On Saturday, I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Maker Faire , an annual gathering of 10,000+ DIY enthusiasts, hackers, crafters, artists, cosplayers, and citizen scientists at a huge fairground pavilion in San Mateo. Described as a "festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement," Maker Faire is a…
Category: Civil Society
Hack-A-Thon for Youth Health March 31 in San Francisco
Attention Bay Area coders, designers and tech innovators! On March 31, TechSoup.org and ISIS are co-sponsoring a "hack-a-thon" on youth health in San Francisco. You can help design an app that can save the lives of young people. Here's the details: ISIS is hosting our first ever hack-a-thon, together with our partners TechSoup. A hack-a-thon…
Collect, Curate, and Share Images and Links with Pinterest
I've been playing around with a new web service called Pinterest that bills itself as a place to "organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web." That sounds suspiciously like a lot of other web services out there, like Delicious, wikis, tumblr, etc. What makes Pinterest stand out is the way…
On January 18 Yehoodi.com is going dark to Fight Web Censorship!
I couldn't be more proud of my website I help administer Yehoodi.com than I am today. Our team has taken the decision to join hundreds of other websites around the world — including Wikipedia , BoingBoing and Reddit — in shutting down our site on January 18 in protest of the PIPA / SOPA bills…
Art Confidential at the National Endowment for the Arts
Some folks have been asking what I was doing in Washington DC last week. What I can say at the moment is that I was participating in a project with the National Endowment for the Arts. I'm not at liberty to say what the nature of the project was yet, but all will be revealled…
Thousands take to the street for Occupy Oakland General Strike (pics)
I just spent about an hour at the Occupy Oakland General Strike today near Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. It was a beautiful day as thousands turned out to peacefully express their various political and economic views. Most were calling for some kind of economic reforms — greater taxes on the rich, curbing…
My Updated Work Portfolio: Virtual Fossil Digs, Kofi Annan, and Lindy Hop, oh my!
I updated my Work Portfolio to make it easier for people to see my most recent professional accomplishments in one place. Like this blog (and my life!), it covers a wide range of projects and disciplines, from virtual worlds to public speaking. And there's of course a lot I didn't include, since I've had such…
Vote for Global Kids to win $1 million to help at-risk teens become global leaders!
I'm excited to announce that Global Kids , a pioneering nonprofit that transforms the lives of thousands of urban teens into global leaders, is in the running for $1 million in the American Giving Awards sponsored by Chase. If you think that all young people deserve a chance to express themselves on important global issues, serve their…
On Dress Codes and Controlling Your Message: Look Sharp, Be Sharp
Reading this post on BoingBoing about the dress code for a high end boutique reminded me of something my old boss Bill Pace at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court used say. As an up-and-coming international NGO at the United Nations, we had a pretty steady stream of new staff and interns at the…
How to Give a Great Presentation, Online or Off : Video and Blog Recap
In case you missed my talk, on August 26, I joined Kivi Leroux Miller, president of the Nonprofit Marketing Guide and Nat Robinson, vice president for business development at SlideRocket, to talk about "Giving Great Presentations." It was a fun online event with lots of great questions from the virtual audience. And now you can watch the…