Technology Playday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 04/20/2006 - 17:53Fiona threw up last night. Both Kim and I are dragging, so I’m going to focus on some simple fun stuff for a little bit.
Last night, I was asked if I could come up with a map mashup of the different training locations for the Ned Lamont petition drive. I ended up using map builder, which is pretty nice. The first map I produced was this which shows the twelve different locations where we have trainings scheduled.
The second map I produced was this. I took a list of over 600 donations made to the Lamont campaign from people in Connecticut during the first quarter. Map builder geocoded them and added them all to a map. To me, it looks like it follows pretty closely the population density of Connecticut.
Today, I went for something a little less strenuous and created my first page in Google Pages. Very simple and easy to set up pages, but so far it doesn’t seem to have any neat Web 2.0 type functionality.
Next, I played with Google Calendar a little bit more. Anyone who wants to check out my calendar can check this. I tested loading a calendar from Drupal. It seems to work, but needs more testing.
Now, if only I can combine some Google Maps and Google Calendars into a Google page, things will really come together.
Tech Soup: Online Social Networks event
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 04/19/2006 - 10:19Tech Soup is having an Online Event on “Using Social Networking Applications for your nonprofit org”. They listed several social networks, and I’ve added the following comment about the online social networks I’m part of. I’m posting it here as well, because a lot of you have asked me from time to time about my thoughts on different online social networks.
Here is a brief run down of the online social networks that I use:
Reading list
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 21:55My horoscope today says, “When's the last time you read a really good book, hmm? Why not email a few friends whose taste you trust and ask for a recommendation or two.” This means that 8% of people reading horoscopes should get the same suggestion, so I’ll provide my recommendations and if people have some recommendations of their own, please add them.
A lot of people have been asking me about blogging, and so I would like to recommend a few books that I think are crucial to being a good blogger. This may not be the typical list you’ll find from other bloggers.
I’ll start off my list with Bruce Sterling’s Zeitgeist. Publisher’s weekly describes it as “Rife with profound ruminations on the ‘master narrative’ of life”. Good blogging needs to be the master narrative.
E.B. White’s One Man’s Meat provides an example of what I think good blogging should be. He talks about daily life on his farm and ties it to the political ‘master narrative’.
There are two important themes to me in the master narrative of blogging are role of ‘online influentials’ and the ‘collapse and revival of American Community’. Blogging folks often talk about the Roper report about influentials online. Yet again, I like to go back to some older books. In 1955, Elihu Katz, Paul Lazarsfeld wrote a book, Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. This site sums it up with “Essentially what Lazarsfeld discovered is that many voters regard family members and close personal friends, and not the mass media, as major influences in the decision making process”.
Perhaps this ties together nicely with Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Over the past forty years, politics has become much more focused on the mass media, and we have seen a decline in political involvement. Blogs can provide a shift in the media where we bring family members and close personal friends back into the political decision making process.
So, read Sterling, White, Katz, Lazarsfeld, and Putnam. Think about how you can use the internet to tell personal stories that reflect on the master narrative of twenty-first century politics. Think about how you can help revive American community through re-engaging family members and close personal friends in the political decision making process. Oh, and let me know what you’re reading.
Easter Eggs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 04/15/2006 - 13:45
Kim, Fiona and I decorated these Easter Eggs today
Money in the bank and fire in the belly
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 04/15/2006 - 10:32Years ago, I was treasurer for a vibrant young church. Every year, we would have our pledge drive and afterwards, we would sit down and try to work out the budget. It was always tight. There was never enough money to do all the programs we wanted. Some worried that the church had no endowment, but lived year to year on the donations of the members and by faith. The priest often quipped that the church’s endowment was it members. The church grew and thrived, not because of an endowment or money for programs, but because the members of the church felt passionate about the church and its message and spoke to friends and neighbors about all that was going on.
These memories come back to me as everyone is pouring over the first quarter fundraising numbers for various political races around the country. The amount of money that a candidate raises and the number of donors can reflect the passion supporters have for a candidate or it can reflect an interest in staying in the good graces of the status quo. The money on hand can be used to communicate the candidate’s message, which may or may not be inspiring.
What matters is that people feel passionate about their candidates. This requires candidates that speak truth to power and have fire in their bellies. This is what will get people to spend time passionately talking with their friends, neighbors and relatives about why they support their candidate, and this person to person contact is what we need for a strong vibrant democracy. So, money in the bank is important, but fire in the belly is what really counts.
