Blogging While Brown Conference Announces 2010 Speakers

I attended the inaugural Blogging While Brown Conference in Atlanta GA. In fact, I was honored to be one of the seminar speakers at the conference that year. The BWB conference is growing in quality with the following announcement of the speakers for the event later this summer in Washington DC.



The BWB conference takes place in Washington DC on June 18-19, 2010. Are you attending?

2010 Blogging While Brown Conference (June 18-19, Washington DC)

Blogging While Brown is the brainchild of Gina McCauley. I met Gina at the 1st Annual BWB Conference held in Atlanta GA. She is a powerful sister who many bloggers look to as a role model. As such, this blog is pleased to support the continued evolution of her blogging vision.

I encourage all villagers to participate in the planning for Blogging While Brown: The 3rd Annual International Conference for Bloggers of Color, scheduled for June 18-19, 2010 in Washington DC.

Blogging While Brown promotes intellectual, social, and cultural development of the blogging community by bringing bloggers of color together in one location. The purpose of the conference is to facilitate conversations that lead to collaboration and innovation among bloggers of color.

Last year's conference, held in Chicago, was attended by activists, entrepreneurs, journalists and others interested in expanding digital media content creation and distribution among people of color.



In an effort to provide conference attendees with the best experience possible, BWBC decided to modify our annual programming process. So instead of a call for workshop proposals, BWBC is having a call for ideas. What would you like to present? Who would you like to hear from ? What do you want to learn? How could you benefit the conference?

Don't limit yourself to workshops and panels. BWBC is also looking for participants who can present short case studies or shorter presentations on narrower subjects as well. Be as creative and as detailed as possible in your description of what you would like to see at the next Blogging While Brown Conference. Some ideas to get you started:

• Continuing Blogger Education
  
• Internet Advocacy
  
• Entrepreneurship
  
• Social Networking
  
• Hyper-localism
  
• Social Media Successes/Failures
  
• Effective vs. Ineffective Online Activism
  
• Access to Technology
  
• Monetizing
  
• Content Creation Tools
  
• Content Distribution
  
• Blogger Quality of Life
  
• Legal Issues of Blogging
  
• Emerging Trends

Fill Out the 'Call for Ideas' Form.

You can find some other suggested topics on the Blogging While Brown website.

Be as creative as you want to be ... work with other bloggers and blog readers. If you have any questions, email bloggingwhilebrown [at] gmail [dot] com.

Don't talk about it, be about it! Anyhow, I plan to attend the 3rd annual BWB Conference. What about you?

'Where is Waldo' Version of President Obama's Inaugural Address by David Bergman

This is some amazing technology. Do you remember the movie, 'Enemy of the State' with Will Smith and Gene Hackman? This is 'Enemy of the State' type shyt! Click on the photo above ... the keep clicking on any part of the subsequent gigapan photo ... and you will see the face of each individual in the crowd ... IN FOCUS!

You can scan, double click and zoom to any section of the crowd. . . Wait a few seconds. . . And the focus adjusts.

The picture was taken with a robotic camera at 1,474 megapixels. (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera).

I am interested to hear your thoughts after viewing this photo!

DC Likely to Gain Voting Member of Congress

by Nick Juliano

Eleanor Holmes Norton's schedule is likely going to become a lot more crowded in the next year. [SOURCE]

With Barack Obama's election, along with Democratic gains in the Senate, Norton -- the District of Columbia's non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives -- is poised to become a full-fledged Representative, giving DC a voting member of Congress for the first time in the nation's history.

Senate Democrats have added at least seven members to their caucus this year, with two races yet to be decided. While a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority remains elusive, the gains should be enough to move forward a DC voting-rights bill, among other measures that are supported by moderate Republicans, the Washington Post notes Monday.

Under a measure that passed the House by a wide margin last year, Norton would receive a vote in the House on behalf of the District's nearly 600,000 residents. The bill also would give Utah an additional House member, bringing the total in the House to 437.

The bill fell to a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate on a 57-42 vote, but this year's Democratic pick-ups seem likely to assure its passage if it returns to the floor. All seven Republicans who were replaced by Democrats voted against the measure.

President-elect Barack Obama co-sponsored the Senate bill and would be expected to sign the measure into law.

Norton, who co-sponsored last year's measure, says she will reintroduce it sometime in the next session of Congress, although the timing has yet to be decided.

“After 209 years, District residents will have not only a president who has already changed America, and the president that our residents most wanted, but they will have a Democratic president, who, as senator, co-sponsored the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act, and has told me he will sign our bill,” Norton said in a statement, released after Obama's victory. 


Congress fixed the number of House seats at 435 in 1911. The body temporarily increased to 437 members in 1959 to give Alaska and Hawaii one member each, then returned back to 435 members after the next census.

Villager Speaks in Washington DC

I will be in Washington DC on April 24-25 to talk with African American information technology professionals about trends in our industry. The event is free and open to the public. I encourage any villagers living in the greater Washington DC area to come by the event on Thursday night if you have time or inclination. I'll be staying overnight in Arlington, VA. Let me know if there is any chance for an informal meet-up with any villagers while I'm in town...

Noose Jerks Get Fired

I am pleased to see that employers are doing the right thing whenever someone in the workplace plays around with nooses. Did you see where two jerks got fired in Washington DC for playing around with a noose?

Click here for the full story.

Don't these fools know the history of nooses and lynchings here in America?