The Vernacularist

celebrity watching

Woke up thinking about why New York City is so much fun. Not sure why...I think I dreamed about meeting nutjobs on the street and getting into some surreal, nyc street weirdness. This got me thinking about all the celebrities I've seen so far while being back.  Here is a list, as best as I can remember:

• Jon Bon Jovi ( yes, Greg, you missed it)
• Dimitri from The Daily Show
• Adam Sanberg from SNL (going into Other Music.  Good choice, amigo)
• Mike Myers (he was on the phone in the West Village)
• Elizabeth Berkeley (does she still count?)

Shoot.  There are others. When I think of them, I'll update the post.

Central Park to get Wi-Fi

Damn straight.  We are just one small step away from intergalatic wi-fi.

Colbert at #1

...on iTunes AudioBooks.  His spanking of the Bush Administration at the White House Correspondents Dinner is best seller.  Shows you what can happen when you put good content and new digital distribution services together in the handy-dandy online drink mixer. Then shake.  Yum. A Colbert Colada. (thanks BoingBoing)

Pandora coming to town

I'm a big fan of Pandora, much like the rest of the online music junky world.  If you look at end of the right column on my blog, you will see a Pandora module that I activated a couple weeks back.  Basically, Pandora asks you to submit your favorite band and then streams music similar to the qualities of that band.

About two weeks ago, I received an email for the founder of Pandora, Tom Westergren.  He's on a listening tour around the U.S. to hear new music and talk to Pandora users.  You can follow the trip on Pandora's blog.

On Wednesday (tomorrow), he'll be hosting a town hall to talk about what DC folks about the Pandora service, local music and probably a whole host of other things.  I bet digital rights management becomes a hot topic during the event. Here's Tom's explanation of the event:

Join Pandora founder Tim Westergren and other music insiders and enthusiasts for a discussion on the future of music. Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com, along with Gary Greenstein of Soundexchange and David D. Oxenford, a  music copyright lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine, will lead a lively and informative conversation about the impact of the digital revolution on the future of music.

Among the questions we hope to tackle:
- How is technology changing the nature of radio?
- What are the implications for intellectual property and licensing rights?
- What is the role of radio in helping music lovers find new songs and artists to love?
- Is online radio here to stay or just a fad for tech enthusiasts?
- Is this the best of times -- or the worst of times -- for new, emerging artists hoping to find their audience?

Wednesday, May 17th

7:00pm

Greenberg Theatre

4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

I wanted to go, but can't anymore because of my MBA school interview in NYC on Thursday.  I think it should be a great event though.  I want to read some DC blog posts about it so freakin go, ok?  No excuses music lovers. 

Save this number: 202 299 7949

My friend and colleague, Tom Lee, has just unleashed a great mobile phone-based search service called Last Call.  In his spare time, Tom is the director of technology for DCist, the most popular blog about all things Washington, DC. So it's no surprise that he took on this challenge, and now, after some laborious nights, gives birth to the greatest thing to hit DC since baseball came back. 

The service offers all the information you need to figure out your night on the town:  Metro schedules, OpenTable reservations, concert listings, movie showtimes and SMS weather report.

All you have to do is text the number 202 299 7949 with some easy to remember nomenclature and you are all set.  If you forget the words to use, just text HELP to this number and it'll send you the cheat sheet. Save the number. Test it while you are out. And let Tom know if there are any errors.

Some movement on Darfur

From ABC news:

BUSH ORDERS EMERGENCY FOOD AID FOR REFUGEES IN SUDAN, AND CALLS FOR U.N. PEACEKEEPERS TO STOP THE GENOCIDE

Finally!  Some more movement besides the recent peace accord, which only one of the three rebel factions signed. But things are still looking very volatile since the UN aid chief, Jan Egeland, was forced to flee Darfur today after his translator was attacked.  The refugees were demanding that UN peacekeepers be deployed to the region.

I think the rallies across the country on April 30 had an impact.  They kept the topic in the news and made the Bush Administration recognize that Americans, both evangelical and agnostic, white and black, rich and poor.  I know, I don't have any scientific study to back up my demographic claim, but the Washington DC rally was very diverse.

Let's keep the pressure on! We haven't improved anything yet.  These are still just promises and signatures on a piece of paper. 

Save Darfur rally

Thousands here. Beautiful day.

Organizing to Stop Genocide

Today, I spent the morning training college students on how to create effective and sustainable anti-genocide community groups. From all over the country, these 200 college student gave up a weekend to learn more about the massacres in Sudan, practice the basic skills necessary to create a lasting community group, and network with each other.  During the summer, these students have pledged to recruit locally-based individuals, meet as a group, identify leaders, and create an action calendar.  Ideally, the student will leave a fuctioning community group after the summer that will build awareness about anti-genocide events and actions.

The students are also in DC to participate tomorrow in the Rally To Stop Genocide, sponsored by over 100 organizations who make up the Save Darfur Collalition.  They are expecting 25,000 in DC and tens of thousands more across the country.

I spent 2 hours this morning faciliating a training for 18 college students that was organized by the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net). In my group, there were 17 women and 1 man.  This ratio held across the training groups. I wasn't surprised by this, just disappointed. Why would any red blooded American male want to trade watching the NFL draft with building skills to create lasting social change and prevent genocide?  As my Grandfather would say, "Take a long walk off a short pier."

For the students, GI-Net prepared a great summer action kit to give easy, step-by-step instructions for students to follow during the summer: Recruit, Meet, Take Action.  Facilitators received a very good agenda that did the following well:

• Articulated the goals of each section to focus the discussion early
• Offered suggested times for each activity
• Balanced activities between the full group, small groups and one-on-one practice sections
• Suggested questions for the facilitators to use if groups hit stumbling blocks

It was clear that GI-Net put a lot of time into the action kit and agenda.  Not only was the organization of the kit consitent with how a student would need to manage this community-building process, but also the research was fairly robust, something usually lacking in action kits.  There were pages of useful quotes from notable leaders and intellectuals, talking points that framed the issue, and frequently asked questions about Darfur. Here are my favorite talking points:

1. 3 years ago the government of Sudan armed a militie and together they kill, rape and displace innocent civilians in the Darfur region.  As many as 400,000 people are dead from the violence and 2.5 million people are displaced.
2. Darfur is "Rawanda in Slow Motion." We have the opportunity to redeem ourselves for the failures in 1994.
3. Congress and President Bush both declared the crisis "genocide."
4. Have you seen "Hotel Rwanda"? What will you say to your children and grandchildren after "Hotel Darfur"?

These students were so engaged with the content during the training that they recognized when the larger next steps weren't clear.  That showed me that they were focused on learning something, rather than just going through the motions.  There was also a general desire to describe specific anti-genocide  actions, something the action kit was a lacking. 

However, the kit was designed to guide the students to form community groups that will answer this action question from themselves. Commiment comes from ownership of the plan, so I understand why the kit was light on planning actions. Also, GI-Net is going to send Starter Kits to communities that actually meet and this will have more action ideas as well as buttons and bumper stickers.

Getting a refresher on community organizing was very satisfying because it's not something I've spent much time doing.  My strength is facilitating, not actually community organizing. Even during my days working and volunteering in the 2004 election, I only did a little organizing.  It's not ofter you get to practice how to talk effectively to people.  Ahhhhh, I'm wicked amp'd for tomorrow's rally.

A home for jokesters, JibJab style

(cross-posted at EchoDitto)

Today, JibJab launched a joke-sharing online social network called JokeBox.  JibJab founders Evan and Gregg Spiridellis were inspired by their father, a frequent email jokster, to create this hub for storing and sharing jokes of any media persuasion. The site has been in private beta-testing for three months, during which time roughly 40,000 registered members have contributed 25,000 written jokes, photos, audio and video files.

The Spiridellis brothers readily admit they see JokeBox as a necessary secondary revenue stream for JibJab Media, their animation studio famous for the "This Land" short, which has been downloaded over 65 million times.  They run their shop pretty lean, with only 7 staff, so there are long lags between projects.  In fact, Jokebox.com redirects to JibJab.com, so JokeBox is the online face for JibJab Media.

Beyond savings and sharing content, JokeBox lets you send messages within the network, establish friends, and create message groups called "fan clubs." Much like YouTube , the video sharing site du jour, you can browse the content by "Top Rated Jokes" or "Most Viewed Jokes," which make the content much more accessible in the 10 seconds you have to grab a user's attention. Basically, they have covered the online social networking fundamentals.  After playing a round a little, I don't see any new functionality.

BudLight has banner throughout the site and either a mantle or skyscraper placement within the site,.  Other advertisers including Benadryl and the Suburban Auto Group Ford/Chevy car dealership also have placements in the JibJab video shorts, which are prominently featured within the site.

If you click on any of the ads, you get to download any of the current "Real Men of Genius" television or radio ads, which feature the character Ted Ferguson competing in a competitions like "going shopping with your girlfriend." Once you click on the link, you have to re-enter your birthdate, even if you are signed in.  That's a little annoying and will certainly reduce conversion rates, but you can't mess with those legal requirements. 

The value proposition for a JokeBox member is that he or she can more easily find, store and share funny content with their friends rather than trying to manage it with folders in their inboxes. This network gives these humor hobbyists a vehicle to become their own media channel, similar to YouTube. 

JibJab certainly has couple strengths that make JokeBox less risky:

• it has the name recognition to grab significant earned media attention without have to buy online ads;
• with already 645,000 enthusiasts, split evenly across gender, subscribed to their newsletter, there is enough of a passionate base that will take the time to try site; and
• it is an underdog company, like Apple or Mozilla, that will appeal to the technophiles, who can give a site life after launch.

It remains to be seen if JokeBox can separate itself from YouTube enough to provide a unique value or it just becomes a re-posting of hits from YouTube.  Also, do humor hobbyists have enough of an affinity with each other to turn JokeBox into an online humor hotspot?  Will they seek each other out online and make this site competitive -- like antiquing or finding a great shirt at a thrift store?

A sign from something

Two BREAKING news stories that appear to have no connection, but on second glance, have a very disturbing parallel:

1. Jesus Told Judas to Betray Him
2. Bush Told Libby to Leak Intelligence

But wait, could Pres. Bush be the messiah?  No, that can't be because then the Jews were right about Jesus not being the son of God.  Uh...I'm feeling dizzy with a touch of nausea. ( I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.)

I have to go to the bathroom.