I still have to pack, but I could not go to Amsterdam without posting about this event.

I attended this past Saturday a New York City bloggers caucus organized by Chris Anderson of NYC.Indymedia and held during the NYC Grassroots Media Conference at The New School for Social Research.

I found two familiar faces in the gathering, Dan Jacoby, of New Democratic Majority as well as Noel Hidalgo, a fellow Drupal/CivicSpace developer. But there were people like Will James of On NY Turf who I barely got to speak with as well as others either working on activist projects or looking for information on how to start a blog.

It was a quick meeting and one in which, grok, I would have loooved to talk more about the business, networking and creative issues involving blogging. We need a whole day for that. Which is why I hope to continue nagging the people of Community Services Society and Drum Major Institute into funding a NYC blogger's conference as well as workshops for people who want to learn how to do it. Hey, I may even be able to get the good people of Eyebeam and The Guggenheim Museum to lend their labs and conference rooms for the events. So people, show me the money, the resources and the places and I'll show you a kick ass series of conferences here in NYC meant to bridge that frigging digital and netroots divide. OKAY?

Heh.

Before running out of there to pay penance with my motherly duties (for the sin of going on vacation all by myself), I learned a bit about Interrupcion.net. I really do not know much about them but am curious about their mission :

Our mission is to create a path by which individuals and organizations can make progress toward building a more politically inclusive, culturally revolutionary, socially responsible, economically equitable and environmentally efficient world.

We work for social change through the development and management of tools and processesthat allow individuals and organizations to acknowledge the social impact of their every day actions and decisions. Our tools and processes promote Social Responsibility as an alternative way of living.

This sounds really promising although I have a few knee-jerk reactions. First, they have some pimped out ultra-glossy booklets they put out. I am very jealous they can afford to that Second though, and here comes the web-development bitch to raise her ugly head, their website is developed in Macromedia. It's one big Flash splash. There is nothing more icky to me about an organization that calls itself progressive and socially responsible than to create a site using proprietary software and one that is, even worse, not only non-standards compliant but elitist since only people with gobs of bandwidth and the latest computers and browsers are the ones able to read your site. So take heed, Interrupción. Make your site accessible to the masses y'all.

Which takes me to the gals of Prometheus Radio Project. Now here's a group trying to bring media to the masses in an inclusive way.

There is nothing more sexy than women with power tools and these nerdettes where, I kid you not, creating WiFi cantennas. This is what I got at their website :

Prometheus staff started their voyages on the oceans of aether as pirates to protest media concentration and demand access to the airwaves. With the possibility of legal low-power radio stations on the horizons they turned in their hooks and patches to help foster the free radio movement.

I can't find the friggin' instructions Libby (I think that's her name, but given I am notoriously bad with names, put a question mark net the name). Let me take a gander at describing them : The cantennas are literally aluminum cans with a cable doohickey that allows you to connect it to your wireless router and amplify it's potency for about half a mile. That means that, in theory, you could become a ... ahem ... free internet provider if you wanted to.

Speaking of radio, I also met two of the people at East Village Radio. Hre's sumting I got from their site :

EVR was formed in June 2003 as a non-profit group in order to provide a forum for the inhabitants of the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City.

EVR is here to develop, evaluate, and disseminate entertainment and news. We are supporters of the movement of free radio, and are interested in providing a forum for obscure music as well as a platform for local djs and personalities.

Well, I am in the neighborhood and by blog, I've got personality to spare!

I've been hankering for some nice live podcasting about all things New York Netroots. I may fix us some of that after I come back from my hopefully restful vacation.

And that it y'all.

Going to Amsterdam; not sure if I'll inhale but glad to take a break. I'll definitely be posting about the town that founded New York City throughout the week. Still, see you after the 20th.

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