Mapping for Food Security with Online Web-tools

I was recently in New Orleans working with different organizations and government officials to better understand the opportunities that data-driven websites and online information systems would present in mitigating the effects of tragedy. In their case, the tragedy has happened, and they are very aware that it might happen again. Their experience in having to rebuild after Katrina has made it clear to them the importance of being prepared, and the things that become…

The Future of Education Software

Those of us who have integrated our work lives into our homes successfully understand the way working can feel when it is integrated into our living. It goes way beyond just being able to work in our jammies, and listen to the music we want and fix ourselves tea. These little freedoms we have in controlling our work environments add up, and eventually we are left with a sense that our work hours integrate into our lives seamlessly. There is no longer a division…

Cloud Computing and Free/Open Source Software

Within the field of technology, there is an undeniable bias towards web applications. There are a number of reasons for this. While still nascent, the internet is the most stable infrastructures in large part due to it's lack of centralization. It is also one of the single most readily available communication tools (probably right next to the telephone). Unlike telephone communication, the internet has the ability to store information in digital form, and…

Values + Organizing Principles

Regardless of whether organizing principles underlying the process of technology development are stated, they exist.

Being intentional about codifying these values at the beginning of a project creates an environment for collaboration and informs the process of integrating technology into the larger context of life's various projects.

The central guiding values for jellobrain are:

• The goal of…

Website Development Primer for Non-Profit Organizations

Creating a website involves the coordination of different technological and design systems. This primer is aimed at demonstrating the steps and what is involved with developing websites using content management systems.

Technological Systems

Technology development begins with building blocks of systems that must integrate with one another in order to be successful. These building blocks exist discreetly, and some of…

Can user generated content change the world?

An organization is a collection of people and resources whose common goals create an interdependence between them. The methods used to achieve these goals create flows of information, services, people and resources that mirror exchanges between stakeholders in the different communities they touch. These infrastructures (and the organizations that utilize them) become more effective the more they mirror the human systems which depend on them.

Traditionally underfunded, non-profit organizations (more than anyone) have a lot to gain from web and internet technologies customized to…

Urban Hiking: the first date

I had been planning this for a minute (southern for an unspecified and somewhat longer than expected amount of time). We would leave around 6pm, get on the trail by 7pm, and then arrive at the lake around 7:30pm with a wine bottle and some citronella candles. She would be pleasantly surprised by the whole event. It's not common to take a first date for a dog walk, and she might have been skeptical of the idea at first.

Urban Hiking: for the birds

One reason I go hiking is to hear the sound of birds. On almost every trail I have traversed, I can hear them. All different kinds with different calls. If I were not so quick to associate bird watching with middle age (which I am in denial of), I would know their names. As it stands now, I only know them by their calls, and because those calls are nameless, they exist outside of the culturally dominant scientific rationalism. Which is another reason I go hiking: to remember that there is something else, and to surround myself in it.

…

Urban Hiking: the Yellow Brick Road

It all started when I woke up to doggie diarrhea. I have wall to wall carpeting, and unless you are a product tester for Nature's Miracle, they just do not mix.

My dog has a sensitive stomach, and this isn't the first time for this kind of rude awakening, so after the mess was cleaned up, I decided to look for fencing materials. Sometimes these bouts of digestive distress can last for days, and I wanted to avoid multiple puddles while I am away at work.

So I headed out looking for abandoned chain link fence. Why pay $70 for more fencing material than I need, when…

Urban Hiking

Urban Hiking is at once an act of desperation, and a celebration of place.  I am finding more and more in my life that the experience of one is necessary for the existence of the other. 

Urban Hiking is a response to the city. 

It is a reclaiming of the tucked away spaces within a metropolitan area that are hidden,  These places are everywhere, and often connected with one…

Fishing in a Bottle

I was told to put fish in my office.

I don't want to give away too many trade secrets.  My sister said it was good for feng shui and encouraging abundance (money).  She said that I should get Betta fish because they are nearly indestructible.  So I got two, just in case.

The point being that sometimes running your life can be just about as scientific as a Ouija board.  In this case, I'm ramping up for business.  Economic disaster or not, I'm convinced that there are folks out there who want and need websites and databases.  And really, why…

Finding money in Trees

As all business people do from time to time, I was sitting in front of my computer yesterday and wondering if I was going to have enough work in 6 weeks to sustain me.  It's something that can eat away at a person.  It's a fear that we are almost encouraged to have these days.  When we talk about it with friends or colleagues, they shake their heads and agree.  And so we think we find our fears, sadly, justified.

Until we look out into the world around us - at really what's going on.  I don't mean this is a zen way.  Let me explain.

Today I was…

Cultural Viruses

There is a kind of information exchange or cultural programing that holds a particular interest for me as a technologist. 

We are aware that there are certain kinds of knowledge that stem from direct cultural context.  An example would be music or food.  These arguably are linked in some way directly to the land or culture they originated in.  And although when people move, they take these cultural tastes with them, they are visible even when they mutate into some sort of form.  An example would be that Mexican food in New Mexico is very different than in…

Pro-Creation: it's as fun as it sounds...

If I were to adopt a polemic, this would be it.

In any sense that these little two words together might be interpreted - as in:

1. being in favor of creating things
2. supporting people procreating (although maybe not literally)
3. being in favor of the act of creation
4. add yours here.

It's like saying 'good-good'.
At Reed there was a…

Creative Strategies for Survival

I don't need to say why this is important right now. We all get it and experience it every day. Survival is getting tricky for all of us but especially for organizations who rely on grant and foundation money for their bread and butter.

Survival of the Creative

We attribute 'survival of the fittest' to Darwin. And regardless of whether it really was Darwin or not, I would argue that to be creative is what was meant.
The word 'fit' conjures images of cave folk running away from woolly mammoths: the fast ones made it, the slower ones got squished. Or we might think…

Working Smarter through Tough Times

We have resources available to us that we don't see.

In lean economic times, it makes sense to account for the various flows of information and resources that travel through an organization. Mapping these flows enables us to take a birds eye view and see visually things that otherwise would be invisible. Especially in difficult economic times, working smarter means understanding what you are working with. There are some tips that I can offer people, businesses and organizations that are…

How to get the most out of your geek.

Technology is great until it doesn't work. And because most folks who use technology haven't had the stomach to look under the hood, when things stop working it requires the assistance of someone who knows their way around a computer.

Enter the geek.

Technological cries for help can range in intensity from, 'hey, when you get a chance can you take a look at this?', to 'holy shit, my face is melting!'. And the truth is that when technology goes wrong, because it's function is so central to the process of work and getting things done, it can seem like your face is melting.…

Organizational Ecosystems

This is a concept that is actually really simple.

Organization has a root word: organ. So does organism. This shared root is not accidental. In this case, an organ is an entity with a specific function.

You are an organism, and inside your body you have organs. Your lungs are meant to do something different than your heart is. But they both work together. The larger system of your body has sub-systems within it that…

Tips for Embarking on a Website Project

So you've come to the realization either that your current website isn't working for you, or that you want to create a new website for yourself, but you don't know where to start? You've come to the right place.

What kind of website?

There are different kinds of websites technologies out there that can make the web more accessible to you and your clients/customers/supporters. Below, I will briefly list each one, and talk about the pros and cons of each. Remember that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' type. They all work, it just depends on what your needs are.

Basic…