Alan’s Kiloblog

When you are in the psychological moment for a particular project, something will beacon you to leave your moment, and expend that certainty and conviction elsewhere.

It is amazing. Is amazing that there is an economy for that sort of thing, but it is true, there are those that sense this. It is amazing how efficient these markets are.

Which is why I’ve decided that these are the following questions to ask, the next time I’m faced with an opportunity that does tie in with my stated agenda.

• This hasn’t worked before, is the first thing to state.
• How exactly will I benefit? Exposure doesn’t count. I get better exposure working on my turf.
• Who pays for it? It had better be all expenses paid, and then some, because I don’t have time to entertain.
• How much of what I’m doing are you aware of? Because, you might have got it into your head that New Orleans needs to be a component of your master plan, but if you haven’t done the research, I’m not going to change my position on matters to suit you.

Hint: If you’re thinking opportunity, be informed that I’m thinking crisis. I checked the Chinese dictionary, the are not the same word.

We didn’t have the concept of a notary in Michigan. I need to find a Notary today to notarize the articles of incorporation for Think New Orleans. Today will be quite a little trek.

There is a blog in Ann Arbor called Ann Arbor Is Overrated and the maintainer of said blog can launch a rolicking discussion simply by posting that he’s out of town. The premise of the web site, that Ann Arbor, Michigan is overrated, attracts many Ann Arborites, who know that their adorable city can be full of itself at times. The format is oddly effective. Something clipped from the newspaper, offered with backhanded comment, and poeple begin to draw their own conclusions. How do I run this racket in New Orleans?

I’m pulling together a Open Space Lunch on Tuesday at 11:30 am at Cafe Reconcile. One of the principles of Open Space is invitations, so I’m sending out personal invitations in email. If you have not recieved one, it is because there is no way I can write a personal invitation to everyone I know, so I wrote three invitations with two or three people addressed in each invitation. It was a means of introduction.

The Central Carrollton web site is underway with Jane Leaaf publishing. Central Carrollton is a new neighborhood organization that is forming. You can help Jane by giving her advice on blogging, and by helping me create new content for the Central Carrollton Association.

The new Wifi network is [out and about in Anaheim]. A wire cutting ceremony rolled in the new event. Although, the prospect of free Wifi for New Orleans is exciting, I’m wondering where I can find a T1 to shorten hours long Flickr uploads. Should I find such bliss, I’m keeping my spare Ethernet cable with me at all times.

Bart Everson and I had lunch Monday last.

I’d left my cell phone charging cable at Xavier when I conducted my workshop.

We spoke about the direction of Think New Orleans, and there were some interesting points, some conclusions were drawn.

We spoke about how effective mailing lists, like Yahoo! Groups are in New Orleans. There is no training necessary for someone to begin writing.

The drawback is that the information is not as far forward as it would be on a WordPress web site. In my experience the information is much removed. The Yahoo! Groups require Yahoo! membership to view files and calendars. The information is not as easily found through search engines.

Although, I do feel that there is still a place for deliberation, discussions that take place without public scrutiny.

We talked about the appropriate times to implement a mailing list, a syndicated web site, or to use the Wiki. Bart felt that the Wiki was an idea that was so revolutionary, it raised many questions, and required a lot of explanation. Thus, it was best to talk about the a web site versus an email list, and leave the “web site that anyone can edit” as a resource for the enthusiasts.

As far as the direction of Think New Orleans, Bart and I spend a lot of time debugging the word advocacy. I was insistent, that if the right technology for civic collaboration was tin cans and string, then Think New Orleans would be poking holes in cans. Bart said that it’s obvious that I’m advancing WordPress. I asserted vendor neutrality, but not feature neutrality, hence WordPress. Restated, vendor aside, I’m advancing a form of publishing over another, and then pandering to my particular vocabulary, he accurately describes a syndicated web site, versus an identity web site, I advance the former over the latter.

Which is to recognize the challenges we both face as technology advocates. There’s that word.

I don’t feel that I am a technology advocate, rather I am systems integrator, I really see the City of New Orleans as, first, the most beautiful and gracious city in the word, and second, a working environment in need of networked software, where a fair share of the users are telecommuting.

I want to crack this nut with a nut cracker, not a paradigm cracker.

Actually, the rhetoric of California, destruction, paradigm shifts, it sells in California, because they are trying to sell investors, but it’s not appropriate language for post-Katrina New Orleans.

Bart and I have both been banging on about the need to put things were they can be found. We need to use the Internet to organize.

Though, advocacy, for me, means something different, and it is scary word. In world of voter information and education, advocacy ties into disenfranchisement, which is a different world than the world I inhabit, which is focuses on the efficacy of voter information web sites to provide information in advance of elections.

Thus, I don’t want Think New Orleans to be an advocacy group, in the sense that it aligns itself with organizations whose agendas it wishes to advance, nor seeks out people that are perceived as under-represented and offers to speak on their behalf.

The latter is just not my style, and liable to get me the boot, since a huge part of the digital divide has always been a resentment at being told that there is a brand new divide you’ve got to cross. (A message that grates especially, because the people who advocate the crossing are convinced that this will be the ultimate act of empowerment.)

The point was made that I’m assisting neighborhood groups, which implies advocacy, while I countered that I’d be more than happy to assist the Sheriff by creating a crime map. That was understood.

I talked about capacity building, which is a new term for me, and that was where we reached an understanding. My aversion to the term advocacy was understood. It was said elsewhere that Think New Orleans was not anointing spokespeople, something that came out of a discussion, which was shocking, to imagine that my effort was anything other than the technical support drudgery that it has been.