Making a difference – Jeff Campbell and Hungry for Music

NPR.org: “Instruments Of Good: The Healing Power Of Music”:

Another fan of Campbell’s work is singer/songwriter Peter Case. “When I was a kid,” Case says, “my guitar was like a piece of wood off a burning ship: I clung to it with all my strength and it saved me during rough times. Hungry for Music is doing important work, steering kids to instruments, and providing them to those who otherwise couldn’t get them. I think lives are being turned around by this, just like mine was.”

Related:

Hungry For Music

Pepsi Refresh Project: Get 10,000 free musical instruments to 10,000 underprivileged kids

NPR covers Mark Horvath’s Invisiblepeople.tv

I try and spend some time each week serving lunch at Project H.O.M.E.’s “Women of Change” with other fellow CIM Volunteers. I’m engaging some of the folks who work at Women of Change into possibly trying a project along these lines. I think Mark Horvath is onto something by sharing these stories as raw as he does.

NPR.org: “Former Homeless Man’s Videos Profile Life On Street”

Reference Links:

Invisible people.tv

Mark Horvath: haRdLy NOrMal

Ronnie James Dio – Rest In Peace

Ronnie James Dio, one of the greatest songwriters and singers in heavy metal, passed away this weekend.

I put together a Ronnie James Dio Playlist on YouTube to try and share some great moments, but no one song, or article, will be able to capture his influence on the genre, and the positive uplift it gives thousands of kids who look for a place to belong, a music that sings of fighting for something against incredible odds, all wrapped in a cloak of fantasy, sorcery and lightning.

The following three threads have great discussion:

Blabbermouth: “Metal Legend Ronnie James Dio Dies At 67”

Metafilter: “Shiny diamonds.”

reddit.com: DIO R.I.P.

NPR did the best job I’ve seen so far in a mainstream news source of covering his passing:

NPR.org: “Metal Legend Ronnie James Dio Dies At 67”

NPR.org: “Ronnie James Dio: Remembering A Vocal Cannon”

Friends and family links:

Rock Nightmare: R.I.P Ronnie James Dio”.

Thoughts on Religion (and other things): On Ronnie James Dio.

You can pay your respects at Ronnie James Dio.

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Heroes – Locks of Love

Last week Rose and the salon she works at, “Salon 360”, put on an event to collect hair donations for “Locks of Love”. This morning I got the chance to watch a documentary on the organization on HBO titled “Locks of Love: The Kindest Cut”. The documentary outlined the personalized process “Locks of Love” takes to make wigs for children who are suffering from hair loss from a medical diagnosis. The people behind this and the hard work they put into it are helping those who need it in a profound way.

Fancast: Locks of Love: The Kindest Cut Preview:

You can read more about “Locks of Love” from Michael DiVittorio in a piece for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “HBO Family documentary puts Locks of Love in public’s eyes”

There can never be enough journalists like Bill Moyers

Recently my friend and coworker Arpit Mathur passed along a critique of journalism’s sorry state using the leaked iPhone story as evidence.

The sad thing is that we might be amidst some kind of golden age for journalism and are largely unawares.

For evidence, visit sites and services like ProPublica, NPR.org, McClatchyDC, THe Center for Investigative Reporting, Global Voices, Mother Jones, Global Post.

Separate from these organizations are independents who are putting it on the line every day just for passion.

And then there are aggregators like Arts & Letters Daily to help navigate it all and organizations like Media Mobilizing to help empower acts of journalism to be created.

In Philadelphia some investors just made a large bet that Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com, part of this city’s infrastructure of journalism has a promising future.

For impact consider what it took to write the “Tainted” Justice” series in the Daily News or “Justice Delayed, Dismissed, Denied” in the Inquirer.

Recently Clay Shirky spoke of the importance of organizations like the Inquirer and Daily News (The Boston Globe in this case) in reporting the Boston Catholic Church abuse scandal.

The news ecosystem is evolving and Philadelphia matters as a testbed for the rest of the nation.

For more examples of this consider the following list of Philadelphia independents, non-profits, for-profits, and organizations: NEPhilly.com, OurPhiladelphia, Philadelphia Neighborhoods, The Frankford Gazette, The Broad Street Review, WHYY, thenotebook, Phawker, Philebrity, Citypaper, Philadelphia Weekly, The Philadelphia New Media Hub, Technically Philly, and the yearly Bar Camp NewsInnovation Philadelphia. And then there is the ever growing quality list covering the arts, food, and sports, way too many too mention in this space.

J-Lab, The Institute for Interactive Journalism, recently published a report on Philadelphia’s news landscape and made some recommendations. Check it out.

Programmers and Journalists are realizing common motivations and many journalists have been thinking about computing in whole new ways that relate to their work.

There are threats. It is harder for acts of journalism we need to know, but are not aware of it, to reach us. The old economic models that have supported it have crumbled. Changes in technology and culture have brought upheaval and amidst that upheaval those with power will abuse that power when not watched. The constraints on our attention and business pressures on those to breach it are huge. It’s important to lay out these threats because they get to core issues having to do with the infrastructure required for acts of journalism to be produced and be effective.

But to re-emphasize my point – there are many organizations and individuals who are doing it today. In some cases have been doing it for years, that we need to somehow amplify among the din.

As a programmer, I recognize this has everything to do with information science, communications, marketing, and development. As a citizen I recognize it has everything to do with our communities, our neighborhoods, cities, our country and navigating the world at large and hopefully making it a better place. One story at a time.

Which makes this a sad moment to note – Bill Moyers has broadcast his last episode of “Bill Moyers Journal” and ended a run of one of the best sources of journalism on television. The Journal will be missed.

NPR.org: “After Four Decades In TV News, Bill Moyers Retires”

NYTimes: “A Breather for Moyers; Next Step Is Unclear”

Online heroes – Ushahidi

“Africa’s Gift to Silicon Valley: How to Track a Crisis”: “a small Kenyan-born organization called Ushahidi, which has become a hero of the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes and which may have something larger to tell us about the future of humanitarianism, innovation and the nature of what we label as truth.

More:

Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information (FOSS)

Developer information on their wiki

Online hero – Salman Khan

Starbulletin: “Khan’s tutorials display promise of broadband”.

PBS NewsHour: Math Wiz Takes Education to New Limits on YouTube

Related:

Khan Academy

Online heroes – David and Barbara Mikkelson

NPR.org profiles the hosts of Snopes.com in “Mom-And-Pop Site Busts The Web’s Biggest Myths”.

Seth Finkelstein’s Pew Research answers

Seth Finkelstein has posted his answers to a Pew survey on the future of the Internet, and Google making us stupid (or not) in a thought provoking yet grounded (which is rare on the Web – admit it!) post.

Seth – if you’re reading – I miss your blogging.