the unobstructed view

CopyCamp was awesome

Through bleary eyes and lack of sleep, I just spent a great day at CopyCamp, a barcamp-style event hosted at the Mercury News building in San Jose. There were about 40 participants, including several Mercury News reporters and editors. We had a couple of group discussions and 4 breakout sessions. The discussions centered around the Mercury News’ style, tone, and technique in its coverage of race, immigration policy, the work of non-profit organizations and activism groups, technology, and business. The discussions were passionate and eloquent. I was moved by the obvious impact the Mercury News has in all of the diverse communities of the Bay Area

I am very grateful to the Mercury News reporters and editors who participated. As representatives of the paper, they were asked pointed questions. I thought they did a great job of listening to critiques of the paper’s performance and explaining the philosophies and realities that govern their jobs. At this moment in time, it is impossible to discuss print news without getting into the topics of staffing cuts, the move from printed paper to the web, and the pressures of being in a for-profit, corporate environment. In my previous discussions of those topics, I had rarely considered the people in the newsroom, instead thinking of the Mercury News as a single entity. Sitting down with the journalists from the Merc and members of the public, it brought home to me the reality that the Mercury News is employing people. Real people who are trying to bring important information to my attention. I may disagree with the content or the tone of the Mercury News sometimes, but I have never been more certain of its importance in the Bay Area, here in Santa Cruz, and all over the world.

The beauty of CopyCamp’s open format (and BarCamp in general), it encouraged discussion among participants. I’m always inspired by what people are doing and it is often quite striking what is going on in your community that you don’t know about.

I learned a great deal about the Merc’s online setup from Randy Keith, the Merc’s online editor. I briefly talked to Goro, who helps Japanese start-ups relocate to the Bay Area and blogs about Bay Area news in Japanese so recent Japanese immigrants can read about local news in their native language. I also chatted with Jorge Zavala of TechBA, who works with start-ups in Mexico and Canada to help them relocate to the Bay Area.

I had some excellent post-camp discussions with CopyCamp’s organizers, Chris O’Brien of the Merc and (Digi)Dave Cohn, a recent Knight News Challenge grant winner (along with Margaret and Quiddities), who’s creating a non-profit for local investigative journalism called Spot.Us, Chris Amico, a freelance journalist (and UCSC alum) recently back from China and Rex Pechler (also a UCSC alum), a future Google-ite who’s working on a citizen journalism start-up. Here’s a video of Rex, Dave and I recorded by Chris Amico as we left CopyCamp:

Update 6/30, 10am PDT: Chris’ video goes along with his blog post about CopyCamp. I recommend the post and the video, so I’ve removed the video so you can see his post and the video together.

Note: I think I came off kind of harsh in my description of my “ownership of the newspaper.” In my rambling, I was attempting to address the newspaper industry in general, where I feel coverage tends toward the broad, sensational story and not get to the details and underlying “meat and potatoes” of a community involved with the story. I think that directive comes indirectly (via staffing cuts and profit-motive) from the higher levels of the media industry as a whole and not from a conscious effort on the part of the newsroom staff. So, you could say I pretty much blew it on that question.

I want to thank Chris O’Brien and Dave Cohn for organizing CopyCamp, the Mercury News for hosting and everyone who came on a Saturday to participate in the discussion. I had a great time and I will carry many of the ideas and concerns I heard today with me into the discussions I have here in Santa Cruz about newspapers and citizen journalism.

Update 6/30, 10:03am PDT: Dave Cohn has written about Saturday’s CopyCamp.

If you’d to participate in the ongoing discussion we started today at CopyCamp, go to MajorityofNone.com.

June 29, 2008 – 11:09 am

By Rob|News, Video| Comments (3)

Keith Olbermann nails it.

For the past 4 and a half years, I have dreamed of the perfect blog post. I have started it and stopped it in my head over and over and over again. It is the post in which I eloquently, emotionally and concisely convey my feelings about the way George W. Bush has led this country to its darkest hour. In that blog post, I express just how distraught I have been at times, wondering why our president professes to love America so much while he tears it to pieces. The well-worded blog post would expose Mr. Bush as the lying cheater he is; and why America — indeed the world — no longer considers him worth the effort of common respect. He is, without any doubt, the worst president this country has ever seen, and the most embarrassing leader a country of our greatness has ever had to endure. I hoped to capture that in written word here.

Last night, Keith Olbermann delivered the monologue I had hoped to write. I can finally point people to something that truly expresses how I feel about this president.

Thank you, sir.

May 15, 2008 – 9:26 pm

By Rob|Political Links, Politics, Rants, Video| Comments (4)

Opting Out of Paper

This afternoon, as I did the customary, bi-monthly task of sorting through the giant pile of mail that resides on a table near our front door, I decided enough was enough. I’m done with paper-wasting. Done with the environmental consequences of having useless information — information I have not solicited — delivered to me at the expense of living organisms. Done with the volume of paper that I neither read nor feel the need to pass on to others going straight into the recycle bin without so much as a second glance.

So, I hit up my friend, The Internet, for some ideas on how to reduce my paper mail footprint. The Internet, as always, came through. Here are a few ideas for reducing your paper mail (and thus your carbon) footprint.

Direct Marketing

The Direct Marketing Association has a website, dmachoice.org where you can opt-out of their mailing lists. Since their mailing lists account for most unsolicited catalogs and other mailed advertisements, this action alone can reduce your volume of unsolicited mail significantly. The process is pretty simple: you create an account and opt-out. Done. You can change your preferences at any time, so if you ever want to go back to proxy-slaughtering trees, you can ;-).

One aspect of this process I found amusing was the DMA’s reasoning that you should not opt-out of their mailings because you’ll be harming the environment. On the confirmation page, they warn that, if you don’t receive paper catalog mailers, you’ll just get in your car and drive to the mall. As opposed to not receiving a paper catalog, not getting in my car, and just shopping online and getting better prices? You lost me.

If you’re hooked on some of the catalogs you get already but want to opt-out of the mailings you haven’t asked for, you can try catalogchoice.org. Catalog Choice gives you more granular control over what you get and don’t get, allowing you to unsubscribe to individual catalogs.

Credit Card Offers

In my search to remove myself from the paper nightmare of direct marketing, I discovered that you can also opt-out of pre-screened credit card offers. AWESOME! optoutprescreen.com is a website setup by the Consumer Credit Reporting Industry to allow you to remove yourself from pre-screened credit card offers. Again, the process is simple although it requires more sensitive information: your Social Security number and a valid credit card. This is information they already have and they use it to verify your identity. I wasn’t quite comfortable giving that information out, so I did some poking around and found an article from AARP Magazine recommending optoutprescreen.com. I thought that was a trustworthy endorsement, so I signed up. You can opt-out of pre-screened credit card offers for 5-years or for life. In order to opt-out for life, you have to sign a form and mail it in. I will sacrifice a little paper now to save reams of paper later.

I’m hoping that these two actions alone will reduce my paper mail footprint by more than 90%. In addition, I have all of my bills sent to me via email now and only receive paper bills from a couple of companies. Please pass on any other ideas to reduce your paper mail footprint. I’d love to hear more.

May 11, 2008 – 12:39 am

By Rob|Rants, Recommendations, Websites| Comments (3)

Transition

Last September, I spent a Saturday afternoon in the office, attempting to work on a particularly difficult project. It was a gorgeous, sunny Saturday, which meant that it was rather stuffy and hot in the office. After a couple of hours of false starts, I gave up and headed to the gym.

The gym at UCSC has a nice balcony to workout on. As I sat there contemplating my lost afternoon over sit-ups and crunches, I met a UCSC staff member from the campus Public Information Office. We talked about U.S. politics and the amazing view of The Monterey Bay from the balcony. When I talked about my job, he mentioned that his office had been without a web developer for a couple of years and would be seeking someone to fill the position. They hadn’t ironed out the details yet, but the announcement would go up on the UCSC jobs page soon.

I kept an eye out for the job announcement, but didn’t see anything after several weeks. By chance, I saw the staff member again a few weeks later, and introduced him to Kalin. He told me his office was close to posting the job announcement at that point.

Fall came. The owner of the house we were renting foreclosed (though she called it “selling the house”), we were looking for a new place to live, and work got crazy. In early November, Kalin happened to be at the gym one evening when the same staff member sought her out to tell her that the job had been posted for several weeks and the first review period was to start the following Monday.

Short. Notice. I hadn’t been checking the UCSC jobs site and nearly missed an opportunity to apply for the position.

One hectic weekend later, I had produced a fresh version of my resumé, a supplemental document highlighting some of my specific experience and a cover letter to “tie the room together”. I submitted my application materials for the position 3 minutes before the system would have locked me out. Score!

Four months and 2 interviews later, I have officially been offered–and accepted(!!)–the position of Senior Web Developer in the Public Information Office at UCSC. I’m very excited about the new opportunities ahead. Of course, I will miss my Quiddities family. But after nearly 2 years together, there cannot be goodbye, only see you later. Santa Cruz is too small, and I love them too much to vanish from the Quiddities landscape.

So, why did I include all of that back story just so I could tell you I’ll soon be starting an exciting new job (you had to read, like, 3 paragraphs or something!)? Because I wanted to show you what it felt like to walk the jagged path to this point. I’m not a religious person, and–despite living in Santa Cruz–I don’t own any fortune-telling crystals. It may sound hypocritical, but I also don’t believe in fate. Life is a series of opportunities. Some you take, some you don’t. How you get to those opportunities often makes your choice easier when you get there. A series of chance encounters at the gym brought me squarely to this point. And I’m excited to jump into this new job.

March 19, 2008 – 11:39 am

By Rob|In my mind, That's Life, Web Development| Comments (4)