As I mentioned in my last post, I’m working for a few progressive campaigns around Minnesota. One that I just pushed live is for Marcus Harcus, a progressive activist in North Minneapolis. Marcus is a smart politician with great policy ideas and a lot of youthful energy. Plus, he’s just an overall nice guy and family man. This campaign is important to me not just because Marcus is a good friend, but because he’s running to be my representative, and I think he’d reflect my values well. He is the face of the changing Northside. Good luck, Marcus!

I’m currently building sites for a few progressive campaigns, and I’m happy to announce the launch of the first of these. I recently did a little identity freshening for the Joe Bodell for Minnetonka City Council campaign site. Joe is a strong progressive who is maybe best known as one of the founders of the Minnesota Progressive Project. I got introduced to Joe and his campaign via Tony Petrangelo, another MN Progressive Project contributor and fellow web developer, who suggested Joe’s site could use some work. Check out the result of my handiwork at joebodell.com.

Via Alt Text

jesseross |DOT| com |AT| gmail |DOT| com.

You can use the real one again now.

Take my most recent addictions: Google Current and Rocketboom. I’m sure I’ve mentioned Rocketboom before, since it’s just a damn awesome show, but I’ve really gotten back into it, mostly since upgrading my system has allowed me to store more video and play it more smoothly. Google Current is a relatively recent addiction, but one which got me hooked right off the bat.

Both are news-ish shows. Rocketboom has a focus more on discussing topics that are currently causing a buzz around blogs and forums of the net. Google Current takes a search term that’s been popular on Google lately, and expands that to show what people are actually searching for (and finding) on the Internet. What’s really remarkable about both shows is that they share a similar format: short shows (4 – 7 minutes average), with multiple stories/topics within that timeframe, and a good dosage of reality and humor.

Both shows “get” the Internet, and “get” web attention spans, and “get” how to connect with a busy, but involved, audience. The hosts of both shows (Amanda Congdon on RB, and Conor Knighton and Kinga Philipps on GC) represent the web’s version of news anchors: they’re young, they goof around, and they have the right balance of geek and chic. Neither show is overtly glossy or rehearsed-feeling, although GC has a bit more of that, due to being backed by Current TV’s (and presumably Google’s) budget. Still, both shows feel like someone with the right equipment and time could have produced it out of their basement.

The Internet already has a lot of stories and myths, and a rich world-spanning history. It’s amazing to be at the beginning of this, and to see the formation of Entertainment around the Internet, as people start to tell (and broadcast) these stories. As the gypsies would say:

May you live in interesting times.

Indeed.

• Via Sašo:

  In Terry Prattchet’s Discworld there was a nice sentence like “and then he was surprised like a man is surprised by something which he previously thought only happens to other people”.

• The Internet is important for me, because, just as with other forms of publishing technology before it, the burden of remembering things is placed on the network, rather than the individual.
• In my informal testing at work, between Firefox, Flock and Safari, Safari (with the Sogudi extension) wins in terms of just consumer satisfaction and comfort (for me anyway). The only thing I miss from Firefox and Flock are the “Type to search” feature (and, to a lesser extent, the live, incremental search via page indexing).
• Lucid dreaming might just gain me an extra 6 hours or so of productivity a day. I think that’s worth running into walls for.
• Flash is weird. Period.
• Open source developers might just be good at copying the innovations of others, but at least they’re really good at it. [RealPlayer video]
• It’s not important to take over the world — just leave a positive mark on it.
• People like what I do.