Monday, November 14, 2005, 07:51 PM - Politics
Still no results, of course, but we do seem to have been able to knock on enough doors with white non-local volunteers in Trenton to get some decent statistical power. We may have mucked up the validity by flukily recruiting a bunch of high school kids of color through their teacher - which meant the non-local same-race volunteer slots were also filled, just not by the groups that were in charge of them. This experiment could show the relative value of local vs. nonlocal volunteers of different race than the intervention community...although it also once again exposes the dreadful lack of coordination on the ground and the mess that volunteers usually walk into. Another argument for more training and coordinated efforts (and I think for giving volunteers themselves more authority in planning activities)I am verging on the militaristic in my organizational/logistical perspective on these things...or at least losing my patience with disorganization.Monday, November 14, 2005, 06:24 PM - Politics, Technology
The World Summit on the Information Society is happening this week in Tunis. Tunisia apparently has 10% of its population online, undoubtedly on the high end of the range for Africa (I would imagine South Africa must be higher?). I am fascinated by the MIT proposal for very low-cost hand-cranked laptops for distribution to students in developing countries - and clearly wireless solutions (whether through phones or laptops) are the right answer...the last thing we need is more cable strewn across the earth. Tensions over the control of the internet infrastructure by the U.S. are bubbling up again, unsurprisingly. At what point do technological underpinnings become an international public asset, and not a national prerogative? Kind of snarky piece in Foreign Affairs on the issue here.
Update: apparently there is a compromise document that leaves most of the structural control of things to the U.S., but creates some international advisory stuff...Here's the dreamy summit doc if you get off on bureaucracy porn.
Saturday, November 12, 2005, 08:03 PM - Politics
Saw Stephen Hawking speak today. It's been a long time since I wondered about the not-taken life path as an astrophysicist. I was Adam's faux date for Cambridge in America Day 2005 - interesting presentations on history of philosophy but I admit I was more engaged in a psych presentation on the science of well-being. Some discussion on indices being developed to measure community well-being, movements to include those indices along with economic indicators as measure of overall progress of societies. As one would expect, democracies result in more happiness for their constituents, but I doubt that the Swiss experiment Prof. Huppert mentioned holds here - they found that more referenda resulted in greater happiness...IO can't imagine that's the case in California politics. Brings me back to my ongoing low-level interest in how mental health indicators and particularly psychiatric medication impacts political engagement; I'd love to study how our polity is being changed by all those antidepressants....Friday, November 11, 2005, 08:09 PM - George, Friends
It's being very much assisted by certain communications, like the note I got in the mail from my dad yesterday:
I was a little hurt about your love life. Better over before you become really deep.
Life has its cruel way of answering questions - Why? Who can guess them. All I can say is there is another street car. If it stops, get on.
I love my dad way too much. And someone else had this to say:
you are lovable, sexy and super-fucking smart. not to mention bold and spunky.
translation: dream date
My friends are the best.
Friday, November 11, 2005, 07:52 PM - Dancing
Is an instant classic. I can't believe Fatass got shut down at the Makeout last night...we could have danced for hours longer. So nice to see the East Coast contingent and both White brothers in one place. And the advance copy of the new CD is always a nice touch...;)
Thursday, November 10, 2005, 05:46 PM - Politics, Technology
So I attended three things over the last two days that I think fit together somehow...
The first was the first Net Tuesday hosted by Net2 - a project of techsoup that's trying to involve the nonprofit community in web2.0 - obviously a worthwhile concept, interesting plans, all very preliminary at the moment, potentially a very nice fit with dotOrganize. Crowd was very technoriffic, as expected, but which also brought home the yawning divide that still exists between people. And cute as flock was, I'm not sure it's the mechanism by which to bridge the gap.
Yesterday morning I got up terribly early to go see Malcolm Gladwell give UCSF grand rounds. The most interesting components of his message centered on how less information often leads to better decisions - somewhat anaethema to an enlightenment/technocratic sensibility, I think, but borne out in my experience of creating decision models on the campaign last year. More variables do not, I believe, always lead to better decisions, especially in a time-pressured context. There is a limit to regression as a tool, and it's too easy for the academic side of life to take over and value results that are significant but not important.
My last event was my first blogger call - with Chuck Schumer on the DSCC reaction to the election. (Why, pray tell, was I the only woman?) Although there were some interesting questions at the end, I'm not sure that people took full advantage of the situation - I certainly didn't. But the different levels of access that are available in the world, if you know who to ask always amaze me. And really, I wouldn't mind taking back the Senate. I do have to say my reaction to the call confirms my suspicion that my strenghts are all in structure, not content.
Thursday, November 10, 2005, 01:14 PM - Dancing
I rarely remember my dreams. Obviously evidence of my undeveloped relationship with my unconscious mind. Not so this morning: first I was some sort of hotshot archaeologist, and I discovered this beautiful ancient (greek? trojan maybe?) boat at the edge of an ocean. Then somehow things morphed into a stadium rock concert/ someone's wedding and I was waiting for my high school friend Kevin McMahon (huge guy, my favorite cigarette chicken partner) to show up. Then he came but he was really Andrew Boyd, and he was wearing this forest green with wide gold pinstripe velvet suit, and he was line dancing with a bunch of strangers.
My unconsious is notoriously unsubtle with its symbolism - do you think I need to rediscover my core value and inherent worth/ beauty? And that I'd really like to have a great relationship/ fantabulous party wedding?? At least I save money on analysis this way.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 12:48 PM - Politics
on Prop 73. But nonetheless successfull. I'm not really sure how to react to a post-election morning without agony, but I'd like to get used to this feeling.Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 05:02 PM - Politics
It's astonishing to me that it's only been a year since Election Day 2004. Thankfully I will not be standing in the rain in Copley Square tonight, but instead comfortably ensconced at Mighty, hopefully drinking to the first-ever defeat of a parental notification initiative. I so so badly want to feel the tide turning on restrictions on abortion, especially given what's likely to happen at the Supreme Court in January.
What should be in place by next year to make congressional and senate transfer of power possible?
- better coordination between national, state, local parties on list management, fundraising, etc.
- more sophisticated and personalized targeting (especially for non-party reg states and for independent and unlikely voters)
- improved media strategies that make use of diverse communication channels
- mechanisms developed to link the power of lateral, spontaneous organizing to infrastructure/ resources
- a voter mobilization project that incorporates online dating
- systems to link grassroots organizers to each other
- systems to facilitate events and DIY voter turnout, persuasion, and contact that also offer opportunities for community-building
- coherent strategies for disaffected sub/exurbanites. We have to be able to come up with something more appealing than the local megachurch, right?
- a better understanding of individuals' choices around party affiliation, trends among DTS/independents
- a simple and coherent progressive message to counter the self-serving corrupt greed of the hyper-elite. We need sexy, connected, positive, responsible.
- oh, and maybe a decent candidate or two??
Some of these things are in process, some already exist, some need lots of work. If I'm responsible, I'll try and look more deeply at each of these elements soon.
Monday, November 7, 2005, 01:43 PM - Dancing, Technology
So it has to be a good sign that the auto-generated word that came up when I submitted this little project to google was "ravers", right? Oh, if I had only taken a screen shot. I guess it's possible they've gotten much farther ahead than I would have imagined with profiling my innermost characteristics....Back Next
