The 2008 DNC is expected to be the most blogged-about political convention in history.That, of course, is just a small segment of the estimated 15,000 total media in attendance. Nonetheless it is worth noting.
Google will be pampering bloggers and tutoring US policy makers at Democratic and Republican national conventions as Internet culture flexes growing political muscle.
The Internet giant is joining news-ranking website Digg and blogger groups to set up a Big Tent for media and delegates at the Democratic convention next week in the US state of Colorado. The 8,000-square-foot center will feature a public area with kiosks for uploading videos to Google-owned YouTube and demonstrations of services offered by Google.
I'm delighted to be writing this post as a OneWebDay ambassador. OneWebDay, which takes place on September 22, is a global day to celebrate the Internet, and the values that make the Internet such an essential part of our society. This year OneWebDay is paying particular tribute to the Internet's role in supporting democratic participation — a role that is made possible by the Internet's character as an open, global and participatory medium.
I'm a participant in that global conversation, but I'm also part of a local online community in the city of Vancouver, where I've been part of many lively conversations in local WiFi cafes and local community sites. Like the rest of Vancouver, wired Vancouverites look forward to showing our city off to the world when we host the winter Olympics in 2010. Of course, as with any global event, the Olympics also raises concerns about what the world might see when it turns its spotlight to beautiful BC.
I'm pleased to put that concern to rest. While I was reading today's news coverage of Internet censorship at the Beijing Olympics, I stumbled onto the IOC's intranet, where I came across the following draft memo:
February 12, 2010
Dear citizen-journalist,
We are sorry to report that owing to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, and certainly not due to any action on the part of your Internet Service Provider or the IOC, your computer may be unable to resolve certain domains. Our technicians are examining the issue, and we expect this outage to last until roughly 11:59 p.m. on February 28th.
To assist our friends in the journalism community, we have prepared this list of alternative sources:
| Instead of… |
…you can visit… |
| thetyee.ca |
www.cannedtuna.ca for the very best alternative news from the pages of CTVCanWestglobemedia, a proud division of AOLTimeWarnerNewsCorporation. |
| changeverything.ca | www.changenothing.ca, the site that celebrates Vancouver's charming condos, shopping malls and car dealerships. They're perfect just the way they are. |
| adbusters.org | www.marketingmag.ca, which takes a balanced look at advertising's essential role in helping us buy more stuff. |
| cannabisculture.ca | www.coniferculture.com, a celebration of BC's favourite form of plant life. (Note: please do not smoke the trees.) |
| happyfrog.ca | www.ecstaticfrog.ca, where you'll learn how Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Now say it with me…. |
| freegeekvancouver.org | www.bestbuy.com, because really - do you want a computer that some hippy's been pawing over? |
In addition, as per recent directives from the Government of Canada, you may have difficulty reaching any URL containing the numerals 2010, the number 10, the word ten, a combination of 1s and 0s, any reference to human or numerary digits, the word winter, winter-y time images or music, or images of abaci. May we show you something in a 2012?
* * *
It's easy to scoff at the idea of Internet censorship bedeviling the Vancouver Olympics the way it's now causing an uproar in Beijing. But Vancouver is in fact the home of one of the few recorded violations of net neutrality: during a 2005 labour dispute, local ISP Telus blocked its subscribers from accessing a website created by its employees' union.
Whether it's Vancouver or Beijing, daily life or Olympic bustle, unfettered access to the Internet is democracy's best friend. OneWebDay is a chance to celebrate the Internet's role in supporting effective democracy — and a reminder of those who do not yet enjoy its full benefits.
Today marks the eighth anniversary of our other founding partnership: our marriage. July 29th, 2000 was the Big Day not only for the two of us, but also for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
We know that popular opinion lays the blame for the Brad-Jen breakup at the feet of a certain Ms. Jolie, but we recognize a completely different kind of relationship pressure. With all the press coverage of their marriage, did you ever see them pictured with matching his 'n hers PowerBooks?
We don't want our own marriage to fall victim to the specter of insufficient technology. And yet the traditional roster of anniversary gifts is still geared towards the analog lifestyle.
To celebrate our half-hex anniversary, we're proud to present a new, geek-friendly set of recommended anniversary gifts. Do note that the recommended 8th anniversary gift is a nice, fresh web link…hint, hint.
| Year | Traditional | Geek | Notes |
| 1 | Paper | Manuals, documentation | Electronic documentation is just as appropriate as paper manuals. |
| 2 | Cotton | Tech conference and tech culture T-shirts | 100% cotton and size-appropriate, please, if you want to create passionate users. |
| 3 | Leather | Protective cases, luggage | Before you buy that leather laptop case, make sure your geek isn't a vegan. |
| 4 | Fruit, Flowers, Linen, Silk | Apple product | To a true geek, there is no fruit besides Apple. |
| 5 | Wood | Fonts, input devices | Early typewriters were made from wood. |
| 6 | Sugar, Iron | Red Bull, energy snacks | Sugar, in its geek-preferred form. |
| 7 | Wool, Copper | Circuit boards, hardware upgrades | Circuit boards use copper circuits. |
| 8 | Bronze, Pottery | Web links | Bronze is used for bells, i.e. a way of drawing people's attention. |
| 9 | Pottery, Willow | Data storage | For holding things — the modern equivalent to willow baskets. |
| 10 | Tin, aluminum | Enclosures, CPUs | CPU enclosures are often made from aluminum. |
| 11 | Steel | RAM, memory | RAM chips are typically held in a computer by steel clips. Think of this as the digital equivalent of a wedding photo album. |
| 12 | Silk, Linen | Security devices and software | Silk is made by worms. Security software protects against computer worms. |
| 13 | Lace | Portable electronics devices | Microchips, like lace, used to rely on women with good eyesight to do the manufacturing (both have since automated). Assembly of small products still relies on fine motor work by women. |
| 14 | Ivory | Electronic instruments, speakers | Piano keys were originally made from ivory. |
| 15 | Crystal | LCDs | Liquid CRYSTAL displays. Get it? |
| 20 | China | GPS | Ceramics are part of the miniature antennas used in GPS devices. |
| 25 | Silver | Digital photography equipment, image capture | Silver used in early photo processing. |
| 30 | Pearl | Smart phones | Like the Blackberry Pearl. |
| 35 | Coral, Jade | Linux boxes | The Linux OS, like coral, is made up of thousands of individual contributions that are nonetheless "commonly perceived to be a single organism". |
| 40 | Ruby | Web applications | Preferably applications written in Ruby on Rails. |
| 45 | Sapphire | Laptop computers | Laptop screens use LEDs; some LEDs use a sapphire-like crystal as part of the manufacturing process. |
| 50 | Gold | MP3 players | Gold is used in semiconductors; radios were one of the earlier applications of semiconductors. |
| 55 | Emerald | Code, custom software | As created on the Emerald Isle. |
| 60 | Diamond | Pre-release alpha technologies | Synthetic diamonds are projected as a future material for superconductors, capable of withstanding great heat. |
I'm delighted to be writing this post as a OneWebDay ambassador. OneWebDay, which takes place on September 22, is a global day to celebrate the Internet, and the values that make the Internet such an essential part of our society. This year OneWebDay is paying particular tribute to the Internet's role in supporting democratic participation — a role that is made possible by the Internet's character as an open, global and participatory medium.
I'm a participant in that global conversation, but I'm also part of a local online community in the city of Vancouver, where I've been part of many lively conversations in local WiFi cafes and local community sites. Like the rest of Vancouver, wired Vancouverites look forward to showing our city off to the world when we host the winter Olympics in 2010. Of course, as with any global event, the Olympics also raises concerns about what the world might see when it turns its spotlight to beautiful BC.
I'm pleased to put that concern to rest. While I was reading today's news coverage of Internet censorship at the Beijing Olympics, I stumbled onto the IOC's intranet, where I came across the following draft memo:
February 12, 2010
Dear citizen-journalist,
We are sorry to report that owing to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, and certainly not due to any action on the part of your Internet Service Provider or the IOC, your computer may be unable to resolve certain domains. Our technicians are examining the issue, and we expect this outage to last until roughly 11:59 p.m. on February 28th.
To assist our friends in the journalism community, we have prepared this list of alternative sources:
| Instead of… |
…you can visit… |
| thetyee.ca |
www.cannedtuna.ca for the very best alternative news from the pages of CTVCanWestglobemedia, a proud division of AOLTimeWarnerNewsCorporation. |
| changeverything.ca | www.changenothing.ca, the site that celebrates Vancouver's charming condos, shopping malls and car dealerships. They're perfect just the way they are. |
| adbusters.org | www.marketingmag.ca, which takes a balanced look at advertising's essential role in helping us buy more stuff. |
| cannabisculture.ca | www.coniferculture.com, a celebration of BC's favourite form of plant life. (Note: please do not smoke the trees.) |
| happyfrog.ca | www.ecstaticfrog.ca, where you'll learn how Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Vancouver has become the most sustainable city ever. Now say it with me…. |
| freegeekvancouver.org | www.bestbuy.com, because really - do you want a computer that some hippy's been pawing over? |
In addition, as per recent directives from the Government of Canada, you may have difficulty reaching any URL containing the numerals 2010, the number 10, the word ten, a combination of 1s and 0s, any reference to human or numerary digits, the word winter, winter-y time images or music, or images of abaci. May we show you something in a 2012?
* * *
It's easy to scoff at the idea of Internet censorship bedeviling the Vancouver Olympics the way it's now causing an uproar in Beijing. But Vancouver is in fact the home of one of the few recorded violations of net neutrality: during a 2005 labour dispute, local ISP Telus blocked its subscribers from accessing a website created by its employees' union.
Whether it's Vancouver or Beijing, daily life or Olympic bustle, unfettered access to the Internet is democracy's best friend. OneWebDay is a chance to celebrate the Internet's role in supporting effective democracy — and a reminder of those who do not yet enjoy its full benefits.
Click here to read part 1, an introduction to digital mind mapping.
MindMeister works a lot like MindManager, with the features I've come to see as essential for a good mind-mapping experience:
In addition, MindMeister has a bunch of great web-specific features:
See who added what when viewing a shared map.
But what makes MindMeister rock my world is the fact that it lets two or more people work on a mind map at the same time. No locking and unlocking the document; no waiting a minute while your collaborator's changes show up. If you and a colleague are editing the same map concurrently, you'll see each other's changes in about five or ten seconds. This makes the experience of collaboration a lot less like Google Docs (which we use regularly, in exchanging drafts of a document) and a lot more like SubEthaEdit (which we use constantly, to collaboratively write or note-take in real time).
As an almost real-time collaboration tool, MindMeister unlocks a whole new way of working together. You're not limited to linear structures (like task lists, documents and even wikis). You can take notes, jot down ideas or capture information — then dynamically and collaboratively reorganize it. Where document sharing (at its best, i.e. real time in SubEthaEdit) can feel like writing together, with MindMeister you can actually do your thinking together.
We've been using MindMeister for a little over a month, and already we've used it to:
But if you really want to understand what MindMeister can do for you, you've got to see it in action. So here is the very latest mind map we've created — a map of where mind mapping fits into the big picture of collaboration tools that we use here at Social Signal.
(Click and drag on the map to move it around so that you can see the whole thing. The tools with the hearts are the ones I personally use every week, if not every day. Click here to see the map in all its glory on the MindMeister site.)
Are you using MindMeister yourself? Curious about — or experienced with — some of the other tools on the Social Signal map of online collaboration tools? Have another approach to collaboration that you prefer? Tell us your ideas about mind mapping and online collaboration, and you could win a free year of