Activism can be effective, but certainly not by default. Non-profit campaigns fail about as well as startups.
When I say reinvented, I mean that we need innovative ways to use technology in the advocacy space. Like you said, activism takes real work. Clicking "Like" on FB is giving people the false impression that they have actually done something.
Where we agree is that the political system is broken and that it is a much more important issue.
I've been fighting for a particular bill for nearly a decade (see my profile, if you care to know) and the thing that I've heard consistently, regardless of what season or year it is, regardless of who controls Congress, regardless of who is the President, is this: "now is not a good time to make the push, because the election is coming up." If there is ANY election in the next two years, Congress simply STOPS. In other words they are in a perpetual election cycle.
We make the push anyway, we inch closer, but fail (always due to filibuster and votes splitting evenly along party lines, regardless of actual stance of specific legislators), then we spend YEARS in the election cycle. I've seen this happen too many times...
I'm starting to think that all progressive organizations should drop their pet issues and focus on campaign financing reform first.
Legislators are already not paying attention to email, because so much of it is automated. At best, some legislators tally email, many of them don't pay attention to it at all.
Automating phone calls is an inevitable continuation. Right now, phone calls have _some_ impact. Unfortunately, technology will make calling less effective.
On one end we have software, on the other we have the poor Congressional staffers who have to pick up the phone every time it rings. Eventually the staff will become numb to phone calls, stop paying attention, and turn to people sitting in their offices for guidance (lobbyists, who get paid to be there, or, less likely, people like you and me who find the time to actually go and talk to them.)
We have a disconnect between taking the smallest step (sending an email, calling) and the next one, physically going somewhere. This is why we -- we the tech industry, in partnership with visionaries from the non-profit space -- have to reinvent activism. To make the transition from the online to the offline world smoother. And to make the time spent online more meaningful.
Increasingly, people look online first. The dozens of petition sites -- Change.org is a full social network type of deal -- are making it easy to confuse "doing something" with "doing something effective."
How is living in limbo for a decade, with literally no single piece of paper identifying you as a human being is "cutting in line?"
And why can't we tackle these problems at the same time? Why can't we even tackle these problems _one_ at a time? The Dream Act has been under review since 2001. It is a bill that can be voted on and passed in literally two days. Why not? ... I'll answer. Our impotent Congress, two year election cycles, and media that no longer holds anybody accountable.
I'm in the same boat. It's been difficult. I cannot express how grateful I am to Jose Vargas for writing this story.
I was brought here as a kid 13 years ago. I'm 24 now. I also graduated from a "top" university -- like that matters. I guess my parents weren't smart enough to get a fake social security card for me back then, I wish they were. I've also been fighting for the Dream Act for what feels like an eternity. I made a site and still maintain it, have met with Senators, protested in front of the White House, several times, other things. I'm loosing hope. I lost hope in Congress long ago. I lost hope in this President in December, when he failed to stand by us and the vote. I don't have anything left to wait for.
I'm still "hiding," most of my friends have no idea, but I see less and less reason to do so every day. I just can't take it anymore. I'm worth _something_. I'm competent coder, and fuck it all, at least I got that, my mind, and my family.
Anybody who wants to debate the pros and cons of immigration reform can go to hell. I'm done reading the hate mail. I'm done debating. I am done listening to those masked bigots. I know what it is like to live like this having done nothing wrong. I know that I don't deserve the punishment. If we can't agree on the fact that I am American and should have basic rights, then we have nothing to talk about. I'm not asking for anything except recognition.
Btw, people who were brought here on fake documents, as me and Jose, can't get married for papers. So even if Jose wasn't gay, he wouldn't be able to adjust based on marriage. It's unfortunate that people who come here on student visas get married -- assuming they have enough money -- and have a green card in six months. People like me and Jose, homebred Americans if ya will, are forever tarnished with this inherited title. Hello, my name is "illegal immigrant." That's what I feel like every single day. Every morning in the shower, I utter the words "I am so fucking tired." And I am.
We got very close to the passage of the bill during the lame duck session (dec 2010). Twenty ten especially was filled with energy and action; that's what got us there.
I've seen one thing consistently, we, as a movement, are getting older, smarter, and closer to our goals. Not unlike starting a startup in high school, you are bound to fail, but after 10 years of failing you learn a thing or two. The timeline for the passage of the bill is not some constant or range. It is a linear function of how smart we work and how much energy we put into it. If I learned one thing, is that Congress has absolutely zero interest in passing the bill, either party. They all just want to get elected again. You work from there.
If by "too late for me," you are referring to the age limit in the bill, the Dream Act usually gets introduced without the limit and the 30 year old age limit is sometimes tacked on as a "compromise" in the process. Also, the number I keep seeing lately is 35, simply because its taking this long to pass the bill. I want the limit gone, it makes zero sense from any angle. It is only good for marketing the bill to hypocrites who'll never support it anyway, "look only kids will benefit." Fucking load of shit, we were kids when this mess started!! Just because you've been in legal limbo for 20 years, doesn't make you less American. Eh... You give a finger you get nothing, you give a hand, you get nothing, you give half your torso, and you still get nothing. That is the dynamic of party relations in the Senate right now. Democrats compromise, Republicans just keep saying "No" because that will get them elected. The age limit is a compromise not worth making and we'll make sure the Senators know about it. I see more and more people who are already over the proposed limits, they deserve this more than I.
Personally, I'm not ruling out "going back." Although, it's not really going back is it, its leaving everything and everyone you know behind to go to a place you barely remember, if at all. I have the same problem, not having done mandatory military service, I'd probably be arriving into a jail cell. That is unless I arrive after a certain age. The country of your origin may have a similar rule, look into it. Coincidentally, this is the strategy of our opposition, they call it "attrition." Make our lives so miserable that we leave on our own. Look at the AZ bill. Look at the Georgia bill that will be signed by the governor in a couple of days. We leave, they win. I don't know what they win exactly, you and I are clearly American and have something to contribute to society. But, I don't care about the principle of this thing much, I just want to breathe free for once (ironic isn't it.)
What helped me deal with this situation personally, is just not being afraid anymore. That sounds cliche, but something just snapped one night somewhere around the time where my friend was going to be deported (a few days later, Sen. Dick Durbin has personally acted to stop his deportation), and I just said you know what fuck it all. I know I'm worth something as a human being. I know I'm a competent "product" guy that loves what he does. If the worst thing that I have to be afraid of is getting shipped out clenching my American diploma, then fuck em. Ship me out and let me live my fucking life already. Or do what you have been doing and pretend that I don't exist. I'll be fine either way, so fuck you. You can see I was angry, not bitter, I think I have it easy compared to others and certainly the rest of the world, just angry. That night I made a pact with myself, fear will never be a factor again. It worked. Somehow accepting the possible consequences and not being afraid of them anymore has helped me get a grip on this situation emotionally. Over the years I've developed a really thick skin, nothing ever surprises me anymore. In addition, overcoming this fear -- I can't even say concretely what I was afraid of, it's just this perpetual state that you are in as an undocumented person -- has given me a ton of confidence. You want to bring me down? It will take you a lifetime; enjoy the ride.
So my advice is please do ALL you can to change your status, but if no avenues are available, do what you can to improve your quality of life. Come to some kind of an arrangement with your co-founders and keep going, keep doing what you love, live your life as fully as you possibly can, we are still incredibly fortunate. Just look at yourself as you, not as the system sees you.
This could be my story, except my parents never managed to legalize, and I couldn't even get a tax id. Lawyers haven't been able to help. I am going to a "big shot" lawyer soon to see what he says, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I was brought to the states at the age of 12; that was 13 years ago. I'm in limbo, as you.
Forget the Start Visa Act, that's fresh out the oven and even if it did, somehow, manage to make it through the stalemate in Congress, there is no way it would cover people like you and I, who have "broken the law" (we were brought here as children, for the few who will miss the point). Something that _could_ help us is the Dream Act.
In college I started http://dreamact.info It is the biggest community of would be Dream Act beneficiaries and undocumented students. I'm not too proud of what's there at this point -- I always want to do more -- but it's the best I could do with life always catching up. =( I've been in and out of the fray trying to pass this bill and perhaps have some things to share that go beyond the scope of this comment. If you are at all interested in the bill, or just want somebody to share with -- I know it gets very tough -- feel free to contact me at nick at dreamact.info
You are either misinformed or are purposely changing the facts.
The immigrants who open bank accounts open them using ITIN. Others, can't open a bank account because we lack _any_ documentation that is not expired. Our consulates are refusing to renew anything. Others, yet again, are stateless individuals and don't have a consulate period. Dream Act students often fall into these categories because they were brought here at a very young age.
There is plenty preventing immigrants from going to college. Tax payers are not subsidizing anything, because undocumented students cannot apply for any federal loans or financial aid. If you are undocumented and go to college, you pay out of pocket, period. There are only a handful of private merit based scholarship that are available to undocumented students. I'm one of the lucky ones.
Out of state tuition argument is moot and I'm tired of the misinformation around the issue. There are only 10 states that have legislation that allows undocumented students to be eligible for in-state tuition BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE BEEN A RESIDENT OF THE STATE FOR AT LEAST 5 YEARS AND GRADUATED FROM A STATE HIGH SCHOOL. I've lived in New York State for over ten years, and my parents have payed taxes into the states treasury every single year. I am a New Yorker and the in-state tuition law recognizes that for purposes of tuition. So "Americans have to pay out of state tuition while undocumented immigrants can pay in-state tuition." is complete bull shit. Residents of the state pay in-state, out of state students pay out of state, undocumented or not. Fair and square, and available only 10 states.
You simply don't want to recognize that I am an American and a human being. If you see this issue for what it is, our fight for basic human rights, the economics of it all of a sudden don't feel that important. I am _American_, educated, and an aspiring entrepreneur. One day I just want to wake up and be able to breathe.
If the NY Times want to write a story about an elusive American Dream they should write about us, the Dream Act students, who've been stuck in limbo with no job and no rights in sight because of our broken immigration system.
It feels absolutely devastating to graduate from college, hang that degree on the wall, and realize that you can't even open a bank account.
We're using Campaign Monitor and its faaaar too expensive. Sending 40k/mo would cost over $400/mo and thats ridiculous for email. Mailchimp and others cost pretty much the same.
iPhone's iTunes will refuse to download a longer podcast over the air; only works on wifi. On my Palm Pixi, I can download/steam anything I want over EVDO.
Mine had a cracked motherboard because I was apparently picking it up off the table wrong, by the corner vs gently holding it on both sides, as designed. IBM initially claimed that it was water damage (6 months prior), searching online revealed a small army with the same problem as I.
I still use that ThinkPad (well minus the new motherboard) on my electronics bench, but to say that its on par with the iPhone or Mac Pro in terms of quality is laughable. The whole thing looks and feels like its made out of recycled plastic. Its so ugly it looks rugged.
I don't think you can SSH into a soviet era weapon.
This idea that war can be carried out "safely" is detached from reality. We say that our technology gives us a moral advantage in warfare. "We can hit just the right targets, and minimize collateral damage." It will never be.
WikiLeaks presentation of the first video was disingenuous, but I don't care as long as the video enters the public domain. I want to be able to pull up videos that show how worthless human life is on the battlefield. I have friends in the military and they need an emotional shell to do their job. The public, however, needs to start thinking about war not as a pissing match with browner countries, but as a serious issue.
I've struggled with Kuler for a while. Its just too slow and cumbersome (try copy pasting to Photoshop and back). The reason is of course that its all in Flash. There is a built-in Kuler toolbox in Photoshop, but that's as slow and cumbersome as the site.
I've yet to see a better implementation of multitasking on a mobile device than Palm's webOS. You have to see it in action to appreciate it.
As a developer you don't have to include more code to make multitasking happen. An event fires when the app becomes active and when it deactivates, but its your choice to handle them or not.
I keep bugs and do email/support via FogBugz, but when it gets down to crunch time I always end up back in Pivotal Tracker for my weekly to do. I work alone.
FogBugz email integration is top notch, but the time tracking and staying on target for a release is definitely tuned for a larger team. In "list of cases" view there isn't an immediate visual cue to what you can get done in time for a release. Going into reports you get nice graphs with confidence curves for the finish date of a release. Entirely overkill for a small team; possibly a life saver for a larger one. A side note, I was able to show a non technical person how to use FogBugz to work with email with surprisingly good results. The person found it a very natural transition from plain email and appreciated the case tracking capabilities of FogBugz.
Pivotal feels much more natural to me and always helps me stay on track. I can immediately see what I can get done this week and what I will have to push back or revise. I also find its 3 point system for estimating remarkably accurate. The tool has actually driven me to get things done as well, which is more than I can ask of any tracking system.
So,
FogBugz: a formal bug tracking system with excellent email integration and fine grained estimation and tracking.
Pivotal Tracker: a "to do" tracking system, with coarse estimation and tracking that works better for fast iterations and small teams.
I am currently trying to develop a karma system in our community and can attest to the "leaderboards are bad" observation from personal experience.
"The typical thought-process goes something like this: there's an activity on your site that you'd like to promote; a number of people engaged in that activity who should be recognized; and a whole buncha other people who need a kick in the pants to jump in. Leaderboards seem like the perfect solution."
...were my thoughts exactly. However, virtually the same day that I introduced a leaderboard into the mix, contributions plummeted and have stayed low since. This was a couple of weeks ago. I suspect that the top contributors got their recognition and now have little incentive to continue contributing, while people who found it confusing or did not want to contribute continue staying still. In other words, I got exactly the opposite effect of what I wanted.
"Do not display negative karma." I can attest to that as well. One user is quite controversial in the community and was voted down badly for contributing. Controversial or not, having negative points for trying is really discouraging.
I suppose I should now go and undo those mistakes. A hundred nights more and we'll have our overnight success.
I remember when Google came out with Gmail and people were up in arms over ads appearing next to your email. Several years on and apparently it is OK to scan my address book and "auto-follow" a bunch of people I have in it.
The only thing I feel about Google Buzz is the violation of trust between me and the company. That is the real disruption.
When I say reinvented, I mean that we need innovative ways to use technology in the advocacy space. Like you said, activism takes real work. Clicking "Like" on FB is giving people the false impression that they have actually done something.
Where we agree is that the political system is broken and that it is a much more important issue.
I've been fighting for a particular bill for nearly a decade (see my profile, if you care to know) and the thing that I've heard consistently, regardless of what season or year it is, regardless of who controls Congress, regardless of who is the President, is this: "now is not a good time to make the push, because the election is coming up." If there is ANY election in the next two years, Congress simply STOPS. In other words they are in a perpetual election cycle.
We make the push anyway, we inch closer, but fail (always due to filibuster and votes splitting evenly along party lines, regardless of actual stance of specific legislators), then we spend YEARS in the election cycle. I've seen this happen too many times...
I'm starting to think that all progressive organizations should drop their pet issues and focus on campaign financing reform first.