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Monday, December 27, 2004
On the continuing end of news as usual 
| | Understand that change is coming -- TV is losing its monopoly on video, for example -- newspapers and individuals will start posting footage, too. There will be high-quality content of all kinds made available for free on the web. Your job as a professional is to use this content to inform your audience -- crediting the source, of course -- and to learn from the insurgents about the web as a medium for local info. As a business, local media has a chance to establish itself at the head of the Long Tail model described by Wired's Chris Anderson -- the huge audience for content that is not on the best-seller list. Some local media firms will figure this out. The rest will suffer. |
| | Integrate the public sector blogwork into IT shops and you can start to see what Phil Windley calls connected governance as well. |
Natural terror
| | Somehow missed posting earlier on yesterday's tsunami. What makes tsunamis especially horrifying is that they're inevitable, if not also predictable, where land meets ocean. Right now the highest death tolls are estimated at 23,000. I'm guessing the final total will be more than 50,000, if not 100,000. Tsunamis do their damage less by crashing ashore than by rapidly inundating land with water, then sucking everything back out to sea. Hundreds of coastal villages and towns have been removed, literally, by retreating tides. So far we've only heard about the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia and other lands within a couple thousand miles across the ocean from the epicenter. I'm also wondering about the coasts of Africa, Madigascar and various Islands across the Indian Ocean from Sumatra. Need to do more digging. |
| | I was on Phi Phi Don island off the Andaman coast of Thailand when the tidal wave hit. Not really up to posting the full story as yet, but here's some info I emailed to family members. |
| | We were on a boat tour when the captain dramatically veered off course (we were headed to remote Bamboo Island) and was frantically talking on his cell phone. Their English was very poor so it was not clear what was going on. Long story short, we got on the beach but were too low when the tidal wave struck. It created a flash flood effect and I was in the middle of rapids containing debris, wood and all matter of building material. |
ReadOn
| | I'm a believer in connected democracy. I think smart electorates get smarter than most politicians, and most political organizations. I also think we need politicians and political organizations that understand, organize and take advantage of connected citizens. |
| | Looking back at the 2004 election campaigns, I see Connected Democracy 0.15b. Early beta stuff. Interesting tests and demonstrations of connections and conversations and organization at work, but nothing close to what we need, or will have, eventually. |
| | I think what Joe Trippi and the Dean Campaign did, right up to the point when the candidate lost the Iowa caucuses, was terrific and wonderful, and a great demonstration of What Could Be. Or some of it. I also thought that the Bush Campaign, and the GOP had a much better vote-production machines than any of the democrats, or their party. Plus a Commander In Chief at the top of the ticket, at a time of war. (Never mind that the War was a bad idea. It was a fact, and that was enough for most voters.) Which is why they won. |
| | I also thought, at the time, that two of the highest-profile advocates for democrats — MoveOn.org and Michael Moore — were enormous red herrings, and far less effective than their friends thought. Worse, I thought that both — Moore especially — were counter-productive. In other words, I thought they would cost more votes than they would win. Looking back, I'm not sure I was right. Could be Kerry and the other dems did as well as they did because of Moore and MoveOn, and not in spite of them. |
| | Some cards on the table: I'm not fond of Moore, whom I regard as a bully and a sucker-puncher, even if he's sometimes funny and often right. But I do like Wes Boyd and the other folks at MoveOn. I knew Wes from his days at Berkeley Systems, and I think what he started with MoveOn is basically a good thing, even if it's a highly partisan thing. But where MoveOn started isn't where it is now. Which makes it an interesting subject. |
| | If you care about policics, this isn't just a good read. It's an important one. |
Maybe it's a way of forgetting the election
| | Usually its February before I stop giving the prior year when I enter dates on the checks and other documents that require them. Oddly, I've started writing "2005" before 2004 is done with. Dunno why. |
There are responses to this message:How Move-on helped blow the election, Andrew Leyden, 12/28/04; 2:34:27 PM Re: Monday, December 27, 2004, lou josephs, 12/27/04; 10:04:01 PM Re: Monday, December 27, 2004, Tom Guarriello, 12/27/04; 6:53:08 PM Re: Monday, December 27, 2004, Tom Guarriello, 12/27/04; 6:51:24 PM
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