Back from an amazing, exhausting, exhilarating weekend at Web of Change 2013. I reconnected with old friends, met internet colleagues in person, and joined an amazing community of people working to make the world a better place. I was a little nervous about the hype of the conference (the words “life changing” were used), but I threw my cynicism into the opening bonfire, and let my heart open.
For my annual visit to the east coast, I started at a wedding in Harrisburg, then to an anniversary party in Albany, then seeing old and new friends in Boston, wood stacking and lobster eating in Strafford, beach walking and Scrabble-playing in Maine, and finally some home time in Norwich. Whew.
Labor Day weekend camping trip with Ruth, Lauren and John to Salt Point.
Finishing a retreat week on a new project with my old advisor. It’s an open-source system to build a network of hyper-cheap local radio stations, using some new tricks with cloud telephony and internet-enabled program dynamics. It’s generously sponsored by the Knight Foundation, and led by Chris Csikszentmihalyi and Jude Mukundane. I’m excited to help think through some of the technology architecture and build an initial demo for a pilot project in Uganda. Check it out at rootio.org and github.org/rootio
On our way back to Anchorage for our flight home, we took a slight detour on the Hope highway. It’s a small town of 192 people, but it used to be the largest in Alaska during a gold rush in 1896. We saw the town museum, took a tour led by the entire fifth grade class (one kid, Alex), and saw a sign of some latent liberal values.