Serious props for Philly Future

Posted on April 12, 2005 by Karl

This is a duplicate of what I posted at PF this morning

Jay Rosen calls for a new crew to shake up discussions on citizen’s journalism and includes yours truely. I’m blown away and very flattered. After all, I’m not sure I could go to these panels – unless I could take you all with me 🙂

To repeat a point I made in his discussion thread:

We are seeing the onset of a real tipping point: the technological barriers to trying out efforts along these lines have come down to where hobbyists, those that want to experiment, and those with a passion they need to satisfy, can do so with little expense or expertise.

Bryght, for example, can make available to anyone with $39.95 a month the very same communication/publishing capabilities as Philly Future. Bryght provides you with a version of Drupal that is similar to what Philly Future runs (CivicSpace). Roland Tanglao, their “Chief Blogging Officer” calls these sites Web 2.0 sites.

I’d duplicate Jay Rosen’s linkage to the other great sites and people he mentioned here, but I need to be off to work! (I will do so later)

Until then read his article and browse those sites! The discussion is important. Those other sites are trailblazers that you should know about. I’m honored that we are mentioned among them.

Unimaginable beauty

Posted on April 12, 2005 by Karl

The Hubble telescope has provided us with sights that weren’t dreamt of , and yet the Bush administration has cut funding. Its future is in serious doubt.

I wish there was a save the Hubble site similar to Spread Firefox. Who knows what could be done? Iâ€™d start it myself if I had the time.

Philadelphia Film Festival 2005 coverage at Philly Future

Posted on April 11, 2005 by Karl

Milestone: We have our first press passed empowered writer covering this year’s film festival at Philly Future.

HyperHistory Online

Posted on April 10, 2005 by Karl

This is one of those sites that I love the Web for: “3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronoptic lifelines, timelines, and maps.” Check it out.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith spoilers

Posted on April 10, 2005 by Karl

millenniumfalcon.com has a great message forum. Beware going there if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Then again, you can read the book. I just finished it and can tell you that it was absolutely terrific. Way better than the previous two screenplay adaptations – which leads me to hope that this movie will be similarly better. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Newsmap and 10×10

Posted on April 9, 2005 by Karl

These have made the rounds before, but they are worth a second (and third, and… well for me it’s an everyday thing) look:

newsmap builds a graphical representation of the top stories at Google News that makes it easy to discern what the most popular ones of the day are.

10×10 does something similar, culling stories from various news sources and presenting them in a photographic gallery, literally laid out in ten rows and ten columns.

Neither description Iâ€™m giving does them justice. If you haven’t tried these yet, give them a shot.

Respect for Web Developers

Posted on April 9, 2005 by Karl

Jeremy Zawodny commented on something I’ve felt for a long time – client side web development is hard work and doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

The work I do mostly focuses on things behind the scenes. Like Rafe, early on I made the decision that it is where I could be most successful and apply my talents. While I have a familiarity with the basics of client side development, and do it when called for, I have extreme respect for those on our staff that wrestle with its complexity everyday.