Wednesday, March 31, 2010

MediaGazer a New Addiction

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I have been a HUGE fan of Techmeme for a while and now i have a new addiction from the Techmeme team with Mediagazer their aggregated view of coverage about the media business. Well done!

From their about section:

Mediagazer presents the day's must-read media news on a single page.

The media business is in tumult: from the production side to the distribution side, new technologies are upending the industry. Keeping up with these changes is time-consuming, as essential media coverage is scattered across numerous web sites at any given moment.

Mediagazer simplifies this task by organizing the key coverage in one place. We've combined sophisticated automated aggregation technologies with direct editorial input from knowledgeable human editors to present the one indispensible narrative of an industry in transition.

Friday, March 26, 2010

David vs. Goliath Battle for 100 year old Palms

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This fall i moved into a new neighborhood in Pacifica called Vallemar and we absolutely love it- especially the gorgeous large trees that line the neighborhood streets. So it was quite upsetting to hear a couple months back that PG&E was going to cut down up to 11 trees immediately due to issues with the power lines.

Of course the trees were there before the utility poles were put up by PG&E in 1950s, and although there are not as many as there used to be they are still core to the community identity so a good old David vs. Goliath battle to save these 100 year old Canary Palms as begun:

And i hope you can join us in the battle either by:
  • Giving a Tax deductible donation that will be used to relocate utility poles, avoiding the palm tree removal [would $ have helped David in his battle i wonder??]
  • Showing up this Palm Sunday [how appropriate!] from 12-2pm at the corner of Reina del Mar and Nataqua in Pacifica, where kids and adults will gather, collecting donations of books and money for the cause

From a Community announcement by Elizabeth Sendil :
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This Sunday, March 28th, in a David vs. Goliath face-off, a group of children and concerned citizens will be gathering in a Pacifica, California neighborhood for a book recycling and fundraising effort to save 11 century old palm trees from being cut down by PG&E. Kids 4 Change, a non-profit children's group which performs charitable services and funding, voted unanimously to make saving the palms their current cause. They will be rallying Sunday with other children and adults to raise awareness about the fate of the trees they love.

The trees, Canary Island Palms, were planted in this urban forest, circa 1906, more than 50 years before the city was incorporated. Stunning in appearance with large fronds that drape majestically from the crown, the trees are threatened not by disease but by poor urban planning. Though they are only one third of the way through their estimated 300 year lifespan, on Tuesday night, Pacifica's Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Commission voted to allow PG&E to kill the first 3 of these trees because the city does not have the money to move the utility poles or underground the wires which are at risk of becoming a safety hazard. The core issue is that the trees have now grown close enough to PG&E's high voltage lines to present a fire and electrocution hazard. Citizens have argued that this was a foreseeable consequence of placing lines directly above these trees, which have, naturally, grown taller. As of now, PG&E is not willing to fund environmentally friendly solutions such as redirecting lines, extending poles, or undergrounding the wires.

In the past 50 years, hundreds of trees have been removed from the rarefied tree-laden neighborhood of Vallemar, many of which were sick, or at the end of their lifespans. Now the remaining healthy palms are at risk only because PG&E placed power lines directly in their line of growth, and the severe trimming required would kill them. Concerned citizens and Kids 4 Change are now joining with a local non-profit, the Vallemar Conservators, which has been working for decades to save and replace the lost grandeur, has been working hard to raise awareness of this situation in hopes of finding a solution other than removal of the trees.

Anyone who is interested in tree conservation is invited to join Kids 4 Change and the Conservators on Palm Sunday, March 28, for the kick-off event, from 12-2pm at the corner of Reina del Mar and Nataqua in Pacifica, where kids and adults will gather, collecting donations of books and money for the cause. The book sale will take place on April 17th, in the same neighborhood, and all proceeds will go towards saving the trees.

To learn more about the palm crisis go to www.vallemarpalms.com. And to donate or learn more about Kids 4 Change please visit their website www.kids4change.org. All monies raised between now and April 17th will go to saving the palm trees.

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Images|Wikipedia|David & Goliath, Caravaggio
Images|Flickr|achesonblog


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Ada Lovelace Day Bringing Women in Technology to the Forefront

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One year ago Ada Lovelace day meant a lot to me, but i wasn't even pregnant (by a couple days only to be exact) so i didn't even know that within a year i would have a daughter. This year celebrating one of the world's first woman computer programmers has even more special meaning to me.

I made the pledge to blog about Ada Lovelace today, but won't have the time to do much more then highlight her accomplishments and republish what i wrote last year:

So "Who was Ada Lovelance"?
Ada Lovelace was one of the world's first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programmes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

So why does it matter to me that Ada Lovelace was a woman? If the same work had been done by a man would i be just as interested to celebrate his success?
Probably not- they are hundreds and thousands of men who we celebrate for their historical and modern 'accomplishments'- but not a lot of women. Ada Lovelace, is one of the few whose name has become well known, but there are many others who i respect and admire, many who have had a direct impact on me either throughout the years or more recently through the various organizations i work with.

Ada- i thank you and will tell your story to my daughter today and everyday she needs a reminder of all the brilliant women that came before her and were at the forefront of their industry!

See other post coming in from bloggers who made the pledge. (via google blogs)

Ada Lovelace|Flickr|Nefi
Ada Lovelace|Lego|Flickr|Dunechaser

Monday, March 22, 2010

Read a lot of News Online? Well You Probably are a Early Tech Adopter as Well

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Reflections of a Newsosaur just posted some results from a recent poll that found that newspaper website visitors appear to be early and passionate technology adopters. I am not surprised. Being in the online news business for the last ten years, i can tell you that the users who push us to deliver the most innovations in how they consume content through their enterprise applications are the same ones that favor consumer online news sites.

"In a survey of visitors to the websites of three newspapers in mid-sized communities far from the tech hubs on either coast, Harmon found that 30% of site visitors already have smart phones and that 25% of them are thinking about acquiring one. By contrast, the Nielsen Co. last summer said national smart-phone penetration was barely 17% while Harmon found it to be 25% among news-site visitors.

With about two weeks to go before the iPad ships on April 3, researcher Harmon said a “stunning” 30% of visitors to newspaper sites are considering the purchase of the latest Apple confection in addition to the 6% of respondents who already bought Kindles or another early e-reader."

He ends the post with:
"If newspapers fail to produce appealing cross-media content for the emerging tablet and smart-phone platforms, they will lose what’s left of their readers and advertisers to the competitors who do."
So a couple weeks back i was glad to see that The Wall Street Journal like the New York Times is working on an iPad application and have an " iPad hidden from public view, chained to tables in windowless rooms"so they can test it out (would love to come across that room as i roam the hallways!). But of course Rupert loves the iPad, so maybe we will all get an end of fiscal year "iGift". [wishful thinking ~]

Image|Flickr|Rinkel80

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

How do I Invest in The Startup Bus Investment Game?

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The Startup Bus is on the way to Austin for South by Southwest, and the teams are ready to start getting investment via the Investment Game.

What's the Investment Game?

From the Site:

Want to help a team succeed? Well earn capital and invest it into a team – and if you invest the highest amount, you will become the chairperson of that startup.

Chair’s are typically tasked with raising financial capital for startup businesses. What we need however, is something just as important: social capital. By participating in this fun game we’ve developed, you actually help us grow our business.

How it works: you get rewarded for activity with http://thestartupbus.com- either your own or from other people. For different types of activity, you earn a bus dollar: the more bus dollars you earn, the more you can invest between the teams. If you invest capital in a team, you will be ranked against other users who have done so. Invest the highest amount of capital and become the chairperson.

As chair, you will get listed as the teams chair on the website. The startup’s – at their discretion – may choose to reward you with stock, if they believe you provide continuing value to their business.

Specific rules:
- when you login, you earn 100 bus dollars
- when you login, you can send a Tweet saying you just made an investment and that will give you another 100 bus dollars
- for every unique user that clicks on the URL in the Tweet message, you will get an additional 10 bus dollars
-for every minute that passes when you are logged in, you will earn 1 bus dollar


Now my question is the teams are great, but how do I invest in 'The Startup Bus Investment Game'? Brilliant.