Urban Unrest

15 October 2007 | Business, Technology | Ernesto Aguilar

So I’ve been meaning to write about my NetSquared experience all week long. I’ve been nearly bursting at the seams to tell listeners about it, really, but pledge drive (which starts October 22), elections (forums for which wrap this week and candidate statements for which start this week too), Program Council (I say with confidence that I’m probably the only Pacifica PD that says ‘yay Program Council’ and means it) and a bunch of other stuff has thwarted me like a workcentric Legion of Doom. I have made the time to tell the tale, and what a tale it is.

This past week, I got to speak at a meeting of the Houston chapter of NetSquared, a technology group that seeks to connect tech professionals (and sales people, I gathered) with non-profits. The goal for such? It’s essentially crowdsourcing for a cause. To do good deeds and make a difference. Houston, by many accounts, has the most active NetSquared group behind San Francisco. Not bad company, for sure.

I was greeted warmly by lots of nice folks, including Jason McElweenie (DJ of that Low End Theory podcast I plugged last week), Ed Schipul and Matt from SMBology, KPFT’s new website redesign partner, very cool cats from KTRU (yes, its DJs really do type in every song name) and plenty of others. My lecture, to be honest, consisted of many of the yarns listeners hear about our history, ideals, organization, etc. Many in the room were fans of KPFT (my favorite was a self-professed ‘radio snob’ who only listens to KPFT and KTRU) or hadn’t heard much of us, so everyone got to hear the backstories on a host of stuff, including the 1970 bombing, media access, the August drive-by shooting (I was the first staffer on site), Pacifica’s founding and the tech issues we’re facing. Probably one of the bigger ones is about copyright and Creative Commons. Another relates to the explosion of podcasts as a medium, and radio’s ability to keep up with the changing tides. The NetSquared folks had really insightful questions, some of which I just didn’t have answers for because so much of ‘old media’ just hasn’t been able to figure out how to be as technically nimble as the Internet and to adequately respond to the fundamental changes to how people consume media.

My one regret is we spent most of our time on the history of KPFT, what we do and such and not much at all on the technical part of our needs. Still, I thought the discussion was fabulous, though agree with Kim in comments that it could have had more structure. Once questions started early on, we went everywhere for sure. I hope I was nearly as interesting to everyone else in the group as it was to me. NetSquared is very cool.

Last thing on this: quick shouts to Sandra, who linked here; Kevin, a great guy who seems to be exploring the same CC path as Pacifica; Chris, who I certainly will be plumbing for suggestions on that dream podcast of mine; my table neighbor Marie (no link, yet) for playing along with my continual physical acting out of examples; former KPFT news reporter Natalie J, who was there and now hosts a YouTube content area from her current KCOH efforts; and Jason, for setting this up. Listeners are definitely encouraged to support NetSquared and drop by one of its fun meetings. Thanks y’all!

UPDATE: Shame on me for not also thanking Google’s third-highest ranked Erica for gracing me with her presence to the right of my chair at the event.

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