good article on Jill Miller Zimon also mentions MeetTheBloggers

From Women’s eNews, here’s an article featuring our friend Jill Miller Zimon in “Journalist of the Month” and announcing her entry into local Pepper Pike politics. Gloria just told me Jill is filing her petitions at the Board of Elections right now, which is just before lunch time. In the article, Jill gleans many good comments, among them the following:

On Feb. 23, the day before Limbaugh's women's summit, a Public Polling Study showed Limbaugh--known in some circles for saying "feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream"--has a major gender gap on his hands. In the poll 56 percent of men surveyed expressed a favorable opinion of Limbaugh, while 37 percent of women.

On the day of the summit, Miller Zimon ran excerpts of the Limbaugh program along with her comments, which were sent around the Internet by e-mail and picked up by several other blogs, including ThinkProgress.org, The Moderate Voice, and The Huffington Post.

Miller Zimon's citizen journalism earns the respect of Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor, and author of the influential media blog PressThink. "She has her feminist group base, and a local political base, and some new media people and Cleveland bloggers," says Rosen. "I like the way she knits together the local and the national, the political and the personal, without getting sentimental."

In writing for this diverse community, Miller Zimon is succeeding at blogging in the deepest sense, says Rosen. "The greatest characteristic of blogging is that personal expression can have the publishing might of big companies. That's the big promise of it and that's why she's successful."

There’s also mention of the influence of the MeetTheBloggers experience:

Since 2005, Miller Zimon's concern about transparency of local politics, and the power of blogging, led her to attend and blog about almost 40 local "Meet the Blogger" forums in which notable Ohio politicians and other civic leaders faced bloggers and their questions in person.

That helped spur her decision to run for public office.

"Meet the Bloggers helped expose me to just how normal people pursue politics, and why," says Miller Zimon. "Complaining and writing about it can only get you so far . . . "

Citizen Blogging Boosts Zimon into Local Politics

a heads up from George Nemeth: Podcasting Goes Mainstream - eMarketer

George found an article that gives some excellent background material on the practice of podcasting, on which MeetTheBloggers capitalized beginning with its first session in August of 2005 (with our current Cleveland law director, Bob Triozzi, then a mayoral candidate). George has always been an early adapter. Podcasts accompanied by text renditions of the podcasts seemed an efficient way to span generations of users. Attempts to integrate video were of mixed result.

Last night at a public meeting at the Jones Home about ward division here in Cleveland, Anthony Fossaceca of the Ohio Daily Blog was recording the session, the flip charts, and the wall-chart presentations with a FLIP video camera, which he said was the smallest one FLIP offered and held one hour of video content, which could then be uploaded to the internet immediately. This seemed to be an excellent medium choice to marry to podcasts and text.

I'd like to have a presentation format that offered all three media. Add something like Betsey Merkel's Mogulus for live streaming video, and you have the perfect dialogue-type presentation, coming at you live and with interaction, able to be uploaded to YouTube quickly, available later in podcast format, and text-searchable. Two or three people could produce this easily.

Last night, though, it was comforting to have Henry Gomez Joe Frolik of the PD there, to pick up on the patter that only full-time journalists can share, and TV crews from 5 and 23 or 25. And, it was really fun to see people from all the wards coming together to, essentially, give the whole ward-healing process a big "WTF"? It's good to know we all agree on the basics, which is that this is more about the City Council itself than it is about any of us, or economies, or efficiencies, or improving the quality of life for each of us, or protecting individual rights. Gloria points out that we as a community may have voted for the ward revisions, but we certainly didn't want it all used for political infighting.

Podcasting Goes Mainstream - eMarketer

CHANGE OF CONTACT INFORMATION FOR WENDELL ROBINSON

Our friend Wendell Robinson has a new business identity and contact info, as noted below. Wendell first met us through an interview for Meet.The.Bloggers when he ran against Jimmy Duh for county commissioner. Wendell was right in a lot of ways, and he ran a good blog.

 

Beyond the global nature of the medium, the blogging connection has also been local for me.  Without the encouragement and support of my friends in the Meet the Bloggers network, I would never have conquered the code and process that makes blogging a great people-powered platform (by the way if you haven’t done it, you really should scroll down the list of podcasts over at the MTB site - it’s a monument for what a REAL oral history is all about).  I would be remiss when writing about local bloggers if I didn’t single out the blogopimp of Northeast Ohio, George Nemeth, and his place over at Brewed Fresh Daily.  George has been brewing up a fine pot over the last few years and without his incessant percolation, this page would have been significantly less.

 

From: Wendell Robinson [mailto:Wendell_Robinson_rgsvwzz@cmpgnr.com]
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 1:34 PM
To: TAFerris@gmail.com
Subject: CHANGE OF CONTACT INFORMATION FOR WENDELL ROBINSON

 

WENDELL HAS A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER AND... A NEW VENTURE Dear Tim - I hope this email finds you well as I prepare to take a new and substantial step in my professional life. You may know I have devoted the majority of my work time the last two years to a partnership with Bobby George and Chris Cole in helping them develop the sports marketing and management firm - ColeGeorge Sports. As last year came to a close, it became apparent that our team was heading in separate directions (Bobby actively building his restaurant group, Chris doing more direct work with college programs and me focusing on political projects, event management and marketing activities). While our organization made some strides (working with athletes like Brady Quinn, Braylon Edwards and Troy Smith has been an unbelievable experience), I felt the time had come for me to leave the company's Managing Partner role and pursue opportunities more in congruence with my goals and interests. And while I will not be working with Bobby or Chris directly in the immediate future, I will continue in a project management capacity with one of the George family's other entities on a political project. The result of this transition is the formation of my new firm - The Victory Box, LLC. Even though The Victory Box is a new venture, in many ways it will be an extension of the work I've been doing for the last few years - focusing on the needs of our clients to help them maximize their success. Please do not hesitate to contact me (as you will see I've got a new phone number and email address) should you have any questions, comments or simply want to re-connect. I look forward to speaking with you in the near future. Cheers, Wendell Wendell W. Robinson, Jr. The Victory Box, LLC Email: W@TheVictoryBox.com Direct Dial: (216) 333-3322 The Victory Box "exceptional solutions for extraordinary people and exclusive projects"

YouTube - Brainpower for Regional Economic Prosperity

Here's something that the I-Open crowd--Betsey Merkel in particular, I think--put up to introduce last Thursday's MidTown Brews guest, Shaun Redgate, who blogs at www.shaunredgate.com. Thursday made history, in that it was the first brewless MidTown Brews; wicked bacchanalian revelry returns next month as the venue shifts back to Insivia and the eminently corruptible Andy, raised by Jesuits.

The Thursday turnout was most excellent; lack of spirits did not dampen spirits.

contemplating the essence of "busness"

from our friend Ralph Solonitz

http://www.ralphstuff.com/

Bus.The.Bloggers road trip

SENT VIA EMAIL

Dear Blogger Pals--

Would you believe that nobody has stepped forth to write a check for $50,000 to send a busload of bloggers and community-dialoguers from Cleveland to Akron to Columbus to Cincinnati to DC and back again?

Can you even begin to imagine that nobody as yet wants to sponsor an exercise to bind Ohio together, in wholly public discourse, from the road and from the capital and then from the road again, over 4 wired and connected days from January 18-21? To have the content posted forever on the internet as blogs and tweets and podcasts and videos? To usher in the new intergenerational Woodstock on wheels?

I offered the Greater Cleveland Partnership the opportunity to write a half-check for $25,000 to send us on a one-way trip and not come back--something I thought they might snap up-- but nobody got back to me.

My rolodex was out of date when it came to calling Mike White down there with the alpacas or the llamas, so I called around and found everybody else had trouble reaching him, too. I was hoping he would be able to make the call to Sam Miller so that Sam could get behind the "participatory democracy" he holds so dear.

I tried to get a news operation to partner with us by sending along embedded journalists; the blog-based Huffington Post didn't seem to understand, and one of their blogger/journalists, Paul Krassner, is still too bunged up from a 70s police beating to put in 4 days on the road (Paul knew Magic Bus people like Ken Kesey and Wavy Gravy and is a piece of walking/limping history himself). I was going to try to embed Dick Feagler, recently available, I hear, because of his prior successes at interfacing with the blogosphere, but I didn't want to ask him outright until I had the trip paid for.

I've established a couple of things, or a few:

--Nobody who wants to ride the bus has enough money to carry the whole thing off, and doesn't know anybody who could help at the last minute

--There are no civic-minded sugar daddies out there who specialize in making seminal events happen, at least not among our contacts

--There may be more than one way to skin a cat.

Therefore, it's now time for all of you who think that the Blogger Bus needs to roll out of here tomorrow to begin to ASK SOMEBODY TO GIVE US A BUS FOR 4 DAYS. Dan Gilbert over at the Cavs might have one, or the Dolans may have one that's not being used next week, or the Browns organization may have one that needs to be exorcised by having joyous riders for a change.

After somebody gives you the bus, then ask them where's the food going to come from? Then, ask to borrow their air card. It's simple. Like back in the days when everybody went to San Francisco.

Hey, I've blogged this a bit at--

http://timferris.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-18-21-blogging-from-bus.html

--and I've Facebooked it at--

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/192544?m=49f3b4f1

I've asked some of our politicians, but some were immobilized by fear of conflicts and others thought that, if this were a proper thing to do, their brilliant Washington staff would have already told them about it.

Gloria this morning told me to leave this whole thing alone, that people would start thinking I was crazy, and I thought, "Yeah. So what else is new?"

It's been fun. Call me or email me or tweet me when you get a bus, or a check for food for 40 people for 4 days, or blog it or make a video and stick it up on U-Tube, or even call WKYC or the PD first--I don't care. What I do know is that we can fill the bus in a heartbeat, create a heck of a lot of good will, create great content and post it for time immemorial to the internet, and bring three generations together on a very favorable basis, conducive to telling stories that need to be told and tales that need to be kept in the public consciousness.

I'm going to the market now, before it closes. I have no Plan B yet. I still have faith in Plan A's being executed by a group of bloggers and other people of good will on a bus, somehow, so open-source it and see what happens.

Tim Ferris
taferris@gmail.com
216-255-6640
http://timferris.blogspot.com

to profess the law

I was having a discussion with my older daughter about friends in the legal profession, and it reminded me that I had just run across this old DOONESBURY clipping on the hard drive--I think I used it for a talk years ago.

This is one of my favorites, and I wanted to share it. Somehow, it just tickled me years ago, and still does. I bombed the LSAT in 1968 after a full sleepless night of revelry. I couldn't get serious about it then, and can't now.

It's interesting to me how the learned professions have come under fire these past few generations. Whether they ceded their status or had it taken from them would make for an interesting discussion. Could it merely be a function of supply exceeding demand, of too many people thinking they should be something they're really not suited to be, or don't actually want to be?

How many are attracted to the bar for the same reasons they are motivated to take karate classes, like self-defense and the concomitant powers to intimidate and inflict?

FYI, I-Open: sounds like a plan

wrap-up of MeetTheBloggers/WKYC election night collaboration

live blogging the election results at WKYC channel 3, Cleveland

Decision '08: Meet WKYC's 'Meet the Bloggers'

Decision '08: Meet WKYC's 'Meet the Bloggers' -- I think we need to have WKYC change the article to read http://www.meetthebloggers.net/, not ".com."

Anyway, I'm trying to get the video onto this blog, so here's another attempt:

open-sourcing birthdates: Bruce Perens' is today

Meet the Bloggers » SourceLabs’ Bruce Perens VP and author of “The Open Source Definition” -- Outlook alerted me this morning that it is the birthday of one of our favorite young people in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood, and she shares it with the Open Source guy, Bruce Perens, whose MTB interview is extant here:

http://www.meetthebloggers.net/2007/04/17/open-source-definition-author-bruce-perens/

That Tim Ferris is so Damn Smart!

That Tim Ferris [sic] is so Damn Smart! « Experience Experiment -- Hey, it's not my place to tutor them in spelling. I like the headline. It resonates with me. I couldn't pass up the chance to exploit it.

At the link, as well, is an interesting profile of a modern office arrangement in Holland. It reinforces what we learned with Meet.The.Bloggers: Online is fine, but you have to get everybody together face to face regularly as well for the synergies to work.

And while I'm talking about it--I realize that the Meet.The.Bloggers site is still biffed and crippled, and that George only has so much time. However, if you have dead links or if any of your favorite interviews or transcripts haven't reappeared yet, why not drop him a note and see if he has time to get around to recovering content on a per-request basis. We all have a lot invested in the project, and we can ill afford to waste what gives value and depth to a community dialogue.

reprise: Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones on MTB

Meet the Bloggers » Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones -- from October of 2006. It seems that the death notices are official as of this evening.

Change of Address for Stephen Post

President's Corner Dear Friends: The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love continues as a non-profit registered in Ohio. However, the address for the Institute has changed to PO Box 1516 Stony Brook, New York 11790 In addition, the preferred email for me is now post@stephengpost.com. I can also be reached at stephen.post@stonybrook.edu. The preferred telephone contact point is 216-926-9244 (cell), or as backup, 631-675-1268. I will continue to send out newsletters monthly. Yes, I have moved from Cleveland to New York, where I serve as Director, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate care, and Bioethics, Stony Brook University (SUNY). Thank you very much. Stephen G. Post, Ph.D.

	Institute for Research on Unlimited Love PO Box 1516 Stony Brook, NY 11790 -US post@stephengpost.com www.unlimitedloveinstitute.org

Stephen appeared on Meet.The.Bloggers a little over a year ago.

barely 3 hours' notice

Blogger--

Hey, I know that this is going out with barely three hours notice, but we act and react as best we can. As that great ad campaign stresses: "Life comes at you fast."

I got this notice this afternoon from Gloria at 1:15. If you can take advantage of it, you should be well rewarded for your time. I saw an two earlier iterations of these, and they're awesome. I'd market them now for more than we paid for our house back in 1983, and they might hold value better as well.

Check 'em out.

Anyway, here's Gloria's note:

Sorry for the late notice but I just heard that Dennis Althar will be "sounding off" with his awesome Copernicus speakers at 5:30 p.m. today.

http://www.atssounds.com/page1.aspx

If you have the time to take a short detour for a great experience, stop off at 5432 Broadway, call 429-3000 to enter through the rolling gates, and be ready to hear some great sounds.

Recently, when asked if the speakers are good as Bose, Mr. Althar in turn queried, "Is a Rolls Royce as good as a Chevy?"

These speakers were recently showcased as part of an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art.

http://www.atssounds.com/Blog/news/2008/03/21/dd54e1b8-f0eb-4a68-920f-f6a610a0422c.aspx

If you can spare the time, you will be rewarded.

--Gloria Ferris

P.S. This is Tim again. I might add that this address is easily accessible from downtown, either off Broadway or off I-77, off I-490 at East 55th, or off East 55th itself. Also, we hear that this section of Broadway is nearly as well built out as Playhouse Square when it comes to those "pipes" for fiber optics or cable or whatever.

Stephen Post on Sir John Templeton

John Marks Templeton passed away July 8th at the age of 95. On the podcast at the link, his friend and benefactor Stephen Post, President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love and formerly of CWRU, remembers Sir John. This is a great synopsis the life and beliefs of a thought leader of our times. Dr. Post is now operating the Institute from Stony Brook, New York.

In Memoriam: Robert C. Gaede

I just noticed this email from Kerri Broome over at the CRS. Bob was a friend of all of us. My family has worked with him since at least the late 1950s. He is a classy, elegant, articulate, gentle man, the kind they don't make too many of any more, or perhaps ever. We interviewed him at his offices in the 820 Building in a Meet.The.Bloggers session a little over 2 years ago.

I'm grateful to have known him, and to have been fortunate enough to subscribe to the early FACADE Newsletters.

Here's the CRS email:

Robert C. Gaede, FAIA
November 6, 1920 - April 16, 2008

Cleveland has lost it's "senior statesman" for historic preservation with the death of Bob Gaede on Wednesday, April 16. Bob dedicated his life to architecture. He was a founding member and an Honorary Life Trustee of the Cleveland Restoration Society and served as editor of its publication, Facade, for nearly three decades. Bob saved many endangered landmarks through his engaging prose and kind demeanor, always backed by solid architectural ideas and hand-drawn illustrations. He built a successful practice in architecture, both new design and historic rehabilitation. He volunteered extensively over his lifetime for nonprofit organizations and under-funded preservation causes.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 3 at Church of the Western Reserve, 30500 Fairmount Blvd., Pepper Pike. A celebration of life will follow at the Sarah Benedict House, 3751 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland from 12:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Cleveland Restoration Society

Kerri Broome
Development & Communications
Manager
kbroome@clevelandrestoration.org

(going back through The Ferris Construction Company's records, I see that the Church of the Western Reserve at Lander Circle & Fairmount Boulevard in Pepper Pike, Ohio, was our job #624)

learning from MeetTheBloggers

Who Lost the Debate? Moderators, Many Say - New York Times -- What's old and tired and possibly corrupted here is the moderator/debate format itself. We learned early on in the gestation of the MeetTheBloggers format that the zinger, the killer question, the interrogatory stance, the striving for the judgmental, the pursuit of the partisan inflection point, the backing the subject into a corner--all of these are counterproductive and unsatisfying. They don't play well any more, when most people are tired of being at odds with each other and would hope to find some common ground and some answers that are realistic and workable for everybody.

By the same token, the day of the blogger/commentator, as enfant terrible has passed. The snarky, bitchy, destructive approach to the community dialogue doesn't play too well, either. That character over at the Daily KOS was an early success because at the time he was sensational and different. Now, in hindsight, I see him and his ilk, his spawn, as largely an aberration that most people can't, and shouldn't, emulate. Look at the attrition among the political bloggers in the blogoshpere. Look at the marginalization.

IMHO: Moderated debates are out. Passe (I still don't know how to get that diacritical mark over the e). A poor way to spend time and money. Collaborative conversations might prove an intelligent alternative. Retrouvaille.

last night, an inflection point

Mogulus » Channel » midtownbrews -- This is some breakthrough stuff, hosted by George from MeetTheBloggers and Susan and Betsey from I-Open at Webtego last night, while Gloria, Roger Bundy, and I were schmoozing with the lawyers at the Prosecutor's Ball (FKA the Bill Mason fundraiser) over at Harlan Diamond's Executive Caterers at Landerhaven. Watch as Dennis Althar prognosticates on the importance of WATER and BANDWIDTH as the primo assets of the future, replacing today's oil and yesterday's gold.