participation

MoveOn.Org says AOL creating class system

2006-02-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

Below is an email I get from being on the MoveOn.org email list. I'm not sure what I think of them; I think Stu mentioned in class something about not being wowed by them (but I may be wrong). I did a get-out-the-vote thing with them around the 2004 election, where we walked around to people's houses registering them. That was pretty cool. But I tend to ignore their email list, for the most part. Anyhow, on this one they say that AOL is preparing to allow businesses to pay a tax and then spam....creating "different classes". Maybe I will !Take Action! and click to send an email.

Dear MoveOn member,

The very existence of online civic participation and the free Internet as we know it are under attack by America Online.

AOL recently announced what amounts to an "email tax." Under this pay-to-send system, large emailers willing to pay an "email tax" can bypass spam filters and get guaranteed access to people's inboxes—with their messages having a preferential high-priority designation.¹

Charities, small businesses, civic organizing groups, and even families with mailing lists will inevitably be left with inferior Internet service unless they are willing to pay the "email tax" to AOL. We need to stop AOL immediately so other email hosts know that following AOL's lead would be a mistake.

Can you sign this emergency petition to America Online and forward it to your friends?

Sign here: http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/?id=6931-3563011-_EGcjrDLm9mCuzH.WaJ3YA&t=2

Petition statement: "AOL, don't auction off preferential access to people's inboxes to giant emailers, while leaving people's friends, families, and favorite causes wondering if their emails are being delivered at all. The Internet is a force for democracy and economic innovation only because it is open to all Internet users equally—we must not let it become an unlevel playing field."

Sign here: http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/?id=6931-3563011-_EGcjrDLm9mCuzH.WaJ3YA&t=3

AOL is one of the biggest email hosts in the world—if we stop them from unleashing this threat to the Internet, others will know not to try it. Everyone who signs this petition will be sent information on how to contact AOL directly, as well as future steps that can be taken until AOL drops its new "email tax" policy.

AOL's proposed pay-to-send system is the first step down the slippery slope toward dividing the Internet into two classes of users—those who get preferential treatment and those who are left behind.

AOL pretends nothing would change for senders who don't pay, but that's not reality. The moment AOL switches to a world where giant emailers pay for preferential treatment, AOL faces this internal choice: spend money to keep spam filters up-to-date so legitimate email isn't identified as spam, or make money by neglecting their spam filters and pushing more senders to pay for guaranteed delivery. Which do you think they'll choose?

If AOL has its way, the big loser will be regular email users—whose email from friends, family, and favorite causes will increasingly go undelivered and disappear into the black hole of a neglected spam filter. Another loser will be democracy and economic innovation on the Internet—where small ideas become big ideas specifically because regular people can spread ideas freely on a level playing field.

If an "email tax" existed when MoveOn began, we never would have gotten off the ground—indeed, AOL's proposal will hurt every membership group, regardless of political affiliation. That's why groups all across the political spectrum are joining together with charities, non-profits, small businesses, labor unions, and Internet watchdog groups in opposition to AOL's "email tax."

The president of the Association for Cancer Online Resources (ACOR) points out the real-world urgency of this issue:

In essence, this is going to block every AOL subscriber suffering from any form of cancer from receiving potentially life-saving information they may not be able to get from any other source, simply because a non-profit like ACOR—which serves more than 55,000 cancer patients and caregivers every day—cannot afford to pay the fee.¹

Can you sign this emergency petition to America Online and forward it to your friends?

http://civic.moveon.org/emailtax/?id=6931-3563011-_EGcjrDLm9mCuzH.WaJ3YA&t=4

Thank you for all you do.

–Eli Pariser, Noah T. Winer, Adam Green, and the MoveOn.org Civic Action team
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006

P.S. The Electronic Frontier Foundation summed up the "email tax" issue beautifully:

Email being basically free isn't a bug. It's a feature that has driven the digital revolution. It allows groups to scale up from a dozen friends to a hundred people who love knitting to half-a-million concerned citizens without a major bankroll...

Once a pay-to-speak system like this gets going, it will be increasing difficult for people who don't pay to get their mail through. The system has no way to distinguish between ordinary mail and bulk mail, spam and non-spam, personal and commercial mail. It just gives preference to people who pay...³

Sources:

1. "Postage is due for companies sending e-mail," New York Times, February 4, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1453

2. "AOL's New Email Certification Program: Good Mail or Goodfellas?" L-Soft Release, February 2, 2006
http://www.lsoft.com/news/aol-goodmail.asp

3. "AOL, Yahoo and Goodmail: Taxing Your Email for Fun and Profit," Electronic Frontier Foundation, February 8, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1454

I learn about MySpace

2006-02-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight on the Daily Show there was a "Trendspotting" segment on MySpace and Friendster. I understand more about this now then ever before! I tried to be fluent and make a link to the video, so we could all learn about this piece of IT, but it doesn't seem to be on the site yet. So, I am doing the second-best thing and posting a link so maybe when you look at it later it will be updated.

Capstone Project, Take One point one

2006-02-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some questions I still had for Professor Shulman after coming up with an outline. I said:

I feel like, with this set of questions, I've kind of safely covered some of the main themes of my social work administration courses, so far. Maybe I can ask [the Social Work professor who is Co-Director of COPC] if he agrees or what else he would like me to know about.
I'm not so sure about the Information Technology side of things--will an interview like this show enough proficiency? There is the other part of this project, which is that we had discussed having this interview as a podcast. So that will also feed into the information technology side...
My questions for you right now are:
-how does this suffice as a capstone project (is it enough)?
-what other questions/subjects do you think I could touch on?
-is there anything that doesn't make sense...that I haven't explained fully enough?
-How will I do the interviewing (what equipment would I need)?
-We had talked about partering up with other students. How could that work? Is the possible "publishing" of the interview as a PODcast enough collaboration?

Capstone Project, Take One

2006-02-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

Outline of Interview questions:

What I would discuss during my interview with one, or both, of the Directors of COPC, the Community Outreach Partnership Center:

I. Intro: How did you get interested in this work? (Tell me more about you.)

II. What is COPC? (Community Outreach Partnership Center)

A. For what purpose? (Mission)

B. What is the Information Technology behind it?

C. What is the history of COPC?

III. The Interface

A. Users--Who uses this information technology?

1. Clinicians/ Social Service or Non-profit Administrators/ Clients

B. How does Government interface?

1. HUD is a partner in funding. Why(/How)?

2. Do they use it as a resource or administer it for other groups?

C. How does University interface?

1. Why/how is Pitt interested in funding this program?

2. Do they use it as a resource or administer it for other groups?

D. The School of Social Work and GSPIA—The two co-directors are from these schools. How do the schools interact with the program?

IV. Community

A. From the mission: This effort addresses locally-identified issues in order to improve community conditions and build partner capacity in ways that also enhance learning experiences, scholarship and civic response across the institution.

B. The Mezzo/Macro Social Work arena is focused on the idea of organizational Collaboration. The mission statement, “build partner capacity”, suggests collaboration. Can you explain how this works?

C. “enhance… civic response”:

1. Service Learning—with Honors College students.

2. What does civic response mean to you?

3. Other civic response beyond Honors College students

V. Administration:

A. My understanding is that this is not an organization unto itself—not an individual non-profit organization. How is it administered then?

1. COPC does not have a Board. How do you:

a. Determine direction—identify needs of the community or services that you will provide?

b. Attract “pledged support” from community partners? From university partners?

c. Do you have a strategic plan? Or, if that is not the correct terminology for something like COPC, how do you plan to function in the future?

Netflix "throttling"

2006-02-12T19:28:00.000-08:00

Are you a frequent netflix user?
I have been thinking about joining netflix but haven't yet. If I did, I wonder if I would be a "frequent user" (probably so). If so, according to this article and Netflix's own written agreements--I would be flagged in Netflix's information systems so as to not get my movies as quickly as the person who doesn't rent as frequently as I do.

Wikipedia & Capitol Hill

2006-02-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

NPR story on Capitol Hill pols changing their Wikipedia articles
I heard this story on my lunch break the other day. If I had posted about it when I heard it (instead of procrastinating), I wouldn't have frustrated myself/my professor so much. Ah well, baby steps.
If you don't have time to listen to the story, I will give you the gist. Politicians (pols) are having their younger staffers either delete unflattering wikipedia entries about themselves--such as the guy who had a bad divorce, or write flattering entries.
One interesting point I caught about this story was that the pols themselves weren't doing the wikipedia editing, but were asking their staffers who were young people in their 20's. I think somewhere in the story she actually says that "this country is run by people in their 20's". Yeah--but people in their 20's doing what their 50 year old bosses told them to do. So again, there's that boundary where supposedly the new technology--here, of wikipedia--is doing something great and democratic, while powerful pols of the older generation (just to be specific, by older, I mean those not "in their 20's", as the lady in this story cites), pols who have the time and the funding are having young staffers taking work time for (!) wikipedia entries.

By the way, my boyfriend did his first wikipedia editing today. It was on one of the muppets. I take great pride in 1) piquing his interest in wikipedia again, and 2) being just as hip to this modern technology as he is (maybe a little bit more, but I guess I can't say that until I've edited.)

Does this make a difference?

2006-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

News about Microsoft -not- banning blogs

participation

2006-01-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure "participation" will be the title of my blog or just of my first post. In this post, I want to show you, the reader, where I'm coming from as I start this class.

So what's a social work student doing in an information technology class? It's been my experience over my short career as a student in this field that "social worker" is a loaded term to most people. Including myself. I don't want to say too much about this except that I don't want to grow up to be like the lady on the TV show Judging Amy (an older-aged person who works directly with abused children). What I am attracted to, and what the particular academic program I'm taking allows me to study, is the administration of programs or organizations that have a human services aspect to them. My academic program--as layover from a few decades ago, I think--also focuses on "organizing", as in, "I'm a community organizer". Fewer and fewer social work students enter my particular program looking to learn about organizing as more positions open up under the managed care system for licensed social workers who want to practice therapy. I do not want to give the impression that I don't think therapuetic social workers are valuable (/invaluable) workers in society. However I admire the apparent idealism of people who want to work in, and "organize" in, disadvantaged communities and who move away from the therapist/client model. And while I don't think I have the skills for being a traditional community organizer, I like the paradigms and tools that organizers use and think maybe the same tools could be used by an administrator in a human services/ social work field.

Finding places (organizations) like this seems a little hard to me, though, as non-profits move toward professionalization. In my non-profit management class last year (with Kevin Kearns), I presented on Civic Participation. What I learned in my research was that which is considered "political action" today is carried out by PACs, or Political Action Committees, which often have little or no connection to masses of citizens on the ground. In further research I read "Bowling Alone" by Putnam, and learned about those contemporary organizations which do have connections with large groups of people, but which carry out their actions through very impersonal, highly non-commital ways of "organizing", such as Greenpeace and their direct-mail campaign. I believe Putnam calls this something like "participation by pen"--or something like that: all you have to do to show your support for a cause is sign over a check to your favorite organization. If Putnam were writing this book today I am sure he would discuss the mass email campaigns of Moveon.org and others which work in similar, non-comittal, ways.

For my presentation on the topic of Civic Participation I needed to interview the executive director and/or Board of an organization which represented "civic participation". Having read my class text and Putnam, I now understood that the prospects for this were bleak. I had no interest in "PACs", and no large interest groups, that I knew of, were headquartered in Pittsburgh. The organization that my partner and I ended up at was The Thomas Merton Center. You may have seen their publication around campus, the New People. Apprehensively, my partner and I presented about their pay-equity (the Executive Director made the same amount as the Administrative Assistant), small staff, and informal programming structure. Basically, this organization had few-to-none of the qualities of a well-run non-profit which we had been studying...but it had a committed, fairly large, and participatory group of stakeholders, who were sucessfully organizing for many different issues on the local scene, such as public transit. To my suprise, my professor actually liked the choice of organization to present on, although I think it may have been because of a sense of nostalgia for the old days or something.

It's this jump from one extreme to the other (from a PAC to the Thomas Merton Center) that I sense in the class discussions we have had on information technology so far. I'm guessing this is mostly because, as students, we are not aware of the inroads that have been made thus far by folks who are interested in making information technology more participatory and democratic. (Or using it as a vechicle for participation and democracy.) It's a discussion that I'm finding over and over again in my social work classes...how do organizations that claim to be for the people stay true to empowering people, do not further marginalize or oppress them, and still remain successful in the market? How can technology do the same things?

I went through many of the pages off of Stu's web site and found that past classes of his had tutored the elderly in basic information technology. I can understand how that is one of those places which blended participation and technology. I also tend to think of my part-time job at the East End Food Co-op when I think about alternative forms of participation and organizations that aren't entirely responsible to "the market", as Lessig would say. Lastly, I am also greatly affected by a class I took about five years ago called "The Rise of the Religious Right", where we were assigned to monitor and report weekly on a site which was conservative or right-leaning in its stance, such as the Christian Coalition (and others that are more subtle but still as effective--maybe more effective). What this brought to our attention was how well-organized, technologically, these groups were, and how they had amassed a loyal and active support-base, largely through technology.

This is the big picture of where I'm coming from. I can see the connections but I don't know where I want to go from here, i.e., what I want to get out of this class. And I hope my other posts won't be as long.