The world is a little less clever since Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. I survived high school on a steady diet of his semi-science-fiction. I don’t know what I would have done without him – I might have been a duller and and more intellectually inhibited person if not for Breakfast of Champions (the first one I read, it got me hooked).
Fortunately his legacy is dozens of wonderful books that can continue to inspire and amuse future generations to come.
I’ve posted the second in my techPresident series on voter-generated campaigns in Second Life. It’s about Edwards Campaign Central, and it’s not pretty. After getting griefed on the mainland, they moved to a PG-rated location at Laguna Beach. I find the tropical setting to be mighty incongruous with a serious, populist campaign.
All the photos I’ve taken are also being added to this Flickr Collection. Please go read the review at techPresident and let me know what you think.
The bad news: My laptop battery, which was already too quirky for my tastes, completely stopped working yesterday morning.
The good news: I was at home and back from the NTC where a failed battery would have been a much bigger disaster.
The better news: It turns out I am eligible for the 15-inch MacBook Pro Battery Exchange Program so I should be getting a brand new battery in the mail soon.
Whew!
The American Friends Service Committee (awesome Quakers) have this great campaign right now where people take pictures of themselves making a statement of their constituency for peace.
Here’s a picture they took of me at the Nonprofit Technology Conference:
And here’s one that Brian added to the collection:
You can browse them all at http://friendsforpeace.org/browse or http://flickr.com/photos/friendsforpeace. Unrelated – they also just sent me a big Friends for Peace sign in the mail and I also saw one on a car in Carrboro yesterday!
I was quoted on the CBS News web site talking about candidates in Second Life! The article does a decent job of focusing on the interesting story of how supporters are working for candidates independently of their campaigns, and avoids trite sensationalism around the obscenity that is just as common in SL as it is on the rest of the Internet. (Although the author strangely seems to have visited the old Edwards HQ which has since been moved to a quiet beach setting.)
So far, the default model for building a campaign in Second Life has been “build first, ask for endorsement later,” as Ruby Sinreich wrote in TechPresident. The default stance of campaigns toward their Second Life depiction is curious indifference.
– Democratic ’08 Hopefuls Go Virtual, Obama Dips Gucci-Clad Toe In Second Life Waters; Clinton, Edwards Hands Off Of Their Digital HQs – CBS News
I remember being quite pleased with myself when I came up with that phrase. I’m glad someone else noticed. This reminds me, I am overdue for posting some more reviews on techPresident. I have already taken pictures of John Edwards’ virtual bungalow, so I need to write that up, revisit the Barack Obama HQ, and apparently there are some Republicans I have to check out…
I’m getting ready to head to DC for the 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference for the rest of this week. For many of us, this conference is a like an annual reunion of a wonderful group of socially-conscious geeks. We were there for each other back when the rest of the nonprofit sector thought we were crazy… and look – we're all grown up (and in demand) now! 😉
On Thursday I'll be leading a discussion on "The Future of Online Outreach" along with Carnet Williams, who has been at this even longer than I have. On Friday I will participate in panels about "The Community Driven Nonprofit: Web 2.0 Applied" and "User-centric web publishing: Using RSS, tags, and microformats to give your stakeholders the content they want." Somewhere in there is also a meeting at the office, lunch with clients, catching up with old coworkers, and a half a dozen parties around DC!
Let me know if you will be there as well. I'll be watching the backchannel, especially Twittter.
Whatever happened to “don’t be evil?” Google maps of New Orleans used to be a great way to actually see the extent of flooding and property destruction, but they have now been replaced with a pre-Katrina version! Wet Bank Guide asks “What might be next: the restoration of the Twin Towers to the New York skyline?”
Via Wonkette – Heckuva Job, Mappie: Google Disappears Post-Katrina Map Pix.
I wanted to blog about this a few days ago when I first read about the vile harassment of Kathy Sierra by a group of childish and “mean” (by their own description) bloggers. The fact that any jerk with a blog can make up personally hurtful and damaging crap isn’t news. Hell – it’s even happened to me. What’s amazing to me is the fact that the people launched these attacks from a group blog which also contained many supposedly-reputable bloggers, and also the extremely violent nature of the words and pictures aimed at Sierra.
Rather than recap the saga, so please just go to Kathy’s blog where she explains why she stayed home from one of the biggest tech conferences of the year as a result of these ridiculous threats. The Scobleizer declared a week without blogging. Sue Mernit offers perspective on people’s reactions. And Andy Carvin write a very thoughtful post about this and suggested that we make March 30 Stop Cyberbullying Day.
Check out http://technorati.com/tag/stopcyberbullying to see all of the posts in support of this effort.
Since you ask… why yes I was quoted in the Washington Post today! 😉
All the presidential hopefuls are online. Everyone’s got a Web site. A few hired full-time bloggers and videographers. Most have MySpace profiles, just a click away from “friending” a supporter. Yet Edwards has taken his Internet presence a step further, fully exploiting the unknown possibilities (and known pitfalls) of the social Web, online strategists say. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), judging by the number of friends on MySpace or number of views of his YouTube videos, may be the most popular online candidate, Republican or Democrat. But Edwards arguably has the most dynamic Web presence — he’s everywhere, doing everything.
[…]
Adds Ruby Sinreich, an online consultant who works with nonprofits and writes the progressive blog OrangePolitics.com, “What you have to remember is that signing up for these social networking sites is free, and it shows that he’s open to new ideas and open to the openness of the Internet. Look, voters are swayed by the people they know. That’s not new. That’s not about technology. But what we have now is a new technology that is all about building relationships.”
– Grass Roots Planted In Cyberspace – washingtonpost.com, 3/30/07
I also pointed the reporter to Valdis Krebs, so I’ll take a little credit the smart stuff he said as well.
I am seriously considering the Friday morning event, but I can’t do Sunday night. Given how hard it is for me to just stay awake for these evening games, I’m safer watching them at home. 😉
Women’s Basketball Send-Off from Carmichael! – Friday, March 30th
* Send the UNC Women’s Basketball team off to the Final Four in Cleveland!
* Fans should gather @ 7:30 AM Carmichael Auditorium, Team will be leaving at 8:00am.
* Parking Available in Hwy 54 Lot and Rams Head Deck$1.25 per hour
* Parking available in Cobb Deck and South Road for FREE.
Game Viewing Party! – Sunday, April 1* Carmichael Auditorium Sunday @ 9:00pm vs. Tennessee
* Doors open @ 8:00pm-FREE admission
* Concessions will be available.
* FREE Parking available at the Cobb Deck, Hwy 54 Lot, Boshamer, and Bell Tower Lots
* Parking in the Rams Head Deck for $1.25/hr
* Disability parking: South Road meters, School of Govt. deck
* Media Parking-School of Govt. Deck
* Enter through the Front Doors of Carmichael
* First 100 fans get a Camille Little Growth Chart!
Both events have been added to Ruby’s Unofficial Basketball Calendar.