I am beta testing Flock 2.0's integrated blogging tool. I was unable to post my Drupal blog prior to this, so this is a test to see if this was fixed.
Blogged with the Flock Browser

A friend of mine just emailed a link to a screencast on Views 2 for Drupal. I love the new features, but I am still not completely sold on the UI. I'll get over it though...

Enjoy!

I have been trying out some personal reputation management tips lately, so I started googling my name pretty frequently. I found an article on Network for Good where my name was mentioned. I was quoted from an email I sent to a listserve which was turned into an article and posted on various blogs.

The Network for Good article says:

This is a great video of Vinton Girf, VP of Google, speaking about the future of the internet and online advertising.

For the past year, I have tossed around ideas for how I want I can put forth an initiative to promote the use of technology, specifically open source technology, to come up with common sense solutions to problems in America. I know, a year is a long time to come up with an idea this simple, but it is something I am truly passionate about, so I want to make sure I do this right.

This is a great video explaining what social media is and why it is important. Who knows, maybe social ice cream could be the new craze.

This was a very good take on social networking in my opinion. Danah Boyd made reference to social networks as "mediated property," which they very much are. We don't own Myspace or Facebook profiles, they are more like public property which is governed by the laws of the commonwealth.

I am currently working on building a social volunteering system for a campaign. It is nothing really complexed, just some social features built around an online calendar. The general purpose is to let Democrats in the state be able to post information about events, sign up to volunteer or attend community events, blog about their experience campaigning for change this cycle, and network with other volunteer organizers and campaign staffers.

In my experience over the past election cycle, the concept of the "web team" is slowly dying. There is an increasing demand for tech-savvy campaign staffers across the board. Field organizers are using social networks to turn out young voters to events, finance staff are having to learn the ins and outs of email marketing, and communications staff are put in a position where they can no longer treat bloggers differently from the media. Meet Campaign 2.4.1.

The past few days on the campaign trail have been inspiring and humbling to say the least. I have met people from all over Alaska in the short week and a half I have been here, and needless to say their stories are extraordinary. Yet, these are stories I have heard before. There is the story of the parent who cannot feed their child, or the child who feels they have no one to turn to so they turn to a liquor bottle, and the retiree who has become so cold and bitter to the world around them because they have been their needs have been ignored for so long.