Archive - 5
December 29th
Goals for the New Year
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 12/29/2005 - 22:26
Well, 2005 is coming to a close, and like the end of any year, it is a good time to look at what has happened and what the goals for the coming year should be.
Clearly, the top priority is my finances. I have to make sure that there is enough bread on the table. Beyond that there are the all the political issues, how to move the political dialog to more responsibly address the needs of all people, and not just the rich and powerful. Then, there are more specific personal goals.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
Rate on NewsTrustDecember 28th
'I wish I could find a listserve where people are real.'
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 12/28/2005 - 14:14
I’m on a lot of mailing lists and I read a lot of blogs, and that line succinctly sums up a feeling that I seem to be hearing in a lot of places. Perhaps that is some of what has driven some of the interest in ‘Reality TV’ which has turned out to be not especially real. Perhaps that is some of what has driven interest in the ‘Post Broadcast’ political campaigns that we talk about at Greater Democracy. Perhaps it is some of what is driving Citizen Journalism and on the flip side, the decline of local newspapers.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 27th
Managing Reputational Risk with Blogs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 12/27/2005 - 16:38
(Originally published at Toomre.com)
Nick Barcia has written about the 3 Ms of Risk Management – Monitor, Measure and Manage. In financial services companies, measuring some types of risk is fairly straight forward. How many S&P equivalents are you long or short? Where is your risk on the interest rate curve, or in foreign currencies?
Other types of risk are harder to quantify. How do you quantify operational risk, or perhaps even more difficult, reputational risk?
Reputational risk can be viewed as the risk that a company’s reputation, its corporate goodwill, and so on can be diminished, or perhaps even enhanced. It falls into the area of public relations and marketing which often seems a little too murky and fuzzy for good quantitative risk managers. Yet it is an important area that is becoming even more important as laws and technology changes.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 26th
Stupid stuff, and the courage to be real
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 12/26/2005 - 19:08
I remember when Luke Jackson was in prison. He’d been out drinking one night and took the tops off of a bunch of parking meters. He was doing time in a rural jail when his mom died. The prison guards, they knew that when a man’s mom dies, he’s likely to try some stupid stuff, to try and escape and make it to the funeral, so Luke just spent the time in the box.
Luke Jackson, better know to his friends and movie goers as Cool Hand Luke is fiction, but this sort of stuff takes place everyday around us, and most of us probably never notice.
Gina Coggio’s post, Brinn's Bracelets made me think of Luke. Ms. Coggio writes about her students at a school in New Haven for the New Haven Independent, and in this latest entry she writes about one of her students getting arrested.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
"And so this is Christmas..."
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 12/26/2005 - 13:20
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun
Every year, we get the standard holiday greetings, with the typical two page letters describing what our friends have been up to. I’ve never sent out letters like that. These days, I simply encourage people to read my blog. One of the typical two page letters did include a link to a friend’s blog.
So, I’m taking a few moments to think about the year that has passed and write about our Christmas season. One of the most popular blog entries I’ve written is about the smoking jacket that I got for Christmas last year.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 23rd
More news from the front
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 12/23/2005 - 14:31
Mayor DeStefano sends Holiday Wishes to everyone.
Also, hat tip to Semper Gumby for pointing out this holiday message.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 22nd
The war on Christmas
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 12/22/2005 - 10:44
For a very interesting perspective on the War on Christmas, please read this post.
It makes me wonder if Santa is ordering secret wiretaps on elves.
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 19th
Pseudonymity and Anonymity online
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 12/19/2005 - 11:43
My online persona grew up in the world of MOOs, and I think that world can provide us some helpful insights in how pseudonymity and anonymity can work online.
Why is this important? Recently, there have been lots of discussions about anonymity and pseudonymity online. How can Craig’s List deal better with trolls and scamsters? How can Wikipedia better deal with people deliberately posting false information? How can we have better discussions in the comment sections of active blog sites? Would requiring some sort of consistent online identity help address these problems? What sort of level of verification should be used?
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 18th
Fiona in her first recital
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 12/18/2005 - 14:05
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
December 17th
Rousseau and Rasslin’ hogs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 12/17/2005 - 22:10
(Originally posted at Greater Democracy)
It has been many years since I read Rousseau’s Social Contract. It was back in college and I didn’t read it as closely as I should have. Yet it often comes to mind as I read discussions about the role government in the age of Internet technology, and how to handle trolls, spam and scamsters.
Recently, Craig Newmark wrote a message to a mailing list that I am on talking about issues that craigslist has had. “Starting in early October 2004, in our discussion boards, we saw a very large surge of disinformation. Specifically, we saw a lot of new people who were posting information that had already been discredited ..., and who also posted highly abusive personal attacks”
He goes on to say, “These folks seem to be organized as a decentralized network and are very persistent, a problem to this very day.
On our site, they're an annoyance; on Wikipedia, they're a societal problem, given the importance of Wikipedia.”
| 3.0( not yet rated ) |
