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Welcome to the home page of How To Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning With Ruby, by Elizabeth Wiethoff.
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Beth Kanter raises $2,500 in 90-minutes.
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I will give you some actual nuts and bolts, but let me first say this: all good online fundraisers have two basic directions they work in – in and out. âÂ?Â?InâÂ?Â? is a webpage, where people visit you. âÂ?Â?OutâÂ?Â? is as in reaching out, through emails, smsing, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook etc etc etc.
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The meta-ness of this is hilarious. A NY Times reporter writes an article about how citizen journalists didn’t cover the death of somebody in her neigoborhood. Yes – the way she covered it was by wondering why nobody else did.
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I actually just met this guy not too long ago at FreelancersCamp in Santa Cruz. Excellent advice – much of which I need to heed.
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Interesting reading if you ever need to build an e-commerce site.
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I like this idea of a “change blogger” – people who use their blog to make change. In this case Alex is doing reporting – he hopes to report on what other people are doing. To me – that’s change reporting. I hope spot.us can support change reporters in the future.
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More thoughts on the Huff Post going local.
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I used to write for the Daily Cal. What a bummer.
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Should be called Ruby through the coarse of your day
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Free book.
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Podcasts and screencasts for Ruby on Rails – start here.
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More screencasts – probably more advanced than where I’m at.
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Some screencasts of Ruby – more advanced than where I’m at.
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A few free online tutorials with screencasts.
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This book is hilarious to read – hopefully I can learn something from it
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Practice Ruby from my browser – all I need is internet access
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Cheat sheet for some rails stuff.
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This is the way into my MYSQL – combined with CocoaMySQL, and bamn. I’m up and running.
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Seth Godin is dead wrong on this. Ads are useless if they are used as tip jars. That’s not what advertisers want to be. Why not just, gasp, tip the writer directly???? That’s what Spot.us is betting on at least.
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So I can learn what everything means in Ruby
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Practice in my browser at any time.
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Learning Ruby on Rails
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Sorry foks – saving things on delicious is the best way for me to keep track of this.
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I’m learning Ruby on Rails at Community College in San Francisco. W00t!!!!
I’ll share a bit of what I learn here – please welcome the new additional interest in my life.
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On the economics of content….
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Lenn Witt asked a hard nosed question: “If the America public does not want to pay for journalism âÂ?Â? in other words, doesnâÂ?Â?t find value in what we as journalists do âÂ?Â? should we simply stop doing it?”
I don’t think he’s that far off from asking THE central question of journalism right now. At a gathering of Knight winners in Chicago the president of the Knight foundation essentially asked this same thing – he said that Knight will be committed to figuring out how journalism is done in a digital future – until we either figure that out or the public overwhelmingly decides that journalism isn’t needed to keep democracy strong and healthy.
What I believe: Journalism is still valued by the public – but it often won’t be called “journalism” – it will be recognized as something else. Journalism will continue – but it won’t be done by “journalists.” That doesn’t mean profesionalism dies – but the diaspora of laid of journalists will find a new home and not even recognize themselves.
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Thoughts from Tish Grier on B-weeks new social media strategy (launching in September).
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Lenn Witt asks a hard nosed question: “If the America public does not want to pay for journalism âÂ?Â? in other words, doesnâÂ?Â?t find value in what we as journalists do âÂ?Â? should we simply stop doing it?”
I don’t think he’s that far off from asking THE central question of journalism right now. At a gathering of Knight winners in Chicago the president of the Knight foundation essentially asked this same thing – he said that Knight will be committed to figuring out how journalism is done in a digital future – until we either figure that out or the public overwhelmingly decides that journalism isn’t needed to keep democracy strong and healthy.
What I believe: Journalism is still valued by the public – but it often won’t be called “journalism” – it will be recognized as something else. Journalism will continue – but it won’t be done by “journalists.” That doesn’t mean profesionalism dies – but the diaspora of laid of journalists will find a new home and not even recognize themselves.
Monthly archives for August, 2008
links for 2008-08-31
I Too Have a Crush on Obama – A Rare Political Post
I’m not a political blogger. I don’t intend to become one. But after Obama’s speech tonight – I have to write something.
I was 18 when George W. Bush took office. It was the first election I voted in. I have lived my entire adult life under G.W.’s administration. My entire 20′s (so far). All of college and grad-school (you see where I’m going).
I realize I’m buying into a tagline – but I don’t want more of the same. In fact, during the primaries this is why I voted for Obama. I realize that Clinton wasn’t a shabby candidate. I know many people that I respect who supported her – but I drank the Obama Koolaide and I think it was a direct result of my life experience.
Don’t forget – before G.W. I lived eight years under a different Clinton. That takes me back to when I was ten years old. And don’t forget from age six to ten I was living under the first Bush. Before that was Reagen who I only vaguely remember seeing on T.V.
I’ve lived my entire conscious life in a country run by two families.
That’s why Obama’s call for change resonates with me. It’s exciting and inspiring.
Hearing Obama say we will break our addiction to foreign oil I got the chills. This must have been what it felt like to hear J.F.K suggest we would send a man to the moon.
Not to say that breaking the addiction will be easy. That’s why it’s called an addiction! It will require lots of work from everyday average citizens – but again, this plays into Obama’s strength. It’s not Obama the person that I like. Nor do I think he is some kind of government-executive mastermind that can balance a budget while rubbing his tummy and patting his head.
What I support is inspiration and hope. To say we will put aside the silly political games (swift boating), put your cards on the table and say “I think this will work. It’s different – but we have to push forward.”
It is hope – it is change, etc.
Again: I realize I’m repeating the obvious rhetoric, but I’m not the only one. Obviously the guy represents these things to more than just me and that, in the end, will be his greatest strength.
If Obama is elected and he says something to the tune of “ask not what your country can do for you…..” – people will respond. Everyone like me that has felt alienated from government for the past eight years, perhaps their entire lives, will stand up and say “here’s what I’m going to do for my country.”
That is more valuable than any other kind of financial capital.
As far as Republicans go I like John McCain. I have always thought of him as a respectable guy. But if he can’t mobolize the country and create the shift not just in our policy – but our mind set – then even if he wins, we all lose. What we need is to get engaged back into the process of politics.
The great journalism education debate
One thing I often think: It should emphasis more than reporting and writing – but a sense of what it’s like to be an independent journalist (a freelancer).
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The News Wheel Turns and the NY Times Spins It
It’s interesting to be on the other side of the media. It’s not surprising that the NY Times article on spot.us got a lot of attention and kudos, etc. etc. Again – my immediate response has been “does spot.us really deserve the attention yet.” It’s very welcomed – but I honestly want to scream at the top of my lungs “come back in the Fall!!!”
And that’s what I’m starting to tell other news organizations. Since the NY Times piece a slew of them have contacted me wanting to do their own follow ups. The media attention is great – because the media can bring crowds of users, but it does Spot.Us no good right now. We simply aren’t ready to do community organizing. And community organizing is crucial to the spot.us process of creating media.
If I could go back, I’d consider telling the NY Times to wait until AFTER we launch. I hope in 3-4 months when the site is up and running it’s still worth being covered – because the fact is the visitors that came to spot.us via the NY Times or Romanesko this weekend probably left immediately afterwards, unimpressed with the site as it is.
Perhaps I’m being cynical. I just hope that in a few months when the site is ready (preliminary designs here) that we will still be able to get the kind of media attention we’ll need in order to get a crowd.
It’s also interesting to see the power that the NY Times still has. Since that article has come out I’ve been contacted by Australia and Seattle’s respective NPR’s, Fox News and a few other news organizations. My standard line right now is: please cover us AFTER we launch. I think that’s understandable and besides – it’ll be more newsworthy then. Right now the site is just a wiki – any 26-year-old could duplicate what I’m doing. In fact – I would encourage it.
One week left on the SF Election Truthiness Campaign and we are $200 shy of our goal.
Update: One comment asked how the whole NY Times article came about. It went roughly like this. As many know, I was the research assistant for Jeff Howe who has a book coming out on Crowdsourcing. The reporter was focusing in on crowdfunding and was going to highlight the book, but her research led her to spot.us.
We talked on the phone and I had been under the impression that the story was going to focus on crowdfunding in general and Jeff’s book. I found out late Friday that actually Spot.Us was going to be the focus (when she called to do some fact-checking on our first conversation). I still think the Times coverage is great – it’s a great article and I hate to sound un-appreciative. But now I just hope we can duplicate that kind of attention in a few months when the site is ready.
For now… ONWARD
Spot.Us in the New York Times – Not “Victory” by any means – but kinda cool
I woke up Sunday morning, checked twitter and was instantly referred to a New York Times article “A Different Way to Pay for the News You Want.”
It seems Spot.Us became the focus of an article that, from my understanding, was originally supposed to be about the concept of “crowdfunding.” Perhaps Spot.Us was a fresher angle? Either way – it certainly was nice to see the New York Times take notice of my little startup.
While it’s very cool and welcomed – I don’t want to start patting myself on the back. In truth – I would have preferred this article not come out for another few (4-6) months. The fact is – Spot.Us is still in a nascent stage. We have small victories – but nothing to celebrate overtly yet.
Recently I read a great article about Adrian Holovaty and his esteemed work ethic. I’ve met Adrian a few times now and while I disagree with his geographic potshots at Silicon Valley, I do agree with his sentiment. Glitz and glamor doesn’t = success. It’s a distraction. I see it effect tech bloggers all the time, as they try to reach internet rock star status. That becomes their end goal instead of just providing good content.
In the past I’ve earned kudos as “the hardest working young man in journalism.” That came out of my experience while working on Assignment Zero (I was a grad student and working around the clock on that project). I intend to keep that status – because it will only be through hard work that spot.us amounts to anything.
Spot.Us will not succeed through any amount of attention from old media (which in itself adds to this weird watching ourselves die coverage). Nor do I want spot.us tied to my success. I would love it if Spot.Us moves forward and I receive little or no recognition while it grows.
Spot.Us has the potential help the greater good – to empower communities to take control of the media themselves. But the only way we’ll get there is if the extended spot.us team keep our heads down for the next two months. Right now we are still slated for an October launch (public or private is undecided).
After we’ve funded the SF Election Truthiness Campaign and published the Northern California Ethanol story – That’s the next milestone.
A note on the article itself:
- I tend to not use the Obama/Dean analogy for a few reasons. This reporter was good – and kept me talking until eventually I used it. Kudos to her.
- Yes – the grant is for $340,000. For those that think I’m now rich – think again. I’m actually paying myself VERY little on purpose.
- I love the phrasing of this “if a neighborhood with an agenda pays for an article, how is that
different from a tobacco company backing an article about smoking?” – Well, neighborhoods tend not to agree on anything – if an entire neighborhood agrees that an issue needs to be investigated, I think any news organization would be remiss not to go forward with it.
ONWARD!!!!
