Month: December 2010

I’m running for the NY Tech Meetup’s Board of Directors.

Vote Noneck for the NY Tech Meetup

I know that New York City is the best damn city on the planet. I see this meetup and its board as a platform of information and innovation. Our board must embody our best ideals and be it all that it can be. We MUST put our 501c6 status to good use and fight for a better tomorrow.

As a board member, I promise an unprecedented level of transparency. I want us to use our 501c6 status to advocate for tech innovation. I plan to work with you to get “nytm.org/about” to say something meaningful (srrsly, a year and it still has WP.com text?). Like all good 2.0′s, we need a good API. If I can build an API for New York State Senate, you bet I can build one for a network of techies. BUT this API is a bit different…

Association, Participation, Innovation

Association – Let us add diversity to our network by adopting affiliate meetups that represent the diversity in our community.

Participation – Let us participate in creating a more open government. Let us crack the nut that binds us and demand better Open Data. Imagine a world where our tax dollars are a direct investment into our apps. Imagine a city that respects it’s technology community and does not simply placate it. We can do this!

Innovation – Let us fight for lower taxes and innovation credits for our community. Did you know that S4046-2009 is a bill in our State house that would give anyone who contributes to “open source” a $200 state tax credit? NO? Since we are a 501c6, we can do this and more!

Let us dream about the future, and make history today. Let’s build an API for a better tomorrow!

@tonybgoode you have one of my #NYTM votes. I hope to have yours.

@tonybgoode you have one of my #NYTM votes. I hope to have yours.

i am running for the #NYTM meetup board & it appears that i have the esteemed honor of sharing the platform w/ tonybgoode.

Roadblock #3: Advocacy

Simply put: no organization is better poised to represent the collective interests of the NY tech community than the NYTM.

One key factor is embedded in the history of the Web and the many iterations of the Long War itself: The Internet has cultivated a public vested in its freedom. Each round of conflict draws in additional supporters, from hackers to the growing numbers of open-government activists and everyday users who believe, more and more, that the radical openness of the Web should set the pattern for everything. As the battlefield has become more vast – from laser printer code to transparency in global diplomacy – the Internet’s standing army continues to grow, and is spoiling for a fight.

WikiLeaks and the Internet’s Long War

Several corporations bowed to political pressure and cut off services to Wikileaks. It has not yet been proven that the organization broke any laws, but Paypal, Mastercard and others decided to stop allowing citizens to show their support for the organization by giving them money. This is a clear violation of limiting a form of speech– the Supreme Court ruled this year that political donations are a form of free speech, at least when corporations are doing the donating. To me, this was the first volley in this theater of battle. It angered me, and a whole lot of other people, clearly. I’ve been told that in Germany, where the citizenry are notoriously suspicious of technology, privacy and politics, the federal courts there have labeled DDoS a form of free speech. (Link tk.)

Legitimate civil disobedience: Wikileaks and the layers of backlash | Deanna Zandt

Let’s be clear about what politics are. “Politics” is not just about candidates, elections, and ballot initiatives. Politics is the art and science of influencing or changing any kind of power relationship: the cultural norms by which we act; the laws that govern us; the expectations we experience based on our gender, race, class, sexuality, abilities, and more. When I talk about political work, I’m talking about challenging and radically redefining those power relationships.

Legitimate civil disobedience: Wikileaks and the layers of backlash | Deanna Zandt

9. (SBU) Olympic Protests: Pro-Tibetan Protesters Removed from China: Advocates for Tibetan independence continue to be detained and deported on the same day by Chinese officials in response to their ongoing campaign of well-organized protests in Beijing. These protesters, along with those detained in earlier Tibet-related demonstrations, all appear to be part of “Team Tibet,” in which “Students for a Free Tibet” (SFT) and other Tibetan advocacy groups have orchestrated a series of actions to unfurl banners and fly Tibetan flags in public areas in Beijing and elsewhere. In cases involving U.S. citizens, the U.S. Embassy has first learned of all three incidents from XXXXXXXXXXXX. To date, the following pro-Tibet incidents–reported by the same caller–have occurred in Beijing:

this is is about me…
08/09/2008–Five persons, including three Americans, detained at Tiananmen Square; American citizens deported to Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

08/08/2008–Three Americans detained at the National Stadium (“Bird’s Nest”) before the Olympic opening ceremony; deported to Los Angeles.

08/06/2008–Four persons, including two Americans, detained near the National Stadium (“Bird,s Nest”); American citizens deported to Los Angeles. 10. (SBU) Hong Kong Protests: According to various media reports, at least six protesters were removed from the Sha Tin Olympic Equestrian venue in Hong Kong in reaction to separate incidents during the dressage competition on BEIJING 00003067 004 OF 005

08/09/2008. Among the six were reportedly two American citizens belonging to the “Students for a Free Tibet” organization. All protesters attempted to display either Tibetan flags or banners calling for an end to human rights abuses in China and were escorted from the arena by venue security. In one incident, the demonstrator refused to leave and was forcibly removed from the area.

US embassy cables: Olympic threat to Bush, Brown and Miliband | World news | guardian.co.uk