I give our local main stream media some blogging tips at Philly Future, more important, I introduce a new section of particpation on the site – Breaking the Cycle.

Anil Dash: “Web 2.0 is pretty much made of white people. I’m not used to any event in a cosmopolitan area being such a monoculture.”. I’d bet by far mostly men as well. That has to change.

Speaking of that, OJR gives an overview of various citizen journalism efforts in “Grassroots journalism: Actual content vs. shining ideal” (via Craig Newmark).

Speaking of that list, Philly Future was overlooked again. I am starting to feel that this talk of a grassroots participatory movement by some is a ruse. Whenever I see one of these lists – like the one above – they are comprised of funded efforts, or efforts comprised of folks that earn a living doing this, or efforts backed by a larger media concern. I hope I’m proven wrong.

Shelley Powers: “we need to establish a habit of giving”:

…No one is to ‘blame’ for being in the way of catastrophe, and as we know, any one of us could be the next victim. There are no safe spots where nothing is likely to happen; no places of invulnerability. To help others is to help ourselves; the days of geographical isolation are at an end and we have a responsibility to each other regardless of country, race, or religion.

But if we react to each event in a frenzy, soon we’ll burn out and truly catastrophic events will go by with barely a blink. We’re seeing this with Pakistan: it’s not that people aren’t caring; it’s that we’ve just been through one cycle of frantic giving following another a short 8 months ago. It may get to a point where a country would gain help for having an ‘early’ disaster, as compared to a country having a disaster later in the year. Perhaps these countries could stage their catastrophes close to Christmas.

Rather than react impulsively (and stop reacting just as impulsively), we need to establish a habit of giving that will hopefully provide enough support for organizations that meet the needs of people in stricken communities. We should budget in a monthly donation, even if it’s only a few dollars, and contribute consistently: both to international relief organizations and those that are domestic. We should also look at organizations that help in the longterm: with education, family planning, support of basic human rights, and other means to improve overall quality of life.

We should also learn to apply filters when listening to much of the news. Stories from New Orleans match stories from Pakistan where the number of dead leaps by tens of thousands by the minute, and people searching for food in stores become tales of rampant crime and looting. The news emphasizes the worst in all matters, and it’s easy to either develop a sense of despair or disappointment. What’s important is getting help to people, and providing what support we can-facts will fall out later.

She goes on to describe what charities she plans to support international and national, immediate need and long-term. She suggests all of us putting a a ‘giving ribbon bar’ in our sidebars for permenent display. It’s a great idea. Check out Albert‘s. I’ll have a related follow-up tomorrow.

If you do anything online today, make some time for Dick Hardt’s Identity 2.0 presentation at OSCON. Thought provoking and spot on.

Browse. Search. Subscribe.:Damn straight Dave. Damn straight. There have been solutions talked about, but none have taken hold. It’s a problem that still stands begging to be solved.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone, Yahoo!’s first original content effort, has launched. But where’s the RSS?

Philadelphia Magazine trashes the Philadelphia blogosphere and its successful efforts to raise awareness of LaToyia Figueroa. Read Richard Cranium’s response and Will Bunch’s rebuttal.

Decline in male college attendance is a serious national problem. – but no one is talking about it. How about instead of blaming efforts to improve women education we look at the effects of poverty and culture on today’s men? Nah.. this will probably denigrate into a blame fest and so it sits as a growing problem.

Daily Kos and Atrios miss Media Whores Online. Pre$$titute$ is a good alternative, but what I miss is the late, great, Spinsanity – nothing came close to providing clarity in the muck. FactCheck.org just doesn’t have the bite and is less effective.

Google is preparing a move into classifieds search. If I was working at CareerBuilder – I’d be worried – “Commercial classifieds sites such as CareerBuilder, Cars.com and others have to weigh the additional audience Google could deliver against the potential loss of revenue. Analysts, including us, predict that advertisers will move to free sites if they become convinced that they will reach an audience as large – or larger – on a search engine than on a paid advertising site.”

LiveJournal has added a feature that lets you navigate communities by school. It gets slagged at Metafilter but I think this feature is very cool.

ProgrammableWeb has a cool matrix up of Web 2.0 mashup apps. Check it out.

The church-state barrier has taken some major hits this past week – House OKs Faith As Head Start Hiring Issue and FEMA Plans to Reimburse Faith Groups for Aid. Richard at the All Spin Zone isn’t optimistic.

Raleigh NY is having success improving public education by using integration by income. More at A Little Urbanity. via Ed Cone.

Garret points to an interesting article (and site for the bookmarks) Urban Food Production: Evolution, Official Support and Significance. He comments that with such a current emphasis on ‘self reliance’ and events like Katrina showing that we are – indeed – on our own – you should see more links out there like this one.

Speaking of self-reliance, no matter what folks might think, it’s hard to have good teeth without health insurance or good health insurance that provides for regular dentist visits. Jeneane Sussum is wondering if America is setting itself up to be a nation of people with crappy smiles…So we let go what we have to let go. Our teeth. And we make due. And we’re glad if we can just make our health insurance premiums every month. And those of us who once wouldn’t be seen without perfect enamel and every six month cleanings smile a little less often these days…. The New Yorker, in stomach twisting piece would seem to agree.

My prayers go out the folks in Rita’s way this morning. Remember to give.

The Commission on Federal Election Reform has released its report – urging paper trails (Wired). More at VerifiedVoting.org. Locally, check out the Committee of Seventy for information on voting rights and reform.

via Global Voices, Ma-Schamba, a Mozambique blogger shares that Live 8 is nothing but broken promises.

Atrios gives an update of his efforts in DC to convince the powers that be not to regulate free speech on the Internet as ‘political speech’.

Jay Rosen gives his thoughts on TimesSelect and shares a compliment for mine on this week’s newspaper staff reductions (thanks!). Me? I will never link to a TimesSelect article. It’s bad enough linking to something that eventually falls behind an archive wall, but I can’t link to a for-pay article. It’s what keeps me from linking more often to The Atlantic as well.

The news is that Cheney killed testimony on Able Danger.

And for more frightening news, there are 115 sick of avian flew in Jakarta.

AOL is to begin its VOIP rollout October 4th. Speaking of AOL, it has dropped the ‘beta’ tag from its new portal and has begun marketing.

At Fool.com, by Seth Jayson: “Why I Fear Google WiFi”: “How much of your life do you want to put at Google’s disposal?”

And for you porn hunters – a job for you – the FBI is looking for recruits: “The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography — not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults” War on terror? Got that handled. We have other priorities. Your tax dollars at work.

If you need a giggle (and I do man, I do), check out JWZ’s guide to turning your hamster into a fighting machine.

Katrina has opened up an opportunity to talk about class and race in America. If you read anything today, read “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” in Harpers magazine. There has been terrific progress in Philadelphia, but there are many, many factors stacked against us. A recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer shares a major case in point – “Philadelphia (is) among the nation’s poorest counties and Chester, Burlington and Bucks among its richest”. How do you think this helps or hurts education funding? And don’t you think that’s self-reinforcing?

Ed Cone takes note of John Edwards who has been championing how “Personal responsibility combined with smart government can beat poverty, that’s the message. Don’t have babies out of wedlock in your teens and we’ll make sure you’ve got a chance.” That’s Bill Clinton’s old message. Notice the two part goal here: Personal responsibility and smart government. It’s a message I believe in.

Speaking of Bill Clinton, he has finally begun to share his views on how things have been going – and it’s not pretty. Tellingly, if you watch Memeorandum it appears that most folks talking about this are Republicans who are appalled that Clinton opened his mouth. And most Democrats are just sitting idly by when they should be cheering him on. Just like old times. Pandagon tears apart one of the popular ones.

America’s response to Katrina, and the two-tier society it exposed for all to see is not looking so good abroad, even in Britain. Just look at the tone of recent articles in the Mirror or Sky News.

Amongst the stories of system failure that have come out of Katrina, folks should recognize there are many more times the number of stories of survival (Washington Post) that tell of strength, ingenuity, quick thinking, courage and compassion.

Rita is growing to hurricane strength and Galveston might issue an evacuation order today.

A shout out of thanks to all who have been donating and finding ways to help in the wake of Katrina. There are so many great examples to share across the web, but one I’ve been meaning to mention is Shelley Powers and her Critters for Critters campaign. The auction she is running I believe ends tomorrow, check it out. And if you can donate to the Humane Society.

Encourages the production and sale of beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners?

Some of my friends will disagree, but I feel Bush sounded the perfect tone last night, even if, embedded in his speech, were many troubling items like money funneling from the government to churches, and a refusal to raise federal funding via keeping taxes stable or increasing them, and an increased military role on domestic soil. Cognitive dissonance will keep many from keying in on those. My bet was late – I expected a 10% approval rating bump two weeks after Katrina – it’s on the way now. Especially with putting Karl Rove in charge of the reconstruction effort. The man behind his talking points. His political advisor. His brain. This move, I’m afraid, will slip by the press and will get mentioned as an aside – which is terrible because it reveals all you need to know about this President and his motivations. Read The All Spin Zone, Talking Points Memo, Billmon and Metafilter for more.

Joshua Micah Marshall: This is a time when the country needs an opposition party. Every Democrat should be hitting on this. Take the politics out of the reconstruction effort. He put his chief spin-doctor in charge of the biggest reconstruction and refugee crisis the country’s probably ever faced. That tells you all you need to know about his values.

In related/unrelated news employer-sponsored health insurance is becoming scarcer and more expensive. A report out says premiums for job-based health insurance rose 9.2 percent on average nationwide in 2005, about three times the general rate of inflation and the percentage of businesses offering health benefits to employees dropped to 60 percent in 2005, down from 69 percent in 2000

The beat goes on.