Podcasting since 2004; Conversations, conflicts, adventures and monologues from around the world.
Arrived in Berlin on 2 hours sleep. Happily spending time with good friends, as well as making a few new ones here at the Re:publica conference. Talk and other things coming up. Regular content will return shortly. Here’s a photo of Baghdad Brian from Alive in Baghdad.
I started reading blogs back in 2002 I think. At least thats the year I remember I started reading what seemed to be blogs at the time, people like Camworld and Rebecca Blood. Haven’t said those names in years. Around that same time, I believe I started reading Press Think… Jay Rosen.
Rosen focused his writing on the media, and how the media was or was not adjusting to the world of not only the internet, but the world of personal publishing and what today gets that annoying cliché label web2.0. As a young fledgling journalist and internet publisher, I liked what he had to say sometimes, and disagreed with him vehemently other times. At some point, after 2 good years or more, I think I stopped reading him altogether. But sure enough his name would once again come up in my masters thesis research on the sociology of alternative journalists… why they do what they do and what do they think of their own work; Jay Rosen’s What are Journalists For was at the top of my reading list.
Perhaps one of my big problems with Rosen, that would often cause me to stop reading him for a period of time (I needed a break apparently) was that he was so focused on the mainstream. I can appreciate the unique and important contribution of mainstream media at times, as well as a few mainstream type bloggers.. often referred to as the A list for their dominance in terms of audience and the nature of their fairly conventional issue selection. I felt, as I still feel, that the world of alternative reporting, alternative in style, values, topic, and operational norms, was where the real change making, system challenging journalism was going to come from. As it so often did in the hayday of the Village Voice, The Nation and others. (very American centric today, hang with me)
So when I heard that Jay Rosen was a guest on Radio Open Source, I knew there would be alot of talk of those same old blog names, the ones that cover the same topics as the major media; I can easily count those tired old names on one hand. And I admit, I didn’t want to like the interview. But the truth is, now more than ever, Rosen has seen the evolution of all this and been in the blog trenches since early on. He may not say everything that I like or talk about all the issues I want him to, but this interview that Chris did with him, is excellent. From what is happening and will happen to newspapers, to why certain big blogs had success and what makes them so great… Jay is great to listen to.
As I board my train to Berlin in a few hours, preparing my talk for the Re:publica conference, I strongly recommend you give this interview a listen if you’re at all concerned about how we get our information online, and just what is happening to blogs and our relationships with them.
Last week Wikileaks was talked about in alot of media outlets, but not for exposing some crime or wrong doing, but because a judge ordered the site taken down.
In this vlog entry I talk about that story as well as what makes wikileaks special and other stories the site has helped expose.
I refer to a Guardian Article and a Christian Science Monitor article, both related to wikileaks.
One year ago this week I was in NOLA, heading down the Gulf Coast seeing how people were dealing with the damage and neglect of the Federal Flood. Here’s an excerpt from one of the posts on the subject of housing in New Orleans,
It was probably my second day in New Orleans and I decided to go visit the common ground legal clinic. I had heard they were providing free legal advice and a mini computer lab for local residents who want to get informed about their rights and perhaps how to manage property issues that have emerged after Katrina. After some nice emailing with one of the spokespeople… I figured going there would be an interesting experience.
As usual I drove around in circles, distracted every five minutes by another neighborhood of abandoned or destroyed houses. Eventually I found the legal clinic on a very lovely and typical new orleans street with the nice trees growing in the middle island that people seem to refer to as neutral territory. A large house with a dry cleaners on the ground floor, as I pulled up I could already see lots of people hanging out using their computers… I knew I had come to the right place.
Fast forward an hour or so, I’m sitting on the front porch sharing a little plastic table with a pretty young lady on her laptop, both of us typing away franticly.
At some point I strike up a conversation. She’s a law student from Seattle… as are many of the volunteers at the legal clinic. They come down in waves whenever they can, and right now it was spring break. When I asked her what tasks she was working on, she held up a stack of photocopied newspaper pages.
“You see these… they look like classified ads don’t they? These are printed in the big local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, everyday. Thing is, they’re not classified ads, they notices of properties that are considered abandoned, warning people that they will be evicted from their property if they don’t do something about it.”
I looked at the tiny print and the neverending list of properties, each one representing a life, or probably a family. Looking up at the young law student, I asked if this was legal?
Read the full text here. The struggle continues.
It was one year ago that I was making my way to New Orleans. From there I travelled along the Gulf Coast, visiting communities and good friends, many who’s lives had been dramatically effected by the Federal Flood and hurricane Katrina.
Jay wrote to me a few weeks ago to say that he was heading there, to give some seminars or talks on videoblogging. More recently he sent me a message talking about how great it was to be there, and the good news: a new NOLA videoblog has launched. Despite all the great voices, like Dambala, Morwen, and Ray, who write about the city’s issues on a regular basis, there has long been a lack of consitent video blogging on these topics. Now, Citizen’s City Hall looks like a great contender to fill that void.
-Nice job Jay, and welcome CCH!
I have a scar on my forehead.
The year was probably 1986 and a large object fell into my forehead.
Like any ironbound (newark) mother would, my mother carried me to the car and sped to St. James hospital for treatment.
I have a bellybutton. (an innie in fact)
The year was 1979 and my mother gave birth to me on a December afternoon.
Like so many ironbound children born of immigrant families from every corner of the planet, I came into the world in the maternity ward of St. James hospital. A hospital so dedicated to serving the multilingual community, it functioned in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
While our family grew older and settled in the suburbs outside the city, St. James never stopped being that place… whenever I would go down Jefferson St., that steadfast anchor that commanded the respect and appreciation of the community.
Last week, in the face of all the hard work of volunteers, hospital staff, and concerned citizens, the corporation that owns St. James -closed it down. Cost savings. Business decisions. We regret to inform you…
The collapse of the United States, as a nation made for and by the people continues, and one more working class community has one more giant scar to prove it.