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Unity Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:49:00 +0000

Here's the feed from today's unity day speeches by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama...

Obama Takes on the World

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:09:00 +0000

For anyone curious as to why I'm supporting Barack Obama for president, if it isn't already obvious, here is one reason. The planet. Actually that's probably beyond a googol of reasons considering all of the life forms affected.

There are many other reasons I support Senator Obama that I will continue to write about in the coming days, weeks and months leading up to the election, but for me it is absolutely essential that our president take the crisis of our planetary survival seriously and make a serious, aggressive policy to attack the myriad of interwoven problems related to the environment.

(Hint: please click the link above and see what I wrote at MOMocrats - it is much more detailed on the topic.)

Good Jokes About Candidates & the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Check out this one from Gawker...

Twitter Song @ PDF

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:19:00 +0000

So right before one of the sessions at PDF, they asked Mary Hodder to come up and sing a song she wrote, "If I Had a Twitter", accompanied by Josh Levy (PDF's outgoing Associate Editor & the new Managing Editor for Change.org) on guitar. I'll link up a video later when they get one up, but the lyrics are here and visualize a new media theatre full of people standing and holding up their cell phones, swaying (on request by the vocalist) as she sang the song. It was a nice ice breaker. Mary's blog is at napsterization.

PDF & New York

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:54:00 +0000

Last time I was in New York was for a totally different purpose during totally different weather, so it's nice to come in the summer with a mission and lots of people to see. I'm having a great time so far at PDF - too good a time, in fact. I've gotten barely any sleep this week what with preparing for the trip, a sick tot at home, and then just wanting to follow-up on so much while I'm here.

The first day panels were really interesting and I got a lot out of them that I'm blogging about in other places (The Huffington Post, MOMocrats/the Silicon Valley Moms Blog), so I don't need to go into that here, but what I've gained outside the conference hall itself is building relationships and seeing people I know feel the same way I do about technology and its role in politics, policy and governance. These people don't downplay how it can and can't be used and they're all brilliant.

So on to day two, and hopefully a little bit of sleep...

First Huffington Post Piece is Up

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:31:00 +0000

There's more in the works soon, but for now, my first post is up at The Huffington Post for "Off The Bus". I was planning to just write an intro to the Personal Democracy Forum conference and then they announced the Twitter debate, so I used that to get into the topic. (And I love the graphic they chose - very cute.) I look forward to covering the convention further next week.

Here's the permanent link for the piece, and any future posts I write for HuffPo or OTB will be at www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-granger.

Check Out BlogHer's New 'Do!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:15:00 +0000

I'm so excited - BlogHer just updated their site and it looks great!

I don't know which version this is, but the one I saw in '06, the one in '07, and the one in '08 are vastly different from each other. They launched the '07 version last year at their conference and people had problems with the interface for a while... now the new site seems sleeker, easier to use, more inviting, and more colorful. Thumbs up! I know it makes me want to blog more there and spend more time on the site, so I hope it has that effect on others as well.

MOMocrats Column

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:08:00 +0000

For anyone who reads MOMocrats or my stuff there in particular, the decision was recently made to give each of the contributors our own column/category, so now it's easier to see our individual writing there. My column can be found at http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/sarah_granger/index.html.

So far for MOMocrats, I've been covering a little about moms running for office or being considered for VP spots, a little about the environment, and some about tech in campaigns. I continue to be impressed by the writers there - these writers/moms are a really fascinating group. Just check out their bios and you'll see what I mean.

Soft Launching FutureCampaigns Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:30:00 +0000

Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. I'm launching another blog. Actually, it's already up. I started it last week on my futurecampaigns.com site, where I've been hosting information about the work I do as an adviser to nonprofits, political organizations, and as a writer/editor about related topics.

One might wonder why on Earth I'd put myself in line to work on what I believe is probably a seventh semi-regular blog, not to mention the places where I'm a guest contributing editor. Sigh. Well, it goes like this: I'm really passionate about technology and its impact on the world. That translates to its use in government and politics as well as the policies about technology. And I've been studying this stuff since I was in high school (to the point that I created my own major: "Technology & Society" in college), so clearly the interest isn't going away. But somehow I haven't been focusing on writing about just that in any one place until recently. It was an accident, actually.

Originally, I planned this blog to stick closer to those topics, but then I realized it was really a place to cover everything I'm interested in, and I played around with it a lot. Eventually I settled on more techie, political and cultural topics for this blog, and that took me away from everything I wanted to say about tech and the world. I'd covered related topics here on this blog (some posts which I republished at the FutureCampaigns blog), I had alluded to my experiences in tech and politics on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, particularly in light of our interactions with Elizabeth Edwards, but I was saving all of my ideas for a big project (in the works for a while now). Finally I realized I own all of what I write in the places I've been writing and it's all stuff I want to get out to people, so why save it when the whole purpose behind what I wanted to do was to get it out there?

So with PDF '08 on the horizon and a renewed energy for focusing on the topic that probably has a lot to do with how proud I am of what the Obama campaign has been doing (i.e. everything right in terms of tech!), here I am with a new blog. I look forward to friends and colleagues visiting it. The other thing I've done with the blog that most other blogs in the space haven't is create an extensive blogroll full of related resources. It's still a work in progress - I have a lot more to add - but due to time constraints, I went ahead and put it up as I build that part.

As to the content - I plan for it to be a mix of stuff that appeals to techies and politicos/activists. Some of it will be written at a more basic level because I want nonprofit directors, for example, to get a better picture of why certain technologies can help them, and the only way to do that is to explain it in general terms that aren't too overly technical - for the most part. Most nonprofits and most political campaigns are still in the dark ages when it comes to tech, so I want to help educate them. Meanwhile, I also plan to tackle some of the geek meat, i.e. the cool gadgets and what they do. Like MAPLight.org - it's an awesome mashup and they have a bunch of apps coming out for different states soon. Not everyone in the world knows what a 'mashup' or an 'app' is, and that's OK, but I plan to blend the content as much as possible. The reality is that the blog will take on its own flavor after a while, but this is where I'm starting.

I'm really looking forward to meeting more people working in this area next week in New York because I hope to write about every single one of them and their projects on the FutureCampaigns blog. It's so important that we all work together, and I find it absolutely fascinating the achievements that have been made in technology, government, politics and policy over the past few years alone.

Security Hole Left Critical Infrastructure Vulnerable for Months

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:21:00 +0000

THIS is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night...

That, and of course the general ineptitude of our government in terms of adequately dealing with the environmental crisis. Sigh.

Countdown to Personal Democracy Forum '08

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:53:00 +0000

In eleven days, I'll be traversing Central Park on my way to Lincoln Center for the Personal Democracy Forum 2008 conference June 23-24 in New York City. PDF, as it's called, is the major annual conference for everyone involved in the technology behind politics and advocacy (databases, action centers, blogs) and the tools that teach us about government (like mashups and online polls). PDF is run by the same people
who publish the techPresident site and they always have fabulous speakers.

Conference info can be found here, and they just posted the agendas for day 1 and day 2.

This will be my first year to attend. I've known about it for a few years, but there was always a major reason I couldn't make it, so I'm really looking forward to seeing a lot of people in person who I've worked or conversed with remotely but never met.

...
Cross posted from the FutureCampaigns blog.

PC Magazine on Top Tech Issues for Next President

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:50:00 +0000

For a comprehensive look at the major technology issues on the plate for the next presidential administration, PC Magazine has a great article out that covers 5 biggies and what the positions are on those issues of the candidates (McCain, Obama and Clinton since it was compiled before Obama had enough delegates and since she could potentially be a VP nominee). This stems from discussion that happened at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in May.

I first attended CFP in 1994 in Chicago. Every year, they have an incredible group organizing the conference. This year, they honed in on what we would like to see in a next presidential administration in terms of information and communications (ICT) technology policy recommendations. This wasn't the first time, of course. CPSR and other organizations have done this in the past - analyzing policies of current and potential future administrations. I'm glad it's elicited some results in terms of recommendations and positive media attention.

Books & Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:05:00 +0000

More bloggers are writing books and vice versa - it's a nice combination. And more bloggers are being approached to review the books.

Last night, I attended a launch party with other members of the media and tech companies, sponsored by the Horn Group for Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff's new book, Groundswell. Li and Bernoff are Forrester analysts and Li is a contributing writer for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. I'm really looking forward to reading this book - it shows companies how to utilize social networking tools for their benefit.

The next book I've been given to review via the MOMocrats is Arianna Huffington's Right is Wrong. I love the subtitle: "How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe (And What You Need to Know to End the Madness)". Nice way to hone in on your audience... Here's one way I know to end the madness without reading all 331 pages: vote for Obama. Seriously though, she did some hefty research for this book - the source notes alone are impressive. I enjoyed On Becoming Fearless and although this is a totally different kind of book, Huffington's writing is always witty and interesting, whether you agree with her or not.

The other book I look forward to perusing is Writing Motherhood, by Lisa Garrigues. On first glance, it looks like a combination memoir and instruction manual for moms to hold onto a) themselves, b) the precious moments with their (our) little ones, and c) their careers through writing. After just finishing Writer Mama by Christina Katz, this should be an interesting contrast. Writer Mama is a primer for making freelancing work while parenting. As a fairly experienced writer, I already knew most of what was in that book, but it has some fabulous resources that I was able to compile into a comprehensive list.

In other news, I met Kathleen Sebelius on Friday. Here's the full report from that.

Sebelius is Ready for DC and Coming to SF

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:44:00 +0000

As I wrote at MOMocrats today, I'm a big fan and supporter of Kathleen Sebelius. I may have mentioned that on this blog before as well. Essentially she took on a tough job as governor of Kansas - she's a woman Democrat in a state traditionally governed by Republican white guys. Mostly anyway. Now she may be our next best hope for breaking the glass ceiling if Hillary Clinton can't get the nomination. Kathleen Sebelius is on Obama's short list for a VP running mate. And she's a seasoned executive leader with a great record. So I'm excited to meet her tomorrow night in SF for an event where she'll be speaking. I'll be writing about that in the next couple of days.

There's an interesting article by Ben Adler on Politico.com about the women who might be good VP options for Obama.

Tomorrow We May See Santa on Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 24 May 2008 07:59:00 +0000

The debate about what created the "canals" on Mars and whether it had polar caps like Earth's has gone on for a while now and no new evidence has been found even with the various missions conducted thus far. We're finally making some progress collecting data samples in Martian soil now over the past 10 years, and the latest mission with the Phoenix craft will hopefully move us closer to an answer.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a good chronology of the history of the Martian missions in an article by David Perlman. It covers a bit of detail as to what's different about this mission and its risks. Given the recent history of Mars robotic crafts, I worry about the landing, but I have faith in NASA.

So soon we may know - did Mars have water? ice? snow? If so, did Santa go there? Is he an alien? Are elves from Mars?

Indiana Jones Predictable But Satisfying

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 24 May 2008 07:46:00 +0000

Until a few years ago, Harrison Ford was always my favorite movie star to oogle and I still love his films, but at one point I realized he was much closer to my parents' age than mine, so I reluctantly moved on... as does the series with the new film. However, I snuck away yesterday for a couple of hours' break while in the midwest, feeling far removed from the wildfires. (We bought the tickets before the fire began or I probably wouldn't have gone, but anyway, there's not much we can do from here.) I really enjoyed the movie, but it was partly because I knew what to expect and partly because they knew exactly what to give their audience.

Anyway, the one spoiler I will give away is this: don't be late for the movie or you'll miss some great action and a lot of plot setup. Otherwise, there's a Star Wars line, a lot of family fun, and of course bugs, snakes, and precious artifacts. It's perhaps not as suspenseful as other films, but it does a really good job tying all of the previous films and characters in the series together. It's fun that it's set in the 50's when Indiana Jones is older because it adds an element of American Graffiti to the picture. There are also some definite Spielberg moments mixed in. I won't expand on that or I'd give them away. Anyway, it's fun, surprisingly sweet, nostalgic and clever. And Harrison Ford still has his mojo at 66.

The Internet is Helping Us in Natural Disasters, But Not Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:48:00 +0000

I just published a new post on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog about what's now being called the "Summit Fire" in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Watsonville. As a kid who grew-up in tornado country, I was completely clueless about wildfires until yesterday. Now I've been studying everything available online to track the blaze because it's just a few miles from my sister's dream home, her animals, and one of the most beautiful pieces of property I've ever seen in my life. I don't know if I'm at liberty to describe it, but even if I did, still, it's one of those places where you have to see it to believe it.

In any case, what I learned over the past 24 hours is that although we have 2700 firefighters on the scene to battle these fires, we only get semi-accurate updates about once a day about where the fires really are. People are in their homes waiting for calls or knocks on the door to evacuate. The neighbors who may or may not have phones or power communicate to the best of their ability, but they're still not certain how far away it is. They see the smoke or possibly the flames, but it's difficult to discern the distance. I found one live blog site where there was some minimal conversation via locals about what was going on to help sift through the mystery, but that was it.

So what I want to know is where do we go from here? What is the future of emergency response online? It has to be better than a few news sites and links. I'm not saying what we have now isn't good. I'm happy we have the resources we do. But I know from my technology background that we can do better. We've put together phenomenal outreach programs and online activism to raise money and repair devastated areas. Why not create a place where communities can create ad-hoc emergency response sites as they arise? It's possible something like this already exists, but not enough of us know about it.

What I found was one site for firefighters that said how to listen on short range scanners, some articles on the local newspaper site, a few maps that are only updated daily, the state fire site with data updated periodically (like every day or half a day), one satellite image of the fire, brief TV and radio coverage, a state road closures page, one live blog on the local news station web site where people exchanged notes, and a totally overloaded fire detection map at noaa.gov that nobody can use because everybody's trying to get to it. And when watching the news and hearing from locals, it seems that the firefighters and police are keeping things barricaded for safety and not allowing any information transferral during the process.

Fires are dangerous, but if people can use personal weather stations and webcams like linked on the Weather Underground, why not have a system that applies locals as information centers online and includes what's coming across the waves from emergency support services? Anyone out there have an idea of how to do this?

As Obama Evades Issues, McCain Uses Web to Make Them His

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:58:00 +0000

John McCain's web site currently has some really great images and big text emphasizing his concern for the environment. He's got a little whiz-bang presentation that really says nothing but looks fancy and makes people feel safer about his take on "climate change" and cap and trade. It shows how jobs will improve in the system (oversimplified to say the least). The use of green and pretty pictures is effective in grabbing attention.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's web site is begging - on the splash page, no less - for cash. Which is actually very effective. And Barack Obama's got John Edwards next to him in images on his splash and home pages, like they're a couple or something, they're so cute and cozy. At least Obama is working for his last remaining delegates.

However, yesterday when a reporter in Michigan asked Obama to give her a real policy response and he answered with "hold on, sweetie," never to come back with a word about the issue at hand. That's already biting him.

I personally am sick of how little attention the environment is getting in this election. I'm really amazed given all that Al Gore and others have done over the past few years to raise awareness. It's pitiful. But what's worse is that the Republican candidate is the only one talking about it. (It being "climate change", of course, never "global warming.") Democrats have been the only ones giving the environment more than a second thought for years, and now McCain is trying to take the issue and make it his.

Tactics-wise, he's doing a better job than the others. He's in a position where he can talk about whatever he wants right now until a nominee is selected from the Democratic side, so it's smart to focus on the environment now, before he's forced back onto talking about the war and the economy 24x7. Still, I wish there were more dialogue about what needs to be done, and I wish we had real leadership on the issue from someone we can trust will make it happen.

FWIW, I'll have a post up on MOMocrats about this topic later today or tomorrow.

Two Great Chronicle Articles: Web to TV & Blogging with Babies

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:58:00 +0000

In today's Chronicle, two interesting articles:

First, "Web sites enable campaign TV ads on the cheap" by Joe Garofoli tells about how the web and sites like VoterVoter.com and SpotRunner.com are making video ads easier and cheaper to create and disseminate, and it discusses the ramifications of this in terms of the presidential campaign.

Micah Sifry of techPresident (and the Personal Democracy Forum) is quoted about how technology and "mass participation" is changing the face of politics. Anyone who has worked in a statewide or national campaign knows that the majority of campaign budgets go to TV advertising even now with the Internet gaining speed and digital democracy becoming a more prevalent term.

Still, the majority of voters are reached through television and it's expensive. This is why the Internet staff always takes a back seat in terms of campaign strategy; it's just a fact that television still makes the rules. I see the tides turning, but it will take time. Sites like these will help with the transition to new media as new generations of voters who are online gradually become the majority.

Second, one of my co-contributors at the Silicon Valley Moms Blog Group, Charlene Li is mentioned in Ellen Lee's article, "In parenthood, sometimes a blog is born," which I know from personal experience has many truths. Granted, I wasn't twittering from the delivery room, but blogging helped keep me sane while on bed rest and going through a lengthy postpartum recovery.

The article also quotes Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer cofounder, and it throws around buzzwords like Web 2.0 as much as possible to get socnet cred. What is most poignant about this piece to me are the stats about how much moms are targeted now in advertising online. It's always been that way on TV, but now mommybloggers are discovering their power with corporations and other sponsors to this effect. Beth Blecherman has a great post up at SVMoms that touches on this, and I think it may be eligible for some kind of "most links in a post" award.

MOMocrats on Blog Talk Radio Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:27:00 +0000

I recently joined the MOMocrats, and this great group of women are undertaking a variety of different methods for driving attention to the real issues that interest moms, particularly Democratic moms. This is an excerpt from my friend, Glennia Campbell's email to the MOMocrats about a new adventure starting tomorrow at Blog Talk Radio:

"The MOMocrats are launching a podcast on Saturday, May 10 at 3 pm Eastern, 12 pm Pacific on Blog Talk Radio. It will be 45 minutes long. We're hoping some of our friends will listen in and give us feedback. This is a pilot show, just to test the timing and how the thing works, so it will be rough. If you could listen and let us know what you think, that would be awesome! Just go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MOMocrats to listen in live at the time listed above, or anytime thereafter for the archive."

So there you have it. Glennia, Stefania and Joanne will be on. Enjoy.

Internet Archive Wins Settlement with FBI

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:36:00 +0000

From the Chronicle, the Internet Archive recently won a settlement with the FBI about a "national security letter" i.e. government request for private information that was sent to them demanding they turn over data that they probably don't even have. The Archive, legally considered an online library, for those who don't know, was founded by Brewster Kahle who is also on the Board of the EFF. They keep books online as well as web sites, and they run the Wayback machine, a great tool for finding older versions of sites online. (Want to restore from an older backup of your site that's gone? Try the Wayback machine.) Anyway, Brewster's a good guy who just wants to share information with people, so it looks like after 4 months and $10,000 in donated legal services, the FBI got off his back. It's a good article. I haven't spoken with my EFF buddies about this particular case, but I'm guessing they're happy a precedent's been set to show others that the Patriot Act induced loophole can be fought.

What Beatles Song Describes You? Mine is "Hey Jude"

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:44:00 +0000

facebook has a multitude of fabulous and silly apps designed to suck up all of your time and keep you up way too late... tonight's culprit is the "Which Beatles Song Describes Your Life Right Now?" app, which doesn't necessarily describe you at that exact moment, but it gives a pseudo-personality assessment with a musical twist.

Mine is "Hey Jude", saying I'm "a little hesitant when it comes to taking action" (sometimes true), "extremely capable and full of life and hope" (mostly true), and "a natural leader" (I'll leave that up to other people to decide. It also says "you are slowly learning to let people into your heart and let go of your fears." Slow being the operative word there. I found this because one of my facebook friends had her song as "Here Comes the Sun", one of my all time favorites. Maybe I'm "Hey Jude" wanting more of "Here Comes the Sun".

Anyway, have a gander at the app if you are killing time or sucked into the facebook abyss.

Spam Turned 30 Today

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

From the Interesting People List - Dave Farber sent out this clip from ABC News (where he was interviewed) re: today being the 30th anniversary of the sending of the first spam email. Here is the link. It's amusing.

Done Lately?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:04:00 +0000

I'm not writing here much right now, but I have been busy on many many collaborative sites so I wanted to share a brief update about that...

I recently joined the MOMocrats. I've been blogging about politics on and off for a while, and doing it on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog gave a few of us the idea of doing it for our respective presidential candidates. I was frankly too busy to start another collaborative blog myself, so I just blogged about Hillary wherever I could (which has other advantages of reaching a broader audience vs. preaching to the choir), but some of my friends started blogging together about John Edwards and their site was great. We talked early on about working together once a nominee was selected and it was sort-of de facto that we would put our efforts together whenever that point came. When Edwards dropped out of the race, most of them began supporting Obama, but they also opened up the blog for everyone to participate and so I joined. I'm in the minority there as a Hillary supporter, but we have a great dialogue and it's a wonderful group of intelligent people. So I haven't written much yet, but stay tuned, especially toward the election.

For Playborhood, I did some research about preschools and wrote an article about the preschool search pertaining to kids and play. I also put that research to use when interviewed for Bay Area Parent magazine. And I wrote a brief article for Bay Area Parent which I believe will be in the May issue. I still write regularly for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, including putting up a post last night about meeting Maria Shriver, First Lady of California, which was a real treat - especially after reading her latest book.

I spent last weekend in Sacramento being trained on legislative advocacy in the State of California since I'm now the Junior Representative from the Junior League of Palo Alto/Mid-Peninsula to the State Public Affairs Committee for the Junior Leagues of California. (I know it's a mouth full. Sorry.) What that means is that I get to review proposed bills, research them, meet with legislators, and vote within a committee over the next two years as to any legislation the Junior Leagues will support. As we focus on women and children, our issue areas are education, health, family support, and domestic violence prevention. It's a great learning opportunity and it's a wonderful feeling to know we're helping change lives.

Early last week, I compiled some materials that USACM had written about our positions on national technology policies into a paper that we submitted to the Yale Technology Law Journal for the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference that supposedly will be submitted to the next presidential administration as recommendations on information technology policy. I like keeping active in the tech policy arena when I can, and as a member now of USACM for over 10 years, I enjoy the people involved immensely. Anyway we'll see if the paper is accepted. I would like to think the next administration could learn from USACM - some incredibly brilliant people are involved.

SFBayStyle is growing strong. With a large group of interesting writers, we're getting some great feedback and we're having a lot of opportunities to cover some fantastic events. What I love about creating our own blog about style and fashion is that we can do whatever we want with it, which to me means emphasizing the nonprofit, philanthropic and community component as often as possible. And we have nearly 300 articles up in under a year.

I recently began blogging for ecofabulous, a great site for finding everything that's beautiful and eco for homes, clothes, dining, travel, etc. I also covered the World Figure Skating Championships for BlogHer (Sports & Fitness) and I look forward to writing more for them in the future.

I'm still writing on occasion for Acceller's Digital Landing site. It's a great place for learning basics about technology - TV, phones, computers, etc. So I know my audience here is above all that, but you can send your parents there.

Looking back at this list, it seems like I'm doing a lot, and I am, but I like participating in a lot of different venues because it means I can write about all sorts of topics that I find interesting while working in the community as well. For anyone who wants to keep tabs on my current endeavors for whatever reason, see grangers.com. Otherwise, please be patient and I'll write more of my own thoughts here soon.

Six Degrees of Tom Perkins

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Granger) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:18:00 +0000

I hosted a book club meeting for the first time last night and the book I chose was a little different than the novels we've read in the past. The book club is for my (relatively new, as of a little over a year ago) neighborhood and the group is largely social, but also highly intelligent, well-read, well-traveled, and full of interesting people. I'd read some good reviews about Valley Boy, Tom Perkins's autobiographical book, and had made it through a few chapters when I made the selection. Some of the neighbors who came to my home liked it; others didn't, no big surprise, but nearly everyone had some kind of connection to the book either through people they knew, places they had traveled or worked.

Perkins, founder of Kleiner Perkins (later to become Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers), the most well-known venture capital firm in the world, wrote about everything from sailing to IPOs, and he wrote it well. Various people had their opinions of Perkins and his opinions after reading the book, of course, but everyone thought his take on the HP-Compaq merger was interesting as well as his philanthropic endeavors and what he wrote of his love life. (For those who don't know, he was involved with the San Francisco Ballet board, he lost his wife of many years to cancer, and he was briefly wed to Danielle Steel.) He also helped build Tandem Computers and Genentech. He's now on the board of News Corp.

Here is a bit of a bio and a recent photo of Perkins, here is the publisher's info, and here is his Wikipedia entry. Even if you're not a fan but you find these topics of interest, check the book out at the library - it's an interesting read.