Technorati has this nice widget that shows the top tags used on your blog, but I can’t control the colors or width, and it doesn’t fit into my sidebar.
Where should I put it?
Mind the gap, part 1
This is the first part of a rant I have been mulling over for about 3 years now. I want to get it up before the end of the event, so I will save my proposal for a second post. Cross-posted at http://www.netsquared.org/blog/rubyji/mind-gap-part-1
Advanced nonprofit technology practitioners need a place to connect and learn from each other. Who will fill this gap?
For years this was the collective whine from the hundreds of NTAPs who attend the Nonprofit Technology Conference to help other colleagues in the sector. When NetSquared was announced in 2005, I was excited to hear they would be bringing together the best minds from the nonprofit world with the leading technologists. Would this be the long-awaited venue for advanced “NPTECH” conversation?
In 2006, I attended NetSquared and it was one of the most useful and impactful conferences I had been to in years. (See my blog post here.) I eagerly signed up to come and participate again this year.
As you know if you are reading this, N2Y2 has a different goal, which is to connect innovative projects with the funding they need to succeed. I question whether $25,000 is enough to really make much impact, but I appreciate that this is a good goal. But it’s one that I don’t have any personal investment in, and it leaves the need for interaction largely unmet.
Tune in for Part Two: Eating our own dogfood, and meeting our own needs. To be posted here and at http://www.netsquared.org/blog/rubyji
Changing Change
Inspired by conversations with Tantek Celik and Chris Messina, I’ve started a group on Change.org to support microformats, starting with XFN and Change itself.
As we invest our relationships and data there, I think we should demand that Change.org allow us to share and export our networks. XFN is an open standard for social network data. If they are really serving the community, Change should give us the ability to own and use our own data.
BTW, I am very excited about what Change.org aims to do, and their new political fund raising features have revolutionary potential, but the site is still in beta, whether they say so or not. (In other words, a lot of stuff stuff doesn’t work quite right.)
CLick here to see and join my change: http://www.change.org/changes/change_page/1187
Following NetSquared
So NetSquared is going well. As expected: tons of great people and too much information (in a good way). I’ve been posting updates on Twitter, you can see mine and other people’s comments at http://twitter.com/NetSquared/with_friends
I also started a new “back channel” as the official IRC wasn’t working for everyone. We’re using the free and very easy Meebo (as inspired by Alan Benamer’s NPtech chat). See us at http://wwwl.meebo.com/room/netsquared/
There are already a bunch of pictures posted at http://flickr.com/photos/tags/n2y2/
NetCubed
I’ll be getting up veeery early tomorrow morning to head west for the second annual NetSquared conference-thingy. Last year’s event had a profound effect on me. It’s where I first started using Second Life , and it’s where I had the opportunity to deepen my relationship with the brilliant Micah Sifry which led to my eventual involvement in techPresident and the Personal Democracy Forum. In other words, some of the most interesting and professionally beneficial things I’ve done in the past year grew out of NetSquared.
N2Y2 (as they are calling this second event) is going to be very different from last year’s conference. In fact, they’ve thrown out the standard conference format and instead are focusing the entire event around 21 projects that were selected by the NetSquared community (ie: anyone who wanted to vote). The entire event will be about improving the projects from a technical, financial, and management perspective.
I’m not really sure yet how I feel about this change, but as with many conferences, much of the value comes in the wonderful people you can meet, and I’m sure this year will be no exception. You can follow the action via the N2Y2 tag and NetSquared’s Twitter friends page. Read Beth’s Blog or the NetSquared community blog for more goodness.
As I mentioned before, my special part to play will be as one of 21 “champions,” each of whom is helping one of the projects through the process. My project is the Genocide Intervention Network, which aims to utilize social networks and social media to build the movement against Darfur and other atrocities. For my homework, I plan to spend some quality time on the plane reading their excellent proposal. If you get the chance to read it, I’d love to hear any feedback.
Paul Squared for America
A few weeks ago, my friend John asked me about my presidential preferences and blogged my reply. Today he has come up with a slate of his own that may be even more brilliant.
10:47:57 AM johnjosephbachir: i have decided on my dream ticket
10:48:08 AM ruby_sinreich: Finally! 😉
10:48:11 AM ruby_sinreich: Quien es?
10:48:18 AM johnjosephbachir: Ron Paul / RuPaul
10:48:29 AM ruby_sinreich: Genius !!!!!!!!!!!
10:48:40 AM ruby_sinreich: :))
10:48:47 AM johnjosephbachir: The two things I think this country could benefit from most: States’ rights and gender theory
[…]
10:50:54 AM johnjosephbachir: “Congratulations, paulpaul08.com is available!”
10:51:12 AM ruby_sinreich: ;))
10:51:16 AM johnjosephbachir: although, rupaul’s last name is not paul
10:51:27 AM ruby_sinreich: True.
10:51:32 AM johnjosephbachir: ronpaulrupaul.com
10:51:35 AM johnjosephbachir: heh
10:51:42 AM ruby_sinreich: or paulsquared09.com
Speaking of Rupaul, I highly recommend the movie “But I’m a Cheerleader.”
Have a rocking weekend, readers. I will be back to blog about NetSquared, but probably not until tomorrow.
A cure for the common Republican
Great, funny 97-second video. “Are you a Republican suffering from memory Loss? Try… SUPOENAS!”
Facebook: the next generation
I think Facebook‘s new platform allowing developers to create applications within their system is going to push them over the top and make them THE place to be, at least for the next couple of years.
Here’s a full list of available third-party applications: http://apps.f8.facebook.com/apps
If you’ve been waiting, now’s a great time to friend me in Facebook (you don’t have to be a student to join any more).
Update: My public profile link doesn’t seem to work, end their badge won’t display. So please just look me up by hand. There aren’t many Sinreiches in there…
reCAPTCHA
From the Good Idea deartment: stop spam and digitize books in one swell foop!
reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA.
Thanks, Corey!
LOL preznit
Have you seen LOLcats? Go ahead and read about it or look at some, I’ll wait.
… Done ROTFLMAO yet?
OK, if you thought that was funny and you’re lefty enough to read my blog, I think you will appreciate this: LOL president.
Many of their works have already been featured on Wonkette, appropriately enough.