I tumbl for ya…
Culture Club
Beach
Squeeeeeeee
I stand for a free and open Internet.
A few weeks ago as many of us were patriotically wishing a happy birthday to the United States of America, a coalition of organizations including the ACLU and EFF launched a Declaration of Internet Freedom. I love how simple they kept it, while also encouraging engagement with the statement in a variety of online communities. The declaration is below, in text as well as the obligatory infographic format.
Individuals are invited to sign it at Access, ACLU, CREDO, EFF or Free Press, and to comment on it at on reddit, Techdirt, Cheezburger (yes, really!), Github and Rhizome. They have also invited organizations to sign on. I signed it on behalf of HASTAC, where I work. Have you or will you sign it?
Fun with Old Tweets
The brilliant Kellan Elliott-McCrea (my friend and former colleague) has put together a searchable archive of the first year of Twitter posts, and I’ve had some fun quickly going down the rabbit hole to 2006 when I had just gotten married and was enjoying travelling around to DC and other places for my job at NetCentric Campaigns.
I tweeted 170 times in that first year starting in October 2006, about 6 months or so after Twitter was effectively born.
At the risk of being narcissistic, here are a few of my old tweets that I thought were emblematic of that time. One of the most interesting things is how similarly I use Twitter today. I still talk about the same subjects including basketball, music, open source, and politics (but a little less “I had this for lunch” and no more Second Life). I still share links, converse with others, and complain about riding transit. I even live-tweeted a talk by David Weinberger at the 2007 NTC.
Plumbers gone. Rockin’ out to the awesome “Break the Chains” compilation http://www.iamedia.org/breakthechains/
9:43 AM – 13 Oct 06Very excited that I have no meetings tonight! What will I do with all this freedom?
4:53 PM – 24 Oct 06 (Something I will probably never tweet again for at least 15 years.)Just added a custom twitter bug to my blog. I’m so trendy!
3:01 PM – 21 Nov 06Just gave up on Civimail and Dreamhost ever behaving, and sent a newsletter with Constant Contact instead. A demoralizing day for open source.
4:14 PM – 12 Dec 06Women’s halftime score: UNC 44, Del St 22. Everything is under control.
2:54 PM – 28 Dec 06 (Already tweeting about basketball!)Currently obsessed with Facebook.com and Change.org. Look me up if you’re in there.
10:19 PM – 20 Feb 07Just had my brain enjoyably adjusted by Cory Doctorow, speaking at UNC.
4:02 PM – 22 Feb 07@SteveOlson: w00t! Does that mean you are actually going to start Twittering now?
11:01 AM – 6 Mar 07 (My first @ reply.)Stopped due to freight traffic again! This may be the last time I voluntarily ride Amtrak in the South.
6:54 PM – 16 Mar 07
Woman on the Verge
Gazpacho
The weather hitting 100 degrees everyday this weekend and I can only think about cold food. So far I made ceviche, caprese salad, and gazpacho (pictured) which makes me want to watch Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown again. http://imdb.com/rg/an_share/title/title/tt0095675/
Amendment One: Voters in North Carolina Strongly in Favor of Anti-Gay Amendment One, But Don’t Understand What it Does(via @Gawker)
Despite the latest poll numbers showing a clear victory for those in favor of North Carolina’s anti-gay constitutional amendment — the so-called Amendment One —
My 2012 primary endorsements for Orange County, NC
Local politics can be difficult to follow, given the minimal media coverage and (fortunate) lack of political party involvement. Friends often ask me for my advice about how to vote in sleepy local elections such as this year’s Orange County Commissioners race. I can’t in good conscience endorse any of the incumbents. The current board seems to have invented a new form of government in which the staff sets policies, and then elected officials occasionally have misinformed or irrelevant discussions about them after the manager has already implemented his decision.
I strongly endorse Mark Dorosin and Penny Rich in District 1. Both will bring good ideas and real leadership to the Board of Orange County Commissioners. In District 2, I support Renee Price who will be
a better advocate for progressive policies than the incumbent. If you live in Hillsborough or rural Orange County, you will also be selecting 3 school board members. I recommend giving a vote to Lawrence Sanders who will bring thoughtful enthusiasm to the job. And there can be no doubt that Valerie Foushee is the best choice for NC House in every way. I’m happy to say that The Independent Weekly agrees, and endorsed all of these candidates as well.
If you enjoy living in one of the most open-minded and forward-thinking counties in North Carolina, as I do, I hope you will join me in voting for these hard-working progressive leaders. And if you have your own ideas about who people should vote for, I hope you will join the conversation at orangepolitics.org/issue/elections/2012.
Ruby Sinreich
Chapel Hill
NCT4G: Doing more with less in 2012
They’re trying something new this year at the N.C. Tech for Good Conference. Last year, I helped facilitate the North Carolina nonprofit community’s first experiment with an unconference! It went pretty well, but many NCT4G attendees were not convinced to spend a second day on this strange new format – or maybe they just understandably didn’t want to work on a Saturday.
This year, I have worked with the conference organizers to develop a hybrid format. I have seen hybrids work well, and I’ve seen them fail badly. I think we have come up with a structure that is truly the best of both worlds. This new approach gives us some reassurance in advance that there will be some great sessions to attend, but also allows the attendees to shape the event into whatever they want and need. Many participants don’t think of themselves as leaders but just as everyone has something to learn, everyone has something to share as well. This event allows all of us to do both.
So check out the schedule. Do you see something you’d like to learn? Do have an idea about what is missing? Add it on the wiki. Once we get the conference started, both the pre-selected speakers and the people thinking up emerging proposals will all have the opportunity to “pitch” or explain their session the participants and get added to “the grid.” What happens next is up to us! (For more about this process, see my blog posts from previous unconferences.)
Come on out May 4th – register by Friday the 27th to get the $75 early bird rate – and help us make this the event that you want and need!
Three is a magic number
I couldn’t write this post without the Schoolhouse Rock refrain in my head. Today is my son’s third birthday. We celebrated this weekend with a nice group of Izzy’s friends from school, and my friends with kids his age. The theme was Izzy loves trains, so we used the beer garden at Southern Rail, which is a restaurant that uses train cars and the old station in downtown Carrboro. Everyone had a great time, especially Izzy as you can see in Brian’s photo:
