Phil Wolff: life

Confab

Sat, 17 Jul 2004 23:51:13 GMT

The Social Tools in the Enterprise Symposium had fewer corporate attendees and more academics and consultants than I expected for a business conference. Then again, it's mid-July.

Stowe Boyd was a great host, a cross between David Letterman and Columbo. If you've never seen him in person, he has the voice and affect of actor Robert Patrick. (congrats on the brown belt, Stowe.) In the run up to the event, Stowe wrote an piece for Darwin on the convergence of social tools, blurring the lines between "the four co's": coordination, collaboration, communication, and community. This theme came through in the symposium.

Some high notes.

My presentation (maybe a low note) was a recap of the positive feedback that conditions blogger behavior. A collection of aha! moments that promote expression, control, ownership, sociality, and introspection in a blogger. Before managing a fleet of bloggers (always looking for that plural), let's understand that virtuous cycle and create tools and behaviors that support it.

It was great seeing George Por again. He extracts layers of depth with quick comments, often from his collective intelligence view. [note to self: I think this fits into the third layer of maturity in collective blogging.]

Marc Eisenstadt showed some of his team's tools for knowledge workers: hacks of maps, presence integrated with a video wall, and instant messaging. Marc Canter would have been yelling "Dude! That's a Digital Lifestyle Aggregator!" if it wasn't so workplace focused. This brings home the hard fact that most blogging tools are still too hard to use. Industry needs a ten-fold improvement in user experience in writing, reading, and navigating blogs (imho, especially the writing). Why is "UserLand" the only vendor using WYSIWYG authoring?

I enjoyed the Q&A about Lee's presentation. It's a great case study, one that will be repeated.

Martin's write-up of the sessions is thoughtful, although I think there are 40,000 blogs in China, not 400,000 (but give them a two minutes).

After the show, Allan Engelhardt said content is the slug’s trail in social software:

But the real value of social software in the enterprise is not in the content. Content doesn’t do anything. People do; and what makes a difference to the enterprise is people coming together innovating and changing the organisation. The value of social software is in creating social connections where none existed, or in strengthening existing connections.

Other items:

No Internet connectivity during the conference because the local tech/facilities guy didn't know what a proxy server was.
Doc Searls was in town, showed up for the night-before and night-after dinners. Between Doc and Stowe I'm starting to look harder at low-carb, or at least looking at my sugar intake. Shots of Doc and others lost while attempting upload.
Talking blogging, small business, etc. with Matt Mower on Friday, during an extended walk from Holborn through the city center. Matt knows why I no longer trust him to pick random pubs for a beer. Suffice to say I didn't pack my leathers.
The Bonnington Hotel in Bloomsbury is a three star hotel with five star service. Dozens of problems, only a few from the hotel, but all of them addressed promptly with cheer, courtesy, professionalism, and concern. I'd stay there again.
All the walking and tube hopping helped me connect areas I'd thought of as disconnected. It's reassuring that long time Londoners still carry or consult street/underground maps.
Most of the underground network is intentionally bright, with extra lights and white tiles on walls and ceilings, to stave off claustrophobia. It was sad that emerging from the Holborn station on Saturday, it was darker outside midday than inside the station.

During my UK visit I forgot to:

Visit with the Big Blog Company folks. If I haven't said it before, great blog, great work, spread the word.
Hit the museums. I just wasn't in the mood, too nice outdoors.
Visit Oxford. They had three guys at STES, so they must be up to something.
Walk. I walked for a bit, took the tube too, but there was much more to do.
Take time in the country. England isn't London, though it likes to think so.

Phil's summer of F2F - Part 1

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 18:26:20 GMT

Dear Phil -
Why should we conference in person when the virtual has been so enriched?

The virtual's not that rich.
The virtual's mainly broadcast.
And you miss the interactions that occur during breaks, meals, pub crawls, and the other cracks in an official programme.

So I leave my computer, my home, my city, my country.

Recently, AD:TECH ("Eyeballs for sale! Fresh steaming eyeballs!") and PlaNetwork (Kumbaya embraces digital identity), both in San Francisco.

Coming up:

I'm going to try for the Bio 2004 conference exhibit hall, this week. Especially interested in new bioinformatics and the publications systems that try to promote innovation without giving away secrets. Innovation World's Michael Boland and Mary Kate Stimmler are blogging from the conference.

This week and next are full of East Bay Kerry stuff. A Democratic Party Meetup where East Bay Kerry recruits volunteers. Committee meetings for Fundraising, Chairs, Media Relations, Visibility and GOTV, and Writers. We're having our first Speaker Training & Kerry Teach-In. And a big bunch of us are going to the Oakland A's vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game to show Kerry love to all those Pennsylvanians watching the game. Gary Hart is signing his latest book. And we're sending envoys to other political meetings, like the Lamorinda Democratic Club and the MGO Dem Club. All the time compression of a startup, none of the cash flow, and hard deadlines.

I've started going to Mark Finnern's Future Salons. Smart people, challenging topics. Next one June 18th at SAP Palo Alto. Saw him at Planetwork, first time in daylight. You owe yourself a venue to talk about 10, 20, and 50 years out. Great context and fodder for work and life planning.

In two weeks I'll attend the first day of Supernova, blogging a technical and policy discussion of today's convergence. Time to bone up on spectrum allocation, grid computing, WiMax, and more. I'm glad the wiki (thank you, SocialText) and rss feed (thank you, TypePad) are up.

I'm spending July 4th in Vienna, Austria, for BlogTalk 2.0, the conference by Thomas Burg and the Center for New Media at Danube University. Getting there a little early to spend time with the Actionable Sense Troupe ("How do you switch between Discussion and Action?") and BlogWalk 3.0 in beautiful Krems.

Then to Bloomsbury Square for the first London Symposium on Social Tools For The Enterprise, 12 July. This scans like etiquette and finishing school. It's really about blogs, wikis, social networks, IM'ing, and the like. And turning them into workplace tools. Matt Mower of Evectors Software put it together. Stowe Boyd's there too. I'll have a week in London. Favourite pubs, bookstores, museums, clubs, bordellos? Blogger events?

Back in town for the BlogOn conference. Read Susan Mernit's post. They have a boot camp, similar to workshops I proposed for London. What do bloggers know that others don't? To understand social software, managers need the insights that make blogging and other social tools "click" for users, and to frame those "Aha! moments" into a useful context.

What should I do this fall?

Nick Berg Tops Searches, but Why?

Fri, 14 May 2004 23:11:38 GMT

Dan Gillmor wonders about blood lust as searches for the executed Nick Berg top the major search engines.

So you're asking, why does traffic slow down at a car accident, why do people crowd a murder scene, who pays for boxing matches and hockey games? That's one trigger.

Another. We've just fought a war where none of the violence was televised. We're hearing death announcements but no coffins, high school snaps, but no bodies. This video is unfiltered truth about the conflict, our conflict. Bloody, wretched, simple.

And. We trust our federal government less than before. They admit to screening what we see, hiding "morale damaging" evidence from the general view. We trust our media less than before, wimps when we needed courage. So we scavenge for facts, for truth, for context and interpretation. For sense.

Click. Click. Click.

p.s. Almost no mention that Nick Berg is a Jew. He's not the first Jew executed on TV by Islamic terrorists after being captured working in a dangerous zone. Talk about derivative cinema.

Kill Bill movie-references guide

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 05:06:33 GMT

Scaramouche (1952, George Sidney) The Bride versus Johnny Mo fighting on the railing.

An influence across generations.

While I'm reading how memes diffuse through the blogosphere in hours and days.

I love the web.

Open Source Haggadah

Mon, 05 Apr 2004 23:05:04 GMT

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.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is rereleased.

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 07:15:42 GMT

Jacques Demy's 1964 films is one of my all time favorites. Beautiful to eye, lyrical to the ear, touching, and oh so French. Proof that Catherine Deneuve is a national treasure.

Toward a more democratic Iran.

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 02:23:17 GMT

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. "akasig"

RIP Julius Schwartz, Editor, DC Comics.

Sun, 15 Feb 2004 23:36:59 GMT

TechNoir: "I met this man years and years ago and I have seen him repeatedly over the years even had dinner with him. If you really knew your comic history and you were on the con circuit you knew Julie Schwartz."

ABC reported the death of Julius Schwartz, Editor, DC Comics. He "rescued the superhero genre from near extinction in the 1950s. Revived and modernized Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern." Hawkman, Atom, The Justice League of America, and Superman too.

Maggie Thompson: This is the man who, more than any other, can take credit for the fact that we can still buy comic books today. The field continues to evolve — and maybe he’s been better equipped to handle that evolution, simply because science fiction was old stuff to him by the time he entered our field six decades ago. But — no matter how much we do admire the writers and artists who have entertained us — it’s Editor Julius Schwartz who came up with a formula that turned out to be a winning equation for our field.

This was important.

His rework of character, plot, theme, and visual design showed that each stupid little work can be reincarnated. Adapted to the times. Repurposed for other media. Giving power to authors and artists, and birth to entire media industries.

Where do you think West Side Story came from? Hollywood and Broadway made Romeo and Juliet over and over for decades. Then Julie showed that something old can be made new again.

If you haven't followed graphic novels and comics for the last twenty years, you may not know that Batman has been interpreted and reinterpreted by more than a hundred different creative teams. Schwartz paved the road so we can enjoy the Caped Crusader set in times Edwardian and apocolyptic, as a boy and an old man, broken hearted or beyond vicious, political or anarchic, isolated or a family man. All being true to Bob Kane's central character while infusing their own imaginations and visions.

So what?

When the American masses stopped reading literary classics and listening to opera, the storytellers of Hollywood and Rockefeller Center turned for stories to the franchises of the dime novel, the genres of the comic book. Westerns. Science Fiction. True Romance.

Before Disney opened theme parks, DC Comics proved even little cartoons have enormous market potential. Properties long dead can breathe new cash flow.

So we have media conglomerates. And a war for the intellectual property commons. I can repurpose Beowulf and Icelandic sagas, and Shakespeare. But when does Time Warner's Batman franchise enter the public domain? When can I put on a Batman school play or write a short Silver Surfer story without their permission, without paying for the privelege?

I love that storytellers renew and reinvigorate modern myths. So when you see Spiderman 2 and the Punisher this summer, or Hellboy, Starsky & Hutch, The Stepford Wives, Man-Thing, Catwoman, Alien vs. Predator, Astroboy, or Scooby Doo, give a nod to Julius Schwartz. "akasig"

I'm back and it's going to be a long weekend.

Sat, 14 Feb 2004 05:36:02 GMT

I have a bad case of blogstipation: pent up posts rattling in my head after two weeks on the road. My first was in Whatcom County, Washington, the week before their Democratic caucuses, with a day in Vancouver. I had part of a weekend home, then off to the Electronic Democracy Teach-In and O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in San Diego. And I'm back. And catching up on email, sleep, surfing, the local campaign (how strange that they're prospering without me).

This by way of letting you know that I'm about to go running off at the blog for the next few days.

Take Back The Streets - San Francisco

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 14:25:35 GMT

[aka propagandart]

Blogger dinner in Vancouver. Thursday, Feb 5.

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 14:15:17 GMT

I'm coming up to Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday. Anyone for lunch or dinner? Call me: 510-444-8234 or email philw et dijest. com. Can you suggest spicy noodles, or other fare? Roland? We can talk about social software, politics, the horrible commercials on the superbowl this year, blogging, whatever.

Does the Queen Mary 2 have enough life boats?

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:11:39 GMT

I saw a picture of the Queen Mary 2. Ten lifeboats on a side, 20 in all. The ship can carry 2620 passengers and 1254 crew. So 3874 into 20 is 194 people per life boat. But you need to plan for some boats being more full than others, some breakage, etc. So let's assume 10% overcapacity, or about 215 per boat. Most restaurants don't have that capacity. Do the QM2's boats? Who built them? Do the lifeboats have boats, food, electronics, storm shells?

Memes via Joi to infect Davos

Wed, 21 Jan 2004 05:37:45 GMT

Joi Ito is at Davos with the in crowd, the high, the mighty, the elite that fuel every paranoid schizophrenic's dream. But Joi is open and accessible to the blogosphere. At least more than the Prime Minister of Subcontinental Millions or the Chairman of Global Conglomerate 32.

So think of Joi as a memetic vector. What viral ideas would you have Joi spread?

What 15 second message would you send to Davos? Something that might fit on a t-shirt or a business card. If you were breaking bread the leaders of industry, of government, of NGOdom, what meme would you most like to spread?

John F. Kerry wins in Iowa. 1 down. 49 to go.

Wed, 21 Jan 2004 05:02:39 GMT

OK, I gloated for an hour.

I'm only a little surprised.

A few factors contributed to the success.

The big management change in the Kerry camp in November. Strong organization on the ground.
All the candidates spent a year turning up voter turnout. With high turnout, a GOTV machine isn't a competitive advantage.
Kerry put all of his energy behind one punch. Can he keep his balance and sustain that level of effort? Will the same tactics that worked in a 2.9 million person state scale to one with 35 million people?
The whole message thing changed then too: They Let Kerry Be Kerry. He's great with people. Great on discussing issues. Totally affirms my view that campaigns are conversations.
Bush bagging Saddam elevates warrior status. Kerry served in combat, highly decorated. Served on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee for 20 years. A long time architect of America's war on narcoterror and political terrorism.
Dean and Gephardt nuked each other. Not civil, and Iowans punished them for it. It's to Dean's credit he survived.
Kerry and Edwards have a higher Emotional Quotient (EQ) than Dean. Dean wasn't very likeable in the debates or in interviews. One long note of derision, frustration, just ready to burst out of his skin. Other candidates, like Kerry and Edwards, showed many emotional notes, in appropriate circumstances.
By process of elimination (angry Dean, babyfaced Edwards, civilian Gephardt) you're left with Kerry.

What should Dean do?

Keep on plugging, the machine was working.
Work on yourself. Get high, drunk, a massage or something so surgeons can expose your warm fuzzy side, the side that laughs, giggles, cries. Your true believers know it's in there.
Go two weeks without mentioning Iraq. It'll scare the bejeezzus out of Clark.

What should Kerry do?

Franchise your HQ. Start building tools so your volunteers can do more kinds of things. "Franchising" your headquarters roles lets each metro area lay solid groundwork before you come to town. (Call me. 510 444 8234)
Get six hours of sleep and keep eating your oatmeal.
Money follows support. Put supporter enrollment above donor armtwisting.

All said, I'm proud of my local team. Our small crew has five people on the road in Iowa and New Hampshire. We're actively working on our campaign craft, studying from old hands. We're doing the basics badly but learning from each experience, better each week. We're communicating well with each other, despite our circle growing.

Slowly those of us who were afraid to commit are becoming true believers. We can say things like:

John Kerry is the Real Deal.

We're sending a president to Washington, not a message.

He's the one we want on the podium opposite Bush.

and believe them.

And we have the nerve to ask people to join us.

Come to a Kerry meetup this Thursday night.
I'm shopping for a media relations strategist for the Bay Area, to help us take back the White House.
I need a team that understands precinct, CRM profiling, and direct marketing software, so all Americans can have health care at least as good as Federal employees.
Curriculum developer wanted, so we can build the Opportunity America we all deserve.
Speech communications professor, to give voice to the average American instead of powerful interests.
I need a conversation with someone who can coach newbies on project templating, so 20% of our children don't go to bed hungry.
A digital artist, to bring sunshine and transparency back to government service.

Call me. Or write: phil@dijest.com.

You're not seeing a lot of me here. I'm doing most of my blogging over on EastBayKerry.com (all politics is local). And spreading myself thin in bulletin boards, other people's blogs and doing campaign related stuff. My apartment flooded, throwing off my schedule and keeping me away from my computer for a week. Small stuff.

"akasig"

Retraction: One of my brothers is not a Republican

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 01:12:17 GMT

At my oldest younger brother's request, I'll state for the record that he is not now, nor has he ever been, a Republican. Of any sort. Ever. In the future, even. Or in alternate universes. I'll go so far as to add that he makes me, a commie pinko liberal, look like Rush Limbaugh. Without the addictions. And without being wrong all the time. So I stand corrected. Right. Done. "akasig"

Emergent Democracy and the Digital Divide.

Wed, 07 Jan 2004 05:34:35 GMT

Wealth Bondage's The Happy Tutor wrote:

So no computer, no emergent democracy for you, right? Who here speaks for the illiterate or the working poor?

Is being informed a right or a responsibility? How about being connected? Must literacy be prerequisite to choosing your representative? Considering the role statistics play in election and governance, how about numeracy? Computer literacy? Geomancy?

Democracy emerges whether we like it or not, or so it appears; pluralism will out. The process looks like sausage grinding, even with digital five-spice powder. Its arrogance may even be bitter to the taste. But emergent democracy is a morphed hybrid of shadow people and meatspace. Our virtual selves make connections, our flesh selves makes them solid, enduring, and actionable. It's as though a spirit world guides us to meetups, to churches, to union halls where we speak in tongues in praise of lesser gods, of devils to apagenate, of evangelical congregation leading to personal and collective salvation. Watch as democracy emerges from our phones and explodes into the world of bad breadth, parking karma, and baby kissing.

I worry less about the digital divide. After all, the digital divide will be over when we can vote by Nokia, around 2012. I worry about the many millions of adults stripped of their right to vote because of a felony record. Of the children who have no say in the legislation and budgets that define their health, development, and safety. Of long term residents become second class non-citizens. What would happen if the more than ten million ex-cons in the U.S. population had their votes restored? What would happen if we enfranched children, parents voting their proxy? Could this give us our second black president (Clinton being the first)? Would schools and food for kids get parity with pensions and healthcare for seniors? "akasig"

Apocolypses

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 19:38:40 GMT

"Buffy, when I saw you stop the world from - you know - ending, I just assumed that was a big week for you. It turns out I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse."

Riley to Buffy in "A New Man" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, (2000).

Riley is adjusting to what it means to be Buffy's new boyfriend. Pretty sure anyone dating Xena, Wonder Woman, the PowerPuff Girls, or Condoleeza Rice will have power issues.

Oh, yeah. Apocolypses. If language skills mattered, I could have been Buf's boyfriend. Umm, OK, I coulda been Giles the high school librarian.

Back from Rushville.

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 17:25:17 GMT

I just had an Out Of Oakland experience. I went to my folks' home for the holidays, up in Whatcom County, Washington. And I discovered that everyone in my family is a Republican. And always has been. Not just the parents but my siblings and in-laws too. Now I know what it feels like to be told you've been adopted or that your parents had another name before they entered the witness protection program. They've tolerated my commie pinko leanings, hoping I would come to my senses in the way that parents hope teens will give up atrocious fashions or develop taste in music. I just had to move to that disloyal Barbara Lee's district and Zenmaster Jerry Brown's city, birthplace of the Black Panthers, a Molotov cocktail's throw from the People's Republic of Berkeley. Oy vey es mir.

Whatcom's the 10,000 square miles in the northwest corner of the U.S. map, just south of the border, about 30 minutes from Vancouver, Canada. Bellingham is a 142 square mile city (think 12x12) of about 92,000, mostly Dems, boosted by the Western Washington University's young liberals. 74,790 people, largely conservative farmers and loyal Republicans, occupy the other 1977 square miles of the county. There's a huge cultural divide. One is density: town people live on 1.4% of the land, 650 people per square mile, while country people share a square mile with 38 other folks (17 times more people). Another is the culture of self-reliance and community. My folks, who live in an unincorporated area between the town of Ferndale and the Lummi tribe, actually know all their neighbors. This is impressive since a walk around the block is 2 miles. Other folks who live in more rural parts of the county are far from basic civic services, like paramedics, fire and police. They depend on themselves and each other, not so much on government.

The county has growing pains. The population is growing faster than they can fund infrastructure. The county jail is at capacity, as are schools. State and federal funding have dropped across the board.

Whatcom County has one hospital, huge, private, part of a charitable not-for-profit. Canada's wealthy bypassing healthcare rationing, drive across the border to St. Joseph's new cardiac care center. No waiting time for top surgeons and fresh equipment. Canadians may soon account for half the hospital's revenue. Folks around there see that as evidence of a failed single payer system. At the same time locals pooh-pooh the new Medicare law that make it illegal to cheaply buy expensive medicine in Canada. I'm afraid that lots of people my father's age or my grandmother's will be arrested along with the other drug smugglers, and with mandatory minimums...

Whatcom's border location also means they have the same law enforcement problems as San Diego. Narcotic smuggling. Illegal aliens. Biker gangs. Much of the police, jail, and court costs fall to local cities and the county sheriff. But federal reimbursements don't come close to covering those costs. So they wind up cutting or underfunding local services.

Compared to Oakland, there is little gun violence in Whatcom's countryside. More guns, but the outdoorsman culture is the rule. Handguns protect against wild predators like coyotes, wild dogs, and snakes, and against those who walk upright. The lines between right and wrong are unambiguous, cleanly drawn, simple and authoritative.

The GOP has an active mailing tree there. Hierarchical and effective. The latest good news from the party, the latest horrors by those who don't understand values and America's place in the world.

Lots of technology skeptics. Show me the relevance and five neighbors who're using it. Computing and communications adoption typically lag the Bay Area by a few years, but the lag is shortening. Part of the resistance is a strong desire to have real things. Authenticity matters. In politics they like that our President is direct and speaks plain. In the arts they like the handcrafted over the assembly line, the local over the import, the traditional over the avant garde.

It's winter there. Snow, rain, black ice, rain, sleet, rain. But the rurality is Rush Limbaugh country all year long. Rush is a primary source of news and opinion, Fox News a close second. They feel about both the Clinton's the way we feel about Dubya: angry and betrayed by moral failings where America can least afford them. They like The President, even think he's been doing fine. Lots of folks have family or friends who are serving in Iraq and are proud of our men and women in uniform. Showing the flag isn't just OK, it's downright patriotic. They have yet to hear one good idea from the Democratic presidential candidates, no vision for the future, no real response to national security issues or the economy. And the candidates all seem to be bashing each other instead of defining themselves. They can't imagine any of the Dems beating Bush.

All in all, it felt like falling into a mirror universe.

I love my family and it was more than heartwarming to be with them. But I clicked my heels three times and stepped onto that prop plane. It's good to be home.

So, what did you do for the holidays?

British and Asian Weblog Awards.

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 23:52:54 GMT

You may know about the Wizbang Weblog Awards 2003. But there's more.

Royby tipped me to the coming British Blog awards:

Guardian Unlimited is launching a competition to promote and reward the best of British blogging. The panel of 22 judges will pick winners for five different categories: best design, best specialist, best use of photography, best under 18 and best written. You can enter your blog in as many categories as you like. The deadline for entries is November 21. The winners will be announced on December 18. The winner of each category will receive a cheque for £500.

We also have Phil Ingram's Asia Blog Awards. Blogs compete for Best Of region/language (Best Hong Kong blog, Mainland China blog, Taiwanese blog, Singapore, Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Philippines, Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Asian blog in English as a second language, Asian blog in an Asian language as a second language) and for Best Foreign (non Asian) blog, Funniest blog, Best political blog, Best designed blog, Best Newcomer in 2003, Best Essayist, Best journal/diary, Best Photoblog. I really like that Phil recognizes the value of gateway bloggers who bridge the blogosphere's language islands.

Blogging's a global meme. It's maturing. How do awards figure in?

These awards pick the great read from the millions. The awards are fun. Sort of the

But as blogging becomes more important to more people, so will blogging awards. Awards can direct attention to what is meaningful, important, improved, and other factors that affect the quality and health of the blogosphere. This year, blogging awards are novelty blogrolls. I'd like to see them evolve. Become the Pulitzer. Become the Time Person of the Year. Become the Clio. Become the Man Booker Prize. Become the Fields Medal. Become the Nobel. Challenge bloggers everywhere to excel, to find their voice, to turn reading and writing into action.

I'm available for nominations.

The Second Day of Thanksgiving

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 02:07:25 GMT

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.

In Monty Python We Trust.

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 07:47:05 GMT

Always look on the bright side of life

Nie smuæ siê, Brian...Wiesz, jak mawiaj¹?
Czasem coœ dopieka tak,
¿e chce ci siê p³akaæ, przeklinaæ albo szaleæ...
Ale gdy prze¿uwasz chrz¹stki ¿ycia,
zamiast gderaæ, uœmiechnij siê od ucha do ucha -
wtedy coœ zawsze na lepsze zmieni siê...
I...
Zawsze patrz na jasn¹ stronê ¿ycia,
na jasn¹ stronê ¿ycia zawsze patrz...
Jeœli ¿ycie wygl¹da tak Ÿle, ¿e rzygaæ siê chce,
to znaczy, ¿e zapomnia³eœ,
¿e mo¿na poœpiewaæ, potañczyæ i poœmiaæ siê...
Wiêc gdy jak w do³ku czujesz siê,
Nie b¹dŸ g³upi kiep,
Z³ó¿ wargi, zagwi¿d¿, i to bêdzie to...
I...
Zawsze patrzcie na jasn¹ stronê ¿ycia!
No, œmia³o!
Zawsze patrzcie na jasn¹ stronê ¿ycia!
Bo ¿ycie ma coœ z absurdu
i zawsze koñczy je œmieræ,
Wiêc sk³oñ siê, gdy opada kurtyna,
zapomnij o swoich grzechach
i z uœmiechem do widowni wykrzyw siê...

tekst Eric Idle
przek³ad Micha³ Zimnicki

Extreme Pumpkins

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 21:56:22 GMT

Carve in peace.

Dinner with Dina and Friends.

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 17:05:27 GMT

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.

My local campaign blogging is coming along.

Mon, 27 Oct 2003 22:49:57 GMT

The domain came in over the weekend: EastBayKerry.com. Strong resistance by getting the local committee to blog. "I've never blogged before" is common. It's a little scary before it becomes routine. It helps when I explain (a) nobody's reading us, (b) it's just writing, like email, and (c) it's OK to muck it up.

They are coming aboard. More folks are reading, commenting, and signing up to be authors, a hierarchy of comfort. For example, see today's The Dems best hope in '04, a fantastic analysis by Harold Lowe, running for Oakland's city council. He explains why pairing John Kerry with Clark or Gephardt to win MidWest swing vote states could tip the scales.

Right now we're communicating via phone calls, email, a Yahoo! Group, the blog, and frequent meetings. I'm overly optimistic about my SMS announcement service, but hope it will become useful as we continue to reach people who have cell phones but no email. Everything remains too hard, including TypePad. I put the blog together myself but I can't imagine non-IT people doing it.

Cam Barret, Clark's blogger in chief, is earning his pay. Beyond the official Clark blog, Cam's folks rolled out local web presence en masse. East Bay for Clark is a feature-rich generic site. Good strategy. Like the Kerry camp, they have to populate the local blogs, but that's manageable.

The local Kerry team is growing, more than doubling each month. But how fast can you activate and ramp up a political network proportional to the 2.4 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties? The California primary election is in 126 days (18 weeks). Not much time to organize.

The centralization challenge is non-trivial. Headquarters staffs in most of the campaigns want to control the message through a network of volunteer flacks. To date, only the Dean campaign has

Longer term, after the elections, what are the lessons of mass produced weblogs? What motivators worked best to attract newbies into using mailing lists and blogs? How fast can people learn the blogging mode: the observe, write, feedback loop? What accelerates that cognitive shift? What sustains blogging through a long campaign? How important is visual design to creating a sense of locality? of affiliation? What does political blogfodder look like? And how do we make all this work for the offline? For the mobile phone user? "akasig"

Arnold should communicate.

Sat, 25 Oct 2003 14:56:22 GMT

Kevin Drum, the CalPundit, has been following Arnold's first reality checks. A cautious meeting with the incumbent, a sobering briefing by the State Treasurer.

The more I think about it, the less I think the recall was about fixing things. Arnold's strength is in communication and he should roll with that. The Davis office communicated infrequently, ineffectively, without passion, often delayed, and without making its points relevant to listeners. And they couldn't get on the evening news without a whiff of scandal or blood. Like most folks, Californians can take bad news and accept harsh choices. But you have to prepare us, keep us in the loop as it goes forward, and steadily report status. Davis surprised the electorate, repeatedly, with bad news, and paid for this sin.

Arnold would do well to amp up his communications office, both with headcount and funding. I wouldn't mind a progress report monthly, maybe in the form of a 1-page letter. Maybe a chart of the month with an explanation of the choices we face. The new executive needs to communicate via a wider range of channels than ever before. Television, radio addresses, emails, an Office of the Governor Weblog (hey, anyone want to be Arnold's Blogger in Chief?), and versions tailored for the millions of citizens who are more comfortable in another language.

The executive branch is not enough. My state senators and assemblymen must spend more money, time and effort communicating with their voters. A problem with that: half the senate and a third of assembly are term-limited lame ducks; those have no incentive to communicate with the electorate except to maximize future opportunities, duty no longer tied to reelection. All the same, every elected official must have a weblog, staffers that post to it, and constituents that comment. In a time when everyone is subject to recall, this means job security. In a time of public concern, this means transparency.

I asked Dean's blogger in chief, Mathew Gross, what happens to DeanForAmerica and BlogForAmerica after the primary and after winning the presidency.

After the primary it becomes the platform for the Democratic party.
Once in office, some of the team and the web site moves into the White House communications office to help the president engage the electorate for the next eight years (a positive bunch).
Other parts of the team and site go to the DNC, to support the party.

The more I learn, the more I'm convinced of the value of "The Bloggers Platform". "akasig"