A new site called Tweet Congress lists all the Congresspeople who tweet. This is a serious case of you waited too long and technology lapped ya. Don’t feel bad. Tech is fast.

So you may ask, “What the hell is Twitter?” This video can explain it.

No Twitter is not really about the silly mundane stuff you are doing. ex. what you had for dinner, how cool mowing your lawn is… Think back to when you first learned about blogging. I bet you thought that was silly and powerless too. So when the next Presidential election is swayed because of Twitter just thank your friendly early tech adopter.

Dig new communications trends now. Empower yourself!

Chuck Olsen humor at its best! This was made four years ago. Now John Stewart is making BANK ripping the MSM a new one nightly! Stupid TV anchors, we love to laugh at you! LMFAO

NCSBC 2008: Open Science Session
Part 1 of 4

Part 2 of 4

Part 3 of 4

Part 4 of 4

Update: Right now I’m completely focused on running a brick n’ mortar business called Carrboro Coworking. So no wordpress consulting right now.

First, the big news is the disappearance of the Squeeze the Pulp forum. In its place appears to be a site that could have a community, but it isn’y very clear how. The new site is based on software called DokuWiki. It looks like a bunch of semi-static pages can be created and edited by a group of people. So people will write rants and others will edit them. For what, grammar? The two-way communication of a forum has been lost.

Part of me is sad that all the STP writing is gone. Mainly because it would help people remember the slander and hateful crap. Why would we want to remember that? To inform the context of our local political history. For example, the dirty tactics some supported there. It could also encourage more long-term responsibility. Politicos won’t forget, trust me. But the new resident to Carrboro may like to know how that candidate got elected or defeated. I think the blog of record will be Orange Politics.

Last year sometime I reminded the folks at STP that all that content would be remembered. If not by Google then by us. A great example of the fear mongering some STP posters facilitated is here in my post Political attack from the Squeeze the Pulp forum. In the end, most of me is happy the STP slander against people is off the web. But I’m sure there will be more.

Second, there is a new community site set up by George Entenman called Orange Citizens or Orange County, NC. (depending on how you look at it.) It’s on the Ning software platform, a quality bit of social networking software. My first impressions are of the software mainly. I enjoy the look and feel of the theme but am not crazy about the threaded comments. It’s easy to have several off-topic threads, but it’s growing on me. It’ll be interesting to see how this site evolves. Especially from a usability standpoint. Already there are several local politicos there like Terri and MarkM, plus Chapel Hill Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt. Hopefully we’ll see lots of local elected officials participate in this new community.

Finally, we have a major upgrade to Orange Politics. At just over four years old Orange Politics has become the most-read local politics site in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It started off using MovableType and then moved to the open source WordPress blogging software in 2004. Now it’s powered by Drupal, a complex and very powerful open source, PHP-based content management system. I was a bit concerned about the move at first, but now that its full speed ahead I’m way impressed. One reason is there are more ways for people to get involved. There is real power in letting people publish their own blogs a la community sites such as Daily Kos. We should have more viewpoints now. Plus there are new OP community guidelines. I think Ruby has done a great job of balancing lots of factors. I would still like to see all commenters have a real identity (ie: no anonymous posters). But I see where in some cases anonymity is valuable on OP.

This is the opening ceremony of the 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference. I’m working on two other sessions I recorded. A total of three hours of video content.

Wayne Sutton the Community Content Manager over at WNCN NBC 17‘s Local Conversations blog met me at the Open Eye Café in Carrboro for a quick video interview. He asked me about blogging and other social media. I shared my thoughts on how to start blogging and how this new social media would effect the 2008 presidential campaign.

We met at 12:30pm. Its now 4pm and the video is already up. (Thanks to the Town of Carrboro WiFi) Fun to watch Wayne work with the small HD video camera and a laptop. I’m really impressed with what Wayne is doing. Its a cool blend of Main Stream and Citizen Media.

For a discussion hosted by Ruby Sinreich of OrangePolitics.org and Brian Russell of Yesh.com about the impact of blogging on today’s political environment.

When: Thursday, November 29, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Where: Mill Town Restaurant, 307 E Main St, Carrboro, NC

Suggested Donation: $10
Cash Bar

Congressman Brad Miller is currently serving his third term representing North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District. He has often blogged on many progressive sites, including the DailyKos and Blue NC. Congressman Miller serves on the House Financial Services Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, and Science and Technology Committee where he chairs the subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight.

RSVP by calling 919-834-2343 or e-mail andy@bradmiller.org or just stop by www.bradmiller.org

FYI — You don’t have to be a blogger or donate $ to join us! See you there!

Know about a cool event that involves technology of some kind? Is it happening in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area? Then contact us with the blog form. We’ll put it up on the calendar and promote it. We already have a few cool events up there. Check it out.

My favorite example of business blogging is the Twitter blog. They promote good uses of their service, new applications built upon their service, and important customer info about their business. All with humor and fun. This is a great example I wish all folks who are thinking about blogging at their company would emulate. Don’t look at business blogging as customer relations chore. Look at it as fun.

Thanks to Wayne for telling me about this event. Big thanks Jim, Lisa, and Gene for hosting and the PIZZA!