You see, I’m neither right nor left-brained; I’m smack dab in the middle of the Type A and Type B personality; I am an alpha geek and a uber artiste. My sticky fingers are in every pie imaginable. I’ve studied music  since I was six and built webpages since I was 12.

And I love it. I want to keep doing those things I love even if they’re so far removed from the other.

My philosophy on life is that no knowledge is useless knowledge. This was a constant argument in my graduate class at UNR: Why take a class on building Flash games when I’m not going to be building Flash games in my career? Why do I need to know the history of journalistic and democratic thought and theory since the 1920s if that doesn’t apply to today?

And I’d counter that no knowledge is useless knowledge because the things you create tomorrow are the aggregate of things you learn today.*

That’s what I pulled from Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, showcased today on Moveon.org:

You see, it’s this constant evaluation of the usefulness of information to the individual that puts us into this trap, and (tip of the hat to Dr. Ryfe), fragments society in the way Putnam describes in “Bowling Alone.”

In education, it’s resulted in hyper-specialization where engineers don’t believe in climate change (true story) because they can’t be bothered to pop their heads out of their computer programs.

In art, it’s created Ke$ha. And other money-centered artists (I’m looking at you pop artists). Because we’re so busy navel-gazing that we’ve lost touch with everyone else and I’ll have a post elaborating more on this soon.

We drive cars because god forbid we have to subject ourselves to the smells of other people and the world around us.

In a way, Google’s and Facebook’s filtering system is just an extension of what we do anyway.  Yes we want democracy and a system that runs smoothly that gives equal advantage to everyone – as long as I don’t have to leave my cozy little bubble.

News editors do get a rather bad rap for deciding what “goes to print” and what doesn’t. But the newsies I know who engage online in the social media sphere don’t believe in the filtering the Facebook and Google are up to. They want to use those tools to get people’s hands dirty, shoveling out the sadness and planting hope.

I really hope Eli and the Filter Bubble find a way around it. And if I can be of service, please tag me in.

*Thank you Prof. Larry Dailey, Dr. David Ryfe, Dr. Ed Lenert and Chris Bowman for those classes.

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Below is the two-minute promo I edited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5pxZVVqyEU

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The outline for their Social Media Marketing Plan:

Strategies & Tactics
Target User Matrix (outbound and inbound marketing)
Guides on writing for blogs, Twitter and Facebook
List of Social Media Resources
Social Media Policy (Internal)
Content and Comment Submission Policy (External)
Comment Moderation Flow Chart

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These are PDFs of articles I’ve written.
Feminists educate, throw bananas
Promoting Guerrilla Warfare
Strike raises questions about future of entertainment
Women’s center receives $1 million endowment
Crowd Control: Audience Acts As Second Moderator in Vegas Debate

Research Writing

Songs and Revolution: Senior Research Paper

Guest Blogging

Crowd Control: Audience Acts As Second Moderator in Vegas Debate

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link
Founded over beers at the Imperial Bar & Lounge in Reno, Nevada sometime during September of 2008, Nevada Interactive Media seeks to foster a community of innovation in the realm of new media and technology that supports professional and intellectual exchange.

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link
Neon Feminism is about the struggles and successes of women and women’s rights here in the Vegas Valley. It may seem like a dichotomy, but there are feminists here in this tawdry bikini clad town. You just have to look beyond the billboards. Whatever the story may be – strippers unionizing, women protesting labor laws, women in traditionally male dominated fields – if it concerns women, I’m on it.

Multimedia Stories:
Your Options: Unexpected Teen Pregnancy
Single women rule the home

Articles
Washoe County Meeting Over Title X Family Planning
Washoe County District Health Department & County Commissioners Meeting, part 2

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EcoStreets.net is part of a larger network of blogs on Streetsblog.net, covering issues of sustainability and livable streets. Its focus is on the community of students, faculty and staff at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It combines the practice and ethos of journalism with the tools of social media to build better online communities which will hopefully influence real life communities.

Multimedia Stories
Washoe County Cuts Public Transit by 25% and What That Means to Me
How to Pick the Right Bike: Interview with Jake Spidle, founder of the Las Vegas Bike Co-Op
Steer Clear: Official EcoStreets Flash Game

Articles
Cannibals, mass transit and economics
Nextbus: How to use it and what it’s good for
Alternate Solutions: Public transit fees for students
How bad are Las Vegas’ roads?

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