It was late 2004. I had been asked to make the idea of a small business incubator in Beaverton, Oregon (Portland outskirts) a reality. The City of Beaverton put up the initial funding. The Software Association of Oregon (SAO), learning of this, decided to jump in with some gentle nudging to make sure the incubator [...]
Infrastructure!
No, this isn't about Congress and the latest efforts to allocate funding to infrastructure. It's a thoughtful whitepaper from October 2020 that I just got around to reading, the product of research by Siegel Family Endowment. "Infrastructure: Building the Future We Deserve" resonates with me because it speaks to themes that reflect how I think [...]
Ecosystems, through-lines, and Professor Viamonte
Lately I have been writing about how to create solutions that cut across a market with participants of unequal wealth or power. In other words, you see a complex ecosystem and wonder if there's some way to connect all participants in a way that brings benefits to the underserved and favored alike. I keep thinking [...]
Endowments and colonization
When a dear friend asked me to sit on a church organization's investment and endowment committee I balked. This is New York City, the land of Wall Street and astute bankers. What could I possibly add to any discussion, much less decision? Finally, I agreed but it would take many months before I was captivated. [...]
What can I do?
It's a question almost everyone I know is asking. What does it really mean to be fully anti-racist? I am a white person living in a gloriously diverse community. We have these exchanges more now than ever before but in that context I mostly am in listening, learning, and supporting mode. This post offers preliminary [...]
Technology for good
Also sometimes called "public interest technology." If we're serious about re-imagining systems, one possible outcome of the great 2020 pandemic, then we have to examine the whole of technology. First thing it's important to understand: Technology is not neutral and technology that delivers services to those in need, even in the form of humanitarian aid, [...]
What’s in a word?
One of my favorite colleagues from the community of advocates for agency online, Doc Searls, posed this question today. What if we called the phenomenon of being tracked on almost every website and across the internet worm instead of cookie? Would it help if it did not suggest something that sounds comforting? Check it out [...]
About economic justice . . . again
I'm still self-isolating although I do have plans to meet some friends for distanced drinks in a few minutes. Much more seriously, of all the news and punditry about the pandemic grabbing my attention, the one that rankles most is the way it is exposing economic inequality. And that inequality shows up in unequal access [...]
