Thinking Outside the Box

  Why has journalism collapsed in the United States and what should be done about it? This overriding and urgent public issue is the central question of this book. The author, Victor Pickard, makes a convincing case of both why public journalism has failed, and how it can be fixed. It would be hard to dismiss Mr Pickard's arguments and the policy recommendations that he makes.  For an in-depth description of Mr Pickard, see  victorpickard.com . His academic credentials on this topic are impeccable, and his writing style exactly fits the topic: concise, pointed and convincing because it rings true to life.  Personally, reading this book provided a welcomed emotional catharsis from my own frustration over what has happened to the internet since I earned a master degree in telecommunications in the late 1990s, when optimism about the potentials of the Internet were rising like a weather balloon. The fate of the Internet and journalism are, of course, deeply interconnect...

Why Should We Celebrate Data Privacy Day? Are you celebrating Data Privacy Day today, January 28, 2021? No? Well, here's why you should.... I would not be at all surprised if most people have not heard of Data Privacy Day; after all, it's only been around since 2007, where it was initiated by those ever-so-much-more progressive Europeans (so says  wikipedia ). And as such, it has not made much a dent in our public consciousness or social media here in the United States -- except perhaps when there's some huge data breach, and everyone rushes to search to see if their online identities have been compromised.  Because I do suspect most of us know someone who's had that happen to them, right? Heck, it's even happened to me, when I was more lackadaisical in my online activities, and did not practice proper online hygiene. But when it comes to people having their credit cards stolen (virtually), they will snap to attention. And this is the connection for most people: da...

A bill currently being considered in the Colorado House exemplifies a deep concern I have with corporate influence on our government, and calls out public scrutiny. HB19-1037, the " Colorado Energy Impact Assistance Act" is ostensibly about the retirement of coal-fired power plants owned by public utilities in Colorado, and the economic impact this will have on the communities that are heavily dependent on employment related to them. As climate change barrels down upon us, anticipating the issues associated with closing such plants is certainly a legitimate concern. But this is not a good bill because it shunts all costs onto the customers and does not mention the role of the regulated utilities responsible for the construction of the plants. Those corporate utilities and their managers, Xcel in particular, should be made to bear their fair share of the responsibility for the construction of those plants and their unwitting impact of their environmental effects and how thei...

Last Sunday, December 16, 2018, the Sunday New York Times published an inspiring story, which touches on many themes; you can read it at:  Retraining Workers for New Jobs and New Lives After Prison and Addiction What struck me about the article was: how the twin problems of drug addiction and doing prison time are a common, downward spiral in much of rural America how few public resources there are to deal with it the success of the hero of the story, Tony Simpson, exemplifies a winning strategy to deal with these twin problems that could be replicated elsewhere Basically, Mr Simpson, a local entrepreneur, already successful in another line of business, developed his own plan to help turn around his community: create a company that can export a product (trailers), train local people coming out of prison and/or drug rehab to work in it, and spend money and time -- a lot of money and time -- providing programs of assistance in doing just that. The goal of the program, w...