Month: March 2011

Goodbye Sweet Dad

William (Bill) A. Wright

Born January 26, 1929 in San Leandro, CA; died peacefully March 24, 2011 after a short illness. Survived by Dolores, his loving wife of 58 years; his children, Randy Wright (Linda), Mary Frances Wright (Lee Bartholomew), and Nancy White (Larry); his grandchildren, Christopher (JennyLee Lieseke), Alexander, John, Ayala, and Caleb; his great-granddaughter, Staley; and his brother, James Wright (Bev).

I was thrilled when Mom and Dad moved to Seattle in 2009. They were geographically close to my family for the first time since I left home to go to college. My kids and my grandbaby could have them in their lives. All of us…

Dad really became an honorary Seattleite upon moving to the Mirabella community. He learned the transit system. He visited sites all around the city and made friends with every person he met at Mirabella. His warmth and friendliness endeared him to everyone. It has been a great comfort to see the Mirabellians rallying around Mom and sharing how much they loved and appreciated Dad.

Funeral Mass will celebrated Monday, April 4th at 10 AM at St. Josephs Catholic Church, 732 18th Ave E, Seattle, 98112.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Project Linus San Jose Chapter, 11061 S. Stelling Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014. Please note on any checks that this is in honor of Bill Wright.

Thanks.

Conversations for the 21st Century – Community on April 1st, 2011

My friend, colleague, teacher and fellow GiGee (Girl Geek) Amy Lenzo has launched a new venture, weDialogue. She has asked me to be part of a launch event, a free, wide-open conversation on “Communities in the 21st Century” on April 1st. I decided it was so exciting it was worth saying yes even though I’ll be in Australia and it will be 3am for me. That’s how easy Amy makes it to say “yes” to her! Seriously, how can you resist the invitation to talk about community!!

Here is the information:

“Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.”
~ I-Ching, The book of change
In association with the World Café Community Foundation, weDialogue is hosting a series of interactive online “Conversations for the 21st Century” designed to stimulate collective innovation and new patterns of thinking in response to the global challenges we face today.

Each session will focus on a different key topic–e.g. Democracy, Food, Money, Aging, Creativity, etc.– and begin with a round-table exploration from the perspective of three “conversation starters” who are making significant contributions in the field being discussed. Conversation starters are chosen for their diversity in order to give the widest possible “opening” for the dialogue that follows.

After the round table, we’ll move into a World Cafe format with three rounds of small group conversation, followed by a “harvest” when the whole group comes back together to share insights and experiences.  Conversations for the 21st Century will also feature a “Call to Action” where participants can learn about cutting edge initiatives related to the topic at hand, and how to get involved.

We encourage everyone with an interest in our subjects to participate – we all have something valuable to contribute. The World Cafe is based on the idea that we are wiser together than we are alone, that together we have the answers to any problems that beset us.  So, we believe it’s important to hear from all of us and that every voice is necessary for the re-imagining of a better future.

Conversations for the 21st Century are held over the telephone and you must register to participate. We’re pleased to announce our first session:

“Community for the 21st Century”
DATE: Friday, April 1st
TIME: 9am-12pm PST/12-3pm EST/5-8pmGMT / 7-10pm South Africa / 5-8am New Zealand

COST: Free (except for any long distance charges you may incur)
Your donations to the World Cafe Community Foundation, however, are very much appreciated:

REGISTER: Please use THIS LINK to register (you must be registered to participate).

“Community for the 21st Century” conversation starters:

Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging, and The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods

Nancy White, co-author of Digital Habitats, and an experienced guide in the realms of online community and e-learning.

Sarah Whiteley and Maria Scordialos, co-founders of the land-based community Axladitsa Avatakia in Greece.

If you know someone you think should be part of this conversation, please invite them, too. Here is a downloadable pdf to pass on: C21C

Chocolate Guinness Cake and Disaster Relief Donations

Back in 2008 I posted about  a cake I made that richocheted around Twitter, much to my amusement. With St. Patrick’s day coming around, I thought I would repost it, but with a twist. Just a small echo to the culture of love as people respond to the earthquake in Japan.

If you like the cake, the idea, the beer – whatever – donate to help the good folks of Japan who are suffering so much from the earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear challenges. I’ve copied in a list of donation options for you. Thanks in advance. Below the donations information is a snipped of the original post and a link to the recipe.

Bake. Do good.

Aid and Charitable Organizations From the NY Times

Each of the following groups have set up fundraising sites specifically for the victims of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

AMERICAN RED CROSS
Red Cross officials say donors can text REDCROSS to 90999 and a $10 donation will automatically be charged to donor’s phone bill, or donations can be made directly on its Web site.

AMERICARES
Information is available on the organization’s Web site.

CARE
CARE is one of the world’s largest private international humanitarian organizations. Their offices in Asia are on high alert and have ensured that staff are informed of the tsunami warnings and other related developments.

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
Information is available on the organization’s Web site.

GLOBALGIVING.ORG
GlobalGiving is working with International Medical Corps, Save the Children, and other organizations on the ground to disburse funds to organizations providing relief and emergency services to victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Donors can text JAPAN to 50555 to give $10, and larger increments can be submitted on GlobalGiving’s Web site.

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
Information is available on the organization’s Web site.

LIONS CLUBS INTERNATIONAL
Information is available on the organization’s Web site.

THE SALVATION ARMY
The Salvation Army has been providing food and shelter to Tokyo commuters who were stranded when public transportation was interrupted by the earthquake. They are to send a team to Sendai, a city about 250 miles Tokyo, to assess the situation there. Text JAPAN or QUAKE to 80888 to make a $10 donation. (Make sure to respond “YES” to the Thank You message you receive.) Donations can also be made on the organization’s Web site or by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

SAVE THE CHILDREN
To make a donation, visit Save the Children’s Web site, call 1-800-728-3843, or text JAPAN to 20222 to donate $10.

SHELTERBOX.ORG
Shelterbox.org is a disaster-relief organization that focuses on providing survival materials such as tents and cooking equipment to families displaced by disasters.

UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK
Information is available on the organization’s Web site or by calling (212) 836-1486.

Repeat. Bake. Do good.

I was making a chocolate Guinness cake last night, and I was trying to figure out how to weave it in with the rambly theme of my blog. After all, this isn’t a food blog, as much as I love food.

I had tweeted that I was going to make this cake in celebration of our finally naming “the book,” and I was amazed how many people wanted the recipe. I kept sending the recipe url to people who tweeted in reply.

It is interesting what captures our attention, what stimulates us to want to experiment.

Is it the chocolate? The Guinness? The cake? Cooking? Food? In any case, the interest prompted me to blog about the cake. Oh, and the cake is really good – though I’d suggest using a little less butter. I added some grated unsweetened coconut and I’d suggest adding some chopped, roasted pecans as well. I substituted mascarpone for the cream cheese in the icing (because that’s what I had on hand) which makes a subtler icing. I think I’d prefer the cream cheese!

Crosspost from NWWCoP: Twitter Chats and Tweetups

This is a crosspost from the Network Weavers Community of Practice!

On today’s full community “share fair” meeting the concept of tweetups and tweet chats came up. I mentioned that there is an open Google doc listing some of the more well known tweetups and I would share it, so I wanted to post that link and a few others here. In poking around, I found a few more lists (Meryl’s list was updated just last week!) and resources.

How to Run Twitter Chats

There are both technical and facilitation things to consider to effectively pull people into a coherent interaction on Twitter.

Hashtags Resources

A hash tag (i.e. #nwwcop) is a way to aggregate tweets during a tweet chat and to aggregate tweets with other digital content with the same tag.

How to Capture the Content of Twitter Chats

Here are just a few of the tools you can use as interfaces for the tweet chats themselves and to aggregate the content. See the “how-tos” above.

Strategy

I think the last bit of thinking — that really might be best considered first — is thinking about WHY you want to do a Twitter chat. Thinking about intent, about purpose, can be a productive precursor to planning and action. Smile. Visit some twitter chats. Experience them. Then think about your community and network. What would work? Twitter chats are inherently open – is that ok for you? Do you want to have a defined group, or attract people to the twitter chat topic? Food for thought, eh?

Communities and Networks in New Zealand and Australia

I head down under in a couple of weeks to run a series of events in Napier, NZ (url soon), Wellington, NZ, Sydney and a free event that evening (Cracking the Door Open – Nancy White (4 April 2011) « NSW KM Forum), possibly Adelaide (to be confirmed soon), Canberra and Melbourne (two more events besides this one – urls soon!). If you are in the vicinity, I hope you might consider joining us.

In preparation, my co-conspirator, Matt Moore, and I made a couple of videos you might enjoy. Just a bit of fun.

YouTube – mattbm34’s Channel.