Ramona Pringle and RDigitallife

www.rdigitalife.com – What does it mean to be human in today’s wired world? Join host Ramona Pringle as she speaks with leading experts & creative thinkers to hear what they have to say about the evolving relationship between humanity and technology. RDigitalife is a new transmedia interview project, creating a collaborative “blueprint” for living with technology (coming February 2012).

Check out the teaser trailer:

Interesting, right? OK, so Ramona is an interactive media producer, digital reporter, host and actor. Many know her as Heidi in the Ricola commerials but I actually had no idea until someone else pointed that out. RIIIICOLAAAA. Sorry, Ramona. I had to do that.

So besides having a cult following for playing Heidi, Ramona is a storyteller who is “always looking for new ways to tell stories, to engage audiences in meaningful ways, and to make people feel. I’m also fascinated by the digital world, and the ethics and possibilities involved in living in the digital age.” She’s currently new media faculty at Ryerson University in Toronto, where she is developing RDigitalife.

BACKGROUND
I met my homie Ramona at a BlogHer conference I was a panelist at in 2009. At the time, she was the Interactive Media Producer for PBS FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation and developed their participatory interactive media including “Your Stories,” a portal for user-generated content, featuring stories from real people across North America. She contacted me before the event because she wanted to interview me at BlogHer as part of the series.

Here’s the result, but the best outcome was that we became friends and stayed in touch over the years.

I liked that she listened to my critique of “Digital Nation” and how, despite it being a great jump-off point for discussion, it lacked adequate representation of people of color and seemed made primary for middle to upper-middle class white people. I appreciated that she made an effort to make her component of the project as diverse as possible.

Ramona is – what I like to call — “cool people.” She gets how important the many facets of the digital divide are and how better access to technology and training can be a conduit for change in so many ways, particularly for folks of color who have been historically oppressed through laws, glass ceilings and exclusive resources reserved for the elite. Technology *helps* to breaks down barriers created by class issues and racism and empowers people to explore their own identity on their own terms.

THOUGHTS ON RDigitalife
RDigitalife seems like a great opportunity for Ramona to take what she learning on “Digital Nation” and continue that conversation. “Digital Nation” touched on how “always on” culture is changing the way people relate to each other and how it’s impacting all facets of society around the world. What Ramona is doing with RDigitalife — from what I gather so far — is taking that very broad summation and diving into the complex nuances of the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.

I can’t really comment further until I see more content after the launch in February, but here are some of my initial observations and suggestions:

TRANSMEDIA COMPONENTS - What are they? What will they consist of? So far all I can find is the website, which (for now) solely features the teaser trailer. Most transmedia projects (prior to launching) have a social media presence to cultivate conversation and community before the release. In fact, that conversation prior to the release is often incorporated into the narrative. I know Ramona has been using her own account on Facebook to share and collect information, but I can’t find a RDigitalife Facebook page.

EDIT: Ramona forwarded me the Facebook and Twitter links. I don’t know why these didn’t come up in my search :/ Sorry!

I assume the additional RDigitalife social elements (Tumblr, Google+, etc.) will launch next month but it would have been helpful to have at least the Facebook and Twitter page live and active in January to promote the release in February.

When it comes to creating, promoting and managing your transmedia project on all the usual social platforms, it can be tricky to promote something that is still in progress. That’s why I’ve found it’s helpful to launch your social accounts a few months prior to your release to use them as conversation watchers and share-ers. This is low-bandwidth work and can be helpful later on when sharing your content, as you’ll already have accrued some followers and will (ideally) be aware of the leaders in relevant spaces who you can connect with.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for all the transmedia components and how they will work together within the RDigitalife narrative. For those reading this who are new to transmedia, here’s a great primer.

TRANSMEDIA COMMUNITY - I hope Ramona connects (as part of her overall outreach and promotion) with Storycode, a new non-profit community hub for independent cross-platform storytellers and an incubator for their projects. Storycode originated from the active and exciting Transmedia NYC Meetup group, co-founded by my other awesome homie Aina Abiodun.

I hope to somehow work out going to brunch, lunch or dinner with Ramona and Aina later this Spring because I think it would be fun and super productive. I’ll connect them both after this post …

YOUTH & DIVERSITY - This is self-explanatory but I hope that Ramona continues with her commitment to sharing a diverse range of stories and utilizes her network (like me!) to find people of color to include in her RDigitalife content and to facilitate access to more relevant groups for education and outreach.

I’m excited about following RDigitalife and feel blessed to have someone as inspirational as Ramona as a friend. Please subscribe to Ramona on Facebook so you can follow along with me.

Many UX, UI and database experts are probably going to propose a lot of bells and whistles and that’s fine — all of that is necessary. But what I’m primarily concerned about is better access to information, ASAP.

Some might argue that what I am proposing below is reactive and not taking the full redesign into consideration. True dat, I’m being reactive. My point is that — understanding how slow government usually moves — these are some relatively small but significant changes that would cost very little to make by January 1, 2012, with a high ROI.

NYC.gov needs an overhaul and that will take time.

That’s OK. In the interim, here are four small changes to the NYC.gov homepage that DOITT could implement by end of December that would improve the lives of millions.

1. Improve Community Board access on homepage and sitemap

Every NYC resident should have the contact info and calendar for their community board. This is a crucial step in a more informed, empowered population. As the Mayor’s Community Affairs Office put it, “Being a New Yorker means playing an active role in shaping your local communities, and one way to do this is to get involved with your local community board.”

Great! So why aren’t more people involved with their community board? Probably because many can’t find it. True, there is already a community board landing page but it’s not easy to find at all. This is the direct link to that page: http://www.nyc.gov/html/cau/html/cb/cb.shtml

However, if you try to search NYC.gov for “community board” you get over 2,000 irrelevant results. “Community Board” (if the person even knew what that was or how it worked) is what the average user would search for. However, if you search for “FIND YOUR community board” the CAU landing page does appear in the first page of results. But more than likely no one is searching for “find YOUR community board.”

If you search Google for “nyc find my community board,” the CAU landing page DOES appear. Great! NYC.gov should follow suit and — in addition to adding Community Board to the sitemap — change the metadata for the community board landing page to include “find my community board” as a self-directed search term.

I will give the sitemap structure credit in that it does have a “Community Groups” category and if you click on that there are some community board-related links, but that doesn’t currently include the “Find Your Community Board” landing page.

In addition to an update to the sitemap, quick access to Community Board information should be one click away on the NYC.gov homepage. In the right rail of the homepage there are several modules with useful info. Why not reduce the amount of “DID YOU KNOW” items and add another module (above the fold) that is a standing promo/search tool for Community Board information, allowing you to find info by zip code? You could put it between “Notify NYC” and “NYC Service.”

If DOITT wanted to take it one step further, they could add a tab on the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit Facebook page that included all the community board contact info for NYC. The CAU Facebook page is what is being promoted on the “Find Your Community Board” landing page, so it would be helpful if following the CAU Facebook page gave you additional info about Community Boards.

2. Clean up NYC.gov metadata and source code content

This is tied to my first suggestion re: improving search results as well as setting a tone/standard. NYC.gov needs better metadata in general, including multiple descriptions and keywords. DOITT will know what I’m talking about but for the rest of you, here’s an exercise. Try looking up NYC.gov’s source code. Just go to your nav bar on your Chrome browser and look under view>developer>view source or the equivalent for your preferred browser. You’re going to see a lot of weirdness in NYC.gov’s source code, such as old workarounds for Netscape. I think it’s time to clean house. Your source code is like your bathroom cabinet. You want to keep that tidy for guests.

Here’s an example:

MTV News’ metadata:

MTV News’ metadata includes a great description, relevant keywords and the RSS feed. You might be thinking, “well, that’s an entertainment site. This isn’t relevant.” Uh, yes it is. But in case you need more evidence, here’s CA.gov’s metadata:

Again, CA.gov includes a description and relevant keywords. Now, look at NYC.gov’s metadata:

No description or keywords to be found. If you look further down, there is more detail about a Netscape bug fix found in the WebMonkey code library than about NYC.gov itself.

The importance of cleaning up government website source code aside, updated NYC.gov metadata is an easy and necessary fix. Why? Meta elements such as descriptions and tags are like breadcrumbs for search engines and play a role in search engine optimization (SEO). Although meta elements aren’t as important as they used to be, they still give you more control over the details that search engines scrape for your search results. Bottom line, NYC.gov needs updated metadata and DOITT should be looking at/cleaning up the source code as part of the bigger picture to determine how valuable it is to rely on old scripts and workarounds moving forward.

3. Make voter registration/voting info easier to find

My “The X-Files” fueled mind often wonders if all government websites intentionally make voting information difficult to find. Hahah! Crazy, right? Anyway, NYC.gov is no exception. Currently, if you search the NYC.gov homepage, there are ZERO text links for “voting,” “voter,” or “vote.” No bueno, El Bloombito! Democracy without voting is like chips without salsa!

All joking aside, making voting info easier to find on the NYC.gov homepage by January 1, 2012, would be a minor, low-cost and incredibly helpful change.

Under the “Information & Services” module in the left rail, DOITT could add a text link called “Voting Resources” to the Board of Elections landing page: http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/. The Board of Elections should also have an official Facebook page by January 1, 2012, which should be added to the NYC.gov social media landing page.

4. Make rich media content easier to view by increasing homepage width

The current NYC.gov homepage uses about 50% of the average monitor width. As a result, content is bunched over to the left in all browsers and only a small portion of the content is visible above the fold. You have to scroll down quite a bit to view all the other content. There is no need for this that I can determine, aside from considering viewing through a mobile browser.

Before I go off on mobile options (I get into that further in this post), let me stick to my point: By doubling the homepage layout width and implementing a few minor design changes, visitors could access a ton of information at a much faster rate before the end of the 2011.

UI/UX changes require a lot of effort and planning, true dat. But widening the homepage wouldn’t require new features. It would simply require a few minor but significant design enhancements such as larger fonts, re-organizing the nav bar and enlarging the icons and changing the default promo layout from one major update with an image to two updates, side by side in the center rail, with the other updates running below them. This would give the site the illusion that it is frequently updated and provide more incentive to click through to additional content.

Most web developers using the coding languages that NYC.gov utilizes make their sites between 980 and 990 pixels wide. Even if DOITT just centered the homepage and placed rotating city images in the gutters (that would be pretty), that would look better and be easier to navigate than having everything bunched to the left in a width of approximately 700-800 pixels.

Additionally, the “STAY CONNECTED” module should also be placed above the fold, as well as a social plugin so visitors can “Like” the NYC.gov homepage tied to an NYC.gov Facebook page (so that when visitors leave after “liking”, NYC.gov follows them to their news feed).

Big changes for 2012

Now that I’ve shared four minor but significant fixes that could be implemented by January 1, 2012, here are my four long-term improvements that I recommend DOITT addresses by the end of 2012:

1. CMS upgrade
Judging from source code details such as what drives the NYC RIGHT NOW paginated promo module (a dhtml script taken from www.dynamicdrive.com — you can manually configure the variables to change the style of the scroller and the content in it), NYC.gov needs a more robust and integrated content management system that includes scheduling tools.

Additionally, content IDs and other CMS data org features allow you to hide privileged info while making it easier to update the site with fewer mistakes. This is tied to site infrastructure so this isn’t a “fix” that could realistically happen by January 1, 2012, but I hope DOITT considers minimizing how much content is hand coded/updated on the site throughout the day by implementing and customizing an off-the-shelf or proprietary CMS.

If DOITT ever plans to implement more interactive content (see my suggestions below), they will need a CMS infrastructure that supports those features. From what I can tell so far, the existing CMS does not support anything beyond standard JavaScript and CSS tweaks — hacks that you don’t want site producers accidentally breaking.

2. Make content immersive and all-screens friendly using HTML5
DOITT will know what I’m talking about, but for others, it’s crucial for all web portals to be relevant on all screens. This means that if you are looking at a homepage on a phone, or an iPad, or your desktop computer, the content should scale to that device so you can easily find what you’re looking for. That is the bare minimum benefit of using HTML5 — making websites that easily recognize how they are being viewed and adjust accordingly.

Beyond that, NYC.gov should use HTML5 to create more immersive web content that creates tactile experiences, empowering the user to navigate and manipulate data through their touch screen devices. DOITT could take a page from The Boston Globe and identify relevant content such as from NYC Open Data to visually share information through touchscreen interfaces for infographics, timelines, polling/survey mechanisms and more.

NYC Digital is on a mission to attract more tech investors and startups to NYC. These are terrific goals that will insure that NYC remains a place that millions flock to for work, education and inspiration.

However, NYC.gov isn’t just a website that helps to promote these goals (as I’ve noted are the most common updates to the homepage — Bloomberg announcing various tech/industry partnerships). NYC.gov is a UTILITY that needs to be USEFUL for the people who live and pay taxes. DOITT needs to make it easier for citizens to find what they are looking for on the website, no matter where they are and through all devices.

3. Enable frictionless sharing of NYC.gov content
Here’s a scenario: Let’s say I’ve already opted into NYC.gov frictionless sharing. I’m reading a press release on NYC.gov and that activity shoots to my Facebook news feed. Zoom! Pow! I’ve magically become a PR rep for NYC.gov. I’m instantly an ambassador for government knowledge. All my friends can see that I’m on the site and at least a few of them may click on the link.

As of right now, NYC.gov doesn’t allow frictionless sharing on their press releases, let alone other valuable content. There is an almost translucent “share” button with the usual list of social plugins and if you click the Facebook option it sends you to yet another screen alerting you to the fact that you are now leaving NYC.gov. Duh, I know that!

Can we lose that “you are now leaving” notification, please? I don’t believe it’s a requirement on government websites when you link off-site to an official social media channel. I’ve checked several government websites and this isn’t standard practice.

Also, the suite of sharing plugins should be (and can be added easily at no additional cost) on each piece of content. What if I just want to “Like” something immediately or tweet it — not recommend or share with a comment? What if I don’t even want to bother with sharing the link but am OK with my activity appearing in my newsfeed? What if I want to G+ it up? Right now, I can’t.

With the heavy social media push happening in NYC government (which I’m ecstatic about, btw) and security factors aside, frictionless sharing on NYC.gov seems like a logical step.

4. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one…

…And some stink more than others! With that in mind, moderated chatter on a government website is not something to fear. It should be embraced, and in the middle of that love fest should be real-time interactive tools like Cover It Live and Livefyre so that visiting NYC.gov doesn’t have to be a solitary experience (when you don’t want it to be)! Imagine this: Democracy in action, within the comments on NYC.gov. If you build it, they will come — all the freaks, conspiracy theorists and nutballs — plus folks who are passionate about improving the world, like me. It’s a mixed bag and a moderation policy and support team would be necessary, but it would be worth it.

Bare minimum, NYC.gov should implement Disqus to manage (and provide the option of) commenting on all press releases and news articles. Whether you agree with the noise or not, being able to share a salient comment broadens exposure to the topic and offers the opportunity to respond.

Thanks for taking the time to read my suggestions, DOITT and Rachel Sterne! I wrote this in a cheeky manner so it was less boring to read. I am in no way belittling your ongoing efforts and all the time and planning already in progress. Thanks for everything you do to make government more accessible to citizens, because without the people involved it’s not a real government at all.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment and I’ll respond.

Open Data is essentially an evolving public database of data sets provided by New York City agencies and other City organizations which are available for public use. That may sound incredibly boring but it’s actually extremely exciting and sexy (if you think open government is sexy — which it is). Participants in NYC’s BigApps challenge can harness these data sets to create apps that improve government accessibility, transparency and accountability.

One of last year’s winners was Big Apple Ed, an online guide to New York City schools. The site makes use of data provided by The City of New York and the New York State and New York City Departments of Education.

Why You Don’t Care (Yet)

If you’re not a techie (or a parent), you are probably wondering where the sexy part of this blog post is. I promise, it’s coming. Keep in mind that data can be used in a myriad of ways. If you’re an artist, student, teacher, non-profit organization, marketer, media strategist or small business owner, Open Data is a tool for your arsenal too — you just don’t know it yet.

During her recent Strata Conference talk shared by O’Reilly Media, NYC Digital Officer Rachel Sterne discussed how open government could transform New York. Sterne also noted that all of their work opening the data “doesn’t matter if we’re not evangelizing it and making sure people are using it.”

In the spirit of evangelizing shared public resources, I’m sharing my opinion that the reason you don’t know about the awesome potential of the Open Data site is that it was designed for developers, not the average person. This makes sense — NYC government wants to partner with techie people to use their data to improve civic engagement and transparency. That’s awesome. What’s not awesome is that in this iteration of the site they didn’t empower everyday people to use the data or make the data very people-friendly, which means the only people evangelizing this resource right now are government officials, developers and data practitioners — but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Steven Romalewski, who directs the CUNY Mapping Service at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), wrote an insightful review of Open Data’s features after it launched . In addition to comparing it to its previous iteration as NYC Data Mine, Romalewski points out that for the average user — someone at a Community Board, or a local media outlet, or a City Council member’s office — the city’s implementation of NYC Open Data seems against them. He argues that the real issue here is that the city’s open data efforts are being driven more by the desire to use data access as a way to leverage economic development, and less about true government transparency.

I have to play devil’s advocate here and say that although I agree that the city is using data primarily to leverage economic development, I don’t think the intention is growth at the expense of government transparency. I think it’s just a matter of not seeing the potential of economic growth and innovation through partnering with more than than just developers and infrastructure-focused partner companies.

How To Make You Care

But first, the most important ways that NYC Open Data can be more people-friendly overall: improving engagement by connecting with people in familiar ways that demystify the data.

1) Create Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and YouTube channels that highlight data sets, how people are using the data and share resources

It’s unrealistic to expect non-developers to visit the site and understand what it means at first glance. Social channels and the content shared through those mediums will make the data more relatable to everyday people, particularly if what is being shared includes case studies, data visualizations, employment opportunities, contests and human-interest stories.

2) Create and maintain an official blog that offer case studies, best practices, user guides, human-interest stories and solicits feedback on initiatives

The content from this blog can be seeded on the social channels and serve as an incubator for ongoing discussions on different data set use cases.

3) Implement an email subscription/SMS+text alert system that allows you to sign up based on different interests (specific data categories, overall updates, events, etc.)

Only developers will be checking the site on a regular basis. Let people subscribe to what they want and empower them to receive the information in all the ways that work for them.

4) Implement community features

NYC Open Data is a wealth of information for different communities but it’s completely lacking a community component of its own. At the very least, DOITT should add a message board for developers to share ideas and resources and a leader board highlighting the most-accessed data sets. DOITT should also foster community participation by organizing NYC Open Data Meetups and empower community members to lead discussions on different topics.

Now, let’s break down some ways that people who aren’t developers or data scientists COULD use NYC Open Data and site improvements that would make these resources more accessible.

Artists and Arts Organizations

POTENTIAL DATA USE

1. Multimedia data-driven installations: For decades artists have explored repetition and data manipulation in their work. Why not create a resource hub on NYC Open Data for artists and art institution that highlights relevant data sets, ongoing projects, and collaborates on exhibitions that utilize NYC public data?

An interesting example would be if the Brooklyn Museum (my favorite art haunt) partnered with the city and local artists to curate an exhibition focusing on 311 data. Visualizations representing the different kinds of calls, complaints and real-time information would be an interesting exploration of community and civic engagement.

2. Grants and scholarships: Philanthropical organizations (if empowered to do so) could use these data sets to determine new funding opportunities based on need, location and intersecting factors. However, they aren’t going to do this if they don’t know how to find the data, what it means, or how to manipulate it to get the information they want.

HOW TO MAKE THE DATA ACCESSIBLE

1. NYC Open Data should create a hub on the site focused on providing resources for artists and arts organizations. This hub could highlight how artists and organizations are using the data, providing recommendations on how it could be used and offer challenges for artists to use public data to enhance city-wide initiatives.

2. NYC Open Data should create an arts-specific Facebook page (“NYC Open Data for Artists”) that spotlights ongoing projects, opportunities and relevant data sets.

Non-Profits and Grassroots Organizations

POTENTIAL DATA USE

1. Grant writing/applications: It would be very beneficial for non-profits to be able to see data from funding opportunities. They could use the data to determine which grants to focus on, the implications of city budget allotments (how money is being spent) and more.

2. Focused campaigns: Grassroots movements like Occupy could use data set information to empower their decisions and to share information and directives with affiliated groups across the nation.

HOW TO MAKE THE DATA ACCESSIBLE

1. NYC Open Data should create a hub on the site for non-profits and civic engagement (activism). This hub could highlight how non-profits are using the data, providing recommendations on how it could be used and offer opportunities for non-profits to use public data to enhance city-wide initiatives.

This sounds like a repeat of my first suggestion for artists and essentially it is — only tailored to non-profits. And just as I stated for artist resources, NYC Open Data should create a non-profit specific Facebook page (“NYC Open Data for Non-Profits”) that spotlights ongoing projects, opportunities and relevant data sets.

2. Specific to Occupy, it would be very beneficial for volunteers to be trained on how to read data to inform their decisions. Leaders could use NYC Open Data as a teaching tool by pulling data to reveal information about arrests, previous protest-related damage and lawsuits, etc.

The examples I listed above are only the tip of the iceberg. Public access to city data and empowering organizations, journalists and everyday people to use the data could kick off a new renaissance of innovation for NYC that could be modeled in other cities. We won’t know until we give people the tools to manifest their dreams.

Brass Tacks: What It Will Take To Make This Happen

NYC Open Data would be much more accessible (make more sense to regular people) and utilized if it took the 21+ data set categories they have already defined (Environmental, Women’s Issues, Media, etc.) on the site and turned them into individual hubs with relevant and consistently updated resources, making sure to include social platforms for evangelizing and community-building.

In order to achieve this goal, the city would need to hire a Supervising Producer to oversee the hiring and management of digital producers with a journalism and activism background for each topic-focused hub. Each digital producer for each hub within the site would work with different city agencies and with data experts and data viz talents to make their hub an accessible resource.

This step would be aligned with NYC’s Digital Roadmap goals and transform NYC Open Data from a helpful but obscure developer resource into a platform for true civic engagement and community around many different issues.

Enjoy his brain leak below.

5 Blogging Tips From Someone Who Knows Jack Shit About Blogging

By Nick Capistrano

I used to wipe his tushy

In case you have some sort of strain of eye-gonorrhea and your slimy tear duct discharge prevents you from reading the first 11 words of anything that isn’t written in spider monkey, I don’t know shit about blogging. However, if there is one brand of shit-related topic that I am most educated in, it’s making said shit up. Why, just the other day I ate a ninja and found a leprechaun inside a unicorn’s vagina. Except, I didn’t; I just made that up like two seconds ago. Hah hah! Take that, your mind. Therefore, in the spirit of using my award-winning imagination to make things more awesome than they actually are, here is a list of things I think of when I think of the word “blog.” Also, the word “blog” sounds like what Klingons might roar at their partner during sex. I win again, your mind!

5. Always include links to people more interesting than you.
We live in a world where all content is inexplicably shared in an incestuous relationship so convoluted and gross that even the Hapsburgs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapsburgs) would describe it as “florb, glibbloop.” After their governess lovingly wiped the drool off their baffling non-chins and sent them away to identify simple shapes in silence, she would translate that jabbering as “fucked up” then shriek in awe of your magnificent time machine and happily flee the castle screaming something about witches.

The point I’m trying to make here is that all sites are ranked by traffic through some set of eldritch laws that you could only understand if you were at least half-cyborg. Therefore, the sure-fire way to let the traffic (and advertizing revenue by proxy) flow for your extremely compelling blog about your twelve cats is to ejaculate as many links to other totally not as fascinating online publications as fast as your sausage-like fingers can flail.

4. #don’t #forget #to #use #hashtags #in #every #fucking #sentence (#).
If the lawless, sexless wasteland known as Twitter is any indication, hash tags are more valuable than your genitals. In fact, if you cut them off and branded a pound sign over the now smooth and flawless pubic mound, every hipster within fifty yards will start humping wildly in your direction. And then claim to have loved you even before you replaced your babymaking parts with a symbol, of course. Even typing something with a #tic-tac-toe-mark in it will do the tri—-oh God…crotches! Everywhere, #crotches!

No…I…

#NO! Why can’t #I stop!? SOMEBODY #HEEEEELP #MEEEEEEEEE!

3. You will NOT be silenced!
The Man is everywhere, and just like Rapin’ Joe from your completely-not-indecent-exposure-related stint in county, he’s always trying to keep you down. Every other news organization (that, if you remember from tip number five, you have to link to fifteen times per post) is part of the same Cyborg Illuminati, which is why you will always word everything as if you are a Messiah sent to free us unwashed, slavering masses from the chains of our corporate imposed mind chattel. Make sure to add a sneering hash tag at the end of your post, like #genius or #spreadtheword, thereby stroking the long cock of your ego with the no-doubt tens of views this extremely insightful metadata will garner you.

2. If you are a photoblog, Sepia-toned photographs will cure cancer, and you will win a free set of anal beads for every ten of them you post.
A photoblog is an image-dump website that someone decided to sometimes add descriptions to. Now I’m no psychic, but my psychic powers have informed me that such a historic event went down like this:

“Glorioussssss victory!” the webmaster hissed with glee as he slowly, sensuously shed the mansuit off of his chitinous frame. “The images of my cat shall infect the In-Ter-Net with feline happinessssssss! My broodmates will rejoicccccccccce!” Suddenly, sexily, before he could even start cleaning his chelicerae, an idea formed in the twin brains located in his antennae!

“But wwwwait!” he gurgled, a quart of human blood dripping from his fangs. “If I add wordsssssss to this cornucopiaaaaa of kittens, then my race shall emerrrrrrge from The Underneath and rightfully claim thisssss planet for our own! Glory to the T’thnerk! Glorrrry to The Hive!”

1. The T’thnerk have taken over but you will still not be silenced (#freeeeeedom)!
I don’t know if you were paying attention, but the world has actually been taken over by a race of insectoid superbeings. They could be anyone: your boss, your co-worker, that homeless guy down the street, or even more terrifyingly, your cat(s).

Obsessive attention to detail is crucial when rooting out these soulless invaders. For example, when your boss gives you something to fax, just how loudly did he hiss it? When he looks at you, does it seem like he can hear your blood through your skin? How big was that steaming clutch of eggs he left in the office toilet? When you peeled his mask off, did it reveal a nightmare of mouths and venom, or was it just a hilarious and screaming misunderstanding? Do not leave out a single detail! KILL YOUR BOSS. #resist #unite #cats

Context

I have seen how media giants have compromised the voices of their editorial talent for the sake of goosing traffic numbers. I have seen how that has turned awesome brands into SEO-baiting factories that suck balls. Companies (made of people) are scared (for many understandable reasons) to take risks and have a unique voice. But not everyone feels this way. A recent example is with TechCrunch. Their founder has called on TechCrunch’s owner AOL to either give back its “editorial independence” or sell it to its original shareholders. Even some TechCrunch employees are threatening to quit if they don’t get to keep their editorial independence. They must have a lot of dough in savings to back up this threat, but I still give them props.

Are they being idealistic? Yes. Possibly unrealistic? Maybe. But the point is that they care enough to save their brand and to preserve their loyal audience — who is integral to their continued growth and success. They care more about that than kissing AOL’s pimp hand and cowering to their cray cray mandates that indicate they don’t give a shit about what humans actually need to thrive — like sleep, human interaction and the chance to use their own brains to come up with original ideas.

As the publishing industry continues to take painful hits and layoffs abound, newsrooms all over the country are scrambling to keep traffic numbers high and advertisers happy by any means necessary. Unfortunately this means that they often force their staff to write about stupid bullshit that none of their core audience truly cares about, just to get some trending topics love from Google. That is sad, because ignoring your core audience is a huge mistake. Not KNOWING your core audience is a huge mistake. I know mine — my mother. She loves EVERYTHING I write about so I’m good. However, if I suddenly started writing about how much mothers suck just because that was the #1 search result for two hours, she might not come by my site as much. I don’t bite the hand that feeds my inspiration.

SEO and a bunch of other techie strategies tells me what I SHOULD write to bring you here everyday, but as the little thug in my head says, “fawk alladat.” I could care less if anyone beyond my mother and close circle of friends drops by all the time. The best thing about blogging for me is the random connections that happen when I write about something I’m passionate about. It’s the only reason I blog for myself. Sometimes complete strangers from around the world send me very sweet messages about topics they find equally fascinating and it makes it all worth it. I think of this space as an incubator for my ideas so I’m not focused on blogging about one specific topic all the time.

Anyway, being a famous blogger is not my goal — although that’s a fine one to have (it’s just not mine).
I don’t care about monetizing this blog — I have a career in media and would rather spend my free time doing other things.
I don’t care about showing up on any lists — although I definitely support others who do.
I don’t care about The Lair being quoted anywhere legit — although I have been.

I relish the fact that I worked my ass off from 2001 – present and can afford the luxury of paying for hosting the The Lair purely to share my viewpoints with those who will have me. The Lair is for fun — pure and simple.

That being said, I think that kiddos of all ages who read my blog and are interested in a media career of any sort should definitely educate themselves on things like networking, trending topics, blogging best-practices and building a brand. Listen to granny and do as I SAY, not as I do (this rambling post offering advice to journalism students from 2009 is still very relevant)! Heheh.

I’ve been blogging since before blogging was called blogging and have been using WordPress as my CMS since 2006. I’m an Internet gangsta and have seen some thangs. One day I may decide to take The Lair in a different direction where I actually commit to regular features and content partnerships. But until that day comes, I will continue to post about what I want to, as often or as little as I want to. And the world will continue to turn.

I hope you enjoy yourself here as well when you stop by for (on average) 30 seconds – 2 minutes. I appreciate it. I do take requests at times to write about different topics, so feel free to message me at daniela AT dcapmedia DOT com if the mood strikes you.

Disclosure: It’s not all lollipops and glitter bombs on The Lair. I do think about how I tag my posts to help like-minded folks find me and sometimes share my blog links on Twitter and Facebook, but that’s the most I’m willing to do because my pleasure is in the writing, not the promoting.

The worst of the storm is expected this Sunday afternoon. At least 7,500 National Guard troops have been deployed to provide help to states affected by the storm. According to NBC New York, Some 9,600 people spent the night in city shelters.

Even though we have all the windows covered and I haven’t looked outside since earlier this evening, I am able to stay updated on everything through Twitter and other sources.

I think it’s telling that FEMA hasn’t updated their Twitter in over 8 hours. Way to help an already bad reputation. Here is what I’ve been following in real-time tonight:

1. Twitter search query for #Irene
This is bringing me the latest updates from New Yorkers all over the 5 boros and from news outlets. This curated list of accounts focusing on Hurricane Irene updates is helpful too.

2. “You are listening to Irene” mash-up of police scanner and ambient music
This has a surreal, yet informative soothing effect on me. The music is helping to keep me calm and the intermittent crackles of information from the scanner reassures me that steps are being taken to protect people.

3. WPRI.com Tracking Irene liveblog
This is the most up-to-date liveblog I can find at the moment. Lots of useful info.

6:24 a.m. | “Barely a hurricane Sunday but massive and packed with rain, Irene flooded towns, killed at least eight people and knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses as it plodded up the East Coast, saving the strongest winds it had left for New York,” the AP reports.

Here are some key updates from other parts of the Eastern Seaboard:

* The New York City transit system is shut down because of weather for the first time in history.
* Irene’s only hurricane-force winds (74 mph or more) cover a relatively small area east of the center.
* Tornadoes reported in Maryland and Delaware, with warnings issued elsewhere. (There is a tornado watch in southern Rhode Island.)
* “Irene caused flooding from North Carolina to Delaware, both from the seven-foot waves it pushed into the coast and from heavy rain. Eastern North Carolina got 10 to 14 inches of rain…. Virginia’s Hampton Roads area was drenched with at least nine inches, with 16 reported in some spots.”
* Airlines canceled more than 9,000 flights from North Carolina to Boston, including 3,900 on Saturday.

4. NYDailyNews.com Storm Tracker 2011 Live-blog
This hasn’t been updated since 4 a.m. but there is still plenty of information about the latest Tornado Watch alerts, power outage data, etc.

5. A person named Irene on Twitter who has been co-opted by the hurricane
The WSJ has the story on how Irene decided to “be” the hurricane and help share information. She’s gone to bed now and hopefully there will be less need for her to help later in the day…

I posted this at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 28. I am at a friend’s house in Jersey City Heights, who was kind enough to pick me up in Hoboken Saturday afternoon after my Amtrak reservation was canceled. I had no way out of the city and my building is in an evacuation zone near water, so I headed for Jersey on the PATH.

I’m glad I decided to leave town temporarily because at least I have friends nearby. I am worried about my cat, who I had to leave behind (with plenty of food and water). I hope he’s OK. I hope all my friends and work colleagues are OK. At least 10 people on the East Coast have died so far from this hurricane and as of right now, over 3 million people are without power.

6. #Instacane tag on Instagram
The latest photos from people tagging their hurricane-related photos on Instagram. Some of the photos in the feed are definitely not related, but many provide an interesting and personal look at what is happening in real-time.

7. NYTimes.com’s Hurricane Irene Tracking Map
This map basically just confirms what I’m reading. It’s helpful to see the projected path of the storm but I won’t start to feel any sense of calm until the hurricane actually reaches NYC this afternoon and I can assess the impact.

8. Live webcam from midtown Manhattan at Livestream HQ

9. Reuters Hurricane Irene liveblog

This liveblog is curating relevant tweets, the latest updates from the National Hurricane Center and more.

10. AB7NEWS.COM’s live affiliate feed from CNN
This is the best live-feed I’ve found so far. It cuts from weather tracking updates to street scenes in real-time.

—–
I’ve lived in NYC for 7 years. I’m not a New Yorker and never will be — I wasn’t born here. But I do know one thing: NYC is filled with strong energy so I know that, no matter what happens, people will draw from that strength and prevail. New Yorkers are survivors and this city has a way of testing its inhabitants — locals, tourists, transplants — everyone is tested. It’s part of what makes this place so special. I know we’ll make it through this together.

edit: [6:23 a.m] I think it’s interesting how quickly (due to social media) fake photos of Irene are circulating on the web. People are photoshopping photos from previous storms, and even though many have disclaimers in the comments that the photos are fake, people continue to RT and share them.

I’ve noticed that the BBC is using social media to look for people stuck in Manhattan who are staying in hotels. I wonder how, under the circumstances, that they verify the information provided by those who call in.

I’m not particularly interested in looking at anything except the news right now, but I know that this coming week I’ll be looking out for mashup videos and all other forms of creative Irene-inspired web detritus.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how this experiment could have helped me as I entered my 20s. I certainly had a lot of idealism and goals when I was 19. At 20 is when I really started to politicize myself and define what was important to me. Some of those priorities have changed but many continue to be my focus for activism, such as gender equality, reproductive rights, immigration rights, and youth empowerment.

Origins
At 20 is when I really started to organize events in my hometown of Sacramento, CA. I co-founded an artists collective and put on film and music shows with my friends. See if you can spot author Inga Muscio in the video below. It was amazing that she came out and supported our event.

I spent weekends (usually alone — it’s hard to get your young friends up early on a Saturday) supporting women by standing in front of the abortion protesters/hate mongers at a nearby clinic, holding my own sign of support and being like a physical block between the women coming to the clinic and the ignorant people screaming at them (read about one of my last experiences in front of that location here). I did that up until I relocated to NYC in 2004 to pursue my film & media goals.

Context
Looking back at my activism between 18 – 23 makes me really proud. I want to do more of that kind of action in my 30s, but in a much more strategic and collaborative manner. It’s not that I stopped being an activist or radical when I moved to NYC, I just went about it in a different way. I became a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters and donated my time to media literacy organizations, speaking to young girls about cyberwellness and other important topics. However, I wish I had spent more time documenting what I was doing leading up to and through my early 20s, because I’m certain those videos would have been a source of strength for me during my uncertain and fearful times after moving to NYC. I could have reminded myself of what I was truly capable of.

The culture shock of moving across the country practically made me forget almost everything about myself that I was proud of. It took years to get that sense of self back.

The Future
My hopes and dreams for my 30s are to make more art, to be more of an ACTIVE activist (street/community-level steps), to be the best foster-to-adopt parent I can be next spring, and to enjoy more out of life. While I think about these goals, I’m also trying to remember the events, people, and media that inspired me to think more about my world and how to enact positive change.

Here are some of those inspirational sources that came into my life when I was 19-23, as they come to mind:

1. My first feminist POC friend: Claudia
Regardless of how our friendship has transformed over time, I will always be profoundly grateful for her influence in my life. I met Claudia right before I turned 19. She introduced me to zines by people of color. Claudia introduced me to Bikini Kill, Kathleen Hannah’s project Julie Ruin, to local activists and allies, and was my first friend to ever call me an artist. We co-founded a female artists collective together and over the years she has always encouraged me to think about the consequences of my actions while working as a media professional. Claudia will always be in my heart.

2. My first friend to discuss white privilege with me: Jessicah Pratt
As a person of color (I’m Chicana), I never really thought about my own white privilege until I met Jessicah Pratt. In a loving and informative way, she helped me to understand my role in the world as a person of color with white privilege. Rather than see it as something to feel guilty about (which I did initially), she encouraged me to use it as weapon for positive change. She influenced me in other ways as well, but this was the gift she brought into my life that I am most grateful for. THANK YOU! <3

3. LiveJournal & Diaryland
Before Facebook and Google+, there were very social communities that helped me to transform my life. Publicly journaling on LiveJournal and Diaryland from 19-23 transformed my life in ways I never imagined when I first opened accounts on these sites. I met my NY BFF through LiveJournal, who has been my IRL BFF now for 9 years. LiveJournal was where I first started researching the possibility of moving to NYC.

I found groups that gave info about NY job resources, art events, and even housing. I also read the stories of those who had also relocated from far off places, and it gave me courage to do it myself. A few years ago I deleted both of my accounts on those sites and regret doing so, because there were some hilarious posts on there. But I think I just wanted a clean slate… I am, however, 100% certain that I would not be where I am today without communities like LiveJournal.

4. Effie Kolbeins
I met Effie while working at CAEYC, a non-profit in Sacramento, CA. She was a very dynamic and powerful person. Despite our age difference (I started there at 19), she treated me like an equal and cared enough to ask me about my long-term goals. She is the person who sent me information about the Women in Film networking event that used to happened annually in Beverly Hills, CA. Because of her, I flew to Los Angeles by myself to attend this event at 19 and had a very cathartic moment in my hotel room. I promised myself I would do everything I could to achieve my dreams.

Back in Sacramento, Effie encouraged me almost like a daughter to pursue my film goals and allowed me to hang out with her young son, who was a film buff and made his own movies on his computer (very unique to me, at the time). People like Effie are the reason I try to help others as much as I can, because I know how much her help affected my life.

5. Craigslist
Hah! Oh man. This rabbit hole has brought me a lot of joy and problems over the years. I found my first New York apartment here, as well as my first film internship. I met friends AND lovers on Craigslist, and bought and sold film making equipment. If it wasn’t for Craigslist, I don’t think I would have had the courage to actually get on the plane to New York. I think that being able to see activity (even in just digital/visual form) happening in New York on a daily basis made me more comfortable with the idea of relocating. Thanks, Craig!

There have been many more people, events, and resources that influenced me during 19-23, but those are the 5 that I’m going to think about today. Between now and 9/1, when I start my daily 30th bday countdown, I want to highlight those influences on The Lair as a digital toast to those who inspired me.

It also goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without love and support from my mother Carolina Rose, my stepdad Larry Rose, and my father Henry V. Capistrano. These three people have had the most influence (direct and indirect) in my life and I’m happy that I am now mature enough to appreciate it

Modcloth.com/M&C ad placement #fail

I came across this oopsie while looking for a new dress. M&C’s ad server tech (I don’t know what it is) pulled in Modcloth’s ads on a story about an exploited young girl. The juxtaposition of a smiling white girl rolling in the grass, smack dab in the middle of a story about a Mexican teen roped into murderous gang activity, didn’t sit well with me. I’m not a passive consumer so I took screenshots, contacted Modcloth, and let them know. To their credit, they responded very quickly and now the ad has been changed:

For obvious reasons, I am going to continue shopping on Modcloth.com and appreciate how sensitive/timely they were to my concerns. I don’t like even the suggestion of a Mexican girl’s exploitation being trivialized, even by accident. Modcloth did the right thing by addressing this ad faux pas right away.

Takeaways
1. Always monitor your social channels. You never know how your audience might help you out.

2. Make sure communication between your social team and ad sales team is buttoned up. In Modcloth’s case, they addressed the situation within hours. Bravo!

3. Be timely about addressing sensitive issues before they spiral out of control.

Here’s another example of being timely about addressing sensitive issues. I am now supporting the digital team for Current TV’s new daily news and commentary show, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” Part of that support yesterday included social engagement. While monitoring feeds, I noticed that commenters on our Facebook page were using offensive language (f*g, f*ggot, etc.) in a thread below our story about a gay couple speaking out about their immigration battle.

I made a judgement call to step in and request that this behavior cease. I also deleted the offensive posts. After doing that, the community policed themselves and those words weren’t used again. I trusted the community to clean up their act, and they did. Empower your community to support & respect each other while exercising their right to free speech.

Here’s what I posted, and as you can see the comments (if you go to the FB page), were still passionate but “f*ggot”-free:

Since I had to be timely about addressing the issue, I was careful to alert relevant stakeholders and send my screenshot. Everyone was on the same page and it sparked a dialog that will continue about community moderation factors.

Pinterest and faster knowledge sharing/accumulation

Because of services like Pinterest, I am able to track and collect resources in a much faster, more engaging way. The interface just inspires exploration, I love it. I recently started a board called Resources for startups. Check it out and add your pins too!

Google+: fun, drama, rabbit hole

Google+, like any other social networking hub, is ultimately what you make it. Some people use it to find a job. Others use it to share and collect information about their favorite topics. I use it to monitor what my friends and colleagues are up to. I am not really making any “new” friends on Google+, most of them are people I already engage with on Twitter and Facebook. We are all sharing this new space and using it in different ways. That experimental factor alone is what keeps me going back, and ultimately I will refine how I use it so it’s just another tool in my arsenal.

Right now though, I have to admit, it’s more of a time-suck than anything else. But that’s how Facebook started for me. Now, I use Facebook to monitor trends, share resources, and as a weapon for activism.

It’s OK to start using a tool one way and then evolve to use it in other ways. Some people still use email primarily to send around giant Powerpoint files of cats hugging, and that works for them. So it’s really about what your priorities are.

Sharing is caring

A recent quote that I received via email sums it all up for me:

No one is rewarded more richly in time, space, or beyond, Daniela, than the person who has helped others. And it matters not whether they helped selflessly or selfishly, for a profit or for free, with an Apple or a Droid. Help is help. – The Universe

You may think you don’t have time in your life to help people more than you already are. But if you look closer, you’ll see that every time you do help someone, you learn a little something.

I am already addicted to several free apps, but not surprisingly two of my favorites are photo sharing communities: Instagram and Piictu.

Instagram photo from last night

Instagram, the app with the cool filters that has a fan in Snoop Dogg and is being used by businesses of all sizes to promote their products and services, has been around longer than Piictu.

photo via CSS Lounge Flickr

Similar to it’s more established competition, Piictu allows users to follow (subscribe) to topics created by the community. It’s not a hashtag in the way that Instagram operates; users post a topic and people add to the thread.

In this first iteration, Piictu has very limited features. It doesn’t offer filter options the way that Instagram does and it’s default home page has three tabs called “following,” “popular,” and “latest.” This is really lame if you’re someone who likes to explore.

Instagram also doesn’t offer a search bar, but there is a way around that; beyond the cool filters, the big win that Instagram definitely has over Piictu is that if a photo has more than one hashtag on it, you can view more photos by clicking those hasthags.

It’s so easy and addictive to follow Instagram feeds of specific kinds of photos through hashtags. Below are some photos I’ve taken to add to their respective thread. Try to guess what they are called!

Piictu unfortunately won’t let you search for specific keywords and you can’t search by hashtag. You’re really limited to those three “following,” “popular,” and “latest” categories so if you want to view a topic that’s really obscure and not ranking in those categories, it probably means it doesn’t exist.

Right now I prefer Instagram over Piictu because not only can you find more photos, there are more social integrations. I can send a photo from Instagram to Twitter, Facebook, via email, and my Flickr at the same time. Often there are photos that I want to archive in my Flickr, so I like the different sharing options. Piictu only lets you send your photos to Facebook or Twitter – no Flickr.

Delicious-looking (and edited) photo of BLT that I archived in Flickr via Instagram

Since I now have 16G of space on this new phone, I have plenty of room to play with my three photo apps (all I feel like using for now). And even though it’s not as feature-friendly as it’s predecessor, Piictu has proven to be a good time suck when I’m waiting for friends in random places like parks or at cafes. I can’t link to those Piictu topics from here since you need the app to participate but a few that I of my recent favorites are called “anything red,” “girls faces,” and “lighters.”

What are some of your favorite photo apps? Are there any new ones that you are having fun using? Share in the comments