A Name from the Past Creates a Brighter Future for Many

Back in the 1980s, when I lived in the Detroit area, I met a guy named Craig Newmark. The venue was a barbecue where the guests were comic book artists and computer geeks. I remember that he worked at EDS, the company founded by Ross Perot. He was soft-spoken and had a self-deprecating sense of humor.

Fast forward 20 years to a company called Craigslist and a series on National Public Radio called 'This I Believe.'  The announcer introduced the day's speaker: the founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark.

That's not a common name, I thought. I wonder if it's the same Craig Newmark.

I heard the voice and realized it was. Who knew?

Craig Newmark is a person who has touched millions of lives through social media and his foundation, craigconnects. Right now he wants to donate $10,000 to Kiva, the nonprofit that empowers people around the world by making microloans of $25. He's asking people on his Facebook page to choose an area: housing, education, food or services. If you'd enjoy helping someone spend $10,000, cast your decision today.

Take a moment to listen to Craig's This I Believe essay, entitled "That Golden Rule Thing."

Also, have you met a person who went on to become famous? Share your "Who Knew?" moment in a comment.

A Movie that Rockets Young Dreams to the Stars

It surprises me when I hear about movies being shown in school. I suppose it makes sense, considering how visually oriented kids and teens are. One movie that should be shown in every math and science class is the 1999 movie October Sky. The story takes place in a West Virginia coalmining town during America's space race with the Soviet Union. Eighteen-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal plays student Homer Hickam, with Laura Dern in a lovely role as his science teacher. Homer's imagination is fired by rockets and the space race, and wants to transcend the life of a coal miner that everyone says is his destiny.

October Sky is about breaking free from the gravitational pull of predestined limitations. It's about kids accepting other kids even if it isn't socially cool to do so. And it's about parents allowing their children to chart their own course. There are a couple of instances of non-PG language and one brief, disturbing scene of an alcoholic parent striking a child. But those moments are lost in the sheer joy of the overall story. Plus, students will love the many, many rockets that blow up before the Rocket Boys discover success.

Considering how the price of college has skyrocketed, and how space exploration is considered unnecessary in the face of a budget deficit, I don't know how possible the October Sky story is today. But it prompts parents to hold our kids, ourselves and our lawmakers to a higher standard -- and to shoot for the stars.

Which movie do you think should be shown in school, and why? Please share it below in a comment. 

Photo from HollywoodJesus.com: Pop Culture from a Spiritual Point of View.

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Ask the First Kids on the School BusAbout the Need for Rural Broadband

I got the school calendar and fall community education calendar from the East Central School District in the mail the other day. Always interested in lengths of bus rides, I checked the times that the first kids on the route board the bus. The earliest was 6:05. The latest boarding time (on a different bus) was 8:04. Assuming breakfast starts at 8:10 and classes begin at 8:30, the first kid on the bus has been riding for over two hours.

I've heard that a lot of students in the East Central School District are homeschooled. I can understand why. When I take my dog Jerry for a swim in a Park Township creek, I pass a school bus stop sign on a gravelly ribbon of hilly road. I can't help but wonder how long of a bus ride that student has. Imagine the driveway in the wintertime and you'll think of that old Volkswagen commercial: "How does the man who drives the snowplow get to the snowplow?" (Considered one of the 100 all-time greatest commercials, the Doyle Dane Bernbach spot appears below.)

East Central isn't an exception, but an example of what rural school districts in Minnesota face. When traveling to the end of the driveway is an ordeal, and when school budgets are downsized and shifted, rural broadband isn't an option -- it's essential.

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Commercial from nishiot's youtube channel.

What Edith Bunker Can Teach Meabout Satellite Broadband

The first minute of the following All in the Family episode contains one of my favorite Edith Bunker "dingbat" moments. In a story that takes place during the 1974 energy crisis, Edith takes energy conservation to endearing ridiculousness. I'd do well to exercise Edith's prudence once our broadband satellite service begins.




I never dreamed that I'd open a browser window and not have endless bandwidth pour forth. With satellite broadband, you have a fixed allowance of uploads, downloads, and bandwidth. The allowance can be easily depleted unless you budget wisely. So every page opened, every browser refreshed, every event streamed and every attachment downloaded will have to be purposeful and economical.

We currently pay Frontier just over $150 a month for DSL, a landline and satellite TV. We want to stick as close as possible to that figure for satellite broadband, satellite TV and our cell phones. (I've long advocated for losing the TV, but that would be like asking Archie Bunker to give up his chair.)

For those reasons, our out-of-range location, and because so many other preparations are involved with moving, broadband satellite is our best choice for now. It's not an ideal situation, but it's not the end of the world. Edith's coping abilities and good cheer will serve me well.

Thank you to Mynjunkyard for directing me to this classic All in the Family episode on YouTube. Edith Bunker's energy conservation moment occurs in the first minute, but you'll want to watch the entire episode.

Unless you have satellite broadband. Then shut that window immediately!

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Rural Broadband Access for 55927? Don't Bet the Farm.

The Rural Broadband Bermuda Triangle

This map from Jaguar Communications (Owatonna, MN) illustrates the "Broadband Bermuda Triangle" that we'll be in. Look in the section that's bordered on top by the four blue circles (representing wireless internet), on the left by the big green squiggle (serviceable fiber), and on the right by the small yellow blob (DSL and telephone). We're right in the middle of the middle section. Maybe in time DSL or Wi-Fi will be extended. But for now, it is what it is.

Matt Larsen at WirelessCowboys.com wrote an evocative post and picture essay about the possibilities of rural broadband. Check it out!

Rural Broadband Accessfor 55927? Don't Bet the Farm.

I'm having trouble remembering my new address. It's less of an address than it is a confirmation number: the house number an unrelated string of digits, the street name another string of digits without a directional. I keep wanting to add a North or South or Northwest that isn't there.

But one thing is permanently burned onto my hard drive. 
The zip code. 55927. 55927. 55927.

Picasa photo: roderick_clark

In looking for rural broadband service, I've entered my new zip code into the search engine of one Internet service provider after another: Qwest. Comcast. Frontier. Mediacom. CenturyLink. None provide broadband service to zip code 55927. I've felt like a gambling addict in Vegas, feeding quarter after quarter into a slot machine and fervently hoping I hit the jackpot with the next coin.

It's hard to believe that here in Bruno, a town of 102, we've had unlimited broadband access while  roughly 20 miles from the Mayo Clinic, broadband is scarce. Our new digs are outside of the Dodge Center city limits, falling smack dab in the middle of a triangle formed by the cities of West Concord, Dodge Center, and Claremont. It's a Bermuda Triangle of sorts for rural broadband.

Frontier expanded its broadband service to Bruno customers about four years ago, and I can't remember what life was like without it. Things may change in time. Perhaps Frontier will expand its frontiers. For now, our choices for rural broadband are HughesNet and WildBlue. Do you have service through either of those providers, or have stories about rural broadband in general? Would we love it if you shared your stories? You bet!

The Blogger's Serenity Prayer

Okay, so I'm tearing my hair out trying to navigate my blog migration. Feeling like my Webmaster abilities mirror the carpentry skills of Alf and Ralph Monroe. Wondering if I should try to fix the misconnects on my own. Or would I make things worse, and just tell Google, "Here, fix this."

Then these words came to me. And serenity prevailed.

Google, grant me the strength 

to change the HTML you cannot accept,

The serenity to accept the 

Page Not Founds you cannot change,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

The actual Serenity Prayer is best known for its importance in Twelve Step recovery. The Twelve Steps start with admitting powerlessness over a cunning and baffling opponent—in my case, Web technology. But all around I found helpful, knowledgable people who were eager to lend support because they were once in the same position I was. They empowered me to keep going: to try and fix the faulty HTML, to not obsess over irrevocably deleted pages, but take note of what to do next time and move on. It's working.

Thank you to all, especially Classical Bookworm, who generously shared her self-taught migration expertise;  Nitecruzr, a Blogger rock star; and the enthusiastically supportive Blogging Mastermind Comment Tribe on Facebook.

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Time to Change

Party on, #Blizzardpeople

Blizzards with hashtags: now, that’s climate change.
The 2010 Twin Cities blizzard has snowballed into a community party, thanks to Twitter hashtags that link tweets into one continuous conversation. My favorite hashtag: #blizzardpeople, coined by political writer Rachel Stassen-Berger, segueing from yet another Minnesota election recount and the state’s most famous write-in candidate.
What a contrast to the relentless and Twitterless Halloween blizzard of 1991.
Back then my husband Mike and I lived in a Minneapolis duplex. On Saturday morning, the day after the blizzard began, our furnace broke down. Step One was finding a plumber who made house calls on a weekend and during an epic  blizzard. Step Two was shoveling out the driveway so the plumber could bring in the new furnace. Step Three was keeping neighbors off the cleared driveway: the only driveway and the only cleared space on the block.
Perhaps Twitter would have changed the climate of the 1991 blizzard. If the Halloween blizzard had a hashtag, what would it have been?
#Boolizzard?
#Hallowinter?
Share your hashtag ideas in the comments section!

On Facebook
Reminisce at I Remember the Halloween Blizzard of '91.
Check out the snow photo albums of Craig Martin Stellmacher and Marty Owings 
On Twitter
follow @rachelSB

A Prepaid Smartphone Would Change the World

The guy at Radio Shack tried not to laugh when I asked if they had a prepaid smartphone. Not one with an annual contract, or even with a month-to-month contract like Verizon’s, but an honest-to-goodness pay-as-you-go smartphone. Where you buy a minutes card, load the minutes, use up the minutes, buy another card and get more minutes.

A pay-as-you-go smartphone would bridge the digital divide the way electricity brought rural America onto the power grid.

Remember the outrage over a man at a soup kitchen who used a cell phone to take pictures of Michelle Obama when the First Lady was serving food? The underlying message was, these people shouldn’t have this equipment. If they can afford a cell phone they don’t need a soup kitchen.

The fact is, cell phones are available for as little as ten dollars. The fact is, you need a phone to get job callbacks. A pay-as-you-go smartphone would cost more than ten dollars, obviously. But remember when the prices of DVD players dropped? Or home computers?  

Think of the number of times a day you use Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to share information, establish connections, network in your field. Try to remember the last time you read the "help wanted" ads in a newspaper. Then think about people who have no or limited access to digital technology.

On the digital evolution scale, I'm evolved enough to have a digitally distinct rating, but not evolved enough to know how to embed the widget that tells the world about it. Still, I realize many people wish they were where I was. That’s why Monday I’m attending the Digital Inclusion seminar at The Humphrey Institute.

Expanding digital access enriches people's lives by opening them up to vital sources of information and opportunity. Expanding access also enriches the digital conversation by bringing in new ideas and perspectives. When the same people with the same ideologies share the same information, social networks can easily become echo chambers.

New media marketer Jeff Korhan recently blogged about the need to find uncharted social waters. Bringing rural America to the power grid was a foray into uncharted waters. Bridging the digital divide would be another. And a pay-as-you-go smartphone would be the vehicle that makes it happen.

Becoming a Social Media Hound

Owning a high-maintenance Weimaraner rescue puppy means time away from the computer, but not time away from the job.

While I walk Jerry, ideas that may not have made sense while staring at the computer screen suddenly come into clarity.

Social media is about engaging with people and keeping them coming back regularly to your space: Facebook page, Web site, Twitter account. Blogging is one way to do it. Another way is with lists. Author Brandon Lacy Campos has his  One-Liner of the Week Award.  Artist  David Berube  recently displayed a series of mail art cards on Facebook, each depicting a letter of the alphabet. Twenty-six cards, twenty-six reasons to come back and see what's next. Outgoing Minneapolis School Board member Chris Stewart featured a list of fifty best love songs on his Facebook page. People came back to see what was next, and to add their own ideas.

I've been pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of interest over Jerry, and have wondered if his own Facebook page could be in the future. For now, he can help me become a social media hound. There's no shortage of lists that a rescue Weimaraner with issues could inspire:

• The Things That Make Jerry Nervous

• Jerry's Daily Self-Esteem Journal, which chronicles the one small feat he accomplishes every day
   that helps him expand his comfort zone

• The Smelly Things Jerry Likes to Roll In

The other day I was at the computer and Jerry was at my side, nosing the mouse, causing the cursor to move on the screen. He was either saying "Let's go for a walk" or "You've been on long enough, it's my turn on the computer now."

The Few. The Proud. The Transcribers.

One hundred typists at one hundred computers might just possibly create the Great American Debate Archive.

I'm one of those typists. I've been helping out at The UpTake, watching tapes of the Minnesota Gubernatorial debates and typing text documents of what is said.

Typing, typing, typing isn't sexy work. But it’s important work.

Transcripts enable videos to be closed captioned on YouTube and on theuptake.org. In the case of the Gubernatorial debates, closed captioning opens them up to an audience which previously didn't have access, says Mike McIntee, Executive Producer of The UpTake. 

According to the Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans, hearing loss is believed to affect five to ten percent of Minnesota voters. The number of eligible voters in Minnesota is 3.72 million, according to Dr. Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Even when you take into account unregistered voters and non-participating voters, five to ten percent represents a lot of votes.

If you rely on closed captioning, you know that auto-generated captions leave a lot to be desired. Text is missing. Spelling is butchered. The meaning of what is said can change dramatically.

Here's an example from GameFair, where the Gubernatorial candidates debated before an audience of hunting and fishing enthusiasts. 

What was said: Tom Meersman did a fine story about shoreline development in the Brainerd Lakes area.

What was decoded: time is needed to find story about showing a bomb in the brain or lakes area

What was said: Isn't a walleye meal a Minnesota tradition?

What was decoded: he's in the limelight New York minute set of traditional

The Legacy Amendment became the latest CNN. The Castle Doctrine became the Catholic Doctrine. Dog parks became thought parks.

It can be hard enough to make decisions when you hear everything clearly. Try making decisions based on garbled content. 

Increased voter access can make a huge difference. The U.S. Senate recount in 2008 took eight months to complete. Al Franken won by a margin of 312 votes. The UpTake livestreamed and live-blogged the entire recount and trial. 

So how about it? Join the few, the proud, the transcribers. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection and the movie viewer Quicktime, which is a free download. To get started, email info@theuptake.org. Grab some of your friends and plow through a debate together as you chuckle over the auto-generated transcript. You'll feel proud when you see your finished result. I guarantee it.

Note: Thank you to MinnPost for publishing this post in their Minnesota Blog Cabin Program. 

Are you neutral on Net Neutrality?

Today's FCC vote on Net Neutrality prompted me to revisit this post, originally published in August 2010. Thank you to Shoq Value (@shoq) for retweeting it. I'll be doing the same, undoubtedly, once I dig into your blog. 

 

There’s been a lot of talk about Net Neutrality, and a lot of people who don’t know what it is. Including, until recently, me.

Net Neutrality means equal access to all users of the Internet, whether the user is a high-school student in an inner-city library or a CEO of a huge corporation. Abolishing Net Neutrality would mean that communications corporations could charge users more for heavy Internet traffic or if they want extra services.

What’s the big deal, you say? Don’t we do that already with ground mail delivery and overnight air delivery? Basic cable and premium cable?

Yes, we are. Then ask yourself this. Is the value of your premium cable package worth the extra dollars you pay for it? Has the quality of your basic cable package gone down while the price has gone up?

Here’s another way to look at it. When you’re stuck in traffic, what would be the better overall solution: Let drivers pay extra to drive solo in the carpool lane? Or improve road and transportation service so we can all get there on time?

Does the price of first-class air travel keep you stuck flying coach? Abolishing Net Neutrality means those Internet users who pay extra get first-class fare, the rest get a bag of peanuts.

Or maybe you can’t afford to board the plane in the first place. Many people in underserved areas have no access at all. Equalizing Internet access accomplishes what few issues are able to do: unite inner city and rural outpost.

We'll all be left standing at the gate if Net Neutrality is abolished.

 Here’s a good description of what Net Neutrality is and why it matters. If you missed the FCC vote on Net Neutrality, The UpTake has it on replay. 

The iCow goes "Moooo"

I was having lunch with a friend
the other day. The conversation turned to cell phones, and she showed me her latest favorite app on her iPhone. Tap the screen and you see and hear a crowing rooster, a moo-ing cow.

At first I thought the idea was bizarre. Then, thought, why not?

Carrying a cell phone or digital camera while doing farm chores simply isn’t recommended. The work is dusty, wet, and often sloppy, not a happy environment for sensitive and expensive equipment. I’ve intended to take pictures of my critters but when I’m out with them I’m tending them.

The idea of virtual, digital, dust-free farm animals might not be realistic. But I have to admit, it makes a lot of sense.

Men are from Mars, USB ports are from Mayberry

For me, the most challenging part about starting my own shop is doing my own IT. I know enough about it to know I don't want to do it.

At 13, my son Wyatt is becoming a reliable resource. I’m also lucky to live near a shop that not only offers reasonably priced computer service, they know Macs. I even recommend it to my friends in the Cities, should they be in the mood for a leisurely drive.

Then there’s my husband Mike, who has become a reluctant IT person. The relationship makes for interesting exchanges, considering the doubled potential for Mars/Venus issues between spouse/spouse and IT person/computer user. The latest scenario involved hooking up my cordless mouse to my Macbook Pro.

“How would I go about hooking this up?,” I asked, the metamessage being, “How would I get you to hook it up?”

“You can do this,” he encouraged. He picked up the receiver in one hand and the mouse in the other. “This is the transmitter. This is the receiver."

Thinking of the Ten Things that Drive Users Crazy, I groused, “Why don’t you just say ‘This is Mr. Receiver’?”

Mike tried another tack. Holding up the tiny piece of metal, he explained,  “The receiver is Sara and the USB port is the Mayberry Phone Company. The mouse is Sheriff Taylor and he wants to call Aunt Bee, who is in the computer.”

Okay. That I got. I even grinned.

If communication is simple but not simplistic, relatable yet respectful, and leaves both speaker and listener in good spirits, it's done the job.