Concerned Citizens

Today in the NY Times’ Media and Advertising section an article discusses some of the new moves occurring in the media industry around media pay walls. The article starts to delve into the challenges faced by traditional media and some possible solutions. It’s become a hot topic, especially with the efforts by Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. to develop a pay wall system for his various publications. The problem is that Murdoch may be ahead of his time in developing such a system but at least it has started the conversation. Similar efforts have been launched by a consortium that inclules Time Inc., Conde Nast, and several others aimed at building a new delivery model that would leverage technology such as e-readers along with a paid subscription model for content delivery. But the bigger question is would people really pay for digital content? Read more…

This is the second in a series of posts about the 2010 Texas elections that started with a look at the Democrats. In this posting I dig into the Republican side of the Texas gubernatorial ticket which is pitting incumbent Gov. Rick Perry against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and conservative Debra Medina. It’s becoming a battle to see who can claim the title of “most conservative” of the trio and, at times, is becoming a little comical. However, there are serious issues to consider when looking at this field, mostly around a commitment of service to Texans or a desire to grandstand against the Obama administration. Of late, it appears the later goal is more important; something that could backfire in the general election in November. So let’s take a look at the Republicans vying for the governor’s seat. Read more…

As we close out 2009 and get ready to enter the 2010 state election cycle I thought it would be good to provide my readers with my perspective of some of the statewide races starting with the governor’s race, one that will most likely provide fireworks even as far back as the primaries. This will turn into a series of postings covering the various facets of the race – the Democrats, the Republicans, the Primary, the General Election, and the Spoilers. I’d do it in a single entry but each facet is becoming larger than I expected. From there I hope to dig into the rest of the election cycle, looking at down ballot races such as the Lieutenant Governor’s race and other statewide elections. For some that follow politics it will seem repetitive. For those who casually follow the series should provide a good understanding to get up to speed as we enter 2010. I encourage commentary to help expand perspective on each facet. This will make the series that much more engaging. So let’s get started. Read more…

Today I found this video at Mashable produced by Whirled Interactive providing a perspective on 2009 using Google Wave. In case you’re not familiar with the technology the perspective is a “wave” with a series of wavelet conversations. There are a lot of subtle nuances that are Wave specific so all you Wavers should watch for them, especially the RIP section. Regardless it’s just fun to watch. The thing to understand is that the only editing is audio. The Wave was built and replayed as is.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog and a lot of that has to do with a slump in composition. I can honestly say it’s not because of a slump in thoughts. There’s so much swirling around in my mind regarding the governor’s race, the state of the Bexar County Democratic Party, health care reform, and many other topics. The challenge is pulling those together in a blog with so much going on in life. Today I looked at my blog and realized the last item was about State Rep. Mike Villarreal’s thoughts about running for statewide office. Mike’s a good friend so I decided to the delete the item, especially since he decided to run for re-election and remain my state representative. Today I found another blog in the city and it’s given me inspiration. You really should check out TheFBM, a local blog that has a similar slant to mine. I’m looking forward to many good reads from it and it’s contributors. To answer the question about the title, I plan to get back into the blogging mode as I spend time at home with my family. Look for more to come in the coming days.

Yesterday Google announced a lot of new innovations to the public to try out and explore. One that has gotten a lot of press has been the real-time search application. However, one of my favorites is the new Google Goggles application. It’s an application that is only available to those who have an Android phone. Now that ranges from those with the original G1 from HTC to the new Motorola Droid announced by Verizon Wireless. The application is pretty unique in that it leverages Google’s incredible image library and search heuristics to do a visual search. By pairing an image against their image library through some complex algorithms Google is able to provide search results for the image provided. So where does the fun come into play? Read more…

Houston Mayor Bill White did yesterday what everyone expected and announced his candidacy for the Texas governor’s race. Speculation for this has been quietly on everyone’s mind for several months with a few publicly stating. But it took a few events to occur to galvanize the move – Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s resignation delay until after the March primaries and Tom Schieffer’s exit of the race and endorsement of White as a candidate. Yesterday before an enthusiastic crowd in Houston Mayor White made it official. You can watch the announcement video here courtesy of the Burnt Orange Report. So what does this really mean to Texas Democrats and does White stand a chance of beating Gov. Rick Perry? Read more…