Tonight is the first night of Passover, the night when we tell stories. For the kloggers among you, storytelling is part of Jewish tradition, one way our memes propagated and persisted through millennia.

The stories we tell on Passover are as political as they are spiritual.

Speak truth to power. Moses telling Pharaoh "Let my people go" despite being young, of common blood, on bad terms with the emperor and a speech defect.

Social networks aren't new. Get the word out to mark your doors tonight. To everyone in your community. Without the Internet. Without email, or Orkut, or AIM, or SMS. Just people telling neighbors to pass the word, spare your firstborn.

Freedom is worth a fast march out of town. When we had the chance, we ran out of Egypt. We ate crackers on the go. And it was worth it. Freedom from a state favored religion. Freedom to gather and assemble. Freedom to teach your children to read, to write, to know their heritage. Freedom from state approved murder and torture and rape and all the other trappings of slavery.

Are you more free now than you were in 2000? in 1990? in 1776? Is your government broadening and protecting your freedoms?

Invest in your future, not your fears. The lifetime wandering in the desert was worth it. For their children and the preservation of all they believe in. How are we repairing the world? How are we leaving it a better place?  

Some people just won't listen to biological warfare. Ten plagues. Countless deaths and deformities. And still the Pharaoh would not relent. In our time we've seen anthrax used on American soil, and other WMDs used in Iraq. So today's Paharaoh's and downtrodden have bioweapons. Asymmetric warfare with power in mankind's hands, not God's.  

Remember the little guy. Rabbis of 1800 years' ago set the seder plate with bitter herbs and a sweet mixture. You eat them together. The mixture to remind you of bricks our enslaved ancestors made. The horseradish to remind you of their sweat and tears. So we make the connection between ourselves and those still in physical and spiritual bondage. And if we're lucky, we act on that connection. What are we doing to assure that every kid gets an education? What are doing to eliminate hunger in our country? How are we forcing our criminal justice system to protect a poor person's civil rights? How are we protecting women better than we did last year?

Set a place for the stranger. You leave a cup of wine for Elijah, should the prophet come calling. But you open your door to anyone who is hungry. Hospitality is the least gift we can give to a stranger or to ourselves. We don't ask for ID or check with Homeland Security.

If you're looking for a haggadah for your seder, I like the Open Source Haggadah Project, a spinoff of Douglas Rushkoff's Open Source Judaism. It helps you roll your own from traditional and modern sources. In our civilization's spirit of inquiry and dialog. Chag sameach. 

I read Editor: Myself, Hossein Derakhsan's Persian/English weblog. Hossein (or does he go by Hoder?) covers domestic affairs for the BBC and metablogs the Persian blogosphere. I don't believe bloggers and politics mesh with each other the same way in Iran as they do here (the consequences of speaking out are a little different), but they seem of a kind.

Last week I dined with Pedram Moallemian who blogs the eyeranian. He wants a secular Iran. I asked him what he thought America's policy on Iran should be. He answered:

• Respect the right of self-determination for Iran and Iranians.
• Condemn any possible military action against the people who are doing a great job fighting tyranny by themselves.
• Acknowledge big mistakes were made on both sides in the past and choose to move on towards a better relationship.

Tyrants ruled Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no meaningful chance for reform, no hope for self-determination. Do the people of Iran, at home and in diaspora, have enough faith in the current system and the system's ability to change incumbents? 

Pedram clearly does. He and others are drafting a new Iranian constitution. This is an ambitious exercise, imagining a new government that fits a whole people. It's an embrace of liberty worthy of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. He wrote:

One of the bases for any true democracy is to accept the people’s prerogative to occasionally make wrong choices and even more often, to make choices that you and I may not like or agree with. But at the end of the day, the choice is completely theirs. By that I mean that if in a free and open election Iranians choose to keep the current regime, it would be vital for people like myself to value and honor their choice, yet reserving our right to oppose it in peaceful fashion and by non-violent means.   

Back to the three points...

Kerry is more likely to negotiate with Iran's government than Bush, but no President or candidate worth anything will rule out future options.

Israel is America's friend, and the threat of American force is part of what keeps it safe. Why rule out military action against a country who is still technically at war with a US ally? Some of the terror organizations that operate in Israel are funded by Iran. So there's a lot to work out between us, more than self determination.

Acknowledging mistakes on both sides, well, sure. Why not? Moving toward a better relationship? That's Motherhood and Apple Pie (at least in America). But actions speak much louder than words. Secular government that doesn't position America as Satan; defunding and disarming Hezbollah and other terrorists and turning them in to law enforcement authorities; acknowledging Israel's right to exist; and full women's suffrage would be great starts.

P.S. It seems both of our countries could do with a little more regime change and fairer elections.

P.P.S. Check out iranFilter, a collective blog/mefi system built by... wait for it... Hoder. More links, pithy. Overall source on internal reform, student life, American policy re: Iran. Now in beta.

P.P.P.S. My conviction is much greater than my influence within the Kerry campaign.

P.P.P.P.S. I had some naan with the tandoori lamb.  

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Eat your Cooking with Amy via RSS and Atom.

Feature request: let newsreaders understand Amy's recipes, restaurant reviews, packaged products, and events.

Amy of Cooking with Amy has a new tradition that rings true for me: A second night of Thanksgiving. More than enjoying leftovers, a way to extend the festival.

It felt like an acid trip and swings in blood sugar and the five seconds of a family reunion that are sheer delight.

Stuart Henshall, always gracious, hosted Dina Mehta at Boobo di Beppy where staple busting portions stun you with their fat content. More on the restaurant later.

We talked about Skype, blog uptake, and other things until I realized that I was at the social scientists' table. Michele Chang is an ubicomp goddess researcher. Dina is a behaviorist. danah boyd (no caps for typographical balance) is getting doctored in social network behavior. Denise Cheskin comes at behavior from a marketing view, and I'm a demoblographer (I blog demography) and labor market analyst. Clynton Taylor is a full tyme ethnographer for business (from where do I know him?). And Stuart has x-ray vision when it comes to models, business and management models I mean.

We were a worldly bunch. Dina from India. danah originally from England but sans accent? Stuart from NZ but with a courteous American drawl. I'm from New York but work has taken me to strange places like Houston and Lausanne. Liz Goodman's from the Big Apple too, an actress artist become ubicomp sociologist en route to Oregon. Denise went to grad school in France. It felt so cosmopolitan to be in such a faked up Italian joint.

More topics:

Dina thinks technology diffusion will be slow in India, to the point where Dean-like campaigns may take 15 years to work. I'm betting on five years, optimist that I am. I think some will do it just to get a better return on money, faster cheaper to reach the small middle class online. imho, the magic will happen when (a) we figure out how to run a Dean campaign via SMS, increasing reach and (b) when we build the social software and cultural models organizing the middle class to reach out to the offline masses, something the Democrats are attempting to do in the US. But I'm an ignorant slut when it comes to the subcontinent and am likely wrong.

Business cards. Mine with Google keywords. danah's in black so nobody can write on it. Clynton's with a form on the back for notes: event, date, was wearing, talked about, follow up with call/email/visit.

Dollars are the universal currency, you can use them in Costa Rica and almost anywhere interchangeably with local coin and paper.

Fun stories of interviews with gay men about their computers, including the minimalist who hides it behind the clothes in his closet, the pious who adorn their technology with icons of angels and saints.

How men worth anything will follow their women from state to state as they pursue their careers.

Being neither fish (academe) nor fowl (one of the kidz) at one of danah's dance parties. If you haven't met her, danah lives both in her body and her mind, and her parties reflect that. Oh to be younger again, but I was never that cool.

How kids who've grown up with the Internet only use email to communicate with parents or other adults. They use IM (meaning AIM) among themselves and will jump to MSN for private conversations. What happens when non-email kids grow up?

danah who monitors her self-monitoring started us on how many bloggers write with purpose instead of just uttering. Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? Aware of consequences now and maybe in the future. My thinking: The reemergence of Google and the Wayback machine as our Permanent Record casts a chilling effect on personal disclosure. Will I share that cute story about the cat's claws coming too close to the vibrator and clit if it might affect a future relationship, job or political office? Or will I censor myself? LiveJournal shows the way: controlled layers of disclosure let you write to the world, your friends, a friend, or just to yourself.

The restaurant was all about experience marketing. Sculptures of popes, photos of Frank, bottles of chianti, meals served family style. Appealing, satisfying. And contrived by marketing folks at the chain's corporate headquarters. Their business relies on the illusion of the place, on customers suspending disbelief enough to enjoy the space, service, and food. They are careful to hide everything that might break that illusion. Kitchen stuff, admin staff, computers, break rooms. And they are not alone. Hotels depend on you accepting the illusion that no one ever slept in that room, in that bed before. Theme parks don't let you see characters slip out of costume or see staff lectured on crowd control. This conflicts with the marketing blog meme of letting the world see what goes on inside your enterprise, see how the sausage is made. Are the benefits of having a large choir of voices singing to the Internet, bonding to customers with sincerity, are the benefits worth your customers' lost innocence?  

The GoGame, that builds new teams independent of prior rank or status by forcing people to notice their urban environment in great detail (phone powered scavenger hunt). Teletwister, a game of twister where a community votes on the players' moves.

That of course the lessons of emergent democracy and the Dean campaign (putting the tail of the power curve to work) can work inside organizations, but not at my company.

How the power to read more people (newsreaders are TiVos of the blogosphere) means everyone is becoming more like Oprah. Oprah's shields manage her 20 million "personal connections" rising from her broadcast media (tv, books, magazines). Setting expectations so people don't feel I'm rude when they get a form letter, a challenge, or a request for references. 

Blondie's big gulp martinis. And then it gets fuzzy.  

Other postings from this dinner:

• Denise: It's a blog blog world
• danah: understanding an audience 
• Stuart: F2F Blogs and More 

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How could Skype transform your industry? Your favorite tools? What would a Skype-enabled newsreader look like? Does WiFi + Skype = POTS? What social network analysis would you like to pull from the Skype network? How much money can we make in Skype ring-tones? What commands could we stick at the end of "call://userid/"?

Now add beer.

Wednesday, 24 September 2003
6pm

Pacific Coast Brewing Co.
906 Washington St. (in Old Oakland, a block from 9th and Broadway)
Oakland, California 94607
Yahoo! map

New! Guest caller: The Skype team all the way from Denmark (2-3 in the morning Copenhagen time).

Call me at 510-444-8234 or Skype me.

There is something delightful about living in a time where little corner bakeries in Oakland's Chinatown have web site address printed on their street awnings. How else would I have known that Sum Yee Pastry delivers DimSumOnline?

Q. If American Jews go out for Chinese food on Christmas, where do Chinese Americans go on Rosh Hashana?

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Stuart Henshall and I need to talk. We talked on Skype. Now we're going to talk in person. Join us for dinner in Oakland this Wednesday. On the agenda:

• What are the traditional business opportunities for Internet telephony?
• What are the non-traditional, blog and social software -based business opportunities?
• What would we ask Skype to open to independent developers?

So:

Wednesday, 24 September 2003
6pm
Oakland
we're still looking for a venue: quiet, WiFi, BART-friendly.
I'll broadcast the location here, and by email if you write or Skype me.

This week: Tuesday, I'm having lunch with John Kerry in San Francisco today. Join me. 600 Embarcadero at Delancy Street Foundation. No cover charge. Tuesday night, I'm going to the No to the California Recall meetup on Solano. Wednesday, I'm torn between the Democratic Party and Smart Mobs meetups.

I put together a multiuser weblog for East Bay Kerry (temporary url pending a good domain), a Yahoo! group, and business card flyers. Total time: 4 hours (excluding time spent waiting at Kinkos). Cost: Weblog: free using my TypePad account. Mailing list: free. Business cards: under $98 for 3000 double sided black and white, about 3 cents per contact.

Amazing how the cost and reach of Democracy have changed.

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Supper at cwas hearty. So was the conversation.

From left to right, one of my favorite bloggers, Gregor Rothfuss, tech journalist William Reilly, open source leader Michael Wechner, and me. 

Gregor told us stories of Burning Man. Holy effigy. Gift/barter economy in the high desert. Parties all night. Concerts. Old West movie sets constructed for the week. Rituals and ceremonies for 30,000 people. How do you go to Seybold or any plain old computer show after Burning Man?

William is bringing his serious development experience to Seybold, reporting for CMS Review (I have a little press-pass envy). He asks insightful questions in a quiet way, but that may have been the jet lag from Boston.

Michael and Greg are here from Zurich, although Greg is looking for Cambridge digs.

Michael and Greg are bootstrapping Wyona : R&D, creating custom moblogging ASPs. If people will pay for ringtones, will they pay to post photos from their phones? Who are the natural partners for this technology? If people post from their phones, what is needed to help them find and surf their part of the blogosphere?

Michael is at Seybold to host and compete in tonight's OSCOM Hackathon/Sprint, featuring WebDAV and the Atom spec. I love code sprints. It's the height of voyeurism, seeing someone's most intimate programming secrets, the little tricks they use under pressure. If you're in town, stop by.

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