The other night I was was having dinner with a new friend in a dingy but comfortable Mexican restaurant in Oakland. Over veggie tacos, she was telling me about a project she was working on, one that she moved to the Bay Area specifically for. She recounted how much work had already gone into it,…
Category: Civil Society
Designing Your Life: Applying a Designer’s Mindset to Your Career
I just finished Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. A present from a good friend (Thanks, Barry!), it comes at a perfect time in my life, as I contemplate a career shift. Designing Your Life is essentially a guide to applying a design-thinking process to career planning. As someone who has done…
Nana’s Rolls, Mom’s Spaghetti, Nairobian Langoustines: Your Wonderful Food Stories
For my birthday this year, I decided to request my friends to send me personal stories about food. I’m so impressed with the stories that people shared! Here are some of my favorites. Mom’s Noodles Credit: CC-licensed photo by Cameron Cassan Homemade spaghetti came up a couple of times in friend's stories. My friend Jim…
Happy 11th Birthday, Rikomatic.com!
My blog Rikomatic.com turns eleven years old tomorrow! The site has gone through lots of changes and revisions over the years. It actually started out as an experiment using the Plone web development platform and has morphed over the years into the stunning site you see today. For the first few years, rikomatic.com was where I mostly wrote…
Five Swing Event Organizers Talk about Creating Safer Dance Spaces
In light of the ongoing conversations in the lindy hop world on how we create safer dance spaces for all, Nicole Zuckerman, Manu Smith and I produced an online forum for events organizers on February 4, 2015. Participants included an all-star line up of prominent leaders in the swing community: Hilary Alexander, organizer of Camp Hollywood Scott…
An Up Close and Violent View of the Uber / Taxi War
VS A few weeks ago, I had a very in-your-face encounter with the death match going on between ridesharing services — particular Uber — and municipal taxis. I've been reading some of the articles and blog posts about how much Uber has cut into the taxi and limo business, and things do not look good…
A Raw and Honest Conversation on Creating Safer Dance Spaces
Since last week, the lindy hop community has been reeling from revelations that well-known dance instructor Steven Mitchell has been sexually abusive to multiple women (including some teens) over the span of many, many years. We've been struggling to find some light in the midst of the darkness. From that context, a bunch of us…
Global Kids: Celebrating 25 Years Transforming Urban Teens into Global Leaders!
I had the pleasure of working at Global Kids in NYC for a couple of years, as part of their Online Leadership Program, where I learned so much about youth development, digital learning, and teen leadership. I definitely would not be where I am today without the experiences and connections I made at Global Kids….
“This Connected Life” : Fostering Youth Voice in Local Learning Networks (video)
This past weekend, I had the honor of MCing a fun panel discussion among educators in three locales in the US on the topic of fostering youth voice in local learning networks. If you are a local educator and looking for ways to better serve your youth community, I recommend that you check out the…
They Set Us Up the Bomb: Police Repression, Bomb Threats, & Digital Democracy in Ukraine
Today was so strange I don’t even know where to start. I’m in Ivano-Frankivsk, a small city in Western Ukraine, where I was brought by the US Embassy to lead some trainings in digital media for local NGOs. I’ve done a few of these technology trainings for civil society organizations around the world, and had…