The internet still making life un-fun for Round Rock teens

Juan Romero didn't want to get in trouble, he just wanted to show off some of his graffiti tags on his myspace page. Unfortunately they were the signature tags he used to tag the brand new Round Rock skate park and they were a felony punishable by up to two years in jail.

bummer

The cops used the myspace page to ultimately bust him, but they worked off a lead given to them by a passerby who recorded Romero's license plate with a camera phone.

double bummer

*Note: these are actual pics of the park, it's a beautiful work of art

Citizen journalists shake up Austin

Two really fascinating recent and local developments in citizen journalism.

This week Kevin Brown was shot, reportedly in the back, by an Austin police officer. The video of the shooting comes not from a car-mounted camera but from bystander Kendrick Stanley. I'm unclear as to whether he gave or sold his footage to the Austin American-Statesman or if they picked it up via a distributor like pluck or Youtube, but the paper is running it heavily on their website. At the end of the day this civilian video will play a major part in sorting out this controversial shooting.

In the same vein, administrators at Stony Point High School in Round Rock are trying to convince Youtube to remove a video of a fight between students in the hallway of the school taken on a student's cell phone.

The term "citizen journalism" may not have quite caught on yet and people may not even know they're doing it, but citizen journalism is alive and well.

"Networked journalism"

It's scary to be working in a field where the language of the industry is still being developed. In the past year I've heard terms come and go to describe what's happening in this new era of journalism: "Web 2.0", "nonlinear story telling", "new journalism".

The next big term appears to be "networked journalism", and I think it's an idea that's valuable to the field, and much less theatening sounding than "citizen journalism", which implies a demise of the news business. Rather than taking a scary situation and polarizing it more with "citizen" vs. "traditional", "networked journalism" involves a journalist interacting with the public and linking out to other news sources and editorial sources. I wonder if the rhetoric of "network" comes partly from the friendly term "social networking"

Read more about this powerful new development, as described by Jeff Jarvis, here.

Women and blogging

The BlogHer conference just recently wrapped up and they seemed to have come to some powerful conclusions: namely that "women are the power of web 2.0". Blogging gives them a sense of community (dare I say sorority?), and allows them to achieve personal and professional independence.

Nowhere is this better exemplified than with my own cousin, Megan Salch who wanted to spend more time with her baby and started an online blog and business that would allow her to stay at home. She's doing very well and just recently was named "Mom of the month" on the Houston Moms website.

I see a lot of feminist criticism nowadays about women rejecting the workforce after having a child and wanting to stay at home..but maybe they can do even more innovative work there?
Technorati Tag: Houston blogging mom women

Creative Commons collection

I've been aware of the Creative Commons license for a while now, but it hadn't occured to me how important it was until I interviewed my mom, a librarian, about the commonality of copyright infringement in her daily job. She wasn't aware of the Creative Commons, and spends lots of time trying to cover the school's ass from teachers publicly showing movies, kids copying and pasting and the administration incorporating corporate logos into cute school promotions. Only a small portion of what she deals with is online copyright infringement, but I think the attitude of free downloadig bleeds into what people think is appropriate in daily life.

This blog is dedicated to offering the best and most useful creative commons licensed media online including music and ebooks. Unfortunately my mom has been saddled with educating the school in respecting and identifying copyright, but this site might make it a bit easier.
Technorati Tag: Creative Commons copyright

Do I work tonight?

I was talking with a friend who works at Austin's Saba Blue Water and he pointed out that one thing he likes about the job is that the restaurant emailed the employees their work schedule every week.

It surprises me how many managers today are still operating with printed excel spreadsheets or, worse yet, pen and notebook paper work schedules. There's lots of special internet software to facilitate it for even the dumbest of bosses, such as WhenToWork and ScheduleAnywhere. My boyfriend works at Brackenridge hospital and is able to access his schedule via a special physician's site at AmIOn.

With the ability to contact other employees, switch shifts online and see your schedule anywhere I'm not sure why more companies aren't doing this.
Technorati Tag: Austin jobs

SOS podcast

Looks like podcast tours are the hot thing in Austin right now, as the Save Our Springs alliance releases an audio tour of Barton Springs pool. The tour features thirteen points of interest around the natural spring-fed pool and even maps them out for you on a topographical photo. They also feature a flash photo tour using the same audio clips if you're not really into walking. (found via Austinist)
Technorati Tag: Austin podcast