Mussings on law, tech, & unrealted topic by a geek

Presenters – this is your opportunity to float new ideas or get help and feedback on a project. It’s also a great opportunity to test out your elevator pitch without having to prepare for a formal conference or workshop. The “short and sweet” format is believed to have started as CCC’s Lightning Talks. Other groups have followed suit such as KDa’s Pecha Kucha, Noisebridge’s Five Minutes of Fame, Speed Geek talks, and Ignite.

Have something to talk about?

email: clamoring <at> jigsawrenaissance.org

please include subject: Flash Talks 6/5/10

Please include any digital media you wish to present. (This is not necessary to sign up but will be required one week before the event.) All media is subject to approval. Anyone may sign up to speak, but there are a limited number of slots. Alternate speakers will be chosen.

Schedule will be posted on jigsawrenaissance.org by Monday, May 31st.

I love seeing more community based events like this.  I unfortunately will be speaking and a conference in Eastern Washington that weekend. I hope someone posts them online.

Within an hour of posting my updated goals list I was pinged that Seattle Ignite is now accepting speakers /cheer .  The next Ignite Seattle is going to be June 14th! I hope to see people there.

The new JR space is amazing it is right on Madison across from Virginia Mason.  Apparently Virginia Mason owns the space and really likes having a community based center at the locations and thus is giving them a very reasonable deal on rent. There is street access right on Madison and the people here are very friendly come by and check it out for yourself.

Here are some photos of the space:

Front:

Photo by willowbl00 CC BY

Back:

Photo by Brian Rowe CC BY

JR is also currently running a Kickstarter campaign to make some improvements on the space, mainly adding a kitchen:

It has been about a week and a half since my last goals post. Overall this is working well, I am making a lot of progress on stuff I have been meaning to do for too long (with only two failures). Time to update and see where to go next.

Short term goals:
1. Visit Jigsaw Renaissances‘ new physical site (not done yet)
Progress: Failed
Next Action Item: Drive to JR after this post and see who is there not that they have open hours

New Goal 2. Post a Vlog post on New in IP about Costco v. Omega
Next Action Item: reread case documents and write an outline on the case and why it maters

New Goal 3. Research and install a decent comment plug in on my WordPress sites
Next Action Item: Check out Disqus .

New Goal 4: Write a wrap up post on IMT550 and freeze the class website for archival purposes.
Next Action Item: freeze the site and turn off comment and ping backs.

New Goal 5: Update resume and CV.
Next Action Item: List out all the recent public speaking I havee done to be added.

Medium term goals:
1. Read a book for Fun!
Progress: I picked David Sedaris’ When you are engulfed in Flames and read the first two chapters

Next Action Item: just have fun and read the book

2. Finish reading and review Confessions of a Public Speaker
Progress: Read chapter 6&7 Done
Next Action item: finish book

3. Vlog (video blog) about a personal topic –
Progress: Topic chosen Health Care Reform
Next Action Item: draft outline and shot the video by

Long term goals:
1. Teach 2 more class – I loved teaching @ the iSchool last quarter and want to teach more.
Progress: Three schools targeted
Next Action Item: Write syllabus and intro letters for Dean’s.

2. Give an Ignite talk on Dyslexia.
Progress: no new ignite scheduled… Will have to look for other venues
Next Action Item: check back at ignite periodically and look for other venues.

3. File NPO paper work for FFIP.
Progress I have a list of possible board member members.
Next Action Item: Draft a letter to possible board members and set up coffee with them
Next Action Item: get 501(c)3 charter from a few orgs i respect candidates: ACLU-WA, CC, PK, FSF, SFFC

Other Goals
1. Publish a wikileaks paper. I am speaking for the third time on wikileaks later this month, I should really finish the paper and get it submitted to some law reviews.
Progress: Fail
Next Action Item: Contact my editor and get moving on a final draft. Putting a hard date on this for April 28th.

2. Couch surf in PDX.
Progress: I have tentative dates: June 1st to 3rd
Next Action Item: Contact people for meeting  & places to crash

3. Make chess master title by June 15 2012.
Progress: Tactics books for studying have been chosen.
Next Action item: Choose an endgame book and a middle game book to study and total hours per week to study.

Proof this is working, completed goals:

• Launched New in IP, Episode 1 is up on Takedown Culture! Thanks everyone who has given me private feedback on the first episode, I really appreciate it.
• Blog or Vlog (video blog) at least 5 times a week! I have been blogging twice a day since making the goals public!

Sarah and I were out buying eyes this morning for a how to blog training she is doing later today and I came across the coolest tote bag:

They are for sale at Archie McPhee one of the coolest stores around!

Quick rant on a really bad website: anand-topalov.com

My problems with the website:

• Link named Information… is not the whole site information
• The Information link takes you to a blank page… (well technically the page has 5 small links that I dis not notice the first 2 times at the site)
• The copyright policy tells people not to share this news worthy event:

All copyright, trade marks, design rights, patents and other intellectual property rights (registered and unregistered) in and on www.anand-topalov.com and all content (including all applications) located on the site shall remain vested in the Bulgarian Chess Federation or its licensors. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use www.anand-topalov.com content in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You also agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any www.anand-topalov.com content except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of www.anand-topalov.com content requires the prior written permission of the Bulgarian Chess Federation.

Really you are running a major media event and you do not want us the share the games, the website or the excitement without prior written approval.  Please fire your lawyer and hire a 20 something PR person who understands the internet and how to enable sharing content.  It will get you a lot further in the digital world.

IF you really want to follow the Championship go to ChessBase instead.  (Chessbase does not have RSS /grrrr, but other then that they are the best chess news online.)

Every time I sign up for a webs service, buy a piece of electronics or click to download a piece of software there is a contract that I theoretically consent to.  These contracts of adhesion usually are extremely one-sided pieces of rubbish that would never exist if users were actually brought to the table to negotiate the terms. But that never happens, the contract are written by lawyers whose job it is to protect the corporations they work for while often limiting your rights.

In the last 20 years we have seen these contracts grow in length, complexity and over all use.  Today the Supreme Court has a chance to take a serious bite out of the validity of these contracts.  The SCOTUS is hearing o Rent-a-Center v. Jackson which examines whether judges retain discretion to invalidate an arbitration agreement because it is unconscionable, even when the contract clearly delegated this power to an arbitrator.

In 2004 Rent-A-Center and Antonio Jackson entered into an employment contract.  The contract included an arbitration provision which specifically delegated to an arbitrator, “and not any federal, state, or local court or agency,” the exclusive authority “to resolve any dispute relating to the interpretation, applicability, enforceability or formation of this Agreement.”   In 2007, Jackson, who is African American, filed a lawsuit against Rent-A-Center, claiming he had been the victim of racial discrimination and retaliation and asking the court to invalidate the arbitration clause.

The outcome of this case could have a profound impact on contracts of adhesion depending on if they uphold the clause and why, this is a question of due process or more simply a case about access to ones day in court.

For more info on the case check out: SCOTUSwiki on Rent-a-Center  v. Jackson

The registration is open for InfoCamp Seattle 2010! I will likely be attending again this year.  I am thinking about doing a talk on Takedown Culture the New Censorship of the Digital Age and maybe a Google Book Settlement panel.  October is a long way a way though, lots of time to think on it.  If anyone else wants to work together on a panel please feel free to ping me.

InfoCamp Seattle 2010
October 2 and 3
at Seattle University

As always, InfoCamp will feature fantastic speakers, rich discussions, and an agenda that you help create. And, of course, plenty of coffee!

This year, the venue is just steps away from transit, lodging, and some of the city’s best restaurants and bars. We’ll convene in the Pigott Building on Seattle University’s campus in the exciting Capitol Hill/First Hill area, only a mile from downtown.

Since we’ve reserved a great venue already, we’re opening registration now! To secure your spot at InfoCamp Seattle 2010, visit infocampseattle2010.eventbrite.com.

For more information, check out event web site or wiki.

This is a less traditional panel run by 4 first year MLIS students with a lot of Q&A.  Great format.

Shortcomings of Kindle as etext:

• Bad keyboard
• Only Black & White
• Slow to refresh
• NO page numbers
• Kindel does not support folders and is tough to find texts on
• Fails to play well with others, the web browser bites
• Cant take notes on PDF’s
• Text to speech was turned off due to copyright and to turn it back on you have to go through an non-blind navigation menue. 4 schools were sued not to use Kindel due to the lack of accessibility.
• Amazons  uses DRM through tethering the Kindel to Amazon.
• The browse wrap agreement takes way all users rights.
• You never own the books you purchase
• You may NOT copy, lend or share your books

How should etext be:

• open access to the text, I have fair use rights let me annotate and cut & paste
• no propitiatory formats
• use an open source reader
• add collaborative tools
• Freedom to tinker with and add your own apps or improve the OS
• Sell the etext reader do not license it.

“Tools are made to accomplish our purpose, and in this sense they reperesent desres and intentions. We make our tools make us: By taking up particular tools we accede to desire and we manifest intentions”

Sarah Schacht the ED and founder of Knowledge As Power (KAP) was the opening keynote speaker for iEdge 2010.  Her talk was great it focused on the failed practices of government information practices.  My favorite failure is printing word docs so someone can sign the document and then scan it without OCR, Optical Character Recognition.  This process takes accessible document and turns them into pictures that screen readers can not access and web crawlers will never read or categorize.

Practical Solutions:

• Do not charge end users for public government info, design systems that auto archive and do not need to be a revenue center
• Do usability testing, do not try to teach the public to use an archaic system, redesign the systems so you do not have to teach people to use it
• Make it personal especially when empowering people

The tweet stream #iEdge10 has many more comments on this talk.

Photo from Seattle IP Blog article on KAP