Conferences
#followfriday #afn
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 10:14@policylink @cognitivepolicy @wellstoneaction @jephilip @fedor4pa @quinnelk @j_ro
Each Friday, I like to highlight different people that I’m following on Twitter. I do it as a blog post, and let Twitterfeed send the message over to Twitter. Then, in the rest of my blog post, I can provide thoughts on why I am following these people on Twitter.
This is a special edition dedicated to people I met with at the America’s Future Now Conference.
@policylink Dan Lavoie works for PolicyLink. I had not heard of PolicyLink before the conference, or if I had, it hadn’t made it onto my radar. As the conference was getting going, Dan and I got into a discussion about blogging, policy, and linking all of it back to our everyday lives.
@cognitivepolicy Joe Brewer, Founder and Director of Cognitve Policy Works. I ran into Joe at breakfast on Wednesday and we talked about many common interests. I really look forward to staying in touch with him and sharing more ideas.
@wellstoneaction I’m generally not a fan of following organizations on Twitter. I like to interact with people. I don’t know who the person or people that tweet for Wellstone Action are, but it is a great organization and their communications director, Elana Wolowitz, did a great job at a session, New Media Organizing: Using Cutting-Edge Online Advocacy and Technology Techniques.
@jephilip Jeff Lucas also attended that session and did some good tweeting of it. @fedor4pa Michael J Fedor was also at that session. Michael also attended a session that @quinnelk Kenneth Quinnell and I were in about State Blogging.
@j_ro Jason Rosenbaum also did some great tweeting from #afn and deserves a shout out.
So, that is the first part of my #FollowFriday for this week.
#Internetweek #QRCodes and #digg
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 09:47Recently, I’ve been writing a bit about QR Codes (QR Codes and the RAZR V3xx, QR Codes and Twitter and Snappr.net, and QR Codes and political flyers. Now, I’m back from the America’s Future Now conference, and looking at what is going on for InternetWeek in New York City.
This evening, Digg will have a Meetup in New York, and I thought it would be interesting to see if I can use #QRCodes and #digg.
So, I created this QR Code using Kaywa’s QR Code Generator to promote my blog post. Please scan it and digg my post.
Thanks. If you’re going to the Digg Meetup, keep your eyes open for me and say hi.
#afn America’s Future – Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/03/2009 - 09:44The difficulty of choices of which events to attend continues on Wednesday at America’s Future Now. First, I should note that the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference is taking place at the same time, and I would love to be over at that. In addition, it is Internet Week in New York City, and I’d like to catch some of that.
Here at the conference, I stopped off to get coffee, and ended up getting into a great discussion with Joe Brewer of Cognitive Policy Works. As we were talking, Marcia West of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition handed me a leaflet encouraging me to come hear her talk about “HR 1479: The Battle for Lending the Safe and Protected Way”. I would have liked to have gone, but instead I went to Collaborating on Ideas for the Long-Term led by Barry Kendall of Commonweal Institute and the Progressive Ideas Network.
The most interesting part was a brainstorming session where people tossed out progressive headlines they would like to see in ten years that are not imaginable today. There were many great ideas tossed out.
Now, Senator Sherrod Brown is speaking, and I’m looking at the schedule afterwards. He announced that he is now on Twitter, (@sensherrodbrown.) and that he had yogurt and Grapenuts for breakfast.
Judith Freeman, co-founder and Executive Director of the New Organizing Institute will be part of a session, New Media Organizing: Using Cutting-Edge Online Advocacy and Technology Techniques. It will probably be a great session. At 10:20, Matthew Yglesias will be part of a Parallel Plenary on Global Warming: The Challenge for the Next Generation . Karl Frisch and Jane Hamsher will be in the Parallel Plenary, New Media: The Politics of the Changing Media Scene and Robert Borosage, my congresswoman, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Stan Greenberg will be in the Parallel Plenary, Manufacturing America: Common Sense About Global Economic Strategy. More hard choices about which session to go to.
As much as these are going to be great sessions, I’m also looking forward to the 3:02 PM session, a train from Washington DC to New Haven, CT.
#afn America’s Future - Tuesday Morning
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 07:46When Barack Obama spoke to the Take Back America conference, the predecessor to the America’s Future Now conference, back in 2007, he spoke about the importance of action from the bottom up. Yesterday, some attendees complained that this conference is a little too top down. There influential speakers make proclamations from but there is little chance for dialog. Some of us suggested that displaying the Twitter stream on the screen would be a good way to liven things up a little.
Well, this morning is the first part of the bottom up portion of the conference. From 8 until 9 there are self-organizing sessions. My wife Kim called to ask if I would go to the session that Common Cause is participating in. It is “Tackling the Big Money Obstacle to a Progressive-Agenda” led by David Donnelly. The problem with big money is not only thwarting a Progressive-Agenda. Pure and simply, it is block democracy and our country is weaker because of it. Yesterday, Lawrence Lessig did a great discussion about the importance of the Fair Elections Now Act and this session is likely to be a good chance to roll up the sleeves and work on this important issue.
Then, as I sat on Bloggers Boulevard in the Exhibition Hall, I ran into Nathan Henderson-James. He will be speaking at “Community Organizing, ACORN, and the Building of a Progressive Agenda”. That should also be a great session. Then, later I ran into Sarah Lane who works for Senator Jeff Merkley. If I remember properly, she said the session ‘Taking Back our Economy’ with Elizabeth Sholes was going to be a really good session.
As much as I would like to get to each of these sessions, I will be doing a session with Kenneth Quinnell on State-Level Blogging. I’m looking forward to the session and hope that enough people get up early and don’t get drawn away by all the other good sessions. Stop by and say hi if you get a chance.
QR Codes and Politics - #AFN, Twitter and Health Care
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 06/01/2009 - 16:30Recently, I've been writing about QR Codes and I've been thinking about how it could be used nicely. I thought of using QR Codes and Twitter to generate buzz.
(Sends a message to Twitter saying Join me at #AFN http://ourfuture.org/now)
As I went into the next afternoon plenary session, I was handed a sticker that says
Health Care '09
Health Care Can't Wait
text HEALTH to 94553
Now if they added this QR code:
all that people would have to do is scan the QR code with their phone and the phone would automatically send the message.
