Media-created controversy regarding Obama's speech to Children
Prior to Obama’s speech on Sept 8, 2009 to K-12 students, "controversy" abounded from many large and small media outlets. The White House (which I recently noticed has also adopted the alias of wh.gov) released talking points prior to the speech, and still the uproar was substantial. The controversy centered around a so-called ‘socialist agenda’, that supposedly was being espoused primarily by the Republican party (and irate parents threatening to keep their children home from school to prevent them from seeing the speech). And with the deliverance of the 18+ minute speech, where Obama stressed to the students the importance of taking responsibility for their own action, the waves of "controversy" ceased with no ripple.
Perhaps everybody who had an issue prior to the speech was convinced otherwise and withdrew the criticism. However, it seems more likely that the entire controversy was created by the media itself (on behalf of some person or some group).
Once upon a time, the job of the media was to gather and report facts to the people that they otherwise would not be exposed to. Media has grown to incorporate more editorials and opinion-based content that is a far cry from the fact-gathering days of old. More content is being published in more ways than ever before. Today, media-created controversy abounds in a vast sea of ever-changing information, not only watering down the facts with opinion, but polluting the ocean of ideas with low-quality messages. For the media to report a controversy… I’m okay with that. Should it dominate the news? No. For the media to create its own ‘controversy’ and make it dominate the news… that is the unfortunate state of affairs in the world today.
Hazardous Consumables in Our Stores
Regarding Hazardous Industry, today I purchased a staple gun at the local Big Lots. The staple gun is metallic, comes with 400 staples, 100 in 4 different depths, and it cost $10. I got it home and began to unwrap it when I noticed a California State Warning on the package notifying me that handling the staple gun is potentially hazardous, due to the lead content. The notice also suggested that I wash my hands after each use. Yikes! And, I search for the manufacturing information… and I read "MADE IN CHINA". I’m the culprit, the ultimate supporter of this, as my $10 stood as my approval of such things… although I wouldn’t do it again. It’s a shame however that Power Pro, the staple gun’s manufacturer would sell such a product. I’ll have to keep my eye out for a less hazardous staple gun.
Lately, as of July 31
I’ve been contemplating an assortment of ideas for a while now. Trying to determine how to integrate my many, many interests into my daily routine, while balancing my personal life and work as well. Public Transparency – Encouraging more effective and efficient government agencies, through hands-on application, such as Business Process Management Library templates for common public functions. So many public functions are common: property taxes, cemetery management, board policy-making processes, parking ticket administration. I am interested in facilitating dialogue between the many different, but commonly-purposed public agencies to find and realize efficiencies in work. I am also interested in the role of government as our nations #1 employer. I have not come to grips with how to judge this situation; is it a good thing or bad thing? I’m not sure. But I am sure that our largest workforce could surely be put to better use through the re-thinking and re-focusing of public efforts. The BIG questions need to be asked in order for dialogue to be generated and eventually resolve issues such as: to what extent does welfare work and what do we want for our Welfare System? Health Care? Education? And more personal issues, such as: Privacy, Advertising, Food Production and Procurement, and Hazardous Industry. Back to the BIG Questions – I think that if people understood the amount of money being spent on public services; truly understood – things would change. Public pressure would naturally develop to counteract the seemingly continual abuse of public funds and public trust. I hope to increase government transparency and reduce the obstacles to participation in community-building and local politics.
Government & Public Transparency
It is encouraging that so much is being done on this front. The public is rising to the task of organizing, exposing and sharing data generated and tracked by government (public) agencies. I am specifically interested in seeing the layers of government come to light in a way that provides context and clarifies the vague notion of ‘big government’, by providing a look at the vastness and details simultaneously. Visualizations and interactive applications are ripe for application to public data. Developers are pushing forward – the results will vary and provide an early foundation for a resing level of citizen informedness and participative opportunities.
Do You Feel It?
Chris Jordan speaks on his artwork and about culture. I especially like his view on taking “statistics from the raw language of data and to translate them into a more universal visual language that can be felt.” “If we can feel these issues more deeply then they would matter more to us than they do now.”
a start
More Quality is focused on improving the quality of government. Specifically, I am interested in quantitative assessments of government, for the purpose of identifying smarter ways to provide government services, in a sustainable manner. Many of these ideas are focused around Open Source solutions. Open Source Process Design, Software Development, Management, and Architecture are all blossoming fields applicable to public service.
Public Services is huge business. Government is huge business. I am interested in fiscal responsibility, effectiveness, sustainability, and transparency.
To this end, I am working on Goversight.org (Data-centric), The Public Dialogue (Communication/Discourse), and ProjectRedCard (Land Development). Each of these projects are public-sector related.
Exposing public records to the public in realtime would help eliminate ‘fringe’ spending: the lunches, and minor major perks. At least, open public records would increase the likelihood they would become subject to public oversight. Public oversight of government operations changes political behavior. Providing the transparency exposes the inner workings (or at least the results) of decision-making processes. This requires 3 main ongoing processes: the storage of public data (what data is stored, by whom? and for what?. Access to data (what classification is the information)? public [open access for all] or confidential [no access for all] or credentialed [requiring ID & log for access]. Making meaning of data [identifying contexts and views for which the data becomes valuable, what metrics mean and how should they be used? – internal: budgets, employment, expenditures; public: taxes, community building, capital projects, land values]