Left In Lowell

Trying to catch up on work work, left little time for blog work. Er. Blog fun. Whatever. Well, all work and no play makes me grouchy…

So here’s some stuff I’ve wanted to point out but didn’t have time. Then it’s back to the grind for me, as I have a deadline this week.

• First up, I thought this was a lovely post by jen+tommy, about their canal walk last Saturday. It includes photos and a link to a Flickr stream. Flickr annoys the crap out of me because for some reason, the photos don’t ever show up on my Firefox installs (I have two) but I could view it on one of my other installs (Safari or IE6) so it’s all good. I just wish there was a better way to navigate Flickr pics. I tend to prefer Shutterfly’s interface…which is trying to head in Flickr’s direction of developing a community of shared photos, but has a ways to go before catching up.

  Anywhos, I look forward to jen+tommy’s accounts of their future tours and larks in and around Lowell, because it’s great to see someone writing about that sort of thing around here.

• Next, Cliff had an interesting post yesterday musing about Facebook. OK, so it’s interesting to me, seeing as I’m a big Facebook addict (thanks to a friend, whose neck I would like to wring!). It outlines some of the downsides of having your life out there for all to see.

  Facebook is like everything else, you really should know how to protect yourself. You wouldn’t leave your house unlocked while on vacation, and you shouldn’t just post anything unprotected on the internet, either. If you are a Facebook user, this article is a must read for protecting yourself so you can have a good time sharing your life with your friends and family (hat tip to Felicia who posted it to her Facebook links a while back).

• Finally, there’s a fascinating action-reaction going on Blue Mass Group around an article from the Globe that hit hard on the sister of Secretary of Transportation Jim Aloisi, to which Charley and David reacted to (as “nauseating” and “depressing,” respectively), and then Mr. Aloisi himself posted his side of things. Some interesting and pertinent information comes up in comments, where people who have worked with Mr. Aloisi’s sister (who is a Dem staffer) give us some insight that backs up the idea that the Globe went a bridge or two too far in its insinuations, as well as this comment by GoldsteinGoneWild:
  

  I’ve been on the receiving end of a Globe hit piece, where the facts were twisted in almost an entire inversion of what had really happened. It’s not pleasant, and you have almost no plausible recourse.

  The Globe has been forced to lay off most of their experienced reporters and editors. So when someone calls up with a few facts and a lot of spin, the newspaper’s checks and balances are gone. The machinery is HEAVILY wired to run with any attack.

  Once upon a time, a person unhappy with the news coverage really only had one recourse - to go back to the people who attacked him and hope they would do a fairer follow-up, or else at least publish your own op-ed refuting the offending article. Score another one for the blogs about open discussion and debate, and to be honest, the Globe doesn’t come off smelling like roses here.

Congrats to the city government folks, and especially the MIS department, for getting Common Cause’s E-Government award. Oh wait, not just the award…the Award with Distinction, one of only 46 awarded to towns in Massachusetts. This is for going beyond their basic criteria for posting information about city government onto the web, including agendas, budgets, and meeting information.

Now, would we have ever qualified for such an award about transparency under previous management? I know, I know, I’m totally beating a dead horse, and it’s way water under the bridge, but when I think about where we were five years ago versus today, I’m still astonished. Sorta like watching President Obama on the T.V. answering media questions, after eight years of W. It’s like, wow, you really can make a difference with the right people in charge.