Here and There

News and notes from Kansas to Georgia:

• Overland Park, Kansas was my home for two days last week. I was there for the SSTI conference (hotel and conference center pictured), and learned a good deal about technology based economic development (TBED, for short) that can be applied to Athens-Clarke and Oconee. Hope to share some of those learnings, as well as my impressions of Overland Park and any other "lessons learned" that might apply to our region later this week.
• A new Oconee county cycling advocacy group is kicking off its activities with a meeting at 8:30 on Wednesday night at Jittery Joe's in Watkinsville. If you are passionate about cycling and live in Oconee, please try to join us. Details on the Facebook page.
  
• Lee Becker has a good analysis of the pickle Oconee County finds itself in on Hard Labor Creek reservoir on his blog. I have said all along that financing reservoirs based on future revenues is a folly with growth slowing and pressure to reduce water. We must find a new way to finance reservoirs, and it looks like necessity is finally forcing our government to do so.
• Tom Friedman has a great column that everyone who is passionate about education needs to read. His contention: that the U.S. needs to educate for innovation and creativity, as those are the skills tomorrow's workforce needs. An education and just "doing the job" won't be enough.
  

This and That

A lot going on, and not a lot of time to blog. Some quick hits:

• Georgia's move to restrict stem cell research and in vitro fertilization is bad news for parents struggling to have children and for scientific research.
  
• Surprise, Surprise. North Carolina, which has its act together on rail and transportation, stands to get $8 billion (yes, with a "B") for inter-city, high speed rail. That would be enough to fund the brain train as well as commuter rail to Lovejoy and Cobb County, the last time I checked. Georgia legislative leaders please take note about the power of actually having transportation plans in place and a dedicated funding source.
  
• UGA professor Larry Nackerud stirred up a hornets' nest with his comments on ICE raids in the Athens paper yesterday. It boggles my mind that in this economy (with unemployment approaching 10%) that there are still people out there who want us to go out of our way to accomodate those who enter our country illegally rather than using the valid, legal processes.
  
• In "Confessions of a Tax Man," blogger Grift Drift has a great post on why a move to "change the rules" for legislators with tax troubles doesn't make a lot of sense. That said, I do believe there certainly should be no special exceptions for elected officials.
• Georgia desperately needs a solution for trauma care, and super speeder fines are one of the easier solutions. No brainer. The only real question is why there isn't a trauma care center closer to Athens than Grady Hospital in Atlanta. We probably can't afford one.
  
• Jim Thompson and the guys nail it here. It is about time our legislators toned down the rhetoric and started really working to address our budget challenges. It only took 25+ days of work to get there.
• David Brooks, my other favorite columnist, is at it again, offering up way too much practicality for most Republicans to handle. Guys, despite what Rush says, being "Dr. No" is not going to win us the next election. Nor will waiting on the President to fail.
  
• In case you missed it yesterday, some Georgia legislators want to move the state back to the gold standard. If tax dollars were used to draft this bill the legislators should be reported to Casey Cagle.
• Any predictions on how the largely conservative Bulldog nation would react to having the brother in law of the president as our next hoops coach?
  

Twitter

I have recently been experimenting with Twitter. At first, I thought it was just a huge time suck, but am finding it increasingly useful for work and politics.

Below is a "Twitter Mosaic" that shows my Twitter followers. If you're interested in social media or keeping up with what is going on at a very grassroots, instant level in your community, or about a cause or product you are interested in, Twitter might be for you. I suggest using the Tweetdeck application to keep things organized. For those who want to focus on local commentary, there is a TwitterLocal app, and for those interested in sports, there is Twackle. Unfortunately, none of these apps are integrated.

I can see a lot of uses for Twitter and politics. Twitter searches can certainly help one keep up with issues at a grassroots level, and address controversial issues before they explode. Most politicians on Twitter offer little more than perfunctory updates (so far), which makes me think their staffers are likely handling it for them. However, those who comment on the political process are some of the most active users of Twitter.

Unlike Facebook and Myspace, it seems that locally Twitter has limited penetration beyond students, media types, and technophiles. So the jury is still out on whether it is ultimately useful and lasting, or just this year's version of the beta tape or the Newton.

And of course, there is the ultimate question: do people really care what their 374 followers are up doing or how they feel about an issue, and vice versa? So far, it seems that they do.

Get your twitter mosaic here.