We were over on the hill behind us called Southern Village eating the great food we’d picked up at the Carrboro Taco Truck (the one near Fitch’s) — great home made tamales pollo con salsa verde since you asked — and listening to the Ramblers or Watson, Hicks Carver and Newberry if you prefer playing some good old time music and telling very corny jokes. I captured a couple of songs (Piney Mountain a new old time song done acapella with Joe Newberry at lead vocal — above; Uncloudy Day an old old time song with Jim Watson at lead — below ).

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Hugh McManaway statue with link this time on Twitpic
I was in Charlotte yesterday to attend a memorial service for the father of an old friend when I ran into a whimsical statue of another old acquaintance. Hugh McManaway used to direct traffic from the median of Queens Road at Providence Road across from his church, the place where he used to eat (once the Town House Restaurant) and the grand old house where he lived most of his life.

Hugh was special. I’m not sure exactly how this specialness would have been diagnosed, but he was innocent and childlike in many good ways.

I first met Hugh one night as I was walking down the street later at night than I probably should have been out. As I walked passed Myers Park Methodist Church, I was met by a large man wearing a hat, raincoat and carrying some pamplets. He introduced himself and handed me the pamphlet which turned out to be some sort of religious tract. I didn’t get to read it before Hugh started talking telling me that he had a key to the church, I think he meant a chapel there. I was sure, for a second or two at least, that I was meeting some sort of prev and that the chapel invite was something else. But that was only for a second or two, Hugh’s voice, his body language and his eyes peering through what I remember were thick lensed glasses told me otherwise. Hugh was just explaining something that was interesting to him and he thought to me.

I saw him other times eating at the Town House where they delivered his meal to him. No money was exchanged. Hugh wasn’t eating for free. His trust fund paid the Town House as it paid his other bills. Hugh was alone by this time and, I didn’t know it, in his decline.

A few years later he would be placed in a nursing home, his house restored and declared historic home (for its architecture — not for Hugh).

Someone, not sure who (statue is credited to Elsie Shaw), memorialized Hugh with a highly polished statue placed at his station in the median. Soon, he became subject to good natured decoration and signs congratulating newly weds (usually those married at Hugh’s church, Myers Park Methodist) and flowers.

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Did quite a bit of talking with Vadim Lavrusik for a fairly long article on “10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media” in Mashable which also features Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis, Sree Sreenivasan, and a couple of others. Very good company and some very good ideas for teaching.

More locally, The Daily Tar Heel has a nice story about how UNC Health Care has been using Twitter including their tweets during a surgery (Note: the DTH calls this “live surgery” as opposed to “dead surgery”? Isn’t that an autopsy?). I get a couple of expert lines which are slightly on topic. Basically I describe a “thick tweet” here: “Jones said the ingredients to an appealing update include mentioning someone else, featuring a link and adding a picture or video.” And I state the completely obvious:

Paul Jones, a journalism professor at UNC who has one of the most followed Twitter accounts in the Chapel Hill area, said gaining followers on the site requires posts that grab readers’ attention.

“Keep adding value, give people a reason to follow you,” he said. “The only people who will follow you are the people who want it.”

On another Twitter front, I did a little bit — not sure how much will be used — for WCHL about Twitter and Iran. In the parts selected I talk about how Twitter is difficult to block because it can be sent by cell, SMS, satphone, or a variety of internet protocols and interfaces (I did point out that the WTO protesters were hit with a total communications black out somewhat successfully) and later I talk about the social contract between social network service providers and their users and how users are free to leave and often do.

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The New York Times just did their 36 Hours on the “Research Triangle.” Like most locals, I had plenty of beefs with their selections, which I have to admit are all pretty good. They did end up at the Cat’s Cradle. They did drive through the Sunshine Biscuit drive-thru. They did like my favorite parts of the NC Art Museum. They did discover Fathers and Sons — and the Scrap Exchange. They also took some very nice photos. They did miss the best BBQ, the best taco trucks and a lot more by staying in Raleigh too long. They missed out on a lot in Durham and in Cary. But for a sort of 30-something kinda visit to the area, it wasn’t all that bad.

First, it occurred to me that my own past 35 hours in Carrboro was a more walkable and more fun time than they found spending too much time in the car. In fact, the wonderful “It’s Carrboro” song gives great shoutouts to many of the treats of Carrboro. Just visiting those would make for a nice 36 hours of visit. You’d want to add the biscuits from Neal’s, a coffee stop at the Open Eye, beer stop at Milltown, another stop at the Station, and a great dinner at Acme, Glass Half Full, Provence, Aki Hana, ice cream at Maple View, and a trip to Johnny’s for crepes, tacos, coffee, wine and atmosphere. And you could walk all of it — if you were timing things right during the 2nd Friday Art Walk so you could party at Wootini and hear klezmer music at Carrboro Creative Coworking.

How would you lay out your unique visit to Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, HIllsborough, Pittsboro and/or Raleigh?

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Yes a video intense course should have a vernacular video description. I’ll be building the whole syllabus in this same way. Here’s hoping my vernacular video skills pick up a bit as I get further into the course.

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When I teach about social capital theory — thanks to Nan Lin –, I always talk about the action of social capital is what makes it real. Thousands of friends mean little until they are successfully called into action for some cause. I prefer good causes.

This past weekend, I got to see and to be a part of a successful social capital call when Carrboro neighbor, Ioana Sherman won the Intuit Small Business Grant Competition and received $25,000 to help start her music business.

Here’s what happened:

I stopped over at our local 3rd Place, The Weave, for a tweetup with pals @boraz and @mistersugar to welcome (and meet) @cogscilibrarian who had just moved to our area to become the librarian for the J-school. Already several layers of social networks and social capital situated there.

On my way to look for a table, I noticed a woman talking to people and handing out small flyers. She was explaining why people should go online (yes there is free wifi in this 3rd place) and vote for her friend. I heard someone say, “You don’t need these flyers; you just need to talk to Paul Jones.”

Like Satan, I appeared at the mention of my name.

The tale told is an international one, one best told by Ioana Sherman herself here in her not quite 4 minute video entry to the contest. Briefly, Ioaona was born in Romania and became an accomplished musician. She also has a gift for teaching. She started a small business teaching kids traveling to their homes. She needed an investment to convert her house, at least part of it, into a studio/classroom. She had a great plan, a good background, a proven market, a good startup success record, but no funds. She learned, not sure how, about the Intuit Small Business Grant contest. She made her inspiring video and was getting great feedback online.

While the judging counted for a lot in the contest, community ratings account for 40% of the judging criteria!

Her neighbors were out drumming up votes.

@mistersugar, @boraz and perhaps @cogscilibrarian and I all tweeted:

Ioana Sherman is running for an Intuit grant to start a music studio. Http://tinyurl.com/ioanavideo Please vote for her project & retweet.

and

Ioana Sherman needs your vote in the Intuit Contest Look here http://tinyurl.com/ioanavideo View, vote (all 3 buttons)

Our tweets are automatically repeated as our FaceBook status, our FriendFeed, on our blogs and so forth. Soon there were a lot more people viewing the video and casting votes for Ioana. She had already attracted a strong and dedicated following through her own social network (as the comments on the video show), but we did add some votes.

Ioana’s final count was: Inspiring (1422) Useful (1389) Funny (1363). By far the largest response among rated contestants.

Today I got this tweet from @intuit:

Intuit @SmallJones @PaulTimmers Your votes helped Ioana Sherman win $25K in Intuit’s Small Business United grant comntest http://bitly.com/SBUWin

BTW @intuit uses Tweetdeck

Was great to be a part of Ioana’s story and to see social capital in action.

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I was at the Global Health Council meeting in Washington last week and was lucky enough to be on hand for the meeting of the OPEN Council and to get to dance a little that night when IntraHealth OPEN announced Indaba Global Remix Contest Winner - STUDIO MALI (see below) Afrissippi, Toubab Krewe, DJ Equal and Umar Bin Hassan were all there to play and lead some serious dancing for a very good cause — open source software for public health efforts in Senegal. Learn more about the project at http://www.intrahealth.org/open

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Thx @ruby: Paul Jones icon from Episcopal Peace Fellowship

From the Episcopal Peace Fellowship - Saint Bishop Paul Jones

From the Episcopal Peace Fellowship - Saint Bishop Paul Jones

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One giant step closer to a Data-driven Journalism for Democratic Discourse with the announcement of data.gov

Jones’ Model for Data-driven Journalism for Democratic Discourse

White House video on Data.gov

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Paul’s Honeysuckle Mint Julep

Prepare liquids for Bill Smith’s Honeysuckle Sorbet (also in Bill’s great book Seasoned in the South)
Fill ice trays with the liquids and freeze at least overnight
chill tall julep glasses
Pick fresh mint and clean
Crush the mint in the bottoms of the glasses.
Pour 1 shot of Bourbon in to each glass
Remove ice cubes and crush to a rough consistency
Add crushed ice ot the glasses
Garnish with mint
Drink by sipping very slowly while holding the bottom of the glass so as to slowly melt the ice into the bourbon.
A simple sterling sliver julep stirrer that has been in the family for several generations is the preferred sipping and stirring (used only sparingly for stirring) instrument.
Wear a semiformal hat

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Homage (for Richard Krawiec on a later birthday)

In age, we age out? An outrage!
We’re not aging or aged,
but do dote on us in our dotage.
Count age as contagious:
Our peer age is our peerage;
We are counts and countesses;
we count more as we count up.
Our old age adage isn’t from a page
in Ad Age; it’s age old: Overage,
not over age! Excess is best
when blessed by time. Oh!
clockturnage, Oh creakage,
Oh leakage near peak age,
need we act our age?
As age ramps up. let’s rampage
against the damage. Damn age!

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The trick here is slow cooking tagine-style so don’t be in a hurry. After the initial setup and blending, the whole mess will need to simmer for about 2 hours.

Mix the Mixed Spices in a bowl large enough to hold all the lamb, then dredge the lamb cubes in the spices.

Heat oil for browning the lamb and once hot brown the lamb scraping the spices and other good stuff as you go.

Remove the lamb and add the onion and garlic (and a little more oil if needed). Cook until the onion is transparent.

Add the roots and fruits stirring frequently until all are well mixed.

Add the lamb and any spices in the bowl to the mix.

Add the zest and cinnamon sticks.

Add the broth or water (enough to cover) and bring the whole thing to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer and let it slow cook for 2 hours. The roots and fruits will begin to make a glaze and a kind of delicious mush.

Serve alone or over couscous.

Garnish with fresh herbs.

Also known in our house as “Lamb with Roots and Fruits.”

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb in cubes

olive oil (as needed)

Mixed spices:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds

1 onion*
3 garlic cloves

Diced Roots:
2 medium golden beets*
6 small turnips*
1 medium sweet potato*
1 or 2 carrots
2 or more Tablespoons of fresh ginger

2/3 cups each of Diced Fruits:
dried apricots
dried prunes
dried papaya
dried cranberries

2 - 4 cups of broth or water

2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons of freshly grated lemon zest

Garnish:
fresh mint+
fresh fennel (bronze)+

*From local farmer’s market
+From my herb garden

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I’ve been tweeting now for well over two years and have had my Tweets sent to my Facebook status and my IM status and to my blog for some time. This makes it look as if I were very active everywhere on the Net. Really it’s just me and my phone out taking notes. No big deal. Unless you are one of this year’s new Facebook user (and you know who you are) who feel like they have to read every status of every friend (I’m flattered but it’s nothing vital or I would have written you directly or started a chat session).

Thing really revved up when I started live-tweeting events. “What is with this # thing, Jones?” Well, this # thing, called hash tagging, is a way to let tweet on the same subject be read and discovered by anyone interested in that subject or event. http://hashtags.org or http://search.twitter.com let you and others follow along or catch up or read about an event you had to miss or a subject that interest you.

My live tweets of Oliver Smithies’ talk with Tony Waldrop at the Health Sciences Library was hash tagged with #uncnobel (here I used a nice service called tweetag.com).

Twitter folks liked that but Facebook friends were confused by the # and by the frequency of my tweets.

On Thursday Night, I was a judge at the UNC YouTube Tournament. Of course I tweeted that live as #yttour as the list of the videos and the results weren’t being posted til the end of the night. My tweeple were mostly appreciative (or stopped following me ;->), but Facebook friends were again confused. Several did start comment threads on the statuses though.

Today at a panel on social media for the Triangle Association of Black Journalists, we had pretty savvy crowd in the audience and on the panel. Live tweeting on the panel were @waynesutton and @communityMRG — aka Wayne Sutton and James Wong respectively — and myself. Several audience members tweeted questions and comments. All of the tweets tagged #tabj were projected behind the panel on a very large screen using TweetGrid (written by Raleigh’s own @jazzychad). This really facilitated discussion and helped keep the audience and panelists involved. Still one friend had to post “dude… your twitter is boiling over :)” Err, we were all rocking there, pal. In fact, Wayne was live streaming the event on UStreamTV too so we had our full Tweet+Video operation going.

Those who were worried that Facebook feeds would replace Twitter can relax. Twittering behavior on Facebook is not well-groked.

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Clips from the opening reception/party for the April 2009 show of Jane Filer’s work at Tyndall Galleries in Chapel Hill. Strange visitors with large heads (created by Filer) dance with the guests.

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Dan Gillmor
Dan Gillmor on the State of Citizen Media
We the Media Report from the Center for Citizen Media

06 April 2009
15:30 - 16:30
Freedom Forum Conference Center
Carroll Hall - UNC
Facebook Event Here

Dan Gillmor is director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and Kauffman Professor of Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication. The project aims to help students appreciate the startup culture of risk-taking, and to foster new media products and services.

Dan is also director of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enhance and expand grassroots media and its reach. The center is an affiliate of ASI and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is author of “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People” (O’Reilly Media, 2004), a book that explains the rise of citizens’ media and why it matters.

From 1994 until early 2005 Dan was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. During 2005 he worked on media projects at Grassroots Media Inc.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Vermont, Gillmor received a Herbert Davenport fellowship in 1982 for economics and business reporting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. During the 1986-87 academic year he was a journalism fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied history, political theory and economics. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.

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Two quick bits of Jones-mania:

I’m acknowledged as a genius in Carrboro (if not in France - pace Weird Al) in a Carrboro Commons article featuring Jeremy the anti-Barney.

I take on Brit Twits in a row over Open Source and Repositories in ASIST Bulletin. Truth prevails

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Oliver Smithies
I’ll be tweeting a conversation between UNC’s Vice Chancellor for Research, Tony Waldrop and UNC’s Nobelist Oliver Smithies Monday at 4 pm EDT http://www.hsl.unc.edu/smithies/ for details and background

#uncnobel will be the tag

Send me ideas and questions!

UPDATE: I was the twitting twit in tweed. See the #uncnobel tweetstream here.

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I whipped this up tonight and added rice noodles (pad thai) at the end cooking them as in a stirfry. This recipe is for Elizabeth C who requested it and from several Thai sources online.

You need:

Olive oil for sauteing
1 red onion chopped
3 or 4 garlic cloves minced
at least a tablespoon of fresh ginger root minced. I use more
A selection of chopped veggies - I used peas, bok choi, and broccoli
1 can of low fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons of Taste of Thai or Tommy Tang red curry paste
1.5 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce
maybe half a cup water as and if needed
Lime juice and zest from half a lime
Pad Thai (rice noodles)
Basil leaves for garnishing
Green onions for garnish
Serve with the other lime half sliced as you choose.

Prepare the Pad Thai noodles for stirfry (most boxes or bags will have directions) usually by soaking in hot water
In a deep pot, heat the oil then stirfry the garlic and onion until the onion is transparent.
Then add ginger then veggies and stirfry until cooked yet crunchy.
Now add the coconut milk, red curry paste, fish sauce and some of the chopped basil leaves
Bring to a light boil and stir well then add the Pad Thai noodles
Cook for about 2 or 3 minutes stirring well.
Serve with green onion and basil garnish and lime sections.

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Took red beans and rice to Ohio tonight when I added Cincinnati chili sauce to the mix. It was a great taste and a big success with my family.

For the N’rleans portion, I took a large cut trinity (1 red onion, 1 large green pepper and 4 stalks of celery) along with garlic and sauted them in olive oil until the onion was transparent. Then I added the Cincinnati spices:
1.5 tablespoon of unsweet cocoa
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
(some recipes also add 1 teaspoon of ground cloves)

After they were mixed in well, I added 2 cans of drained and washed red beans, some tomato paste and about 1.5 cups of broth. All of this simmered while the rice cooked. The result was a wonderful spicy mole with still crunchy green pepper and celery. Yum. Thank you Skyline Chili and the sainted Lambrinides family for the inspiration.

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No Law!

Anyone who can write a sentence like this one:

No one who has ever savored a Corona Extra and a grilled cheese sandwich hastily cooked on a well-crusted one-burner hotplate and served at sundown from the not-all-that-sanitary hands of besandled sprites in tie-dye apparel, which wandering amidst the jumbled array of gaily painted one-time school buses and VW Micros (ideally the model with opera windows, like the one Arlo Guthrie drove to the dump in Alice’s Restaurant), in a pleasant haze of body odor, burning grease, and patchouli, is likely to forget the experience, or what it meant to one’s understanding of transcendence.

and manages to get it woven into a book from Stanford University Law School Press under the title of No Law: Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment deserves a party if not a respectable gathering of legal scholars and a free lunch. Personally I would, if able, give much more. Unable to give more, I give my proper respect and my attendance at the conference.

Tomorrow (Saturday March 21) will not only be the first day of Spring but the Conference to Honor the Publication of No Law: Intellectual Property in the Image of an Absolute First Amendment honoring not only the book but the authors — David Lange, who surely wrote the sentence quoted, and H. Jefferson Powell.

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