I suppose with the banking meltdown and the auto manufacturer bailout in the United States, it was only a matter of time before the newspapers saw an opportunity. Oh, you haven't heard? Reuters reported 'Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate'. And the news is already flying around the internet, adding insult to injury. No, it isn't a Federal bailout. But it's a State Bailout being discussed in Connecticut.

After all, the Internet is what is being blamed instead of business planning which encompasses the Internet. That isn't in the Reuters article, but we all know that it should be - the first thing blamed by old media is the new media. Craigslist gets marched out first and pointed at. Then all the blogs, I suppose.

Anything but their own inability to adapt. So, for a bailout proposal at any level, they should explain how they are going to deal with the Internet. And, to this point, it hasn't been very promising. The scale of economy on the Internet means less overhead for traditional media.

Other thoughts on this revolve around a government controlled media, which - funny enough - Fox News didn't mention.

MaketingShift has a great post on this - here are two tidbits:

...I worked at a local paper, and I'll be the first to tell you that a government-funded bailout, at the state or federal level, is NOT the solution. A government-funded press isn't a free press, and it won't fulfill its duty to cover the government without any influence. Once D.C. or your state starts throwing cash at your newspaper, they'll be obligated to return the favor... { Read more }

It's that time of year. And it's almost that time of year. And I have lasagna to make, so I'll just put up a short post here.

2008 was a crazy year for me. I got my deed this year for land my father left me, which saw me dipping my hands into agriculture, land management and real estate - all relatively unfamiliar things for me until this year. As usual, I dove in and gained some level of competency in all of the above - what level is yet to be determined. I am in no way an expert, that much I know. But in all of that, I learned a lot more too.

2009 will largely speak for itself. But plans for this site include a more innate focus on book reviews, quotations, and technology related writing. In essence, more of the same... but with a twist. I am informally retiring from 'professional' Information Technology. I will not be looking for projects or work; I have enough on my plate with the land, agriculture and real estate - and, hopefully, writing.

Bonus: To map things out, I've been using FreeMind, a mind mapping tool. I won't get into the pros and cons of mind mapping as I am fairly new at it, but I will say that it seems to be a comfortable way for me to look at the scattered impulses and projects that I'm involved in.

Update: As mentioned Your2ndPlace.com is back up. Short story: After opening another ticket and pointing to the last ticket where I explained the solutions for the problems...

I have been hosting with BlueHost.com for about 2 years at this point - Your2ndPlace.com, OpenDepth.com and KnowProSE.com. And BlueHost.com has been great. There have been issues as there always are, but they were worked through.

Today, though, I got a message that Your2ndPlace.com with a subject of:

WEB HOSTING ACCOUNT DEACTIVATED for YOUR2NDPLACE.COM

The meat of the message was:

Dear Taran:

Your web hosting account for your2ndplace.com has been deactivated (reason: site causing performance problems).
Although your web site has been disabled, your data may still be available for
up to 15 days, after which it will be deleted.

If you feel this deactivation is in error, please contact customer support as
soon as possible.

Thank you,
BlueHost.Com Support
http://www.bluehost.com

There was no warning. I was completely flabbergasted by this. So I sent in a support ticket that asked about the problem - since the problem isn't very apparent from the message. And here's the thing: All three of my websites are running the same software: Drupal 6.x. I got a response back that basically said that they were allowing me access to find out what was wrong and fix it. { Read more }

It would be a surprise had Trinidad and Tobago not already gone this route a few years ago - attempting to close telecenters (cyber cafes, whatever you wish to call them) because of VoIP use, antiquated Law and what amounts to poor judgement. It seems that the CARICOM members have no handle on technology and it's positive impact on the economy, and Guyana is no different: Guyana is to close Net Cafes due to cheaper calls.

Myopia certainly does know bounds. Maybe Guyana will see a future beyond this sort of myopia.

I haven't been setting thought to keyboard in about 2 weeks, and there's a reason for that. Sometimes a person just needs to think for a bit, and consider vectors. My life, at present, is pulling me in many different directions. Each direction is interesting and rewarding in it's own way, but some seemed opposed. They didn't have to be opposed, as I suspected, but it did require some time to figure that out and write about it as vaguely as I have done in this paragraph.

The first order of business is what I want to do. Over the last 7-8 years, I've spent a lot of time corresponding and discussing things on email lists regarding open source, technology use, the digital divide, and other things. More recently, a part of my life has become land related. And as that came forward, so too have other things. But I have found that there is little that I can discuss further on many topics until things actually change. It's sort of like waiting for an Obama to happen in many different areas, I suppose, but things have to go on despite a lack of change. In fact, things have to go on because of a lack of change.

So I've canceled a bunch of Google Alerts. I've trimmed my email lists down significantly; many of the email lists that I have participated in over the years simply don't give me as much value for my time as they used to. And this free time that I've created has made space for some new projects after this ebb.

I'll be launching a new site - CaribNexus.net. I'm also considering joining an active project, which I will not announce until I have decided. Plus there is the aquaculture and agriculture, the entrepreneurship possibilities in some areas. There will be no more volunteer work for NGOs, and there will likely be no more meetings and conferences in the near future. It's time to get things going, and there are many things to get going.

So if you actually missed me writing for this period, I apologize without apology - it was necessary.

The Trinidad Express Editor seems confused about what a profession is:

...In the English languageby definition a profession is any activity that is a paid occupation in which there is some form of formal training and some form of certification...

The control characters ('Â') come courtesy of a straightforward copy and paste, and I have made not bothered to fix 'languageby' - both of which demonstrate a poor process for putting things on the Internet. But before you become too distracted - a 'profession' is not as defined by the editorial maven of the Trinidad Express.

First, let's look at the root of the word 'profession'. From the etymology of the word 'profession':

...profession

c.1225, "vows taken upon entering a religious order," from O.Fr. profession, from L. professionem (nom. professio) "public declaration," from professus (see profess). Meaning "occupation one professes to be skilled in" is from 1541; meaning "body of persons engaged in some occupation" is from 1610; as a euphemism for "prostitution" (e.g. oldest profession) it is recorded from 1888. Professional (adj.) is first recorded 1747 with sense of "pertaining to a profession;" 1884 as opposite of amateur. As a noun, it is attested from 1811. Professionalism is from 1856.

... { Read more }

:: Schmap Ottawa Fifth Edition: Photo Inclusion

Here I am, doing my own PR again. The photo, at left, has been included in the newly released fifth edition of the Schmap Ottawa Guide:

http://www.schmap.com/ottawa/entertainment_artgalleries/p=158346/i=158346_24.jpg

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how the photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of the guide at:

http://www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=ottawa&sid=entertainment_artgalleries&p=158346&i=158346_24

And there is also a widgetized version of the Schmap Ottawa Guide available here. It looks like this: { Read more }

While I was at the Caribbean Internet Forum, the focus was on innovation - and one younger man brought up to innovate, funding needs to be provided. Due to the context of the conversation, it was implicit that someone had to provide the funding. I responded, saying that if you're looking for funding then you're not innovating. Two broad brushes met and disagreed, but for brevity I didn't really explain my position.

A fellow came up to me afterward - from one of the telecommunication regulation agencies - and told me he understood what I meant. In Cuba, to get something laminated, he'd seen people use two steam irons and some plastic. Innovation. Using what you have to do things that need to get done. And this is where funding agencies and philanthropists fail and, in my opinion, will continue to fail. My problem has been that I haven't explained the inductive kick that got me to my theory on failures of funding agencies and philanthropists. Watching Thomas Friedman talk about bubbles on Jon Stewart while doing some PR for his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America¹, got me thinking about how to explain this all.

Since my experience with funding agencies and so forth is in the Caribbean, my examples will focus there. I've seen Caribbean initiatives die lingering deaths after funding was cut because there was no 'exit strategy' of worth - or the 'exit strategy' was not implemented. { Read more }