Archive - 2008
October 14th
Recent ma.noglia bookmarks
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 03:01Here are pages I've recently bookmarked with ma.gnolia:
McCain campaign protests YouTube's DMCA policy | Politics and Law - CNET News
(Compare and contrast with news about the new 'PRO-IP' Czar.)
October 14th
Exploring IPv6
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 10:44The Internet is running out of addresses and something needs to be done. At least that’s the idea behind IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol. So, as a sort of day off for Columbus Day, I spent the day exploring IPv6 and here’s what I found.
First, let me explain a little bit about how the Internet works. There is this thing called the Internet Protocol. Basically, it is how messages are sent from one computer to another. For example, I might send a message from my laptop up to a Webserver somewhere saying, send me the webpage I’m looking for. Of course to do all of this, you need addresses, and, as will everything else on computers, it boils down to numbers.
October 13th
Large Groups and the Internet
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 11:22I approach the Large Group in a manner very similar to how I approach the Internet. Let me explain what I mean by this, why I am saying it and why I think it is important.
I should start by explaining what I mean by the “Large Group”. I’m not talking about a crowd at the mall, at a rally, or even at a party. I am referring specifically to a Large Group as understood in the traditions of Group Relations or Group Analysis, particularly as talked about by group psychotherapists.
You see, I’m on a mailing list of group psychotherapists. It seems like most of the group psychotherapists focus on small groups, say between six and twelve people that meet on a regular basis for therapy. Yet other sizes of groups, median groups and large groups are also sometimes used. I’m not sure what size a group must be to be a median group or a large group, nor have I really managed to understand the difference between the Group Relations tradition, growing out of the work of Wilfred Bion or the Group Analytics tradtion growing out of the work of S.H. Foulkes, yet I don’t believe this especially matters for this blog post.
My first experience with the Large Group was at a Group Relations conference in the late nineties in Massachusetts. I had been working at a large European financial institution and was challenged by the matrix-managed politics around the technology for the firm. I often flew to Europe to negotiate IT strategies and then would come back to the United States and try to get the negotiated strategies implemented.
October 12th
Extreme Democracy, Four Years Later
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 13:13(Originally published at Greater Democracy.)
Friday, I watched the stock markets plunge, yet again, only to rally, dive, rally and dive with the DOW closing down another 128 points. I read more reports of Gov. Palin trying to cast doubt on Sen. Obama because he had served on a board along side a former member of the Weather Underground as well as a former Nixon aide. The project was funded in large part by a former another Nixon administration official. Then later in the day, I read that a legislative investigation found that Gov. Palin had ‘abused her power by violating Statue 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act’.
Saturday, I wrote a blog post about continued efforts by Republicans to suppress voter registration efforts, and then I stepped away from the computer. I spent the day at a Harvest Festival at the YMCA camp that my seven-year-old daughter, Fiona, had attended last summer. We climbed the climbing wall. We shot arrows in the archery range. Fiona participated in a sack race and painted a pumpkin. Then we all went on a hayride underneath the brightly colored leaves of the trees in Naugatuck State Forest set against a deep blue sky. Other than when my wife Kim painted an Obama Logo on a piece of paper at the Arts and Crafts table, with the word HOPE over it, it was a trip mostly devoid of politics and economics.
I set this backdrop, knowing it will bury my lede, but also feeling that it is important to set a context of a greater perspective. Jon Lebkowsky, Zack Exley and others have been talking a lot about "The New Organizers". You can see some of the discussion in Jon’s blog post, Zack Exley on "The New Organizers" where he quote’s Zack’s article on Huffington Post, The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game.
Win or lose, "The New Organizers" have already transformed thousands of communities - and revolutionized the way organizing itself will be understood and practiced for at least the next generation.
October 11th
More on the CT GOP’s efforts against Voter Registration
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 10:59(Originally posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)
Since I wrote my previous blog post, The RNC Brings Voter Suppression to Connecticut there have been a few interesting developments.
More and more people are sending me information about this and about the RNC efforts across the nation to suppress voter registration and voter turnout. This included a PDF of a letter from Lucy Corelli, the Republican Registrar of Voters to Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal about a complaint she filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC). In her letter she writes
I am filing this complaint because I believe in the fair and democratic process. I feel fraudulent behavior should be discouraged and eliminated. Everyone who is eligible has the right to register and vote but this abuse of our system makes a mockery of one of our most precious rights.
