Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 14:28
Yesterday, Kim was out registering voters at the Milford Oyster festival. I stopped by and ran into Tessa Marquis and had an interesting talk about citizen journalism and I’d like to illustrate a few different points of this from recent events.
First, I’m no expert on journalism, so if what I’m suggesting doesn’t make sense, I apologize. However, it seems to me that there are three key aspects to any journalism endeavor. First, there is the gathering of information. Then, there is the ‘sense making’, finding a story line or narrative that is compelling, and then there is the distribution.
This gets to a key problem that live bloggers run into. Too often they are trying to gather information and make sense of what is going on all at the same time. This can draw them out of the moment, and they can miss important information.
So, when I am live blogging, or doing various forms of mobile social media, I try to simply gather information and get it distributed as quickly as possible. Then, when I get back home from an event, I can try to make sense, and write up a longer, more narratively interesting entry. What is nice about this approach is also the collaborative aspect. If people see my comments, photographs or listen to my audio posts, they can grab and do their own sense making out of it, even if the sense they make ends up much different than the sense I eventually make out of it.
My blog post yesterday is a good example of that. Local Politics is a picture that I took with my cellphone, which I added a small amount of text to and sent on to Flickr, which in turn posted it to my blog. Later, Mike Brown posted additional information about the candidates to help with the sense making process. When and if I get time, I hope to write up a more detailed post about the Oyster Festival, but the way things are piling up, that just may not happen.
So, if we break apart the information gathering part of the journalistic process from the sense making part, we may find that we want to apply the distribution to both the information gathering part of the process in addition to the sense making part.
As I have been working to get bloggers, delegates, and others going to Denver to submit their information via cellphones to sites like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and so on, I’ve also been working on the distribution channels of this raw information. The DemConvention Room on FriendFeed is set up to pull in information from many such sources so people can look at a fairly raw, unedited feed, and then decide what they want to use for their own sense making.
CSpan is getting into this game as well. They have just set up an account on Twitter and have additional plans in place for their website, which will include aggregating messages on Twitter flagged with the #DNC08 and #RNC08 hashtags.
Here in Connecticut, Lon Seidman has set up http://ctgoestodenver.info/, a site that will have various content from the Connecticut Delegation in Denver.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 20:41
Tuesday is Primary day in Connecticut. According to Newsday there are nineteen state legislative primaries scheduled for Tuesday. In addition, there is a Congressional primary on Tuesday in the Fourth district.
I’m not sure exactly which primaries Newsday is including in the count, because slowly, one primary after another is getting canceled. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Matthew Brennan withdrawing from the State Senate primary in the Eighth Senate district.
Today, Mike Brown wrote about the Stratford Primary being cancelled. Even with these primaries cancelled, the number of primaries this year is greater than normal, which is usually less than a dozen. Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz attributes this to Connecticut's new public campaign financing system. It is also worth noting that the number of uncontested races is down to sixty from seventy-one in the last cycle. That is still way to high, but is a step in the right direction.
I’ve been following some of the different upcoming primaries, and have these thoughts. Marilyn Moore who is running for State Senate to serve Bridgeport, Trumbull and Monroe is the primary candidate that I’m most excited about. She is running for the seat that had been Bill Finch’s and fell into Republican hands when Finch became Mayor of Bridgeport.
I spent some time today canvassing and phonebanking for Marilyn. I posted a few pictures from my cellphone from the day. The house next to campaign headquarters was sole in foreclosure last December.
During my canvassing, I met many great people and had many great discussions. Here is my Utter as I ended my canvassing:
Heading back to campaign headquarters, I snapped a quick picture of a Lee Whitnum sign in the median of the street I was driving down. It is the only Lee Whitnum sign that I’ve seen.
When I got home, I also found these posts about the upcoming primaries, Deb Heinrich and Marilyn Moore.
So, if you live in a district where there is a primary, please get out and vote. If you live in some other district, think about finding some time to stop by and help campaigns get the vote out. Finally, think about whether you should run next time around.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 21:20
I wrote an article for SLNN which I had hoped would be up by now and I could cross post. It isn't up yet, so I figured I would write a quick post, so I could have something other than an automated post from ma.gnolia up today.
Besides writing the SLNN post, I have started reading a pre-release copy of Stephen Mansfield's book, The Faith of Barack Obama.
It will be interesting to contrast the two books. In other news, we had a tornado warning here in Connecticut around dinner time and on Saturday I will be going to a SocialMediaBBQ.
Update: I had the wrong link for the book about President Bush's faith. Here is the correct link:
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 08/02/2008 - 09:45
This morning, I had a fascinating discussion with Jen Just, who will be an Obama Delegate from Connecticut to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. One of the topics we discussed was the use of Social Media by delegates. We are both very interested in how delegates can use social media to widen the discussion around the convention and bring the message home.
To illustrate some of the tools available, I called into Utterz from my cellphone to leave this message about our discussion. It is from a cellphone in an area with poor coverage, so the voice is a little choppy, but still the message was up immediately and shows the power of how these tools can be used.
To continue the discussion, Jen and I will be doing a call in radio show Tuesday evening at 8 PM EDT on BlogTalkRadio about Democrat Delegates to Denver Using Social Media. If you are interested, please listen, and if you have some interesting comments, please call in.
There are a lot of things that delegates, bloggers, and guests to the convention can do to make it a powerful experience for everyone, but we need to start setting up things now.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 19:44
This afternoon, I received a copy of the letter from Matthew Brennan that he sent to the Secretary of State’s office announcing that he was withdrawing from the primary in his district. Audrey Blondin wrote,
I would once again like to thank Matt for all of his commitment, dedication & efforts on behalf of our party and the residents of the 30th District, and wish him all the very best for his future endeavors.
Mike Renzullo, whom Matt was challenging said,
“I want to thank Matt Brennan. By challenging me, he has made me a better candidate, and I appreciate that. I also think Matt shows his character by putting the interests of the party, and of the citizens of the 30th District, ahead of his own. I know Matt, and I’m confident he will lend his support to our campaign, and help the Democrats take this seat in November.”
Matt is a good guy and I wish him well. Now, it is time to focus on Mike’s campaign. Those of you that have been reading me regularly know that I’m very excited by Mike’s campaign. He’s a great candidate.
Until I received the emails about Matt, I was torn about whether to help with Marilyn Moore’s get out the vote efforts on primary day in Bridgeport, Trumbull and Monroe, or if I should head up to the 30th district to help out Mike.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 14:01
While we were on vacation, we got a couple phone calls from friends that let us know that Orient Lodge, our old house that we lost in foreclosure, not this blog, was on the front page of a Stamford newspaper.
The article was in the Stamford Times and talked about, “the board of representatives voted unanimously in favor of designating the home a local historic property”.
It talks a little bit about the person who bought the house. An old friend from Stamford commented here that there is some sort of connection to the school my kids went to and the church we went to.
It is great to read about the new owner falling in love with the place and about his plans for renovating it. It may seem a bit strange, but when things started moving towards foreclosure, I was more concerned about what would happen to the house than what would happen to me. I know that I will get by. The right opportunities will come along soon enough.
Yet the house, it needed someone special to love it, someone who would save it from being torn down and replaced with a McMansion. Now, it is protected as a local historic property and has a person who will help restore it in a way that I never could.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 22:29
This afternoon, I received a phone call asking if I would accompany State Senate Candidate Marilyn Moore to the Trumbull Democratic Town Committee meeting. Having worked with many campaigns, I’m used to these sorts of calls. Candidates should not attend meetings unaccompanied, and I’ve accompanied several different candidates to all kinds of different meetings.
I had not met Marilyn before, at least to the best of my memory. However, my wife Kim has spent a lot of time talking with Marilyn on various subjects and she speaks very highly of Marilyn. In addition, many other friends have spoken very highly of Marilyn, so I agreed to go along.
Marilyn is running in a primary on August 12 to be the Democratic nominee in the 22nd State Senate District, which covers parts of Bridgeport, Monroe and Trumbull. Her opponent is the Town Treasurer for Trumbull so the meeting had the potential to be interesting.
There were around 18 people attending the meeting, which started off with approving the minutes of the previous meeting and a brief treasurer’s report. Marilyn was given a chance to address the DTC and she spoke about working for the phone company, her role as head of the Witness Project which provides culturally competent community-based breast and cervical cancer education programs, and then her role as an assistant to State Senator Ed Gomes from Bridgeport.
After she spoke briefly, State Representative Tom Christiano asked her about her ability to serve constituents of both Trumbull and Bridgeport. She spoke about how her service with the Witness Project has helped her work with people from all across Fairfield County and how she looks forward to serving not only the constituents of Trumbull and Bridgeport, but also of Monroe which is the third town in the district.
After she was done speaking, a representative from the Himes campaign spoke about the listening tour that Jim Himes is doing across the Fourth Congressional district. When the speakers were done, they were offered to opportunity to stay or leave. Marilyn and I decided to stay and we were glad we did since subsequent topic was the resolution by the DTC calling on the State Legislature to pass the health care bill. Marilyn’s background in health care with the Witness Project makes her a particularly strong candidate to address these issues.
Other standard DTC issues were addressed, including nominating people to various committees and discussions about fundraising. Nonetheless, it was a quick meeting, even with the speakers, and it was soon over. Afterwards, Marilyn spoke with various people about the issues in the town before it was time to leave.
I spoke with her briefly afterwards. It seemed as if the evening went very well for her. I’m not surprised. She is bright, articulate, caring and an all around great candidate. I am glad I received the opportunity to accompany her to the Trumbull Democratic Town Committee meeting and got to know her much better. She will make a great State Senator.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 09:22 (Check me out!)
As I reflect on my birthday yesterday, the lyrics from one of the songs in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical comes to mind, “Where do we go from here?” Fiona loves that musical.
Yesterday was a wonderful day. I really appreciate the great messages I received from friends on so many social networks. Some people found it was my birthday from notices that these social networks sent out. Others saw from my post sent from ping.fm to many different networks that I’m part of. Ping.fm has really helped me stay up to date on many of these networks.
But, back to Buffy. Where do we go from here? Today, I’m going to Hartford to hear Sen. Edwards speak about his Half in Ten effort. The goal of Half in Ten is to cut poverty in the United States in half in ten years.
Hartford Press Conference with Senator John Edwards
Thursday 7/10, 11:45 AM
Boys and Girls Club
1 Nahum Drive, Hartford
Later, Sen. Edwards will be speaking in Bridgeport. However, I’ll probably not make it to that event.
Bridgeport Rally with Senator John Edwards
Thursday 7/10, 2:00 PM
Steel Point
East Main Street and Stratford Ave, Bridgeport
Friday, hopefully, will be a day of recuperation, catching up and then packing for vacation. On Saturday, we will drive up to Springfield in a circuitous route to our vacation on Cape Cod. Our first stop will be Memorial Service for Lori.
Because of this, we will not be able to make it to the Open House at www.alpacahillfarm.com. This is the Alpaca farm in Seymour, CT that I’ve written about in the past. They have two, by now, probably three new baby alpacas. The open house will be from 10 AM until 4 PM, 8 Willow Street, Seymour, CT 06483. We will find some other opportunity to see the alpacas. However, if you are anywhere near Seymour, I would encourage you to attend.
Another event that I’ll have to miss, but wanted to comment on is the Mark Warner fundraiser in Old Saybrook on Sunday. Mark Warner is former Governor of Virginia and is currently running for U.S. Senate. The fundraising luncheon will take place on a yacht in Old Saybrook. The honorary chairs of the event are Sen. Dodd, Sen. Lieberman, and Rep. Courtney. Guests are asked to contribute $1,000.
While I have a lot of respect for Gov. Warner, I don’t have that sort of money, nor do I have any interest in contributing it at a fundraiser where Sen. Lieberman is one of the honorary chairs. Oh well. I wish Gov. Warner luck anyway.
As we camp on the Cape, I will have limited Internet access. We’ll see how often I get on during the week. However, I should note that on Wednesday, July 16th, we will be going to a concert by Stage Door Canteen. It will take place at the Eastham Windmill Green, Rte 6A, Eastham MA. It is part of the Cape Cod Arts Foundation Music in The Parks Concert Series. My online social media friend, Beth Dunn works for the Cape Cod Arts Foundation and I hope to run into her at the concert.
I would love to write more about all of this, detailed thank you letters to everyone who wished me well on my birthday, and so on, but I need to hit the road to get up and see Sen. Edwards.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 21:19 (Check me out!)
Four years ago, today, I uploaded to a site that I was running, a draft copy of the 2004 Democratic National Platform. You can find a copy of my blog post, with links to the draft in archive.org.
A few weeks earlier, I had written an introduction to the website (archive) where I said,
The purpose of the site is to promote open dialog about the platform, the process, and all aspects of the convention. . . . you can click on Platform Committee to get a listing of members of the platform committee. There is information on the state they are from and whom they are pledged to. You can find everyone from a given state or pledge to a specific candidate, by clicking on the state or candidate name below each entry.
As platform planks become available, you will be able to view the planks, as well as provide comments and the planks.
All of this led up to the Platform Committee meeting in Florida on July 10th. Many of us used the site to share ideas, to find platform committee members to lobby, and to report of the successes in adjusting the platform.
In particular, Marla Camp wrote about being a member of the platform committee and some of the efforts behind the scenes to get a more progressive platform. (see archive). I had met Marla through the Dean campaign. She spent a bit of time talking with Charles Lenchner, whom I believe had been coordinating the platform activities for the Kucinich, and talks a bit about her experiences on the now archived blog.
This year, hopefully, will be a bit different. Today, I received an email from Sen. Obama, sent out on behalf of the DNC which starts,
Every four years, the Democratic Party assembles a platform that outlines the party's position on a number of issues.
Traditionally, the drafting of the platform is not open to ordinary people.
This year, that's going to change.
For two weeks in July, people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities to discuss the issues and share their input. The outcome of these meetings will be reviewed by the Drafting Committee as it creates the final Platform.
This is a step in the right direction. Exactly what ‘reviewed’ means is a little ambiguous and disconcerting and I would love to see this taken much further. Will the DNC publish the list of Platform Committee Members and encourage people to contact those members? Will drafts of the platform be available online to look at and discuss? Will people be able to see suggestions from other supporters and discuss those suggestions?
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