June 2008

DC XO Chat Server

Submitted by Jon on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 05:22

Join local activities!So, after xochat went into deep hibernation (though it's back to stay and has its own regional servers), Wayan asked for friends to chat with:
XO laptop owners need more jabber servers to mesh network on. Every time I look at my empty neighborhood view I am sad. Yet I am not geek enough to run a jabber server solo. I need the help of a jabber expert to set one up for DC.

Turnabout is fair(-use) play

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 17:02

The Associated Press has been rattling sabers of bloggers quoting (even with credit and links) from AP articles, claiming that any quote longer than 5 words costs money:

5-25 words: $ 12.50
26-50 words: $ 17.50
51-100 words: $ 25.00
101-250 words: $ 50.00
251 words and up: $ 100.00

Portability vs The World

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 11:17

The DC area mailing list for nonprofit technologists has been alight with suggestions on what the best portable machine is this past week, debating screen size (gotta be able to see that spreadsheet!), storage, raw computing power, optical drives, and even the need for floppy swap drives.

The general sense is that everyone wants portability, but is unwilling to sacrifice anything to get it. I say bollocks -- you can keep your sore shoulders, I'll make a few minor sacrifices, adapt my lifestyle a bit, and carry on. After the jump is my full response.

Twitter and Outreach

Submitted by Jon on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 11:03

I'm sure you're tired of hearing me talk about twitter as an innovative and easy tool for outreach and engagement. So listen instead to Amy Gahran and her conversation with the Mars Phoenix rover - via twitter:

On Hubris and the 1CC version of OLPC

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 06/13/2008 - 20:32

Business Week has a good article summing up the recent history of the OLPC project and it's difficulties with sales numbers, fading promises, Intel, and its internal strife over the Microsoft decision. None of that information is particularly new, but the article continues and goes in to some insightful problems with the educational model of the 1CC OLPC project; namely, hubris.

More on Ubuntu's NetBook release

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 11:16

SpaceWarp

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 16:32

Some kids had train sets. Actually, I did but it bored me to death. One xmas I got a SpaceWarp. Sure, I started out building the basic design they gave elaborate instructions for, but I got bored with that pretty fast. By the time it finally got dismantled (when my parents moved, natch), I'd rebuilt it at three times the designed height, had created elaborate track-jumping, triple and quadruple loops, and more.

2.0 NonProfit Conference wrap-up and notes

Submitted by Jon on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 13:55

While few of the concepts at the 2.0 nonprofit conference were hardly new to me (Use twitter! uh, ok.); it was good to see where other nonprofits were and what the nonprofit leaders in the space were doing, and what the lessons they had learned were.

Again, trying not to sound snooty here, but the lessons weren't very "new" either, but the way they phrased them were -- instead of speaking about crowdsourcing, peer-production and open source/sharing, the presenters framed the same general concepts in communications and strategy language like message control (it's dead), reader-focused theories of change, stakeholders/champions, voice and vision, and so on. This gives me more relevant vocabulary to use to champion the full-sharing concepts when I speak with nonprofits.

Read on for my run-down and links to even more event notes!