Community Contest 2007: Putting Others First

I’d like to introduce you to Sophia Travis, a Monroe County Councilperson for my local government. She is not only doing a public service by, well, serving the public as a local leader, but Sophia is also a pioneering blogger in our neck of the woods. Her blog, Pin the Tail, is active and filled with a lot of important insights into the back channels of local government. It is my hope that she inspires her peers to do the same.

2 folks that come to mind that I ALWAYS enjoy talking to, and are a wealth of community knowledge are:

Gail Williams - Salon / The WELL - http://gailwilliams.wordpress.com/
Scott Moore - Schwab Learning - http://phoom.blogspot.com/

I have to put Ed Roberts up here. Ed covers things from New Media to the weather and is always thought provoking, entertaining, and usually educational.

Ed is also very approachable and loves to share ideas. He is one hell of a blogger, and a damn fine podcaster as well.

I just discovered Faris Yakob’s blog at http://farisyakob.typepad.com/. Really interesting stuff, and you can almost hear his British accent! (Well, I can only assume he has one. We’ve never met, nor has he heard of me. Not until now! Hi Faris! Want to do a Facebook Interview for our Marketing 2.0 group?

My choice would be Rebecca at Modite Blog (http://modite.com/blog/) I don’t really know her well but recently found her blog and she posts with so much energetic and is encouraging to read sometimes. Completely idealistic but this helps to really trumpet the potential of and challenge a rising Generation (Gen Y) [to live up to that potenital] and through her insight from what I’ve read encourages me to do the same.

I nominate Isabel Hilborn. She can take a brass elephant, all polished and shiny and you’re happy with it, and turn it into a gold elephant, right before your eyes. You wouldn’t think a person could improve something so; it must be the literature degree from Harvard.

I nominate Tim “Masiguy” Jackson. http://masiguy.blogspot.com
Tim always puts others first - his friends, his kids, his coworkers. He’s a busy guy but takes time to foster all kinds of community spirit through his blog and the group blog he put together and the industry podcast he’s part of and….(taking a breath)…teaching newbies how it’s done without missing a beat (kind of like someone else I know….). He’s passionate about cycling and let’s that show in his blog and around the whole community. Currently, he’s been posting about the fires in Southern California, with pictures, since it’s all he can think about with it literally in his back yard.

One of the originals in online (and offline) community is John Coate. John is one of the founders of The WELL (www.well.com) and in the 70s was one of the founders of the offline commune called “The Farm” in Tennessee (75 hippies from San Francisco in 6 school buses drove east and stopped in Tennessee to build a huge, still successful) - I always wanted to go join the farm as a teen, heh).

You can watch John at: I can’t find the URL anywhere but he spoke at Stanford and MIT a few years back and it was phenomenal. I’ll keep looking.

you can read his (his)story at: http://cervisa.com/

and most recently he spoke at MIT: http://civic.mit.edu/?p=13

John and I are friends and colleagues. I hired him at Habbo in 2004 after he’d sent me his resume. I saw “The Farm” and “The Well” in his cover letter and felt like we’d struck gold.

He’s truly “the man” when it comes to community building and knowledge. He’s lived it, breathed it and walked it for 30+ years.

Rebecca

Definitely, google him, he’s fascinating and a heck of a nice guy.

I nominate Tim Rayburn at http://www.timrayburn.net/. Tim is an active member of the .net developer community in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He is always available and approachable and above all willing to share his excitement and enthusiasm for .net and all things geeky.

Tim is a gifted speaker and an all around excellent guy. I’ve learned a lot talking with Tim and listening to him help others before and after user group meetings and at Microsoft events. Tim isn’t a Microsoft employee. He doesn’t do it because he has to; he does it for the love of the game. In my book, that’s pretty cool.

Im pretty sure this is the farthest from what you are requesting, but I don’t read many “cutting edge” blogs so for me…

The blogger that I have found of most interest is Anthony (Tony) from Toronto, Ontario. Most bizarrely he has never seen the Internet, has never touched a computer, nor has had the any of the luxuries most of us take for granted on a daily basis. His blogging will not profit us nor will it entertain us, but it will open our eyes.

Tony is one of many homeless we see, he lives on the street, and he is the face (and now voice) behind what most of try to ignore or are ignorant or fearful of.

His words are brought to us, in blogger format, by Phil. Phil doesn’t edit Tony’s words, nor does he try to make Tony look innocent nor appear as a victim.

We live in a society of irrational fears of strangers and serious phobias of scams and con-artists as well as overwhelming stats, which makes it much too easily overt our eyes from making contact with the homelessness of our cities.

Phil gives Tony a voice, and while Tony’s story is far from complete, and surely will not end with a happy ending, we are better educated and informed by the knowledge he bestows on us. Most poignantly he describes why getting a job is not nearly as simple as we want to believe, and how family is not always about blood and genes and why things like shelters are not always the answer. His words can be found here… http://homelessmanspeaks.wordpress.com/

JaneyRedBrick@gmail.com

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