Because it's the larger than life Robert Scoble, it figures his list of most interesting bloggers/twitters/friendfeed folks is way longer than most. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to find myself on Robert's list; it's nice to know that as this blog gets more electic, it still engages him (and others).

It's also interesting to see who some of the other edge cases are--some of the unfamiliar to me  ones  I will check out include the following (quotes from Robert):

• Alana Taylor She did the Twitter song, and brings me fun tech news.
• Andy Ihnatko Technology journalist for Chicago Sun Times, among other things..
• Benjamin Higginbotham.
• Cyndy Writes a good tech blog..
• David Armano VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass.
• Deborah Micek She is a new media marketing strategist..
• J Phil Glockner.
• Jennifer Leggio Social media; security research; analyst relations; market share reporting and competitive analysis; crisis management and ZDNet blogger..
• Justin Korn.
• .Michael Wesch A cultural anthropologist and media ecologist exploring the impacts of new media on human interaction at Kansas State University (made the famous Web 2.0 video).
• Ontario Emperor.
• Rodney Rumford Writes one of the best Facebook blogs out there, now starting a new company.
• Roger Kondrat Writes for TechWinter a European Social Media and Mobile blog..
• sean percival I met him when he was a dev at Mahalo..
• Steve Broback I worked for him back in late 90s, now he runs a variety of blogs and conferences.
• steve clayton Works at Microsoft in UK..
• Stupid Blogger (aka Tina).
• Susan Scrupski
• Todd Cochrane

Also happy to see mike dunn on the list, am going to think about who my must read list is and post that (will be much shorter.)

October is the big push to make sure everyone who is interested in applying for funding to the Knight News Challenge knows about it, knows how to apply, know what the program funds, and has a chance to get into the Garage and the mentoring if they wish.

To that end, we're pulling out the stops on the meet ups--We have several scheduled, with some good past archives of a couple that just passed.  Here's what's coming up already, booked and confirmed:

• September 30, Washington, DC (info coming)
• Oct 6: Vancouver: 7:00pm - 9:00pm; Rain City Studios, 420-1 Alexander Street, Vancouver, BC 
• Oct. 7: Seattle: 7:00pm - 8:30pm, Location TBD.
  Oct. 21: San Francisco, 7:00-9:00 pm, Tech Soup, 525 Brannan, SF, 
  

We're also planning to have meet ups on these dates in these cities--if you can help with a venue, let us know--we'll post as details are locked down.

• Sept. 30: Washington DC.
• Oct 2 or 3: Atlanta, TBD.
• Oct 15-16: Miami, TBD.
• Oct 25-26: Boston, TBD.

There are good photos and some informative video from the KNC Chicago meet up posted on flickr
If this is a program you are not aware of--THIS is the moment to check it out.

I've been writing the talk for Arse Electronika that I am going to give with Viviane on Friday. It's been fun to gather pictures, twitter quotes, and to interview bloggers and talk about ideas with Viviane.

Remarkably, there are people in the world who think the Barbie doll incarnation of Julia Allison (the one who always talks about dresses), amusing; less remarkably, there are people I know and respect who break out into virtual hives at each mention of the phrase over share.

Working on the Arse talk, which is about managing attention, transparency and your audience if you're a sex and relationships blogger (or just play one on the InterTubes), I'm struck by how gender-based some of the swirl turns out to be.

Reading through much of the brouhahah of the blogosphere, I can't help asking: Are women who blog about their sex lives punished for being' sluts' ?  Is Emily Gould holding her place in society by recanting all the fun she had?

Or, to put it another way, which Melissa Gira did when I talked to her for this piece: Is a guy writing about his coke habit kinda okay, while  a woman writing about sexuality is just shocking?

The question I've been asking myself is How could this story be different?
 Or, to put it another way? Do most people understand how to control their own mage on the net?

"I never played against my own intelligence to make men comfortable around me. I come on strong by being open, not teasing. I don't look for strength in men's eyes that way. As temporarily delightful as cocktail conversation may be -- until our cabs come -- I get my real and lasting courage from my own vulnerability. I can only trust my sense of worth to be safe with those unafraid to love me, not someone who finds me amusing five minutes ar a time."

--Melissa Gira Grant, writing in her tumblr blog

Want to grow the intellectual capital and the revenue in a college town like Boulder, CO? Put some tech companies in, add TechStars and the 10+ companies who come in every summer (half or more of whom stay in town) and then celebrate the start-up culture plus vegan mountain biking goodness that is Boulder.

Oh wait a minute, you don't have ernough tech talent for those companies? Why not fix that, too?

In that spirit, many of Boulder's start-ups and early stage companies are banding together to host what feels like the opposite of Start-Up Weekend--a week long recruiting fair thst brings uber geeks to the peaks so these companies can have more bodies to program their stuff.

According to the just lanched Boulder Colorado Job fair, twenty of the local start-ups will fly in 100 lucky developers, all expenses paid, and then recruit them for local gigs. (Hope this works better than guys in Alaska importing brides back in the day.)  Even better, some of the Boulder start-up cool kids will answer questions and be ambassadors.

So like if you need to know where to LARP, or why CU doesn't graduate enough CS students will skills to satisfy the Boulder mini-boomlet, these folks are the ones to ask.

Susan sez: Please don't ask me if I want to live in Boulder. I am in love with North Berkeley right now and s/he is very possessive.

If you're debating applying for the Knight News Challenge this year, but haven't done anything yet AND you live in the Chicago area, you might want to come to the meet up on Thursday of this week. We'll have two KNC team members and a local winner there to share info about the program, the mentoring program and peer review in the Garage and what kinds of projects KNC08 supports.

danah boyd's just announced that she's headed to the newly formed Microsoft Research Labs in Cambridge, Mass, not a bad place to think deep thoughts.

 I'm thrilled for danah, but I also wonder if this hire is more evidence that women hire women, and that diversity and creating a woman-friendly environment are inseperable (uh, duh!) Not only have I met extremely successful women researchers from Microsoft in Seattle (the wonderful Lili Cheng comes to mind asap), but it's obvious that MSFT is making a similar committment to diversity in their new facility.

For one thing, one of the two leads, Jennifer Chayes, is female, and is running the lab with her husband, Christian Borgs(how egalitarian is that?) For another they already have another woman research on board (along with her husband). One of their post-docs and one of their interns are also women. At a time when women's participation in the hard sciences is plummetting in the US, this is pretty good.

And of course there's the personal side. danah writes: "Personally, going to MSR will mean a continuation of the good things that I do and a reduction of the things that exhaust me. I will continue to publish, go to conferences, and blog. I will keep my Berkman Center fellowship. I will continue public speaking, political interventions, and sitting on advisory boards. I will get involved in the intellectual communities in Cambridge and collaborate with scholars."

Who can argue with that?  Here's to more innovative research and work for the great good of the commons! danah, congrats.

Here's where my attention is going these days, with different proportions of attention to each at different times:

Co-founder, People's Software.  We have a cool idea about a scheduling problem we want to solve and we're working on getting our first app from alpha to beta, so we have enough features to get it out in the market and get feedback. It's been slower than I wish, so this is both an exercise in patience and a chance to appreciate programmers.

Program Manager/Evangelist, Knight News Challenge: Want to win a chunk of $5MM for a project that has a specific geographic focus, promotes democratic community discourse and engagement, and is open source, can have an API or be scaled by others in some way? If yes, you should be checking out the Knight News Challenge, which I have the privilege of managing this year, along with a team of amazing people and some inspiring leadership from Gary and Alberto. This program is so innovative, and Knight has been so positive about trying new things, like the Garage, the mentoring program, and the social media marketing--it's a pleasure. But applications close Nov, 1st, so get cracking.

Women entreprenurs/women leadership work: This is still something I am figuring out, but I want to spend more time in 2009 helping women become more successful as entrepreneurs and leaders. Women Who Tech is doing a teleseminar with me called :Owning Your Own Power" on Ocrober 11th; that's based on a She's Geeky workshop I did last year. People who want to collaborate in this area, love to hear more from you.

And of course, I am also blogging and writing for BlogHer, and doing some speaking.

The other big thing in my life is that I've moved to the East Bay and am looking for a long-term place to live; interested in co-housing, and/or creating a progressive community with a few adult housemates in North Oakland or Berkeley. I spent lots of years very engaged in my Park Slope and South Orange neighborhoods, want to have the feeling of local community again.

Given that Nick Douglas and Melissa Gira and others have just started promoting their sex social network, boffery, this quote from amber rhea seems apt.

So, I am 9/10ths unpacked at the Berkeley house. This is the third place I haved lived since May, if you count my old apartment, the Boulder sublet and now this. What strikes me, with some surprise, is how easy it seems to move around--I've got my computer, my back up hard drive, my pictures of friends and family, music, and some other stuff that all fits right into the car (especially if the 110 lb dog isn't in it.)

I want to end up in a more long-term place before the end of the year, but there is something amazing about living in someone else's house (as long as they have decent wireless) and making it your own. For years, I've liked so many people who live in the East Bay, but felt too far away to see them, so this is exciting on that level.  I've also wished I could enjoy more of the music, activities, etc in this area, so if I can have time, I can do that. And finally, there's that famous Gourmet Ghetto, with the Berkeley Bowl, Monterrey Market and so on.

Tomorrow I head down to the Valley to see a friend and then pick up my dog. We're housesitting for another dog, Midge, who is smaller than a cat. I'll share some pictures of the big dog and the little one together.

Back in the day, I spent at least 8 years in the online news community--starting with co-founding New Jersey Online, moving on to Parade, heading to Netscape (where I was lucky enough to work with Tom Brew and hire Dean Wright), and then consultung for the AP, Knight Ridder Digital and some other news-focused organizations. I also did my stint working with early social media/search companies around RSS, microformats, and so on, engaging with Feedster, Pluck, Eurekster, Rojo and lots of other back in the day businesses.

This is a very long-winded way of saying that now that I find myself at ONA for the first time in 5 years, there are lots of familiar faces, but the temperature of the room has changed. Four years ago, I came to an ONA conference and mourned the lack of innovation, the bitterness, the frustration I saw and heard. Newspapers were dying, the dinosaurs were howling in the elephant boneyard and it was depressing to me.

Now, I have the sense things have changed.  The people left at newspapers--and in online newsrooms--who come to ONA are in their jobs because they want to be there, and they are committed to solving the problems newspapers and online news sites face--or at least inventing new ways to share accurate and credible information. Like poets or non-profit program officers, online news people have made a commitment to their calling, and they're going to make sure the ship doesn't go down, not on their watch.

And it is good to witness that...and to be here.

I took the summer off from writing for BlogHer because doing Peoples Software was so intense. It's still intense, but I've resumed doing a weekly post and just put a new one up.

I don't want to get married. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt(and the kid).
"I am in love. With a person I plan to live with. Who is an amazing partner and a wonderful friend. Whom I think I'd like to grow old with, and with whom I dream of creating a merry band of progressive family and friends.

But there is no way, much as I want to show A how I love him that I'm eager to get married again. Been there. Done that. Got the divorce, the settlement, and the resolution not to do it again."

Going back over the past year, here are links to some of my other favorite BH pieces--

• The End of Innocence and Making It Big: The NYTimes spins yet another lost girl tale of innocence, regret and discreetly hot sex (Note: this is the piece that spawned our Arse talk on Sept.26 at 5 pm)
  
• Not choosing Monogamy: Why exclusivity doesn't matter
• My love for Patti Smith, or sex, gender, androgyny and freedom

Last May, I packed up in Palo Alto and took off for Boulder, CO. It was a great summer, and then I drove back to California. For the past couple of week's I have been staying with a friend in the North Bay, and now I am on an East Coast trip for the Knight News Challenge to NY and DC (and ONA).

Here's the drum roll--when I get back, I move into a friend's sublet in Berkeley for a couple months..and look for a more permanent place of my own. I've thought about moving to the East Bay since 2004, but circumstances (job at Yahoo!, divorce) made me want to hold off and stay in the Valley.  Now is a great time to move, and I am psyched to head to a part of the Bay area that, frankly, reminds me of Brooklyn, where I spent so many years back East.

I'm hungry to put down some roots, and while that won't happen for a few months, I'm excited about finding a place that can feel like my block, my home.

Later this month is the second Arse Elektronika 2008 conference, tagged this year as "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" It's in San Francisco from September 25-28, with the 25th being the party night My friend Viviane and are are doing a session this year on sex and relationship blogging and what I will call oversharing--or what we dubbed "Avoiding the Emily Gould Effect," (the young blogger who made the Times cover, confessed to *ruining* her private life, and got a reported $1MM book contract as a consolation prize).

This year's schedule has an interesting lineup with a keynote address by Constance Penley, "Fuck Space: Slashing the Ocean"; and a close of "Science Fucktion" with Johannes Grenzfurthner and Richard Kadrey. Tickets are cheap and this is going to be one of those fun, disruptive events that could only happen in SF, Vienna, NYC, LA and so on.

Here's the precis of our talk:

"Oversharing", sex blogging & erotica. How to successfully manage your online identity, whether you're pseudonymous or right out there. As the legions of bloggers sharing personal stories of sexuality, erotica and adventure grow and as sex & relationship blogs become big business we hear both stories of bloggers who regret what they've shared (Emily Gould - http://www.emilymagazine.com) and survived a tawdry outing (Zoe Margolis - http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com), and those who've parlayed sex & erotica blogging into far more mainstream careers (Rachel Kramer Bussel (http://lustylady.blogspot.com, Melissa Gira Grant (http://www.melissagira.com) Violet Blue (http://www.tinynibbles.com).

How do you manage your online persona so you're in control of your story? What to do if you get outed?  Join Viviane, leader of The Sex Carnival, and Susan Mernit, sex and relationships contributing editor at Blogher, in a discussion of sharing, oversharing, and the best ways to put it out there. A hand out of tips for beginners and getting started will also be provided."

So, there are two ways to learn about the Knight News Challenge and how to apply for funding for your project--

• Join the webinar happening at 11 am EST Tuesday
• Go to the NYC meet up Tuesday night (see FB event).

So tomorrow I fly to NYC, a place I have been far too little in the past 18 months. And I have some people to see, and a Knight News Challenge meet up to run (find out how to apply to win $5MM for community projects), but I still have tons of work to do. And I need office space with net access, better than Starbucks.

When I go to Palo Alto, I can ask Keith Teare or Ross Mayfield and get great help; but where to hang in NYC is another story--so I asked the twitterverse for help in finding desk space throughout the week.

And do you know what? I got it. Through a series of tweets that were like a game of telephone, people I don't know and others who know me set up a chain that led to a series of DMs, email and messages, all with possible offers I will chase down in the next day.

Thanks Patty, Deanna, Joseph, Persephone and everyone else....another proof point for digital community and the wisdom of crowds.

(and if you have a space I should know about or might use--especially above 14th street..LMK)

"How can anyone know who or what to support, when language is used the way it has been used in this election, with Barack Obama tilting to the right as John McCain becomes the Maverick bringing change? It's like Alice in Wonderland - or better yet, Through the Looking Glass. The Obamas, although black and "liberal," are the Brady Bunch, while the conservatives have the DUI and the pregnant teen-ager.

What does this all demonstrate? That no ideology is pure, no set of principles too sacrosanct to compromise to the realities of life. The Republican platform said no gay marriage, but Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter has a civil union with her partner, and the Vice President hasn't rejected her.

In human situations, people are both better and worse than political ideologies."

--Francine Hardaway, writing on her blog.

The Knight News Challenge has re-opened for the third year, and is awarding $5M in funding for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news and information exchange. Winning entries must have three elements: 1) use of a digital media; 2) delivery of  news or information on a shared basis to 3) a geographically defined community.

As the press release says, the contest is open to community-minded innovators worldwide, from software designers to journalists to citizens and students of any age. Entries must be open-source and share the software and knowledge created.

To help encourage prospective applicants to come up with ideas, we're holding a series of meet ups in the US and Canada--with the first one scheduled for New York on September 9th, 2008 from 7-9 PM at CUNY School of Journalism in Midtown.  For more info and or to RSVP go to the link at Facebook--In an hour or so, we will take 20 minutes to go over the program, then work with applicants to brainstorm ideas, show them how to get them into the Garage/incubator, and apply.

We are planning meet ups in Sept and Oct for Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Austin, TX, Denver/Boulder, Chicago, Los Angels, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver. If you are interested, email taylor@knightfoundation.org or mernit@ the same for more info. We will post a complete list on the newschallenge site.

I've always enjoyed looking at myself and my fairly typical family as barometers for social media and tech toys--or not, as the case usually is.  While many of my relatives own a Wii none have accounts on flickr, twitter, or friendfeed. Most are just starting to discover linkedin.

As bright and well educated as they are, the fam make a great test market for stuff..and a reality check on stuff they have no interest in (even as all my friends in the digital world go nuts).

So the trip to Southern California to see my son who is in school there, and his girlfriend, was not only wonderful in bringing us together after I'd been away far too long--it gave me a fresh view of how my particular twenty-something is using--and not using--tech and social media.

I'd promised a long over due new computer (bought the last one with his dad when Z was in high school and it was top of the line), suggested a Mac, and asked him to check out what was available.  Once I got there, and we headed over to the store, I was surprise to see that Z, unlike most of the techies I know, didn't want the laptop, he wanted a desktop model.
Reasons? He had a computer at work, wanted a "home computer" for the study, and especially needed the larger monitor (which was over our budget on a laptop). We costed all the options out and came home with--yep--a really sleek looking iMac.

Discussing his computing needs also exposed how little he's had to do with social media to date. Resolutely antii-MySpace and Facebook (his GF has both), Z has one of the smallest digital footprints I've seen; while that's fine from a privacy point of view, it's not going to be so good as prospective resources answer questions about career experiences and possible internships; if they search for him, they wlll close to nada, not a competitive situation for someone in their early 20s.

After some discussion, we agreed that good (and easy) ways to post more about himself would be via a tumblr blog and, eventually, flickr. " I have just completely avoided social media," he said to me. "I know you're really into it, but I just haven't seen the use for it."

"How about ChowHound? You use that," I replied, and then he agreed, it might just be a question of knowing what the tools are and when he might want to use them (with never being a realistic option for a few.)

I'll be working with Z and his GF to show them more options they can use as the decide to share more of themselves in the digital world; with their permission, more posts to follow.