The Authentic Eccentric

Here are audio tracks from four of the sessions I took while at the NTC 08 conference in New Orleans -

Technology Programs That Engage and Support At-Risk Youth
Designed by Karen L. Michaelson | Tincan

Audio from session

The Search for Sneezers: How to Find First-Time Donors in Epidemic Proportions
Designed by Philip King | Artez Interactive

Audio from session

Building, Growing, and Sustaining a Vibrant Online Community – How to Reach Beyond Traditional Tools into the Web 2.0 Sphere
Designed by Ms. Susan Tenby | CompuMentor/TechSoup

Audio from session

E-Advocacy: Mission over Membership
Designed by Mr. Charles Lenchner | DemocracyInAction.org

Audio from session

Share This

Thanks for the birthday wishes, calls and cards - you imaginary internet people are just awesome. My favorite link of the day comes from my mail buddy Jennifer, who sent me to Pink Faded Roses. I love new feed finds - feel free to suggest yours via comments.

I hope to do more in my 43rd year on the planet than I did in my 42nd.

I’m starting with a request - if I’ve helped you, or you’ve found this blog useful, would you consider helping my colleague Beth Kanter have a great 51st birthday? She’s set a challenge goal of getting 51 unique donations for the Sharing Foundation, which is helping to meet the physical, emotional, educational and medical needs of orphaned and seriously disadvantaged children in Cambodia. If they are one of four top causes to get the most unique donors, they will win $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation as part of America’s Giving Challenge.

With a $10 donation, you can help improve the lives of over 1,500 children in one of the world’s poorest countries.

I’ve already donated, and I encourage you to do the same if you can.

With that, I’m off to the beach to celebrate properly! I’m taking Nick Carr’s new book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google along, so look for a review next week along with the official call for content providers for my latest project, Active Gray Matter.

Share This

Richard Florida processes John Gapper’s labor musings -

Collective bargaining has a role in this world – to set standard contract terms or percentages for royalties and residuals – but individual negotiation is where the big money lies. Many technicians and writers are freelancers because it suits them: they get greater freedom to work across the industry and earn more.

Where collectivism could bring unadulterated rewards is outside the workplace – by providing health and pension benefits that freelance workers do not get. It is no coincidence that the MTV freelancers were angered by having their health benefits reduced. If you do not have health insurance in the US, you take a huge financial risk.

and asks -

Gapper is onto something here. The struggles that will define the creative age are just emerging. Right now we have a system rigged to benefit superstars and winners. In terms of historical analogies, the current creative class movement bears some resemblance to the early organizing struggles of old American Federation of Labor? But, later we say the rise of mass production unionism with the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations? Is a similar divide emerging between creative and service workers? What institutional solutions are needed to include and reward more and more of the growing ranks of creative workers - and what about the broader issue of the service class? What would a new movement and structure for building a workable creative economy look like?

Structurally, I think it looks like more individual agents collaborating through cooperatives, sole proprietorships and corporations. Miriam Cherry, writing about Decentering the Firm: The Limited Liability Company and Low Wage Immigrant Women Workers, 39 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 787 (2006) at Concurring Opinions said -

In the article, I look at the low-wage jobs held by many immigrant women workers and conclude that part of the reason why so many of these jobs – often in positions such as nannies and housecleaners – are paid so poorly and are so exploitative – is because of the intersection between several types of oppression: gender, ethnicity, race, and immigration status.

When one takes a job in the underground economy, many of the typical benefits that we think of as being associated with work simply don’t apply. Obviously, the situation is worse for undocumented workers who are hesitant to enforce their rights (for fear of being deported), and because they may not even be able to receive any remedies (the Hoffman Plastics precedent).

As a – partial - solution to this problem, I talk about re-organizing these types of work, eliminating the intermediary who normally sets up the work and takes a profit, and transforming the workers into owners who are members of an LLC. This allows for collective benefits – such as health insurance and workers’ compensation – and allows for the LLC to pay taxes, so that if a worker is able to regularize their immigration status, they will not have tax problems.

While creative and service class members are not illegal immigrants, they too could collectively benefit through creative uses of existing corporate structures and more in depth knowledge of the bargaining process.

They have natural allies in the buy local, buy handmade movement (via Fred Wilson); what is urgently needed, however, is better, more accessible access to expert help, advice and capital to execute.

More thoughts? I’ll be around all week to discuss these ideas so feel free to add your feedback via comments!

Share This

Happy Anniversary, Robert - I can’t believe it’s been seven years already. It’s fun to be linkblogging with you.

F.T. Rea was one of the earliest freelance artists that I worked with who was actively making money off Kinko’s art projects. One of my most prized possessions is a full set of his Iran Contra playing cards, scored as a thank you present during one of the first weeks of the Grace St Kinko’s turnaround. Watching Richmond blogging bloom this past year with F.T. in the middle of it was an awesome sort of déjà vu.

Share This

First, just to get it out of the way - I totally blew NaBloPoMo -

The great image comes from Sara at Moving Right Along, one of my favorite NaBloPoMo finds.

If you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading these days, you can now follow my link blog by clicking here. You can also visit Active Gray Matter for my latest posts on self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Share This

Last Thursday, in a fit of energy and local inspiration I signed up for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)*, which neatly coincides with the allies launch of Active Gray Matter (AGM).

For those of you scratching your head going huh, AGM is:

Active Gray Matter (AGM) is a socially based learning community that uses the wisdom of the crowds to build, maintain and run a business incubator for people with chronic or disabling conditions. While there are several online communities for people with chronic or disabling conditions, they are based on a medical model of disability and largely focused on health issues. AGM offers an environment that presumes that people with chronic or disabling conditions are independent and critical thinkers capable of fulfilling the functional roles of traditional business incubation experts.

During the remainder of November I’ll be blogging both here and at AGM with more information about the startup process, finding backers, creating a sustainable business model, the joys and perils of bootstrapping, self-employment of launching a crowdsharing projects.

*For the record, I’ve already missed two days. I’ll improve as we go along.

Share This

One of my favorite writing inspiration sites is Creating Passionate Users, Kathy Sierra’s marvelous technology blog.

Today, Kathy has an appalling post on why she was forced to cancel her appearance at ETech - her life has been threatened by some cretin cyber-bullies.

I am shocked and angry that Kathy is in danger. While I don’t personally know her, I’ve been a regular reader since the blog launched; she generously shares her knowledge and time, and seeing her re-paid this way is horrific.

How someone could make her a target for their vitriol and hatred is unimaginable, yet the proof is undeniable. I don’t blame her for repudiating a culture that allows and in fact celebrates this type of behavior. It is unacceptable under any circumstances and I agree that a strong stand must be taken to prevent it from continuing to spread.

While I selfishly hate to see her go, even for a short while, I wish her all of the safety and peace she can muster.

Share This

The 18-month Jamestown 400 commemoration got a big boost with this announcement today:

The Following Statement Is Issued By The Press Secretary To The Queen

The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will pay a State Visit to the United States of America from 3 to 8 May 2007.

Her Majesty will visit Virginia from 3 to 4 May to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement.

On 5 May, The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the Kentucky Derby.

From 6 to 8 May, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will be in Washington D.C., for a visit hosted by President Bush and Mrs Bush.

The trip will be the queen’s fourth state visit to the U.S. and is sure to bring additional attention to the Jamestown 400 celebration, which is already shaping up to be one heck of a party for the Virginia region.

Share This

While I’ve been silent a lot lately, I haven’t been idle. My most recent project has been helping a former client sell some equipment on eBay. Yes, eBay - I haven’t used them in a few years, but their audience *is* massive, and he wants to clean out his storage unit, so I agreed to help.

It’s still somewhat of a hassle to list on eBay, but it’s gotten easier from the last time I did battle with it back in 04. I was able to list 5 pieces of equipment in 3 hours and sold 1 the first day. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was to experience an internal phishing attack. Luckily, I switched to Firefox and avoided it. More eBay thoughts after the jump, along with screen shots. [Read more →]

Share This

Colorful Surf Boards on Waikiki Beach Hawaii
Originally uploaded by Pink Sherbet Photography.

I just got news from the Kinko’s grapevine that Brad Krause passed away in late January from cancer.

[Read more →]

Share This