Personal Democracy Forum

You can find them at http://youtube.com/user/blogdiva

They're not the bestest quality but you can get a good sense of the excellent presentations by the likes of Van Jones, Mark Pesce (who I've already written about), Brian Behlendorf, Craig Newmark and others.

If you don't know who is Mark Pesce and/or have never heard of HyperPolitics, go read the whole lecture on his blog RIGHT NOW!.

Then come back and watch the videos that, albeit incomplete and a bit jerky, really give you a good idea of how incredibly important is Mark's framing of community development as it happens through mobile technology and the web.

I have to admit that I don't go to a lot of technology conferences. It's not that I am not interested, on the contrary, I'd love to be able to attend each and every one of them. The problem is that I am in the situation that many other bloggers (especially women and people of color) are trapped in : We don't make enough money out of blogging to be able to afford a conference budget.

It's not just the airfare and hotel and the conference fee. As a working mother who is self-employed and has 2 children, traveling to conferences is not only absolutely prohibitive if I do so out of pocket. It's the emotionally draining logistics of who's going to take care of my children while am away. Unfortunately, in a city like New York not having family available or a nanny on payroll is a HUGE child-care liability.

So the few conferences I get to go am either paid to go because I am on a panel or I get to go to them because they're local enough (meaning a train ride away).

Outside of RootsCamp NYC (which happened 2 years ago) and this year's PodCamp NYC, there's not much for free or affordable the techie and geeky at heart here in NYC. Well, at least not much new to me because if I were to include some of the stuff happening at Eyebeam, well, yeah, that's geeky enough.

Which is why going to PDF is such a joy.

The 10questions.com submission period is coming to an end in 5 more days. Thanks to may computer woes, I've been remiss at following up on this fantastic opportunity to ask the hard questions to the candidates; but not any more.

I am calling on all the NYC-based sponsors of 10Questions.com to come spend Sunday afternoon with me at Rapture Cafe in the East Village. I'll be there from 3:00pm to 6:00pm downing coffees and making video clips of everybody who wants to submit a clip to 10questions.

What does that mean? If you don't have a digital camera with video capabilities, a computer with WiFi or both, just bring just yourself and the questions you would like to submit. We have the cameras, we have the computers. Rapture Cafe has the coffee, beer and WiFi.

Place : Rapture Cafe - Avenue A between 13th & 12th Streets
Time : 3pm - 6pm

So take this post to starting thinking out loud what you'd like to ask the presidential candidates.

UPDATE 23 MAY 2007:
Click here to listen to the podcast

Last saturday I facilitated a session at the Personal Democracy Unconference, which took place at Pace University's downtown NYC campus.

To those who don't know what means unconference, the concept is an interesting take on the old formula. People come in with a topic or set of topics they'd like to talk about. All the topics are placed written on a piece of paper and placed on the wall, next to an empty schedule grid. Once the organizers give it a go, facilitators place on their preferred time slot and/or negotiate with other facilitators the timing of their session.

The session I facilitated was titled, Reframing Net Neutrality as a Civil Rights Issues. I honestly wasn't expecting more than a few people but was amazed when about a dozen strong came to the corner where I was set up. Nancy Scola, Aldon Hines, Cheryl Contee, Ruby Sinreich, Ed Cone, Heather Holdridge and so many other amazing people came to discuss this important issue that has been amazingly bogged down by too much geek speak.

What's at the core of Net Neutrality? There's people who can put this better than me, but at the heart of the debate is the issue that internet providers should have the right to distinguish all sorts of bandwidth usage in order to better manage their resources and provide better service. The concern is that companies like YouTube may literally clog the internets and it's tubes.

Have you ever heard of PCFS? Post-Conference Fatigue Syndrome is what happens to many people after going to a mojor technology or political conference.

At a place like PDF2007 I got hit on every front with both networking and information overload. Too much information, too many personal details to remember to track.

The brain is ready to explode.

Don't get me wrong --I loved every minute of it. But being around so many people and so many ideas can be exhausting. Especially when you come back home to 12 loads of stinky laundry.

I have a podcast to put up and a follow up to the panel I was part of and the unconference session I facilitated. Good stuff, but apologies for being a bit sluggish.

This weekend is the Personal Democracy Forum Conference here in New York City. I will be participating in what I know will turn out to be a kickass panel. The title of the panel is on this post Is Cyberspace Colorblind? Addressing Race and Class Online.

Ruby Sinreich, of LotusMedia and Orange Politics, is the moderator. The panel promises to be tight with Cheryl Contee Assistant Vice President of IDI.net, Chris Rabb, my blog bro from Afronetizen and Anil Dash, Vice President of Six Apart.

I am really excited about this panel. I know Chris and Anil for quite a while now, have the luck to have met Ruby earlier this year and work with her as part of the advisory crew over at TechPresident and have heard good things about Cheryl's online demographics work.

I have been asked by one of my fairly oddparents, Micah Sifry, to slum it once or twice a week at TechPresident.com, the new campaign blog from Personal Democracy Forum.

I am in the fanstatic company of people like Nancy Scola, Zephyr Teachout, Ruby Sinreich and Lynne D. Johnson ... and and one guy or two.

HA!

Check out the blog. It's non-partisan, so the diversity of opinions on e-campaigns is really good.