Susan Mernit's Blog

Rain, Books, Hiking, Michigan

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:52:17 -0800

I slept 9 hours last night, 10 hours the night before, At home, I sleep 6, maybe 7. It's been raining here for 3-4 days, so we run out and do a walk or a hike in between downpours, sit on the porch and read books. I have been writing the product specs for oakland local and for some maps we want to build.

Being in a new place ans have more unscheduled time feels like a gift. Stepping away from twitter and the web except for very sporadic bits of a day is totally a gift. My sprained thumb (!) is starting to feel a bit better.

I'm also starting to look ahead to later this summer, when Oakland Local will kick in as a major focus, along with some other smaller projects. We'll be doing some Public Media Collaborative training as well, and planning our own one day event of social media for social action.

But right now is that space between the worlds, the re charge and vacation space, and it is wonderful.

Links for 2009-06-29 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off - The Atlantic (July/August 2009)
"And yet at the end of the day—literally during a five o’clock counseling appointment, as the golden late-afternoon sunlight spilled over the wall of Balinese masks—when given the final choice by our longtime family therapist, who stands in as our shaman, mother, or priest, I realized … no. Heart-shattering as this moment was—a gravestone sunk down on two decades of history—I would not be able to replace the romantic memory of my fellow transgressor with the more suitable image of my husband, which is what it would take in modern-therapy terms to knit our family’s domestic construct back together."

Links for 2009-06-28 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Reddit - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About It | 10e20 Blog
excellent article on using reddit

Just published at BlogHer: Does your partner know you masturbate?

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:03:44 -0800

Ever notice how talking about self-love is one of those final privacy frontiers? The whole piece is here. Yep, it's a little edgy.

Vacation, Michigan and the home place

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:22:45 -0800

It's 6:22 am, and in a few minutes I am going to move into gear and start the day of travel leading to 2 weeks in Michigan, in s house on a lake that A's family built 90 years ago. This is my third visit, and it's amazing how this house and this town have become a home place for me; a place I think about when I am not there, and look forward to coming back to.

As a native New Yorker moved to the Bay area, I have no Michigan roots of my own, but I love it there...and look forward, every year, to learning more about the area.

This summer, I have big plans:

swim, hike, bike, row, walk as much as possible
read, nap, relax as much as possible
write the product specs for Oakland Local and the related tools we want to build and get them back out the the team and contracted to build ASAP
finish a tiny bit of client work I still need to complete
write poetry
read books
blog and surf as much as I want to
appreciate A, my wonderful partner
miss my dog (but sleep later)
I will be online, but further off the grid....can't wait,

The wordle of my twitter stream

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:23:13 -0800

Of course I just love this service!

Quote of the Day

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:18:01 -0800

"For users, Web2.0 was all about reorganizing web-based practices around Friends. For many users, direct communication tools like email and IM were used to communicate with one's closest and dearest while online communities were tools for connecting with strangers around shared interests. Web2.0 reworked all of that by allowing users to connect in new ways. While many of the tools may have been designed to help people find others, what Web2.0 showed was that people really wanted a way to connect with those that they already knew in new ways. Even tools like MySpace and Facebook which are typically labeled social networkING sites were never really about networking for most users. They were about socializing inside of pre-existing networks."

--dana boyd, talk given at microsoft, feb 2009

My brain exploded: 2.5 days at the Future of Civic News Conference

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:04:26 -0800

After 2.5 days at Knight's Future of News and Civic Media conference at MIT, my brain is happily stuffed very full. Approximately 150 (?) people convened at the Strata building to talk about the future of civic media, news in an informed democracy and how technology tools can support--and accelerate--change.

For me, who spent a chunk of last year working with Knight to manage the Knight News Challenge, this was a thrilling chance to be part of the announcement event--ie be in the room; however, as someone who is about to dive into building a new hyperlocal site for Oakland, it was also a chance to talk with, meet with, and observe a brilliant cross-section of practicioners from around the world.

Amy Gahran was our mobile scout, and did a great session on what could be achieved with crappy cell phones. Eric Newton talked about the Knight ecosystem to a room full of Knight chairs and program leaders (fascinating), and there were semi-bar-camp sessions on alternative funding models,

There were so many cool people and projects--ExtrACT got me super-excited; I would like to work with their tools and build Oakland-area data maps. And it's always great to talk with Kevin Slavin of Area/Code; his brain is my brain's soul brother. And Ryan Sholin, Dan Pacheco, Chris O'Brien and so many news-y folks have got it going on in the best way.
And...I cojuld go on and on; basic facts would be I came home with three books, tons of new ideas, refreshed and new connections and so much excitement about what is possible.

And did I mention that the kick ass Lisa Williams led a team that proposed tweetbill--and that they won a small competition for $3K in funding to make it live. Whee!

Quote of the Day

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:11:36 -0800

"That was the house that I stayed in this past weekend: a girl I'm dating, her friend whom I tried to date, a girl who dated multiple friends of mine, and a girl who has asked me out and is the twin sister of another girl that I dated. And until this weekend, I knew each of them entirely independently of each other. Are you kidding? Is that not a little ridiculous? The whole thing was one degree of Andrew."

--Andrew, Igniter dater, writing about his (weekend) dating life and the six degrees (or 46 degrees) of seperation he had with every other women in the weekend share house.

Susan sez: The world is really small till you want to paint it.

#KNCMIT: Where are the nerds? And the talk of the nabes?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:18:52 -0800

Will three guys in suits in a plenary session get off news and get into nabes and nerds? This is clearly the academic session debating the issues; energy in room diminishing.

The academics are MUCH more conservative that Albert Ibarguen, which is delightful to watch, but pretty annoying, actually, Newspaper academics, please just get over yourselves.

@agahran:Why am I having Deja vu in this #kncmit plenary? Oh yeah: 1000th time I've heard it (content, views, format). Sigh... #fncm09 #knc09

KNC09: What is the impact of the Knight News Challenge?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:41:42 -0800

Three years into the grant process, Knight is starting to evaluate impact of the first 2 years of funding, says Alberto Ibarguen at the MIT conference I'm at right now. Knight sees itself as a facilitator of both growth and change; and it's clear they have seeded so many enterprises--the Digital Media centers at various universities, lots of community and news funded projects.

Alberto bering asked by Henry Jenkins about user skift and city papers, classifieds' demise and the general expense of quality news at the local level as change factors for the industyr imploding. "Time and money," Alberto says, "But a much small base to pay for all of it."

Henrk Jenkins quizzing Eric Klineman around the demise of news (figting for Air)--he says the "devertatin of local media has been happening for some riime." (Susan sez: this makes me think of the corporate consolidation of radio more than at community weeklies). He says that the digital outlets he studied for his book were all dependent on newspaper reporting, ergo, now that newspapers are dying, what happens to the production of news across media?

Eric K says he debates "enthuiasts of citizen media" who argue new reporters will replace the current priesthood, but he says that we're going to lose information we had in the past. (Susan says" Off the top of my head, I TOTALLY disagree; there's a vibrancy to online journalism that needs more support, and many people to train, but I don't see who only corporate journalists are being deemed capable of quality work thst is wrong thought.)

Alberto says the foundation's conclusion was thay the were "neither smart enough or big enough to save the newspaper business, but it was time to spend money on experiments for the future." He adds "It also is what led us to the issue of universal access and the urgency we fele in giving every american broadband access." (Susan sez: Amen!)

Alberto says: Knght wants to fund the news that people need to have t function in a democracy--on a digital platform.

Henry Jenkins ties this to local moves; Eric K says dimishing interest in local is not about lack of sense of place, but investment/identity in web based communities taking away from our local sense of place.

ALberto: We don't just looks for ideas that work for the News Challenge, we want ideas that help build a local community.

Knight News Challenge winners announced

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:17:30 -0800

The 2009 winners of #KNC09 were announced today--here's the table. Congrats to all!

DocumentCloud	$ 719,500	Eric Umansky Scott Klein Aron Pilhofer Ben Koski	ProPublica, with The New York Times	New York, N.Y.	2009
Media Bugs	$ 335,000	Scott Rosenberg		Berkeley, Calif.	2009
Councilpedia	$ 250,000	Gail Robinson	Gotham Gazette	New York, N.Y.	2009
Data Visualization	$ 243,600	Aaron Presnall	The Jefferson Institute	Washington, D.C.	2009
Mobile Media Toolkit	$ 200,000	Katrin Verclas	MobileActive	Springfield, Mass.	2009
The Daily Phoenix	$ 95,000	Aleksandra Chojnacka Adam Klawonn		Phoenix, Ariz.	2009
Crowdsourcing Crisis Information	$ 70,000	Ory Okolloh	Ushahidi	Orlando, Fla.	2009
Virtual Street Corners	$ 40,000	John Ewing		Roxbury, Mass.	2009
CMS Upload Utility	$ 10,000	Joe Boydston	McNaughton Newspaper Group	Placerville, Calif.	2009

Links for 2009-06-16 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

HealthyCity.org

Heading to The Future of News and Civic Media Conference in Boston

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:24:58 -0800

I am heading out very early tomorrow to the Future of News and Civic Media Conference at MIT, hosted bn the Knight Foundation and MIT's Knight Center for Civic Media.

Not only are all the brand new Knight News Challenge winners arriving for the conference, but Knight is bringing in past winners from alll over the world, winners of some of their local community foundation grants, and amazing friends of Knight.

Even better, this year the sessions are going to be barcamp style, and participants have been very engaged proposing ideas and discussing topics.

Some of of the themes discussed as possible subjects include:

hyperlocal and community engagement: best practices and case studies
the post newspaper community
making news innovations relevant for the world's poorest
all sorts of Mobile tracks
investigative journalism and digital storytelling
post-college experiences: recent grads and what it's like out there

The spirit of the conference is of coming together to learn from one another, in this brief, intense time, and I know there is going to be so much to soak up, I am totally psyched.

Playing with Hunch: Embed feature

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:21:25 -0800

Noting the little bells and whistles of smart user experience design, including being able to embed a question (!)

Should I become a vegetarian? - make thousands more decisions on Hunch.com

Susan sez: How can I subvert this for hyperlocal? Hmmnnn....

Hunch: The joy of a point of view

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:14:40 -0800

I'm just at the beginning of playing with Hunch (and trying to understand how it serves me differently than Likeaholix, which I have pretty much abandoned), but I am already delighted by the distinctive--and very human--voice on the site and the ways community guidelines, member recognition.incentives and terms of service seem to have been thought out. (Of course, I think this is Caterina Fake's influence, whether it is or not.) Viz:

"Trolls, griefers, spammers and scum beware. We loathe you if you:

Post profanity or anything pornographic or sexually explicit. If you can't imagine it being on prime time TV, it doesn't belong on Hunch. Nudity isn't allowed in buddy icons or any images posted to Hunch.
Engage in personal attacks, or long-winded and tedious rants. If you want to bore someone, book a long distance flight and talk to your seatmate.
Promote or endorse graphic or gratuitous violence, illegal activity, or any action designed to inflect intentional harm on anyone.
Use hate speech -- speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.

It's not that these would be MY guidelines, it's that I am a big proponent of clearly stated gjuidelines.

Berkeley: Support Asa Dodsworth, June 22nd event

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:57:14 -0800

URBAN GARDENS UNDER ATTACK?
DEFEND OUR LOCAL FOOD SOURCES!

Monday, June 22, 2009 7-10 pm
BFUU, 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita) in Berkeley

CONSCIENTIOUS PROJECTOR FILM SERIES of the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists presents:

Berkeley Code Enforcement is selectively fining activists for supposed "violations" in their gardens with fines that amount to extortion and eviction. They target neighbors actively engaged in helping communities gain some self-sufficiency by organizing permaculture skill shares, work parties, and growing diverse, edible, organic gardens that inspire and feed hungry people, wildlife, bees and other beneficials. In this time of global climate change, ecological collapse, and economic distress, tax dollars are wasted on harassment of urban gardeners by city officials who single out activists for otherwise ignored code, as well as on county and state insect trapping programs that frequently target such gardens with pesticides and quarantines. Homegrown food and ecology is not a crime!

Film: "FRIDAYS AT THE FARM"

Speakers:
Asa Dodsworth (Acton House Victory Garden)
Maxina Ventura (East Bay Pesticide Alert)
Nik Bertulis (Regenerative Design instructor, Merritt College)

Music by Carol Denney and Max
Food by Food Not Bombs

Community Participation Invited
Support Urban Gardens by Growing one Yourself: Sign up for a Community Work Day in Your Yard

Event sponsored by East Bay Pesticide Alert / Don't Spray Califor

The shock of paper

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:43:31 -0800

A year ago, I packed up my apartment and moved to Boulder for the summer. Then I moved into a sublet, Then I moved into a house in Oakland, Before that, I'd done 5 other moves--from a rental in San Jose to another in Palo Alto, from a house in New Jersey to San Jose, from a San Jose house to NJ, from Brooklyn to NJ..you get the picture.
This is by way of illustrating that any possessions--and files--that survived the moves had to feel pretty damn valuable.

So here I am, nice Spring weekend, deciding this is the moment to clean out my file cabinet and put away all those old bills, tax statements, etc lying around in a big old box.

Only you know, what I discovered?

So much of what I use to manage my life and pay bills, track insurance, etc. is now digital that I was able to throw 2/3rd of the paper out (after I shredded it, of course).

I am writing this post, tho, because it's not the shift in the companies that service me that is noteworthy, it's my attitude. Somehow, a year ago, having files of COBRA statements, conference attendees, etc, felt useful; today it feels like so much clutter.

While I am not as close to the end of paper as I wish I was, it's clear that online filing systems, the kindle and the cloud are making it much easier to not print things out--and easier to have repositories of records that are digital.

Side note: Anyone scanning their paper files? (Or is that over the top anal?)

Links for 2009-06-10 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

A non-fanatical beginner's guide to Twitter | deanna zandt

Links for 2009-05-31 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Fwix’s Regional News Feeds Come To The iPhone
Fwix, a social news site that skims through dozens of web services to generate a ‘News Feed’ for your city, has just released its free iPhone application (iTunes Link).
Digital News Initiative UC Berkeley on Vimeo
Open forum: Journalism students lead way
As the only school of journalism in the University of California system, we feel an especially compelling duty to serve the public interest at a time of crisis in local journalism around the state. We are starting collaborations with the Haas School of Business and School of Information to further innovations in this field. We are seeking funding to re-train established journalists in the digital skills and new ways of thinking they need to better position themselves for professional futures. We want to partner with other local sites run by people similarly committed to covering Bay Area communities. We envision legions of small businesses and other potential advertisers in the Bay Area finding tremendous new audiences through these ties. We are filled with excitement and purpose, fueled by the idealism and dedication of young students who increasingly are showing the way.
sexgenderbody | There is no "should"
sexgenderbody.com is a community, collaborative blog, built in the same functional model of dailykos.com and mydd.com. The site is open-invitation, meaning that anyone can register and post diaries. This site has been built to serve as a public meeting place for honest and respectful conversations about the entire width and breadth of sex, gender, body. Topics will range from the intimate to the mundane, falling in love, looking in the mirror, workplace, health, advocacy, friendship, sex, identity, change, finances and the list goes on. Read more: http://sexgenderbody.com/#ixzz0H9TybMWG&B

Links for 2009-05-28 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

GSBI 2009 — Social Edge
Just learned about the Global Social Benefit Incubator program-- very cool program~ http://www.socialedge.org/f...

Links for 2009-05-24 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Top 10 search engine optimization tips for online news start-ups
GREAT tips summary!

Susan Mernit's Blog

Rain, Books, Hiking, Michigan

Links for 2009-06-29 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-06-28 [del.icio.us]

Just published at BlogHer: Does your partner know you masturbate?

Vacation, Michigan and the home place

The wordle of my twitter stream

Quote of the Day

My brain exploded: 2.5 days at the Future of Civic News Conference

Quote of the Day

#KNCMIT: Where are the nerds? And the talk of the nabes?

KNC09: What is the impact of the Knight News Challenge?

Knight News Challenge winners announced

Links for 2009-06-16 [del.icio.us]

Heading to The Future of News and Civic Media Conference in Boston

post-college experiences: recent grads and what it's like out there

The spirit of the conference is of coming together to learn from one another, in this brief, intense time, and I know there is going to be so much to soak up, I am totally psyched.

Playing with Hunch: Embed feature

Hunch: The joy of a point of view

"Trolls, griefers, spammers and scum beware. We loathe you if you:

Berkeley: Support Asa Dodsworth, June 22nd event

The shock of paper

Links for 2009-06-10 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-05-31 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-05-28 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-05-24 [del.icio.us]