Coyote Gulch

Saturday, December 13, 2003

2004 Presidential Election
Writing in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News, Mike Littwin, reports that, "There are maybe 30 people inside the hall of fame, not counting the one guy who's actually there to see the sprint cars, which, I have to tell you, are pretty cool," [December 13, 2003, "Littwin: Gephardt fights Dean, and own image, in Iowa"].
11:29:54 AM

Rogers Cadenhead - Radio Userland Kickstart
If you use Radio Userland get copy of Rogers Cadenhead's new book Radio Userland Kickstart. The book fills a big need for Radio users. I highly recommend it for any of the Radio kids out there.
10:34:35 AM

Denver November 2004 Election
The battle against the redistricting ruling handed down by the Colorado Supreme Court is not "about politics" according to House Speaker Lola Spradley from today's Rocky Mountain News [December 13, 2003, "Bipartisan support sought in map fight"]. From the article, "'This is not about partisan politics, but is now about the blurring of the lines between the judicial and legislative branches of government,' she said in an e-mail sent to all 65 House members." The article goes on to say that the e-mail got a lukewarm response from state democrats. I bet. I haven't seen the e-mail but I doubt that it contains a promise from the GOP legislators to refrain from last minute gerrymandering when they are the majority party.
10:21:55 AM

Rolling Stone - Steve Jobs
I am a shameless Macintosh fan nowadays. I switched from Windows to Linux to OSX. So, of course, I have great admiration and respect for Steve Jobs and his ability to set up a culture of innovation at Apple Computer. It doesn't hurt that OSX has UNIX underneath the covers. Here's an interview with Jobs from Rolling Stone magazine. Says Jobs, "We were very lucky -- we grew up in a generation where music was an incredibly intimate part of that generation. More intimate than it had been, and maybe more intimate than it is today, because today there's a lot of other alternatives. We didn't have video games to play. We didn't have personal computers. There's so many other things competing for kids' time now. But, nonetheless, music is really being reinvented in this digital age, and that is bringing it back into people's lives. It's a wonderful thing. And in our own small way, that's how we're working to make the world a better place." Thanks to Dave Winer for the link.
9:52:51 AM

Scoop - Open Source Software
Scoop is an Open Source project used by many organizations to set up online communities. It is the software behind the popular Kuro5hin.org and many others. It's the software being used by Wesley Clark's campaign this year. Thanks to Doc Searls for the link.
If you read Coyote Gulch for political news, and you work with or advise candidates, here's your chance to be a hero and help any campaign get up and running quickly. The major candidates in last spring's Denver Municipal Election all used websites effectively.
Of course if your candidate has unlimited funds they can hire a firm to do their website and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you're on a shoestring or have a very small staff Open Source software can help fill the bill and make it look like you're a big money campaign. A smart web design firm might use the Open Source software to lower costs to their client.
Howard Dean's campaign developed their own software called DeanSpace hosted on SourceForge and also Open Source. Small budget candidates can get Radio Userland for $40 and some inexpensive hosting from someone like Forethought.net and be up and running in a couple of hours.
I should note that no one took my advice to start a weblog in last spring's election here in Denver. Most of the candidates complained about the lack of coverage of the election by the local papers and TV and none of them published a weblog to get out the word on a regular basis. Go figure.
9:42:55 AM

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