to bask in the glory of like mindedness is one thing... to bask in the glory of an unconference is similar to making a space voyage. you never know what's going to be on the other side, but without a doubt, the relationships you build are life altering. for the past two years, the Drupal / Civicspace community have gathered around the Personal Democracy Forum to build these relationships.

after two years of bragging and ragging on the closed structure of PdF, last fall the editors of PdF agreed to do an unconference! on Saturday, May 19 at Pace, participants of PdF will gather to talk about how politics and technology are changing each other. as we are smack dab in the middle of a presidential campaign, i can promise you some very interesting conversations.

PdF unConference
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Pace University, Student Union, New York, NY
Start Time: 10:00 AM

pdf conference page
pdf unconference wiki

i'm sure some of you may wonder why this is not a *camp (barcamp or drupalcamp)... why didn't we call it PDFcamp. for one thing we are charging a nominal fee $35, which includes morning mimosas and rental of pace. there is a long standing community rule, that *camps are free or next to free.

second, i'm sure you're wondering why we didn't find sponsors to cover the additional cost. to be honest, we tried... or shall i say, i push for that to be the case. in the end, the editors of PdF felt that having people pay a little bit provides a control variable that entices people to attend. throughout all of my attempts, i've only seen an attrition rate of 1/3.

in this exploration of the unknown, i'm ecstatic to see what cross party relationships are forged.

also, after spending the past two years of advocating a non-profit / campaign staffer rate. Google and PdF are sponsoring free registration! Deadline is May 7th, but don't delay these are COVETED SPOTS!!!

Technorati Tags: barcamp, drupal, open government, personal democracy forum

today's round of super hardcore techyness...

if you instant message frequently and use quicksilver, you're going to love coda hale...

also, if you tweet, check out coda hale's twitter script. while it's smaller and doesn't keep the username and password in the script, it also doesn't offer growl support as Graham English's iQuickTwitter .

Technorati Tags: quicksilver, twitter

ode to twitter happyness!!!

iQuickTwitter - My Quicksilver + Twitter + iChat + Growl Hack

Technorati Tags: twitter

avid scifi nuts and tech geeks like me have been flipping out on Bruce Sterling's meme a "Spime" (video). it's just donned on me that twitter has a few paralles. mind you spimes are physical items, but twitter as a software, really isn't it self complete until you've added your cell phone!

Seven qualities that distinguish spimes (and how twitter might fit):
1 - they are conceived and designed within a network, (on the net)
2 - they are given a unique (digital) identity distinct from the others, (twitter id)
3 - they are physically fabricated as opposed to manufactured in a factory. They are not made until they are sold, (still not there)
4 - they can be tracked through technologies of geo-localization, (have you seen twittervision)
5 - they can be searched out through network search engines, (have you seen twittersearch)
6 - they are designed for disassembling. (open api)
7 - they leave an historical trace behind them, a valuable pool of metadata. (twitter wiki)

so it's not the perfect analogy, but i might refine it...

Technorati Tags: bruce sterling, spime, twitter, twittervision

THIS IS HUGE... After spending a week discussing with the global south about the digital divide, I find my self back in NYC, amazed at Council Member Brewer's staff bridging our own digital divide. To reach out to its constituents more effectively, The Council Member's office is not using a multi-million dollar communications platform developed by a government contractor, but by a simple blogspot blog. Tomorrow is the first meeting of the New York City Broadband Advisory Committee, a committee to hear the problems ALL New Yorkers face bridging the digital divide.

New York City Broadband Advisory Committee will hold its first public hearing on Friday, March 30, from 10 am to Noon, in the Gould Memorial Library Auditorium, Bronx Community College, University Avenue at W. 181st Street. (Directions).

Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. and Bronx Community College President Carolyn Williams will all make opening remarks. The Committee will then hear testimony from members of the general public, including concerned citizens and senior citizens from Bronx senior centers. After the official testimony period, anyone from the audience is invited -- and encouraged -- to speak.

If you cannot make it to the hearing on March 30, we still want to hear from you! You can comment about the issue of broadband in New York City by going to the Advisory Committee's blog (http://nycbroadband.blogspot.com/). Comments will then be posted on the Committee's blog for public consumption. Or you can mail any questions or comments to Colleen Pagter, Policy Analyst for the Committee on Technology in Government, New York City Council, 250 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10007.

As a former NY State Senate Staffer to Senate Minority Leader Paterson, now Lt. Governor, I feel the pain of the most populous city in America. Even though New York is the third populous state in America and New York City is larger than Los Angeles and Chicago combined, our municipal and state governments still don't have the tools to communicate WITH it's constituents. If you can't make it to the Bronx, post a comment and by all means pay attention to the Albany Project.

Note - This article is cross posted on Personal Democracy Forum, who's founder, Andrew Rasiej is a member of this Advisory Committee.

Technorati Tags: Council Member Brewer, freedom of speach, freelancers union, future of cities, new york city, online advocacy, open government, transparency, web 2.0

it's been a while since i've seen a steady paycheck. as of this morning I will start to see one again. after the new york state senate and trellon debacle, i really didn't want to find myself in a world dependent on other people's whims. now after 140 days from my last employer, countless conferences and after digesting a gazzilion journals and books, i have found my calling.

this week, i embark on a research project with NewAssignment.net investigating open-source journalism. this project will take the tools built for assignment zero and migrate them to a multi-story/social networking system. picture NYtimes.com or any other online publication giving ANY reader the ability to comment on EVERY article and asking them to dawn a series of tasks to enhance articles. i originally pitched this idea to a few print publications, but they didn't bite. then after some pro-bono advice to David Cohn and a recommendation from Fred Benenson, Jay Rosen gave me a call.

honestly, i'm overwhelmed by the opportunity to change our perception of participatory culture. after last week's salzburg seminar, the world of web 2.0 died. no longer should we view participatory culture through the eyes of one's web browser. if you think i'm crazy just look at twitter and google's mobile apps... our new world is about convergence - convergence in the mind, convergence in data, convergence in action, convergence in governance and in policy. as these four principles converge on each other, i promise you a resuscitation of a true democracy. bringing profound change into the hands of everyone.

Technorati Tags: assignment zero, economy 2.0, freedom, newassignment.net, open government, salzburg seminar, twitter, web 2.0