COMING OUT COLORED™

A few new favourite networking sites...

Here are a few of my new favourites: GreenChange.org, BlackBrownGreen.com, Frogloop.com and Care2.com - all focusing on social networking for progressive social change. There will be more to come!

Rey Ramsey, others, testify on Capitol Hill

Worth following up: On Tuesday, a fellow named Rey Ramsey joined 'Star Wars' George Lucas, Charles Sullivan of prisoners' assistance group CURE, Jane Patterson of E-NC (No. Carolina), and one other fellow, in testifying in Congress on the serious unmet needs in U.S. Internet and telephone service access. Lucas testified on how he can access free and afforable wireless in Africa, Europe and Asia yet not in many parts of the USA. Rey Ramsey advocated for (finally) prioritising net and phone access - yes, basic phone access - in U.S. Native and low-income residential communities. Ramsey is CEO of One Economy Telecom: one-economy.com. Yesterday's House hearing, aired by C-Span, was chaired by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). This photo from the hearing is from his site - markey.house.gov.

Three ways to use Twitter, from Communication Overtones

Interesting post from Communication Overtones blog offering three useful ways to use twitter (microblogging).

Got a cellphone? AllVoices.com: user-generated news

Here's a new site in beta you might want to check out and share: AllVoices.com. AV describes itself as "a global community formed around news, events and people; a platform for diverse and unedited views and reporting, ranging from first hand accounts, to local and global news reports, blogs, videos and images; and a place for context and discussion." Let's do a roadtest and check back here later...

Black History Month 2008: Carter G. Woodson & the Origins of Multiculturalism

"Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism" is the theme of Black History Month 2008. Check downloadable materials on the site.

Are you on Facebook?, that's the question

I joined FB in 2006. At this moment I don't recall the impetus, whether it was my 'bright' idea or I was invited by a friend. The question on many people's lips is, Are you on Facebook yet?? Not everyone is. Some folks have even defected, particularly in reaction to privacy concerns. Back in Sept 2006 Danah Boyd wrote an interesting piece called "Facebook's "Privacy Trainwreck": Exposure, Invasion, and Drama." The fact remains that for many this social networking site presents an inviting and compelling online environment.

A Flickr'ing view of Black history through old magazines

James M Nabrit III Weds - Jet Magazine Jan 26, 1956, originally uploaded by vieilles_annonces.

Flickr member Vieille Annonces is to be commended for her scanned compilation of 1950s Black American magazines, primarily JET and EBONY. Like most Black Americans in the post WWII period, I literally grew up on "Ebony and Jet" as we often refer to them. Both were founded by pioneering Black American publisher (and Arkansas native) John H. Johnson. Johnson's wife, Eunice Walker Johnson (from Selma, Alabama), gave EBONY its distinctive name. Just as Eunice and John as a couple most of the vintage images play out the 'darker man-fairskinned Black woman' gendered color-consciousness of mid-20th century USA.

AEJMC ends 2007 annual conference

AEJ has closed its '07 annual meeting, held in Washington, DC. 2008 will be in Chi-town, the Windy City. '07 was my first AEJ in years and it was fascinating. Unbelievably, there was no Q&A session following Bill Moyers' keynote address. (Organisers said there was 'no time' as Canadian Embassy was hosting the big opening reception that followed immediately.) Moyers' observations were acute regarding how American journalism used to be and how dire things are now with what passes for journalism as well as for actual die-hard reporting that remains. One sobering example given by Moyers was major-media journalists having to continue their work off-the-clock because some "news" (i.e., corporate) management apparently doesn't consider systematic fact-checking a necessary part of news reporting and mainstream media jobs. Lots more conference detail to be found on the AEJMC.org website.

An 'unstoppable movement': Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken

I cannot quite agree with Paul Hawken's whole title. There've been plenty of important things going on in the world which certain people deliberately, repeatedly and over generations, have chosen not to see. Their so-called 'coping' mechanism??? Hawken's Blessed Unrest (How the World's Largest Movement Came into Being and Why No One Saw It) "explores the diversity of the social justice, peace, and environmental movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another. ..." (Comment via The Cleanse.com)

"The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not." - Chuang-Tzu, second leader of Taoism

Media Venture Collective: What is it??

Media Venture Collective describes itself as "a grass-roots, 501(c)3, public-benefit venture fund, under the Rudolf Steiner Foundation; media democracy brain trust ... focused on leveraging citizen donations into ... investments that promote media democracy as the fulcrum for social change." MVC wants to "pool citizen donations into - "purposeful" - working capital ... to develop and position the most promising projects for larger financial support...". MVC adds it wants to do this proactively, "not just reactively". They also do some things with Alternet.org.