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Pete Forsyth's comments:
on Making Public Records Public
Hi K :)
There's a whole set of practices around this. I agree that it's of vital importance that things are published/encoded/syndicated in a way that makes them genuinely useful on the Internet. Really, that's one of the most important things, as very small decisions (i.e. decisions that have minimal impact on expenditures) will have a massive determinative effect on whether information gets used in ways that are useful.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Making Public Records Public
Can you ask Attorney General Kroger (or any of your guests) to talk about House Bill 2500 of the last session, an initiative that aims to establish a web site to provide details about state spending?
For what it's worth, I'm very supportive of the intent behind HB 2500, but ambivalent about whether the specific bill will take us far enough or in the right direction.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Stuff
After 18 years in Portland, I'm moving out of the state..on a pretty rapid schedule. Which means getting rid of all my stuff.
I've felt pretty "owned" for some time, but now I'm losing my attachments to things like…(oh, there's a sports analogy in there somewhere, but that would be unkind.)
I have to say, the idea of starting fresh with a couple boxes of clothes and not much more has me pretty giddy.
Want some stuff? C'mon over!
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Legislating from Home
Glad this is being discussed. It needs to be planned out carefully, but it's past time to make some kind of change. I like Mr. Rasmussen's use of the terms "employers" (citizens) and "employees" (legislators).
The need to travel to Salem on ridiculously short notice and participate in a really unusual choreography prevents many well-intentioned citizens from participating in their government.
The lack of quality input into important decisions damages our state.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on The Future of Journalism
I agree about the puzzling editorial stance. Calling on Sam Adams to resign before they, or the public, had the chance to even absorb the news??! Wacky!
Endorsing a candidate for HD 43 before the position was even open??! Even wackier!!
Some of their editorials are very useful, carefully considered and well written. Puzzling them out from the bizarre and ill-informed is a challenging task.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on The Future of Journalism
Betsy, I apologize for the error -- I must have misunderstood!
Still, I would like to have heard more about their web plans on a program about the future of news...whether or not they have direct control, they have an enormous interest.
I believe their audience would like very much to have a clearer understanding of the Oregonian's vision for incorporating the web into their news product.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on The Future of Journalism
Mr. Bahtia should be more forthcoming about the web site. Advance Internet, the arm of Newhouse that manages the web site (and those of many other papers nationwide) has its origins as a sort of experiment to draw in advertising revenue. The people in charge of it have always been part of the advertising arm of Newhouse, not journalists; until that changes, I highly doubt there will be substantive change in the quality of the site that is meaningful to a news audience.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Internet
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Town Hall 2.0
Over the last year, I went to great lengths to seek expert input into a piece of state legislation (HB 2500). I had a number of meetings and phone conferences with people with backgrounds relating to various aspects of the bill.
Ultimately, working with a state rep, we proposed an amendment, and a friend and I arranged to go to Salem to testify in favor of it.
Two major problems:
(1) The date and time of the hearing were not locked down until the morning of the hearing. On Friday morning, it was expected the hearing would be Tuesday. But then we found out the hearing was going to be Friday after all. After canceling appointment with a client, I managed to get to Salem to deliver my testimony.
(2) The chair of the Senate committee before which we testified did not listen to our testimony. He was engrossed in a private conversation with the committee secretary, and did not look up once during the testimony, which lasted all of maybe 2 minutes.
A legislature that you have to engage with in person is a legislature that is inaccessible to the vast majority of people in our state, who do not have the freedom to rearrange their schedules at the last minute, travel hundreds of miles at their own expense, etc.
If we choose not to explore the use of modern communications technologies in order to increase civic engagement, that choice will keep our government institutions anchored firmly in the 19th century. It will prevent intelligent, motivated, hard-working people from having a voice in their own government.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Is Justice Blind?
I missed the program this morning, but I hope there was some discussion of the Oregon Judicial Department, in addition to federal judges.
On a state level, judges from county-level circuit courts on up to the Supreme Court are either appointed by the Governor, or elected by the public (depending on the timing of a vacancy).
In 2006, I managed Judge Albrecht's campaign for a position on Multnomah County circuit court. In the course of that campaign, I repeatedly encountered confusion about why judges are on a popular ballot to begin with – and how a voter should go about assessing the quality of the candidates.
My personal conclusion was that the current system is pretty good. Yes, we often wind up with candidates that are not thoroughly vetted by the public that elects them; and yes, political forces can influence that equation. But there are also extensive politics behind appointments. I believe there is an appropriate balance that results from both the public and the Governor having influence over the composition of the OJD.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Bull Run Water
Here's a link to the Bull Run article I mentioned above.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Bull Run Water
Professor Howells, I notice that someone going by the name "Watercapstone" working on the Wikipedia article on the Bull Run Watershed. They have significantly expanded the article.
Is this by chance a project of one of your students? As a Wikipedia contributor and editor of several years, I'd love to help this person continue to build this resource. If appropriate, you could have them get in touch with me at 503-453-9766.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Bull Run Water
Specifically, Leonard said that the idea that anyone wants to privatize the water source "politically insane."
He may be right, but he's failing to engage with the important point. Water Bureau leadership knows as well as anyone that municipal water supplies are getting privatized all over the country.
Even if there is no active desire to privatize our water supply, it's essential that our big decisions be informed by this knowledge. If we want to keep our water supply in the public domain, we should make big decisions with an eye to how they will influence future political pressures.
If we double our water rates, that will create public unrest, and it will make our water system more attractive to private investors. These are important considerations, and should not be brushed off by someone in Leonard's position.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Bull Run Water
City Council has consistently missed opportunities to elevate (or even engage with) the public debate on this issue.
Sam Adams and Randy Leonard continue to pour energy into an unpopular stadium that would cost only $40 million, but treat at $400 million filtration plant as a routine decision; Leonard only changed his recommendation to the less-expensive ($100 million) ultraviolet treatment at the last minute, in response to the public outcry.
And in the process, Leonard disparaged the people who have managed to inform and engage the public. He chose to focus on their least compelling points rather than the service they have done to their city.
City Council needs to wake up and recognize that Portlanders care about their infrastructure and their future taxes, and want to be included in the deliberations in a meaningful way.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Hoarders
I have some of these tendencies, and there was something resonant about what MaryBeth said early in the program which I'd like to hear more about: she said "I can't do it by myself."
For me, as far as I can remember I've craved times when people help me sort through my stuff. When I was a kid I'd want my mother or grandmother to help me clean my room, so I could share the kind of stress MaryBeth describes, and have somebody help me through the decisions.
Over the years, I've been fortunate to have various friends help me clean up junk. I've had both good and bad experiences with it. For me, I think it hinges on whether someone respects that I have the final decision. If somebody sees something they think is junk and tosses it without asking me, it's not going to go well. But if they work with me to maybe make boxes to sort things into that they're merely suggesting I get rid of, that works well.
But at the root, I think it has something to do with a not-entirely-healthy desire to have people show concern and interest for me through exploring my stuff.
I'd be interested to hear more from MaryBeth about this.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
Oops, on reflection -- US 26 crosses the Deschutes near Madras, far south of where the Stephen Meek expedition crossed it. So scratch that speculation.
posted 4 years ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
Another disclosure: Esprqii has recently written a fine blog post about how he got started editing Wikipedia -- which I think makes a great read for those getting familiar with the project.
posted 4 years ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
Thanks to you and everyone for the excellent feedback. You're absolutely right that there's a place for both; we at Wikipedia value the Oregon Encyclopedia tremendously, as it's become a wonderful, reliable source for information that can be difficult to track down elsewhere.
It's fantastic to be able to cite the Oregon Encyclopedia and the sources it leads us to. A further step is that it would be great to add historic photographs etc. to our articles; unfortunately, older institutions like the OHS tend to place their own copyright protections on older public domain documents, making that in many cases a legal impossibility. (Fortunately, modern archiving projects like Google Books are more compatible with our legal needs.)
posted 4 years ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
Agreed, an excellent topic, and one that we've struggled to figure out how to approach best on Wikipedia. A few relevant articles:
and a brief "Rade relations" section in the History of Oregon article.
posted 4 years ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
I think this is an area we've actually covered fairly well on Wikipedia -- obviously there's room for improvement, but take a look at these articles:
posted 4 years ago
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on Encyclopedic Ambitions
With Wikipedia, if a fact cannot be independently verified, by policy, it should not be included. Enforcement of that policy is an ongoing process, so there are certainly plenty of examples out there; but the higher-rated content on Wikipedia should not have this issue.
In the case of more subjective editorial conundra, it varies so much case-by-case that it's tough to answer here; but the short answer is, in the areas where there's an active and robust community of editors, we tend to arrive at good, well-considered decisions fairly quickly. In more neglected areas, not so much.
By and large, the Oregon community of editors is one of the strongest on the English Wikipedia. But we're trying to share the love, too :)
posted 4 years ago
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