Collective Sites

Rethinking the whole subdomain setup I h…

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:55:04 -0800

Rethinking the whole subdomain setup I h…:

Rethinking the whole subdomain setup I have going on to organize locations. Might just revert to the main domain. Oh well!

New Project - Umhai.com - Want to help?

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:28:59 -0800

I recently put together Umhai.com with the same software that Wordpress.com uses - wpmu. The tagline is “Let’s put threads everywhere” with the hope that you could create live threads for any place you could possibly want them. Places like cafes, libraries, dorms, office buildings and any other places people are often connected on their computers but cannot really communicate. I would hope the service might accomplish something interesting that twitter, brightkite and foursquare don’t quite. Twitter provides an awesome ecosystem but it is sometimes difficult to find “threads” or conversations. Same for brightkite. And foursquare doesn’t really allow for conversation, it is primarily a game.

Right now I have a few cities set up where you can add threads for any places you like. I have started adding quite threads for the SF Bay Area, most of them being places in Berkeley.

The site needs to progress with some more custom coded features but these things are beyond me. So far I have primarily just used free plugins for wordpress. More advanced navigation, search and others will really be helpful. So I’m looking for help. If you know anyone that has coding skills and would like to be a part of a project like this please send them my way. I would love to have fun with it and see if we could make a useful tool for a lot of people in the Bay starting with the Berkeley area.

Greg Brown - Vincent Black Lightning from “The Live...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0800

Greg Brown - Vincent Black Lightning from “The Live One”

Community OWNED Newsroom Cafe?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:13:00 -0700

So another thought on a local cafe as newsroom, as meetup spot, as collaborative space that I and others have been talking about recently. If it really is to be more of a community space or a collaborative environment and needs to be designed around the needs of web users then why don’t web users own and design it? Why don’t we get a few hundred of the people that are interested in the east bay (bloggers, journalists, software developers, web junkies) to pony up for it the way My Football Club did with Ebbsfleet via small investments to start it up? Let this majority owning cooperative help design the features it should have for them and their community while the space hopefully becomes self supporting as a cafe.

Qik | jmunn | California HoneyDrops at the Cheeseboard Testing...

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:20:21 -0700

Qik | jmunn | California HoneyDrops at the Cheeseboard

Testing out Qik on Android at the Cheeseboard listening to East Bay band the California Honey Drops.

A new space. Take two.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:27:00 -0700

Last week Dave Winer said he liked my post about the need for a new type of space in Berkeley. I thought I’d write an update to keep track of where my idea on this has been going.

We need a free, collaborative, publicly accessible space in Berkeley to host meetups. The problem is this is a new culture, a new way of organizing, a new way of interacting when together, and we don’t have spaces really designed to support it yet.

For instance, I heard about nerdnite last week. This is something Berkeley should be able to do and do well but I don’t know where we should make it happen. I got some suggestions from friends online but none of them seemed to really fit. This event needs beer, but it needs classroom type functionality as well. A friend on twitter suggested the Albatross which might be the pre-internet version of this kind of place. It sustains small to medium sized groups of people hanging out, playing games, drinking and having fun. If I designed the Albatross today it would sustain larger groups and the type of “fun” would switch to something revolving more around the internet (darts, pool tables, games, and quiz night will never loose their place btw).

Important Elements for a New Space

Size of groups - want the ability to host medium or large groups
Collaboration functionality - want wireless, outlets, projector, printer, whiteboard, online community, backchannels etc.
Cost - want cost of bar or cafe (but with no purchase necessary for reservations)
Public access - want bar or cafe type access not coworking/conference rentals
Fun Factor - can’t all be stale office space or classroom
Is work possible - can’t all be noisy bar cafe
Hours - want cafe hours

So to me this becomes a space that is open long hours like coffee shops. Has a large malleable or permeable space that can switch easily between small, medium and large groups while giving some groups privacy when necessary. It is financially supported like a cafe or bar so it is open to all. It is more social than an office or classroom but is not entirely a loud bar or cafe. It might allow other food in. It might list suggested donations for large groups or accept tips in exchange for space (instead of purchases). It will have wireless, outlets, projectors, printer, whiteboard, online networks, a calendar for public use, 1 to many communications, and many to many communications available in the space.

I would like to actually start working on making something like this happen for Berkeley. If you have any ideas or suggestions please leave a comment.

Below are some of my notes.

Pros and cons of present spaces

Bars

Pros
- Social
- Big Groups
- Fun
- Good hours
Cons
- No internet
- No whiteboard
- No projector
- Have to buy food and drinks

Cafe

Pros
- Cheap Wireless
- Lots of people - kinda social
- Work gets done
- Good hours
Cons
- Kinda social
- Solo or very small groups
- Have to drink coffee, buy snacks
- No larger collaboration
- No projector

Classroom

Pros
- Collaborative
- Big Groups
- Projector
- Internet & Power
- Office type utilities
Cons
- Private, not just open to public
- No fun
- No food or drinks available
- Short hours

Conference Spaces

Pros
- Collaborative
- Big groups
Cons
- Costs money
- Not just open to public
- No food or drinks available

Offices

Pros
- Collaborative
- Medium Size Groups
Cons
- Not just open to public
- No food or drinks available
- Not really fun
- Short hours

Coworking Space

Pros
- Collaborative
- Work gets done
- Good setting
Cons
- Cost money
- Not just open to public
- Short hours

CoWorking Possiblities for Berkeley and Elsewhere

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:02:00 -0700

While drinking coffees and dunking scones in grungy local cafes the last few weeks I started thinking about how there are so few places that really are built for the new connected world we are living in. Cafes and libraries are the only places that are filling the wireless needs of the unemployed, the self-employed, and college aged students by allowing them to access a signal and spend lots of time online. Cafes and libraries aren’t designed to do that, they are just filling the void until a better thing comes along. For the self-employed, coworking spaces are definitely a step in the right direction.

Coworking offices are designed for the lonely self-employed geek. There is at least one space that I know of in Berkeley, quite a few around the country, and it seems like the numbers are growing. They provide a consistent place where workers can collaborate, socialize and get to know each other while still getting their work done. Many coworkers would otherwise spend their days working alone from home or quietly hunched over their laptop in a cafe where socializing isn’t so much of any option and where rent comes in the form of multiple snacks and shots of espresso.

With all the empty store fronts in Berkeley, its abundance of students, self-employed geeks, and new-thinkers, I think there is a great opportunity to design a space similar to a coworking office that is intended to support the kinds of activities that the connected cafe goers of today really want to partake in. What kind of place would this be, what are the needs of the users, and what do the users really want to do? I tried to answer honestly the following questions.

When on the internet do I want to:

Drink coffee? Not necessarily.
Sit at a table by myself? Not necessarily.
Be antisocial? No.
Feel bad for being on there all day? No.
Feel bad for not buying enough stuff? No.
Talk and connect with people? Usually.
Meet new people? Would be nice.
Share things? Yes.
Learn things? Definitely.
Teach things? Sure.
Suggest things? Usually.
Affect things? Yes.
Get work done? Sometimes.
Play? Usually.
Create things? Sure.
Collaborate with others? Yah.

So for the laptop toting, cafe nomad that is not self employed and looking for an “office” but still feels stifled by the cafe or library what is the next option going to be? I think it will have elements of coworking setups, cafes and bars, as well as a more communal element that I have not put my finger on yet. Something that will more enable the sharing and collaborating types of activities that we are online to experience in the first place. Will this place have a community classroom? Will the space be funded by memberships since people don’t want to be forced to buy food? Will it even sell food, coffee or alcohol? Will people bring their own?

I think there will be value for customers and businesses in letting people have access to the internet, all the amenities of a nice office and a social setting without forcing them to buy food or drinks to stay. I think that like successful websites of today this space’s value will come from the community that it creates and the loyalty of its members.

Michael Wesch - PdF2009 - The Machine is (Changing) Us (via...

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:13:31 -0700

Michael Wesch - PdF2009 - The Machine is (Changing) Us (via personaldemocracy)

Clay Shirky on the internet again.

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:09:18 -0700

Clay Shirky on the internet again.

via imgur.com

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:30:03 -0700

via imgur.com

Life Inc The Movie (via LifeIncTheMovie)

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:11:23 -0700

Life Inc The Movie (via LifeIncTheMovie)

E.T. Outkast

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:26:00 -0700

E.T. Outkast

Us Now Film and The Brower Center

Sun, 10 May 2009 11:08:22 -0700

I would like to see the Us Now Film but it has not come to the SF Bay Area yet.

I think the new Brower Center in Berkeley is the perfect place to show this movie and have at least a little chat about it and the issues it deals with. If anyone is interested in helping coordinate a little meetup with this film screening or perhaps a #gov20/transparency unconference then please get in touch and let me know.

"WAKE UP SHEEPLE! SWINE FLU WAS AN INSIDE JOB!!"

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:20:31 -0700

“WAKE UP SHEEPLE! SWINE FLU WAS AN INSIDE JOB!!”

- Robosation - Reddit.com

"To get programming out to as many consumers as possible, everyone from [new CEO Vivian] Schiller on..."

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:40:07 -0700

“To get programming out to as many consumers as possible, everyone from [new CEO Vivian] Schiller on down sees technology as the key. “We have to skate where the puck is going,” she says (in what may be the first use of a hockey metaphor by an NPR CEO).”

- Why NPR is Thriving (They’re Not Afraid of Digital Media)

"The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous “outer..."

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:49:57 -0700

“The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous “outer fringe” ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison. The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as: Unthinkable Radical Acceptable Sensible Popular Policy”

- Overton window - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Twitter Tools - real and not yet real

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:42:00 -0700

I thought I’d list a few more services I imagine I’d love to use with the ginormous sensation that is twitter. I’ve already gone on about the location based idea that is sort of a twitter craigslist with users being able to create threads for their favorite hangouts or where ever people congregate and are connected (cafes, malls, schools, stadiums, airports, etc.). A potential revenue coming from charging private companies like stadium owners for more admin features for message control or design. Hard saying though, as it is all total theory.

I think the most obvious next step is to allow anyone to create sites like StockTwits.com based on whatever theme or topics the community may be interested in. Give me the Wordpress.com version and or the Wordpress.org version where a community can grow and add to the software.

A new twitter search cool Twazzup has added some handy features that basically puts to use “trends” within each search which is quite handy. This search of Berkeley breaks it down and shows 8 trends within that specific search. For filtering real news or the topics you are actually interested in this extra data is very significant.

One of the features that I think has been left out of a lot of these that is terribly surprising to me is the full screen display. I’m pretty sure this is where we headed. I expect to see more live threads displayed in public. Here is the BrightKite “Wall” for Berkeley posts from twitter.

I think that if someone can filter worthy twitter news posts based on location [craigslist] they’ll become one of the main distributers news. Add a clean wall type display and you’ll see these threads being displayed in all sorts of public places putting the streams to use in the physical world. The difficulty is creating community tools to filter out important or worthy user updates that qualify as or are interesting enough to be news. So how to moderate and filter real time posts, but keep them real time. Seems like a challenge. Can we filter on user authority or karma (maybe), community tags or votes (unlikely & slow), premium or otherwise trusted users (I have no idea)?

Anyway, those are my thoughts for now.

so sad

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:26:38 -0700

so sad

America’s Outback - Southern Utah - NYTimes.com

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:02:22 -0700

America’s Outback - Southern Utah - NYTimes.com

Awesome costume. Must make one similar some day....

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:48:44 -0700

Awesome costume. Must make one similar some day. via izismile.com