http://www.impublished.org/wordpress Occasional Notes Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:46:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Now that Joe Biden is finally getting some attention, a lot of people are thinking, "Who? A senator? For 35 years? Was running for president this year? Never heard of 'em." Below are two interviews from last August--one video, one audio--during the middle of the Democratic nomination race. I think they ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/who-is-this-biden-character/ A few updates to report on the Open Source Developer-Government Co-op project (but nothing new to report regarding a better name for this thing). 1. Early on, I said my big concern was avoiding the legal landmines that forbid the federal government from accepting free work. Tom Bruce at Cornell's Legal ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/govzilla-update-august08/ The essay I submitted to the Rebooting America essay contest was chosen as one of the three winners. Hooray! This means it was published in the resulting book (Amazon) along with essays from Clay, Doug, Aaron, Susan, Esther, Yochai...quite a group. If I had it to do over again, I would have ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/rebooting-american-essay-selected-for-book/ I'll be doing an online interview with Dave Witzel on July 23. I'm expecting it to center around the Man essay and the "Govzilla" project (I should come up with a better name), but you can submit a question about anything you like. http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/online-interview-with-dave-witzel-july-23/ Yesterday, Dan Phiffer and I launched Speechology.org. Think of it as an online fact checker for political ads and debates. Here's the backstory: A few months ago, I was watching the New Hampshire Republican debate. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee got into an argument when Huckabee accused Romney of not supporting ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/speechology/ The first draft of my most recent essay had a big chunk on politicians: running for office was the final of three suggestions I made to people who want to reform our government. I removed that chunk, but with PDF 12 hours away, I figured I'd post it anyway, as ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/selflesscandidates/ Three years ago, when I told a mentor from the tech sector that I was soon leaving my job as an intelligence analyst to start a technology Masters program, she replied, "It's good that you're getting out of that field." She didn't like the Intelligence Community's work, and in her ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/helptheman/ Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident recently sponsored an essay contest: When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787, they bravely conjured a new form of self-government. But they couldn't have imagined a mass society with instantaneous, many-to-many communications or many of the other innovations of modernity. So, replacing that quill pen ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/rebootamerica/ I've started a new blog over here. Like most of my projects, it was born out of frustration. When evaluating political candidates, we are constantly obsessed with things that don't matter: what drugs the candidates did while growing up, what scandalous thing their old friend did last week, what their ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/new-blog-the-wise-voters-reading-list/ I'm almost at my 1-year anniversary of working for myself. I think everyone who wants to do such a thing should be able to. So I've put together some thoughts on how I came to this point, and the challenges I'm facing. First, I want to explain why I think self-employment ... http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/selfemployment/