Cyberfeminist and culture jammer, archimedia, Molly - on stage with her 3 year old. YEAH!!! "Simon is actively culturejamming right now." with David Cox. with a bunch of billboard modifiers... I am happy to hear the word "feminist" coming off the stage....!
Ahhh! here's the robot instructions!
***
Molly is right on!
so is david cox. I liked what he said about people being afraid to lead an interesting life & self-censoring their actions/words.
i liked too what the woman with the blond braids said from the audience, that fine, she agrees, but we're sort of wanking off just talking to each other and does any of this persuade the people who don't agree... I didn't hear everything she said because I'm dealing with legos and supervillains on the side.
Molly talking about cyberfeminist fighting of annoying sexist images in advertising...
question about privatization of public space. when "we" the good guys do it to the strong, it's good, when "they" do it to "us" who are weaker... when does it become good/bad... or something... is it a technique of the "losing side"...
****
videobloggers. wearthemedia.com - Rene...
demoing something called Flashmeeting....
video aggregators.
katrina mashup video.
there much talk of "mashup" and tagging.
rene is an ex-textblogger before she was a videoblogger...
***
now, the "stick it to the Man" panel. i can't hear them very well. now there is Moomin building spaceships, there's simon, 3 and a half, and gwennie (8) and jasmin (10) up here. the older girls with their Nintendogz, or whatever... and Jeremy with his baby, i remember when the baby was first born and I met Jeremy at the Peppers' waffle brunch.... he's wearing a STrange Horizons shirt. everything intersects!
next webzine, we need child care in a separate room! if it's just me and moomin, he is very quiet. but more than one kid means instant noise!
indymedia.org looks good... maybe i should hook up with them somehow.
a guy talks about the peacemakers - i can't see the url really or hear him very well, alas, as the kids are....Not Quite Silent, though very well behaved! (actually a lot of the grownups are louder than the kids...)
I'm looking forward to the neighborhood blogging panel.
C. just showed up and is all shiny in her shiny vinyl skirt and corset-bustier thing with pink lacing. She came up to the balcony to hang out and explain the 3600 + 3 Green Lanterns to Moomin. (I still didn't get it, but we'll look it up later.)
The older girls are showing Moomin how to play Nintendogz, very nicely!
Now the guys on stage are talking about the Rise up! network. and how to figure out wheere the good video blogs are... so many of them... etc. That hardly seems like a huge problem as there is tagging and there's blogs & magazine-style edited blogs, aren't there? Oh, that's what he's talking about, "democratizing editing" and "we're all becoming editors". Hmmm.
The woman in the green shirt and black boots is talking about how not everybody can watch internet video (finally someone mentions this!) and she advocates making very cheap video copies of things and putting them in libraries. distribution is a problem. there could be some way for people to make cheap copies of stuff and make it available.
someone needs to fix the sound system or the mic or something, can't hear anything!
finally chula is yelling nice and loud. It's not just that I'm deaf, the sound system sucks today!!!
chula goes off on the neighborhood blogging and how it's like Mr. Rogers' train will go zooming into your private areas and kick the man's ass. heh....
***
in a moment of strange, pleasant deja vu, i was standing next to Susie Bright (telling her to go up on stage and talk about her blog) when someone started taking photos and she turned to me and said, "Gosh, I feel like we should be kissing, just like Madonna and Britney..." Now that's good karma. And that was a nice sweet kiss too! Thanks Madonna, I owe you one! and thanks susie! I hope it was okay that I grabbed your ass like that. you're such an all around hottie! when girls kiss me all meltingly, even just for the camera, I take a handful and kind of hope it's okay.
***
Eve from SFist.com is talking. I have never looked at their site, but it sounds good & like they try to encourage "what happened" & then analysis in their blogging...
guy from Urbantic.... using tagging and geolocating... their platform is for enabling communities to share local environment experience. hmm this sounds good too. unmoderated. "kudos" i.e. whuffie, I guess. not launched yet? is this like everything2 and your "cool" points and voting? sounds like. "communities moderating themselves". Hmmm.
someone from.... metroblogs? Talking about how in Karachi the local blog is all like, "hey, don't go by this certain cafe this morning, because... it was blown up." And then someone from Orlando Florida is reading it and getting local news from a totally different perspective and can leave comments. [I think this is really cool. it goes well with what I believe about the importance of reading newspapers in other languages and from other countries - newspapers that aren't "meant for you" whoever you are. read stuff that is "meant" for someone else and see what you see!!! It is even cooler to read a small local newspaper from somewhere else.
***
some dude just came bouncing up to me. "hey! I know you! I just started work at flickr!" heh!
***
The 3.5 year old, does not want any of the toys, crayons, animals, action figures, or books. No legos, no ships I build for him, no sword battles I offer! He only, for hours and hours, wants the one delicately built lego spaceship that Moomin is holding! Gah! For hours I run interference, and Moomin forbears to clobber him. And once in a great while his parents (?) haul him out of the not-quite-melee or tell him to be nice because Moomin is "sharing".... But then act like they expect me to DO something about it, like what, force Moomin to give up his one toy, when he is the one behaving? I'm getting annoyed... I didn't sign up to do child care, though if this happens again I'll organize something in a different room and will work a shift. In fact, I counted on all the toys to create a zone of peace where Moomin would be quietly amused, as usual, so I could be blogging and paying attention, not entertaining and disciplining while *ahem* other people chat with grownups and get with their computers. finally they removed the kid, perhaps for a nap... or perhaps he went somewhere else to do his hippytastic "culture jamming"...
I'm sure my own kid was annoying someone else with all his legos underfoot & stuff... or just by being there. o well!
***
susie bright is on stage talking about her blog.... fun!
jonas luster is a good loud dynamic speaker! jluster.org There is no such thing as a social network! " if someone tells you there is, if this software is more social than other software, club him over the head! take 2 nipple clamps, a car battery... i leave the rest to your imagination!"
People are cheering jonas. I am not sure what his thing is! but I'll look.
has the software made a positive difference for more than a small fraction of people?
did it get someone a job? maybe a coupple of people... anecdotes... flock. a "social browser" andy talks about flock. Jonas talks about the story of andy smith. they both signed up on orkut or something. andy started a community called "sociology" or something. jonas has a BA in sociology. he and andy met in los gatos for coffee, at big bear. (hey! I used to go there!) a week later... supernova 2004 happened and andy sweettalks (someone) .... into conference pass, get a job in canada and disappears. Orkut had something to do with it. it doesn't make orkut "social software".
Hmmmmmmm.
who here in the last 30 days used the words "the long tail"? you suck! stop it! (jonas is a fabulous ranter and presenter.... he is speed-browsing for us very entertainingly....)
dumb buzzwords and catchphrases, makes you sound like you know what you're talkking about... but you just don't!!!
jonas is IN YOUR FACE! You thought you knew! But you don't! All hail the jonas and drink his koolaid and stuff! blah blah about the mathematical formula and pareto something and lorentz equations! yeah okay... Because I have a Masters Degree! In Science!
***
just kinda had to stand up and heckle jonas... not like he minds, i am sure! he was saying that the people dont need computers, they need food and water and insulin and stuff... and to donate money to the red cross. and that fema is doing okay. (that is BULLSHIT!) sure okay, donate... but i still felt like i was trembling with rage at what he said b/c actually the red cross has CRAP for information infrastructure and communication and t hey DO need computers. and we need the info-guerillas, ones who will get their hands dirty, to end run the red cross when they are incompetent. the red cross & authorities NEED people like us. and they need us to be outside of their power structure. (who built the system fema was using the whole time in the astrodome? random volunteer nerds + sbc + yahoo. it was NOT fema.) I thought of the RC telling Cat Jones not to contact the "media" i.e. ... us on the net! and we are the ones who GOT the relief to them... we mobilized people through blogs!!! and the people on the ground did the driving..... I said before that people were starving for information. Yes, they need food and water and medicine first. but a) you need information on the ground in order to know where to go. b) after those basic needs, the very first thing people want is information and access to phones and the net. So the people like jake applebaum who went down there and did the wiring and stuff... that is CRUCIAL. Well, anyway I went up and plugged Grace's blog. at least. As well as doing the totally fun and... not really under my control... t hing of standing up in the back of the room and yelling, "That isn't true! They need computers!"
***
now chula is introducing the "how to sell out" panel. "before, we were kicking the man's ass, now we're licking the man's ass!" hahahaha i love her brain!
***
whump is sitting next to me blogging about jonas too.
**
Jonas just talked with me and said he got busted by FEMA for kicking a fema guy in the face while he was working in the "bereavement area" in the astrodome. i like him better now. it was a satisfying thought in a way. I told him i understood his tricks of rhetoric... alas, he said no one could hear me from above though i was yelling. he could hear me; i guess the acoustics are weird.
I wonder if he has a masters degree in demogoguery?! 8-P I agreed with him that it's annoying when big companies want to donate a bunch of equipment (ooo, tax break!) to somewhere that, say, doesn't have the wherewithal to use it or maintain it. But I don't think that is the crowd he was talking to and in fact the Webzine type of crowd is EXACTLy who is needed to go down there and take on authority positions and build cool stuff, who know what it takes to empower other people! Telling THIS particular crowd to "donate to the red cross" - criminal! no way man! all these bloggers and hackers are needed to do exactly what they are best at doing, right now! going down there and use the skills, do whatever is needed...
**
omg - the fucked company guy. I loved that site so much! I read it every single day a zillion times, for a couple of years! everyone at excite in my group read it every day... yay, fucked company dude! love ya!
I'm starving and moomin is antsy. ...home!!!
***
later, mulling over: J. also told me a story about how a woman he met, a 67 year old black woman in new orleans, was smiling as she served food to some people... and he asked her what she had been smoking to be grinning like that and she answered him that she was smiling because some of the same people who had been nasty to her were now needing her and the same kids who had thrown rocks at her and called her "nigger" were now begging her for food. Jonas, love ya, but do I actually believe your story? Kind of not. It seems awfully pat. Also, is it actually true that you kicked some guy from FEMA in the face? is this more demogoguery? Stories to make a point, somewhat fictionalized or exaggerated? I had many unbelievable stories... and know that things were chaotic. And I boasted myself about breaking many "rules" and stuff... but walking around boasting about assaulting someone seems kind of wacko, and probably not true. I'm having trouble believing the random woman wanting to discuss racism and her feelings on that level with a stranger, and also believing that the fema guy wouldn't have arrested you. ??? I'm sorry if this is obnoxious and hope you don't hate me, but I like to call it as I see it. Also, when you said that 1 in 10 people in the room had already been down to the gulf coast to help, again, that seemed... Maybe it's true, but a) how can you know? b) is this more "prone to exaggeration"? It sounds good and when you said it, I wanted to believe it! I asked you, "How can you know that?" and you waffled.... Let's do a survey! If it's true I will be amazed and very happy and optimistic about human nature and the wondrousness that is SF geekdom!
Great live blogging topped off with a reference to the Ducks Breath Mystery Theater.
Well done Liz.
Brian
Posted by: Brian Shields | September 25, 2005 at 04:46 PM
I'm a big fan of SFist.com. Sad, though, that I live in SJ and not SF. The SFist folks are good at what they do.
Posted by: JM | September 25, 2005 at 07:26 PM
I bet you there is WAY better liveblogging from people who could hear better than I could up in the balcony - over here at the Webzine2005 Wiki!
Posted by: badgerbag | September 25, 2005 at 08:19 PM
Nice reporting. Thanks from us who could not make it to SF
Posted by: Álvaro Ramírez | September 25, 2005 at 11:51 PM
Last night I happened to see the episode of Six Feet Under with Susie Bright.And cooly knew all about her because you had told me glowing stuff last year.
Posted by: Iris | September 26, 2005 at 03:23 AM
Well, you'll get a much longer response on my site in a bit, but let's review the big ones. Yes, the story about Ella is true. It has happened that way, and can be verified by calling that bad Red Cross, asking for Silver Mitchell, the supervisor, and asking her if she's been present. "Begging for food" wasn't what I'd said, either. What I told you, just to keep the facts straight on that one, was that I'd spoken to her, and she was realitively gleeful about -- owing to her lifelong church memebership --- being the one they had to come to to get their sandwiches and soup in the first few days. That "fucking Red Cross" station you might remember. Shoving a FEMA guy isn't "kicking him in the face". If you talk to many of my friends and acquiantances, you'll learn that I am quick to get physical, and even quicker to be punished for it. In this case, while I wasn't arrested, I definitely was in shit creek for a bit afterwards. Blame the non-arrest on that fact, that at least I had a reason, most people understood that reason, and the guy himself did concede he overstepped the boundaries.
One in ten. Another big one. I think what I said, withouty laying claim to the exact quote, was that (on stage and when talking to you) "one in ten people in this room have done something to contribute to the efforts. That's more than happened past 9/11 and that's more than has happened post Tsunnami". I stand by that. How many of us have either gone down, worked from Huston, worked from NYC with DwoB/MSF, or organized drives in the Bay Area. If there were, maybe, 150 people in the room, all I'd have to do is come up with 15 names, right? Supply me six more, and we have 'em. Jake went there, you did, I did, Sean Bonner and the Metblogging community did organize, NOLA Metblogs was active in getting people re-united, Jackson West worked from San Francisco on getting things organized with his people down there, my friend Jacqueline (the one that started chanting "Jonas"), had just returned from Iberville Parish, where she grew up and helped organize shelter programs, my buddy Nassim (first day only, scrawny dude with a 'godfather' t-shirt) who hails from the TX/LA border did some amazing things with family reunification programs, and not to mention the countless websites that collected money, ran ads for help orgs, sent goods and donations, etc. That's already more than fifteen people. And that doesn't include all the names I didn't catch, those who told me they'd either volunteered or worked from here, and those I didn't speak to. I admit having been connect by Douche into counting him into the volunteers, which he apparently didn't really do, but that's one of a lot.
To get to the root of this. Yes, I am a populist. I am a demagogue. That's the kinder way of describing me. I am a loudmouth. But, please, don't fucking listen to me. I don't want anyone to follow me, drink my Koolaid, or think I am in any way authoritative. For that matter, I don't want anyone to follow Fox News, Indymedia, you, the Pope, or the President. Noggin! Use it! Don't follow, lead. It makes me angry to see so many people in a room whose brains are bigger than mine, and more active than I could ever hope to be, and who stop thinking for themselves every once in a while. That's why I rant. If you hate me for it, at least you've developed some independence.
Posted by: Jonas M Luster | September 27, 2005 at 05:49 PM
I'm a ranter too Jonas, don't worry -- notorious for it!
Thanks for the answers, I was going to email you at some point and ask!
Posted by: badgerbag | September 27, 2005 at 06:42 PM
And, sorry if I insulted you by doubting your stories - I enjoyed talking with you but then later felt a wave of uncertainty, especially as I thought you said you kicked the fema guy in the face, and then later thought, "Hey. Did he really???" with great doubt. Sounds like you didn't! I'm sure even shoving got you into huge trouble.
I wonder if I shoved some fema guy what would have happened? Trying to picture it...
The one giant altercation I had with the RC person definitely came down to very strong words and some yelling, but we were never anywhere near violence. I'm pretty comfortable with conflict and yet I could feel definite... let's call it gender normativity pressure... on me to agree and get along, or to nod and then be indirect and backbiting. Part of the things going wrong (besides any vague blame of "bureaucracy" ) is people's inability to have any kind of difficult conversation -- confrontation -- questioning. It's as if once you have questioned or (as I did with Jonas) stood up and disagreed - or here, had the nerve to wonder whether he was bs-ing or not -) as if you have transgressed unforgivably and are beyond the pale of discourse. Just as in the Moms' Club here in Deadwood, it is like a giant sin to get mad, to say something unreasonable, flaming -- As if the point of "public discourse" were to be polite, safe, nice?? to protect some kind of emotional fragility and preserve "safety"? NOT. The really unsafe thing is to stay quiet and nice. I think we can take the heat!
Posted by: badgerbag | September 27, 2005 at 07:03 PM