When I think of the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) bill that passed the House Intelligence Committee I think of the scene from the film “Enemy of the State” where Congressman Phillip Hammersley (played by the late Jason Robards) says:
“Telecommunications Security and Privacy Act. Invasion of privacy is more like it. – You read the Post? ‘This bill is not the first step towards the surveillance society. It is the surveillance society.'”
It’s been a busy two weeks, first with going to the National Media Reform Conference and then participating in the California State Democrats Convention in Sacramento. When I finally got back to the office everyone asked me “how was it all?” so I thought I’d tell all of you.
Hundreds of media activists made their way to Denver for the National Conference on Media Reform this past weekend. This was my first time attending the conference and really my first major exposure to the media reform community. I’ll be blogging more about media reform in the weeks to come but I wanted to share some of what I learned before I forget the details.
As the Supreme Court of the U.S. starts to weigh in on whether or not Proposition 8, a ban against gay marriage in California, is legal, social media is buzzing and changing color with a streams of equal sign logos.
My wife sends out smartly wrapped packages to friends across the country, hosts family craft days, watches tons of crafting videos while tweeting or Facebooking with crafty friends and I even joined her on a crafting cruise a few years back. So it was no surprise when she decided to volunteer at this year’s Craftcation conference here in nearby Ventura.
I’m addicted to Vine, Twitter’s recently acquired 6-second video service. I Vine my dog-walking, my coffee-making, my cookie-baking, my car-washing. I Vine everything but my wife, and only because she won’t allow it. (If I ever do, I’ll also Vine my time in the doghouse after she finds out.)
It wasn’t too hard to become addicted. I’ve tried many video services before: YouTube, 12seconds, Qwik, and others that came and went even faster. Vine is right for its time. What makes it different?
One of the primary questions at the start of a relationship is “Can I trust you?”
The same is true on online relationships and in the process of vetting new connections and networks. Everyone gets invites to join this or that and if you don’t have a previous relationship or personally know the person IRL (in real life) then you might be suspicious of the attempt to connect.
When I think of Comprehensive Immigration Reform I think of families. This isn’t just a policy issue.
My father was born in the U.S. but when his parent’s stay in the U.S. was no longer welcome, all of them were sent packing back to Mexico as part of a mass expatriation.
Like Alice going into the rabbit hole, I’ve become so addicted to and curious about Vine videos that I created a viewing platform, Vinormous.com. Vinormous, allows you to get your fill of 6-second Vine videos which have been posted to Twitter.
Last night’s Oscars tweet from the satire site The Onion was over the top and demeaning. The tweet, which was deleted from the @TheOnion Twitter feed a hour after it was made was:
“Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c*nt, right?”
Those words are mean enough but even more so since Quvenzhané is a 9-year-old.
