All about me, myself, and I

What I hope to get from SXSW

2009-03-13T16:26:00.001-04:00

This weekend I got the great opportunity to attend South by Southwest. I'm very excited about since it's my first time attending. Given this opportunity, I want to put my down my goals for this weekend on "paper". They are as follow:

First and foremost I am here to learn. There are great panels assembled here and it would be a shame to walk away without learning anything. I'm going to focus my attention around social media marketing, social media & non-profits/ advocacy and social media and politics.

Second I want to network with people of similar interests. It never hurts to expand your professional network especially to include folks that working on stuff that you are interested in.

Lastly I hope to reconnect with some acquaintances that I don't see often for various reasons. As important as growing your network is, nuturing your current network is that just as important.

That being said, I also plan to have tons of fun (as much as one can have a much 48 hrs). And I must not forget to watch Manchester United v Liverpool and write my final paper. This should be one hell of a weekend.

Tags: #sxsw, #sxswdc, sxsw

Images from Sunday at Powershift09

2009-03-01T20:22:00.001-05:00

Sunday at the Powershift09was just exciting, energizing and informative as the day before. This despite a late night impromptu rally in front of the White House after the Roots concert. Look at the slideshow below to get a taste of sunday's action.

Pictures from Powershift09

2009-02-28T18:24:00.001-05:00

Pictures from the middle of the action

Cross posted on http://www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/ and http://www.powershift09.org

Healthier Planet, Healthier People – The Dual Fight for Health Care and Climate Change Solutions at PowerShift09

2009-02-28T14:36:00.001-05:00

This is a guest post from the GFF– We recently attended the Powershift conference that brought in 11k youth to talk about climate change

At PowerShift09, I attended the session: Healthier Planet, Healthier People – The Dual Fight for Health Care and Climate Change Solutions. I’m very interested in both public health issues and climate change, so I though this session would be a good mix of both topics. The speakers were Cindy Parker and Anna Gilmore Hall of HealthCare Without Harm; and they spoke about how climate change has, and will continue to have, a dramatic impact on healthcare and how we need to fight both issues simultaneously. The session room was completely full, clearly many people are interested in these issues.

Cindy focused her remarks on how climate change is affecting health. She spoke about how climate change is affecting our food supply, causing droughts and floods, and increasing the risk of infectious diseases. She used the example of West Nile Virus, which as she said, came to the US because of globalization, but spread rapidly because of climate change. When mosquitoes infected with West Nile first arrived in New York City, there was a drought, which cause animals to gather at the sparse water sources. This made it much easier for the mosquitoes to infect others and spread the disease. This was certainly a great example of how climate change really is affecting the diseases that we are now fighting.

According to Cindy, the World Health Organization (WHO) di d a study to get a rough estimate of how many people are dying as a result of climate change. They used measures such as deaths from infectious diseases, storm surges, and droughts. I would argue that there are probably even more indicators they could have used, but I’m sure that gave a good rough estimate. What WHO determined from the study was that about 150,000 people around the world each year die as a result of climate change. I think, and Cindy agreed, that the actual number is much much bigger and that number will probably only increase.

The most interesting, though unsurprising and depressing, aspect of the WHO study was that most of those dying as a result of climate change are people living in the developing world. But as we all know, most carbon emissions come from developed nations. I think Cindy put it best in her remarks:

The developed countries are producing the problem; the developing countries are suffering the consequences.

How depressing, and completely unfair to the rest of the world. After this depressing news, Cindy closed her presentation with a bit of optimism, saying:

the bad thing about climate change is that we’re all part of the problem, the good thing is that we can all be part of the solution.

Anna then spoke about how hospitals and other health care organizations are working to green their operations. She spoke about a tool that allows hospitals to see the direct impact of their energy usage on the health of their communities. I’m sure that would be a sobering thing for any hospital administrator to look at.

Anna also spoke about things that individuals can do, including becoming more efficient in our personal energy usage, in how we drive and use transit, and how we eat. She noted that we need to think of climate change as affecting our children and our future, more than just the polar bears and other wildlife. She said we need better community design and a better food system in our country to really address climate change.

The big point of the presentation was that:

global warming is a global issue with global solutions.

But each individual person has a role to play. It is a huge opportunity, as well as a huge challenge. I really couldn’t agree more.

After taking a few questions and discussing a few other topics including healthier food and a greener pharmaceutical industry, the presenters wrapped things up. It was, overall, a phenomenal session. It was a great way to tie health care and climate change together and show that we can, and should, work on both these issues simultaneously.

The Courage Compaign

2009-02-12T07:27:00.000-05:00

I think the pictures speaks for themselves

Learn more at Courage Campaign

Mid-Week Reads…Late Edition

2009-02-11T02:14:00.001-05:00

Tons of very interesting reading from last week but as always I’m a bit behind on getting them to you. I think they they are worth the reading. Have a look a let me know what you think.

The Audacity of Whiteness - Jill Nelson makes the argument that there should be more black Journalist covering the White house.

The Meaning of Michael Steele – While it hasn’t made the headline as much as it should have, the election of Michael Steele as RNC chairman is a huge deal. Michael Fauntroy dives into the the meaning of the election. The NY Times also had an nice piece about the new leader of the RNC.

In Daschle’s Tax Woes, a Peek Into Washington – This article tries to give a inside view about what’s wrong with the political system in DC. Most believe that Daschle didn’t really do anything wrong but what instead a victim of the system as is. Joe Trippi proposes a solution in this HuffPost article. If you think something should be done about the system, consider joining change-congress.org.

The Social Media Echo Chamber Makes Me not Want to Listen - This is a blog post I think every social media experts/guru/whatever should read. I firmly believe that sometimes we get lost into our world and forget to pay attention to those around us that still have something important and intelligent to say.

And to appeal to your light hearted side of you:

The District - Think of the Hills (or any other MTV show) staring Barack Obama and every other major political figure; Kind of funny.

Olympic-Size Bong Hits - Juliet Lapidos of Slate breaks down whether of not Michael Phelps’ extraordinary lung capacity enables him to take larger bong hits.

What Women Want - The million dollar question. It turns out they are not quite sure either.

Have you read anything interesting lately? Please share.

Is Reducing Carbon Emissions Worth The Cost?

2009-02-03T08:23:00.002-05:00

I believe that this is one of the biggest question that we, as a generation, must answer. Paraphrasing Al Gore, the numbers are out, the climate is changing and humans are the cause. Assuming we all agree on that, the question then remains: What are we going to do about it? and How far are we willing to go to change things? NPR’s Intelligence Squared held an Oxford style debate addressing these questions. Unfortunately, the show was aired minutes before the Superbowl and I don’t think many folks got a chance to listen to it. A brief summary from the NPR website states:

Three experts argued in favor of the motion; three against. Before the debate, the audience at Symphony Space in New York City voted 16 percent in favor of the motion and 49 percent against, with 35 percent undecided. By the end of the debate, those arguing for the motion had changed the most minds: Forty-two percent voted in favor of the proposition "Major Reductions in Carbon Emissions Are Not Worth the Money," while 48 percent voted against it and 10 percent were still undecided.

Diving in slightly more details, arguing for the motion was:

Peter Huber - the co-author of The Bottomless Well, is a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans and Figel, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for Forbes.
Bjorn Lomborg - the author of Cool It and The Skeptical Environmentalist, is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School. In 2004, he began the Copenhagen Consensus, a conference of top economists who come together to prioritize the best solutions for world problems.
Philip Stott - Professor emeritus and a biogeographer from the University of London, was the editor of the Journal of Biogeography for 18 years.

Arguing against the motion was:

L. Hunter Lovins - president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, which creates practical tools and strategies aimed at enabling companies, communities and countries to increase prosperity and quality of life.
Oliver Tickell - the author of Kyoto2, in which he sets out an international framework for the control of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere intended to be effective, efficient and equitable.
Adam Werbach - global chief executive officer at Saatchi & Saatchi S, a sustainability consulting division of Saatchi & Saatchi, is regarded as one of the world's premier experts in sustainability. At age 23, he was elected as the youngest president ever of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States (This guy is ridiculously impressive on paper).

The summary of the debate:

The debate that ensued was very interesting and engaging. My recap will do it no justice so I suggest that you listen to Podcast when you get a chance. Mr. Lomborg went first and presented what I would submit is a false choice argument. Essentially, he said that resources are tight, and we should spend time and money focusing on issues we can solve today such Malaria, famine and water provision. Tickell countered that Global warming is real, urgent and has major consequences should we choose to do nothing about it. He argued that we can address the problems that Lomborg brought as well as global warming. He went as far as saying that we solving global warming in a smart and efficient manner would be address some of the issues brought up by Lomborg and would also be seen as investment. Hubert followed by arguing that pouring money into global warming was putting the rich nations of the world at an economic disadvantage because “5 billion poor people are already the main problem”. As he put it, “their fecundity has beaten out our gluttony” therefore they will continue to use the cheapest resources available to them (i.e. coal, oil) while the western nations will impose unnecessary “taxes” on their companies thus making it impossible for them to compete on the international market. Mr. Werbach summed up Mr. Huber’s argument as “No, we can’t”. He then presented several anecdotal evidence how become green would positively influence the economy at individual level, the company level and the macro level. However, he did couch the cost as investment instead of expenditures. Mr. Stott then presented what I thought was the most irrationally, incoherent argument of the debate. He argued that climate science is “sub-prime science, sub-prime economics and above all sub-prime politics and will cost us dearly”. He added humanity resides in temperatures raging from –20 degree Celsius to 50 degree Celsius, implying that a change of 2 or 3 degrees Celsius will not inflict much change in the planet. And if it were to inflict any changes, the humanity would simply adapt. In her presentation, Mrs Lovins argued that there would be not much of a cost associated with major carbon reduction. she stated that we could do this by focusing on the low-hanging fruits. She said “we simply need to smart about how we use energy”. The debate then entered a QA section.

My Thoughts:

I found the debate to be very interesting. However I felt that none of the panelists really addressed the question heads on. The panelists for the motion simply argued that we had better things to do with our money and that global warming is a farse. The panelists against the motion argued that it’s an investment and would barely cost anything. The fact of the matter is that it will cost us, the tax payers, an insane amount of money to curb Carbon emissions. The fact that none of the panelists against the motion were willing to admit that was slightly discerning. If we going to make any progress of climate change, these expert have to start making a real and honest case for it. I think the vast majority of the people (despite the result of the survey at the end of programs) are for fighting climate change, they just need to presented with a convincing argument. However as some of the panelist pointed out during the debate, we must let climate change overshadow other issues we face today. In my opinion, they are just are critical and consequential as climate change.

P.S. If you think congress to should act fast on the issue of climate change, you should consider joining the Energy Action Coalition and their powershift09 campaign. They’ve done some good stuff thus far.

Restaurant Review: Central Michel Richard

2009-01-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

This is a guest post from the GFF– we recently went to dinner at Central Michel Richard after a long day at work. She shares her thoughts in the post below. She has also written other restaurant reviews on this blog.

After having tried many restaurants in our neighborhood, we wanted to branch out and try something just a little bit nicer. I had been wanting to try Central Michel Richard for quite some time, so recently we decided to give it a try. We called about a half hour ahead of time to make a reservation and had no problem getting a table on a Wednesday evening. The atmosphere at Central is very nice, although the dining room was a bit loud when we were eating. One of the most interesting parts of the restaurant is that the kitchen is open, so you could watch the plates be prepared. Although I was not sitting facing the kitchen, my dining companion said it was an interesting thing to watch.
The menu at Central is very interesting. I would say the best way to describe it is a bistro menu. It has everything from charcuterie to lobster burgers to steaks. It was difficult to choose with so many options. Finally, we agreed to have cheese puffs (gougeres) as an appetizer. They were great, flaky light popover-like rolls with a lovely cheesy middle. It was a really good start to the meal. I would also like to mention the bread. Too often, the bread at restaurants is very unappealing. Not so at Central. The bread was warm and had a nice crackly crust with a very soft interior. Between that and the gougeres, we had plenty of carbs for the night.
For our entrees, I chose the lamb shank. The lamb was insanely tender, literally falling off the bone. The sauce that it was served in was also very flavorful. My least favorite part of the dish was the polenta that accompanied the lamb. It was not as thick as I typically like polenta to be, and was not as flavorful as the rest of the dish. The fried onions topping the polenta were quite tasty, however. My dining companion chose the beef short ribs. While listed on the menu as beef cheeks, our waitress informed us that tonight they were serving beef short ribs instead. The short ribs came with a homemade tagliatelle noodle. The dish was also listed as coming with a sweet potato puree, but not being a fan of purees, my friend asked for it to be left off, and the waitress was happy to pass that message along. According to my friend, his dish was also excellent. The meat was very tender and flavorful, and the tagliatelle was also well cooked and tasty.
To accompany our meals, I had a lovely glass of red wine, and my companion had a pilsner. Despite the non manliness of he size of his beer, we both found our drinks complemented our diner. Sadly, we were too full to try dessert, but those at the table next to us who were eating dessert seemed to be enjoying it. Overall, Central was a great choice for a restaurant. While certainly a bit too pricey for an everyday dining experience, it is a great place for a special dinner, or just when you want to try something a bit nicer than average. I'd highly recommend trying it at some point soon.

Review from Washington Post.

Reviews on Yelp

~ The GFF

Technorati Tags: Restaurants,Central Michel Richard,Eating out,Reviews

Looking back at 2008 & How I faired on my resolutions

2009-01-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

Looking back 2008 was a very challenging year both professionally and personally. I stepped out of my comfort zone and went after what I wanted. I’d be lying if I said I did this voluntarily every time. Sometimes, the situations left me no other but to venture out. With some planning and some luck I end up where I had hope to be by the end of the year. Along the way, I met some great folks, made some new friends, became more idealistic, lost faith in the baby boomers, and gain faith the millennials. Most of you probably watched this chapter of my live chapter unfold live via Twitter, Facebook, Frienfeed, Tumblr and this blog….whenever I updated it. The highlights of 2008 include South Carolina primary, 1631 S Streeet NW, ServiceNation Summit, DC Primary, November 4th, Frat house 2.0, Boston/NH, my investiture, and becoming an American. I will remember 2008 as the year I decided to get involved.

As for my resolutions, here is how faired:

1. Maintain a GPA above a 3.5 - DONE. I was able to keep a 4.0 GPA.

2. Read 6 books (outside the classroom) and write about them on here - FAIL. I did not read six books I think I read 3... Sad I know. This is commitment that I make every year and continuously fail at it. I'm not really sure why. I'm an information junkie and I do read a lot but I haven't managed to read books. I blame it on the amount of reading and writing I have to go school.

3. Reconnect with 5 or more family members back home - DONE. I think I reconnected with more than 5 family members. But I still don't talk to them on the regular basis. It gets quite expansive to call home regularly. And Skype does not have exactly have stellar services. If you're using a software to call Africa or other third world countries, I'd love to hear about it.

4. Record all financial data for the entire year - FAIL. I'm going to try again this year. I will be switching to Mint something this month.

5. Bring in 10K to 15K through freelancing - DONE and most of the money went to paying for school.

6. Open an IRA or Home buying fund - FAIL. Instead, I focused more on the opening and beefing up an emergency saving account. It came in handy when I was let go earlier this year. So I'm glad I went that route instead.

7. Go to 12 museums - FAIL. I think I went to 2 museums, I did do more cultural stuff around the city including BSO, Kennedy Center, Book signings and lectures.

8. Learn Ruby on Rails - FAIL. I don't even have it installed on any of my computer. I instead focused on learning how to customize WordPress and give it a professional touch.

9. Be a better boyfriend/Better Work life balance - FAIL. At some point during the summer, I was working, going school, working on a the Silverman Campaign and doing freelancing. That's not balance at all. However, I have become much more organize and learned how to schedule leisure time as well.

10. Get Management Position in IT or Public Policy - I did get a management position at Be The Change, Inc from which I was let go earlier late in the Year and I’m now at a Public Affairs firm. I'd say I'm moving towards the right the direction professionally. I've moved a way from a purely technical background which was the real goal here.

I could have done better with my resolutions, but I’m satisfied with my performance. I’m will my 2009 resolutions up shortly

Merry Christmas...

2008-12-24T23:42:00.001-05:00

For those who celebrate, Merry Christmas. And to the rest, I wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Chanukah,Holiday Season,2008

Weekly Reads 12.19.2008

2008-12-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

This entry was backdated to the week when i read and collected these articles. The articles are as valuable today as they were a week or so ago.

What's in it for Your Followers? How to be Useful on Twitter - Pretty self-explanatory. If you want to be successful on Twitter you have to have to provide value to your follower. Darren discusses that in this blog post.

Best 100 Twitter tools - After you learn how to be a useful on Twitter, using of these tools will be help be more affective at providing value to your followers. If you think 100 tools is too much, try these fives suggested by Darren.

Visual Quick-start Guides to Political movements - Want to start the next succesfull online campaign? These videos will help get started. If you're still have having problems, you may want to think about hiring the pros like these guys.

Five Ways Web Professionals Should Be Proactive In a Recession - I was recently laid off but lucky I was able to find a a gig. I some friends going through the same things that I did and other who are unsure of their position in the current economic crisis. In this post Jeremy, discuses how web professions can be proactive is such economic times.

Weekly Reads, Twitter, Blogging, Advocacy, Online Advocacy

The Josh [Silverstone] Burrito now available to all @ Visions... go try it!

2008-12-09T01:49:00.000-05:00

During my time of unemployment, one of the things I tried to do is to catch up with friends around this city/suburbs. One such friend is Josh Silvertsone. Josh had been ranting and raving about a restaurant where he had become a regular located in downtown Bethesda. The place's name is Visions (blog). I met him there for lunch on a Friday and little did I know Josh and Tony (twitter), the chef , had been working on introducing a new menu item name after him. Well it's official, the Josh Burrito is now available to all (see the announcement below). You should go try it. Have had one one I can confirm that that it is delicious.

p.s. If you're foodie and want to chat with a chef on a regular basis, make sure to connect with Chef Tony, he is all about social media.

Technorati Tags: Silverstone,Josh Silvertone,Josh Burrito,Visions,Chef Tony,Tony Marciante,Bethesda,Restaurant,Eating out

Thank You

2008-12-08T23:33:00.000-05:00

The past week was a crazy one; the end of another semester and the start of a new gig. Now that life has calmed down a bit, I wanted to take a second to say a big thank you to everyone that helped me during my job search. My job search ended late last month when I accepted an offer for the position of Web Strategist at DCI Group, where I will be helping our clients navigate through the social media interweb. In these tough economic times, I was lucky enough to received multiple offers. However, I would be lying if I said I did all the work that got me these offers. In fact it was quite the opposite. During my search, a number of people graciously volunteer their time to proofread my resume and cover letters, help make video resumes, offer career advice, make introductions on my behalf,be a reference, and pass my resume along. Between writing cover letters and submitting my resume for various position, I attended a number of social media/technology events around town where I met an incredible number of nice and smart folks using the web to bring attention to some great causes. I will work to keep in touch with as many of them as possible. But more importantly, I hope to work with some of them (in pro-bono capacity, of course) on some of the projects that they are currently undertaking.

The entire job search experience was very humbling and I'm very grateful for all the help I received. Again Thank you.

Image by d0ntblink

Technorati Tags: Thank you,Job search,DCI,DC,Career

Obama's first weekly address (on YouTube)

2008-11-16T00:41:00.000-05:00

During the campaign, Obama relied on technology to supplement his traditional media outreach. He used the web to make the case directly to voters why is he was the best choice for President. Whether you agree with his policies, the approach was a successful one. As president, I had hoped that he would continue this approach while governing. However after the election, some of the outreach efforts slowed down. As some bloggers have pointed out, there had not been any action on his twitter page in 10 days. When I saw his first weekly address yesterday, I was delighted. I'm glad to see that he will continue his approach of talking to directly to the people.

Technorati Tags: Obama,YouTube,Web 2.0

I am asking you to vote because I can't

2008-11-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

I can't vote today (for many reasons I've cited here before) but I'm asking you to.

As it was written in the Economist several days ago, "it is impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be" nor can we predict how good of a president any politician will be. In fact history has shown us that some of our finest presidents were mere novices in the political arena, or so we thought, while some of our worst presidents were seasoned professionals. So In effect, no matter who we vote for today, we are all taking a gamble.

Recognizing that there is not much we can do about that aspect of elections, I urge you not to think of this election, or any other election, in that prism. Instead, I propose that we think of this election, and all elections, as a responsibility and an opportunity.

It is our responsibility to hold elected officials accountable, to hold the torch that was passed onto us by previous generations dating back to our fore-fathers, to tell the world that democracy is alive and well and is indeed the best form of government.

This election is also an opportunity. For some, it is the opportunity to correct the mistake from 4 or 8 year ago. For others, it is the opportunity to re-affirm their beliefs from the same period. For many, it is the opportunity to participate in the democratic process for the first time. But for all, it is an opportunity to be heard; an opportunity to take this country in a different direction; an opportunity to make history regardless of ideology or background.

So today, I am asking you to vote.

I am asking you to vote for me and many others like me who won't have the opportunity to be heard.

I am asking you to vote for our men and women in the armed forces serving abroad that won't be able to vote because of archaic absentee ballot laws.

I am asking you to vote so that we can put people in office with the moral courage to deal with challenges facing our nation today at the national and local level.

I am asking you to vote so our generation may be heard.

Most of all I am asking you to vote because your vote, your voice, matters.

Some will dismiss my call to action as a gimmick to get people to vote for Senator Obama. It is true that I support Senator Obama. I do so for many reasons that others have penned more eloquently than I ever will. And it is indeed my fervent hope that you do cast your ballot for the junior senator from Illinois. However, this is not to say that Senator McCain will not make a good president. In fact, I believe that he will be an adequate president or even a fine president. Very few of us have served this country like he has over the decades. Though I question his vice-presidential pick, I believe that he will take that same dedication and love for our country to the white house. I did not write this to endorse any candidate running on any level, but simply to ask you to vote.

So I will ask again, please go vote.

The late Robert Francis Kennedy reminded us that "few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." Today, your small portion is to go vote.

[picture by joecrimmings]

Technorati Tags: Obama,McCain,Election 2008,GOTV,President

Obama on Technology

2008-11-03T07:44:00.000-05:00

Technorati Tags: Obama,Election 2008,Technology Blueprint

GhettodevTV Episode 3 - Good News/Bad News

2008-10-23T09:43:00.001-04:00

In this video (taped yesterday) I share some good news and some bad news. Bad News - I got laid off yesterday, Good News - I'm closer to becoming a U.S. Citizen.

As I said in the video, I'm looking for a job so if you know of anyone hiring please pass along my resume. Thank you. As always, comments/suggestions about the video are welcome.

Technorati Tags: Makembe.com/TV,Career,USCIS,US Citizenship,Terps

You are my 5 friends and I'm asking you (NOT) to register to vote

2008-10-02T18:12:00.001-04:00

Neat video. Glad to see the expansion from the usual politically active entertainers.

My take on it is - If I can't vote (b/c I'm a permanent resident), why should you?

On the serious. Don't forget to register to vote. Use Google maps to figure our you voting place (it will include links where you register to vote in your locality. If you're going to be out of town, use GovoteAbsentee.org.

Tags: Election 2008, Obama, McCain, Google, Vote08

Money in Politics Grant Summit Wrap-up

2008-09-28T23:51:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I had the distinct honor of participating the "Money in Politics" Grant Summit hosted by Mobilize.org in partnership with the Sunlight Foundation, and Common Cause. According to their website, Mobilize.org:

Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation. We work to show young people how public policy impacts our lives, and more importantly – how we can impact public policy.

The orgnization put its name on the map by taking over the 2100 Fund, an organization that raised funds for organzations promoting youth activism, and writing the Democracy 2.0 Declaration (watch it).

Admitidly, prior to the summit, I had heard of Mobilize.org but I was not very familiar w/ its work. I had planned to submit a proposal for the summit but missed the deadline because of the Silverman campaign and the presidential forum. As luck would have it, at the forum, I got the priviledge and opportunity to meet mobilize's CEO, Maya Enista, and work with her in a breakout session. During that time, I told her about my interest in the forum and she invited me to attend.

A crucial piece of the summit was the ability for those attending to present ideas and plans that solve the issue of money in politics. From the mobilize.org website:

Competitors in the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit must advance a new solution or approach to the money in politics problem - that will change the pattern in the field of civic engagement. Winners will each receive a grant, between $3,000 and $5,000 and will receive the support of Mobilize.org and its partner network to champion their proposal, creating systemic and sustainable change in the way elections are administered.Competitors in the Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit must advance a new solution or approach to the money in politics problem - that will change the pattern in the field of civic engagement. Winners will each receive a grant, between $3,000 and $5,000 and will receive the support of Mobilize.org and its partner network to champion their proposal, creating systemic and sustainable change in the way elections are administered.

On the first day, keynote speaker, former Representative John Buchanan, gave an inspiring address encouraging and challenging my generation, the Millenials, to become the greatest American generation. He pointed out that money has become an element in our democracy. Technology, along with other tools, makes it easier to promote transparency and hold elected officials more accountable.

The morning on the second day, Nancy Watzman, of the Sunlight Foundation, and Political Party Time, a blog dedicacated to tracking parties thrown at both party conventions as well as fundraising activities of lawmakers, spoke about her exprience trying to bring transparancy to government since the 1990s and all the Sunlight Foundation's projects and resources. Nancy's address was followed by a panel that included Josh Zaharoff of Common Cause and Matt Stempeck of Americans for Campaign Reform. In the afternoon, Sam Rasoul, candidate for U.S. Congress in VA-6, stopped by to talk to us about his campaigns, his goals, the change would try to enact in congress and what he has been able to accomplish so far in VA. Between the two speakers, competitors had a chance to meet with panels of experts who gave them feedback about their proposals.

On the last day, David Mark, Senior Editor at Politico and author of Going Dirty, shared his thoughts about the current Presidential campaign as well as some notes about his book. Competitors also got a chance to present their proposals in front of the entire conference. Four winners were later announced. The first prize went to Sam Oliker-Friedland of GoVoteAbsentee.org. I whole heartily agree with the decision, as his proposal was the most developed and most likely to be sustained over the course of time. Basically, his website takes any voter of any district in the US throught the process of getting an absentee ballot. Check it out (Facebook Page) if you get a chance, and please spread the word.

The summit was a great fun and learning experience. It was a eye-opener in the fact that it made me realize how many Millenials are invovled in the political process and are seeking to improve the process and make it more accessible to everyone. I feel as though we sometimes get a bad rap for being overconnected and lazy and the summit gives us as a gneration the chacne to fight that stereotype and put our best effort into improving our democracy.

Tags: Democracy 2.0, Mobilize.org, Money in Politics Grant Summit, Sunlight Foundation, Common Cause, Just6dollars.org

Mid-Week Reads...

2008-09-24T08:11:00.001-04:00

Some interesting blogs post that I think everyone should read.

Mashable's posts about T-Mobile Google phone - Google’s G1 Isn’t Pretty, But Is Impressively Disruptive and Now I’ve Finally Seen It, I Still Dig the ‘gPhone’. I'm pretty sure I'm getting this phone when it comes out. Please share any reviews with me.

What color is your nonprofit's blog ? - In this blog post, Beth Kanter takes Nina Simon's categorization of different type of museums blogs and applies it to Non-profit blogs as well as provide some strategy tips. Very interesting reading for those blogging for your job/company.

Why Doesn't Anyone Comment on Your Blog? - In this article of ASAE, Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer suggest some ways to get ways associations can get more comments on their blogs. I think the advice can also be true to individual blogger. Simple suggestions but they work.

What is a non-profit blog? - In this post, Britt Bravo - officially one of my new favorite bloggers - shares a list of blogs authored by non-profits/NGO orgs. Some are worth adding to your reading list.

Mass Instant Message That Link With The Tell-A-Friend Widget - TechCrunch shares what will possibly become the most annoying widget to date. I might add it to my blog tho. Thoughts?

If you like these, you can find more on my Google Reader shared page. I'm also going over my feeds and removing the blogs that I don't read anymore. If you're reading some good blogs and think I might find them interesting, please share them. I'm pretty much interested in everything -- from politics to fashion.

DC Primary Wrap-up & My YouTube debut

2008-09-17T08:37:00.001-04:00

After a little hiatus for the ServiceNation Summit, I'm back at it. More on the summit later, including pictures. While I was in NYC, the post-election drama continued. I will try to provide with a time line from the articles that have been written in the Post and the City Paper. First, the Board of Election & Ethics (BOEE) went on a communication blackout. This was actually not a bad idea, since their attempt to provide an explanation on election night was pathetic. No offense to Dan Murphy, BOEE spokesperson. When the BOEE came out of its self-imposed blackout, it provided some clarifications on the election night debacle but mostly blamed the irregularities on the equipment. However, California-based Sequoia Voting systems asserted that "there is absolutely no problem with the machines in polling places." Instead, the company brought up possibility of human error. Despite the assertion by Sequoia, BOEE stood by the results on primary night. As it now become the tradition in DC after a scandal, Mayor Fenty fired someone and launched an investigation but not before the Ward 2 ANC passed a resolution calling for an investigation. Maybe something will come out of this one. In the middle of all the all this, Cary conceded. He thanked his supporters and staff. He also called on BOEE "take all steps necessary to restore trust in the election results." Cary concession essential ended the post-election drama. However as the post put it,

SO ELEMENTAL to government is the conduct of elections that there can be no excuse for failure. It's important, then, that D.C. officials not minimize the problems with Tuesday's primary. The chaos surrounding the results suggests that there may be bigger issues that need fixing and that, if left unresolved, could undermine voter confidence.

The only good thing that came out of this drama is my debut on YouTube thanks to LooseLips Columnist Mike DeBonis.

Technorati Tags: DC primary,Ward 2,Silverman,Evans,DCBOEE

ServiceNation Summit Streaming online and on Twitter

2008-09-11T19:31:00.001-04:00

Follow tonight's ServiceNation Forum online and on twitter.

On television we expect the Forum to be broadcast live, starting at 8 pm EDT, on CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, C-Span, and selected PBS stations around the country (check your local PBS listings).

In addition, MTV will also stream the Forum live. To watch the MTV stream go to http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/live. Below the MTV stream, you can subscribe to the ServiceNation Kyte player for organic content captured by our mobile producers on the floor! They will be recording behind-the-scenes, exclusive footage throughout the two-day summit. You can also watch the stream on MTV's website at http://think.mtv.com/groups/servicenation.

Enjoy the broadcast, and stay tuned for further details on how you can watch Day 2 of the Summit. We will be sending another e-mail, and details will be posted on www.servicenation.org. You can review the full program here: http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/summit/schedule.

ServiceNation is also the talk of the town on twitter.

More at http://twemes.com/sn08

Election night drama

2008-09-10T10:09:00.001-04:00

Last night, I was nominated to go to DC board of the election to await for the result of the primary. I thought it would a be a cool experience so I accepted. Another volunteer and I headed down there for what we thought was going 30 minutes then off to the victory party. Little did we that the DC Board Of Election & Ethics (BOEE) complete incompetence would keep us there till the wee hours of the morning. To make the long story short; when first set of result came in, everything looked fine. Evans was up 66% to 33% and .54% write-in with 14% of the precincts reporting. When the second set the report came in, something didn't add up. Evans was up 48% to 34% and 17% write-in with 94% of precincts reporting. The second set of numbers estimated that 9000 people in our Ward, more than doubling the numbers from 2004 ( a mayoral election). Having walked around throughout the day, I knew there was a low voter turns out. Additionally, we were not aware of any write-in campaigns going on in our race, so 17% write-in made absolutely no sense. My suspicions were confirmed by Evans' Campaign manager. We went upstairs along with Mara's campaign manager and Schwartz's campaign manager (They were having the same problem). Meanwhile, The AP called the raced, then the post based on the AP the numbers. And from there things went downhill from there. Lawyers came, WaPo came, CityPaper came, Washington Times was called, I think the AP had take back calling the race and people at the BOEE just looked really really really really really bad. The lawyers present requested precinct by precinct report. The BOEE put out three sets of numbers after that but the damage had been done. Everyone was dissecting the numbers and the whole thing was just a mess.

Needless to say, this was an eye opening experience for me. I'm deeply troubled by the city's inability to handle such a small election. By all accounts, the primary in February had a much larger turn and the city failed to properly handle that election as well. As of this moment, I'm shocked, angered, and disappointed. If I had any power, no one at the board of election would have a job this morning (except maybe nice security guards from last night). I really hope Mayor Fenty and the rest of the council take a good look at this. It's ridiculous that the capital of the free world can not manage to run an election smoothly.

As of the writing of this post, we have not yet conceded. we are waiting for the precinct by precinct report and results from the absentee ballots (if they can count them correctly.) I'm headed to NYC for the ServiceNation Summit with Senators Obama and McCain, more on what I learn in this campaign when I get back from NYC.

DC PRIMARY RESULTS NIGHT COVERAGE

CityPaper - Live from the Clusterfuck

BOEE "Official" results

Washington Post

DC Wire

DCist

p.s. I did not cut my hair for the next POTUS... whoever he is.

Technorati Tags: Cary Silverman,Jack Evans,Patrick Mara,DC primary,DC Board of Election & Ethics,DC BOEE

DC Examiner endorses Cary Silverman

2008-09-09T07:44:00.001-04:00

Today, the DC Examiner endorsed Cary saying:

Cary Silverman promises open, competitive bidding for all city projects and a fully Freedom of Information Act-able financial reporting system. And more accountability and transparency is exactly what this city needs.

Read the entire article here . I wish they did this last week so we would have been able to take advantage of it a bit more. But hey an endorsement is an endorsement. That marks our first endorsement by a local paper.

Now for all your Ward 2 (which includes Shaw, Dupont, Logan, Mt Vernon Sq, Gtown, Foggy Bottom, West End, Downtown, Chinatown) Residents go out and Vote!

Technorati Tags: DC Examiner,Cary Silverman,DC Primary

What impact will the next POTUS have on public service?

2008-09-08T19:28:00.000-04:00

With all the (local)election stuff going on, I forgot to mention that BTC (along with our coalition partners) will be hosting the first presidential forum since both nominees formally accepted the nomination of their respective parties. From an e-mail we sent out today to our list:

It’s a HUGE week here in ServiceNation. This Thursday evening, Sept. 11, our Sept. 11-12 ServiceNation Summit in New York City will open with a Presidential Candidates Forum featuring presidential nominees Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. They will share their views on service and civic engagement in post-9/11, starting at 8 pm EDT. CNN and MSNBC have indicated that they will carry the forum live (we are hoping Fox will too), so invite your friends and family over for a night of inspiring television.

The next day, the 12th, the ServiceNation summit continues with a gathering of 600 leaders from every sector of American society. The summit will release a bold policy proposal, and a Declaration of Service, which you can sign to declare your support for the idea that service to community and country can help unite America and solve problems. We hope to gather 1 million signatures (up, that’s 1 million!) on this Declaration, to show our leaders that America is ready for a new era of service.

I'm very excited for this event. I'm looking forward to hearing what both Sen. McCain and Obama have to say. It should be fun, interesting and tiring. I'm heading up to NYC on Wed morning for the forum (all my NYC people, holla me). I will be part of the content production team but I'm not exactly sure how much freedom I will have to roam around. Regardless, I will be blogging (here and ChangeWire), tweeting (BTC Tweet feed), taking pictures and possibly streaming (working out the details on that). The full schedule of the event is at http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/summit/schedule (Sorry for the formatting).

P.S. The biggest dilemma if my life right now is whether or not I should cut my hair just in case I get to meet the next POTUS. Feel free to weight in.