Unity Day

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

Obama Takes on the World

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

Check out this one from Gawker...

Twitter Song @ PDF

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

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

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.

MOMocrats Column

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Done Lately?

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.

Star Wars, Candidates, and Shot Down Satellites

It's my birthday; I can cry if I want to... getting older isn't what it used to be. I saw Princess Leia live this week and seeing her age just brings home my own aging. But I was really happy to see Carrie Fisher's one woman autobiographical play, "Wishful Drinking", at the Berkeley Rep. Definitely worth seeing if you like her work or if you are a fan of either of her parents. I personally think both her acting and her writing are stellar.

This week, for those of you who haven't heard, the Navy "successfully" shot down a U.S. spy satellite that was plummeting toward the earth... that's what they say. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but there is evidence out there that the government has been working on this and that related to the ol' 80's Star Wars program for a while now, so although I'm not sure what they used to shoot the thing down, it is interesting in that context. And yeah, I'm glad they used the Navy supposedly for something useful to protect innocent people from getting bits of satellite debris dropped on their heads.

Finally, one of the best things I received in email this week was a link to the Star Wars Guide to the Candidates. Most are out of the race now, but it's hilarious! Enjoy.

Then What Exactly Does the Pentagon Do?

Here's a scary article - supposedly according to a retired Major General, the Pentagon's disaster planning "couldn't move a Girl Scout unit". Well, in their defense, a bunch of girls is hard to herd, but this is really sad considering the billions we spend in tax dollars that ends up flowing through the Pentagon. So they send us to wars that blow things up, shuffle regimes around, kill people, make terrorism easier to hide and raise the price of gasoline and they push paper around under the auspices of "defense" and "disaster planning" is just a word. That's fine. Anyone else ready to move to Antigua?

I've never worked in the Pentagon and I'm sure if I did, I'd have a different perspective, but I have worked in government and in security and I know that it's a big bumbling bureaucracy. I also know that when things are urgent and important, it is possible to make progress. So here's a note to them: things are urgent and important - there are still terrorists out there and there are other pseudo-natural (i.e. global warming-enhanced) disasters also waiting to occur.

This is a problem that's much bigger than the Pentagon; it's a problem that oozes through layers of government regarding who does what and when. News to lawmakers and government agencies: we the people don't care who does it. We just want it done so we can have a safe, solid, secure, sensible country again.

As much as I can't wait until we have a new president in office, I still acknowledge this problem is much bigger than one leader alone can solve. It takes a village and another village and another... 'nuff said, end rant.

Iowa Caucuses and the Zone Diet

40/30/30 is how the Zone Diet reads - 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein. That's how the Iowa caucus results came across for the Democrats. 38% for Obama, the sugars - what brightens our eyes, what gives us energy and motivates us. 30% for Edwards, the fats - buttering us up, telling us what we want to hear about change. 29% for Clinton, the proteins - for substance, strength and stability.

The truth is we need all of these things. Every diet is different and you can agree or disagree with them, but the Zone Diet immediately came to my mind when I saw the results tonight from the caucuses because the Zone Diet prescribes the ratio of 40:30:30 to keep the human body working. Iowans showed us tonight that they want a mix too.

Whomever will win the Democratic nomination (and from my POV, hopefully the general election) needs to come across with some sugar - inspiring speeches, some fat - issue substance, and some protein - concrete plans for how to achieve the change so craved by the majority of American voters. (I'm just projecting here based on polling, turnout thus far, and the current administration approval level.) I know it sounds silly comparing politics to dieting, but our country has been yo-yo'ing for a while now and we need to stop.

Also posted at here at BlogHer.com.

Do Iowa Caucus Results Mean Anything?

It's all about money and surviving through February. The top three in each party will keep raising the money and the rest are basically out at this point. Some will stick around just so their voices are heard, but this is when Dodd, Biden, and sadly Richardson will say goodbye. (CNN has announced Dodd and Biden are already officially out.) It's all about Obama, Clinton and Edwards. We knew Edwards would do well in Iowa because he did well in '04. But that doesn't mean that the election has gone to Obama. He won the MySpace primary, but that's because his campaign has been working hard on MySpace since day one and most of the others haven't been giving it much thought. So my feeling here is that the race is still up for grabs. Iowa gave Edwards the momentum he sought, but whether it'll give him the money or the votes in other states to keep him alive remains to be seen.

I just watched Obama give his speech as winner of the Iowa caucuses - he's such a great speaker, but it remains to be seen as to whether he can actually deliver. But the good news is the race is finally on. All of these months of campaigning the past year are finally producing results! We're steps closer to either our first woman or first black president. Time to re-engage and start watching the sparks fly.

Have a Happy New Year

I haven't abandoned this blog; on the contrary, I have a stack of posts planned. The holidays crept up on me and with family commitments, too many projects competing for my attention and travel, I'm way behind on blogging here. I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, but I do like to re-examine various goals and take stock at the beginning of each year and during the summer to see how I'm doing. I plan to cut back on the sheer volume of projects I've been handling lately, so that should help things. (See Stefania's Project: Life Change to get the general idea.)

As to 2007, I'm glad it's coming to an end - I'm ready for a new year. Not that it was bad; on the contrary. However, 2008 brings something I've been looking forward to for eight years - electing a new president. It's not too late to register to vote in the primaries in most states. I just received my voter's guide in the mail today and I can't wait to cast my ballot for the first woman president. Now if 2008 will just get on its way so we can ring in 2009 and inaugurate a leader that will begin reversing all of the terrible damage that's been done to our environment. That will be a most happy new year. Cheers!

Joi Full ICANN

Joi Ito has written an interesting post about his time on the ICANN board and his views on the process.

"With all of it's tumultuous history and bumps and warts, ICANN, in my opinion, is the best way that we can manage names and numbers on the Internet and any new thing to try to do what it does would be less fair and probably wouldn't work."

Ito is known for doing great work for OSI and as a VC. He has served on boards of the Mozilla Foundation, Technorati, Socialtext, Creative Commons (current chairman), and Six Apart Japan. (See his Wikipedia entry if you want to be impressed.)

Rove v. Kos

This is going to be good. Karl Rove (Bush's Brain) and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (Daily KOS) duking it out in Newsweek throughout the 2008 campaign. According to the Washington Post, Rove and Kos will each have a column.

For those who see this move by Newsweek to be unorthodox or even mundane, let me say this - by putting two major figures who have shaped politics from the right and left over the recent past, we the people will have a unique angle on watching issues in this debate shift. And we will have the opportunity to hear what they think. Plus spin. I expect less spin from Kos because that's not his schtick, but Rove will undoubtedly be riding the spinwagon till the bitter end. Here are two people who are smart, articulate and knee-deep in the views of their parties' political base. I believe they'll call it as they see it and put up some great arguments for their respective causes.

Now, about the issue the Washington Post article notes of people moving from politics to press and vice versa, I understand why there's concern - the folks in power worry about leaks and message control. But if you are a person with loyalty or integrity, that doesn't happen. As someone who works on campaigns and also is a blogger, I won't talk about the internals of campaigns I work on in any way that compromises any remotely confidential information, if I write about them at all, and I won't say anything negative about the candidates because I feel it's both ethically wrong and just plain stupid. You shoot yourself in the foot if you do that. Republicans should know by now Rove isn't going to air their dirty laundry.

In cases where it goes the other way and campaigns hire people who have worked in media, they need an agreement from the get-go what those people will and won't divulge and how, once they are working on the campaign or in the government office. It didn't work out so well for the Edwards campaign early this year, but Hillary Clinton made a good move in hiring Peter Daou in 2006 from Salon.com. With media blurring into all aspects of our lives via the Internet and citizen journalism, media and political organizations should be working together more than ever.

Net Neutrality Panel in DC Monday

The Washington DC ACM Chapter has organized a great panel on the current net neutrality debate for this Monday, Nov. 12th from 7:30-9:30pm at 108 Funger Hall, 2201 G Street NW. Panelists include Harold Feld of the Media Access Project, David Robinson of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton, and Hal Singer of Criterion Economics. Check the event listing for more information.

Election Day Tomorrow - Make a Difference!

Just a reminder, particularly to Californians and San Franciscans who read this blog - tomorrow is election day. You can vote for Mayor of San Francisco or Palo Alto City Council and School Board or Menlo Park Fire District or whatever fits your locale, but don't think this election doesn't matter - local politics are important and your vote will make a much greater difference in this smaller, local election where only several thousand people submit ballots. So find your polling place and even if you haven't remembered to change an address or whatever, submit a provisional ballot and get it done.

Obama on Net Neutrality

Anne Broache of CNET has a good article up about Obama indicating during the Mtv and MySpace forum that he's in favor of Net neutrality. This is nothing earth-shattering, of course, as all of the Democrats are in favor of an equal opportunity Internet, but it sounds like Obama has a good grasp of the concept, citing that companies like Google might not exist if it weren't for Net neutrality.

Broache also noted that, while Net neutrality is not a "make-or-break issue akin to healthcare, immigration or the Iraq War," it still holds some heat. As the question was posed by MoveOn, I would venture to second that assertion since they wouldn't waste their bandwidth on a question of little importance. As someone who works from a remote office and who has used everything from 300 baud to a T3, I say speed does matter and anyone who says otherwise is just selling something.

New Environmental Activism Social Network eRedux

This is in just-launched mode, but it's worth a look - eRedux - "neighborhood-level social networking about the environment." It doesn't necessarily offer any features we haven't seen before in other places, but it's all targeted to local and environmental concepts.

For example, the front page currently shows a cool carbon footprint map by state, illustrating how population drives pollution. The site is primarily zip code based, and it has links to air quality and emissions, local farmers' markets, political contributions, lowest gas prices and more cool "green web tools." It also lists a green events calendar and a local map that I'm assuming will have more features in the future. They should be allowing local submissions of environment-related articles soon as well.

As a former city-level environmental commissioner and a local eco-activist, I think this site could really be of use to local groups like we have working in Menlo Park and Atherton. It would be nice to have one online hub for activities.

10 Online Video Questions for Presidential Candidates

Most people who read this blog probably have already heard about 10 questions, but just in case you haven't, it's a project put together by TechPresident and several other partners, including BlogHer.

The idea is to choose ten questions from a selection of self-submitted videos to ask each of the presidential candidates. The first phase of video submission ends on Nov. 14. Don't be shy - pick up your camera and give it a try!

BlogHers Act for MOTHERS Act

We've all heard the stories - moms who are incapacitated by depression, launched into this state of anxiety, sadness, loneliness that they can't seem to break out of - it's called Postpartum Depression. But what many people don't know is that this disease is much more complex than it sounds. In fact, one thing I haven't seen mentioned in other posts about this is that depression related to pregnancy and childbirth can actually begin while you're pregnant, and can affect the pregnancy itself. An important issue, to be sure, and I applaud the BlogHers Act organizers for choosing to endorse this.

The Senate is now reviewing an act, called the MOTHERS Act ("The Mom’s Opportunity To Access Help, Education, Research, and Support" for Postpartum Depression Act). This is one of those bills that just says - hey, let's address this problem in a more cohesive fashion. I haven't had a chance to read the text of the bill in detail yet, but from everything I've heard, it's a worthy effort.

Rather than going on about this, I'll direct you to Glennia Campbell's post at the Silicon Valley Moms Blog where she goes into a bit more detail about the bill itself. Also, there are several other great personal stories on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog that I highly recommend reading, and of course at BlogHer.

Hillary in Hillsborough

How could she not open her speech by talking about the weather on a day like yesterday? I could see across the Bay from this amazing property in Hillsborough - Redwood trees, gazebo and terraced gardens overlooked a tented lawn and the most perfect pool setting I've seen outside of Italy. Hillary Clinton, hopeful first woman president of the U.S. (applause please, everyone always applauds when this is mentioned and she's in the room), came to speak to 200 people. She sparkled as she came out into the sun before entering the tent.

This was my second time to see Hillary Clinton in person - my first was in the spring at a much greater distance. This time she was 10 feet from me, close enough to see the expressions on her face and notice the details in her jewelry. As she spoke - about the economy, energy policy, healthcare, education, innovation and terrorism - I felt both humbled at the opportunity and awed by how one woman, her voice hoarse from speaking around the country, can persevere through so much to achieve this simple but incredible goal of leadership.

Although most people in the group I'd peg as moderate Democrats, we had a significant share of Republicans at the event, which made the discussions during and after the event a little different than when I saw Senator Clinton last in San Francisco. There was more talk about bipartisanship and incentives for businesses, more discussion about making college affordable for everyone, and encouraging innovation while simultaneously bringing down prices in the healthcare and energy sector.

Senator Clinton spoke at length about her top priorities both now as a senator and for the future as president. She emphasized the need for a new energy policy "for our security, our environment and our economy." She jabbed at George Bush - "you cannot be a leader if no one is following." She discussed how in order to make the sweeping changes that are necessary, we will have to "reform the government."

When asked about how she would proceed in the "war on terror," she had a 3 point plan beginning with regaining the "moral authority that we've lost." "We're now seeing the results ofthe deterioration in Pakistan," she said. She thinks it's the most dangerous place in the world right now, and she thinks they have nukes. "We've got to be vigilant - not fearful bit vigilant."

On the environment, she said "it's not going to be easy (major environmental progress) but we are making some positive changes," talking about the time we have before the election. She lauded former Vice President Gore for his Nobel prize and for his efforts, but she said "I think Al would be happier with a policy than a prize," knowing there is much work that needs to be done on her part in order to make the necessary changes.

About healthcare, Hillary brought out her vast knowledge of that area and cited several related statistics. "We can't continue to spend more than anyone else in the world and not cover everyone." She also advocated on behalf of electronic medical records, saying it would save us $44Billion/year. That figure I find staggering, but I've often wondered at the disorganized fashion of most medical records as a technologist. This could build and expand businesses too, from what I know of the industry. She talked about creating new jobs and coming to agreements with everyone in biotech, insurance, "big pharma" and the rest of us and how it's unlikely the first step will be much more than a lot of compromise for everyone, but she indicated that may be the only way we can get everyone covered.

Senator Clinton spoke at great length about the challenges we have in education. She wants to provide pre-Kindergarten in 50 states. Because there's a huge drop-out rate by the third grade. Third grade! It makes me sick to think about it. She thinks it's deplorable what's happening with the cost of college education. "A lot of people in mortgage crisis are there because they took out second mortgages to send their kids to college," she said. She told stories about some of the people she's met in that situation. She also said that the U.S. is declining in the percentage of people who are going to college now, compared to many other countries.

The senator and former first lady spoke for over an hour and took Q&A for at least 30 minutes more before being whisked away to catch a flight to her next event. Hosted by Cynthia Shuman and Dan Banks and Chaired by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, the lunch event lasted longer than I expected. Jackie Speier, as always, was radiant in her introduction and shared personal stories that illustrate why she's supporting (and speaking on behalf of) Senator Clinton. There was some buzz as well about when Jackie will run for office next. Everyone in the room, of course, will be rooting for Jackie in her next race.

My mom, who happened to be in town this week, kindly sponsored my attendance to the event, since intimate political fundraisers (yes, 200 people is "intimate") tend to cost a pretty penny. She came along with me, and I was able to find one friend at short notice who came as well. She's one of the registered Republicans and she was impressed by Hillary's knowledge of the issues, but she's a tough sell (in this case because she knew one of the Republican candidates personally).

There's still a lot of talk among women and men about whether Hillary's electable - I thought that was past - but I guess not. The truth is we'll never know until it happens. Polling results say it's possible. I keep pointing-out to people that several of the first milestones in women's political history were in cases where women took offices their husbands previously occupied, so there's actually a strong precedent for this. People talk about her baggage, the smear campaigns against her, etc. and all I can say is it's sad how much of our tax money has been wasted to turn the American public against one woman - a smart, dedicated, driven, amazing person - who can and is making a monumental difference in the state of our world.

These are not simple problems Senator Hillary Clinton faces and they don't have simple solutions, nor is her list of adversaries small, but as I study her - through the debates, seeing her in person, reading what she writes, learning about her character from those who know her - I just can't help but feel that we would be in good hands if and when she becomes president. She's not sugar-coating what needs to be done and she's not making promises she can't keep. It's refreshing to me both to see a woman and someone who presents a realistic perspective on our situation as a nation, but who brings people together in a problem-solving fashion to address these issues in a proactive, insightful way. At one point during her speech, she rebuked Bush's choices as president and rhetorically asked, "how about appointing qualified people [to their posts in our government]?" Let's start by electing one.

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Also posted on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.

Hillary Hopes to Breathe Life Back into Work-Life Balance

I used to think creating work-life balance was a matter of just taking control over your own life. And to a certain extent, it is. But there are factors in our society as Americans that have really gotten out-of-control. In other countries, new mothers have an opportunity to take real time off to spend with their new babies. New fathers can spend a little time at home too. And without fear of losing their jobs or taking pay cuts for doing it. Here, that's hardly ever the case. After I became a parent, I realized work-life balance is actually very hard to come by here, especially in California where so many families need to have both parents working in order to just pay the mortgage.

Hillary Clinton, in a week of initiatives focused entirely on women, released a proposal to provide greater family leave options. The press release listed key components of the plan as creating a new State Family Leave Innovation Fund that will "expand paid leave across the country". She also proposes extending FMLA to 13 Million more Americans and requiring sick leave of at least 7 days a year. (How does this work with lame PTO programs that lump vacation and sick days all into one, I wonder?) She's promoting model workplaces and a federal telecommuting initiative (woo-hoo!), she has an affordable childcare component (no details here), and she's working to prevent discrimination, particularly in the case of pregnant women.

This week, Hillary Clinton has also spoken on a number of women's issues and for women's organizations. This is a key component of her campaign, of course, since she's the first viable woman candidate for president, but I personally believe it is much more than that. Having read a great deal about her now and having talked with and read stories about people who have known her well, it is clear to me that she has a deeply rooted commitment to women and families. This is a big part of why I support her candidacy.

It's not just about Hillary Clinton being pro-choice, a woman, a mother, or particularly vocal on key issues generally identifiable as women's issues like healthcare. Reading accounts from former staffers, she walks her talk. When she was First Lady, she allowed some of the people who worked for her to take long leaves for medical, pregnancy, post partum and childcare purposes, work flexible hours and in one rare case, bring a child to work.

If someone had told me all of that before I became a mother, perhaps I would have thought it was a weak policy or unprofessional. But now I realize how hard it really is to balance work and family in a way that is both satisfactory in allowing children to be properly nurtured and cared for while allowing parents to develop meaningful careers. Work-life balance is not some pie-in-the-sky idea that can only happen for the uber-wealthy or those who make major sacrifices. Look at Europe - it is possible. Hillary's plan is just a first, much needed major step.

I am lucky to be able to attend a lunch this Monday in California that will be hosted by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, a woman who has been a long-time champion of women and families. I won't go into too much detail here because I've blogged about this before, but Jackie Speier herself is admirable in many respects through all she's been through personally. I worked for her briefly before I had to go on bed rest in my pregnancy and she was so understanding; I never would've expected that, but she knew I made the right choice in resigning my post so I could make sure my pregnancy was sustainable and that my daughter would be born healthy. I think it's very fitting that she is hosting this event for Senator Clinton after a week of women's initiatives. It shows the real commitment that Hillary has to these new proposals and I have no doubt we will make tons of progress in this area if she becomes president.

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Also posted at BlogHer.

More from New York Times on Women Online & Politics

Today, Katharine Seelye followed-up her post, "Women, Politics and the Internet" (I mentioned it two weeks ago - she quoted me from my comments to her original inquiry) with Part II introducing some of the bloggers I know and love locally who started the Momocrats blog (looking forward to working with you gals in the general election!)

Seeyle also asked readers to let her know what online outreach methods are working to reach out to women. I look forward to reading what she learns, but I think what Mindy Finn is doing with tagging for Mitt Romney's campaign is certainly one good way. It still baffles me that so many campaigns are barely utilizing online tools, but it will happen.