I continue to work nonstop on Spot.Us. Soon I will have design wireframes to share (will probably do so at the Spot.Us blog).
I am incredibly touched by how people have pledged for the SF Election Truthiness Campaign. We have raised 64% of our goal and if we raise another $880 by the end of this month, Spot.us will have a HUGE proof of concept before our launch. So far the entire endeavor has worked on the “gift economy.” People are distributing the cost of hiring this reporter. There is nothing else I can call it – but a donation.
Being humbled by it all – I decided to do a little donating myself. Yesterday I volunteered at a computer learning center for underprivileged adults. In the lower Haight on Buchanan street you’d never know it, but there is a community center. This serves the residents who live in the housing projects in the surrounding neighborhood. The computer facilities are used for afterschool purposes – but on Tuesdays it becomes an adult learning center.
It was an incredibly eye-opening experience. It’s easy to forget that the way I (and probably you, dear reader) interact with people online is unique. It is a result of being in a very privileged position. Through it we have the power to communicate and connect (and with it responsibility).
One of the adults I was working with is also very active in the Hayes-Valley neighborhood. He goes to community association meetings, is helping to plan a block party and is generally active and social. To help plan for the block party we showed him Craigslist – where he could put out a call for volunteers. To help spread word, we created a new entry on a blog with a link to an article from the Western Addition newspaper that put out a blurb.
These action steps are second nature to me. I’m confident I could do them while cooking myself a nice lunch. I don’t say that to be cocky, but to contrast, if only to myself, the experience that these individuals have using online tools. It is not seamless – it is difficult, somewhat unpleasant and requires deep concentration (not unlike how I feel figuring out my taxes).
All this was very enlightening. If anything else – it was a gentle reminder not to take these tools for granted. Not to assume that this is how everyone interacts online.
Thanks Nate.
I’m becoming more and more comfortable with blogging about issues outside of “journalism” – although that’s still at the forefront of my mind.
I’m tired of meta-conversation at some level.
About 10 years ago I taught Web design and MS Office classes to low-income adults in D.C. one night a week. Simple stuff that could improve their chances in the job market. I was a volunteer, one of many.
I will never forget the gratitude my students and former students expressed when I was leaving to move to Florida. One man said that before he came to our training program, he would go into Best Buy to look at computers, but he never touched them.
He was afraid he might break something. Completely serious.
And there he was, after six months or so — a person who could do mail merges, create databases, write HTML.