constituency. fast companies' friends network is one the best examples of a physical medium using online tools to promote a disaggregate support network. heath row's journeys in 1999, 2000, and 2001 provide tangible experience supporting user networks. also, you should note that one of the best examples of diy face-to-face organizing is Four Eyed Monsters - check out henry jenkins' take on their impressive work.

1) Put together a "How To Start A Local User Group or Club" document. (noel's note - FastCompany.com has an interesting FAQ that should be a good start.) Include tips on things like finding a space, topic ideas, and getting speakers.

2) Offer free materials for the user groups User group meetings often start or end with prize drawings; give the user group leaders plenty of swag for the meetings. It'll make the leaders look good, etc.

3) Treat your user group leaders like royalty Sun puts JUG (Java User Group) leaders on a pedestal--helping them promote their groups, giving them special receptions at the annual JavaOne conference, etc.

4) Instead of a traditional user group, provide guidelines for a Study Group (noel's note - one really good example of this is the Drupal Dojo - a weekly user let training session.) Collect advice and lessons from other existing groups. Provide a list of suggested books to read, and 6-months' worth of topic plans.

5) Hold a very low-cost annual weekend conference. (noel's note - couchsurfing.com has historically set up "collectives" around the world to help maintain their website.) Make it ridiculously easy for people to get there. Find sponsors to help. Even better if you hold several mini-conferences a year, in different locations.

6) Encourage users to start a local BarCamp (or other *Camp). (noel's note - there are many examples of *camps - check out rootscamp or drupalcamp) Direct your users to the BarCamp Wiki where they can learn how to do it.

7) Utilize monthly meetings. There are many examples - Social Media Club's wiki, Drupal's Groups, NextNY.org's wiki, Frak Party, or Meetup.com. (original PSU's recommendation - Use Meetup.com as a resource!)

8) If you already have online user forums, enlist moderators to try to form an offline meetup. This is often one of the best places to start.

9) Hold special cocktail receptions/parties for user group leaders at industry conferences in your domain.

10) Advertise/promote your user group events on your main page! Remember, passionate users MUST connect with others who share that passion, so this is not a nice-to-have... it's an essential part of any product, service, or cause for which people are passionate.

Technorati Tags: couchsurfing, coworking, drupalcamp, economy 2.0, fast company, four eyed monsters

it's been a while since i've seen a steady paycheck. as of this morning I will start to see one again. after the new york state senate and trellon debacle, i really didn't want to find myself in a world dependent on other people's whims. now after 140 days from my last employer, countless conferences and after digesting a gazzilion journals and books, i have found my calling.

this week, i embark on a research project with NewAssignment.net investigating open-source journalism. this project will take the tools built for assignment zero and migrate them to a multi-story/social networking system. picture NYtimes.com or any other online publication giving ANY reader the ability to comment on EVERY article and asking them to dawn a series of tasks to enhance articles. i originally pitched this idea to a few print publications, but they didn't bite. then after some pro-bono advice to David Cohn and a recommendation from Fred Benenson, Jay Rosen gave me a call.

honestly, i'm overwhelmed by the opportunity to change our perception of participatory culture. after last week's salzburg seminar, the world of web 2.0 died. no longer should we view participatory culture through the eyes of one's web browser. if you think i'm crazy just look at twitter and google's mobile apps... our new world is about convergence - convergence in the mind, convergence in data, convergence in action, convergence in governance and in policy. as these four principles converge on each other, i promise you a resuscitation of a true democracy. bringing profound change into the hands of everyone.

Technorati Tags: assignment zero, economy 2.0, freedom, newassignment.net, open government, salzburg seminar, twitter, web 2.0

out of all the conversations at lift, i am still awe struck by one presentation.

when i first had lunch with Ben Cerveny, our casual conversation would have led to nothing more than a few high-fives and an occasional email. though, something struck me funny when he casually made reference to his presentation and it's generic topic of metaphors. once Ben started his presentation, everyone shifted in their seats. it was instantly clear that this was was not going to be a simple conversation. by ben's second paragraph, Michele Perras and i had stopped taking notes. by ben's third slide i just closed my eyes and let the words flow into my ears

to me that there was no way in hell i would ever understand the complete value of this presentation. so at the end, (yup that me mucking up the microphone)... i had to say thank you for blowing my mind and inquire about Ben's perception on intelligent life... after a 10 min break, i attempted to sit down and listing to another presentation and could not. so i ran out and quickly wrote school of fish. since that afternoon, i have been in awe wondering how to use this data. after a request to laurent, the awesomeness face of lift; he uploaded ben's presentation. one by one, all presentations will be up! snag them via itunes or your pirate "arr-Rss" reader.

there are several ways of interpreting ben's presination. one, is to accept it at face value and only consider that the terms we use in technology as analogous to science terminology. two, we should think more about the abstract and not attempt to catalog it as a new invention. though we should continue branding these things as hip, hot, sexy beasts. three, is to look at flow as representative of nature's biological ecosystem. instead of attempting to think we are breaking through new walls of enlightenment, we should harness these tools to augment the ways we communicate in person. just like we have open conversations we should ensuring that the data flows freely. if that is the latter, data stuck within our brains is in it's natural state, harmonious with nature. sadly, in the technological world, there are two impediments that prevent flow from being at harmonious state...
1. closed technology systems.
2. technical hardware that data sits on.

imaging a world where you don't have to have a million and one user names and passwords. imagine a world world, where you have an aggregate social networking site, and you no longer have to create a million profiles and go though the same meticulous process of adding friends. imagine a world were your business systems are easily integrated with your desktop calendar, address book, cell phone, etc... the distance of this world isn't too far off. through the work of Lawrence Lessing, EFF, Save the Internet, Open Source, OpenID, Microformats, The Internet Task Force, and the Integration Proclamation - just to name a few - they are working endlessly fighting closed systems. thought the fight never really ends. there are many still who think they can control the flow.

most troubling of ben's metaphors is the hardware that sits beneath all of our society. two additional presentations at lift highlight the problems industries faces - suren erkman and julian bleeker. while suren's presentation was dry and complex, it provided a thorough review of industry and how we should move forward looking at which models we should use for industry. space is not just the final frontier, but is a clear example of a closed ecosystem that needs complete sustainability. note - peter barns who's attempting to move markets (not just companies) to calculate the cost of the environment - capitalism 3.0.

julian bleecker, gave a succinct presentation (video here) on the second life cost in our first life. julian's not just talking about the game, but all of our online activity. nicholar carr's deduction that a Second Life avatar is equivalent to a Brazilian is not an absurd statement to make. second life is not alone, google is also facing power consumption issues. in january, i, cringly reported that google has gone to extraordinary lengths to purchase property next to power plants. just in this week's economist's article "going green" goes on to expand the power dilemma we face, by fundamentally taking a look how AC conversion into DC is inefficient and the most costly in power consumption.

the power that is consumed by our flow is just part of the iceberg. greenpeace's green my apple campaign is nother example of the unsustainability our flow faces. even the most trendy of computer manufactures has problems producing environmentally computers. computers, cell phones, tivos, batteries, etc, are all manufactured from harmful products. grist magazine does a great job speaking in practical realistic language of things we can do to be better. as we have decreased the barriers of publishing a linty of online publications have appeared - ecogeek, treehugger, and worldchanging just to name a few. at home, you always have sustainable power and terrapass...

as the flow we create exceeds the footprint of a human, and our hunger for it's company becomes as prevalent as our desire for shelter, warmth and love. we should take stock in the transformative nature of all elements of our interconnected society.

Technorati Tags: ben cerveny, global change, Julian Bleecker, lift conference, lift07, second life, sustainable development, sustainability, transparency, web 2.0

On Monday, Participatory Politics Foundation and Sunlight Foundation, opened a new spotlight on Congress - www.opencongress.org. When thinking of a member of congress, one no longer has to imagine integrating committee memberships, bills sponsored and co-sponosered, voting history, who they tend to vote with, which blogs and news articles are floating around, over laid with campaign donations. You can now just visit any US Senator or US Representative.

Beyond the integration of Google News, Congresspedia, Technorati, Open Secrets, and Govtrack.us, what's the most glistening part of Open Congress? Is it the plethora of ways for you to access the data, or is it that they are building a network of users to make the next revision better?

Nonetheless, Opencongress.org just installed a new sunroof on the big dome.

Note: PDF Founder, Andrew Rasiej and PDF Co-founder & Editor, Micah L. Sifry are technology advisors to the Sunlight Foundation.

This article is cross posted on the Personal Democracy Forum Blog.

Technorati Tags: Congresspedia, open government, personal demoracy forum, Participatory Politics Foundation, Opencongress.org, Sunlight Foundation, technology, transparency, web 2.0

for all you RSS'ers, i'm now hopping on the twitter bandwagon. ok, i've been on the bandwagon for a few weeks, but bre's attempt to break twitter is just too damn funny and really needs to be promoted more...

in my attempt to make twitter the most annoying and lovable social networking site, i've installed a twitter drupal module. this lovely little module should upload the title and url of this post. let's see if it works!

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Technorati Tags: drupal, twitter

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