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

this post has multiple titles... ;)
What a week for NYC Coworking; Coworking at the Tank NYC; it's time to build cafeBricolage; Future of Coworking Manhattan...

Back in December, at the end of year Tech Meetup, I innocently jumped onto the microphone and predicticed there would be, unlike the cube farms today, there will be more organic office environments. The man who got on the mic after me said that the city will have more sunshine studios... little did i know that his firm invested heavily in sunshine... in the end, the only thing i care about is building interpersonal relationships that foster the growth of self and community. if sunshine can do it great, but the real importance is on organic, self-sustaining structure.

the past few weeks have been quite interesting for the coworking community in NYC. on 23 jan, charlie introduces a long conversation to the NextNY community about the future of NYC's startup community. Then on 2 Feb, fellow buckeye, Nate Westheimer, posts his's interpretation of Coworking and calls it cafeBricolage. I blog saying the Tank NYC wants to do this; Nate and I talk about our communal interest and agree to wait until after 28 Feb's Next NY event.

then on Monday, Business Week posts an article; it hit Boing-Boing on Tuesday, and on Wed nextNY hosts Big Apple 2.0 – New York’s Present and Future as a Startup Hub. thursday night ABC News runs an evening news segment talking about alternative working spaces featuring my buddies at 116 west houston. finally on friday, 1 March marks the six month anniversary of Brooklyn Coworking and the one year anniversary of Jelly NYC; Nate announces it's time to pull the trigger on cafeBricolage and solicit support; at the same time, David Chen posts to the NextNY list with his desire for NextNYCoworking.

There are several reasons why this timeline is important...

• One, i'm excited to see the history!
• Two, i think we have reached a critical mass of ideas and support.
• Three, there is enough room for everyone.

In my eyes, Wed's nextNY meeting was cathartic and progressive. The drinking session / post-meeting conversations was more progressive than any other tech meeting i've seen since moving to the city... one group to my right wanted to set up a quarterly review to compete with tech-crunch, and a bunch to my left started debating the exact location of a future cafe shop. when everyone left, i knew what should happen... EVERYTHING!

for the past two days, conversations on and off the nextNY list have floated a multitude of ideas. if the nextNY community is truly representative of "the next generation of digital movers and shakers," this is going to be one heck of a year for NYC... heck, even have my fellow DrupalCamp buddies are itching for another Barcamp... everyone now see the importance of building a social technology community...

...but this community doesn't need "leaders," it needs stewards who will facilitate conversation, creation, and community.

why am i making this so damn long???

at the beginning of feb, when nate published his cafeBricologe manifesto, i was relived and scared - relieved to know that someone else was thinking the same thing; scared to think that after working on idea of "coworking" that someone would attempt to brand it something else... alas, i am way over that now, but i am not over the notion that these are two separate ideas... they are one in the same... born from the fruit of inspiration for the productive soul.

according to tara hunt, paris is about to open up an OpenSpace cafe. this space, partly funded by the city and private enterprise, comes after much sweat and tears from the progressive technology community in Paris. from eailer document seems to be exactly what cafeBricolage is attempting to create. sadly from my own research into locations, people don't understand, let alone want you to have a space..

after having agents question our frequency of elevator use, (shish, this is nyc... elevators were made to go up and down...) i threw up my hands, not in discuss, but in discovery... after the 2006 election i had one of many ahha moments, i came to the understanding that we aren't talking about the meat and potatoes, which has led me to launch my global research project - on the luck of seven. i am now overwhelmed and have less time to make the outreach that i once had done. coworking and it's derivatives must happen, they are the counterculture to the walled gardens everyone calls cubicles!

where does the future nyc coworking community stand???

the most reasonable location that combines the elements of a cafe, manhattan accessibility and reasonable availability - you shouldn't look any further than the tank. the tank nyc is home to nyc's hope, and the world's up and coming performing and visual arts. formed shortly after the 2004 presidential campaign, the tank bounced from location to location. finally, firmly rooted it self in the basement of collective unconscious.

after several of my posts to the nyc dorkbot and a few political email lists, Mike Rosenthal, the Tank's Managing Director, called me and we have since entertained/discussed/planned on utilizing the Tank's daytime hours for a productivity space. outfitted with a mini-cafe, sound system, projector, stage, tables, couches, and with ready access to the subway - the tank is a perfect fit for productivity...

the original idea would have limited the use only to paying members, but that quickly evolved into if the concept if "coworkers" could find 100 people to donate a $1 dollar a day to the Tank, the space would pay for itself... if you cared to break it out even further and with a reasonably large pool of people could be cut even further...

members of this Coworking @ the Tank would have three extended benefits from normal tank membership:

1. daytime use of the the space.
2. the ability to host one happy hour a month.
3. the ability to host one evening of programming pending the tank's calendar.

pictures of the tank do not accurately represent the current layout, but if you've noticed they are hosting quite a few salons. (see saturday's event) mike and i have had two "come to jesus" meetings, but with mike becoming the managing director and my recent propensity to lift off for European conferences our momentum has stalled a bit...

if you are looking for an immediate cafe like atmosphere/solution, i am more than willing to assist in building a solid relationship with the tank. before i leave for SXSW and then Europe, a tuesday or wed happy hour would be great!

what's needed? for this to move forward there needs to be five stewards who are willing to shape coworking at the tank or any other similar location... also understand that this group would have practical knowledge in building and setting up an infrastructure ready to prep for a future laid out in Nate's call to arms cafeBricolage post...

consider this a study group to build the future...

this article has been post on the nextNY email list, click here to see comments...

Technorati Tags: barcamp, boing boing, brooklyn, brooklyn coworking, coworking, digital ecology, drupalcamp, economy 2.0, future of cities, jelly nyc, new york city, nextNY, not an alternative, social entrepreneurship, sustaninability, the tank nyc

On Monday, Participatory Politics Foundation and Sunlight Foundation, opened a new spotlight on Congress - www.opencongress.org. When thinking of a member of congress, one no longer has to imagine integrating committee memberships, bills sponsored and co-sponosered, voting history, who they tend to vote with, which blogs and news articles are floating around, over laid with campaign donations. You can now just visit any US Senator or US Representative.

Beyond the integration of Google News, Congresspedia, Technorati, Open Secrets, and Govtrack.us, what's the most glistening part of Open Congress? Is it the plethora of ways for you to access the data, or is it that they are building a network of users to make the next revision better?

Nonetheless, Opencongress.org just installed a new sunroof on the big dome.

Note: PDF Founder, Andrew Rasiej and PDF Co-founder & Editor, Micah L. Sifry are technology advisors to the Sunlight Foundation.

This article is cross posted on the Personal Democracy Forum Blog.

Technorati Tags: Congresspedia, open government, personal demoracy forum, Participatory Politics Foundation, Opencongress.org, Sunlight Foundation, technology, transparency, web 2.0