Last night, I attended an event at Harvard about the Knight News Challenge, put on by Hacks/Hackers Boston and the Knight Foundation. The room was full of people who are interested in applying for the News Challenge grant program. I was there to talk about our Knight project, OpenBlock, specifically, and about open source and the News Challenge more generally. During the cocktail hour, I got to talking to the ever-present Jenny 8. Lee -- Jenny is former NYT reporter, News Challenge reviewer, and one of the main organizers of Hacks/Hackers (not to mention the owner of one of the best personal urls I've seen: j8.ly). For those that don't know it, Hacks/Hackers is a fast growing meetup group that is working to bridge the gap between Hacks (journalists) and Hackers (hackers). I believe Hacks/Hackers now has chapters in 10 cities. I remarked on how well Hacks/Hackers seemed to be doing; not only are they spawning chapters at a quick pace, they are also putting on all sorts of cool events -- from the
Last night, I attended an event at Harvard about the Knight News Challenge, put on by Hacks/Hackers Boston and the Knight Foundation. The room was full of people who are interested in applying for the News Challenge grant program. I was there to talk about our Knight project, OpenBlock, specifically, and about open source and the News Challenge more generally. During the cocktail hour, I got to talking to the ever-present Jenny 8. Lee -- Jenny is former NYT reporter, News Challenge reviewer, and one of the main organizers of Hacks/Hackers (not to mention the owner of one of the best personal urls I've seen: j8.ly). For those that don't know it, Hacks/Hackers is a fast growing meetup group that is working to bridge the gap between Hacks (journalists) and Hackers (hackers). I believe Hacks/Hackers now has chapters in 10 cities. I remarked on how well Hacks/Hackers seemed to be doing; not only are they spawning chapters at a quick pace, they are also putting on all sorts of cool events -- from the
that we're co-sponsoring w/ OpenBlock at MIT later this month. What is so cool about Hacks/Hackers is that it is growing open-source style. New communities come online at the will of the participants in those communities, with the loose support of Hacks/Hackers central. It is an open source initiative - a template is being drawn by the earlier cities, and the model is being replicated and adapted elsewhere. For example, Hacks/Hackers NYC's
spent 45 minutes on the phone with us yesterday giving us tips for the OpenBlock hackathon. There are other organizations and initiatives that are growing in similar ways - through the combination of a good idea, an open format, and enthusiastic participants. Jenny called this "The DIY Empire," which is kind of an awesome way to put it [
update
: Jenny informs me that Molly Crabapple is the one who
]. I really do see it as a movement. Here are some of my favorite examples:
The biggest and most established is certainly the BarCamp movement. Not much to say about that that hasn't already been said.
CityCamp is a BarCamp vertical focusing on city tech and gov 2.0. CityCamp's main organizer, Kevin Curry, refers to CityCamp as an "open source brand" and is putting significant organizing work into taking it World-wide.
Another great one is the Awesome Foundation - a micro-foundation that funds "forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe" by pooling $100 contributions from a group of 10 trustees to make $1000 monthly grants. (I regret not jumping at the chance to become trustee of Awesome NYC earlier this year)
And lastly, there's DIYcity, which brought together communities of civic hackers working on projects across multiple cities. While that hasn't sustained the same amount of long-term traction as the others, it is clearly the same model, and had a lot of interest early on.
Of course there are others that I'm not thinking about right now, but these four get the basic idea across. One of the most impressive things about these DIY initiatives is how little they cost and how fast they move -- Hacks/Hackers, BarCamp, CityCamp, and Awesome are all growing at a furious rate and at an amazingly low cost. There is something magical there about the combination of a loose federation backed by a strong core idea and local shoe leather.
I love seeing people write to their future selves. Here's a note I came across in my very own inbox today, no doubt jotted down on my iPhone while I was half-drunk at a party.
Drake.
Neon Indian
Groove shark - friends playlist
Darius. Radius radius
Brother
"Radius radius" is my favorite part. I can't wait to discover what it means, after I do a little googling.
This week, we're on vacation in Cape Cod with my wife's family. They've been renting the same tiny cabin by the beach for the past 35 years, and coming here is pretty much the highlight of our summer each year. Last summer, we brought
that we're co-sponsoring w/ OpenBlock at MIT later this month. What is so cool about Hacks/Hackers is that it is growing open-source style. New communities come online at the will of the participants in those communities, with the loose support of Hacks/Hackers central. It is an open source initiative - a template is being drawn by the earlier cities, and the model is being replicated and adapted elsewhere. For example, Hacks/Hackers NYC's
spent 45 minutes on the phone with us yesterday giving us tips for the OpenBlock hackathon. There are other organizations and initiatives that are growing in similar ways - through the combination of a good idea, an open format, and enthusiastic participants. Jenny called this "The DIY Empire," which is kind of an awesome way to put it [
update
: Jenny informs me that Molly Crabapple is the one who
]. I really do see it as a movement. Here are some of my favorite examples:
The biggest and most established is certainly the BarCamp movement. Not much to say about that that hasn't already been said.
CityCamp is a BarCamp vertical focusing on city tech and gov 2.0. CityCamp's main organizer, Kevin Curry, refers to CityCamp as an "open source brand" and is putting significant organizing work into taking it World-wide.
Another great one is the Awesome Foundation - a micro-foundation that funds "forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe" by pooling $100 contributions from a group of 10 trustees to make $1000 monthly grants. (I regret not jumping at the chance to become trustee of Awesome NYC earlier this year)
And lastly, there's DIYcity, which brought together communities of civic hackers working on projects across multiple cities. While that hasn't sustained the same amount of long-term traction as the others, it is clearly the same model, and had a lot of interest early on.
Of course there are others that I'm not thinking about right now, but these four get the basic idea across. One of the most impressive things about these DIY initiatives is how little they cost and how fast they move -- Hacks/Hackers, BarCamp, CityCamp, and Awesome are all growing at a furious rate and at an amazingly low cost. There is something magical there about the combination of a loose federation backed by a strong core idea and local shoe leather.
I love seeing people write to their future selves. Here's a note I came across in my very own inbox today, no doubt jotted down on my iPhone while I was half-drunk at a party.
Drake.
Neon Indian
Groove shark - friends playlist
Darius. Radius radius
Brother
"Radius radius" is my favorite part. I can't wait to discover what it means, after I do a little googling.
This week, we're on vacation in Cape Cod with my wife's family. They've been renting the same tiny cabin by the beach for the past 35 years, and coming here is pretty much the highlight of our summer each year. Last summer, we brought
here when he was just three weeks old. This morning, he and I took a walk along the harbor in Provincetown at low tide -- he thinks of each beached boat as a giant bucket, just waiting to be filled with sand. The problem is, whenever we're on vacation, I have a hard time finding the right balance between "unplugging" and staying engaged with the real world. One the one hand, I want to remain connected with work and friends, on the other, I just want to tune out, relax, and be with the people I'm with. Inevitably, I end up fighting the struggle each day, carving out some time for the important stuff at
, and forcing myself (with limited success) not to stress about it too much the rest of the time. It's tough, and to some extent I feel like I achieve the worst of both worlds: neither able to fully enjoy my break, nor be fully present for important happenings at the office. This has become more of an issue as technology has evolved. Here at the cabin there's never been any phone or TV. Then there were cell phones. Next, internet down the road at the town library. Then, iPhone and blackberries. Now, this year we have a mobile broadband connection for our laptops, so we're as connected as we can be. For certain things, it's great: we watched the World Cup final online last weekend, and yesterday my father-in-law did an interview via Skype, which saved him a day-long trip up to Maine. But, work email and things to do are now within arms reach at all times. I suppose the vacation case is just a microcosm of the larger question of how to balance real-world face time with online time. Fred Wilson, one of my favorite bloggers,
frequently, and I'm really amazed the extent to which he's able to stay engaged with the networked world without driving his family crazy. In our case, the family is only semi-digitally integrated; it's just not part of our culture to always be connected. Maybe getting an iPad would
-- using online (all?) time to do the most important and productive things, and not just consume endlessly as you might in a less online constrained environment. And of course, one of these days I'll be able to plan ahead enough so that everything is under control at the office and I don't have to worry about anything. But I'm sure if I did that, I'd find reasons to plug back in...
here when he was just three weeks old. This morning, he and I took a walk along the harbor in Provincetown at low tide -- he thinks of each beached boat as a giant bucket, just waiting to be filled with sand. The problem is, whenever we're on vacation, I have a hard time finding the right balance between "unplugging" and staying engaged with the real world. One the one hand, I want to remain connected with work and friends, on the other, I just want to tune out, relax, and be with the people I'm with. Inevitably, I end up fighting the struggle each day, carving out some time for the important stuff at
, and forcing myself (with limited success) not to stress about it too much the rest of the time. It's tough, and to some extent I feel like I achieve the worst of both worlds: neither able to fully enjoy my break, nor be fully present for important happenings at the office. This has become more of an issue as technology has evolved. Here at the cabin there's never been any phone or TV. Then there were cell phones. Next, internet down the road at the town library. Then, iPhone and blackberries. Now, this year we have a mobile broadband connection for our laptops, so we're as connected as we can be. For certain things, it's great: we watched the World Cup final online last weekend, and yesterday my father-in-law did an interview via Skype, which saved him a day-long trip up to Maine. But, work email and things to do are now within arms reach at all times. I suppose the vacation case is just a microcosm of the larger question of how to balance real-world face time with online time. Fred Wilson, one of my favorite bloggers,
frequently, and I'm really amazed the extent to which he's able to stay engaged with the networked world without driving his family crazy. In our case, the family is only semi-digitally integrated; it's just not part of our culture to always be connected. Maybe getting an iPad would
-- using online (all?) time to do the most important and productive things, and not just consume endlessly as you might in a less online constrained environment. And of course, one of these days I'll be able to plan ahead enough so that everything is under control at the office and I don't have to worry about anything. But I'm sure if I did that, I'd find reasons to plug back in...
