Stop Internet Censorship Legislation in the US
I hate politics. I value honesty, morality, and personal responsibility, all of which seem to be overwhelmingly lacking in nearly every area of politics and law making.
Having said all that, I still try to follow what’s going on. Why? Well, because I need to know what’s going on if I plan to vote, and how can I expect things to get better (or not get worse) if I won’t do anything about it. The Protect IP Act is a perfect example. It needs to be stopped because it threatens our free speech and the internet as a whole. The video below sums it up pretty well.
Go to Fight for the Future and American Censorship to send a message to congress.
Speaking at WordCamp San Francisco 2011
So it seems I’m speaking at WordCamp SF this year, which is awesome! I’ve attended for the last few years, and it has been instrumental in getting me involved more with the WordPress community and specifically with the development of WordPress.
Andy Stratton and I will be presenting Getting Involved: Contribution & Courtesy A conversation about methods of contributing to WordPress and the community, why you should do it, and how it benefits everyone – including you. Do you think you don’t have time to contribute to WordPress? Are you unsure what makes contributing worth it? Do you not know how to contribute or how to interact with the community as a whole? Then don’t miss this!
My Community
Why have I been talking so much lately about community? Well, I truly believe that the best way to impact the world is to impact your community. I was talking to a good friend of mine not long after he returned from spending nearly two years in Uganda. Something he said to me has stuck with me. He said that after two years, he realized that no American could ever make as much of an impact in Uganda as a Ugandan could. Dave Eggers, founder of 826 Valencia gave an amazing speech at TED about his locally funded and staffed tutoring centers. He says “A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right?” I see the value in this. I know that I can make a difference, and I’m going to start in my community. I’m in a situation where I have more than one community. As a husband, father, friend, businessman, etc, I have a local community in Arizona. As a web developer, I’m a part of the online community. You’ll often find me helping new programmers in IRC channels, trying to empower quality community sites, submitting articles to resource sites like Attackr (edit: I’ve since bought attackr to keep it going), releasing plugins free of charge, and yes, participating in open source software projects like WordPress.
