Posts filed under 'Announcements'
December 20th, 2006
I posted a version of this on my own blog, but I think the sentiment is important to some recent discussion here.
Today’s Huffington Post included an entry by David Russell, in what appears to be his first Huff: “When the National is Really Local.” Russell is the writer-director-producer who was responsible for a couple of favorites, Flirting With Disaster and I Heart Huckabees. He has a new film planned for 2008 (The H-Man Cometh) starring Vince Vaughn as a radio personality who identifies too much with his listeners.
Russell briefly rants about the disconnect between the jet-setter interest in hobnobbing with politicians and political issues and the actual issues as they affect their own neighborhood, such as a six-month construction project to widen a highway. As Russell writes:
This is exactly the type of ‘quality of life’ issue that the Clinton administration focused on to great effect, ways that government can make people’s day to day lives better –precisely the kinds of things most politicians (and Brentwood liberals) find too small or boring to get into.
This post resonates with me for two reasons.
First, I wholeheartedy agree with the observation. I’ve clicked my share of insta-faxes from organizations like MoveOn.org in my time, but all it does is prevent a personal critical mass from forming. It is passive activism. The effects are nice for those whose local neighborhood access involves Congress. For the rest of us, it has the unintended effect of allowing individuals to be less involved than they might otherwise be.
The second point, though, is the nature of Russell’s post itself. It has a bit of griping and astute observation, but offers no solution. He doesn’t suggest action readers could take, instead implying that the Hollywood movers-n-shakers should make an adjustment in some non-specific manner. As any good Informatician knows, knowledge itself doesn’t change behavior.
So here, as I gripe about what’s missing in the Russell entry, I’ll try to to avoid a follow-up self-critique here by offering some ideas for local engagement:
- Figure out who your City Council representatives are, and ask for a meeting with one you don’t know. Or, if you know them all, introduce a councilperson to one of your friends who doesn’t.
- Look at an agenda from your County Council meetings, and Google up on the issues involved with one of their items.
- Find a volunteer organization and invest some time to understand the nature of a local need.
These actions aren’t going to make the Huffington Post anytime soon, but imagine what would happen if more people did them.
December 4th, 2006
One bad thing about PHPBB, I’m discovering, is that it is very susceptible to spam. It seems like I prune about a dozen posts a day from the forum. Either they are blatantly so (links to viagra, PC software and Britany Spears nude), or they are honeypots for future spam (authentic posts scraped from other forums elsewhere on the web, hoping to be changed to blatant spam later). The RSS feed that shows the most recent changes on the front page has been a great help, as I can very easily check new posts for content before deleting the crap. I had to impose an inconvenient time limit on post frequency to discourage the massive submissions, and that has helped keep the problem from being worse.
There are two problems here. First, in a way the low use of this site by actual community members helps keep the deletions manageable. Frequent daily checking of the site coupled with infrequent contributions of value means I don’t have to go off the bookmarked home page to check for new stuff. If future changes pump up the site volume, the current method of spam patrol will get a little more inconvenient. Second, the site seems to be on some spammer list now as a free place to post crap. The variety and frequency has picked up, even if the effectiveness has not (the posts aren’t lasting long). Spammers automate and thus don’t worry much about checking for anything more than success of a post.
Among the to-do list items is a reworking of the submission process in PHPBB to give denials to more crap posts. The best solutions, though, would be a tool for PHPBB that works like Akismet does for WordPress blogs. That is, similar posts show up all over the web. Having all posts go through a central database check can flag them as spam if someone has encountered and rejected a post as spam previously, and then quarantine them. Collective action works miracles for the blog, but wikis and forums need the same kind of protection.
November 22nd, 2006
Last weekend, I concluded a two-month project called RootsCamp by sitting around various tables with a small group of locals, talking politics. There were some disappointments, of course, mainly tied to the lack of numbers filling the venues. But I’m glad I made the effort. In fact, there was strong support for continuing the idea, perhaps in January for a single session.
Some of the key lessons learned include:
- Like-minded people have a lot of disagreement. The dozen people who attended were all progressive-liberal types of some definition. No students. No Republicans. No cultural diversity. Still, everybody has her own agenda, his own way to make sense of the world. Diversity of any kind is needed for good conversation, and it will surface even in a vanilla group of ideologues.
- When recruiting, there is no substitute for face-to-face conversation. Time and money were big resource constraints for me, but I also recognize that getting out of my office and talking to people about this idea is uncomfortable. Yet, I was at my most effective in explaining the concept when I did so. Blogging, email, web sites … all very important in the process, but they should support the act of looking someone in the eye.
- People will talk about what is important to them. The strength of this self-organizing format is that people are empowered to fill the Big Board with what interests them. Choices and opportunity are key ingredients, and we should actively fight against our own impulses to dictate agendas.
- The web site was an obstacle to entry. The pbwiki site is a bit on the clunky side, as are most wikis. The registration process, which required people to edit a wiki page, was a hurdle (I also accepted email and phone calls). The site also notified all members of every page edit by default, which led to a lot of notification emails for people who didn’t want them. Technology should facilitate, not dictate or interfere.
- There is no “good” day to have a conference. Every day is contended in Bloomington. This particular weekend of RootsCamp had many conflicts … Men’s basketball game on Friday night … IU-Purdue football game on Saturday … parenting conference on Saturday … Last weekend before a major holiday … The release of Wii, which required some to sit in the cold for two days to pick up one of the 45 units Best Buy got Sunday. Advance notice and frequent opportunities can help overcome the hurdles to participation, but there will never be a “perfect” time to do anything.
- Every place, every person, has an embedded identity. I take some pride in the fact that I can stand in a conversation and have people wrinkle their brows trying to place me in an ideology. I am not a Democrat, nor am I Republican. I am progressive, but even that isn’t clearly defined. Still, the fact that I attend, or that I organize forces others to make the attempt to classify me. And in doing so, they react to that classification, whether it is accurate or not. RootsCamp’s national effort is definitely “progressive” in the Democrat sense of the word. Anyone going to the site from the other side of the fence might be chased off by that. Those in attendance are talking about getting local organizations to host a session every month or so. Any location we choose is going to have embedded in it some identity that invokes reactions. The best way to compensate is to identify with a philosophy that can withstand those biases.
What’s Next? … Well, it is difficult to imagine not leaning on these new connections to become engaged in the local political scene. The absence of conservative voices (Republicans were largely defeated in this area in November) makes me want to redouble my efforts to get those people coming to the tables, perhaps starting with a conservative-centered conversation. There are a few tech and research initiatives that came out of the conversations, so I see some tangible things I can do to contribute.
What’s this mean for 3rd Party? … This experience reinforces two central beliefs. First, the best way to engage is locally through establishment of personal connections. Second, diversity exists even within like-minded people. To improve the quality of our political thought, we need to get people with lots of different ideas talking to each other. Not to convince, but to validate their life experiences and make sure they are considered in the action that results from the conversation.
November 9th, 2006
While I am am moving into the final week of promoting my local Camp, I dropped by a virtual option. RootsCampSL started Wednesday on a fake hill in the virtual land of Second Life. A transcript of the gathering is available online.
I put up some more comments here, and I do plan to go back at some point, although probably not able to do so every day. For those more technically inclined (or people who just want an excuse to try Second Life), join the community. You will also need to download the desktop application to allow you to peer into that world.
October 31st, 2006
My life was disrupted this weekend by a funeral, the second loss of a father within my circle of friends. Since this was also a weekend I was counting on going out into the community to put signs on shop windows and chat up the camp, it was nice to get some help in this from a couple of other IU students.
My goal for this week — in addition to writing a paper due Thursday — is to expand that base of promotional support, and to get some local media to write a story about it. Email just doesn’t cut it, convenient as it is. I’m going to have to use the phone and my feet.
October 23rd, 2006
I don’t know if my local RootsCamp will take hold or not. I spent some time on Friday and Sunday surf-researching to identify useful email addresses. Even if the response is overwhelming (thus far, no responses), there would still be a gap in coverage for those demographics not likey to rely upon or utilize the Internet in the first place. I’ve done about all I can for the moment, and I’ll have to pick up my slack toward the end of the week with some personal visits to shops and organizations.
If you aren’t looking to organize your own camp, then consider finding one in a city near you and making the effor to attend. Despite the progressive emphasis — “progressive” is the only label I don’t mind self-applying — these are open formats where all input would be welcome. Go. Attend. Contribute. Make ourselves known.
Here are some other RootsCamps on the near horizon:
- New York City, NY. Proposed Nov 17-18
- San Francisco, CA. Proposed Nov 11-12.
- Boston, MA. Proposed Nov 18-19.
- Washington, D.C. Proposed Dec 2-3.
- Michigan. Location TBD. Proposed Nov 18-19.
- Seattle, WA. TBD.
- Philadelphia, PA. Proposed Nov 17-18.
- Pittsburgh, PA. Proposed Nov 17-18.
- New Orleans, LA. Proposed Nov 17-18.
- Austin, TX. Proposed Nov 17-18.
- Los Angeles, CA.. Proposed Nov 17-18.
October 17th, 2006
Walking back from class today, I got a message from Ivy Tech, a local branch of a community college, saying they would love to host the final 2 sessions (#4 and #5) of my two-day RootsCamp. Promotion begins in earnest over the next 48 hours as I create and disperse press releases, personal invitations, and fliers.
October 16th, 2006
Today I find out if a local chain of community colleges, Ivy Tech, will be able to host our Bloomington Roots Camp sessions on Saturday, November 18. If so, then we’ll have two days, five sessions, and 10 discussions. If not, we’ll go with the 1-day, 3-session, 6-discussion format at the Library and School of Informatics on Friday, November 17.
I had some talks with a local Libertarian, the city, the RootsCamp organizers, and a few others. This week, however, is when the promotion begins in earnest with fliers blanketing as many organizations and outlets as I can contact. I hope there are two days of this, since I have gut-level concerns about getting many people to show up to the 9a Friday session. This whole thing is sort of a prototype for future camps, so it was important to me to try different places and times and see what has more success.
It’s not too late to try to get together a RootsCamp of your own, in your local community. The national level has a definite progressive focus, framed as a post-election debriefing. I am appropriating the idea for a more inclusive conversation about the same. At this point, it all reflects my personal agenda for political dialogue: seeking understanding, rather than persuasion. I hope to have a broad cross-section across ideology, socio-economics and other demographics … enough to force everyone to work past the party labels and talk to each other.
If you are not setting up your own camp but are in the Bloomington, Indiana area on November 17-18, please feel free to stop by and contribute to a session. We’ll also be working hard to get the notes from the discussions published as they happen that weekend, and plenty of post-event processing online.
October 4th, 2006
Since announcing my intention to start a local RootsCamp last month, I have been flooded with academic readings, assignments and other grad-school-related commitments (”Ph.D.” = “Piled Higher and Deeper,” after all). However, I have made an effort to get things going as best I can. This has materialized primarily in the form of Thought Exercises/Planning and in Internet-based contact. That approach has to change this week, though, as I feel strongly the need to get the sessions sited so I can concentrate on promotion and materials.
My expectations are pretty high — we are in the midst of a hot political season in a community that is very active — but at the same time this has to be tempered with the possibility of utter failure. “Failure” in this case comes in two flavors: Participation, and Effort. I can handle a participation failure, where fewer than a dozen people show up and conversation is diminished as a result. That seems to me to be a matter of improving awareness. What would not be acceptable to me is if this first RootsCamp doesn’t materialize because I am too inhibited to talk to people on the phone or in person, or I find excuses in academia or family life not to do more.
September 16th, 2006
I am going to try to organize a Roots Camp for my local community. I’ve begun this process by creating a wiki page on the Roots Camp wiki.
A Roots Camp is a derivation of a Bar Camp, with a political focus. A Bar Camp is an open version of a Foo Camp, which is a participant-driven conference. Although the history of open conferencing can be traced back to the 1980s, it was Tim O’Reilly’s first Foo Camp in 2003 that sparked the current interest. In these events, the “expert” and audience of a formal presentation are replaced with active learners entering the conversation with equal power. Participants gather at a big white board prior to the conference (or get things started on a wiki before the big day arrives) to write the topics they want to discuss, inviting any others to join in. Some topics draw no interest, but those that do often are treated to an enthusiastic and productive debate among those with sincere interest in the conversation.
My community Roots Camp will take place on the weekend of November 18 (tentative) along with others around the country. At the time I started editing the wiki page yesterday, there were a bunch of starter cities but only two — Washington, D.C. and New York City — with any content or ownership from local citizens. There is a lot involved to getting one off the ground … including finding a site, arranging for food and swag, promotion, materials. With two months at the start of a big political season, though, my expectations are pretty high.
I urge you all to set up Camps in your own hometowns and get people talking about the philosophies we hold dear. This is the kind of outreach Freetrader chatted about, and it is a tangible and realistic thing to do.
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