Building and Using Your Personal Information Network

So, last time I mentioned the importance of building your Personal Information Network or PIN (PS, thanks for the great comments – keep ‘em coming!). Today I’d like to share an example of how this can work in practice.
I woke up this morning and fired up Google Reader and Twitter first thing to see what [...]

Why and How I Use Twitter

Hi, my name is Chris and I’m…I’m a Twitter addict.
Hi, Chris.
So, yes, I’m a Twitter addict. Just a moment ago I cursed loudly (LOUDLY!) at Twhirl as it pitifully looked at me and told me that Twitter wasn’t talking to it right now because Twitter was so damned busy. So yeah, I need need NEED [...]

Intro to Politics 2.0: Online Politics 101

The amazing folks over at e.politics have recently released a new edition of “Online Politics 101: The Tools and Tactics of Online Political Advocacy”, a nicely packaged collections of articles from the site explaining the basics of using social media tools for online political activism and campaigning. This 52pp. FREE PDF book covers everything from [...]

The Important Difference Between Media and Social Media (Debate Edition)

Over at It’s Not a Lecture, David Wescott totally gets why the Democratic presidential debates last night show that the debate over whether or not we should just call social media “media” now is bogus:
I hope this debate serves as the wake-up call for the traditional media. This is why we can’t yet say “social [...]

Obama Knocks It Out of the Park with Speech on Race

Holy shit, this was a fantastic speech.

I’m not ashamed to say I teared up a bit on this one. Normally I’m pretty cynical about politics and speeches in general. One doesn’t stay a political scientist for long and not, at least to some degree. But I’ll admit: what I heard in [...]

Transactional vs. Transformational Politics

Digby has a great article on the important difference between transactional and transformational politics over at Campaign for America’s Future’s “Blog for Our Future.” Here’s the money quote from the end of the article:
Cramped transactional politics should not be used as a definition of progressivism. While they are a necessary part of the system, they [...]

Thoughts on Nostalgia in the Face of Peak Oil/Global Climate Change

Over at the Oil Drum, Stuart Staniford has an excellent, data-driven argument for “Why Peak Oil Actually Helps Industrial Agriculture.” I really appreciate the research that Staniford has put into this piece, as it provides a nice tonic against the alarmism and doomist approach of people like James Howard Kunstler. Yes, Peak Oil is a [...]

Al Gore at Bali Climate Change Conference

How to Get Blogging Credentials for the DNC Convention

For all you aspiring bloggers out there who wonder how to get press credentials to cover the Democratic nominating convention, DailyKos has a great post explaining this process, with links to supporting material. Very informative, and I hope at least one of our Kentucky blogs will be there.

“Hi, I’m a Mac. I’m a PC. And I’m Linux.”

I love this video (found on a thread at the Whitechapel board). It’s so true.
I also like the video because it simply, and humorously illustrates what the Open Source community is all about. Nice. Simple. and Short. We need more Burst Culture like this in the Open Source movement. Information and [...]