Plenary -- students from Champlain demo online interactive... stuff.

First up: backgammon? hmm.  Joel P. also discusses how he and his friends used a wiki to keep in touch over the summer.

Next, Allison S. talks about Facebook.  Another way she and her friends stayed in touch.  She's talking about clubs and events that she's joined on Facebook. 

And finally, Robert talks about blogging!  Yay!  "He's "moved on to Facebook."  Wha?  He blogged from his Blackberry at the conference.  It's a livejournal blog.  No "wicked close" friends at his last college.  Only sober person at parties -- he'd post "The Adventures of Soberman."  Led to half the college following his blog.  Gave him an opportunity to reach people he wouldn't have otherwise. 

Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter.
 

Breakout session #2:

Note: lunch was great - awesome talk with folks.  More later on that.

opening question: What is possible Re: e-state that aren't possible right now?
My initial thoughts:
*Live participation in public events like town meeting -- democratized media
*massive influx of green businesses -- tech businesses.
*a new definition of "history" as more and more of VT's public discourse is recorded as a matter of course.
*remote heath care/farm equipment repair -- distributed expertise

PRIVACY ISSUES!?

We're discussing e-state "scenarios."  There's a list of 9 hypothetical future scenarios that might exist once VT is fully connected.  There is also an opportunity to come up with our own scenarios.  The scenarios that are listed mostly exist now or would with a little more connectivity in place.

How will becoming an e-state benefit communities and the state as a whole?  Opportunities?
*Vt as a model for the country -- fiber to the home all over?
*all of the points made above in the previous question.

Challenges?
*Privacy must be redefined.
*Important distinction between the challenge of maintaining a certain level of privacy and the challenge of learning to live with a new lack of privacy.

Note: Ed Cashman looks like Michael Chickless.

Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter.

 

This is a partial-post.  I'm out of juice. 

Couple requests in comments for live ustream coverage.  That's simple to set up.  I wonder why the organizing committee didn't think of it.  I'll have to ask Rob from VCAM -- he's an organizer.  Down to 22% power.  Must. Get. Juice.

I'm taking photos, but I'll post them at the end of the day -- too nuts running around and trying to meet all the deadlines.  I'm starting to think this should have been either a 2-day conference or half as much content.  No down time.  A thing like this HAS to have lots of downtime to work.  It's how the real networking and brainstorming happens.

Panel discussion:
5 panelists plus moderator.

Michael Wood-Lewis gives good talk. 

The woman speaking about VTers with disabilities (from the VT Center for Independent Living) is making a point about tech design needing to be inclusive -- it's a good point to keep in mind but her own use of tech -- a power point presentation -- is itself poorly designed -- she's literally reading the slides to the audience -- which I guess makes sense, it's an accessible presentation for both blind and deaf audience members.  Important to consider the needs of those with disabilities when designing tech systems.

The woman sitting behind me is a commenter... "nice."  "oh, I read that!"  "Yes!." 

examples of tech designed for the deaf, sight disabilities, etc.  "inclusive design benefits everyone." 

Dov Stucker from Edmunds Middle School -- "technology as a bridge" 

Greg W. Middlesex town meeting initiative -- using the net to stream town meeting.  I have to stop taking notes.  Down to 7% power.  More later...


Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter.
 

breakout session 1:

This is the group I'll be spending the day with.  Cathy is with a different group so our live blogs should be pretty distinct.

Robin Lane - director of e-learning @ champlain, moderator for session.  Sitting next to Elaine Young, who is twittering away!  VPT will be taping our session today.  Big PEG access presence at this table.  Several students too.  2 high school students from CVU.  Judge Cashman is in the hizzy.  Superintendent of South Burlington schools is at the table too.  Kind of a weird group -- that might be good.

We get to decide ground rules for the conversation -- open source discussion!  Golden rule starts it off -- who could disagree.  Eye-rolling discouraged.  Shared air time.  one person speaking at a time.  If you're offended or upset, say why.  We can disagree, but don't take it personally.

First conversation doesn't require a "deliverable."  Good to know!  Breaking into pairs to talk about our communities.

VPT has arrived and a boom mic is hanging overhead...



Discussion prompts:
what makes you feel connected to the community where you live?  Different definitions of "community" being used in answers.  Homopholy.  "Escapism is not community." 
In what ways do we interact with neighbors, school, town?  This question seems geared toward the physical community.  It's not one or the other.  "I can't get the internet to babysit my neighbor's child."  Yes, but your neighbor can't search the Library of Congress while she tells you how many sex offenders live on your block and recommends books based on your previous reading habits.

How do you use the internet to keep in touch with local community?  FPF

How is tech helpful? Does it interfere with community connection?

identify key themes emerging from conversation. 

Good talk, but so much to discuss and a viciously ticking clock.

Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter. 

Opening remarks. Thank yous. President of the Snelling Center, president of Champlain... lots of presidents in the room.  Pres. Champlain: "more than our fair share of nerds."  Contemplating keeping a running tally of the number of times the words "community" and "technology" are used.  Me: Building in "community" to the e-state initiative: isn't it baked in already in web 2.0?  Isn't web 2.0 inherently community-building?

Moderator introduced: Bill Romond. VT Dept. of Education.  "Building community" is the focus.  Digital natives define community as common interest - older people define it geographically.  Good point - not about tech as isolation-inducing tech - it's about bringing us together.  Opportunity to model for the entire country.  Ongoing working groups will come out of today plus a wiki.  Remote sites around the state.  Asking us to sign off from the net during keynotes for bandwidth considerations -- streaming to remote sites, etc.  Do they mean us live-bloggers too?

I'm realizing I'm going to need the electricity teat before long.  It's along day for the old Macbook.

Keynote: Lewis Feldstein, author: Better Together - Another president - NH Charitable Foundation.  New running tally: "digital natives."  Funny story about working for John Wayne.  "social capital" used as focus and proxy for "community."  The people we know -- the network -- has real value.  Economists can tell you the $ value of your rolodex.  best predicter of who got off welfare was if they knew somebody -- weak connections.  Being alone is deadly -- literally.  join an organization (where you weren't in one before) and your chances of dying that year go down 50%.

note: There's a spam adware window on the projected screen.

Feldstein: Examples of social capital: shared fridge at work, 4-way stop signs, paying taxes -- social capital of trust. compare any two communities for income and education level: community w/ greater social capital -- health is better, people are happier, safer, schools work better, local govt. is better, local economy is stronger and healthier.  In an unsafe neighborhood, increase police presence by 10% or social capital by 10%, latter is vastly better.  Same with schools. 

Data points!  VT rocks w/r/t social capital, natch.  Very few measures of a healthy community aren't tied to good social capital.

Good talk.  Feldstein is great.

Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter.

 

Just arrived - drinking cooffe (brought my own) and chatting with folks about why they're here.  Cathy is being a journalist and I'm listening in.  It's early and people are just filtering in.  Nothing interesting to report so far.  I'm not rally sure what I'm doing.  I have to find my live-blogging groove.  More later...

Please note: I'm live-blogging today (5/29/08) from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium: Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  Please excuse any typos or poorly-worded posts -- I'll fix them later. You can also follow my shenanigans on Twitter.
 

This is just a note to let readers know that tomorrow I've been invited to attend and "live-blog" from the Snelling Center for Government's day-long symposium, Fulfilling Vermont's E-state Potential: Building Community in a Connected Age.  The event is being held at Champlain College and features a smattering of talks, panels and break-out sessions, the titles of which rely heavily on the words "technology" and "community."

As regular readers are no doubt aware, I'm something of a techno-optimist and I believe strongly in the power of technology to improve people's lives and to strengthen both individual rights and community cohesion.  That said, I intend to wear my skeptic's hat tomorrow as I take notes and publish them.

I think I'm going to be relying heavily on Google Docs for the note-taking and copy and paste the notes into Candleblog posts periodically.  This will be my first experience actually live-blogging, or at least where I'm live-blogging and people are expecting it.

The fun starts at 8:30 am so tune in tomorrow for all the e-state fun you can shake your stick at.  Cathy Resmer will be live-blogging for Blurt too and I'm sure I'll be twittering throughout the day.

Bzzz. Bleep. Blorp. My e-sense is tingling. 

Every now and then I experience one of those "man, it's cool to be alive right now" moments.  I had one the first time I ever sent and received an email.  I had another one when Hubble started sending back photos like this one of star-forming pillars in the Eagle Nebula.  These moments are actually pretty frequent for me these days.  This photo gets added to the list...



This is a photo of the Mars Phoenix lander descending to the Martian surface beneath its parachute.  The photo was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from orbit. 

George Dvorsky has wisely compiled a smattering of reactions from around the blogosphere:

"Man, we've got Mars so heavily instrumented that a surveyor in Martian orbit caught the polar lander *on its way in*." -- Bruce Sterling

"See that thing in this image that looks like a Martian vehicle descending by parachute to the surface of Mars? That's the Phoenix lander, captured in mid-drop, still glowing from entry into the atmosphere, by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. How badass awesome is it to be a human? Super badass awesome." -- Cory Doctorow

"That is exactly what you think it is: Phoenix descending to the Martian surface underneath its parachute. This incredible shot was taken by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. You can easily see the ‘chute, the lander (still in its shell) and even the tether lines!

Think on this, and think on it carefully: you are seeing a manmade object falling gracefully and with intent to the surface of an alien world, as seen by another manmade object already circling that world, both of them acting robotically, and both of them hundreds of million of kilometers away.

Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do." -- Phil Plait

"OMG!! Parachute!!! Photo!!!!!" -- Emily Lakdawalla 

My sweet 10-day vacation is over and I'm back sitting at my desk at work.  Here are some links from my inbox and firefox tabs...

• A 4 1/2 hour Watchmen movie?  Awesome. (Thanks Steve!)
• AICN has a Watchmen of the 1940s photo
• Macheads: The Movie (thanks Art!)
• Henri, un film du Will Braden (thanks Deb!)
• An excellent dissection of film criticism and its usefulness
• Ten "Arcs" That Most Superheroes Must Endure Even Though Almost None of Them Should
• Twisted: a Balloonamentary.
• Charlie Stross asks what else humanity could have done with $ spent on the Iraq war.

 

For those of you in Burlington, the city will be holding a meeting for public comments tonight about the recent brouhaha over Burlington Telecom's decision to drop Al Jazeera English from it's cable line-up.  Ken Picard has a piece in this week's Seven Days recapping the ordeal.  I'm getting to this a bit late -- the meeting starts in 40 minutes at City Hall.  It will be broadcast live on Burlington Telecom channel 317.

Read the Picard piece but bear in mind he does a poor job distinguishing between Al Jazeera, the Arab language news agency that was the subject of the film Control Room and has been a controversial journalistic force in the mid east, and Al Jazeera English, AJ's sister English language network, which has only been around since 2006 and which is populated by mostly western journalists who previously worked for the BBC, CNN, and even the US military.  AJE's editorial posture is apparently quite distinct from the older, more controversial network, though both intentionally focus on non-western news stories in an attempt to counter the otherwise steeply tilted-toward-the-west bias of other news networks.  The BT kerfuffle is over the latter but in Picard's piece he mostly conflates the two channels.