Jelly: the gateway drug to coworking

Jelly

Amit‘s effort to open up House 2.0 for a type of new work (which he calls “Jelly” and smacks of SuperHappyDevHouse meeting Coworking) is heating up…

He writes:

We had another Jelly today and we’ve really started to hit a good stride with it. Today’s crew included me, Luke, JCN, Joshua, and Jackie. We got work done, had lunch outside at Bryant Park a block away, and had some great conversations.

If you’ve been thinking about it but just haven’t stopped by, it’s time. Email me to get on the list. The next one will be even better.

p.s. If you’re new to Jelly, this background may help. Basically, it’s a day when we open our doors to anyone who wants to come and work at our home. We provide internet, power, comfy couches, and tables. You bring a laptop and something to work on (tech-related or not). Enjoyable conversations take place, and work gets done. Great for freelancers, and refreshing for those who work in an office; it’s good all around.

p.p.s. Logo by Brian Massey, via Sketch-It, via Photojojo

I’ve been meaning to post an update on Coworking San Francisco (aka Teh Space) for some time and this provides yet another example of independents finding ways of supporting each other’s work.

This makes me wonder… perhaps in the interim before we find our permanent space in the city (we’ve already got a bunch of candidates and are following up with a number of them), maybe we could shack up with each other, one day at a time, wherever we’re used to working. At least in that sense we’ll be “coworking” and finding more time to congregate to plan teh actual space.

Hmm? How’s that sound? Roundrobin coworking?

Dries takes on the old guard

Dries, on meeting with the Flemish Radio- and Television Network (VRT), who will be using Drupal:

I’m going to tell them that traditional media has no choice but to move forward. I spent the last 5 years of my life developing software that enables individuals to publish and share content on the internet. Soon, amateur content providers will have very powerful tools to compete with traditional media. I’m going to tell them that we are reshaping the future of news, information and journalism, and that, if they want to avoid getting left behind, they have to position themselves at the forefront of citizen journalism, take part in it, and embrace new internet technologies.

Are Democrats annoying?

From the “unsubscribed mailing list archive”… or, “If you don’t like to read about politics, don’t waste your time on this post.”

Give'em Hell Harry

Some time ago, I’d signed up for a bunch of Democrat mailing lists… Y’know, MoveOn, Dean for America… some others. At some point the newsletters became less relevant and less interesting, so instead of unsubscribing, I’d just delete them as they arrived. No big sweat off my back.

But I decided to open one of their missives today today titled “Getting Even”. Here’s what it said:

They are not going to get away with it. I am not going to take the lies that Republicans are telling about me and other Democrats in Congress sitting down. And neither should you.

What our opponents are trying to do to me is just a taste of what they have in store for us in the months ahead. Karl Rove’s Republican Party will stoop to any level to smear our candidates, and it certainly won’t let the facts get in the way.

But we won’t get mad. We’re going to get even.

Ok, so, the next thing I did was find the unsubscribe link:

Give'em Hell Harry unsubscribed

The thing is this. I can’t stand 98% of politics today. I especially can’t stand the cry-baby tactics of the Democrats. The Republicans are generally deplorable, but that almost makes them tolerable. The Democrats, on the other hand, have for some time seemed so feeble and self-loathing (not to mention disorganized) that I’ve all but lost faith in the one-and-an-eighth party system. It’s like, why don’t you guys just join up with the Republicans and make way for a full-bodied, more filling second party?

I dunno, maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh, but I’ll tell you what, the Republicans don’t whine nearly as bad as the Dems. Sure, they gripe and they lie and they cheat and steal and they do terrible things — but that’s what politics are all about. In fact, they’re willing to publicly take down their own members if it’ll serve the cause (unless the nickname of the member in question rhymes with “Dummy”). The Democrats, on the other hand, seem to think that fighting fair is American or something — and that they should be treated with dignity and esteem. Just like the folks at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo.

Ahem. Let’s start somewhere, mkay? Start treating the folks you need to rely on the way that you want to be treated and then we’ll talk. Stop treating me like an uninformed ATM. I don’t want to give you any more money and I don’t care about your fundraising efforts. Gas prices are still up, remember? Until you come around to the fact that I’m not a “constituent” but a normal person (just like you), I’ll be on the lookout for a party that actually gets me and reflects the concerns I have. I want to see radical solutions that reflect new thinking — followed up by execution. And I’m tired of you guys always defining and defending yourselves against the Republicans. It’s annoying.

I’m waiting to see something new, that wasn’t around in the last two elections. Obama seems, on the surface, to be an iota more interesting than the rest of the bunch. Crissakes, he’s a got a MySpace account. But I haven’t really even bothered following him that much. Man, just put George Clooney up against Bush — we’d win for sure. I mean, it worked in California for the Republicans. And heck, despite that debonair attitude and winning smiling, annoying is one thing I’ve never thought of him.

Oh, and to keep this in context… I’m just another citizen in this grand ol’ country concerned about the path we’re on. And I’m voicing my opinion, incomplete, uninformed and probably annoying in and of itself, because I’m tired of deleting pointless mailings from Democrats that I simply can’t bring myself to believe in. Yep, that’s it.

Untitled #2, Incomplete

Someone was telling me how, two years ago, they commented that Google is basically Microsoft 2.0.

Big companies follow a pattern. Evil ensues. Rinse, wash, repeat.

WiFi is a municipal matter. Connectivity should be considered a public good.

For obvious reasons. Look, I mean, I decided that privacy is bunk a long time ago so it’s not even that that I’m terribly worried about (your privacy is little more than sand between your fingers).

While quality of service is certainly important — and someone like Google, with its oodles of dollars — can probably ensure adequare coverage and uptime, that’s still not the issue. Communities are resilient when left up to their own devices.

I mean, look at Indian traffic (something I experienced firsthand in Bangalore). You wouldn’t think that it’d work — there’s practically no rules — but y’know what? Almost because the drivers are the ones responsible alone for their fate, they pay better attention, drive more cautiously and use their horns for communication instead of anger. It works — and it’s not just because of some kind of pacifist disposition inherit in Indians.

Point is, okay, that Google is interested in behavior. They’ve shown that they’re interested in 1) selling advertisements 2) pleasing their investors. Innovation is a means to an end. None of these things are intrinsically bad. Guns don’t kill people, robots do. Capitalism didn’t ask to become the scourge of our age, but dammit, someone severed the hand of Adam Smith a long time ago.

Anyway, here’re my two beefs du jour with the GoogleNet plan. Equal distribution. I simply don’t believe that privatized systems give a shit about under performing, under represented or unprofitable ventures. Oh yeah, that’s why they have philanthropic arms (yeah, ok, tell me if this makes sense: poison the environment while contributing to the Sierra Club?).

Second issue? Competition. State-sponsored monopolies suck.

Oh, and hell, toss in one point five more: Network Neutrality and the fact that it’s unnecessary. Here’s an alternative plan — just like you can buy your electricity and cable from multiple vendors, I’d like to be able to get my WiFi from the vendor of my choice. With prices falling all the time for the tech, that’s not the problem. Google wants to lock down the market. With technologies like WiMax available and being deployed elsewhere, seriously, we don’t need the Google Machine monopolizing this space.

You remember there was this company that embedded its browser in its OS and was forced to offer alternatives after an extremely costly (to taxpayers) legal battle? Give it 5-10 years and you’ll see a similar battle over embedding one company’s ads and search services in the state-sponored privately-run WiFi network.

But I’m jess sayin.