Talk about a one-two punch.
First, we loose Kurt Vonnegut to a fall, and now, Studs Terkel.
Not only is this a tremendous blow to American literature, but we have lost two of our nation’s greatest dissenters. You see, both Mr. Vonngegut and Terkel believed democracy was more than a marketing gimmick, able to survive scrutiny and other external challenges.
The ever feisty Mr. Terkel even sued the Bush Administration for it’s illegal wiretapping of American citizens. Studs explained his motivation in the New York Times:
I have observed and written about American life for some time. In truth, nothing much surprises me anymore. But I always feel uplifted by this: Given the facts and an opportunity to act, the body politic generally does the right thing. By revealing the truth in a public forum, the American people will have the facts to play their historic, heroic role in putting our nation back on the path toward freedom. That is why we deserve our day in court.
This comes in stark contrast to Sarah Palin’s views of what Constitutional freedoms are all about. Palin believes the First Amendment should be used to protect the powerful against criticism arguing:
“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”
Yeah, what ever you say Caribou Barbie.
You can learn more about the remarkable Stud Terkel by clicking here or here.
November 2nd, 2008
art by Charis Tsevis
In 2001, Linus Torvalds, with the help of David Diamond, wrote a delightfully irreverent book, detailing Torvalds’ accidental invention of the LINUX operating system while tinkering with Unix and exploring obscure machine languages.
A nerd from Helsinki, who preferred to spends days pouring over his obsession, Linus not only created a superior operating system, but in the process, unwittingly birthed the open source model.
What is the open source model? Well….
Wikipedia defines the open source model as:
The open source model of operation and decision making allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, and differs from the more closed, centralized models of development. The principles and practices are commonly applied to the development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration, and it is usually released as open-source software.
In the chapter titled: Why Open Source Makes Sense, I have pulled a partial list of the perks Linus believes come from choosing an open source strategy:
- The open source model gives people the opportunity to live their passion.
- Imagine: Instead of a tiny cloistered development team working in secret, you have a monster on your side. Potentially millions of the brightest minds are contributing to a project, and are supported by a peer-review process that has no, er, peer.
- By not controlling the technology, you are not limiting its uses. You make it available and people make local decisions–to use it as a launching pad for their own products and services.
- Open source is the best way of leveraging outside talent.
Now, almost seven years since Linus Torvalds published his book, doesn’t this list easily describe the power of the Obama juggernaut?
Let’s break it down.
Without a doubt, Barack Obama possesses an overflowing, innate charisma. People passionately believe in his words and actions, and they want to do something with this energy. They want an opportunity to "live this passion."
Through MyBarackObama.com, Obama has given millions the chance to participate in his campaign and to make a difference on the local and national level.
As just one example, over the weekend the Obama Campaign kicked off its Vote For Change voter registration drive with over a hundred events scatter across the country.
How was this done?
The Obama campaign leveraged its million donors, many of whom give online, through the social networking capacity of MyBarackObama.com.
This website provides registered Obama supporters with a tool to locate events, such as the voter registration drive, in their own neighborhood.
Of course, if a supporter discovers there is no such event in their area, he or she can easily create their own using another tool provided by the website.
Later, after this Obama supporter has organized and participated in their voter registration event, they can go back to their MyBarackObama page and write about the experience on their blog, link to event photographs, or even check the status of the concurrent fund raiser they initiated.
As Linus Torvalds aptly sums up at the end of Why Open Source Makes Sense:
Open up anything, and the possibilities will follow. I’ve been talking about open source for as long as journalists have been asking me about it, which is basically the last five years. It used to be that you had to explain and explain what’s so great about it. And, frankly, it felt like an endless trek. It was like trudging in mud.
People get it now.
May 12th, 2008
While the naysayers in Detroit continue to stall and complain about battery technology, ultracapacitors are gaining traction with small car companies and other auto innovators.
read more | digg story
February 7th, 2008
Great article on creativity, which offers some tip on how to maintain core competencies, and still be able to embrace ambiguity
The more knowledge you possess the less you think outside the box. Experts in a field can benefit from an outsider’s perspective. This is particularly relevant to the gadgets we make and the software we write. A telling sentence from the article: "It ’s why engineers design products ultimately useful only to other engineers."
read more | digg story
January 3rd, 2008
Imagination and self-initiated play are important childhood activities. Not only does this type of play help children develop social and emotional skills– but fantasy, curiosity, and imagination, are some of the crucial building blocks needed to master advanced math and science.
read more | digg story
July 31st, 2007
BarCamp or unconferences are open events where those who attend are expected to become impromptu presenters. The events are publicized over the web and usually focus on open source technologies. Attendance is free.
read more | digg story
May 24th, 2007
Everyone’s favorite online personal development guru, Steve Pavlina, has done it again. He’s listed 33 steadfast, tried-and-true rules for boosting your productivity daily. As is usually the case with his posts, this one is 100% Grade A with no added fluff.
read more | digg story
May 2nd, 2007
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -Mark Twain
It is time to have a serious national dialog about the sorry state of American education. As the new Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce noted, the educational process itself is in need of reevaluation:
The governance, organizational, and management scheme of American schools was created in the early years of the 20th century to match the industrial organization of the time. It was no doubt appropriate for an era when most work required relatively low literacy levels, most teachers had little more education than their students, and efficiency of a rather mechanical sort was the highest value of the system.
In recent years, American industry has shed this management model in favor of high-performance management models designed to produce high-quality products and services with highly educated workers. Some school districts are moving in this direction. That movement needs to be accelerated, formalized, and brought to scale…..
The ED in 08 initiate hopes to bring this debate to the 2008 presidential race through a combination of targeted advertising and taping the energy and enthusiasm of the netroots. The goal of this advocacy campaign is to raise concerns about American education into a top tier campaign issue.
If you would like to get involved, visit EDin08.com.
April 25th, 2007
