Some folks can’t stand it when the spotlight isn’t on them. Caption: Rev. Nelson Johnson (left) and several others create a minor disruption with a small demonstration at the grand opening. Click to view the entire N&R photo array and see how small this makes the ‘protestors’ appear in light of the Sit-In Museum’s grand opening. [A little more discussion here.]
Tag: Greensboro
Bone alert!
Posted by – April 23, 2009 – Share on Facebook
The butcher delivered today* so the dogs had fresh bones to chew. It was an all-afternoon love affair. (Tech note: I flv’ed this myself but boyohboy, YouTube has gotten a lot better recently for video uploads and management!)
*There is no kosher butcher in the state of North Carolina. Most communities order online and Peter, who owns Griller’s Pride, arranges for monthly delivery. It must be a money maker – he delivers to Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham and all point between.
Tiered Internet pricing and caps
Posted by – April 5, 2009 – Share on Facebook
In Joe’s N&R article today about tiered pricing: I’ve stated that I do support some tiered pricing but under these conditions (none of which are met in the current proposal that I read).
- BANDWIDTH CAPS Most important, any bandwidth caps have to be realistic for this community and should mirror, at worst, the other plans out there. The caps in the current plan are so stunningly out of line with, say, Comcast’s 250GB monthly limit that they border on the absurd. It’s an insult to anyone who works in or uses technology, and worse, it’s an insult to Greensboro after the city’s residents worked so hard to move its tech-identity higher in the national landscape. This is a small business town and the Chamber, EDC, Partnership and City Council should all be involved starting four days ago.
- LOW USERS SEE REAL SAVINGS That people who use less and opt for a lower-cap plan receive SIGNIFICANT savings on their monthly bill. That’s not in the current plan.
- PRIOR NOTIFICATION That metering reports be sent to users well BEFORE a bill is due notifying them that they are nearing their cap – or a weekly update is automatically sent to their preferred email address. I don’t see this in the current plan.
- WIRELESS SECURITY People who run wireless routers at home need to be given instructions and/or links and/or a fixed price for service to password-protect their wireless Internet (and see #3 above – notice of nearing a cap MUST be sent). Neighborhoods should be surveyed and open connections should be warned (a good PT job for college students).
- SUSPEND YOUR ACCOUNT People must have the ability to suspend their Internet service if it’s nearing the cap so they can figure out what to do before they’re hit with a huge unexpected bill.
- LEADERSHIP Our City Council, at least, and our economic development advocates at best, MUST join our voices and negotiate on the entire city’s behalf with a company like TW Cable that is almost a monopoly in our region and provides a service that is getting very close to being a public utility. I don’t care that they are not regulated (yet). They do business here and we must require them to be responsible. Our economic leadership MUST get involved because our City Council members seem not willing to (or are not knowledgeable enough to). Further, the City Council ought to be taking remedial courses this weekend or just read what the Austin leadership has already said. One more thing: can you figure out why Greensboro & Austin are being targeted? Are you working to get (or even aware of) AT&T’s U-verse service or Verizon’s FiOS in Greensboro? Why not? If you don’t know what they are, resign your City Council seat so a “smart person” can be elected. I hear we can have special elections.
- EVERYONE MUST BE REPRESENTED A provision for university students, fixed income and low-income people/families should be negotiated and it should result in real savings. (BTW, this is what President Obama proposes.) Our young talent – who we worked SO hard to get and keep here – who is Internet-driven (and not cable-tv driven) needs provision for their growing lifestyle that is based, in part, on Internet access and use. Likewise, consideration for small business in this small business town should be on the table and I don’t know why the Chamber of Commerce, the voice of small business in this small-business town, isn’t jumping up and down very loudly and has thus far been so agonizingly silent in the public arena.
Now you know why TW television and cable spun each other off – to sell the same product twice. Providing broadband Internet has just renamed itself as a business crying out for regulation.
Recycle Electronics on 12/30
Posted by – December 29, 2008 – Share on Facebook
Good for Dennis Quaintance, Nancy King and for Greensboro. And can you beat this?
Every person contributing e-waste will receive a $10 gift voucher for Print Works Bistro and a reusable shopping bag from Friendly Shopping Centers.
Got some unwanted electronic gadgets tucked away in the bottom of a closet or need to make room for new electronics from Santa? Bring your old computers, digital cameras, televisions, electronic games, cell phones and other home electronic waste to the E-Recycle Drive on Tuesday, December 30 from 10 AM until 2 PM in front of Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro.
This one-day event will provide residents of Greensboro and Guilford County with a safe, free and environmentally-sound recycling option for electronic materials. Old electronics, like computers, monitors, CPUs, fax machines, televisions, radios, copy machines, printers, and cell phones, may pose a hazard when disposed of improperly. These items contain toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury that can contaminate the environment, including water supplies. All of the electronics collected will be recycled and the computer hard drives will be erased. Anything with an electronic chip may be brought to this event. This event is for households only; business waste will not be accepted.
Step up, Greensboro – ConvergeSouth 2009
Posted by – October 26, 2008 – Share on Facebook
ConvergeSouth 2009 is on the table. I’m going to step away from conference organizing and urge Greensboro’s online community to invest themselves and their time in ConvergeSouth’s original goal: creativity online for everyone.
ConvergeSouth is a more than a conference. It has impacted the way the tech world perceives Greensboro, North Carolina, and how our local community of onliners is seen as far away as Silicon Valley and beyond. ConvergeSouth has helped give Greensboro a fairly loud online voice. There should be ConvergeSouth 2009 and it will be organized by new people with new vision, using all our community resources.
After four years, ConvergeSouth, like any community effort, should reflect the changing community. Different people have diverse goals and those should all be converged into a new plan for a better and maybe bigger community conference. New panelists and session leaders should be invited; new topics should be encouraged and new voices must be heard. It’s time for ConvergeSouth to be “re-visioned.” Step up and take part in that role.
It’s been a huge fun ride. I’ve made lifelong friends and tons of acquaintances and know more people from all over. I’ve given a lot but gotten much more. I want to sit in the audience next year and enjoy the discussions, panels and workshops. Heck, I might even volunteer to lead a session. We already have a volunteer firm who will manage the Web site. Contact me for that info.
Look at the homepage for ConvergeSouth and find the link to all the session leaders’ files (as they send them) PLUS the conference documentation zip file. Download it. Step up and become an organizer and build a team to lead ConvergeSouth 2009.
Thanks to everyone who has participated in every role over these four years. I’m looking forward to ConvergeSouth 2009.
Update: I think the ConvergeSouthers who made this conference better each year should be named and no, Ed, you do NOT have permission to go away.
Ed Cone – in varying roles, Ed stepped up each year with his contact list, gentle nudging and wordsmithing.
Ben Hwang – the whole shebang started from his IM post. “Why can’t Greensboro have SXSW?” and he carried the boxes each year
Janet Wright – if you ate at a hosted dinner or conference day, she arranged it. If you got a nametag, she stuffed it.
David Hoggard – and everyone in the Aycock Neighborhood for 4 years’ of free-service barbecues; opening their neighborhood and their homes to everyone at ConvergeSouth
Jay Ovittore – who about killed himself working on CS #1
Willie Rucker, Deborah Williamson, Dr. Nita Dewberry – the 3 women at NC A&T State University who just made everything magically work out
Bill Wood – NC A&T State University’s super-tech-geek who got us wifi access and made all the smart rooms even smarter
JR, Lex, Allen, and lots of other N&Rers who co-conferenced with us for the first 2 years
This post brought to you by the people who have sponsored every year, volunteered, participated, lent us their following, their names & talent, and are now the best category of all: buds.
Sunday voting
Posted by – October 24, 2008 – Share on Facebook
Early voting has made positive headlines for North Carolina and it’s a well-used but rare option. Dr. Joe thinks it’s “manipulative” and at the worst favors African-American voters and by continued leap of illogic, trickles up to Sen. Obama because, after all, we know that all African Americans always vote for African American candidates, no matter what the candidate stands for, just like the not-so-long-ago Brad Miller v Vernon Robinson semi-landslide amid lurid over-the-line charges of gay-ness leveled by Robinson against Miller, akin to “terrorist-loving, Muslim-practicing, not-born-in-the-USA” lies waged by the Republican robo-calling machines. [It didn't work then, either.] It’s just that Joe, who blogs mostly from within a (white) Christian paradigm, neglects to mention that Sunday voting enfranchises a lot of other voters: those who cannot vote on Saturday for religious reasons. Surprising, too, because Joe comes from a big city (Staten Island, really part of NYC, if in name only), where he was likely to meet Saturday Sabbath observers. Because his focus is unusually targeted on African Americans and their potential grip on what he sees as too much power, Joe decries Sunday voting (each precinct seems to have only one Sunday afternoon available for the golf and grocery store Sunday worshippers) as manipulative. And his argument culminates in the charge that it favors Sen. Obama. [Sue's note: traditionally Republicans raise money to hire buses to take voters to the polls. Another case of Joe and the goose and gander.]
Joe: In any case, we learned Monday in the News and Record that there was a tremendous turnout for Sunday voting in Guilford County. It was reported that at least several black churches, including New Light, were running vans to and from the polls.
I think there should be more Sunday voting to enfranchise people who can’t take off from work easily during the week and those whose religious traditions (when I woke up this morning, we still had a First Amendment) prohibit their doing so on the Sabbath. Joe’s issue seems to be that those power-grabbing American Americans are “abusing” the polls to vote in large numbers. I was taught in school that it was pitiful that Americans didn’t vote in large numbers; now we have an unusually large turnout and Joe is unhappy about it just who is voting. How American is that?
Saturday night sushi
Posted by – October 19, 2008 – Share on Facebook
A gang of us had dinner tonight with Robert Scoble (and of course, with each other). South met North again (Carolina, that is) with Dan & Janet Conover, Heather, Brandon, Lauren, and the two guys from SC. After a lot of sushi and sake (but not the drivers, of course), we headed to Alex’s Cheesecake where Robert bought slices of almost everything Alex makes and we shared. Something about grocking geek enables you to attack cheesecake with your own fork but not transfer germs. Points to Brandon for being the first to use “groc” correctly during dinner and earning a round of applause.
Scoble bought silly Obama tchotchkes and we played with them for too long a while. One was a battery operated fan with an LCD display that twirls and spells out some Obama slogans. The packages are clearly marked that the Obama campaign gets NOTHING from the sale of said items. (Click the pic to LCDerize.) Although the conversation included a lot of politics, it didn’t center on pro-either-candidate. We talked about election strategy and changing concepts; should a US President have a Facebook group, what about Joe Killian’s attack at the Palin rally being on HuffPo, and what was going to happen to ConvergeSouth in 2009 (more about that later). Mention was made of Greensboro (and North Carolina) being very forward in political awareness and involvement; kudos were offered for being the first for early voting and “how ’bout them lines!” I’m going to fix Heather’s red-eye in the morning. It was my first Saturday night downtown in too long a while. We’re breakfasting in the morning – let us know if you want join us early.
Want dinner with Scoble tonight?
Posted by – October 18, 2008 – Share on Facebook
We have reservations for 12 for dinner with Scoble tonight at Sushi Republic at 7 p.m. We have 4 open seats. Please txt me if you want to join us (or tell Robert-his cell is public on his blog). If you don’t know my cellphone number, send email.
Monday morning site launching
Posted by – September 22, 2008 – Share on Facebook
The Greensboro Bonds Web site launched this morning. The Citizens Committee for Greensboro supplied all the content and images with a big thanks to a local talented and generous-with-his-work photographer who traversed the city to find representative scenes for photos. Kudos also to the Welfare Reform Liaison Project’s video crew who once again did a great – and fast- turnaround on the job.
Reaching out to Greensboro
Posted by – September 6, 2008 – Share on Facebook
From BlogHer’s Announcements: BlogHer is taking the show on the road, embarking on a two-week, six-city tour, bringing the highlights of its annual event out to more of the community. These one-day conferences, open to all bloggers and would-be bloggers, will feature a broad range of topics and speakers, including:
- a Blogging Basics track designed to encourage encourage new and beginning bloggers to figure out their blogging mojo, improve their skills and avoid information overload;
- a Geek Lab, providing an open, ongoing environment for discussion, hacking, problem-solving and mentoring
- a custom track in every city that draws on each city’s local speakers and local interests. The custom track in Greensboro examines the nature of affinity online…how we create strong communities, whether linked by geography, identity or life circumstances. The Greensboro event will feature local bloggers including Pam Spaulding, ConvergeSouth’s own Sue Polinsky, Ayse Enginer (aka Arse Poetica), the News-Record’s Amanda Lehmert, Greensboring’s Liv Jones, and local activist Michele Forrest.
See the full Greensboro agenda here. Register here and Get 20% off the $100 regstration fee with the code CS08: Register Here!
Real food, buffet style
Posted by – September 6, 2008 – Share on Facebook
This year’s ConvergeSouth, due in part to the generosity of a new sponsor, upgrades lunch from sandwiches-in-a-bag (2005) to sandwiches-in-styro (2006 & 2007) to a full buffet in 2008 with soups, salads, sandwiches (served on plates) and some of the best desserts available in Greensboro. Thanks and kudos to Chef Andy at Ganache for coming up with this year’s menu with all-food-group appeal. Arrangements have already been made to transport any leftovers to our area’s homeless (in the back of CM’s truck, so come prepared).
If the food isn’t enough to entice you to join us on Friday, October 16, perhaps the session leaders will: Scoble, Rabb, Spaulding, Dash, Piraino, Lassiter, Zivkovic, Sinreich, the Louisiana Bailey, the High Point Bailey, Ross, Sutton and more.
If you haven’t registered, I can’t figure out why not. Go do it now. Still a few seats left on the free video tour, so get ‘em while they last, and we’re opening this session up to still-shooters as well. We’re an all-inclusive conference.
High unemployment? Come and network. Tight economy? ConvergeSouth is free. Don’t forget to register for BlogHer the very next day. Register for BlogHer here and ConvergeSouthers get 20% off the ticket price by using the code: CS08.
