Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Category: Cluetrain (Page 9 of 10)

Where will Radio Open Source go?

June 27, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Until this morning, I don’t think I realized how much time I put into contributing to the conversation at ROS. Not as much as many, but it took a good chunk of my spare seconds on the internet.

Now that ROS is on hiatus (that doesn’t sound good and damn you unnamed brand-name media company), I’m wondering what the ultimate fate of the show will be. It doesn’t sound very experimental, but a radio show with a blog (or a blog with a radio show) but actively trolling the internet and the listeners of the show has been refreshing.

I wouldn’t listen to the show nearly everyday if it wasn’t for that. I feel involved in the show, like what I say matters, so I listen. That was the secret that Joe Trippi was writing about at the end of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” that a project that actually listens to the people its focusing on (I wouldn’t say audience here) will succeed.

What I’m hoping is that ROS survives as a public radio show and a blog and podcast. I’m also hoping that other radio products take on the ROS way. Not just putting up a blog and lamely tending it, but stoking the fire of conversation there and on-air.

If there’s enough room in the world for The Sound of Young America and Jesse Thorn, there is enough room of Radio Open Source.

Spokompton on blogging

June 11, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Spokompton (a nice new blog) says:

I noticed in a comment I received yesterday that I am being accused of spreading hearsay. I did not spread the rumor that Mary Verner would not file. I merely noted in the aftermath that it had been a rumor. Regardless of that, if I were to choose to post rumors it the prerogative of this blogger to do so.

In a conversation I recently had with Jim Camden regarding content he spoke of old style journalistic practices of verifying sources and ensuring that the information he is writing about is true and accurate. Bloggers however are not professional journalists we write as a hobby, we write what we enjoy and we write what we hear. If I didn’t enjoy what I’m writing I wouldn’t be writing this at all.

I always find it funny when folks try to get blogging to equal shoddy journalism. That can’t be true in most cases, because often times, blogging isn’t trying to be journalism as much as shooting bull over the phone is All Things Considered. Yes, there are some journalists that are also great bloggers. And, yes blogging should be taken seriously (sometimes, not all the time). I would like to be taken seriously, but I realize that I’m not.

Anyway, my point is that people take blogging too seriously at the same time they take it not seriously enough. They take it too seriously as a supposed purveyor of truth, but not seriously enough as a reflection of emotion.

Sunday night meta-rant…. over.

Mark Gardner: new blogger

May 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Noemie writes a measured, yet extremely long, post about here concerns with Darcy Burner. I’ve been much less measured with my concerns over Dwight Pelz.

Mark Gardner sees civil war. But, you know what Mark, this is what blogging is, in a way. Its about writing the things that at one point you kept private and shared only with close associates.

Its not just pining for Dixie Lee Ray (and, yes, here) and screwing up the English language. So, sorry, no civil war here.

And, dude, you know what? Those tags you use under your post should at least attempt to be accurate: 2008 Presidential doesn’t relate to a congressional campaign, sorry.

England and open source, social media, etc…

March 10, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I’ve always been impressed with the way that England seems to be way ahead of the curve in terms of applying the power of the web to the way government deliberates. Blogging of course has had a big impact on politics here, but more on the side of campaigning, not governing. There is a huge difference.

Look at the local e-democracy national project, how Britons can petition their prime minister, and now a speech by a conservative politician on Open Source Politics. I love his three pillars:

The first of these pillars is about equality – equality of information – or what Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive of Google, called “the democratisation of access to information” when he spoke to our Party Conference.

…

The second pillar of a new political settlement will be founded on new social networks.

…

The final pillar of this new political settlement is open source.

Last week I went to hear my friend Professor Jeff Sachs deliver the first Reith Lecture. He talked about open source politics.

Open source politics means rejecting the old monolithic top-down approach to decision-making.

It means throwing open the doors and listening to new ideas and new contributors.

It means harnessing the power of mass collaboration.

Small victory of the day, flash embed of TVW content

March 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

This is the first example I’ve seen of a mainstream outlet (media in the regular business of being media) using TVW content in a shareable format. Anyone can go up to the page and pick up the sound clip and put it on their own page, blog, website or what-have-you.

The SR blogger could make it easier by providing source code to do it, but anyone with any know how can just figure it out. See, I did it here:

If you want to find out how, give this a read.

Democratic Victory Circle: Exclusive Crap

February 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

This will guarantee that I don’t get another “exclusive” email from Dwight Pelz, but what the heck.

The Democratic Victory Circle is a boneheaded idea. The last thing you should try to do, especially when you’re leading a political party, is ever try to be “exclusive” with your communication. Instead of taking a page from Colorado vice-chair Dan Slater who blogs out in the open, Washington State Democratic Chairman Pelz is sending emails seeking donations in exchange for “insider” gossip.

Here’s his “exclusive notes” on his trip to the DNC (published here). Here is the pitch for you to donate $1,000 a year so you can keep on getting these “exclusive” emails.

From the pitch:

Special Benefits Include:

  • Participation in quarterly Democratic Victory Circle events with recognized speakers and/or elected officials (i.e. nationally recognized pollsters)
  • Regular updates from Chairman Dwight Pelz on state and national political developments, projects, and events
  • Recognition at Washington State Democratic Party events
  • Special reduced rate to attend Washington State Democratic Party events
  • Photo opportunities with State and Federal elected officials
  • Special recognition in Washington State Democratic Party publications and website

This kind of “insider” stuff is one of the reasons I don’t like politics.

I understand the attraction of the recognition stuff and the reduced rates, photo opportunities and other stuff that don’t particularly attract me. I don’t participate in politics so people will like me, but rather to make the world a better place (I know how stupid that sounds). Writing special emails to a special group of folks who have paid for the privilege is a quick way to making politics unbearable.

The sad thing is that his notes would actually make a nice blog post, but for some reason, instead of actually sharing what he thinks Pelz wants folks to pay for it. The really sad thing is that I don’t think he expected anyone to copy and paste what he wrote.

The blog difference between Richardson and Edwards (its local)

January 27, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Ken and I are fighting the good fight (seemingly about over now) over at Scoble’s blog about why our guy is just as good, or even better, than John Edwards regarding the blogs.

I’ve made the point that not only are Richardson’s supporters the only group using an independent tool to organize themselves in the real world, but that Richardson has met with bloggers in Iowa, South Carolina and Washington.

The main difference between Edwards (especially his blog powered tour a few weeks ago) and Richardson is that one has focussed on the national blogosphere, while the other has focussed on smaller, regional blog networks. Edwards is the national guy, Richardson has focussed his attention on the regional blogosphere.

This may seem like a difference in time and money, that Richardson can only attract small fish, but the three instances above were when he was acting as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, when focusing locally was important. It also shows a different understanding of why blogs and the netroots are important.

Matt Stoller on the local blogosphere (and here):

You’ll notice that on the netroots page almost every candidate has a local blog or set of blogs that are covering the race. That’s because it’s the local bloggers that are going to keep tabs on the races and the campaigns, and create the buzz and the excitement necessary to win. Local blogs and netroots communities don’t just channel money, they channel volunteers, energy, intelligence, and news coverage. And sometimes, lightning strikes. A really effective local blog can shape a race the way the Ohio 2nd blog shaped the Hackett special election.

At least in how Richardson has approached the netroots, he seems to understand that local matters. It doesn’t matter really what national bloggers pay attention to you, it matters what the bloggers are getting locally.

Richardson’s “for governor” site last year also kind of proves this point. “The Plaza,” (which you can’t see anymore, was a scoop based community site. Open diaries, the whole schmere. I’m pretty sure it was the first open community blog in New Mexico.

His upbringing as a politician, which has included thousands of local town hall meetings and regular “open door” sessions, extends this point. I’ve said that Richardson was a blogger before AOL was around. By that, I mean, he has had the kind of open, up front, conversations that bloggers want, without actually blogging himself.

Edwards not all that netrooty compared to Richardson

January 21, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Over at Scoble’s blog, he gives too much credit to the netroots outreach of John Edwards:

One thing I just saw over at TechMeme is that USA Presidential campaigns now are conversations?

Really? So far only one Democratic candidate has met with bloggers who aren’t avowed supporters of his (and has had live chats on DailyKos), that I can see. Only one candidate has invited a blogger behind the press lines.

Yes, its a great thing that Edwards is doing, but he’s not the only one doing it. He’s the only one that is going way out of his way to take credit for it.

Bill Richardson has had two sit downs with bloggers, that I know about. Both happened well before Edwards’ well publicized tripping with bloggers and both were with groups that didn’t necessarily support him.

The first, I’d admit, was put together by a couple of pro Richardson guys (me and Ken Camp), but it was attended by now seriously pro-Edwards Will.

This wasn’t a high powered group of folks, but rather some regular folks that Richardson wanted to reach out to because he recognizes something in the netroots that I think he likes. Twice during the meeting his handlers tried to move him on to the next meeting, and twice he brushed them off so everyone could have a chance to get their answers.

You can find the audio of that meeting here. Also attending were Jimmy and Goldy, among several others.

He also met with some bloggers in South Carolina.

Also, if you check out the blog from Richardson’s 2006 race, you’ll notice its a community blog.

Anti-social social network: Democratic Party Builder

December 28, 2006 / / 0 Comments


The fatal flaw of the Democratic Party’s Party Builder social networking platform is that you can prevent people from finding you. On a list of people registered at Party Builder close to zip code 98501 only three people show up inside Thurston County.

On the Thurston County Democrats group that I manage, there are five members. Two don’t have names (just “Democrat in Olympia WA”) because they aren’t friends of mine and they have decided to let other people know who they are.

When you sign up for Party Builder you are given the option to remain unknown to anyone else on the system, aside from your friends. This will end up killing Party Builder.

If you can remained unsearchable, unbrowsable, uninvitable, and unseen in a social network, you simply don’t exist. And, if a lot of people choose not to be seen within a network, no actual social networking is going to happen. No one is going to message anyone else, no one is going to read anyone’s blog, no one is going to be invited to any groups or become friends who wouldn’t already be friends because of an offline relationship.

And, by the way, if you join a social network and just want to be left alone, then I have no idea what to tell you.

Irony of that last post

December 14, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Here is something funny to mull over while you chew on that post below.

The Washington State Democrats (the elected chair and I assume the staff he hired) don’t like the suggestion for a blog or any other cluetrain type stuff.

Wes Beal would be the lead staff on any techie stuff like that, as technical director of the state party.

Here is Wes Beal’s blog. He raises money through ActBlue, something the state party doesn’t do on their own site.

Here is his post about getting the job with the party. Strangely the posts sort of peter out after that. Maybe there is a blogging kibosh I don’t know about up there?

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