The PDF2007 Unconference today was really engaging. I found that some people were somewhat new to the concept of an unconference, so the there was some tension at times between presenting and discussing, but that perhaps is so fitting at a conference about personal democracy. I especially liked Josh's final session on the "personal in personal democracy." It started off by expressing what different people mean by the concept, and soon turned into a discussion with Micah Sifry about how the conference went and what some suggestions for next year are. I thought there were some good suggestions there, and hope the conversation continues on Confabb site. I know I did not do much with this site before the conference, so now I will make up for it.

I wish I could have joined the group for the after-conference drink, but I was completely spent. Watching East Enders in PBS Channel 21 now. Nothing like the BBC to help me relax!

I have a lot to write about regarding today's Personal Democracy Forum 2007, as well as tomorrow's PDF 2007 Unconference. I need to get a new laptop that is a little smaller and more powerful so I can begin carrying it with me for live-blogging. I felt I was the only one at the conference without a laptop (not completely accurate, but it does fit within the spirit of politics, I suppose). I have been using Twitter for live-commenting, so sign up as my friend there and you can see things in real time.

I one thing I want to mention briefly today is the keynote between Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, and Thomas Friedman, the 3-time Pulitzer Prize winner at the NY Times and author of The World Is Flat. They had an interview/discussion, where Eric basically discussed how he wants Google to be a transparent company and how technology is both changing and nearly forcing that to happen. I appreciated his discussion about Google's relationship with China (which I have blogged about before), his reference of "the Great Firewall of China," ways some people in China can in fact get around the Chinese demand that Google blocks and censors some content, and finally his warning that people need to be proactive with commenting on and annotating in their own videos and online presence before other people do it for and to you. This call is for more proactivity before others speak on our behalfs. What a marketing and PR nightmare that is ahead! I hope the video of the interview will be available online someplace.

Lots more tomorrow!

Hugh MacLeod over at Gaping Void really got it right in his cartoon about power and work. Click it to see the image and comments in context. 

This can be used in a lot of contexts, from power and positionality within organizations to the image of th pawn wanting to be king, though he (she?) will never be more than a queen no matter how great the effort. I never thought about chess as being a game with possible feminist overtones.

And all from considering only one cartoon . . . 

I am attending Personal Democracy Forum tomorrow and then the Unconference on Saturday. Any of my readers out there planning to attend? Want to meet up?

I have been working on a paper about some of the high-level philosophical thoughts of Michel Foucault and Herbert Marcuse. Foucault’s concept of discipline and
punishment, in light of power residing within a judge of normality, and Marcuse’s work of repressive tolerance and how tolerance often represses diversity rather than increases and supports it.

Both of these thinkers have struck me recently, and I am now just trying to understand them enough to be able to explain their contributions. I have read some of both of their works, and will have to read and re-read them more, since on the surface
they are both easy, yet their words in fact challenge much of our contemporary  society. 

Technorati Tags: Michel Foucault, Herbert Marcuse

I liked the article in the May 14 issue of Business Week that talked about unconferences. I just read it at the gym, and was glad to see a few references to them that I was aware of. I was reminded about Will who spoke about Toronto Transit Camp while at Northern Voice.

As I am planning to attend this Friday's Personal Democracy Forum, I wonder what is being planned for the PDF Unconference this Saturday?

I am currently working on some documentation that requires certain readability best practices. Wilie there are a number of instruments to measure this (including the one built into Word), I personally like the Fry Readability Graph. This counts the number of syllables, words, and sentences in 3 100-word passages. To help with this process, I just found a simple way to count this online, at the Fry Readability Program. If you ever need to measure readability, I recommend this simple website to assist with the process.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project just released an interesting report, where they found "Half of all American adults are only occasional users of modern information gadgetry, while 8% are avid participants in all that digital life has to offer." The report can be found here.

As I mentioned to Beth, who listed this information on her blog, I now have more to read! I wonder what the report will say about how I need to physically print out the report, since its 65 pages are too long to read electronically online?

Thanks to Chris Lott for pointing out, via Twitter, that my link to my syllabus that I mentioned in yesterday's post was not working. It should now be fine. I thought I tested it before I posted it, but these things happen.

Nice to know I have some blog readers!