Yearly Archives 2004

Starbucks has a new program they're calling "The Way I See It," which looks like an IP-and-sip program to spur topical conversation at your local Starbucks and, presumably, online. They plan to publish comments on their cups from "writers, artists, musicians, scientists, leaders, educators, activists, athletes and others." Then you can submit a response or your own original thoughts, online or the old fashioned way, by mailing in 65 words or less using a handy form available next to your napkins and T-Mobile brochures (no postage necessary if mailed in the United States). One hitch. Even though the pamphlet says you can submit your thoughts at www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit, that web address fails, at least today. Maybe my local Starbucks put the pamphlets out a little early? But it sounds great. I've always loved the idea of contributing to a virtual conversation by mailing in your comments. There's a reason we call…

Last week, someone stole my debit card number and tried to buy skateboard equipment. That's identity theft. Also last week, my future employer the A.C.L.U. ran into controversy for compiling public information on its donors' affiliations and giving histories. That's research. The service A.C.L.U. uses is called "Prospect Explorer." It looks as if it just pulls together a lot of already available data (which is what ED Anthony Romero says in his initial response to the controversy), but when you're a protector of rights in general and privacy in particular, the spirit of your practices matters nearly as much as the substance, so I'm sure there will be more about this from the A.C.L.U. and its skeptics in the coming days. Is there a penumbra of privacy around everything we've done publically but facelessly? I can't control all the traces I leave behind. And as technology makes the global data-litter…

Lots of pain and debriefing among my liberal friends (which is nearly all but not all-all) about what happens now. It seems to fall into the Forget It camp and the Change or Die camp. As sad as I was to see well-spun ideology beat out good judgment and appeals to fairness, I'm thinking that the Change or Die crowd has it right. If the blue states and the so-called flyover states agree to disagree and leave it there, much that should not be forgotten will be lost. Contrast this admittedly funny map of how North America feels to many this week, with this actual county-by-county voting results map. It turns out that a lot of the nation is purple. Shouldn't we try to move forward with that in mind? For more on this, see this recent Op-Ed in the Monitor by Laura Chasin of the Public Conversations Project, and…

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