Care to predict Obama’s memes for tonight? The aim of the game is to anticipate particular phrases or turns of idea he might use.

For example:

John McCain will undoubtedly use images of this very event against us. That’s because when he sees tens of thousands of Americans eager to participate, eager to pick up the tools to build a better America for themselves and for their neighbors, John McCain sees celebrity. As I look out tonight, I see democracy.

The McCain campaign’s first reaction to my selecting Joe Biden as my running mate was to air an ad that shows Joe disagreeing with me during the long primary season. I truly thank Senator McCain for that. I’m proud that I can talk with people with whom I disagree, that I can listen to them, that I can work with them. Why, John, I even look forward to working with you. You are going to be a very important senator in the Obama administration, and we’re going to count on your support in building a bi-partisan agenda to rebuild this country.

There are 75,000 of us here tonight, tens of millions at home watching on TV, and millions and millions online, watching on the Internet, and undoubtedly chatting with friends and strangers around the world. Now, a few weeks ago, a senior aide to John McCain said that Senator McCain “is aware of the Internet.” That is totally acceptable for a candidate for the presidency of the United States…in 1992. But it simply is not acceptable for a country that wants to regain its leadership in the global economy.

Your turn…

[Tags: politics obama dnc08 ]

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Ode to an Outdoor Shower

Bird watching
Becomes
Birds watching.

[Tags: poetry summer birdwatching humor ]

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We’re live now, chatting away at irc://irc.freenode.net/#democonvo. (Dave Winer has had a chat going also, at #dnc08)

[Tags: politics dnc08 ]

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Born Digital, a book by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser — my brilliant friends and colleagues at the Berkman Center — has just been published. Yay!

JP has posted some of the first reactions to the book. I can’t wait to read it.

[Tags: berkman digital_natives born_digital john_palfrey urs_gasser books ]

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Scott Kirsner has posted his ten favorite worst predictions about the movies, drawn from his just-published book. My favorite of his favorite: Jack Valenti’s. (I missed Scott on Science Friday…)

[Tags: movies scott_kirsner ]

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Fantastic Contraption is a free, simplified riff on the old Incredible Machine game. Your aim is to move a box into a zone by hooking together some wheels and sticks. It lacks the inventive motor elements of the older game (set the balloon to pop to lower the basket that has the mice that will cause the elephant to move onto the scale that flips the lighter that sets off the rocket, etc.), but its simplicity also works in its favor.

You may have a child that will love it. You might also. If not, there are bunches of other games on the site.

[Tags: games ]

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Initiated and managed by three Swedes with a background in advertising and PR, Noko Jeans is our attempt to approach and get closer to North Korea, and it is our attempt to answer the question: is it possible to do what no one has ever done before? Is it possible to design, produce and import jeans from North Korea? [link]

The NoKo blog is here. It gives a peak at North Korea from a Swedish, jeans-making perspective.

[Tags: north_korea noko_jeans ]

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I may get around to blogging about Michelle Obama’s speech. I’m still floored.

You can see the entire speech here. [Tags: obama michelle_obama politics dnc08 ]

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Last night’s IRC chat party was fun. I’m going to set up a room again tonight, starting at 8pm EDT, so we can watch the Democratic convention together: irc://irc.freenode.net/#democonvo. (If that link doesn’t work for you, you’ll have to download an IRC client. I use Chatzilla, an add-on to Firefox. Once you’ve installed it, plugging the URL into Firefox’s address bar should launch Chatzilla automatically.) (Dave Winer also had a chat going, at #dnc08.)

See you then!

[Tags: dnc campaign chat irc obama dnc08 ]

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I love Twitter, but I’m wondering whether it’s the right tool for getting together to do a group-watch (we’ll laugh, we’ll cry) of the Democratic convention tonight. Would old-fashioned IRC be better?

I like IRC as a way of watching an event together. So, suppose I set up irc://www.freenode.net/democonvo tonight and opened it to anyone who wanted to join. As opposed to Twitter, the group would be smaller, it would consist of people who were there only to talk about the convention, and it would encourage more back and forth because the set of readers is the same as the set of potential writers. (With Twitter, the people you read don’t necessarily read you.)

On the other hand, Twitter brings together unexpected people who are highly unlikely to jump into any one IRC chat, especially mine. On Twitter, I’ll be able to read running commentary from Joe Trippi and Michael Turk (Democratic and Republican Net strategists). I can pretty well guarantee that neither will show up to an IRC chat that I throw.

So, I’m not sure what to do…

[Tags: twitter irc social_media politics ]

Dave Winer’s got an IRC going right now. He’s at the convention as a blogger…

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