Still digging Blitz the Ambassador's album Stereotype after 2 mos. and his stereo-brain-blowing logo. >> music: Something to Believe

Yet as sometimes in the arts, for every first in black US America there tends to be a predecessor in France or Germany... like Sekou L'Ambassador:

Without fact checking, I believe Sekou's tenure as ambassador precedes Blitz's.

Open source

I don't wear a watch. I used to. Then I realized that ever-present wristbands feel like chains. I don't wear a watch now, and I feel less constrained. Time still progresses, and you can always verify it--particularly in the cell phone era. Watches are cosmetic.

Today I unlocked my T-mobile G1 (you can request here with your IMEI number); if feels similar to not wearing a watch. I can flip SIM cards.

I am preoccupied with how digital networks can re-orient urban interaction. That's why the My Tracks Android app (which I've used often) impressed me so much today in Ghana (I also got Google Maps update pushed today). After a GPS connection on my roof deck, it tracked my route around the neighborhood/block while in my pocket. That means the geolocation was triangulated from the cell phone network. There will be enormous effects as Africa transitions to higher smartphone density and market-specific mobile apps.

(below) from the 'send to Google' option in My Tracks;
Google Docs:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t04-s0hNT-sCQn8n-8HtsKw&output=html
Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203811272969523791297.000475ffe164e0e459774

***
For the record: I am two weeks into a 10-month Fulbright in Ghana. The views expressed on my blog are my own solely and do not in any way reflect the opinions or policy of the U.S. State Department. In order to avoid any opening for being called a US spy, my goal is to share online as close to the entirety of my research as my Zipnet bandwidth can support.

Article published for Ecologies of Inequality conference at PennDesign

Thesis final review

HAA .May 1, 2009

Presented SoCA, pK and UTEC today to the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors, along with Jon Evans and Andy Lantz talking about Design Initiative for Youth/DIY/ProjectLink and Marrikka Trotter talking about Department of Micro-urbanism/Chinatown Insert. It felt strange partly because I felt visibly jaded about Harvard's bubble, and partly because of the Manchurian Candidate effect...that despite having acted, through SoCA, etc. as an attempt to protest the orientation of the GSD, we have in the end--through Harvard's own financial support--ultimately proved part of the institution. This is not really surprising, and at least our work helps connect the GSD to real communities, but it still feels weird..

Prof. Laura Miller introduced us to the UTEC project but never really advised us. When we started pK, Prof. Toshiko Mori advised us to not do the project ("Nonprofits are tricky"...which is true, but not necessarily reason to not become involved). Project Link only got financed after years of lobbying, attending conferences and arguing that institutions like Harvard need to aggressively build their own pipelines for underrepresented minority students. True, Marrikka has built DMU through her own energy, but INSERT! is part of the Harvard fundraising machine now.

On the upside, at least students were part of presenting the GSD to Harvard alumni, along with the Dean and Department Chairs.

09 Unspoken Borders: Ecologies of Inequality

I guess I should get used to having my name misspelled.

But the conference was great thanks to Riziki House, Thabo Lenneiye, Nakita Johnson, Michelle Lin et al who organized the conference and started this blog to continue exploring the issues that Unspoken Borders 09 addressed.

Boards from mid-review 1: information download, design to follow