Monthly Archives: April 2004

“Claim vs. Fact” — a great example of distributed knowledge production

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The clever folks at Center for American Progress have just launched Claims vs. Facts, a collaborative database that logs the lies of the lying liars on the right, and matches each lie against the documented facts.

What’s really neat about this is that you can submit lies and facts to the database, subject to fact-checking (duh!) by the CAP editorial team.

This is a great example of how the Internet can be used to compile valuable knowledge from many individual authors. Activists groups need to take a lesson from this, and think more about how we can tap the knowledge and expertise in our communities, using the Internet as a “listening tool.”

Y2Y wins prestigous international conservation award

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It’s really nice to see great groups like the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and its 180 member groups get a little recognition for their work. Especially when that recognition is from the World Conservation Union, one of the foremost global organizations dealing with conservation science.

[WCU's] report cites examples from both Canada and the United States to illustrate the positive impact Y2Y has had over the last several years. In Canada, the report highlights the designation of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area in northeast BC and the Bow Valley Wildland Park in Alberta’s Bow Valley as examples of the Y2Y vision being implemented on the ground. In the United States, the report highlights the work of Y2Y partner American Wildlands to improve wildlife movement in Bozeman Pass, Montana.

“Day After Tomorrow” producers understand its organizing value; environmental organizers don’t

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These bits from The Day After Tomorrow almost made me wanna sit down and cry:

Some leaders of nonprofit environmental groups are also distressed about the movie…. In conference calls and e-mail exchanges, they have said it so overstates the issue — turning a decades-long or century-long threat into one that explodes over five days — that it might cause people to simply laugh off the real questions.

The film’s creators said they were puzzled by the concerns of environmentalists. “If they can get their act together, all they need to be saying is the drama of this movie is fictional but the fact is that global warming is real,” said Mark Gordon, the producer of the movie.

See, the producers understand!

If environmentalists distance themselves from the movie, they will be squandering a gift, said Dr. Daniel B. Botkin, an emeritus professor of ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Oh look! Climate scientists do too!

“I think it is a good educational opportunity, and that we should treat a disaster movie as entertainment and not get upset that it is a distortion,” Dr. Botkin said. “But $125 million on global warming must be a record for publicizing the issue.”

_Why, oh, why can’t these “unnamed environemntal activists” get it through their thick heads that pop culture events are news hooks of the highest order???

“Day After Tomorrow” producers understand its organizing value; environm

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These bits from The Day After Tomorrow almost made me wanna sit down and cry:

Some leaders of nonprofit environmental groups are also distressed about the mo vie…. In conference calls and e-mail exchanges, they have said it so overstat es the issue — turning a decades-long or century-long threat into one that exp lodes over five days — that it might cause people to simply laugh off the real questions.

The film’s creators said they were puzzled by the concerns of environmentalists . “If they can get their act together, all they need to be saying is the drama of this movie is fictional but the fact is that global warming is real,” said M ark Gordon, the producer of the movie.

See, the producers understand!

If environmentalists distance themselves from the movie, they will be squanderi ng a gift, said Dr. Daniel B. Botkin, an emeritus professor of ecology at the U niversity of California, Santa Barbara.

Oh look! Climate scientists do too!

“I think it is a good educational opportunity, and that we should treat a disas ter movie as entertainment and not get upset that it is a distortion,” Dr. Botk in said. “But $125 million on global warming must be a record for publicizing t he issue.”

_Why, oh, why can’t these “unnamed environemntal activists” get it through thei r thick heads that pop culture events are news hooks of the highest order???

Atrios rants about religion

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A-List political blogger Atrios wrote a fantastic rant about the corruption of religion by the extreme right. It garnered about 500 comments… way, way more than average for his blog, and mostly positive. Methinks he’s touched a nerve here. Here’s the best bit:

I’m tired of liberalish Christians telling me it’s my job to reach out to Christian moderates who feel that “the Left” is hostile to them. Screw that. It’s time for liberalish Christians to tell their slightly more right-leaning brethren that those of us who fight to maintain the separation between Church and State do it to protect freedom of religion – not destroy it. It’s time for moderate and liberal Catholics to take a stand against their Church’s assault on Democratic (and only Democratic) politicians who deviate from doctrine.

I’m not hostile to religion. I’m hostile to those who cloak their hate in bigotry in religion. I’m hostile to those who want to impose their religion on me and everyone else. I’m hostile to those who have no understanding where their freedoms come from, and why they’re important. I’m hostile to Christian Exceptionalists who believe that simply by being religious they’re immune from all criticism.

Down the memory hole…

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Here are the images of returning caskets that George Bush doesn’t want you to see.

What’s neat about Tami Silicio’s image is that she’s a contractor who snapped it with a digital camera — a great illustration of the way that cheap, portable ubiquitous digital cameras are making it far, far easier for citizen journalists to route around government censorship of images.

Somebody give her some kind of journalism award already!

Repeat after me (and Gallup): the environment is a low-salience issue for average Americans

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Every environmental activist should closely study these recent poll results from Gallup’s annual Earth Day survey of public attitudes towards the environment. They suggest that not only is the environment not a high priority issue for most Americans, it’s actually getting less important.

Little Top-of-Mind Concern

[Gallup asked] “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Historically, the environment has rarely been mentioned by more than 5% of the public on this measure; more often, the figure has been in the 1% to 2% range. This is the case today, as just 2% name the environment. Rather than the environment, the economy and issues related to terrorism and the Iraq situation lead the list of issues Americans see as most pressing.

What has changed is that _Americans are now less likely to see the environment as a long-term problem. In 2000, the environment ranked as the top problem for the future, mentioned by 14% of Americans. Today it ranks third (with 8% of mentions) behind the economy and Social Security.

Public Concern About Nation’s Problems

Percentage worried “a great deal”

Percentage worried “a great deal” or “fair amount”

%

%

The availability and affordability of healthcare

62

80

Crime and violence

46

72

Drug use

46

65

The possibility of future terrorist attacks in the U.S.

42

70

The economy

41

70

Illegal immigration

37

59

Unemployment

36

61

Hunger and homelessness

35

64

The availability and affordability of energy

35

63

The quality of the environment

35

62

Race relations

19

42

<

p>Here’s the other killer finding:

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p>This suggests that we need to do a much better job of framing environmental issues in terms of the values that people most care about. We also need to do a LOT more work to link environmental quality with good jobs and a strong economy, because people still see it as a tradeoff. This is a really important long-term reframing that we need to invest in.

Repeat after me (and Gallup): the environment is a low-salience issue fo

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Every environmental activist should closely study these recent poll results

from Gallup’s annual Earth Day survey of public attitudes towards the environ ment. They suggest that not only is the environment not a high priority issue for most Americans, it’s actually getting less important.

Little Top-of-Mind Concern

[Gallup asked] “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Historically, the environment has rarely been mentioned by more than 5% of the public on this measure; more often, the figure has been in the 1% to 2% range. This is the case today, as just 2% name the environment. Rather than the environment, the economy and issues related to terrorism and the Iraq situation lead the list of issues Americans see as most pressing.

What has changed is that _Americans are now less likely to see the e nvironment as a long-term problem. In 2000, the environment ranked as the top problem for the future, mentioned by 14% of Americans. Today it ranks t hird (with 8% of mentions) behind the economy and Social Security.

Public Concern About Nation’s Problems

Percentage worried “a great deal”

Percentage worried “a great deal” or “fair amount”

%

%

The availability and affordability of healthcare

62

80

Crime and violence

46

72

Drug use

46

65

The possibility of future terrorist attacks in the U.S.

42

70

The economy

41

70

Illegal immigration

37

59

Unemployment

36

61

Hunger and homelessness

35

64

The availability and affordability of energy

35

63

The quality of the environment

35

62

Race relations

19

42

<

p>Here’s the other killer finding:

<

p align=”center”>

<

p>This suggests that we need to do a much better job of framing environmental issues in terms of the values that people most care about. We also need to do a LOT more work to link environmental quality with good jobs and a strong econo my, because people still see it as a tradeoff. This is a really important long -term reframing that we need to invest in.

A few thoughts on effective email discusison lists

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Veteran email marketer Bill McCloskey offers a few good insights on why email discussion lists are still one of the most valuable group communication tools out there, and what makes a truly effective email discussion list.

What makes a good email discussion list? Without a doubt, it is the quality of the people on the list, and the quantity and quality of their posts. The trick is to create an environment where people feel safe in posting (i.e. That their posts will remain confidential), and create a method by which the list isn’t dominated with a few posters and a majority of lurkers….

Here is what we decided the ingredients were for creating an outstanding and active discussion list:

  1. Exclusivity: The key to the success of any list is exclusivity. Not just anyone can get in. This is what made The Oldtimer’s so successful. On the “Oldtimer’s List” you had to have been in the industry for at least 5 years, and you had to be “cool.” In “The One Hundred Club” — or the OHC, as it is now referred to as — we purposefully limited membership to 100 of the top minds, and cut off membership at that point. Everyone on the list was nominated by someone else on the list.

  2. Privacy: This is a key ingredient. A good discussion list needs to be like a confessional. In order to generate interesting and useful posts, people need to know that what they post won’t be held against them, or pop up somewhere unexpectedly. On the OHC, privacy is a strict rule: like Las Vegas, what’s said there stays there. In fact, it is the only “rule” of the list that can get you permanently banned if you break it.

  3. Keeping the List Fresh: One of the biggest issues with all lists is that the ratio of active posters to lurkers is very lopsided. A few voices take over the discussion, the rest lurk, and pretty soon, you have a boring list. To counteract this, The OHC instituted a “no-lurker” policy.

Every 3 months we purge the list of anyone who has not posted during the last quarter. Members who are purged are replaced by people on the waiting list. This lights a fire under folks to post or be purged, and it provides an organic way of growing the list. In any quarter where we have 100% participation, we increase the membership enrollment by a few people, guaranteeing that new voices and new perspectives are added to the conversation regularly, and at the same time guaranteeing a very active discussion with high participation.

This last idea is the most radical and interesting one. The vision here is one of small lists, where you participate actively or get bumped off, rather than large lists with a few active folks and lots of lurkers. It would be cool to see these a feature like this built into Sympa.

BCFacts.org launches ads in Vancouver

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We’ve been helping our friends at BCFacts.org launch a series of billboard and transit ads in Vancouver to promote BCFacts.org which is a real-time environmental scorecard for the BC Government.

Fans of comparative politics will take note that in BC’s legislature, legislators vote en bloc so that it’s impossible to do individual legisltator scorecards the way U.S. groups such as Washington Conservation Voters do.

BCFacts is taking a more online approach. They held a big press conference today announcing the ads, and inviting BC citizens who are concerned about the environment to “Get the Facts” on the government’s record. Nice stuff.

Nonprofit nerds will note this project marks our first test of open-source HTML email newsletter software PHPList.

Participant/narrators

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Jon Udell offers a nice reflection on the power of the participant/narrator.

It’s been clear to me for a long time that the participant/narrator, armed with easy-to-use Web publishing technology (aka blog tools), will be a key player on every professional and civic team. A couple of years ago I sketched out how blog narrative can work as a professional project management tool. Just today, I learned of a great example from the realm of civics. Not co-incidentally, it involves another XML.com regular, Simon St. Laurent. Simon lives in Varna, NY, which is between Ithaca and the town of Dryden, whose Democratic Committee he now chairs. Today’s Ithaca Journal fills in the backstory: St. Laurent can be seen, notebook and digital camera in tow, at Planning Board and Conservation Advisory Council gatherings, as well as at special meetings on fire departments, speeding and comprehensive plans. So I admit, my curiosity was piqued. What could motivate this seemingly normal man to submit himself to hours of political talk and legalese? Talk that even elicits occasional groans from those delivering it. Turns out, it’s all in the name of a blog — http://simonstl.com/dryden/. “I volunteered with the local Democratic party in the last elections and made some calls for them. People would ask me questions and I’d have partial answers and they’d have partial answers. It seemed like an opportunity to learn more about what was going on and to help the person on the other end of the phone.” So on Nov. 6, St. Laurent launched his Dryden site. Six months later, he hasn’t missed a posting. [Ithaca Journal] Now that the hype about political blogs has died down, it’s clear that this is the real deal: a grassroots effort to connect a political process to itself, to its constituency, and to the outside world. No fanfare, just steady and reliable information flow. Every team can benefit from this approach. By narrating the work, as Dave Winer once put it, we clarify the work. There can be more than narrator, but it makes sense to have one team member own the primary role just as other members own other roles.

The key idea here the importance of folks whose role in a team/process is to connect the process to itself.

WileySlough.org launches: our first site based on Plone

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aerial.jpgWe’ve just launched WileySlough.org, our first website project based on Plone, an open-source CMS (content management system) that we are very excited about.

WileySlough.org is the public face of the Wiley Slough Restoration Project, a project to restore a chunk of publicly owned land in the biologically rich Skagit River delta.

The site is the essence of simplicity. No fancy interactive modules or online activism. But Plone allowed us to quickly design and build a site that is incredibly easy for non-technical users to create, edit and update. Unlike most other open-source CMS tools, Plone was designed by people who are experts at usability engineering. And it shows. The administrative pages are simple, intuitive and we were able to “hand over the keys” to the Wiley Slough folks with only a couple hours of training.

The entire site took about 45 hours for us to plan, design and build. This is a $3000 website that outshines a lot of sites costing LOTS more. And future sites will be even cheaper and faster, because we’ve now climbed pretty far up the Plone developers’ learning curve. (Which is, admittedly, somewhat steep. But Andrew Burkhalter and Jon Baldivieso here are pretty amazing web developers.)

What excites me even more is the fact that we’ll be able to leverage all of the amazing past, present and future work of the Plone developer community, which has pulled together a pretty amazing toolset that is still evolving very rapidly. I truly think that the days of hand-built CMSes for nonprofits are nearly over, and that products like Plone point the way forward.

I’ll be posting more about our experiences with Plone soon. In the meantime, have you implemented nonprofit sites using an open source CMS product? What have your experiences been?

Can you run a statewide grassroots campaign without an Internet presence?

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With coverage in the Seattle PI and many other newspapers, Breathe Easy Washington launched their campaign to qualify I-890 for the November ballot. I-890 will ban smoking in bars and restauraunts throughout Seattle, protecting the health of thousands of hardworking employees (not to mention customers like me who are sick of getting “smoked out” of bars!).

The campaign needs to raise $500k and gather 250,000 signatures by July.

So why the heck don’t they have a website? Do they seriously believe that they can win a grassroots campaign without using online communications tools?

This is pathetic. My lungs deserve better.

UPDATE: My bad. The campaign does have a website after all. www.breatheeasywa.org. Google just didn’t list it under “Breathe Easy Washington” when I looked. Maybe they just need a search engine consultant. Or perhaps they should contact the owner of “breatheeasywashington.org” and see if he’d be willing to give ‘em the domain. (hint, hint).

Can you run a statewide grassroots campaign without an Internet presence

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With coverage in the Seattle PI a nd many other newspapers, Breathe Easy Washington launched their campaign to qu alify I-890 for the November ballot. I-890 will ban smoking in bars and restau raunts throughout Seattle, protecting the health of thousands of hardworking em ployees (not to mention customers like me who are sick of getting “smoked out” of bars!).

The campaign needs to raise $500k and gather 250,000 signatures by July.

So why the heck don’t they have a website? Do they seriously believe that th ey can win a grassroots campaign without using online communications tools?

This is pathetic. My lungs deserve better.

UPDATE: My bad. The campaign does have a website after all. www.breatheea sywa.org. Google just didn’t list it under “Bre athe Easy Washington” when I looked. Maybe they just need a search engine cons ultant. Or perhaps they should contact the owner of “breatheeasywashington.org” and see if he’d be willing to give ‘em the domain. (hint, hint).

Nice analysis of the anti-Bush coalition, such as it is

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Matt Stoller at BOPNews offers a very nice segementation of the anti-Bush coalition.

The first group is composed of centrist Democrats and far-leftist activists who believe that liberal policies are important, but progressive politics are not. These people believe that political power should reside among media pundits. This group includes individuals like Joseph Lieberman and Hillary Clinton, unapologetic war supporters who feel no shame in their support of the Iraqi adventure and look back to Clinton with no regrets…. Two, there are Democrats who believe that liberal policies are important, but liberal politics are more important. These are people like Al Gore and Howard Dean, who recognize that the political support for smart policies rests on openness and eager recruitment of fresh blood for the party. … Three, there are people who care less about policies than progressive politics, believing that the system is too ossified to serve its purpose without substantial political reform. Joe Trippi and Jon Stewart falls into this camp; they dislike the Democratic party machinery (such as it is) because it continually undercuts the ability for progressive ideas to emerge…. Four, there are people who dismiss policies and politics alike, and wear their politics solely as a cultural identifier. Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton fall into this category.