Changevine is a companion to the MJ that will reference posts here like Moon Mesh.
Archive for Politics
I voted, lots of us voted
Normally, at my polling location you walk in vote and walk out. Today when I arrived 5 minutes before they were supposed to open at 6:00am there were about 50 people in line. The building opened a few minutes late. I waited in line and voted 30 minutes later. The recurring comment was “I’ve never seen this many people here”. This was in a small town at a location where the population isn’t very dense. Nothing like what you see on tv, but an indication that turnout is going to be high. Go Obama!
Media Matters: The Wright Mesh
Dave Winer hits the nail on the head with his commentary on this YouTube video of a more representative segment of Rev. Wright’s post-911 sermon:
I guess it’s not surprising that the cable news excerpts gave a very misleading impression. (Next time this happens we must do an immediate fact-check.) … if you compare what Wright said to what they were saying, and why shouldn’t we, I think we’ll find that Wright was a rational and calming alternative to the lunacy that was dominating discourse in the US in the years following 911. And this video was taken mere days after the attacks.The news networks don’t have standing to criticize Wright for his post-911 speech. Let’s dig up some of their oratory from that timeframe and see if we want them involved in our political process in the future.
Not being one to just talk, Dave is engaged in actively pursuing a way to provide more balanced media – right on Dave!
Pledge Mesh(why a brokered Democratic convention won’t)
Although it was acceptable at one time, most people know today that if a software system requires you to read 100’s of pages of documentation, something is wrong. Similarly with the rules for the election system and likewise, when the rules says a pledge isn’t binding, something is wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
Humans In The Loop
In Story-Oriented Coding I deal with how from ancient times, complex systems have always required human involvement. We are already in a transition to a time where that will not be the case. Setting aside for the moment the recently mentioned topic of humans who are not “strictly biological”, consider another this discussion of whether people or machines are best suited to come up with a comprehensive information system of life:
I’m really a big fan of everything that sounds “social” for the web. If the web can be seen as a big OS in a near future, I think that we can perhaps see people behind this OS as the algorithm that can organize and integrate the knowledge in an intelligent way. If scientists can have efficient web-tools to easily tag/label a piece of biological information, will it improve the integration we need for bioinformatics ? … So, as a conclusion, I dream about a system where the biological data (weblinks, publications, database entries, pictures, several nucleotides in a genome,…) will be linked together using words/labels/tags under the control of ontologies. … Hey man, you are describing the Semantic Web !! Yeah, that’s right. But how can we construct this Semantic Web : with the millions of human beings behind computers and using their brain or with the millions of processors inside several dedicated computers in the world and using algorithms ? Both perhaps. Humans define semantic and computers construct the web on it. It will perhaps be faster to let people do the intelligent part of the job rather than wait for the killer algorithm that can be as intelligent as us. A team of 10 scientists cannot do that in their “small” lab. But what about a team with all the scientists in their huge “Web-lab” ??
Well, if we let machines define life for us, we’re stepping onto a very slippery slope where we may at some point become unable to alter that definition. The systems our lives depend on may become so intertwined with machines we won’t be able to simply reboot them. Nor will be be able to prevent machines from drawing conclusions and taking actions we don’t agree with. This isn’t sci-fi and when you add in technology augmented humans, things could get pretty funky. Whether you’re interested in the tech side of things or not, you have a strong interest in seeing that strictly biological humans remain in the loop. As mentioned here before, it’s happening faster than it appears so we need to get the conversation going now. Hopefully by the time of the 2012 U.S. Presidential election, this will be a publicly discussed topic.
I Am A New Jersey Voter For Obama!
African-American Tech Bloggers
Whether you’re for Obama like me or not, this year is a turning point for black politics. However, cutting to the chase – we need to leverage the web more effectively and that means we need greater participation from the so-called black tech bloggers. I’d already been looking to expand the conversation in part because of Lynne d Johnson’s upcoming Where Are The Black Tech Bloggers? panel at SXSW. However, it’s clear to me that too many political organizers in the black community are not leveraging the web as well as they could because they don’t know people who know the tools. A recent study cited by Information Week shows that the number of black graduates in computer science is below the national average and for engineering and science these numbers drop by nearly half. Statistically black web designers barely exist. We can’t change that overnight but I believe we can have a major impact because there are a large number of marginally connected people who can contribute right away if only they knew how to connect. If you know about black folk with tech oriented blogs please help spread the word.
Cultural Mesh: The Jena 3
This post is a different twist on why ignorance does not mesh and an opportunity to foster the kind of dialog that leads to solutions. As with the Darfur Crisis, tools like Second Life and Google Earth can contribute to helping Sim Citizens address one of the 21st century’s greatest problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Mississippi River Bridge Collapse
Coleman said Gov. Tim Pawlenty had told him the 40-year-old bridge was inspected and “given a clean bill of health” three years ago.
6 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis – CNN.com
Based on the photos just coming in, there will be many more than 6 fatalities before this is over. Even if nobody died, one wonders whether more frequent inspections and some type of active sensor network would cost more than the repairs and forthcoming traffic diversion. See Aging Infrastructure Mesh.
The People
Following along the same trajectory that brought TV and then bloggers to political conventions, the CNN/YouTube debates were the next step in the transformation of American politics. While it was good that CNN took the step, I didn’t get the sense that they understand what Digital Journalism is really about or how much the paradigm shift will change their role. CNN has reported that the YouTube effect is causing candidates to lose control, but big media is helping to weaken its own grip on the public mind(a good thing). The people(including some the candidates) will realize they don’t need Anderson Cooper to mangage the conversation. Eventually the people will ask and the candidates will answer on an ongoing basis.
The Meshverse Journal - Node 3 
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