1.



Anya is now 14 weeks old, or just a smidge over three months. She has gone from an oblivious blob who only eats, sleeps, cries and poops, to a budding consciousness forming connections with the world around her, and discovering how she fits into that world. Who also, still, mostly, eats, sleeps, cries and poops.

It's amazing to watch her get the hang of things, even at this young age. She's figured out how to physically grasp things now, and her favorite toys are those with rings she can grip and then shake the hell out of. Her neck muscles are strong enough to hold her head upright now, and one of her favorite things is sitting up. She's on the cusp of being able to support her own weight on her legs.

She's officially in the middle of a growth spurt at the moment, and her feeding amount has spiked. When she's hungry, all our neighbors know it.

I look at her and I see a beautiful, healthy, happy little girl. What's not as obvious is that she was born with an abnormality that, while treatable, has meant a lot more work than both Janet and I had planned for.

2.



About 20 seconds after Anya was born, the midwife conducted a series of Apgar tests to assess her general health and determine whether she needed any immediate medical attention. (She didn't, thankfully.) Anya was then weighed, wrapped up, and placed under a heat lamp like a quarter-pounder-with-cheese combo meal awaiting order pickup. All during this, I was gently touching her fingers and stroking her head, astonished that I was inexplicably now a father. Afterward, she was brought over for Janet to hold.

Sometime in there (I don't remember exactly when, as the activity after the birth was all a bit of a blur), the midwife ran her pinky finger along the roof of Anya's mouth, and frowned. The surface was rougher than she expected, so after Janet and I spent a bit of time looking and touching and fawning over our new daughter, the midwife took Anya down the hall to the NICU for cleaning up and observation.

Janet and I got settled in her hospital room; they were out of single rooms that first night, so she had to share with a woman who had noisy visitors and kept the TV on all night long, which, added to the pain of childbirth meant she didn't get a lot of sleep that night. On top of this was the news we got before I left to go home.

I'd heard that the pediatrician on duty, Dr Lim, wanted to take a look at Anya before letting her out of the NICU. After waiting and waiting for hours, during which time I tried fruitlessly to comfort Janet after the epidural drugs had worn off, and encourage her to eat something for dinner, I got tired of waiting and walked down to the NICU myself. I found Anya's cot in the corner, and she was sleeping, unclothed but for a diaper, electric leads monitoring her heart rate and other vital functions. She was so tiny and fragile in that moment that I wanted to sob.

I looked up and spied Dr Lim making his way around the room to check on all the babies there. He finally made his way to Anya's cot and I shook his hand. He relayed to me the widwife's worries, and then took out a penlight so he could look inside Anya's mouth. She fussed a bit, but after he examined her, she went straight back to sleep.

"Okay," he said, softly. "You look like a calm and rational gentleman, so I'll just tell this to you straight. Your baby has a cleft palate."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that when her head and face were forming, the tissues on the inside of her mouth didn't close up. This feels like a fairly wide cleft, which basically means that the roof of her mouth, which separates the inside of the mouth from the nasal cavity, is missing."

I can't really remember the physiological effects that the news had on me, but I'm pretty sure that at the very least all the blood drained out of my face. I do recall the doctor putting a gentle hand on my arm, most likely in response to my expression.

"Is she going to be okay?"

Dr Lim smiled and said, "Yes, this is actually a very treatable defect. In about six months to a year, she'll have a surgery to close up the cleft, and once she heals, no one will be able to tell that she ever had a cleft palate in the first place. She's otherwise a very healthy baby."

Dr Lim accompanied me back down the hall to Janet's room, and relayed the news to her. Considering the amount of pain she was in, and the abruptness of the news, she took it well. The doctor added that because of the cleft, Anya wouldn't be able to create suction, and would therefore be unable to breastfeed. Janet could still express breast milk, but it would all have to be delivered to Anya in bottles. I could tell that Janet was disappointed, but although it would mean more work to use the manual pump, Anya could still drink breast milk, although it seemed that the majority of her food would need to come from formula.

(For the rest of our stay in the hospital, Dr Lim came back a number of times to check on us, and his gentle nature and his office's proximity to our flat led us to choose him for Anya's regular pediatrician.)

The next morning after Anya was wheeled in, we were visited by a nurse from the Cleft and Craniofacial Centre (CCRC) at nearby KK Women's and Children's Hospital, to show us the special bottles and teats (both made by Pigeon) that we would need to use to feed Anya. She demonstrated, and then had both Janet and I practice. The teats have a a notch at the top to help guide where it should be placed; the top side is stiffer to help Anya brace it in her mouth, and the bottom side is thinner and more flexible to allow her tongue to pull the liquid out of the bottle. We also had to make sure that the bottle was at a 45 degree angle so that the liquid could be pulled through a plastic regulator.

It was a lot to take in, in addition to learning how to hold Anya and burp her and watch for spit-ups. Cleft palate babies tend to take in more air whilst feeding, so we needed (and still need) to stop one or two times in the middle of a feeding to burp Anya, so that the air wouldn't get trapped in her stomach. The spit-ups were even more harrowing, because of the linkages between nasal passages and ear canals; if fluid went up her nose, there was a good chance it could also get into her ears, and block sounds from fully reaching her eardrums. Persistant fluid build-up could lead to ear infections and possibly affect her speech once she starts learning to talk. So much to worry about, and we'd only been parents for one day.

Sometime during the day, we were moved to a single room (thank the Buddha, it was so much quieter and more spacious), which helped improve our moods. All new parents go through a period of anxiety at the beginning; my biggest worries, being a monster klutz, were holding Anya too tightly and dropping her. But we had a whole other level of worries on top of that. That said, the situation was fixable, and I kept reminding myself that there were many parents out there who had to deal with much bigger obstacles, such as premature birth, or glaucoma, or heart murmurs, or Down's syndrome, or sickle-cell anemia, etc. Anya didn't even have a cleft lip, which is much more visually obvious. Things could have been much more challenging. Remember, remember, over and over.

3.



When Anya was just over a month old, we headed to KK Hospital to meet the head of the CCRC, Dr Vincent Yeow, and to get his assessment of Anya. He told us that her cleft was quite wide, but that it was by no means the most severe one he had seen, and that it would be quite easy to close up with the surgery. In fact, it's quite a routine procedure at this point, and she should recover quickly. We wouldn't find out until later when exactly she'd be having the surgery, although he reiterated that it would be when she was between six months and a year old, and most preferably before she starts (a) learning to talk and (b) eating solid food. Even after the surgery, she'll need to go in to the CCRC on a periodic basis for speech therapy to ensure that she's forming the sounds correctly with her new palate.

A few days prior to the CCRC appointment, we'd taken Anya to the Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) doctor at KKH, and she failed to pass the hearing test that was given, despite the fact that after she was born she'd passed in both ears. The ENT doc said that in addition to any possible fluid buildup, cleft palate babies also had a harder time equalizing the pressure in their ears (like when you try to make your ears pop when descending in an airplane). This popping is usually aided by sucking during feeding, but she obviously couldn't do this.

We made an appointment for January to test her hearing again, but my heart leapt into my throat once again. If her hearing didn't improve, they'd likely have to surgically implant tubes in her ears to drain the fluid so that she'd be able to hear properly, and they would do it at the same time as the palate surgery so as to minimize the number of times she'd have to go under general anesthesia.

During this time, especially during the first month, Janet and I were struggling in taking care of Anya. Because of the special feeding methods, we couldn't just pass Anya off to anyone else to take care of in case we needed a rest. People would have to be trained up, and be able to keep a lot of information in their head. Plus, it felt like we were constantly washing and sterilizing bottles, and laundry had to be done every other day, and the plants were dying from neglect, and the flat was getting dirtier and dirtier, and we just didn't feel like we were getting the help that we needed.

It was an incredibly trying period, but I have to especially thank Janet's parents for being champions during this time, and since. Janet's father Raymond was over all the time, buying groceries, or putting together IKEA furniture, or cleaning ceiling fans, or fixing lights; basically doing the things that we didn't have the time or energy to do. He helped to feed Anya, and occasionally spent the night to aid in the early morning feedings. If this doesn't tell you what kind of person Raymond is, check out his conversation with Thubten Chonyi after attending a Chenrezing retreat at Sravasti Abbey last year. The man is a bodhissatva on earth, although he'd most likely say that sentiment was nonsense.

Janet's mum Ivy was over almost every day, bringing lunch and dinner either cooked by one of her sisters or bought at the food stalls downstairs. Even though she wasn't able to participate in the feedings, she was excellent at holding Anya afterwards and rocking her to sleep.

When my mom visited in December, she was also wonderful with Anya, helping with the feeding, soothing, bottle-washing, and other daily things that needed doing around the flat. She also talked to Anya quite a lot, letting her hear lots of new words in a calm tone of voice. I still greatly appreciate Mom making the very long trip to stay with us for ten days, and I know Anya enjoyed being with her Yiayia.

But we also needed more regular help. We attempted to hire a live-in confinement nanny, who would basically stay with us for the first month and take care of Anya so that Janet could rest and regain her strength, but the woman that the agency sent over only lasted a day, and barely that. She hardly spoke any English, she didn't write down any instructions, she didn't pay attention when we were telling her how to feed Anya or wash the bottles or do the laundry, and instead spent much of her time sitting in Anya's room staring at the wall. A void, a black hole of a person, and she made everything worse. The following morning, I called the agency, vociferously complained and demanded a full refund; thankfully, I got it, and the nanny was out the door by 9:30 a.m. or so.

The biggest problem then, and one that remains, was sleep. Janet and I were both sleep-deprived trying to negotiate the feeding schedule, and this made us irritable and on edge for days on end. When we got married, we didn't go through the traditional wedding vows (for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad, etc.), but these were certainly bad times. As before, I kept reminding myself that it would be very rough at the beginning, but as with all things, the situation was impermanent, and it would get better. I would need to weather the crying, and the yelling, and the meltdowns, and the feelings of being unappreciated and unwelcome, and then try to be supportive and loving and steady. It was a real test of our commitment to each other and to this tiny new life that we'd created, but in the end, it was strengthening.

4.



This blog entry has been a long time in coming. I haven't written it before now because, well, we were still dealing with the news ourselves, let alone telling the world about it. But the cleft palate is certainly nothing to be ashamed of (and we aren't), and I've come to appreciate and depend on the community that reads this blog, so I hope you understand.

When I asked Janet if she was okay with me blogging about Anya's cleft palate and all the difficulties that had resulted from it, she was a bit worried that we were "outing" Anya early, especially since in a year from now, no one will be able to tell that the roof of her mouth wasn't always there. But I feel that talking about what we've gone through will enable further conversation with other cleft palate parents in sharing experiences and tips and commiseration.

We certainly didn't plan for this eventuality, but that's life for you. It does no good to piss and moan about how unfair the universe is when more practical matters need attention. You accept the situation and you move on.

And I'm thankful every day that this is the only major hurdle that Anya will need to deal with for right now, that her situation is easy to remedy, that we live so close to such a kind pediatrician, that we're only a short drive away from a government hospital that specializes in Anya's condition, that Anya has such loving grandparents on both sides of her family. That health care here in Singapore is so affordable, that I work in a well-paid teaching job, and that we can get by comfortably right now on just my salary. That we have a cleaning lady come by once a week to do a good job making the flat free of dirt.

I'm also very thankful that on this past Saturday, Anya's hearing was tested again at the ENT, and she passed in her left ear. (Yay!) Her right ear was inconclusive, and she may not have passed because of either fluid or wax buildup. Still, hopeful news. We'll test her again in six weeks, and if she passes in both ears, they won't have to implant the tubes.

As well, I'm thankful that we've discovered the source of her current ultra-crankiness: not enough sleep. After the last visit to the ENT, we stopped in to a bookshop on the bottom floor of the hospital, and Janet found a book on fussy babies which detailed the causes and strategies to deal with fussiness. We've had to make sure Anya takes more naps during the day, and does so in a quiet environment (which is tough in urban Singapore). It's been a big adjustment for her, and the last few days have been nightmarish, but as of late last night her feeding has gotten better, and she seems more rested now.

But mostly I'm thankful for the precious gift of Anya herself, who already makes me laugh at unexpected moments and encourages me through her very existence to be a better father, a better husband, a better human being.

Programming is hard.

There's no way around it: Learning to make a computer do things means learning a new form of expression. It is not, in some ways, all that different from learning a spoken language.

But it's also fun in an addictive sort of way. It's like telling your Legos to build themselves. When things start to click, massive problems begin to break apart into a long series of eminently squashable bugs.

Before you start learning Django, a few things I recommend brushing up on:

• (X)HTML: This is, after all, a framework for building web applications. You don't have to be a pro, but you should know how content is structured online and how it gets there. Recommendation: HTML Dog.

• Understand relational databases: Again, no need to be an expert (my SQL skills still aren't what they should be), but you should understand what a relational database is and why it's important on the web. Two recommendations here: First, an introduction to databases. Then, start playing around with SQLite.

• Install Wordpress: The modern web is built on applications, and blogging software is a good place to start. Buy some server space (or download MAMP) and take five minutes to learn how to create a MySQL database, drop in the code and get a blog up and running.

• Learn to love the command line. Get used to browsing directories and moving, renaming and copying files without a visual interface. If you're on a Mac, put Terminal in your dock. If you're on Windows, consider buying a Mac, then see step one. If you're on Linux, I assume you've skipped this entire post because you already know Python.

• Find and learn to use a good text editor. Start here. Pick something with syntax highlighting.

Things to think about

Embarrass yourself. Here's another parallel to learning to speak Chinese. You will make dumb mistakes. You will break things. You will spend days hunting for the one misplaced comma that turns your beautiful application into an ugly stack trace.

That's OK. It's the only way to learn. (And you can always delete it.)

Want to feel better about yourself? Read some of my early questions on the Django Users Group.

Be stubborn. Matt Waite called this a key requirement:

"The drive to not quit the first time they hit a wall, get confused, get frustrated, etc. If they're not willing to commit to work until they have a functioning app, then they shouldn't start."

Read the source code. How did people learn programming before open source? With almost any coding problem I come across, my first assumption is that someone has faced something similar before. Spend some time trolling Github and Google Code.

Read everything you can. Hang out on [Stack Overflow][so] and the [Django Users Group][dug2]. Read the [documentation][d] when you're bored. And on that note...

Blogs you should be reading

James Bennett is Django's release manager and something of an absolutist about documentation. Raid his archives for a host of practical tips and code recipes. I also recommend his [book].

Jeff Croft is one of the more prominent designers in the Django community. Read his old posts to get the hang of template inheritance and explainers for non-programmers.

There is a huge community out there. Check out the Django blog aggregator and see what jumps out at you.

What else?

Django people, what else should be on this list?

The Allston community is hosting a Haiti Relief Fundraiser at Wonderbar with music from The Ground Up, Gracie Fox, Hannah Christiansen, Ryan Fardy & Shades of Blue and Supple. All proceeds from the door will go to the Yéle Haiti (yele.org) foundation. [Wed 1.27.10. 186 Harvard Ave., Allston. 617.351.2665. 7pm/18+ till 10:30pm/$10. wonderbarboston.com]

 

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra, whose members represent nearly every medical institution in Boston, and the New England Conservatory are partnering for a benefit performance, Symphonic Relief for Haiti, to raise funds for Partners in Health's Stand With Haiti initiative (standwithhaiti.org). [Thu 1.31.10. Jordan Hall, 290 Huntington Ave., Boston. 617.667.1527. 12:30pm/$25. longwoodsymphony.org, necmusic.edu]

 

The Coolidge Corner Theatre is hosting a benefit screening of Jonathan Demme's 2003 documentary about human rights activist Jean Dominique, The Argonomist, in conjunction with their own 2010 Coolidge Award Program honoring the director on March 1st. The first 140 tickets sold before February 7th will be matched by Coolidge supporters and donated to Partners in Health by mid-month. [Mon 3.1.10. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. 617.734.2500. 2pm/$25. coolidge.org]

 

The Biltmore, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Greater Boston [habitatboston.org], is hosting a Super Bowl Party with a purpose. Come for the game and (open) bar, and throw down some scratch for a square or raffle ticket with the proceeds also benefiting HFH's rebuilding efforts in Haiti. [Sun 2.7.10. 1205 Chestnut St., Newton. 617.527.2550. 5pm/21+/$50. thebiltmoregrille.com]

 

Relief Hub, co-founded by Brookline resident Rousseau Aurelien, supports orphanages in Haiti to ensure the care of tens of thousands of children. Send checks to: 11 Bigelow St., Cambridge, MA 02139 or visit their website to donate via PayPal. reliefhub.org]

 

The City of Boston has created "The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods—Haitian Family Relief" through Bank of America. Donate by visiting any local branch [ bankofamerica.com] or by mailing checks to: PO Box 961555, Boston, MA 02196.

OVS is seeking a full-time Customer Service Representative for the Aurora, Oregon store. The successful candidate must be familiar with the Oregon nursery industry and have previous sales experience. Other basic specialty ag knowledge is an asset. A self-motivated and well organized person is best suited to this position.

OVS will accept letters of interest and resumes via email or fax. Contact Adam Bertram at adam@ovs.com. Phone 971-216-0111; Fax 971-216-0112.

Detailed Job Description

Job Title: Customer Service Representative I
Department: Agricultural Supplies
Reports To: Ag Supply Customer Service Manager in Aurora

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt
Prepared By: Carla Chambers
Prepared Date: Jan 25, 2010

SUMMARY
Ag Supply Customer Service Representative, Nursery Emphasis

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Work in support of company-wide objectives.
2. Customer Sales and Service—Counter, telephone and field.
3. Seeks opportunities to build OVS’ presence in the Nursery industry, by attending OAN functions, calling on Nursery Purchasing Agents, etc.
4. Primary responsibility for store retail merchandising, both seasonal displays and when products are received or need restocking. Shelf pricing must be up-to-date and functional.
5. Responsible for Price Books for Aurora associates.
6. Notifies Purchasing Agent when product levels appears to be getting low (relative to knowledge of expected demand and required lead time)
7. An assertive and confident presence (with customers, suppliers, and associates…in person or on the phone).
8. Assure that an invoice or pick ticket is created for every transaction.
9. Ag Supply Customer Advocacy. Use your customer senses (eyes, ears, etc.) to sense how we look to our customers, and then take action to try to improve how we are perceived.
10. Be an Efficiency and Productivity advocate. Constantly be on the lookout for ways to do what we do with greater efficiency, and at a higher level of productivity, and then take action to make those things happen.
11. Assure that desk, counter and work areas neat and clean. Take initiative to leave all areas with which you are involved looking professional.
12. Review market to determine customer needs, price and product selection, and discount rates.
13. Advise clients concerning products and techniques.
14. Process special orders from customers in cooperation with other Ag Supplies associates and the Purchasing Agent.
15. Utilize available tools to track customer orders, such as the PO Log, the Receiving Log, Quote sheets, Bin Order sheet, the Transfer Log, Lost Sale Log and the Pick Ticket Net Value Report.
16. May occasionally be required to load and/or deliver supplies to customers.
17. Must work in the Saturday rotation.
18. Other duties may be assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

QUALIFICATIONS
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Demonstrate a strong work ethic and be a team player.
Be proactive; demonstrate initiative and “self-starter” behavior.
Demonstrate commitment to “life-long learning.” Demonstrate that you recognize that the ability to consultatively sell is a key to our business success.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
Associate’s degree (A.A.) or equivalent from a two-year college or technical school, or three to five years of related experience or training, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

LANGUAGE SKILLS
Ability to read, analyze and interpret common scientific and technical journals, Ag Chemical labels and material safety data sheets, financial reports, and legal documents; to respond to common inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community; to effectively present information to top management, clients, public groups, and/or boards of directors. Functional proficiency in Spanish.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS
Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, area, circumference, and volume; to apply concepts of basic algebra and geometry.

COMPUTER SKILLS
Sufficient proficiency with HBS, Microsoft Excel and Word, and the PC network to fulfill responsibilities.

REASONING ABILITY
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions; to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS
Valid Oregon Driver’s License. Forklift certification (internal).

PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to sit. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 60 pounds.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to wet and/or humid conditions, fumes or airborne particles, toxic or caustic chemicals and outside weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

We are honoured today to announce the members of our Jury for "The Poppies", our virtual awards event we are currently holding here on the blog. The Jury will choose a winner from each category from all of the current nominees. This selection is in addition to the "The People's Choice" winners people are currently voting on. We asked these people for two reasons. First we respect their eye in a MAJOR way and secondly because they are all well-respected in their fields and well-known within the online community. They will be announcing their winners on Friday, February 5th/10.


Lisa Solomon



Lisa Solomon is a mixed media artist who is profoundly interested in the notion of hybridization. Her work often questions and deconstructs the meaning of identity through the exploration of mediums traditionally associated with domestic crafts. She also moonlights as a professor, graphic designer, crafter, and amateur photographer.

Born in Tuscon, AZ to a Japanese mother and a Caucasian father, she has exhibited her work all across the United States and internationally . She lives and works in Northern California with her husband, daughter, 2 dogs, a cat and many, many spools of thread.



Kate Bingaman-Burt



Kate Bingaman-Burt was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1977. She founded Obsessive Consumption in 2002 and has documented her personal consumption in many different mediums. Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in April 2010.

Bingaman-Burt is active in the indie craft and craftivism movements. She provided all of the illustrations for the book Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design as well as the promotional materials for the documentary of the same name. She lives in Portland, Oregon where, along with being an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University, she also makes piles of work about consumerism (zines! pillows! dresses! drawings! paper chains! photos!). She happily draws for other good people too (IDEO, Madewell, ReadyMade Magazine, The New York Times, Wieden + Kennedy). Kate also conducts zine workshops and spreads the craftivism word.


Faythe Levine



Faythe Levine is the director and co-author of Handmade Nation. She is also an avid art collector, curator and maker of various things. You can find her in tucked away in Milwaukee, WI where she used to run the recently closed Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery and produces the annual indie fair, Art vs. Craft. Keep an eye out for her new 2010 projects TBA very soon.




Victoria Smith



Victoria Smith is a San Francisco based design blogger, hopeful photographer, design junkie and bonafide flea market queen. Victoria writes sfgirlbybay.com, one of the West Coast’s leading interior design blogs, featuring behind the scenes interviews and home & studio tours of up-and-coming artists; design/art event coverage; as well as offering affordable interior design inspiration and ideas, always encouraging individuality and unique, personal style.



Andrea Jenkins



Andrea Corrona Jenkins is a Portland-based photographer, writer, occasional modern dancer teacher and self-proclaimed photobooth fanatic. She's a regular contributor for the ever-delightful Uppercase magazine and has also been featured on the pages of Light Leaks, Artful Blogging, Glimpse and Life Images. She lives with her husband and two children in a cottage filled with too many collections and can often be found extolling the virtues of polaroid cameras, list-making and rickety old bicycles over on her blog, hula seventy.


Irene Hoofs



Irene lives in the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur. She was born in Amsterdam where she spent most of her student days (a long time ago...). When you add her two boys to her husband, Rik, she now has 3 men (all look-a-likes…) in the house. Irene spends most of her days taking care for her boys and writing on her two design blogs, Bloesem and B:Kids. Writing about and discussing everything that has to do with design and arts with her readers (both silly and serious stuff…) is very much a part of who she is. Being connected to the entire world through a shared passion for design is an amazing experience for her and gives a truly rewarding feel.



Jen Anisef




Jen first experienced the power of craft when she spent a year in rural Japan in 1999 and was blown away by the importance of handwork in the lives of everyone from children to the elderly. When she returned to Canada she co-founded the Montreal Chapter of Church of Craft and wrote a Master's thesis exploring themes of community-building and political activism in contemporary craft culture. Her academic and community engagement in crafts inspired her to found the Toronto Craft Alert, an online resource and community hub championing Toronto area craft activity. Toronto Craft Alert is a partner inCity of Craft – a collective that encourages community engagement in craft and support independent craft businesses and practices by programming creative events and discussions. She also sits on the Board of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto's largest and longest-running outdoor art show. Jen thinks Toronto has it going on in the contemporary craft department.

Meeting Workforce and Business Needs for More Than 35 Years

NADAP is a private nonprofit corporation operating employment, professional training, assessment, and case management programs in New York City and Westchester County. Program services are provided to adult job seekers, dislocated workers, youth, public assistance recipients, workforce development professionals, and the business community. The common goal of all NADAP programs and services is employment and workforce development.

NADAP's programs benefit job seekers, families, communities, and businesses. Each year more than 25,000 people receive employment-related and other services through NADAP's programs.

Program Manager-Clinical Setting

NADAP is currently seeking a Program Manager for our multi-site assessment program with its hub site near Union Square. The successful candidate will be responsible for daily operations, oversee Supervisor teams and staff to ensure performance targets and quality standards are met, provide clinical staff with operational training, review/recommend/implement policies and procedures to enhance program efficiency, and use technical and analytical tools to measure performance and productivity.

Qualifications:
BA/BS degree in related field required. Master¡¦s Degree and CASAC preferred.
3 yrs. supervisory and program management experience required; 5 yrs. preferred; strong written and verbal communication skills; MS Office proficiency; demonstrated leadership experience.

NADAP offers the following:
- Weekday work schedule
- AETNA health and Delta dental benefits
- Generous employer contributions to pension plan; 401(k) plan available
- Four weeks paid vacation, 11 paid holidays and additional personal days
- Career advancement opportunities
- Employee referral bonus

How to Apply:
NADAP is an EEO employer. Submit cover letter containing job code CL-PM and salary history along with your resume (MS Word attachment) to Jobs@nadap.org or mail to NADAP, Human Resources Department, 355 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017 or Fax: 646-865-1515.

To be considered, you must apply online

https://tbe.taleo.net/NA11/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=MOVE&cws;=1&rid;=488

Come to work for Move! We are the leading hub of online and offline real estate and neighborhood information. Our exciting vision is to transform the real estate industry and dramatically improve the home buying experience for consumers. We provide consumers with the real estate content, decision support tools and professional connections they need before, during, and after a move. Visitors to our web sites -- including REALTOR.com®, Move.com™ and SeniorHousingNet™ -- have access to the most comprehensive selection of existing homes for sale, new homes, and apartments for rent and senior housing. REALTOR.com®, the company’s flagship site and the official site of the National Association of REALTORS is the No. 1 consumer destination for real estate-related information with more than 10 million unique users monthly.

Move is currently looking for a talented individual to join or team in our Westlake Village, CA office OR our Phoenix, Arizona location in the role of Sr. Storage Engineer.

The Storage Engineer is responsible for managing and maintaining SAN and NAS storage devices at Move, Inc. The Engineer must have 8+ years of experience in storage management and a successful track record for implementation of SAN and NAS storage devices. The Storage Engineer should have familiarity with Windows Clustering and Oracle clustered environments.

Position Duties and Responsibilities:

Responsible for administering storage in NAS and SAN environment

Responsible for keeping track of existing storage usage trending and making recommendation for future growth.

Responsible for 24/7 on-call support.

Accountable to users for problems reported with storage and to track those problems while working with the vendor for a resolution.

Responsible for researching future storage requirements with the user community and provide solutions based on those requirements

Responsible for managing installation with a complete set of implementation documentation.

Work with vendors to schedule installations and upgrades.

Responsible to provide Disaster Recovery and Business Continuance solution as it relates to data storage

Responsible for providing a highly available storage and backup environment to eliminate single points of failure.

Responsible for providing an efficient data recovery capability in case of disaster.

The Storage Engineer will utilize common tools and methodologies to perform these tasks such that these functions are performed in the most cost-efficient manner.

Responsible for the timely transfer of data throughout the enterprise while minimizing the network and resource costs.

The storage engineer must effectively manage storage, eliminate human intervention and manual processes by effectively substituting scripted solutions for manual process across the enterprise.

Responsible to provide mentoring and training through hands on, formal and informal (PowerPoint to brown bag) presentations related to storage architecture and best practices

Identifies inefficiencies, gaps and issues, and drives the analysis and documentation of technical requirements for enterprise storage architecture, guiding adoption of and adherence to standard operating procedures.

Collaborates with management and various technology and business teams to provide cost/benefit for proposed solutions.

Develops framework for ILM Strategy and including tiered storage and chargeback reporting.

Requirements:

Storage platforms – EMC Clariion, DMX, and NetApp NAS & SAN devices

Must possess a comprehensive understanding of Fibre Channel storage and to be able to install, troubleshoot and administer all components associated with Fibre Channel storage systems including Storage Domain Servers.

Must be familiar with Blade server technologies and VMWare on SAN/NFS.

In depth knowledge of EMC SAN and NetApp NAS from specific detail about components and software to then extend and include an overall view the requirements for storage across the corporate enterprise.

Experience with Brocade 24K and 48K Directors.

Experience in planning and implementing storage solutions for Disaster Recovery strategy including working with business units to develop RPO/RTO’s.

Knowledge of SAN host connectivity in Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris and VMWare environments.

Experience in architecting and implementing an ILM strategy including tiered storage and chargeback reporting.

Must have a positive attitude, ambitious, energetic, and self-motivated.

Excellent verbal and written communications skills are a must.

Requires knowledge and skills normally acquired through the successful completion of a Bachelor's degree in engineering or computer science or related field, or equivalent combination of education and 8+ years experience in engineering, computers, networking, storage, or related field
SAN

Extensive experience with EMC Clariion CX and Symmetric DMX is a requirement for this position.

Experience in implementing SRDF, Time Finder, BCVs.

Familiarity with NaviCLI and SymCLI. Experience with maintaining MS-Exchange on SAN.

Familiarity with EMC Control Center and NaviSphere management suites desired.
NAS

Extensive experience with NetApp R200, FAS960, and 3000 series.

Must be intimately familiar with Volume Management with SNAP Mirror and SnapMirror, SnapVault, ONTAP, CIFS and NFS.

Familiarity with NetApp Operations Manager desired.

Additional Education and Experience

Familiarity with Veritas Storage Foundations for Windows or equivalent software desired.

Familiarity with Deduplication (primary and secondary) through integrated vendor and third party solutions desired.

SNIA Certification a plus.

Unix file system experience and expertise in hardware system configuration and management a plus.

Move, Inc. offers a fast-paced, dynamic work environment including a competitive salary and benefits including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), vacation and holidays.
Move is an equal opportunity employer.

SourceForge, one of the the primary distribution hubs of the open source software movement, has shut its doors to visitors from a number of countries, saying that it is working to be in compliance with existing U.S. laws. In a blog post yesterday, the site responded to rumors around the Twittersphere that various users from outside the U.S. were now unable to access the site.

The open source movement has always been community based, working outside of standard boundaries and borders, and some see this as going against those basic tenets.

Sponsor

Here is the reasoning for the move in SourceForge's own words:

Since 2003, the SourceForge.net Terms and Conditions of Use have prohibited certain persons from receiving services pursuant to U.S. laws, including, without limitations, the Denied Persons List and the Entity List, and other lists issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security. The specific list of sanctions that affect our users concern the transfer and export of certain technology to foreign persons and governments on the sanctions list.

The site began using automatic IP blocking last week and users from a number of countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria, are now unable to access the site.

While some are calling foul and declaring the premature death of the open source movement, we have to assume that the technologically savvy users accessing the site would know how to get around a simple IP-based filter. Whether using a tool like Tor or a proxy service like HotSpot Shield, it can't be all that difficult to access the site.

The SourceForge blog post reminds that "in addition to participating in the open source community, we also live in the real world, and are governed by the laws of the country in which we are located."

Discuss

In this screencast, Matt Hester, Sr. IT Professional Evangelist from Microsoft, will take you through a quick look at the great, new, administrative tool called Active Directory Administrative Center in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Duration: 6:25

o   Visit IT Manager Community Hub on Technet and TechNet Windows Server 2008 TechCenter for more information

o   Download the Windows Server 2008 R2 Trial Software

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o   Click to create your own TechNet Widget or get the default widget and have an access to the latest RSS feeds from TechNet with a selection from Videos, Webcasts, TechNet Magazine, TechNet Flash and TechNet Podcasts.

It's always amazing to me to watch communities start. A few people linked by a common passion and geographic space, coupled with a hunger to build, can launch amazing things. That's why I'm so excited to see the emerging Kenyan social and web technology scene get its very own innovation space at the forthcoming iHub.

I've been keeping track of the East African web scene since early 2008, when we started playing with the idea of using web technology combined with community organizing principles to better map resources throughout Ugandan civil society. One of the first stops on that journey was NetSquared, where I met the folks at Ushahidi, an incredible team of multinational developers with (at that time) a common connection to Kenya.

Since building a prototype to record the violence following Kenya's disputed 2008 presidential elections, Ushahidi has become an increasingly robust tool. Their rapid deployment in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti has demonstrated the power of the platform to help communities respond to disaster.

It's also a demonstration, most fundamentally, of community power. The Haiti deployment has been managed from all over the world, including from Nairobi, where Ushahidi co-founder Erik Hersman recently relocated. And while Ushahidi's team now spans the globe, its heart and soul remain in Kenya.

According to a new blog post announcing the iHub, Ushahidi will help manage and fund the center as it gets up and running, as a way to give back to the local developer community that's contributed so much to the project.

While the space will start off as a working and assembly hub, they also aspire to bring some venture funding resources to the table in a manner similar to that of Appfrica Labs, a Kampala-based incubator started by American software engineer (and new formal Ushahidi team member) Jon Gosier.

This is seriously exciting stuff. If development has too often been the story of outsiders trying to solve problems on behalf of people on the ground, the web is a space where local entrepreneurs can cut through that dynamic and directly build what the community wants and needs.

Check out the video of the in-progress space, and read more if you want to get involved:

iHub First Look - Nairobi's Tech Innovation Hub from Ushahidi on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: whiteafrican

Peggy Teaches Chinese

"PeggyTeachesChinese is an online community for people who are interested in learning Mandarin. It is created by Peggy Lee, a college student in Taiwan. It started as a YouTube channel and is gradually growing.

We’ve provided an hub for our visitors to communicate with people with the same niche worldwide, be it learning Chinese through videos provided by Peggy Lee, discussions on our forum or reading Chinese related articules and blogs.

Please don't hesitate to express yourself freely and ask questions.

Happy Learning! :)

謝 謝 (Xie4 Xie4)"

by Peggy Lee

It was in Timişoara that a week of protests led to the downfall of Ceauşescu. Twenty years on, this bright, culturally eclectic city proves there's more to urban Romania than brutal tower blocks

It's fair to say that urban Romania has had its struggles as a tourist sell. Travellers to the country are usually drawn by either the expanse of the countryside – still seen as existing in a rolling horse-and-cart realm that western Europe left behind long ago – or the vampire legends (the Drac-allure?) of Transylvania. Its cities, on the other hand, are generally treated as bywords for gloom, grey skies and brutal tower-blocks.

It falls to the likes of Timişoara to counter preconceptions. Alongside Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and the much-maligned capital Bucharest, the western city is among those Romanian centres to lay genuine claim to a bright and eclectic cultural offering. Its theatres, festivals and live music calendar give impressive platform to the national character, and in several parts of town (don't be alarmed, now) there's pretty scenery, too.

Last month, the city found headlines for other reasons. Twenty years ago, mass protests here jumpstarted the week-long revolution that deposed Nicolae Ceauşescu. The days running up to Christmas 1989 shaped an era, bloodily so, and you won't have to look far for someone keen to give you their own account of the period. Two decades on, however, this university town is as notable for its burgeoning arts scene and bold, age-worn architecture as for its political past. There's a youthful spring in its stride, too, evident in everything from a high-energy festival roster to a lively CouchSurfing community.

Today's marketing tag is "Little Vienna", and there's a wealth of genuinely grand Habsburg buildings, but the city's too much of a rough diamond for the comparison to be apt. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The handsome, cracked grandeur of the centre makes for a stirring backdrop, tourist traps are almost non-existent and costs are low. From a cultural viewpoint, meanwhile, omnipresent theatre bills and a trio of weekly listings magazines tell their own story.

Take in a festival

"Spring and summertime are when Timişoara really comes alive," says resident Manu Babescu, presenter of a weekly literary review on Romanian TV. "There are some great festivals." The pick of these is September's established three-day world music celebration Plai (www.plai.ro), headlined last year by the Ivorian singer Dobet Ghanoré and French rumba band Kaloomé. The festival, set in greenery on the city outskirts (plai means "field"), also stages a colourful programme of arts workshops and theatre performances. At other times of year, strong options include May's Timishort Film festival (www.timishort.ro), July's Romany Art festival (www.iraf.ro), October's electro-fest TMBase (www.tmbase.ro) and November's International Jazz festival (www.timisoara-jazz.ro). Beer, wine and drama are all the subject of annual shindigs of their own.

Live music

You're rarely far from music in Timişoara, whether it's tootling out of the Facultate de Muzica on Piaţa Libertăţii or drifting from speakers over civic spaces (someone on the council holds a flame for Whitesnake, it would seem). For a more involved experience, various options exist. Locals are still mourning the revoked license of Jazz Club Pod 16 in 2009, but venues such as Setup (Str Pestalozzi 22, www.setuptm.ro), The Note (Str Cornelia Salceanu 22, www.thenote.ro) and Van Graph (Str Matei Corvin 4, www.vangraph.ro) serve up a schedule of guitar bands, jazz, folk acts and electronica. Jazz's associations with freedom and western decadence meant that the genre was marginalised under Ceauşescu, so even today it remains a powerful mode of self-expression. For those who like music with their meals, meanwhile, there's quality fare and jaunty folklore to be had nightly at La Leul de Aur (Str Maraseti 12), while Porto Arte (B-dul 16 Decembrie 1989), a restaurant on a docked boat, stages lively traditional performances every Saturday.

High culture

The broad-shouldered opera complex on Piaţa Victoriei is the city's cultural hub. It houses three theatres and a princely 700-seat opera house (www.ort.ro), tickets for which cost a gloriously un-elitist £5, a steal even by Romanian standards. Expect to find classics such as Aida and Carmen on the schedule, and while it may offer a cheap night out, the 19th-century architecture and lavish decor mean the locals still dress up for the experience. For something more contemporary, the nearby philharmonic hall (www.filarmonicabanatul.ro) has concerts up to four times a week, ranging from blues to choral works. Elsewhere, galleries and public art are sprinkled over town, none more enjoyable than the Muzeul de Arta (www.muzeuldeartatm.ro) in the Old Prefecture – its permanent collection features more than 70 pieces by the darkly humorous portraitist Corneliu Baba.

Up all night

Timişoara's western location means it has sizeable Serbian, Hungarian and German minorities, as well as a cosmopolitan student mix, and the city has the kind of feisty nightlife options natural to a young, multicultural population. Away from the beat-fest of the clubs, Scârt Loc Lejer (Str Zoe 1) is a delightfully kooky pub in an old townhouse, owned and run by artists and boasting a large garden of fairy lights and hammocks: a fine setting for polishing off £4 bottles of local white wine. Komodo (Str Gh Lazar 5) is a busy Asian-themed lounge serving cocktails and cigars (Romania has no smoking ban), while Aethernative Cafe (at the top of Str Marasesti, through double doors beneath the "Sevander Grup" sign) hosts raucous jam sessions for a sociable, studenty crowd. A general word of warning: beware the power of the plum brandy (pălincă) if you're intending to function the next day.

• Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com) flies to Timişoara three times weekly from London Luton. Accommodation options include Hotel Lido (www.hotel-lido.ro, +40 256407373) and the centrally located Hotel Timişoara (www.hoteltimisoara.ro, +40 256498854).

Toronto's Hare Krishna Centre (ISKCON Toronto), has always been the hub of a rich, vibrant and enthusiastic community. Whether it be grand festivals, programs at local universities and yoga studios, philosophical discussions, ...

I have been a Diabetic for 25 years. 25 long ass years. 25 years of injecting biosynthetic human insulin in order to survive. Admittedly, I was not Diabetic role model material for most of those 25 years. My A1C’s would fluctuate anywhere from 7-10. My blood sugars were never steady. I have had more near death experiences than any person should ever have. But…I was thin. I was 5’8”, 130 pounds for most of my life.

Until I became a pumper.

I have gained 30 pounds since being a pumper. I complain to Doc B at every visit about my being a fatty and I’ve written his response several times….’A chubby Diabetic is a healthy Diabetic.’ Yes, well, this is true. My A1C is better than ever and I feel great. But I’m still 30 pounds out of my comfort zone.

I am pretty sure I am not overweight. But, this is about what feels good to me and what I feel comfortable weighing. Some people say I don’t look overweight. Those people do not see me naked. Some people say I should diet. I have been dieting for over 1/2 of my life. Seriously. I don’t sit down with a bag of chips, a box of cookies, a quart of ice cream and eat until it’s gone. I have always eaten small healthy portions to coincide with my disease. While the pump has given me access to eat foods I never would have before, I do not over indulge.



















Over the past few years I joined a gym, hired a trainer, bought a bike, started running, and worked out daily with zero weight loss. The only thing I lost was money and time. Oh, and I injured my knee. Yay. As a matter of fact, since starting Jillian’s 30 Day Shred 2 weeks ago, I have gained weight. No, do NOT tell me muscle weighs more than fat. I know this is true but it still doesn’t help me to feel better about myself. Rawr.

So, I have a wedding in April, summer is coming, I want to look good and I want to feel good. These things have caused me to consider sabotaging my Diabetes. While doing research on restricting insulin intake, I ran across a disorder called Diabulimia.

Diabulimia is a term that is rarely heard outside of the Diabetic community. It’s rarely a term that is heard inside the Diabetic community. It’s taboo….and rightly so. Diabulimia is a disorder similar to bulimia & anorexia. It involves Type 1 Diabetics taking less insulin than they need or cutting it out completely. Insulin causes weight gain in many. Not having insulin puts the body into a state where it breaks down muscle & fat. The body is unable to process the sugar that is consumed resulting in it being secreted from the body instead of stored. Thus, extreme weight loss occurs. This is why at 16, I was 5’8” and weighed 90 pounds.

While weight loss is a good thing, lack of insulin in a Diabetic can create issues that are risky and dangerous. I remember how I felt at 16; the year before I found out I had Diabetes and it was not good. In fact, it was so horrible that I still remember and always will. For example, short term symptoms would be constant urination and thirst, extreme hunger, weakness, exhaustion, memory loss, mood swings, dangerous high blood sugar levels. Oh, and death. Long term symptoms would be severe kidney damage, blindness, neuropathy, possible amputation, heart problems. Oh, and death.

Diabulimia most commonly affects adolescents and young women. This behavior is reported by 2% of pre-teen girls, 11-15% of girls in the mid-teen years, and 30-39% of those in the late teenage and early adult years. For more information, check out Diabetes Spectrum. Parents of young girls with Type 1 Diabetes should put a lot of focus on self image. I wish I had been taught that appearances do not matter. Beauty fades yet personality, heart and character linger forever. Why we aren't we taught to love ourselves exactly as we are, I'll never know.




















Even so, I have to admit, that this quick and easy weight loss is seductive. The disorder is not seductive because I think that goes to a dangerous level that requires therapy. The seductive part is the idea of manipulating my insulin for a short period of time in order to drop 20 pounds.

Do I dare?

Probably not because it’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I am proud of myself. Proud of the way I am treating and handling my disease. I want to live to see my daughter graduate college, get married, and have children. I also want to have all of my appendages when I do so. But still….the thought…and temptation remains.

*Peace.

St. Hubert's to rescue dogs from puppy mills NJ.com Its services to the community include pet adoption and animal rescue, animal-assisted therapy, humane education, dog training and pet loss support. ...

In Genesis, Jacob lays his head on a pillow of stone and dreams of a ladder to heaven.  And so it happened that the Carter family of Becket, MA, c. 1790, named their farm Jacob’s Pillow, because of a pillow-like boulder in the garden and the fact that the property was at the top of a steep road then called Jacob’s Ladder, now George Carter Road. Nearly a century and a half later, in the early 1930s, a dancer named Ted Shawn bought Jacob’s Ladder as a retreat, ultimately holding demonstrations there for the public by an all-male dance troupe he had assembled in an effort to dispel the taboo against men pursuing careers in dance.  When the U.S. joined World War II, his troupe members all went into the army, so Shawn leased the farm to one dance impresario, then another, who kept the demonstrations going, but expanded the programming.  Enthusiastic local supporters raised $50,000 to buy the property and build a theater (performances had been held in the barn studio).  The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Committee made Shawn the director.  Due to wartime gasoline and tire rationing in the early years, many audience members had to climb the hill on foot or horseback in order to witness the international array of ballet, modern dance, mime, ballroom and folk dancing.  This year, more than 50 companies and hundreds of emerging and master dance artists from as close as New York City and as far as Australia will arrive in Becket to celebrate the art of movement, as Jacob’s Pillow, the world-renowned international dance center and National Historic Landmark, rolls out its 78th Festival season.  Göteborg Ballet; photo Ingmar Jernberg   Highlights of the 2010 Festival include the U.S. debut of The Göteborg Ballet of Sweden; three world premieres co-commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow from diverse young choreographers Kyle Abraham, Monica Bill Barnes, and Camille A. Brown; U.S. premieres from Spain, India, Thailand, and Israel; and celebrated favorites including contemporary ballet company Trey McIntyre Project, the men-on-pointe offerings of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and the ever-popular Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. The Festival runs June 19 through August 29, and features more than 110 ticketed events and 200 free events, including performances on three stages, moderated interviews with artists, talks by experts, film showings, exhibits, the opportunity to observe training at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, receptions, tours, and over 75 dance classes for the community including weekly master classes with Festival artists. Ella Baff, Jacob’s Pillow Executive Director, encourages all who attend to plan to “spend at least a day, because the Festival is a center of learning, socializing, and participating in art,  that goes beyond just being an audience member.” Jacob’s Pillow Dance 358 George Carter Road Becket, MA 01223 Phone: 413.243.0745 Fax: 413.243.0749 For details on the 2010 ticketed events, visit the Jacob’s Pillow website Full-season Subscribers and Flex-5 Subscribers may order tickets now online, by mail or via fax Phone lines open for non-subscribing Members March 1. Single tickets go on sale to the general public (non-subscribers, non-members) online April 7. Once the Festival begins, students who have signed up by emailing will receive a Student Rush email every Monday, alerting them to the availability of special discounted Student Rush tickets @$20, which may be reserved online, then picked up just prior to the show.  (Must show valid student ID.)

'High School Musical' alum says there's 'a certain honesty' to his Broadway character.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Christina Garibaldi

Corbin Bleu
Photo: MTV News

Corbin Bleu might not be a singing Wildcat anymore, but these days, the "High School Musical" star is taking his skills from the halls of East High to the streets of New York for his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning play "In the Heights." The New York native admits that he couldn't help but relate to the show's lead character, whom he will play starting Monday (January 25).

"I play a character named Usnavi, who is the local bodega owner," he told MTV News while rehearsing for the show. "So it's the hub of the entire community. He is faced with thinking, 'Is this what I really want — the monotony of life?' But in the end, he realizes he has a wonderful life."

Bleu isn't new to the world of musicals, but the role does require him to do a little rapping. "The music in it and the dancing isn't something you get to see a lot on Broadway," he said, referencing the show's hip-hop and Latin influences. "[Usnavi] raps. He also is the narrator, and throughout the whole time, he [narrates] through rapping off the top of his head. He's a total dork. He doesn't really know how to dance. He's not very smooth when it comes to the ladies. There's a certain honesty to him."

Luckily for Bleu, the music makes the rapping thing come a lot more naturally. "Honestly, the music itself gives way to the rapping. That was something that came pretty easily, 'cause I've always been about rhythm. I grew up salsa dancing. I grew up dancing, period," he explained. "That part of it came naturally."

It should also be easy to play Usnavi because, like him, he grew up in New York. "I grew up in Brooklyn around all Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, so we were the only Italians on the block. I grew up eating [the cuisine]. I grew up with these characters, so it's a very real thing for me," he said. "I don't think there could be a better show to make a Broadway debut in than 'In the Heights.' "

Related Artists

• Corbin Bleu

According to the Courage Campaign, internal documents and emails revealed this morning at Perry vs. Schwarzenegger reveal how Protect Marriage attempted to link same-sex marriage rights to pedophilia, incest, bestiality, and polygamy. From the Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs, via press release:

“Ron Prentice, Andrew Pugno and their Prop 8 team -- with the highly capable and apparently deeply cynical leadership of Frank Schubert -- created a permanent campaign to scare voters into believing that same-sex marriage would threaten children, undermine America and lead to every form of illicit behavior imaginable. This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won -– through fear and lies.”

“Finally, this morning we saw indisputable, documented evidence in the form of emails and videos that Ron Prentice and Protect Marriage coordinated closely and relied upon the Catholic Church, the LDS Church, the Family Research Council, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage to get Prop. 8 on the ballot and to win through a campaign of lies.”

“Last week, the Supreme Court erased decades of precedent by ruling that corporations have the same rights as people when it comes to speech. Let’s hope that the court will as readily see that LGBT people have at least the same rights as corporations and surely the same rights as other people.”

A campaign of lies, indeed.

Update (from Autumn): The Courage Campaign's statement on the courtroom testimony today is below the fold.

---

Just in from Yusef Robb of the  American Foundation for Equal Rights -- key quotes from the Prop 8 campaign's simulcast rally that was shown in court today. It's priceless.  Man-on-horse, pedophilia and incest hysteria claims are made about marriage equality.

I'm glad all of this is going on the record -- again, the basic concept of CONSENT is nowhere to be found among these people.  

"Then pedophiles would have to be allowed to marry 6-7-8 year olds. The man from Massachusetts who petitioned to marry his horse after marriage was instituted in Massachusetts. He'd have to be allowed to do so. Mothers and sons, sisters and brothers, any, any combination would have to be allowed."

"Second of all, the polygamists are waiting in the wings because if a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman based on the fact that you have the right to marry whoever you want to marry, then the polygamists are going to use that exact same argument and they're probably going to win."

"We are seeing the people of Massachusetts being desensitized day by day concerning homosexuality and becoming more and more adjusted to the idea of homosexual marriage being the law of the land and the homosexual agenda becoming more and more of a powerful element in the life of our society."

"I think a helpful way to think about this is to compare it to 9/11 cuz a lot of us are asking-How does this directly affect us? Well I wasn't directly affected by 9/11 and my guess is most of you weren't either in the sense I didn't know somebody who crashed the plane in the building. I didn't know somebody who was in the building. But after 9/11 the world was a fundamentally different place and that has affected me. The change in the redefinition of marriage is the same type of thing."?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2009

Contact:

Cathy Renna, 917-757-6123, cathy@rennacommunications.com
Aidan Crawford, 323.969.0160, aidan@couragecampaign.org

EXPLOSIVE DOCUMENTS EXPOSE PROP 8 CAMPAIGN AS TRIAL PROCEEDINGS NEAR DRAMATIC CLOSE

JACOBS: "This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won -- through fear and lies."

SAN FRANCISCO, CA --  Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign Institute issued the following statement on the Prop 8 campaign videos and documents introduced into evidence this morning in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial. The new evidence shows how the Prop 8 campaign tried to link marriage equality to incest, bestiality, pedophilia and polygamy:

"This morning's evidence made the Prop 8 side's strategy crystal clear -- use fear and lies to promote hate. It is horrifying that Prop 8 proponents would compare marriage equality to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and imply that marriage equality will open the door to pedophilia, incest and bestiality."

"Ron Prentice, Andrew Pugno and their Prop 8 team -- with the highly capable and apparently deeply cynical leadership of Frank Schubert -- created a permanent campaign to scare voters into believing that same-sex marriage would threaten children, undermine America and lead to every form of illicit behavior imaginable.  "

"This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won -- through fear and lies."

"Finally, this morning we saw indisputable, documented evidence in the form of emails and videos that Ron Prentice and Protect Marriage coordinated closely and relied upon the Catholic Church, the LDS Church, the Family Research Council, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage to get Prop. 8 on the ballot and to win through a campaign of lies."

"Last week, the Supreme Court erased decades of precedent by ruling that corporations have the same rights as people when it comes to speech. Let's hope that the court will as readily see that LGBT people have at least the same rights as corporations and surely the same rights as other people."

Via the Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site, the Courage Campaign Institute has brought the proceedings to the public in real time,, garnering more than 1.1 million views and helping fuel an online community of "Trial Trackers" posting more than 11,000 comments to date. To view the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, go to:

http://www.Prop8TrialTracker.com

The Courage Campaign is an online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots activists to push for progressive change and equality in California and across the country. As a leading multi-issue advocacy organization in the progressive movement, the Courage Campaign's work is made possible by thousands of small-dollar donations from community members.

-30-

In the last few weeks here on ReadWriteStart, we've been chronicling various cities outside of Silicon Valley with thriving startup communities in our semi-weekly series Never Mind the Valley. We've told you how Boston is raking in the venture funding, how Los Angeles is growing despite its northern neighbor, and even how Israel is an emerging tech hub overseas.

Despite these and other entrepreneurial cities popping up around the globe, Silicon Valley has held true as the mecca for startups. According to angel investor and Venture Hacks co-author Naval Ravikant, this is why being in the Valley is a must.

Sponsor

"For years I didn't believe this. I thought that you could take advantage of the benefits of Boston, Seattle, NY, [or] Austin," writes Ravikant on his personal blog Startup Boy. "But I give up. I found myself telling an entrepreneur why he had to be in Silicon Valley if he wanted to succeed."

However, Ravikant doesn't present the usual suspects when explaining Silicon Valley's dominance - instead he points to some benefits that tend to fly under the radar. First he says that consumer Internet businesses in Silicon Valley are increasingly becoming "winner-take-all," whereas in other cities, a successful company might be bogged down by similar competitors.

Secondly, he says that the businesses a startup would look to partner with are all located in the Valley and that serendipitous meetings and relationships are often at the core of many partnerships. Finally, Ravikant argues that Silicon Valley's early adoption community makes it easier to make use of emerging technologies and networks.

"Sure, it's possible to build a great Consumer Internet business starting out somewhere else," writes Ravikant. "But given that these are winner-take-all businesses, do you want to start out that far behind the curve?"

Is Silicon Valley the end-all/be-all of startup cities? Or do other communities have a shot at fostering competitive Internet startups? Let us know what you think in comments.

Discuss

Witnesses have begun testifying in Scott Roeder's trial, and a GQ profile of the doctor he killed raises a question: what does it take to perform late-term abortions in a country where people like Roeder run wild?

GQ's Devin Friedman portrays Dr. George Tiller as idiosyncratic, and not without hubris. He writes,

When he was younger, George Tiller had been difficult to work with. He could be vain. He wore a floor-length mink coat sometimes. He was never mean, but-he was a fan of Star Trek-he could seem slightly Vulcan, confused by certain human characteristics but also fascinated by them. For a while there was a sign in his office that read GOLDEN RULE: THE ONE WITH THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES, and he didn't consider how that might seem, a man who made his income by providing abortions. He was demanding and unforgiving of mistakes. It was worse when he was still drinking. He was more temperamental and unreliable. He drove a red Corvette then that he called Igor, and sometimes he would call Cathy at the clinic and say, Igor and I will be a little late. Even after he became sober, in the '80s, for a long time he was still headstrong, authoritarian. He fired his entire office staff once because he'd become obsessed with efficiency systems and they wouldn't consent to having their phone calls recorded. Even at the end, when he was a changed man, he was still very serious about maintaining and respecting a clear chain of command. Staff were never to call him by his first name. Cathy and Joan still referred to him simply as Doctor, even after he'd been murdered.

It's not necessarily a surprise that Tiller might have been "headstrong" — you'd almost have to have outsized confidence in order to keep going amid the death threats and actual violence that Tiller experienced. What's perhaps more upsetting about Friedman's article is its suggestion that Tiller's quirks were nothing compared to those of the late-term abortion doctors who survive him — Leroy Carhart and Warren Hern. Friedman writes, "Warren Hearn [sic] in Colorado and LeRoy Carhart in Nebraska may have been fine doctors, but people said they were both a little wonky as humans." It's not clear what "wonky" means here. In a recent NPR interview, Carhart made some surprising statements — like "I've always defended the back alley providers because most of them do a really decent job" — but he generally seemed pretty sane. However, Friedman notes that "the small community of people around George Tiller knew the first rule was to deny the enemy any source material. Once they got their hands on something, they could do anything they wanted with it" — and the same may go for those close to Carhart and Hern. The temptation on the left — a temptation I share — is to portray these doctors as saints, because so many anti-choicers try to paint them as devils.

In reality, of course, they're men, and as far as I'm concerned they could wear scuba suits as long as they remained committed to providing the reproductive freedom women need — a commitment that, according to the video above, Tiller got from his father and the women his father treated. It's interesting to learn about Tiller's personality and views — somewhat surprisingly, Friedman describes him as a "a don't-tread-on-me Republican" — but perhaps his most important quality with respect to women's rights was his willingness to perform late-term abortions in the heart of a red state. Friedman closes his profile with these disturbing lines:

There are no more abortion clinics in Wichita, or for 200 miles around. You could say Wichita is more Wichita now than it was when George Tiller was alive, a conservative small city in the middle of Kansas, at least one connecting flight away from either coast. Maybe this is the way people want it. Keep abortion to the places where it makes sense. Divide the country up, and let people move to the parts they like. Leave everyone else in peace.

The thing is, small town America isn't all conservative, just as, say, Southern California isn't all liberal, and to say that Tiller's death made Wichita more Wichita is to misunderstand some of the best things about America. The fact that a Republican was once our country's premier late-term abortion doctor shows that we used to have a lot of room for ideological diversity — and we would still, if extremists hadn't taken control of the conversation. Scott Roeder and those who support him have deeply hurt both liberals and conservatives by turning what could be a debate into an all-out war, and by forcing Americans even farther apart from one another. Abortion "makes sense" to all kinds of different women in all kinds of places, but as providing it becomes more dangerous and fewer young people enter the field, the only women with choices are going to be those who happen to live in blue states or major cities. Whoever else he was, Tiller was the kind of person who would stand up and do an unpopular thing in one of the places where it was most unpopular — and that kind of courage is now punishable by death.

Savior Vs. Savior [GQ]
Usher Testifies He Saw Kan. Abortion Doc's Slaying [Breitbart]
Abortion Doctor Upholds Legacy Of Fallen Colleague [NPR]
Dr. Tiller: The Lost Tapes [Broadsheet]

It used to be, if you were serious about starting a tech company, you went to Silicon Valley. But emerging entrepreneurial hubs around the country are giving startup aspirants options. In this series, we talk to leading figures in those communities about what makes them tick. Here, part three of our five-part series.

 

 

 

Seattle no longer lies entirely in the long dark shadow of Bill Gates' once-crushing Death Star. Hobbled by a host of events--antitrust suits, the departure of Gates as CEO, the rise of the Internet, the debacle of Vista--Microsoft has lost its dominance, even in its own backyard. There remain plenty of "Microsoft millionaires," but Seattle's startup scene today is more diverse, finding fresh roots in Amazon, born in the era of the Internet, or even Starbucks, which has arguably a stronger brand than Microsoft. As Andy Sack, a general partner in the Founders Co-op, a seed stage investment fund in Seattle, notes, "Microsoft does not hire entrepreneurs"--it hires star engineers and professional managers, not the kind of idea-driven individuals that start companies like Wetpaint, Zillow or 43 Things.

No matter where Seattle gets its entrepreneurs, the ecosystem is churning with energy. It's "Seattle 2.0," according to the Web site by that name that tracks activities in the community such as the two weekly Open Coffee meetings, Meetups, happy hours and other get-togethers. It's helpful that the industry is supported by strong capital sources in Maveron, Voyager Capital, Vulcan Ventures, as well as many Silicon Valley firms with offices in the northwest. But it's a "frontier mentality" that drives its growth to the point where, as Sack notes "deal flow is very strong."

Sack spoke with FastCompany.com about what makes Seattle's startup scene so strong.

What makes Seattle a great place to start a company?

Talent. So there's great talent and I think what is different about Seattle's talent than say San Francisco or Boston or even New York is I think a lot of the talent is either totally homegrown or from one of the big companies. I mean, as distinguished from Boston where a lot of the talent comes from Harvard, MIT, BU, BC--it's predominantly either homegrown, people who have lived here all their lives or basically been moved because Amazon recruited them and they were like, "This sucks! I'm out of here," and then they start something. I think the talent is really good because those companies do a good job recruiting the people that are here and stay here.

What else?

I think the other thing that makes it a great startup scene is a frontier spirit. There is a frontier spirit and an edge to Seattle. In the northwest there's this whole wagon-trail kind of frontier and that lives here definitely more than in San Francisco, and so there's that and then you've got this whole like coffee culture--Starbucks became super commercialized, but there's definitely like this coffee culture-slash-edge: let's stay up until all hours and bang our heads against the wall. I don't personally do that, but it's an interesting cultural mix. And then, you've got a bunch of friendly people, and so that milieu, I would say, with smart people, makes for a good startup scene.

How actively is the capital flowing into Seattle?

I think on the capital scene, there's both a healthy venture scene in the northwest, I think more and more people in the Bay Area are going, "Wow! It's super competitive down here. What's going on up there? I hear there's a lot going on up in Seattle." So I'm seeing more Valley firms actually coming up here because they're seeing really good companies forming.

And the angel community is pretty good. You have wealthy people from Microsoft and Amazon who understand technology and are willing to participate and then you have [my firm] Founders Coop. We have 20 entrepreneurs we pulled together. I think it's kind of unique what we are doing, but I'd say it's a little bit endemic of what's happened in Seattle, which is collaborative: let's support these things.

What role do Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks play in the community?

Let me first talk about the influence of those three companies. In terms of influence, I mean, there's no question. I would say those companies help Seattle lend itself more towards e-commerce related activities of all kind. Amazon is the most entrepreneurial oriented. I think when people are at Amazon they learn basically how to operate on a low margin--Amazon is known for not marketing, but for really intimate customer experiences. So the people that leave there have that ingrained in them. Amazon, more than other companies, I would say, even now holds to its entrepreneurial roots much more so than Google or Yahoo. I love Amazon, you go in there and they pinch their pennies. There's no lunch program.

So Amazon contributes. Microsoft, at this point, I would say Microsoft does not hire entrepreneurs, but the people that they mistakenly hire that become entrepreneurs--there's definitely a bunch of people who are really smart who get dissatisfied. Microsoft teaches--it's definitely an enterprise business, and they teach, I think, more than others, Microsoft does a good job of understanding markets and basically power strategy business. And you get enterprise oriented, infrastructure technology guys coming out of there who understand aggressive plays, so that's Microsoft.

And Starbucks--I think still is the number one brand in America. So you've got a lot of people who understand brand and super high-quality service. There aren't as many people leaving Starbucks for tech companies, but there's no question they certainly influence the startup scene.

Does the University of Washington have some influence on the tech scene?

The University of Washington is a big state university and it's the only game in town. So it's very different than MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. What you are getting at University of Washington is very proactive; the tech transfer office in the last three years has totally changed. And it changed in a positive way, meaning very proactive business and so there are a number of companies coming out of the computer science program and so there's a lot going on. It's just not the same as those other schools.

What's happening in Seattle's startup scene that suggests it will endure?

Seattle feels much more vibrant in the last three or four years than it did from 2000 to 2004. There's just a ton going on, covering the scene, cultivating the scene, pulling it together, etc. So there are a lot of new startups that I'm seeing as an investor. Deal flow is very strong right now.

So my prognosis is quite bullish for Seattle. In terms of exits, I think there are definitely some really good companies that as the M&A window opens up, I would expect to get purchased.

There are a lot of seeds being planted and there's a lot of gardeners watering and cultivating the seeds. Barring a kind of tornado that wipes out the whole farm, some of the seeds should grow.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dph1110/ / CC BY 2.0

Herald   With Kevin Garnett back, Green find way
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KG a go for Clippers
Turkoglu's 2 free throws lift Raptors over Lakers
No Garden-variety loss as Knicks fall by 50
Opposing point guards present problem for Celtics

CelticsBlog   T-Mobile Player Of The Week - Kevin Garnett
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After First Game Back, Kevin Garnett Feeling Fine
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Morning Walkthrough: Rondo missing the point?
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KG and Doc talk after Sunday's Practice
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Talkin Hoops   Jonas Jerebko and Ben Wallace: NBA’s most valuable players?
Patriot Ledger    Celtics are looking to find some home cooking
Sporting News    All Star voting needs a change as soon as possible
Celtics 18   Marquis Daniels talks about giving back to the community...
Dimemag    Super Bowl of Crap
Yahoo    Suns seeking trade offers for Stoudemire
ESPN   Sunday's practice report
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Cleveland.com   Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns talking Amare Stoudemire trade according to report
AJC   Hawks good so far but check back after this week 
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Ray on tough week: ‘It an us project right now’
Car & Driver: Garnett cruises through practice

Social media mishaps happen all the time. Who hasn't said something on a personal blog or Twitter, or on their Facebook status updates that they haven't regretted later? But, what happens, for example, when an employee posts on their personal Twitter account about the horrible meeting they just had, which turns out was with one of your company's biggest clients? Even if the employee doesn't mention the client by name, he or she has crossed a line into potentially defaming the client and damaging your company's reputation. The consequences could result in a lost account or even a potential lawsuit. While most professionals interacting in the social media space exhibit common sense, these scenarios can and do happen, and it's in your best interest to be prepared.As small businesses increasingly create an online presence for themselves on social media sites, employees of all levels are engaging in conversations about their company's brand. And while most employers are encouraging staff to advocate on the Web on the company's behalf, there are also risks when it comes to engaging in the social media space. If your company is active on any of the social media sites, you've most likely already considered the issue of accountability and how much or how little reign your employees should be given in this space. When it comes to your social media policies, every company is going to differ on what type of engagement is acceptable, says Andy Beal, CEO of Trackur.com, an online reputation monitoring site, and author of the book Radically Transparent.  Beal, who advises companies of all sizes on how to effectively manage their reputation on the Internet, believes that any company that has a social media presence these days can benefit from having some type of policy in place, but he specifies that it need only include what is necessary to protect the company legally and financially. At Animax Entertainment, a Van Nuys, California-based boutique online production agency that has produced interactive media campaigns for big brands like Carl's Jr. and MTV, the company's confidentiality agreement with clients precludes them from discussing any upcoming project before it is released. Because of the legal agreement that was already in place, Animax's president Michael Bellavia felt it was necessary to include a couple of lines in their employee handbook to clarify that the confidentiality agreement extended to employee interactions on social media sites. Once a campaign is launched, employees have free reign in terms of what they say about a project online, but typically the social media interactions that happen involve employees spreading the word about a new campaign and responding to audience feedback. While not all the feedback from viewers is positive – "there's always going to be people who have negative comments," says Bellavia, Animax is not overly concerned with how employees respond, as long as they don't get into an argument over opinions. "Once a show is out there, we can't really change what we did, and the creative process is just something that's very subjective," he says. In that sense, Bellavia has opted to keep the company's social media policy somewhat informal so as to allow creative exchanges to take place. Similarly, Zappos, the online shoe retailer, has just a single phrase that serves as their social media policy: "Be real and use your best judgment." Even when a company has a clear social media policy in place that provides more specifications as to what employees aren't allowed to post, there is no guarantee that everyone will represent the company exactly as you want. In crafting the necessary guidelines, Beal advises companies to keep in mind the ultimate function of social media as an outreach tool. "The more restrictions that you place on employees, the less room you give them to be a real asset to your online reputation," says Beal. "If you have an employee blogging policy that has hundreds of restrictions, you're stifling the ability for those employees to be ambassadors for the company." Plus, it's not always the case that a negative interaction online turns out to be damaging. In fact, there are often positive results to an employee speaking their mind, as was Michael Hubbard's experience with a junior employee at his Raleigh, North Carolina-based advertising agency Media Two. Social media is at the core of Media Two's operations and everyone at the company, which has approximately 25 employees, has access to the Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, as well as the company blog. Hubbard designated five people who consistently blog for the company, but Media Two's policy when it comes to blogging is that anyone can put up a post without it being read or edited beforehand. About a year ago, an employee who had been working at the company for six months posted a blog that expressed his dissatisfaction with two major ad servers in the industry. The employee had tried giving the companies feedback by phone and e-mail, and when he received no response, he finally wrote about his experience in a blog. Within hours of the post, Hubbard had calls from the heads of both of those companies asking why Media Two employees were allowed to bad mouth other companies. In keeping with the blogging policy, Hubbard stood by his employee, and actually felt that the blog served to get the companies' attention. "Social media is about interaction," says Hubbard, "and we want to be interacting whether it's good or bad. In this case, there was a bad element out there that an employee addressed, and he did so in a very structured and professional way, while leaving the personal out of it."One of the things that Hubbard recognizes is that employees make mistakes, whether it be on social media sites or in some other aspect of their job. But, Hubbard wants those mistakes to be a learning experience. "We don't threaten anyone," says Hubbard. "We want you to make mistakes, but we don't want you to make the same mistake twice." For Hubbard, being a small company in the social media space also has its advantages because the consequences that resulted from a disgruntled employee blog are much smaller and more easily mitigated than they would be at a bigger company where there might be higher industry regulations. Hubbard's employee was not actually bad mouthing the company he worked for, which makes a huge difference given the company's policy of not misrepresenting the company. Media Two employees are told that whenever they are interacting personally on social media sites, they are also representing their professional life. The company's general policy about using social media sites professionally is that employees should not be using it to say things they are not supposed to. Hubbard also ensures that all employees have their privacy settings set properly on their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. Employees are advised to restrict photos and other very personal content from work friends and professional contacts, because even in their personal lives they are identified as employees of Media Two. Media Two's social media policy is an internal document that is constantly evolving based on the company's use of different (and newer) social media sites. Beal says that because of the changing nature of technology, a social media policy won't do you any good unless you are constantly communicating those policies to employees. "Take time to educate employees about how they can contribute," says Beal. This can be done through a short training session in which managers discuss best practices. Employees should also know who they can go to if they are unsure about posting something. Beal says it works well to assign someone at the company to the role of community manager who is in charge of overseeing any company activity online. Additionally, a social media policy does not have to be a long, weighty document, says Beal. In fact, most companies that have social media policies have "no more than 10 bullet points," says Beal. It should be posted in a place where it is easily visible, he adds, like an internal company wiki. Ultimately, your social media policy should function as an informal guide, in which there is room for interpretation and discussion with employees. "The benefits of having your employees engaging in social media far outweigh the dangers of them saying something that they shouldn't," says Beal. ----For more resources on social media policies, and to view samples of other company's policies, visit:Online Database of Social Media Policies:http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php16 Social Media Guidelines, Econsultancy Blog:http://econsultancy.com/blog/5049-16-social-media-guidelines-used-by-real-companies

Last weeks menu went pretty well until the weekend.  On Friday I had so many leftovers in the fridge that I decided to skip the pizza (sacrelidge!) and do a buffet style “use up the leftovers” meal. Then on Saturday I had forgotten that the special farewell service for our priest included a ham dinner with all the trimmings at 3pm-no one was hungry at supper for more than a few munchies. I threw one of my emergency store bought frozen pizzas in the oven and called it good. Then yesterday (Sunday) I totally forgot during my planning that between the church service at 9am and the community farewell for our priest (this man is loved by everyone in town) we had our annual meeting. . . with helping clean up and set up and all those things that “church ladies” do-I was only home for about one hour between the hours of 9am and 4pm.  Not enough time to make a veggie lasagna.  I admit it-Hubs ran down to the bowling alley and picked us up wings for dinner. Hey-I’m frugal, not a saint! So on to this week.  What do I have to plan around? Well, there are the standard meeting nights ...

MUNICH, Germany — The leader of the Mozilla Project, whose Firefox Web browser now has 350 million users, said Sunday that she is concerned that legal restrictions could limit Internet expansion.

Mitchell Baker said she worried about "the increase in laws that make it difficult to run an open network," especially rules about content.

"You suddenly become liable for anything that gets downloaded, whether it's legal or not," she said. "If you said to a municipality, if you build a road, you have to guarantee nothing illegal happens on it – that's what's happening on the Internet now. So that's the kind of regulatory disruption that's going to have some long-term consequences."

Baker spoke at an opening panel of a three-day conference on digital innovation and creative ideas.

The DLD conference – which stands for Digital-Life-Design – is chaired by Hubert Burda of Germany, owner of Hubert Burda Media, and digital investor Yossi Vardi, who co-pioneered instant messaging and chaired the panel, titled "Disruptive."

Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype which now has over 500 million users, said successful companies can't become complacent and must continue to make improvements and not be afraid "of disrupting themselves."

Vardi asked J.P. Rangaswami, chief scientist of the BT Group in Britain, what he thought of what Skype was doing to telecommunications companies like his.

"Watch this space," Rangaswami replied cryptically.

Vardi then asked Rangaswami whether he sees the industry following Skype's efforts to set minimal charges for phone calls around the world.

"I think those parts of the industry that don't follow what Niklas is doing will either find themselves out of a job or working for him," he replied.

American entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, whose nonprofit charity founded Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that has 350 million users, said it was a "very, very bad business" to try to compete against because the reference work is offered for free.

He ruled out advertising on the site for now – but left open the possibility it could happen sometime in the future to raise money for the charity.

Moderator Vardi expressed amazement that the Internet companies had small work forces despite their vast number of users.

Skype has just over 600 employees, Mozilla about 250, and Wikipedia just 30.

What advice would the three give to companies trying to get 100 million users?

"Stay out of software first of all," said Mozilla's Baker. "Go to Web sites and services."

Wales said, "Have a very pure, simple vision that everyone can understand immediately."

Zennstrom said the idea should also "make consumers' lives easier." And, he stressed, "don't do a copycat of someone else."

BT's Rangaswami said he believes the Web in the past 20 years has made people more willing to collaborate, to work together. The emphasis is on online data "because it's through that that people can do things," he told The Associated Press.

Ranjaswami said the key is transparency.

"So I think all the data.gov initiatives are very, very important because that's laying the foundations of the next generation – how we use that transparency of public information to start really making change as a result of community," he said.

Yves Daccord, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a video presentation that Twitter and the social media have been very important in mobilizing a response to the earthquake in Haiti and giving the people "the sense that we are very close."

In the future, he said, he expects victims of disasters to use social media more effectively to communicate their needs so humanitarian organizations can deliver better services and reunite families.

Ever since Apple adapted their wildly successfull iTunes music store to sell apps for the iPhone, technology vendors everywhere have been trying to find opportunities to replicate the innovation. Now Digium is launching AsteriskExchange--while not quite a true app store--it's a marketplace and reviews site for Asterisk's open source community.

The website will serve as a hub for the Asterisk open-source VoIP community including a place for users to review applications and phones. Developers can get exposure for their Asterisk-based applications and users can get the purchase info right from the site. At the moment it looks like AsteriskExchange is not actually doing any selling itself, but instead directs users to vendor sites who sell the products. The site has a number of tabs including a 'most popular' tab. Currently, the Bria softphone app is at the top of the list, but with no reviews or star ratings yet, I am not sure how they are determining the popularity. It will be interesting in the future to see what apps end up the top of the list when more users access the site.

Unlike other app stores, AsteriskExchange also includes some hardware that you can learn about, review, and connect to sellers to get your equipement. Clicking on the Snom 360 deskphone will bring to an info page and an offsite link to 'Buy Now.'

For more:
- read this article from Connected Planet

Related articles
IBM and Digium add Asterisk VoIP calling to Smart Cube
Dialogic, Digium team on media gateway interoperability
Digium targets Latin America, South Africa with sales partnership

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and Thunderbird 3.0.1 for OpenSolaris and Solaris platform are available from the opensolaris site.

• http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+desktop/development

Mitch Joel is president of the marketing agency Twist Image.  Also a blogger, journalist, podcaster, author and speaker, Mitch is one of our featured professors in the January semester of Inbound Marketing University (IMU). (Today's the last day to signup, and the program commences tomorrow!)

1. You've been dubbed the "Rock Star of Digital Marketing" by Marketing Magazine and have been called upon by a number of media outlets (e.g. BusinessWeek, Fast Company, The Globe & Mail, etc.) for your expert opinion. Where does all of your Internet marketing knowledge stem from, and how do you stay on top of the latest trends and topics?

I grew up in a middle-class family with three brothers. Instead of buying us individual gifts, my parents would usually buy one big "thing" that we could all share. We were fortunate enough to have the early gaming systems and one of the first computers. With that came the first modems.

That first time I connected... I was hooked. From there, the advent of the Internet and those first webpages really intrigued me (and it still does). As for "staying on top" - it's all just passion for me, so I don't find it that hard at all. I read a ton and listen to a lot of podcasts. I simply could not live without Google Reader, Google Alerts, Instapaper and my iPhone.

2. For businesses trying to come to grips with new, modern marketing methods, what advice or tips can you offer to help them get started?

Setting up a Reader account and listening to the conversation around your brand (using tools like Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Icerocket and Google Blog Search) is probably the best place to start. Once you can understand where the conversation is, who leads, the type of voices and the best place for you to add your voice, you can then start becoming a more active participant. I'd also recommend figuring out the right balance between building your own community and joining an existing one.

Lastly - and probably most important - ask "why?". Most people are faced in a boardroom with this question: "What are we doing on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc...?" These are the people who are constantly being pushed to do a lot more with a lot less, and their peers (both Junior and Senior) think that the online channels hold the key. There's a big difference between asking "what?" and asking "why?" - in short, asking "why?" is the strategy and asking "what?" is the tactic, so it's all about figuring out the "why?" first.

3. Tell me about your book, Six Pixels of Separation. What great takeaways can people expect from reading your book?

Most of the business books out there tend to be written by people giving their perspective of the new online channels either through the lens of a marketer, consultant or technologist. I wrote Six Pixels of Separation as an entrepreneur for businesspeople, using real business language and case stories that really illustrate how business can grow (and yes, that includes making money). This book is the strategy, tools and tactics my business partners and I used to grow our business (as entrepreneurs) from no employees in 2002 to nearly 100 full-time team members with multiple offices.

This book is much more about how to think strategically different and engage in a much more human way in this new world. It's also not a book written by a pundit. It's from one businessperson to another. So the key takeaways revolve around: where does my business fit into this, how do I define and build the strategy and is there really any more in it?

4. From your experience producing the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast, what have you learned about podcasting, and what are some marketing advantages achieved through podcasting that you can't get from other Internet marketing strategies like blogging?

Oh, I really do love audio podcasting as a business and marketing channel. In all of the fuss to rush to Twitter or fawn over some viral videos on YouTube, podcasting is a subtle and ever-growing audio platform that seems to have lost some of its luster in terms of public excitement, but continues to grow in terms of loyal audience. Podcasting continues to be one of the best ways to consume audio and video content. Think about podcasting this way: imagine if all of your consumers can now be the program director of their own radio station, only they can also decide when the shows are "on the air." That's podcasting, and it will not only change the way you think about media, it will turn all of your downtime into a moment where you can learn, grow and expand or simply listen/watch some mindless entertainment.

The true business beauty of podcasting is how much more it is like narrowcasting vs. broadcasting. You can create very niche content and target those who are most interested in what you have to say. There's something about audio (maybe the "theatre of the mind") that is totally different engagement than say, blogging, and I think many businesspeople drastically minimize the opportunity that still exists with podcasting from a business perspective.

5. We're so pleased to have you as one of our new professors for our January semester of IMU! What are some online marketing gems students can expect to learn from your "Internet Marketing Comprehensive Review" class tomorrow, January 26 at 1 p.m. ET?

My plan is to lead the participants through my own "tools of the trade." I'll be demonstrating how they can better monitor the Web 2.0 landscape, add their brand to other communities, and how to publish their own Blog/Podcast - using only free tools.

By the end of this session they will learn how to use the most current social media tools to improve their business, track what people are saying about them across all channels, how to share this wealth of knowledge with their colleagues, and, ultimately, build a better business.

 

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iHub – Nairobi’s Innovation Hub for the technology community – is here! It’s an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part investor and VC hub and part incubator.

A number of us in the Nairobi tech community have been discussing the need for a physical nexus for the tech community here for a couple years, so it’s great to finally be so close to uncorking the bottles and celebrating a big step forward for all of us.

iHub opens on March 3, 2010!

Here’s a rough video of the iHub. A first-look at the space, before any design or wiring is done:

[Note: my apologies for the video quality, it was taken with my phone.]

Background and Info

The iHub will have a redundant 10Mbs connection, hardwired and WiFi, and it’s freely available to any tech person in Nairobi to use once they become members. Membership is free, our only requirement is that you are indeed involved in the tech space as a programmer, web designer or mobile application developer.

Data connectivity is the most important aspect of the iHub, but after that comes a fresh design and an atmosphere that is conducive to techies getting cool stuff done.

Finally, we’re putting our networks into place to give special access to the entrepreneurs and startups who need space to meet with VCs, seed funders and local businesses. We’re trying to create the place where seeds are planted and are easily found by the people with money to help them grow.

A Blank Canvas

The iHub is what we as a tech community make it. It is a blank canvas, a big open room with a great view and wonderful location, but still an empty room that needs some input from people within the community to design, and create a culture around.

What part are you going to play?

• Want to have bragging rights on being the logo designer for the iHub? There’s $500 (38,000 Ksh) up for grabs at the iHub logo contest!
• Have a penchant for design, want to help layout the floor plan, pick the wall colors or design the signage?
• We’re wiring this place with the latest and best data connections in Kenya. Can you help us make sure the network is sound?
• Good at creating intranets for fast and easy file sharing of 1gb+ downloads like the Android SDK? Want to help us build that?
• Maybe you’ve got great business connections. Will you help us connect the iHub and the people in it to the business community?

iHub Location

The new iHub’s location is going to be on the 4th floor of the new Bishop Magua Centre on Ngong Road (directly opposite the Uchumi Hyper). It’s an amazing location, with quick access to public transportation, food and the rest of town.

View iHub – Nairobi’s Innovation Hub in a larger map

Community Involvement

I’ve been working closely with a couple of people from the community to find a place and get some basic items squared away. This advisory group is made up of individuals with a long standing presence in tech locally, including:

• Riyaz Bachani, CTO of Wananchi
• Josiah Mugambi, Co-Founder of Skunkworks
• Rebeccah Wanjiku, Tech reporter and entrepreneur
• Conrad Akunga, Blogger and Software Manager
• Erik Hersman (me), Tech blogger, Founder of AfriGadget and co-Founder of Ushahidi

As mentioned earlier, there are a number of things still to be done, and we all need to band together in order to make this space what we hope it will become. Your ideas and drive will make the iHub into the space to be in all of East Africa for tech-related activities.

If you would like be involved, leave a comment below.

Tracy Dossman considered herself a specialist in providing foster care to teenage boys.

She wasn't sure she wanted to take small children.

And she definitely wasn't sure she wanted Anisha Hill's children, according to a 2006 state licensing evaluation.

"Ms. Dosman (sic) was apprehensive about caring for the children because she knew that the mother could be extremely difficult," according to a Child Protective Services report prepared a year earlier for the juvenile court.

Two years have passed since Dossman found herself at the center of "every parent's worst nightmare," according to her foster family agency. On the night of Jan. 11, 2008, one of Hill's biological children – 4 1/2-year-old Amariana Crenshaw – was killed while in her care.

Today, the official investigation languishes.

But The Bee's own investigation has found numerous puzzles, including injuries that plagued the child in foster care. And, The Bee has learned, two CPS workers faced criticism for their close relationships with Dossman.

By piecing together hundreds of pages of state licensing documents and social worker narratives, The Bee found that between January 2006 and July 2007, Amariana Crenshaw suffered injuries to her head and face on at least five separate occasions.

First came an eye injury. Then a split and swollen lip. Then two more lip injuries, followed by a pink, swollen eye and scabbed lip.

The child then suffered a sixth injury – to her right leg – that noticeably affected her walking.

Nearly six months later, Amariana's body was pulled from a burning house on Sweet Pea Way near South Natomas. Police say she was the victim of at least one Molotov cocktail thrown through the window of the rental home, owned by Dossman.

No single document lists all the injuries that preceded her death, or questions whether there might be a pattern.

Yet of the six foster children in Dossman's care, only Amariana appeared to be getting hurt frequently.

Of the various people whose job was to document life in the foster home, only a state licensing analyst – not trained as a social worker – raised suspicions in writing about Amariana's facial injuries and scars, the documents show.

Others were convinced that the injuries were Amariana's doing or were being fabricated or exaggerated by her bitter biological parents.

"Amariana is still very accident-prone and gets hurt easily," according to a 2007 report from a social worker for one of Dossman's foster family agencies.

The county echoed that assessment over and over – including two months before the child's death, when Amariana was reported to have "multiple bruises and marks."

A CPS worker investigated the injuries. " … (C)onsistent of normal childhood play," the social worker concludes.

The social worker noted something else: Dossman believed the abuse complaint was personal because, once again, a family friend was "mad at her."

Tracy Dossman's two-story, five-bedroom residence in North Natomas is spacious. Ten rooms, three baths, a two-car garage.

A single mother with two biological children, Dossman has cared for foster kids since at least 2003, according to state records. Over the years, the state says, she has cared for at least 46 children, ages 2 to 18. She has been certified by six different agencies since 1995, and by one of them twice.

Dossman, who declined to be interviewed by The Bee, continues to care for foster children. And, she has the continued support of her agency at the time of the death, Positive Option Family Service.

"In general, (Positive Option) has had a good experience with Ms. Dossman due to her obvious affection for the children and willingness to comply with standards and requirements," the agency said in a written response to The Bee.

From the very beginning, Dossman, now 41, had chosen to work through private, nonprofit foster family agencies, instead of getting licensed directly by the county.

In July 2005, when Dossman was on her fourth agency, 2-year-old Amariana Crenshaw came into her life.

For Amariana and her older half sister and half brother, the house with tall white columns was a dramatic change from the 950-square-foot home in the North Sacramento area they had shared with their mother.

By the time the three children joined Dossman's large family in the summer of 2005, their biological mother, Anisha Hill, was due to turn herself in to the Sacramento County Main Jail to serve time on a check fraud conviction. Amariana's father, Curtis Crenshaw, was staying with his wife and her three teenagers in a south area motel.

Amariana's older brother, England Rogers, now 18, recalled that "everything was cool the first couple weeks" in the Dossman home.

The house had rules, though. Rogers said children were required to ask permission to get something to eat and often were fed noodles and powdered milk.

Rogers' stay in the foster home would last only about three months. He was sent back to juvenile hall for violating probation, having been arrested over the summer for joyriding in a stolen car.

After moving out, Rogers saw his little sister again, he said, and noticed that Amariana smelled like urine – a condition also noted by her biological parents.

The county, however, continued to be pleased with the arrangement, according to CPS reports to the juvenile court and internal agency records. Over the 30 months that Amariana lived with Dossman, the child was described as being in a stable, protective environment.

Amariana and her sister had a "close bond" with Dossman, according to a May 2006 CPS report.

What the county didn't address in documents obtained by The Bee were the people who surrounded Dossman, and who may have had access to her foster home. Nor do they mention Dossman's own history of feuds and legal conflicts with family members, tenants, creditors and others who crossed her path.

Dossman's former boyfriend – the father of her younger child – was sentenced in June 2008 to nearly 11 years in a federal penitentiary for drug trafficking, The Bee has found. In court records and other public documents, Michael L. Stevens lists both the foster home and Dossman's rental as his addresses.

The father of Dossman's older child, Dion Lamar Jordan, was sent to state prison at least seven times in the last 15 years, mostly for drunken driving. Dossman once called Sacramento police to accuse Jordan's brother of displaying a "big black gun" in front of her 8-year-old son, according to civil court documents.

Anisha Hill and Curtis Crenshaw believe that Dossman's nephew, Brandon, was the one member of Dossman's household who looked out for Amariana. He had moved into the foster home after his 30-year-old father was murdered in 1998 on a Richmond playground.

"He comforted her," Crenshaw said of Brandon Dossman. "He helped my baby."

Brandon Dossman was described in an August 2008 state licensing record as the household member who "gets the kids up and off to school in the morning."

Last October, Brandon Dossman, now 20, was arrested and charged with drug possession and drunken driving.

Tracy Dossman later would tell her foster agency that her nephew no longer was living with her or caring for kids. However, Brandon Dossman listed the foster home as his address with both the California Highway Patrol and in a recent filing in family law court.

When he was arrested at 3:17 a.m. on Oct. 10, Brandon Dossman was driving a car registered to Tracy Dossman.

Amariana's series of injuries were eerily similar – cuts and bruises to the face, the eyes, the lips. The explanations for the injuries varied widely.

The first recorded incident was on Jan. 30, 2006, when a doctor at the Sacramento Community Clinic saw the little girl for an injury near her left eye. Tracy Dossman explained that her 1-year-old nephew had hit Amariana while "trying to get on his bike."

Shortly thereafter, a second incident left Amariana with a split and swollen lip. This time, Dossman told her agency and the county that she had contacted a Kaiser advice nurse. She explained that this new injury resulted from a fall down the stairs while the 2-year-old was talking on the telephone, records show.

Her biological parents sounded alarms.

Soon, though, Sacramento County would become fed up with Curtis Crenshaw and Anisha Hill, and their complaints about the little girl's treatment in foster care.

In early 2006, Crenshaw had a $10-an-hour truck-driving job, had completed classes in parenting and anger management, and was visiting Amariana consistently. But he also was testing positive for marijuana and methamphetamine, county records show.

Hill had no steady income and was more sporadic with her counseling sessions, parenting classes and visits, showing up late or not at all. She was taking the brunt of the county's blame for the outbursts between her and Dossman, though one agency social worker would later complain that while the biological parents were "volatile," the foster mother "can be reactive." The worker said she needed help to "avoid a blowup."

Amariana also was becoming a source of irritation in the Dossman household, the records reveal.

While the little girl appeared to be "meeting normal developmental milestones" for a 3-year-old, an August 2006 CPS report states, Dossman was complaining to the county that the child "hoards food, drinks water from the toilet and bangs her head on things, particularly before bedtime." This was an explanation she would offer for sealing the refrigerator with a bicycle lock and placing deadbolt locks on doors to the bathrooms and children's rooms – a violation of foster children's personal rights.

As the holidays arrived in 2006, more injuries to Amariana were recorded in government documents.

That November, state records show Amariana was taken to her primary care doctor for another busted lip. According to Dossman, the girl had fallen from a countertop while trying to get candy.

A month later, Dossman reported to her agency that someone in the household had pushed Amariana in the bathroom on Dec. 23 and she had struck the toilet bowl, cutting open her lip again. But Dossman indicated she wasn't sure if Amariana was telling the truth about being pushed, according to a Dec. 27, 2006, CPS log entry of a foster agency e-mail.

The child's physical condition soon attracted the attention of an outsider.

In February 2007, the state received a complaint that an individual at a Walmart store had noticed Amariana had a pink swollen eye and scabbed lower lip. The person followed Dossman out of the store, got her license plate number and filed a report of suspected abuse.

The county noted the incident in its service log, stating that Sacramento police conducted a welfare check and found the children in the Dossman home to be "absolutely fine," according to CPS records. Dossman suggested that the person at the store was a relative, and the report "was a result of a family feud," the CPS log entry shows.

The state was not so sure.

On Feb. 9, 2007, a state licensing evaluator made an unannounced visit to Dossman's home and confirmed that Amariana had "unexplained bruises/marks on her face."

This time, Dossman explained that the child was doing it to herself.

By then, Dossman was certified by Homes With Heart – her sixth foster family agency since 1995. (Because of a change in how foster agency homes are regulated in California, the state can confirm only that she had children placed in her care dating back to 2003.)

Foster family agencies serve as intermediaries – recruiting, certifying and training their own providers. These agencies were intended to serve more needy and challenging children in California, with the idea that agency providers get added support and training – and generally more money, especially as high-needs children reach their teenage years.

Complaints against an agency home or a foster family agency are investigated by the state instead of the county. Still, county social workers continue to monitor all children in foster care, creating potential for miscommunication among the various entities.

In 2002, the state auditor had found that agency-hopping could be hazardous for kids, since some providers had avoided correcting problems simply by switching foster family agencies. In response, the Legislature passed a law to try to weed out problem providers who move around.

If anyone at the state or county was concerned about Dossman's agency hopping, it wasn't expressed in reports obtained by The Bee.

But the state investigator who visited the home following the Walmart report was concerned about Amariana's appearance.

"Scars and current injuries were visible on the child's face," the licensing worker wrote. "The 18-year-old biological son of the certified parent supervises the children in the home, which includes four teenagers and three younger children."

Again, Dossman had an explanation. The foster mother told the state worker that Amariana was bumping her head to soothe herself and was engaging in aggressive fights with her then-7-year-old half sister, according to the state's complaint investigation report.

Dossman assured the state investigator: "I take her to the doctor for everything. I report everything."

Jeff Hiratsuka, deputy director of the state's Community Care Licensing Division, said repeat injuries in foster care are not necessarily a sign of abuse.

"You've got children in these homes who are going to be very challenging," he said.

But Geoffrey McKee, a forensic psychologist who has studied child deaths extensively, said Dossman's explanations "sound hollow."

"It's the number of these injuries that is problematic," said McKee, a clinical professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. "The facial bruises and split lips – somebody's hitting that child a lot."

Documents support Curtis Crenshaw and Anisha Hill's contention that they constantly tried to call attention to the injuries through both county Child Protective Services and juvenile court judges.

"My daughter's life is at stake," Crenshaw told a court referee in October 2006, a transcript shows.

Hill said she was rebuffed, and that a CPS social worker hung up on her. One CPS report observed that Hill was "attempting to dismantle Ms. Dossman's credibility."

In another CPS report, dated March 14, 2006, social worker Tricia Louis wrote that Crenshaw had successfully completed parenting and anger management classes "but still overreacted to his daughter being accidentally injured by a 1-year-old child."

"One would expect Mr. Crenshaw to have gained the knowledge and insight into developmental stages of children and be able to acknowledge that it is not uncommon for toddlers to have accidents in which there are minor injuries," Louis wrote. "His expectation that a foster parent should be able to protect his daughter from any possible harm is unreasonable."

Crenshaw's agitation over Amariana's injuries became his legal undoing.

In April 2006, CPS social worker Louis wrote that Crenshaw's anger over the injuries led her to conclude "it would not be safe to return Amariana to his care."

Throughout 2006, tensions mounted between Amariana's foster and biological mothers.

In March that year, Dossman got a restraining order against Hill, saying Hill was harassing her by phone and threatening her, according to court papers.

The foster mother said she believed that "something is going to happen to me. She hates me. She's going to burn my house down," the court papers show.

Hill told The Bee that was "a lie," and that she would never threaten to burn down a home with her own children inside.

"I swear to God on my daughter's grave, I would not lie about that," said Hill. "That's ridiculous."

The month after Dossman got the restraining order, Hill complained to a CPS emergency response worker that, among other things, Amariana was being forced to sleep on the floor without covers.

Dossman made her own call to CPS, accusing Hill of cursing in front of the children when they called the foster mother "Mommy" at pickup time.

During an Easter 2006 visit, Anisha Hill's family observed strange behavior by Amariana, Hill said. The girl ate so much food that she threw up. She then lay down on the bare floor and went to sleep without asking for a blanket.

"What child does that?" Hill asked.

Hill's sister, Anitra Hill, also recalled that meal, saying that the almost 3-year-old girl "was eating more than I was" and wouldn't sleep on a bed.

Anisha Hill told The Bee that Amariana always seemed to be hungry when she saw her during supervised visits. Once, she said, the child consumed nearly an entire container of Safeway chocolate chip cookies.

Crenshaw said that he also began to notice that his daughter looked thinner – a transition apparent in family snapshots.

This was not the child the couple remembered.

As a baby, Amariana Crenshaw had been chubby, with thick legs and a pudgy round face.

Medical records of her first two years of life show Amariana's weight and height were well above average between birth and 20 months, routinely ranging between the 90th and 100th percentiles.

At her 20-month checkup in January 2005, the physician at the South Area Pediatric Medical Group on Florin Road described her as "alert, happy, active" and a "healthy 20-month-old," according to the records, obtained by The Bee.

She was 33 inches tall and weighed a robust 28 pounds – placing her near the 90th percentile for weight.

After her death, the Sacramento coroner would record the 4 1/2-year-old girl as 36 inches tall and 29 pounds – a 1-pound gain in three years. Coroner's spokesman Ed Smith said the fire would not have significantly affected the child's body measurements.

Dr. Randell Alexander, a nationally recognized child abuse expert, said a 1-pound weight gain in three years would be "a very serious problem."

"That is failure to thrive, absolutely," said Alexander, a pediatrics professor at the University of Florida who has served as vice chairman of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Alexander said that reports of a locked refrigerator and a child gorging herself raise additional concerns. Foster parents often are advised that children initially may gorge out of insecurities over food supply, he said. But that behavior usually resolves itself as the child begins to trust that there will always be enough food.

"A kid's job is to gain weight," Alexander said.

Questions about the availability of food in Dossman's home had surfaced before, The Bee's investigation has found.

While working in 2004 for the foster family agency Growing Alternatives, Dossman came under scrutiny for her treatment of a 5-year-old girl who came to school in "extremely dirty" clothes and no socks and found no one waiting at home when she returned on the school bus.

The state found those allegations to be true.

The 5-year-old's kindergarten teacher also reported to a state licensing evaluator that the child was not given enough to eat, was "always hungry" and had said she was sleeping on the floor without blankets, state records show.

Dossman told the state investigator in 2004 that the 5-year-old girl "hoarded food." Dossman also said she allowed the girl to sleep on the floor in her bedroom when she was afraid of the dark.

The state eventually deemed the teacher's allegations "inconclusive" – meaning they could not be proved or disproved, records show.

Later that year, Dossman again changed foster family agencies.

Curtis Crenshaw saw his daughter for the last time on Jan. 3, 2007, the day the juvenile court ordered that Amariana's biological parents be permanently cut out of her life.

Dossman planned to adopt both of Hill's girls and had picked out a new name for Amariana: Wendy Dossman. Child Protective Services would assure the court in June 2007 that Amariana had "no noted behavior problems" and was no longer receiving counseling.

Internal CPS documents tell a different story. In a report filed by Dossman's foster family agency earlier that year, the social worker reported that Dossman complained of Amariana using profanity, acting aggressively, hitting others and making up stories.

Dossman was under intense scrutiny by then. The Walmart report of Amariana's allegedly battered face had unleashed a serious new round of licensing investigations in February 2007.

Noting the "unexplained marks/bruises on her face," the state investigator concluded that Amariana had been neglected and improperly supervised. She ordered Dossman to document every injury in the foster home for six months, taking any injured child to the doctor and providing a written explanation.

"Foster parent will provide adequate supervision for the safety of the children residing in her home," the investigator wrote in her "plan of correction."

Dossman's foster family agency, in turn, was required to have a "formal meeting" about any injury, and submit documentation to the state.

Dossman signed the agreement. Yet before the state's investigation was even complete, she switched foster family agencies again – moving from Homes With Heart to Positive Option, which had certified her once before.

Positive Option agreed to carry out the state's plan of correction and today says each incident was "reported and reviewed."

State regulators had cited a host of other problems in Dossman's North Natomas home after that Feb. 9, 2007, inspection: the locked refrigerator; deadbolts on the bedrooms and bathrooms; toxics out in the open; the home temperature below licensing standards, registering a chilly 62 degrees; and no landline telephone.

And the evaluator found that Dossman's 18-year-old son, Dion Jordan Jr., who was supervising and transporting the kids, lacked required first aid and CPR training.

The state worker also questioned why the foster mother would have the youngest child in the home "sleeping by herself in a room downstairs, alone, next to the front door."

Dossman explained that the sleeping arrangement was "because of the problems" – Amariana's food-hoarding and emotional issues, state records show. She also said she had locked the bathrooms because of Amariana's behavior.

And she relayed that the county had given her permission to put deadbolts on the children's bedrooms and bathrooms, state records show.

Child Protective Services did not answer The Bee's question about whether it had granted that permission.

Not long after the state investigation was completed, the county looked into another allegation of physical abuse – this time involving Amariana's right leg. A person required by law to report suspected abuse told CPS in July 2007 that Amariana had been "hit or kicked in the leg by someone in the foster home" and was unable to put weight on her leg, a CPS report said.

The report alleges that the girl had not been taken to the doctor – despite the state's edict that all injured children in Dossman's home be seen by a physician.

Child Protective Services social worker Miri Mee visited Amariana and concluded that the child had "fallen off of a swing," and Dossman had tried to get medical care but "the clinic was closed," her report states. Mee, assigned to Hill's girls in May 2006, notes that she was "unable to find any injuries but the child was walking funny with her right leg."

The state already had been warned that Dossman's relationship with Mee was tight.

In February 2007, a social worker for Homes With Heart had complained to the state that Mee – who worked in the adoptions unit – was "close friends" with Dossman and was undermining the agency's efforts to crack down on the foster provider, state records show.

"Tracy and the county worker seem to have a response for everything I try to put in place because they're very close friends," Brenna Levy, the Homes with Heart social worker, told a state licensing evaluator.

Levy added that Dossman was belligerent, condescending and hard to manage. For instance, she reported that Dossman had "refused to run the heat for the entire winter."

"We brought the regulations, and she just refused," Levy was quoted as saying in the report. "I told her that it was my job as a social worker for her home to make sure she was in compliance.

"She patronized me by saying, 'Poor Brenna, she probably doesn't worry about her bill in her little apartment.' "

Levy also expressed concern to the state licensing worker that Amariana was sleeping alone on the cold first story of the house.

"She (Dossman) told us that she heated the upstairs and that was enough," Levy was quoted as saying in state documents.

Levy, who declined to be interviewed by The Bee, told the state that Mee was "very abrupt and not supportive" of the agency's efforts to bring Dossman into compliance.

Mee did not return Bee phone calls, and CPS did not respond to written questions about the allegations.

Mee was not the only CPS worker who had a relationship with Dossman outside her official interaction.

A CPS supervisor overseeing the cases of several foster children in the Dossman home had arranged to buy Dossman's rental property on Sweet Pea Way right before it burned, a CPS document states.

Lajuannah Sandles, a CPS employee since 2005, grew up in the same neighborhood as Dossman, according to an internal CPS document prepared after the fatal fire.

"She (Sandles) had maintained contact with Ms. Dossman since they attended schools together and moved into a close neighborhood," according to the report, based on a statement made by Sandles.

Another CPS document describes Sandles' "personal involvement" with Dossman, stating that it "can be construed or viewed as a hindrance to the department's assessment or discretion." The cases involving Dossman's children subsequently were reassigned to other CPS units.

"The supervisor (Sandles) will be reminded regarding conflict of interest," the CPS record notes.

Asked about the pending home purchase, Sandles, reached by phone, said The Bee had "incorrect information."

"I don't have anything to do with that case," said Sandles, adding that she didn't have time to talk further.

The real estate deal, according to the CPS files, was poised to close the morning of Jan. 11, 2008 – a Friday. Sandles' belongings were packed and ready for moving in the following day.

That Friday morning, Sandles went to the Sweet Pea Way house to meet a contractor who was to install a new garage door. Instead, she was greeted by yellow crime scene tape.

Amariana Crenshaw was dead.

COMING TUESDAY

The investigation unfolds … then grinds to a halt.

Tracy Dossman considered herself a specialist in providing foster care to teenage boys.

She wasn't sure she wanted to take small children.

And she definitely wasn't sure she wanted Anisha Hill's children, according to a 2006 state licensing evaluation.

"Ms. Dosman (sic) was apprehensive about caring for the children because she knew that the mother could be extremely difficult," according to a Child Protective Services report prepared a year earlier for the juvenile court.

Two years have passed since Dossman found herself at the center of "every parent's worst nightmare," according to her foster family agency. On the night of Jan. 11, 2008, one of Hill's biological children – 4 1/2-year-old Amariana Crenshaw – was killed while in her care.

Today, the official investigation languishes.

But The Bee's own investigation has found numerous puzzles, including injuries that plagued the child in foster care. And, The Bee has learned, two CPS workers faced criticism for their close relationships with Dossman.

By piecing together hundreds of pages of state licensing documents and social worker narratives, The Bee found that between January 2006 and July 2007, Amariana Crenshaw suffered injuries to her head and face on at least five separate occasions.

First came an eye injury. Then a split and swollen lip. Then two more lip injuries, followed by a pink, swollen eye and scabbed lip.

The child then suffered a sixth injury – to her right leg – that noticeably affected her walking.

Nearly six months later, Amariana's body was pulled from a burning house on Sweet Pea Way near South Natomas. Police say she was the victim of at least one Molotov cocktail thrown through the window of the rental home, owned by Dossman.

No single document lists all the injuries that preceded her death, or questions whether there might be a pattern.

Yet of the six foster children in Dossman's care, only Amariana appeared to be getting hurt frequently.

Of the various people whose job was to document life in the foster home, only a state licensing analyst – not trained as a social worker – raised suspicions in writing about Amariana's facial injuries and scars, the documents show.

Others were convinced that the injuries were Amariana's doing or were being fabricated or exaggerated by her bitter biological parents.

"Amariana is still very accident-prone and gets hurt easily," according to a 2007 report from a social worker for one of Dossman's foster family agencies.

The county echoed that assessment over and over – including two months before the child's death, when Amariana was reported to have "multiple bruises and marks."

A CPS worker investigated the injuries. " … (C)onsistent of normal childhood play," the social worker concludes.

The social worker noted something else: Dossman believed the abuse complaint was personal because, once again, a family friend was "mad at her."

Tracy Dossman's two-story, five-bedroom residence in North Natomas is spacious. Ten rooms, three baths, a two-car garage.

A single mother with two biological children, Dossman has cared for foster kids since at least 2003, according to state records. Over the years, the state says, she has cared for at least 46 children, ages 2 to 18. She has been certified by six different agencies since 1995, and by one of them twice.

Dossman, who declined to be interviewed by The Bee, continues to care for foster children. And, she has the continued support of her agency at the time of the death, Positive Option Family Service.

"In general, (Positive Option) has had a good experience with Ms. Dossman due to her obvious affection for the children and willingness to comply with standards and requirements," the agency said in a written response to The Bee.

From the very beginning, Dossman, now 41, had chosen to work through private, nonprofit foster family agencies, instead of getting licensed directly by the county.

In July 2005, when Dossman was on her fourth agency, 2-year-old Amariana Crenshaw came into her life.

For Amariana and her older half sister and half brother, the house with tall white columns was a dramatic change from the 950-square-foot home in the North Sacramento area they had shared with their mother.

By the time the three children joined Dossman's large family in the summer of 2005, their biological mother, Anisha Hill, was due to turn herself in to the Sacramento County Main Jail to serve time on a check fraud conviction. Amariana's father, Curtis Crenshaw, was staying with his wife and her three teenagers in a south area motel.

Amariana's older brother, England Rogers, now 18, recalled that "everything was cool the first couple weeks" in the Dossman home.

The house had rules, though. Rogers said children were required to ask permission to get something to eat and often were fed noodles and powdered milk.

Rogers' stay in the foster home would last only about three months. He was sent back to juvenile hall for violating probation, having been arrested over the summer for joyriding in a stolen car.

After moving out, Rogers saw his little sister again, he said, and noticed that Amariana smelled like urine – a condition also noted by her biological parents.

The county, however, continued to be pleased with the arrangement, according to CPS reports to the juvenile court and internal agency records. Over the 30 months that Amariana lived with Dossman, the child was described as being in a stable, protective environment.

Amariana and her sister had a "close bond" with Dossman, according to a May 2006 CPS report.

What the county didn't address in documents obtained by The Bee were the people who surrounded Dossman, and who may have had access to her foster home. Nor do they mention Dossman's own history of feuds and legal conflicts with family members, tenants, creditors and others who crossed her path.

Dossman's former boyfriend – the father of her younger child – was sentenced in June 2008 to nearly 11 years in a federal penitentiary for drug trafficking, The Bee has found. In court records and other public documents, Michael L. Stevens lists both the foster home and Dossman's rental as his addresses.

The father of Dossman's older child, Dion Lamar Jordan, was sent to state prison at least seven times in the last 15 years, mostly for drunken driving. Dossman once called Sacramento police to accuse Jordan's brother of displaying a "big black gun" in front of her 8-year-old son, according to civil court documents.

Anisha Hill and Curtis Crenshaw believe that Dossman's nephew, Brandon, was the one member of Dossman's household who looked out for Amariana. He had moved into the foster home after his 30-year-old father was murdered in 1998 on a Richmond playground.

"He comforted her," Crenshaw said of Brandon Dossman. "He helped my baby."

Brandon Dossman was described in an August 2008 state licensing record as the household member who "gets the kids up and off to school in the morning."

Last October, Brandon Dossman, now 20, was arrested and charged with drug possession and drunken driving.

Tracy Dossman later would tell her foster agency that her nephew no longer was living with her or caring for kids. However, Brandon Dossman listed the foster home as his address with both the California Highway Patrol and in a recent filing in family law court.

When he was arrested at 3:17 a.m. on Oct. 10, Brandon Dossman was driving a car registered to Tracy Dossman.

Amariana's series of injuries were eerily similar – cuts and bruises to the face, the eyes, the lips. The explanations for the injuries varied widely.

The first recorded incident was on Jan. 30, 2006, when a doctor at the Sacramento Community Clinic saw the little girl for an injury near her left eye. Tracy Dossman explained that her 1-year-old nephew had hit Amariana while "trying to get on his bike."

Shortly thereafter, a second incident left Amariana with a split and swollen lip. This time, Dossman told her agency and the county that she had contacted a Kaiser advice nurse. She explained that this new injury resulted from a fall down the stairs while the 2-year-old was talking on the telephone, records show.

Her biological parents sounded alarms.

Soon, though, Sacramento County would become fed up with Curtis Crenshaw and Anisha Hill, and their complaints about the little girl's treatment in foster care.

In early 2006, Crenshaw had a $10-an-hour truck-driving job, had completed classes in parenting and anger management, and was visiting Amariana consistently. But he also was testing positive for marijuana and methamphetamine, county records show.

Hill had no steady income and was more sporadic with her counseling sessions, parenting classes and visits, showing up late or not at all. She was taking the brunt of the county's blame for the outbursts between her and Dossman, though one agency social worker would later complain that while the biological parents were "volatile," the foster mother "can be reactive." The worker said she needed help to "avoid a blowup."

Amariana also was becoming a source of irritation in the Dossman household, the records reveal.

While the little girl appeared to be "meeting normal developmental milestones" for a 3-year-old, an August 2006 CPS report states, Dossman was complaining to the county that the child "hoards food, drinks water from the toilet and bangs her head on things, particularly before bedtime." This was an explanation she would offer for sealing the refrigerator with a bicycle lock and placing deadbolt locks on doors to the bathrooms and children's rooms – a violation of foster children's personal rights.

As the holidays arrived in 2006, more injuries to Amariana were recorded in government documents.

That November, state records show Amariana was taken to her primary care doctor for another busted lip. According to Dossman, the girl had fallen from a countertop while trying to get candy.

A month later, Dossman reported to her agency that someone in the household had pushed Amariana in the bathroom on Dec. 23 and she had struck the toilet bowl, cutting open her lip again. But Dossman indicated she wasn't sure if Amariana was telling the truth about being pushed, according to a Dec. 27, 2006, CPS log entry of a foster agency e-mail.

The child's physical condition soon attracted the attention of an outsider.

In February 2007, the state received a complaint that an individual at a Walmart store had noticed Amariana had a pink swollen eye and scabbed lower lip. The person followed Dossman out of the store, got her license plate number and filed a report of suspected abuse.

The county noted the incident in its service log, stating that Sacramento police conducted a welfare check and found the children in the Dossman home to be "absolutely fine," according to CPS records. Dossman suggested that the person at the store was a relative, and the report "was a result of a family feud," the CPS log entry shows.

The state was not so sure.

On Feb. 9, 2007, a state licensing evaluator made an unannounced visit to Dossman's home and confirmed that Amariana had "unexplained bruises/marks on her face."

This time, Dossman explained that the child was doing it to herself.

By then, Dossman was certified by Homes With Heart – her sixth foster family agency since 1995. (Because of a change in how foster agency homes are regulated in California, the state can confirm only that she had children placed in her care dating back to 2003.)

Foster family agencies serve as intermediaries – recruiting, certifying and training their own providers. These agencies were intended to serve more needy and challenging children in California, with the idea that agency providers get added support and training – and generally more money, especially as high-needs children reach their teenage years.

Complaints against an agency home or a foster family agency are investigated by the state instead of the county. Still, county social workers continue to monitor all children in foster care, creating potential for miscommunication among the various entities.

In 2002, the state auditor had found that agency-hopping could be hazardous for kids, since some providers had avoided correcting problems simply by switching foster family agencies. In response, the Legislature passed a law to try to weed out problem providers who move around.

If anyone at the state or county was concerned about Dossman's agency hopping, it wasn't expressed in reports obtained by The Bee.

But the state investigator who visited the home following the Walmart report was concerned about Amariana's appearance.

"Scars and current injuries were visible on the child's face," the licensing worker wrote. "The 18-year-old biological son of the certified parent supervises the children in the home, which includes four teenagers and three younger children."

Again, Dossman had an explanation. The foster mother told the state worker that Amariana was bumping her head to soothe herself and was engaging in aggressive fights with her then-7-year-old half sister, according to the state's complaint investigation report.

Dossman assured the state investigator: "I take her to the doctor for everything. I report everything."

Jeff Hiratsuka, deputy director of the state's Community Care Licensing Division, said repeat injuries in foster care are not necessarily a sign of abuse.

"You've got children in these homes who are going to be very challenging," he said.

But Geoffrey McKee, a forensic psychologist who has studied child deaths extensively, said Dossman's explanations "sound hollow."

"It's the number of these injuries that is problematic," said McKee, a clinical professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. "The facial bruises and split lips – somebody's hitting that child a lot."

Documents support Curtis Crenshaw and Anisha Hill's contention that they constantly tried to call attention to the injuries through both county Child Protective Services and juvenile court judges.

"My daughter's life is at stake," Crenshaw told a court referee in October 2006, a transcript shows.

Hill said she was rebuffed, and that a CPS social worker hung up on her. One CPS report observed that Hill was "attempting to dismantle Ms. Dossman's credibility."

In another CPS report, dated March 14, 2006, social worker Tricia Louis wrote that Crenshaw had successfully completed parenting and anger management classes "but still overreacted to his daughter being accidentally injured by a 1-year-old child."

"One would expect Mr. Crenshaw to have gained the knowledge and insight into developmental stages of children and be able to acknowledge that it is not uncommon for toddlers to have accidents in which there are minor injuries," Louis wrote. "His expectation that a foster parent should be able to protect his daughter from any possible harm is unreasonable."

Crenshaw's agitation over Amariana's injuries became his legal undoing.

In April 2006, CPS social worker Louis wrote that Crenshaw's anger over the injuries led her to conclude "it would not be safe to return Amariana to his care."

Throughout 2006, tensions mounted between Amariana's foster and biological mothers.

In March that year, Dossman got a restraining order against Hill, saying Hill was harassing her by phone and threatening her, according to court papers.

The foster mother said she believed that "something is going to happen to me. She hates me. She's going to burn my house down," the court papers show.

Hill told The Bee that was "a lie," and that she would never threaten to burn down a home with her own children inside.

"I swear to God on my daughter's grave, I would not lie about that," said Hill. "That's ridiculous."

The month after Dossman got the restraining order, Hill complained to a CPS emergency response worker that, among other things, Amariana was being forced to sleep on the floor without covers.

Dossman made her own call to CPS, accusing Hill of cursing in front of the children when they called the foster mother "Mommy" at pickup time.

During an Easter 2006 visit, Anisha Hill's family observed strange behavior by Amariana, Hill said. The girl ate so much food that she threw up. She then lay down on the bare floor and went to sleep without asking for a blanket.

"What child does that?" Hill asked.

Hill's sister, Anitra Hill, also recalled that meal, saying that the almost 3-year-old girl "was eating more than I was" and wouldn't sleep on a bed.

Anisha Hill told The Bee that Amariana always seemed to be hungry when she saw her during supervised visits. Once, she said, the child consumed nearly an entire container of Safeway chocolate chip cookies.

Crenshaw said that he also began to notice that his daughter looked thinner – a transition apparent in family snapshots.

This was not the child the couple remembered.

As a baby, Amariana Crenshaw had been chubby, with thick legs and a pudgy round face.

Medical records of her first two years of life show Amariana's weight and height were well above average between birth and 20 months, routinely ranging between the 90th and 100th percentiles.

At her 20-month checkup in January 2005, the physician at the South Area Pediatric Medical Group on Florin Road described her as "alert, happy, active" and a "healthy 20-month-old," according to the records, obtained by The Bee.

She was 33 inches tall and weighed a robust 28 pounds – placing her near the 90th percentile for weight.

After her death, the Sacramento coroner would record the 4 1/2-year-old girl as 36 inches tall and 29 pounds – a 1-pound gain in three years. Coroner's spokesman Ed Smith said the fire would not have significantly affected the child's body measurements.

Dr. Randell Alexander, a nationally recognized child abuse expert, said a 1-pound weight gain in three years would be "a very serious problem."

"That is failure to thrive, absolutely," said Alexander, a pediatrics professor at the University of Florida who has served as vice chairman of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Alexander said that reports of a locked refrigerator and a child gorging herself raise additional concerns. Foster parents often are advised that children initially may gorge out of insecurities over food supply, he said. But that behavior usually resolves itself as the child begins to trust that there will always be enough food.

"A kid's job is to gain weight," Alexander said.

Questions about the availability of food in Dossman's home had surfaced before, The Bee's investigation has found.

While working in 2004 for the foster family agency Growing Alternatives, Dossman came under scrutiny for her treatment of a 5-year-old girl who came to school in "extremely dirty" clothes and no socks and found no one waiting at home when she returned on the school bus.

The state found those allegations to be true.

The 5-year-old's kindergarten teacher also reported to a state licensing evaluator that the child was not given enough to eat, was "always hungry" and had said she was sleeping on the floor without blankets, state records show.

Dossman told the state investigator in 2004 that the 5-year-old girl "hoarded food." Dossman also said she allowed the girl to sleep on the floor in her bedroom when she was afraid of the dark.

The state eventually deemed the teacher's allegations "inconclusive" – meaning they could not be proved or disproved, records show.

Later that year, Dossman again changed foster family agencies.

Curtis Crenshaw saw his daughter for the last time on Jan. 3, 2007, the day the juvenile court ordered that Amariana's biological parents be permanently cut out of her life.

Dossman planned to adopt both of Hill's girls and had picked out a new name for Amariana: Wendy Dossman. Child Protective Services would assure the court in June 2007 that Amariana had "no noted behavior problems" and was no longer receiving counseling.

Internal CPS documents tell a different story. In a report filed by Dossman's foster family agency earlier that year, the social worker reported that Dossman complained of Amariana using profanity, acting aggressively, hitting others and making up stories.

Dossman was under intense scrutiny by then. The Walmart report of Amariana's allegedly battered face had unleashed a serious new round of licensing investigations in February 2007.

Noting the "unexplained marks/bruises on her face," the state investigator concluded that Amariana had been neglected and improperly supervised. She ordered Dossman to document every injury in the foster home for six months, taking any injured child to the doctor and providing a written explanation.

"Foster parent will provide adequate supervision for the safety of the children residing in her home," the investigator wrote in her "plan of correction."

Dossman's foster family agency, in turn, was required to have a "formal meeting" about any injury, and submit documentation to the state.

Dossman signed the agreement. Yet before the state's investigation was even complete, she switched foster family agencies again – moving from Homes With Heart to Positive Option, which had certified her once before.

Positive Option agreed to carry out the state's plan of correction and today says each incident was "reported and reviewed."

State regulators had cited a host of other problems in Dossman's North Natomas home after that Feb. 9, 2007, inspection: the locked refrigerator; deadbolts on the bedrooms and bathrooms; toxics out in the open; the home temperature below licensing standards, registering a chilly 62 degrees; and no landline telephone.

And the evaluator found that Dossman's 18-year-old son, Dion Jordan Jr., who was supervising and transporting the kids, lacked required first aid and CPR training.

The state worker also questioned why the foster mother would have the youngest child in the home "sleeping by herself in a room downstairs, alone, next to the front door."

Dossman explained that the sleeping arrangement was "because of the problems" – Amariana's food-hoarding and emotional issues, state records show. She also said she had locked the bathrooms because of Amariana's behavior.

And she relayed that the county had given her permission to put deadbolts on the children's bedrooms and bathrooms, state records show.

Child Protective Services did not answer The Bee's question about whether it had granted that permission.

Not long after the state investigation was completed, the county looked into another allegation of physical abuse – this time involving Amariana's right leg. A person required by law to report suspected abuse told CPS in July 2007 that Amariana had been "hit or kicked in the leg by someone in the foster home" and was unable to put weight on her leg, a CPS report said.

The report alleges that the girl had not been taken to the doctor – despite the state's edict that all injured children in Dossman's home be seen by a physician.

Child Protective Services social worker Miri Mee visited Amariana and concluded that the child had "fallen off of a swing," and Dossman had tried to get medical care but "the clinic was closed," her report states. Mee, assigned to Hill's girls in May 2006, notes that she was "unable to find any injuries but the child was walking funny with her right leg."

The state already had been warned that Dossman's relationship with Mee was tight.

In February 2007, a social worker for Homes With Heart had complained to the state that Mee – who worked in the adoptions unit – was "close friends" with Dossman and was undermining the agency's efforts to crack down on the foster provider, state records show.

"Tracy and the county worker seem to have a response for everything I try to put in place because they're very close friends," Brenna Levy, the Homes with Heart social worker, told a state licensing evaluator.

Levy added that Dossman was belligerent, condescending and hard to manage. For instance, she reported that Dossman had "refused to run the heat for the entire winter."

"We brought the regulations, and she just refused," Levy was quoted as saying in the report. "I told her that it was my job as a social worker for her home to make sure she was in compliance.

"She patronized me by saying, 'Poor Brenna, she probably doesn't worry about her bill in her little apartment.' "

Levy also expressed concern to the state licensing worker that Amariana was sleeping alone on the cold first story of the house.

"She (Dossman) told us that she heated the upstairs and that was enough," Levy was quoted as saying in state documents.

Levy, who declined to be interviewed by The Bee, told the state that Mee was "very abrupt and not supportive" of the agency's efforts to bring Dossman into compliance.

Mee did not return Bee phone calls, and CPS did not respond to written questions about the allegations.

Mee was not the only CPS worker who had a relationship with Dossman outside her official interaction.

A CPS supervisor overseeing the cases of several foster children in the Dossman home had arranged to buy Dossman's rental property on Sweet Pea Way right before it burned, a CPS document states.

Lajuannah Sandles, a CPS employee since 2005, grew up in the same neighborhood as Dossman, according to an internal CPS document prepared after the fatal fire.

"She (Sandles) had maintained contact with Ms. Dossman since they attended schools together and moved into a close neighborhood," according to the report, based on a statement made by Sandles.

Another CPS document describes Sandles' "personal involvement" with Dossman, stating that it "can be construed or viewed as a hindrance to the department's assessment or discretion." The cases involving Dossman's children subsequently were reassigned to other CPS units.

"The supervisor (Sandles) will be reminded regarding conflict of interest," the CPS record notes.

Asked about the pending home purchase, Sandles, reached by phone, said The Bee had "incorrect information."

"I don't have anything to do with that case," said Sandles, adding that she didn't have time to talk further.

The real estate deal, according to the CPS files, was poised to close the morning of Jan. 11, 2008 – a Friday. Sandles' belongings were packed and ready for moving in the following day.

That Friday morning, Sandles went to the Sweet Pea Way house to meet a contractor who was to install a new garage door. Instead, she was greeted by yellow crime scene tape.

Amariana Crenshaw was dead.

COMING TUESDAY

The investigation unfolds … then grinds to a halt.

In cooperation with the UW First Nations group, the American Indian Student Commission hosted its annual winter powwow in the HUB Ballroom Saturday. The event was open to the public and featured traditional American Indian music, food and dancing.

“We hope to gain recognition, to have students connect with us and see where we come from,” said Tashina Willard, a member of the First Nations group. “We want to welcome UW students on campus and extend an invitation to make connections with us. There is a lot of heart and spirit here, and we invite them to feel that when they come in.”

The event commenced with a grand entrance, featuring a group of performers dressed in costumes adorned with feathers and bells. The crowd then bowed their heads in prayer for those struggling financially and those with loved ones serving overseas.

Following the opening remarks, the master of ceremonies, Frank Summer, enthusiastically invited the audience to participate in the festivities. Vendors lined the walls, selling a variety of items, from handmade jewelry to bumper stickers. The event also featured Indian tacos, which people ate as they socialized with fellow spectators and performers.

“A powwow is a place to gather and see friends. It’s a place to come and celebrate our culture,” said Mark Sison, a performer at the event.

While Sison attends powwows to celebrate his heritage, he says that these events are special to people for many different reasons. In the case of his 9-year-old son Tyler, the powwow is an opportunity to dance in honor of an uncle who recently suffered a stroke.

For many others attending the event, the powwow is a great way to raise awareness for issues prevalent in the Native community.

“These are social community events, which help the non-Native people here view the different aspects of our culture, which they might not otherwise have a chance to see,” said L.C. Standingbrave, a frequent powwow supporter.

American Indians have been a historically underrepresented minority at the UW. Currently, only one percent of the student body identifies as American Indian. These university-sponsored events aim to generate an interest in the school among American Indians throughout the community.

“I think sometimes Native Americans are intimidated by a university of this size,” Standingbrave said.

In recent years, the UW has stepped up its efforts to reach out to these groups. For example, several UW representatives were in attendance at Saturday’s event to answer questions and inform prospective students about the opportunities available to minorities interested in pursuing higher education.

Representatives from the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, the School of Medicine, and the School of Pharmacy were also on hand to answer questions.

Standingbrave believes the future is bright for the next generation of college-bound American Indians, citing the student-organized powwow as an example of what great contributions they can make to the community.

“I would like to see them succeed and excel in whatever their endeavors are and see more [of them] come here to UW to pursue an education,” he said. Saturday’s powwow is the first of two that are scheduled to take place on campus this year. The second will be a three-day event held in Hec Edmundson Pavilion this spring. It will be the First Nations group’s 39th year of celebrating tradition with others in the community in this way.

Reach contributing writer Michelle Fayssoux at development@dailyuw.com.

The HUB ballroom was full of the smell of Indian tacos and the heart-pounding, resounding beats of drums on Saturday afternoon. Flashes of color streamed by on the dancers’ regalia as a booming voice announced the grand entrance. The event had officially begun. Vendors with scores of colorful jewelry made up the perimeter of the annual winter powwow, and food was served in the corner by the far windows.

Among the hustle and bustle, one may not have noticed the many students hard at work, but they were around, lifting chairs, frantically speaking into headsets and serving food onto the plates of hungry attendees.

The winter powwow, which was put on by the American Indian Student Commission (AISC), is a preview for the larger spring powwow, which takes place in April and is put on by First Nations at the UW. Student volunteers perform the bulk of the work. This year, AISC Director Joe Dupris is using volunteers from the class AIS 379, Powwow: Tradition and Innovation.

“[The class] educates people who are non-Native, or not familiar with the powwow circuit, and it also gives those who want to volunteer credit,” the sophomore said. “Then they attend the powwow to get a real feel for it.”

Despite the amount of planning that goes into the event, the dancers and drummers are not necessarily scheduled to perform; they can simply register and show up to perform when they choose.

“I always describe powwows as being a very organic event,” said Christina Coop, an adviser in the student activities office who works on the powwow alongside Dupris. “You’re not scheduling everyone to be there and perform — it’s a community event. They all just kind of show up and do their thing. You might see relatives you haven’t seen for a while at a powwow. It’s sort of a family reunion.”

Even students in the powwow class are invited to try a performance. Though some of them are not tribally affiliated, many are still eager to participate.

“I think it’s very important for tribal people to keep their culture going, and that’s obviously very important to them, as well,” said Alex Whitney, a senior in the class. “As far as me personally, this is the first powwow I’ve ever been to. I think it’s been really cool; the grand entry was just awesome.”

Whitney and his friends from the class, seniors Riley Del Fierro and Mike Parry, all decided to volunteer at the event in order to get an idea of the anatomy of the powwow. Many of the volunteers from the class helped by bringing out chairs, cooking fry bread and just making sure the event went smoothly. In the class, the etiquette they’re taught is a key part of attending the powwow.

“We learned about things to do and things not to do,” Whitney said. “They just give you tips. Not taking pictures is kind of a rule, at times; rising and taking your hat off during the first grand entry; basic things like that.”

Del Fierro, Parry and Whitney discussed the dances they learned about in class, naming them off quickly.

“We learned about the Gourd, the Fancy Dance, the traditional dance, the Grass Dance, the Round Dance,” they said. Along with volunteers from the class, members of First Nations at the UW — a registered student organization for Native students — also helped with the powwow.

Freshman Helen Fillmore, a member of the Washoe and Nisenan Indian nations who sold First Nations T-shirts at the event, noted the importance of continuing to hold powwows.

“I hear a lot of trash talk about powwows like this, because a lot of people think it’s kind of like selling out our culture,” she said. “It’s not like that; it brings us together.”

This kind of reunion is important on a campus this big, especially for Native students and people in the community.

“There are very few Native Americans here,” Fillmore said. “There are a few people who say they are, but they don’t really know as much about their heritage, so it’s a good place to get together and meet people.”

Senior Tashina Willard, president of First Nations and a member of the Tlinglit Nation and Chemainus First Nation, said the winter powwow is used as a fundraising tool for the spring powwow, which can cost up to $80,000, and for the group in general.

“We’re educating the new students on how things run here,” Willard said. “In my background, I’ve done a lot of community organizing work, so I’ve had a lot of experience running volunteers.”

While Willard did not come from a background that held powwows, she said that growing up in Seattle exposed her to certain urban powwows, like this one.

“What I’ve always seen it as, before I got involved, was a place to gather, listen to music and watch dancing,” she said. “It’s almost like a cultural exchange with Natives.”

Willard’s experience as a social welfare major has helped her to run large events such as this one. With a headset on and a can-do attitude, she was able to organize the volunteers in order to create a smoothly executed event. She spent some of her time advertising for the spring powwow, which Coop and Dupris are also preparing for.

“We encourage [the volunteers] to take on roles in helping with those things at the winter powwow so you get a feel for how it functions,” Coop said. “It’s a microcosm, essentially.”

Reach reporter Kristen Steenbeeke at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.

Last week we listed and categorized some of the leading topic-tracking tools on the Web. As usual we got a great response in the comments, with additional information about the apps listed and suggestions for other apps to add. So in this post we present an updated list of topic tracking tools for you to explore. Once again, we invite you to add more in the comments and/or comment on the existing ones.

We've also added links, to make it easier for you to check these services out.

Sponsor

Feed and/or Email Services

These are services that output RSS and/or other formats, such as email notification. We think this type of topic feed tool is the most flexible, particularly when it outputs RSS. With RSS feed output, you can do further filtering or grouping of the feeds inside an RSS reader like Google Reader or Netvibes.

• GigaAlert (email only, no RSS; free only for trial period, then premium service)
• Google Alerts
• PubSub
• Regator
• Swamii (email only, no RSS)
• Topikality
• Trackle (email only, no RSS)
• Woofeed (email or mobile, no RSS; it also provides a publishing service for bloggers)
• Yahoo Pipes
• Yotify (email only)

Destination Services

These services don't output RSS or emails for topic searches. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means you have to visit the destination site to see results every day.

• Cascaad
• Collecta
• Ensembli (offers email digests)
• Guzzle.it
• LazyFeed
• My6Sense
• Technorati
• YourVersion

Social Filter

These services show what is popular or new amongst their respective communities. There are many other such services, so the following is just a sample:

• Delicious feeds
• Google Trends
• MashLogic
• Searchtastic ("smart Twitter search")
• Trendistic ("see trends in Twitter")
• Twazzup (Twitter search)
• Twitscoop (Twitter search)
• Twitter search (e.g. for hashtags)

Community Curated

Similar to social filter services, only these have a specific community driving the output of stories. Again, the below is a small sample:

• Digg
• Hacker News
• Reddit
• Slashdot

People Curated

Topic-focused blogs (such as ReadWriteWeb!) are great for tracking topics on the Web. In recent times, light blogging services have offered an easy way for individuals or small groups of people to curate information on a given topic.

Update: also see this interesting post by Tony Karrer about "topic hubs" for bloggers.

• Favit (update: see this follow-up post on the Favit blog for details about their topic tracking features)
• NewsCred
• Posterous
• Tumblr

Aggregators / Portals

These services aggregate, or group, news and other stories around a specific topic.

• Alltop
• BuzzFeed
• Eqentia
• Google Fast-Flip feeds
• icurrent
• LinksAlpha
• NewsTwit
• PopURLS
• SNS Touch
• Topix
• TopSite
• Tweetmeme
• ViewsFlow

Market Intelligence

These are professional brand management services that you typically have to pay for. Many of them include topic tracking. Here's a sample...

• Filtrbox
• PeopleBrowsr
• Trendrr

Please add your further suggestions to our categorized lists in the comments.

Discuss

Sunday, January 17th, 2010, marked the last book signing and presentation by an author at Amicus Books Literary Arts Center and Community Bookstore, located in the older part of Marysville, California, on 413 D Street. Author Michael Don Hubbartt presented his newly published book, The Sutter Buttes (Arcadia Publishing, 2010), to a large turn-out in spite of the weather forecast of a major storm. Mr. Hubbartt offered a comprehensive history of the Sutter Buttes, known as the world's smallest mountain range, a familiar landmark to residents of the Sacramento Valley.

Since its inception in 2005, Amicus Books' primary purpose was as a community literary arts center serving readers, writers, authors, and publishers. Some examples of the center's fine work follow:

 

• Wordcolors, an anthology of poetry, short stories and photography, in collaboration with the members of the first literary program, Poetry from The Green Chair.
• Downtown Marysville Art Chautauqua, in collaboration with local businesses, artists, and writers as a regular venue for the literary and visual arts.
• Intrepid Press, a 'zine, written, edited and directed by local writers and artists, ages 16 to 23.
• Educational and literary events, including presentations by authors Chris Enss, Jennifer Basy-Sander, Candy Chand, Richard Beban, Selden Edwards, Lueza Gelb, Erica Ross-Krieger, and John Esam.
• Moments in Marysville's History, a bi-monthly history discussion group, hosted by Marysville City Historian, Henry Delamere.
• The Better World Book Club that meets once a month to discuss a literary selection, and then applies what they have learned toward bettering their community by volunteering, continuing education, and starting other local programs, projects and non-profits.
• Events for the Literary Lounge's authors, poets, and illustrators in collaboration with the Yuba-Sutter Regional Arts Council. For example, in 2008, there was a fifties' style “mock-tail party”, and in 2009, the theme for the event was the seventies', complete with hors-d'œuvres and disco music.
• Annual Christmas teas with various themes, such as Victorian and mystery.
• The Literary Lounge, a group of writers, poets, publishers, and illustrators.

According to co-directors James and Kara Davis, Amicus Books was a unique experiment in funding a community project, in this case a literary arts center, solely through community support without grants or handouts. As James Davis explained, “Once the bookstore and community center have been closed, the project will be reorganized and evolved to focus on services that best meet the needs of the literary community—editing, publishing, publicity, freelance writing, and author coaching. We are grateful to all our community supporters for their past support and ask for the continued support in fulfilling the goals of this new venture.”

When Louise Miller, who was a Better World Book Club member, Literary Lounge board member, and a Victorian tea host learned of the closure, she was saddened. “My home away from home is closing,” she said. “The friendships I made at Amicus will endure, but the sparkling events hosted in this beautiful book-filled space will end. The loss makes me sad for myself and for the community.”
Amicus Books will remain open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 am to 5 pm, and on Saturdays from 10 am to 5 p.m. For more information, please see www.amicusbooks.com.

 

Toronto's Hare Krishna Centre (ISKCON Toronto), has always been the hub of a rich, vibrant and enthusiastic community. Whether it be grand festivals, programs at local universities and yoga studios, philosophical discussions, ...

ExpertHub is an online community where consumers are able to quickly receive quality assistance and up-to-date information from legal, medical, and financial experts. Experthub is building a proprietary platform that makes it easy for experts to contribute content and rewards them by building their reputation and reach through our highly trafficked network of legal, medical, and financial websites. This creates differentiation among the experts, and combined with a compelling user experience, makes it easier and faster for consumers to find the assistance they need.


Experienced PHP/Drupal Developer (2 openings)

Location: Pleasanton, CA

POSITION SUMMARY

PHP Developers will be utilizing the Drupal API to solve for business needs in creative and novel ways. Individuals in this role must be conceptual thinkers yet highly executional; collaborating from the earliest stages through the entire project life cycle. Our Developers own feature development, building community-driven and social networking functionality following Drupal coding and Web Standards to achieve consistent, compelling online experiences. Your code will be running on a high-traffic, high-availability production environment. Best of all, we have fun and are open to new ideas and approaches.

RESPONSIBILITIES

•Design and develop scalable, modular, and manageable production features defined by product team using various design patterns and a combination of contributed and custom Drupal modules
•Work with team members to establish best practices and procedures to maximize efficiency and minimize risk
•Other corporate related activities to help company attend maximum efficiency and productivity.

REQUIREMENTS

•Senior-level PHP (4/5) skill with strong knowledge of SQL relational databases
•Excellent attitude and personal skills, be committed and focused
•Strong communications skills
•4+ years professional coding experience
•Working knowledge/experience using the Drupal API a huge bonus.
•Experience building scalable internet eCommerce and/or social networking applications.
•AJAX, jQuery and XML-RPC experience
•BS or MS degree in Computer Science or Engineering or related field
•Experience administering LAMP stack, SVN/CVS

If you are interested in this position, please send resume to jobs@experthub.com

ExpertHub is an online community where consumers are able to quickly receive quality assistance and up-to-date information from legal, medical, and financial experts. Experthub is building a proprietary platform that makes it easy for experts to contribute content and rewards them by building their reputation and reach through our highly trafficked network of legal, medical, and financial websites. This creates differentiation among the experts, and combined with a compelling user experience, makes it easier and faster for consumers to find the assistance they need.

Marketing Associate

Location: Pleasanton, CA

POSITION SUMMARY
ExpertHub is seeking a full time Marketing Associate. The primary responsibility is to support the marketing team in content development, link building, PR, reporting and analytics. The ideal candidate is very well organized, proactive, and has excellent communication and writing skills. Someone with 1-2 years experience, a bachelors degree and a great interest in internet marketing is what we are looking for. This is an entry level position.

RESPONSIBILITIES

•Research and recommend content topics
•Manage link building campaigns including corresponding with potential link partners
•Develop and execute PR campaigns leveraging online social media
•Create and analyze reports on traffic, leads, keyword rankings, and more

REQUIREMENTS

•Highly organized with effective written and oral communication skills
•Strong quantitative, analytical, and problem solving skills
•Motivated , self-sufficient and driven to deliver results
•Internet savvy, proficient in Microsoft Office, and able to learn and understand new platforms quickly.
•SEO or SEM experience is a plus
•BA/BS from four year college

If you are interested in this position, please send resume to jobs@experthub.com

ExpertHub is an online community where consumers are able to quickly receive quality assistance and up-to-date information from legal, medical, and financial experts. Experthub is building a proprietary platform that makes it easy for experts to contribute content and rewards them by building their reputation and reach through our highly trafficked network of legal, medical, and financial websites. This creates differentiation among the experts, and combined with a compelling user experience, makes it easier and faster for consumers to find the assistance they need.

Content Manager

Experthub is seeking a full time content manager to manage the content generation process for a large network of legal, medical and financial websites. The ideal candidate has a background in SEO, organic traffic generation, online marketing, and/or web content editorial work and good grasp of consumer search behavior.



Responsibilities

• Manage and Scale a Content Generation Workflow Process

• Maintain Relationship with a large network of freelance content writers

• Source and recruit new writers to meet demand

• Identify and filter poor quality/duplicated content

• Filter out poor writers and find replacements

• Manage content delivery, approval and payment

• Consistently deliver for a demanding SEO Team



Requirements

• Ability to work under pressure and consistently hit deadlines

• Highly organized with effective written and oral communication skills

• Motivated , self-sufficient and driven to deliver results

• Proficient in Microsoft Office, and able to learn and understand new web-based platforms quickly

• SEO or SEM experience is a plus

• BA/BS from four year college

If this position is of interest to you then please email resume to jobs@experthub.com

If you're an early-stage entrepreneur and this is your first startup company, you are not alone. Thousands are toiling over code in the hopes that their product will gain users and revenue. The problem with being someone who can build a great product is that you might know more about your core technology then you do about the business of startups. In the past few weeks ReadWriteWeb has covered emerging tech hubs in Israel, Austin and Boulder and the common thread amongst them is that each community encourages mentorship. Today we're looking at what you need to know to find a great mentor.

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Says Union Square Ventures VC Fred Wilson in a recent blog post, "The young entrepreneurs who are starting companies for the first time are best served by seeking out and getting experienced serial entrepreneurs as angel investors, board members, and mentors. We encourage all of the first time entrepreneurs we work with to do this."

In a perfect world, launching a successful product would simply equate to building something phenomenal. But in reality, an isolated phenom can get buried beneath the noise of thousands of other startups. Wilson and a number of other investors ask first-time entrepreneurs to bring on trusted advisors in the hopes that newbies will broaden their social graph and avoid making the mistakes that others have already made. Below are some of the things you should consider before choosing a mentor.

Success: Just because someone speaks at conferences and has been in the industry for 10 years, does not mean they are qualified to be your mentor. Look at the individual's past successes and find out exactly how they've contributed to them. Check with others to gauge this person's visibility in the industry and determine whether or not that success is directly related to the type of business you want to build.

Connections: A good advisor/mentor will open doors in the places you need doors opened. If you're a music content provider and you need help with licensing, find someone who knows the legal and business development side of major labels. If your revenue model is based on advertising, find someone who can help broker deals with ad networks and agencies. If you're building your business on a 3rd party platform, get an advisor with friends on the inside.

Personality: Determine whether or not your potential advisor is famous or infamous. Sites like The Funded allow entrepreneurs to share their good and bad experiences of investment groups and individuals. While these reviews should be taken with a grain of salt, you want a mentor that is present to answer your questions, engaged enough to offer suggestions, patient enough to explain some of the basic tenets of startup life, and finally, mature enough to have their suggestions occasionally rejected.

Let us know how you chose your mentor/advisor in the comments below.

Discuss

FSD is a hub for news and articles by and for the free and open source community. FSD is a community driven site where members of the community submit and vote for the stories that they think are important and interesting to them. ...

FSD is a hub for news and articles by and for the free and open source community. FSD is a community driven site where members of the community submit and vote for the stories that they think are important and interesting to them. ...

Educator
Full time/Part time
University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA

lululemon athletica, is looking for a highly motivated, outgoing, upbeat and organized person who believes in the power of community, the impact of yoga/athletics, and the life-altering potential of wearing stretchy pants to work every day, to fill the role of an Educator and become a leader in giving our guests the ultimate experience!

This is a role for a person who wants to contribute to making our store a hub for athletes, yogis and guests to come together for fitness, health, yoga and a darn good time! The main objective of this position is the effective and efficient ‘education’ of customers regarding the features, benefits, usage, and care of the lululemon product.

For more information about your perfect job with lululemon athletica, please visit:

http://www.lululemon.com/careers or

http://tbe.taleo.net/NA1/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=LULU&cws;=1&rid;=2219

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we continue our analysis of Facebook's sweeping new privacy policies (plus tell you how to protect yourself), explore how mobile phones and sensors are mixing, look at the launch of the U.K. government's data.gov website, present our categorized list of the leading topic tracking tools, and more. And as usual we check in on our two main channels: ReadWriteStart (our daily resource for entrepreneurs) and ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and products).

Also read on for details about the newly released printed edition of our current premium report, about the Real-Time Web.

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Now Available: Printed Edition of The Real-Time Web Report

At the request of the librarian community and people that just like paper, we have made The Real-Time Web and its Future report available in print.

For those of you that prefer it digitally, you can still download it.

Don't forget about our Community Management Report. It too is coming in print soon, so watch out for it!

Web Trends

The Facebook Privacy Debate: What You Need to Know

Facebook changed the world by helping 350 million people publish their thoughts, feelings, comments, photos, videos and shared links much more easily than ever before. It's the King of social networking.

The network grew with a big promise of privacy at the center of what it offered: your information was by default visible only to people you approved as friends. In December that changed, in a fundamental way. We offer in this post a summary of the changes that were made and key highlights from the debate that's raging around the world about privacy, public information and Facebook.

2010 Trend: Sensors & Mobile Phones

Last week in our Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things series, we looked at barcode scanning and RFID in the next generation iPhone. We expect to see Apple and Android battling it out for both barcode and RFID supremacy this year.

Another key technology in the Internet of Things - where everyday objects are endowed with Internet connectivity - is sensors. In fact we've seen the most activity so far in the Internet of Things from sensor data. So in this post we explore how mobile phones and sensors are mixing; and what to expect in 2010.

UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame

A new website dedicated to making non-personal data held by the U.K. government available for software developers has launched with the help of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Data.gov.uk is being slammed with traffic but six months after the U.S. government opened its Data.gov site the U.K. site already has more than three times as much data than the U.S. site offers today.

At launch, Data.gov.uk has nearly 3,000 data sets available for developers to build mashups with. The U.S. site, Data.gov, has less than 1,000 data sets today.

Open Thread: There's No Such Thing As Free Content

So why do users keep expecting to consume it, reuse it, share it and store it without paying for it?

Someone, somewhere ends up putting out money for everything you do online, every piece of news you read, every Web app you use. It takes professionals and hardware across a gigantic industry to make these things work. In terms of overhead alone, content costs a lot. So why do some users always kick and scream at the first suggestion of paid content? Do you think content is worth paying for, and if so, what are you personally willing to pay?

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

Startup Finance: Xero Powers Accounting in the Cloud

When New Zealand-based entrepreneur Rod Drury began researching his market he could hardly believe what he was seeing. As seen in Drury's comments last week on the state of the online finance ecosystem, only a handful of players like Saasu and MYOB were targeting small business clients. While Drury saw that a number of cloud-based personal finance companies like Mint were gaining traction with users, small businesses had been stuck with the same tired desktop accounting software they'd been using for the last ten years. Drury built Xero with the intent to help small businesses manage their accounts in the cloud.

Never Mind the Valley: Here's Austin

Settled in the 1830s along the banks of the Colorado River and named for the Father of Texas Stephen F. Austin, the city of Austin is known for its thriving music scene and as the home of the University of Texas (UT) Longhorns. But in the past few decades, the Texas capital has built up a reputation of a different sort.

With companies headquartered in Austin like Dell and Freescale Semiconductor, a spin-off of Motorola, the city has become a hotbed of information technology hardware and software. In the mid 1990s, Austin was put on the map by software companies like Motive, Vignette and Tivoli, the latter of which was quickly scooped up by IBM in 1996.

SEE MORE STARTUPS COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL

ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise, devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations.

IBM's Project Vulcan: The Next Generation of Lotus Notes and a Rival To Google Wave

William Shatner opened the IBM Lotusphere event this week, after which IBM launched Project Vulcan. This is a geek dream come true: a full-on collaboration environment with an open API and a name right out of Star Trek fame.

Project Vulcan isn't set for developer release until the second half of this year, but its potential as an all-encompassing cloud-based collaboration service is causing many to compare it to Google Wave.

Web Products

Top Tools For Tracking Topics on the Web

Tracking topics on the Web can be a painful process, due to the amount of noise and difficulty of filtering it. So to help you out, we've selected and categorized the leading topic tracking tools. This is based on the discussion that arose from our earlier post about topic feeds, which are RSS feeds for keywords or phrases.

During the process of analyzing these topic tracking tools, we discovered - to our surprise - that not many of these services output results as RSS. Some of the leading apps in this field require users to visit their service. With that in mind, here is our full list and analysis.

The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

In December, Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users' privacy on the social networking site. The company once known for protecting privacy to the point of exclusivity (it began its days as a network for college kids only - no one else even had access), now seemingly wants to compete with more open social networks like the microblogging media darling Twitter.

Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to December's change have nothing to worry about - that is, assuming you elected to keep your personalized settings when prompted by Facebook's "transition tool." The tool, a dialog box explaining the changes, appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately, most Facebook users likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding what they were agreeing to. If you did so, you may now be surprised to find that you inadvertently gave Facebook the right to publicize your private information including status updates, photos, and shared links.

Want to change things back? Read on to find out how.

Twitter's Growth Slows Dramatically

After news about the landing of US Airways 1549 in the Hudson first broke on Twitter in January 2009, the microblogging service quickly captured the imagination of a new group of potential users. Throughout the first months of 2009, Twitter grew at a rapid pace, peaking at a growth rate of 13% in March 2009.

Now, however, according to the latest data from HubSpot, Twitter's growth is slowing dramatically. In October 2009, Twitter's growth rate had fallen to 3.5%. On a positive note, though, the average active user on Twitter today is more engaged than six months ago.

Why France and Germany Got it Right: IE Must Go

It looks like Microsoft has moved to the "sticks and stones" method for handling public relations gaffes. As we reported earlier this week, France joined Germany in suggesting that its citizens switch from Internet Explorer to, well, anything else. Now, Microsoft's UK security chief, Cliff Evans, has responded by saying that switching to other browsers will only open you up to more security vulnerabilities than staying with Internet Explorer.

That's saying a lot for the browser implicated in the Great Google Caper of 2010; and we have multiple security experts who have said a lot on why it just isn't true.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

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