What Matters To Me And Why

I feel like this is going to be a long one so be prepared.

Network Neutrality
I've had several conversations over the past week or so about the issue of network neutrality. I find the wikipedia article to be a fairly good overview of the issue. You can read it here. I feel quite passionately about the issue. I think it is very important for the FTC to take a stance on the issue. In a June 2007 report they said that the "broadband industry is a relatively young and evolving one," and given no "significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm from conduct by broadband providers," such regulations "may well have adverse effects on consumer welfare, despite the good intentions of their proponents." I honestly don't get wtf they are talking about other than they do not want to create any legislation that will limit large telecom companies. Pansies.
There are a lot of arguments out there for and against a neutral network, but it really boils down to the following for me: someone/some company/ some corporation shouldn't get to decide what information I see at what speed. They shouldn't put up roadblocks so that competitors information is shown at a slower rate (which will be clicked off by users). Freedom, guys. FREEDOM.




Presidential Candidates' Technology Policies (or lack thereof)
In my last post I linked to the candidates' technology policies and you can clearly see that Obama has one on his site and McCain lacks one. As someone who is currently seeking a master's degree that is focused on online communities, it really gives me great cause for concern when one of the candidates doesn't list an opinion on the industry that I and many of my friends are involved in/seek to be involved in.



My takeaways from Barak Obama's technology policy :
1. open internet (though his site spells internet as Internet and that bothers me. You don't spell television as Television - it is the same shit. Catch up grammar police).
2. Encouragement of diversity of media ownership - Yes. Standing up to The MAN!
3. open government up to citizens (he kind of wants to make the government a blog - "Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation" - I like the idea of gov't as a forum, but this is just asking for crazies and censorship debates)
4. Government into the 21st century - a CTO [chief technology officer for the knowledge impaired] for the country. (p.s. I love this idea and want to be CTO of America someday).
5. Communication infrastructure investment - widespread next-gen broadband deployment! We are so behind on this compared to a lot of the rest of the world - especially compared to Asia (okay, Japan and South Korea).
6. Education - technology literacy! He talks about preparing youth, which I totally believe in - math, science, technology to stay competitive in 21st century economy. But I'd venture to say that we need to educate a whole lot of people that are currently in the workforce about technology. Productivity suffers because of technology illiteracy.
7. Investment in the sciences - since 1970 our investment has dropped in half in the physical sciences and engineering research. fix this - get competitive, start leading again.
8. Protect American IP abroad and IP at home [IP = intellectual property for the knowledge impaired again]. I don't know that he will be the man to take on the challenge of reforming copyright law, but I like that his is starting this discussion. His section on IP was very short, but I think it is something, as an electorate, we can push to have the candidates talk about. (Lawrence Lessig endorsed Obama, fyi).
For more on Obama's position on the issues go here.




My takeaways from John McCain's technology policy:
1. He wants to go to space. "Let us now embark upon this great journey into the stars to find whatever may await us." NASA!
I don't mean to be a dick about this, but really, he just doesn't have a technology policy.
Why this sucks and I want more from him as a candidate:
Does he have an opinion about any of the following and how will he help America to reach goals in these areas: open internet, broadband deployment, intellectual property rights, technology literacy, education in technology for workers (young and old), funding for the sciences - research level (on this planet), communications technology investment, media ownership.
I'd like some straight talk on that.
For more on McCain's position on the issues go here.

Super Serial

I went in to the USC laboratory to have some blood drawn in order to check something about my thyroid. Today's blood drawing experience was one of the worst ever. The phlebotomist seriously stabbed the crap out of my arm. As I've documented, I have terrible veins and HATE having my blood drawn. My arm has a giant, swollen bruise at the draw site. I had the procedure done at about 10:15 am and it is now 11:45 pm and it is super painful to bend my arm. A seriously bad experience. I've been putting warm compresses on my arm but not much is helping. sorrow. My first time at the USC lab was far better and I just had regular soreness and a tiny bruise. This time: no such luck.

I am watching Trauma: Life in the ER. It certainly puts my minor discomfort and complaining in perspective. So far a man died, a woman has a traumatic brain injury and steel plates to hold her leg together, a baby was abused and has a skull fracture, a man needs to have his leg cut off because it was caught in a logging machine. Real life, son.

Today was also my first day of summer session school. This is the first summer class I've taken since my freshman year in high school. I am taking "Uses of Communication Research" which is a research methodologies class. I worry that this is a very broad survey class that may not get to depth that would be more than what I learned in my similar undergrad class. Hopefully I will learn more about SPSS and get some training on how to utilize new tools like Google Analytics better and more efficiently.

I am a call in juror this week. It is kind of lame to not really know when you may or may not have to go in. I have to call in for a third time tomorrow at noon to see if I have to report by 1pm. It puts me in a pinch because a) one hour to get to the courthouse in Westminster isn't a lot of time when you are in LA hoping you can go to work in Santa Monica and b) I would have to miss work and miss pay. This whole process is just kind of shitty because of the whole nature of jury selection. Not really anything of us can do, oh well.

I have been having a lot of anxiety about what I am going to do after school is up. Graduating in December doesn't seem that far away. I've been seriously considering leaving California. There are a couple leadership development programs that seem really cool and up my alley. I think I will go where the wind takes me. I am leaning away from working with start-ups and in the online world. The hours are often weird and there isn't much security and I don't feel like a grown up playing on the internet getting people to play on a website I work for. It just isn't what I imagined to be doing as an adult. I think online communities are more of a hobby/interest for me than a career. There are several things I am looking into and I am going to put that I will relocate and travel all the time. That is exactly what I want right now and in the near future.

Tech Stars

So, as part of one of my classes this semester I was required to keep a blog of reflections on the technology/internet/web 2.0 industry. I am going to stop posting there and just keep on with my reflections on the industry I hope to be a part of here in my regular blog.

Oldies But Goodies: The Old Tech Blog Posts

I don't really have anything to comment on today, but Craig did send me this article which I think is quite interesting and true among my generation.
I also think it is interesting that Craig sent me an article about a social network because it is my "thing" which validates a lot of network theory that has to do with transactive memory. It basically says that we don't want the cognitive load of having to remember everything so we ask an expert friend to deal with it for us. (it is why you send certain articles to certain people because you think it is their "thing") We offload memory onto other people so that we can call on them when we need to recall that knowledge. I think network theory is pretty cool, minus the abstract math.