This is a test!

2009-12-31T00:01:00.001-08:00

Julie, This is a test. from David Baker on Vimeo.

The End of Anonymity

2009-06-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

At Personal Democracy Forum 2009 while sitting in on a panel on blogging I heard chief blogger Anna Marie Cox state that “Anonymous blogging is like anonymous sex. If it is good, you don’t know who to go back to for more.” So with that in mind let me introduce myself. My name is David Baker.

I graduated from the University of Utah where I studied Political Science with an emphasis on social media and globalization. My main focus and drive was on how emerging social technologies are changing our world day by day. I focused mainly on politics but on international business and our personal lives intersecting with new media as well. This study led to two thesis articles pertaining to the election and to globalization & technology.Thomas Friedman, Kevin Kelly, Don Tapscott, Jeff Jarvis, Michael Wesch, Jose Antonio Vargas, Anna Marie Cox, Micah Sifry, Andrew Rasiej, danah boyd, Joe Trippi, Craig Newmark, Matt Mason, Steven Levitt, and Nate Silver to name a few.

I am currently the Chief blogger for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s campaign for the U.S. Senate against three-term incumbent Bob Bennett. I am personally slightly left of center in ideology but try to understand an issue and take into account as much information before choosing a side. Although I feel that the binary system of Republicans and Democrats is a little outdated and like to replace it with Thomas Friedman’s view of emerging political parties as imagined by the images of walls and webs.

“The business wing of the Republican Party, which believes in free trade, deregulation, more integration, and lower taxes-everything that would flatten the world even more-may end up aligning itself with the social liberals of the Democratic Party, many of whom are East Coast or West Coast global service industry workers. They might also be joined by Hollywood and other entertainment workers. All of them are huge beneficiaries of the flat world. They might be called the Web Party, whose main platform would be to promote more global integration.”

I am a firm believer in net neutrality, transparent government, redefining the term “public” to mean – by default – online, searchable and linkable instead of on paper in some office of some government agency. I believe strongly in the First Amendments rights of speech, of press, of assembly, and of religion. That being said I am also strongly in favor of equal human rights and equality for the LGBT community. I am pro non-automatic weaponry, anti death-penalty, oddly apathetic towards abortion. I am pro-capitalism and have to date voted in one national election in which I voted for Barack Obama largely because of his ability to harness technology to interact with the nation.

The views expressed in this blog represent my own personal ideas and perceptions about what is happening to our nation and are not the opinion of AG Mark Shurtleff. While some posts between the two may be similar in content and stance know that my views and issues are not behind his campaign, but my writing is and as such there may be similarities.

Redefining "Public"

This is a test!

The End of Anonymity