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2009by Jon GarfunkelI went to my first meeting of the Social Media Club Boston tonight. I'd held off for a while, since I'm not in marketing. Of course, now that I'm on Twitter, I can't help from being in marketing. And, the promised topic was good: "Change-Dot-Gov". 2008by Jon GarfunkelThe excellent HBO biopic John Adams inspired me to catch up on my period reading. This past weekend I bought a recent biography of perhaps the most famous of the founding fathers left out of the miniseries -- Thomas Paine, by Craig Nelson (2006). by Jon GarfunkelI'll be presenting Thursday evening to the Berkman Blog Group. It's kind of an honor, since I really don't see myself as one. I associate with bloggers, I befriend them, I research their methods... and I hope they don't mind if they accept me as different. 2006by Jon GarfunkelHere's a write-up of what I learned in the sessions at the Gilbane Conference on Content Management in San Francisco two week ago. It is not a complete account for a number of reasons. First, I was unable break the laws of physics and attend every session. Second, I didn't take as detailed notes as I should have, but this exercise should encourage me once again to do so. Third, I'm reserving some information for the entity that sponsored my attendance to the conference, my employer. 2005by Jon GarfunkelI was at the Massachusetts BlogLeft conference this past Saturday-- I should have posted a stub post earlier letting people know I'd be there. One of my readers, Bruce Wilson, told me about it a few weeks ago, and suggested to conference organizer Lynne Lupien, that I'd be a good person to lead a breakout session. by Jon GarfunkelFor community journalism, there's no easier story to carry than the one I'm about to describe. The ol' “Mainstream Media” broke it first. Now we would expect the blogs to enter stage front and take the case, maybe organize some advocacy journalism. Heard of made-for-TV? This one's made-for-blogs: it's got an underdog community media effort against an out-of-town one trying to push it out. The Maynard (MA) High School radio station is about to lose its license to a California-based religious broadcaster which has been scouring up licenses nationwide, with the FCC's neutral approach enabling it. by Jon GarfunkelSeveral weeks ago, I spoke to Brian Keeler who co-founded ePluribus Media with Susan Gardner earlier this year. Their first project, propagannon, was an offshoot of distributed research done on Daily Kos about the identity of White House “reporter” Jeff Gannon. Susan had brought it to the attention of the Daily Kos diaries after reading about it from David Brock of the liberal Media Matters for America watchdog group. The diaries had been a beneficial crucible for researching aspects to Gannon's reporting (the site counts tens of thousands of liberal activists as members), but the group soon outgrew the capabilities of the Daily Kos architecture.
by Jon GarfunkelWhat's promising about the Internet, it's been suggested, is that it can facilitate conversations, particularly among people who wouldn't ordinarily meet in everydate life. Online I purposesly try to seek out people different from myself.
by Jon GarfunkelFor the last couple of months, there's been a man panhandling by the Store 24 on Beacon St., between the streetcar stop and the Griggs path. Today I gave him a buck, which is the same amount I gave him a couple of weeks ago, only that time he gave me a 1960 silver quarter in exchange. There's been panhandlers before on the corner in years past, but no one really stuck around much, as far as I knew. Maybe he's stuck around a bit because I asked him his name and give him a few words of conversation. So I see him once every couple of weeks; I'm not sure what his pattern is.
2004by Jon GarfunkelThe election is over, and good Democrats coast-to-coast (and perhaps in between) are scratching their heads and asking: What went wrong? What can we fix?
by Jon GarfunkelI was a participant in the Berkman Center's Internet + Society 2004 Conference, Votes, Bits, and Bytes, which was free, and only took two days. I thought I'd write a summary of my experiences, and post them here so others can find them. I have referenced here a number of essays/thoughts that I mentioned to people over the conference. Some of the ideas I will work into more substantial pieces.
by Jon GarfunkelThere were two vacancies in the Tenth Precinct of Brookline's, and three openings. My friend from temple, Jonathan Davis asked me to fill one of the vacancies. I could have avoided this problem had I thought to run last May, but I didn't (I just hung around for the voting results). Now that the Presidential election is behind me, I'm thrilled to dive into the guts of local policymaking. It should be fun, Jonathan promised.
by Jon Garfunkel
Palm Beach County, Florida would not ordinarily be confused with "God's Country", a phrase which typically connotes a wide open spance of nature unspoiled by civilization. On the other hand, to take the term at its literal meaning, it might indicate a place of extraordinary religiosity. Who knew that Palm Beach was ranked second among Florida counties in the proportion of residents who regularly attend houses of worship? (anyone who read this 2002 newspaper story "Keeping the Faith in Florida" did). With growing numbers hispanic Catholic and elderly Jewish populations, its 56% ranked above the Panhandle counties. Granted, while may be God's County in Florida, it would rank 12th in Massachusetts and 66th in Kansas. To paraphrase Harry Golden, the most famous Southern Jew a half century ago, people in Florida talk to God, so Operation Bubbe went down to Florida to talk to them.
by Jon Garfunkel
Well, we tried. Not that it mattered.
In the last weekend before Election Day, I feel that I personally persuaded maybe four people to vote through my canvassing efforts. And perhaps a few more on election eve, asking people to honk for Kerry, standing on the highway of SW 10th St. in between the Operation Bubbe headquarters at the Comfort Inn and the I-95 ramp in Deerfield Beach. Many of the big rigs honked for us; some SUV driver asked us whether Kerry was running for President of France; a reporter from the Forward stopped by to ask directions to the hotel (he would file this article). But it didn't matter, as we were blown out of the water in Florida.
by Jon GarfunkelI have good news from the battleground front here in South Florida. I canvassed yesterday, and some more today. And I skipped the party tonight to rest up to canvas tomorrow. I can fly home Monday or Wednesday. I'm confident that we're going to win, and now it's merely a question of whom I want to party with.
by Jon Garfunkel
writing that blogs are most associated with. The stage was set: I was sitting in the bloggers section (320) at the FleetCenter. There was a laptop in front of me (Laura Rozen's, who got claustrophobic and left to take a break downstairs) To my left was Aldon Hynes, who had invited me to blog for GreaterDemocracy.
by Jon GarfunkelI have very little to add to the convention coverage from the 15,000 journalists and 30 bloggers. I started writing something this morning comparing watching the convention to a baseball game, in which you sit around chatting for the first several innings before all the excitement happens at the end of the game, but, if that hasn't been said already, I haven't looked hard enough. So I thought I'd try my unique tack here: escaping the actual convention.
by Jon Garfunkel"Many Americans are said to choosing their President based on whether they would enjoy a beer with them. If that question was ever relevant in American politics, it is not now." So said Hillary Clinton at one of the welcome parties this Sunday evening, "A Community Celebration" co-sponsored by a number of the Jewish organizations. Senator Clinton continued by articulating the fundamental questions a voter must confront this election: whether the President would address the issues of the education system, inadequate health care, giving proper focus to the war on terror, etc.
by Jon Garfunkel
Last Saturday I went up to Harvard for an event organized by Anna Weisfeiler of the Harvard Extension School Democrats. It featured Walter Podrazik, David Hunter, and Gary Flowers, who have worked at a number of Democratic National Conventions, coordinating the logistics for political invitees and for the media. It the type of day that made one want to get out of Boston, which I did, not to the Cape but to Cambridge, as I thought I'd like to begin to get ready for the convention next week.
by Jon GarfunkelIt was the worst of sites, it was the best of sites, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness-- so begins my tale of two civilities. In the course of my work on Civilities I participate in other community websites; partly to see how they work, and often to exchange information. Some have good leadership; others merely have good software (and rarely do both exist on the same site). Fortunately, it was the former that steered me to a correction. The latter is balking on helping me do research. Here's my tale:
My helpers were the C-SPAN Community, where some members picked up on an erroneous statement I had writtin an article that the national public access network was funded by cable companies, but also "mandated by the government." The article in question was "When it comes to cable reform, the Cato Institute fears the free market", which I have republished with the correction. I aim to correct any falsehoods and also encourage users to post. Still, I only found out about the complaint by checking the referring URL's in my server logs. (Later that evening, someone did email me directly, but didn't mention the C-SPAN site).
by Jon GarfunkelI went to the Brookline Democratic Town Committee's legislative roundtable last Wednesday, which was my first official event. Though first I thought it helpful to give an introduction about the town.
by Jon GarfunkelGriggs Road residents Christopher Koch and Michael Traister rolled to victory, knocking out an incumbent in yesterday's competitive election for the Town Meeting Members of Precinct 10 in Brookline. With 16 precincts of around 1,000 voters, the winning candidates usually pull in about a hundred votes. Yesterday about 180 voters showed up at the firehouse to vote. Here's the unofficial totals (incumbents*):
by Jon GarfunkelIf you get a recorded message from John Kerry calling your home, and you enter the keys on the touchtone pad in order to donate money, you might just reach somebody like me. I spent an hour doing this tonight, and thought I'd record some initial observations.
by Jon GarfunkelI took a break last Thursday from the bustle of online activism to see some real government in action. I went to the Cable Ascertainment Hearing in Brookline, at the Public Safety building across the street from Town Hall. The meeting, as I learned, would not a forum for policy, but actually a lecture on electrical engineering. What a treat for the dozen or so people who had showed up for the hearing! With Comcast's funding, Brookline had commissioned a consulting engineer, William Pohts to investigate the safety of the wiring and of the transmission leaks according to federal and industry guidelines. The old cable infrastructure in Boston/Brookline has been notoriously bad throughout its twenty-plus year history.
by Jon GarfunkelThe fundraising bug has bit me bad. Here's tonight's Mastercard damage:
- Friends of the Boston's Homeless Benefit at Avalon: $20
- coatcheck, 2 coats: $6 (+$1 tip)
- Two drinks, $14 (+$2 tip)
- Winning the silent auction for two tickets to Swan Lake: $140 (anything to avoid ticketmaster charges)
- Taking in Jonathan Soroff's presence for 5 minutes, for the second time in a week: cliche.
Next time we'll show up early. Jamie and I missed the dinner (which only would have set us back another $30), missed the Mayor, missed meeting any new people, and missed much of Kendrick Oliver's band playing-- they played one song in the third set. The crowd really thinned out after the dinner; I haver never seen Avalon so empty. And once again, I get that feeling of winning a fundraising contest in weak competition. It would have been nice to learn more about the organizations my money went to. I hope I have the courage to look a homeless person in the face now.
by Jon GarfunkelYesterday on the Esplanade in Boston, the John Kerry table was blown away at the eleventh annual Earthfest (officially, the WBOS Festival for the Earth presented by Whole Foods). First the wind whipped us, in our un-strategic position facing the Charles River (the wind was really great for the Clean Power Now booth, the PAC formed to alleviate environmental concerns the Nantucket Sound Wind Farm). Then the permit police got us for good. Apparently we had a table without the benefit of a permit from WBOS; instead we had the benefit of a favor. So we did what I called strategic dispersal after two hours.
by Jon GarfunkelI was able to convince my friend Abby that there was no better way to mingle with the beautiful people than to hit Fire + Ice for the $75 "Young ProfessionalS" Kerry. For sure, it was tall people. (I am 5'8", and Abby's 5'7". I felt dwarfed). This campaign is so tall, I am waiting for the Bushies to accuse Kerry of being Dutch, and not French.
by Jon GarfunkelI never had an idea that I would place in the KerryCore March Madness contest (a last day effort garnered me second place). I figured that somebody out there must have bundled a lot of more money-- like an order of magnitude more-- but I had no idea of finding out. If you search Google for "March Madness" KerryCore, you find three links from the campaign website, and two to me.
And now I just learned (thanks to Matt Gordon) that somebody had in fact raised more money online-- a lot more money: $75,000. He is the anonymous blogger Atrios, who pointed out on his blog afternoon that Kerry HQ had not included this contest entry until too late. This might also explain why the contest results were not readily publicized.
by Jon GarfunkelOut of what appears to be eight thousand online fundraisers in John Kerry's March Madness campaign, I finished second. How improbable! No matter, I won a three-day pass to the convention! (the fourth day I'll go sailing).
by Jon GarfunkelI was at the John Kerry $25 fundraiser at Brandy Pete's last Saturday night, which I'll take over a Meetup any day of the week. (The only thing lacking was food, which drove us to dash over to Chinatown at about midnight, just as the DJ moved into old-school Madonna). First of all, my compatriots Dave and Alex now could use the new pickup line, "Our friend over here is one of the big shot KerryCore fundraisers." Well, maybe not really big shot-- I have absolutely no idea what my standing is on KerryCore until they improve the website-- but thanks to the Karen Zelevinsky's donation of thirty minutes ago, I've just smashed through the $1000 barrier for the KerryCore fundraising.
by Jon GarfunkelDr. Yang Jianli is a neighbor of mine in Washington Sq., but it may some time before I run into him again. Dr. Jianli, had been living in forced exile from China since his participation as an activist at Tiananman Square activist. He returned to China in April 2002 to assist labor activists, but within a week was caught and detained by the Chinese government-- as a Communist country, they have a version of the "USA Patriot Act" which allows citizens to be detained indefinitely without access to a lawyer. His wife and children remain here in Brookline. Joining them in appeals to the Chinese government are his employer, the John F. Kennedy School of Goverment at Harvard, and the United States Congress. And now me. by Jon GarfunkelMy campaign season has officially leapt from this virtual world onto the street. Here's my write-up about my drink-up for Kerry, and my meetup for the Dems.
by Jon GarfunkelIt was perhaps the most historic day in Boston so far this year, but I neglected to exit at Park St. on the way work to take a photo of the gathering crowds at the State House. As a punishment, I subjected myself to an hour's watching of legislative debate on WGBX-44. My reward was finding out that the convention, after rejecting two amendments, will pick up tomorrow. (So I have tomorrow, to try and capture with my digicam, a demonstration of civilities on the steps of the State House).
by Jon GarfunkelThere's an oft-quoted theory of Internet discussions that all rational discussion ceases when the Nazis are invoked. ("You wear socks? The Nazis wore socks!" as one standup comedian once riffed). The same might be said about the inevitable question "who made you the moderator?" But they're very different. While the first example is merely a logical fallacy, the second is just an outright rejection of procedure. Logical fallacies are well known, and intuitive. But deliberative process is vastly more complex and unknown to the unitiated; consider the procedures in judicial and parliamentary systems.
by Jon GarfunkelThe IRS has sent me a postcard in the mail informing me that 53 million taxpayers used electronic filing last year. I know: I was one of them. I induce that they sent postcards to the other 53 million taxpayers who e-filed. At 20 cents bulk rate for post cards, this would appear to burn a $10 million hole in the marketeting budget.
Sure, in the course of consumer choices, advertising exists so that consumers are reminded to stick with the product or service. Do they worry that taxpayers will somehow forget the whole convenience of getting their refunds withing 2 weeks, and go back to good ol' paper returns? Forget to file? Move to Canada?
by Jon GarfunkelI ran into my lawyer Michael at the Summit Ave T-stop waiting for the trolley into work this morning. Well, he is not my lawyer, but he is brilliant at talking me into a corner, I'd certainly want him on my side. (As it turns out, just about everybody I run into on the trolley in the morning-- Eric, Sam, Julie, Jordan-- happen to be lawyers). If you were on a "Type 8" Breda trolley today, and saw two fellows in navy overcoats, one with a maroon cap (Michael) and one with a brown fedora, you saw us.
Michael is a great liberal, or so he prides himself.
He's so agreeable because he answers his own questions to me "I can tell you're a smart guy. You know why? I see you reading your New Yorker." "You studied Latin? Of course you did, I thought so."
by Jon GarfunkelOn NBC's Meet The Press on 1/11, I learned that Dean's campaign had picked up an cost-effective way of calling potential voters: leveraging unused minutes in cellphone plans. This sounded exciting enough to participate in: I wouldn't even have to leave my home to volunteer, and, stumped with a tough caller, I'd have the benefit of my library and Internet to help out. I'd even appreciate getting a call this way. But that didn't happen.
by Jon GarfunkelLet's say you had a question for Howard Dean, leading contender for the Democratic nomination for President in 2004. Here's the most frequent contributors you may run into on the official Dean For America forums: practical-magic, BrionLutz, NJHack, Grizz, Jakey, Dean-Uber-Alles, Jakey, WVMicko, slam-the-neocons, Bush_Stopper, Zackpunk, Kire, IndieMind, Political Amazon.
A nice, welcoming bunch, right? For all the emphasis on the face-to-face, "Meetups" of the Dean campaign, the official forums look like a rogue's gallery of cyberspace...
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