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Post-Thesis Shock Syndrome

I presented my thesis project to ITP, my mom, and the world on Monday evening, two days following the semi-final round of the Stern Business Plan Competition, where we learned that, while we have a kick-ass business plan, an excellent presentation, and a damn good team of very capable founders who know what they’re doing, we just don’t make rich white colonialist VCs’ hearts long for hip, sustainable consumerism the way they do for poor, exploitable rural Indian villagers. I’m not bitter, just increasingly disturbed at the way that people measure Social Impact without any concept of the difference between “helping” and exploiting. There’s just something about going into other…

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LettrWritr

So, it’s decided, I’m writing letters for people – you type and submit a letter online, including some instructions for how you want the letter to be written, and then I personally write and post it (as in, send it by post). It’s time to start putting together the actual site (it’s pretty barebones right now) so I’m thinking a lot about the interface and how I want everything to work and look. Essentially, I think what I am going for is a functional design portfolio site, where previous letters are displayed (not for their content, but for their look and feel, also just for my own documentation of the…

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Introducing LettrWritr

I was hoping to have this in better shape before posting today, but I’m getting impatient. I’m not apologizing or anything, I’m just saying if you try this out and something doesn’t work, there’s a good chance that I already know about and am currently working on it. So what is the LettrWritr? The short story is, the LettrWritr is where my thesis research and general screwing around has gotten me so far. Will it be my thesis? I don’t know, but I’ve gotten some really good feedback on it already, so it just might be. The long(er) story started a while back with a question: How do the communication…

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Beyond Broadcast 2007: Leftovers

I got back to New York after a four-hour bus ride that dropped me off at the Port Authority at 12 in the morning. It would’ve been a pretty miserable ride, except Steven Jackson was there to keep me company, I managed to get a slight bit of work done before my laptop battery totally died, the bus driver was really funny, and he almost kicked some kid off the bus in the middle of nowhere for smoking in the bathroom. Plus, being a Peter Pan and not a Fung Wah, meaning, the bus was actually owned and operated by Greyhound, the rest of the passengers were a pretty good…

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Beyond Broadcast 2007: Wrap-up

A more condensed version of the annual look at the triumphs and tirbulations of participatory media took place at MIT this year (too bad I didn’t realize that until after I had booked my hotel at Harvard Square) and had a decidedly more political slant to it than last year’s conference. Maybe something happens the further away you get from the Berkman Center that makes copyright law reforms less pressing than news and politics, although I didn’t manage to see Dan Gilmore floating around anywhere this time, so that doesn’t seem right. Anyway, I’m doing some blogging for the conference again this year. Here you’ll find a more personal take,…

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