Austin

Tonight, I sat down with Ruth Epstein of the local ACLU to record an interview on threats to public access television. The topic of the session was "Endangered Access TV." The program will air later this month on (appropriately enough) public access television.

She previously interviewed PACT Austin Executive Director Linda Litowsky and outreach coordinator Stefan Wray, and I'll be very interested to hear what they had to say. I'll post when I found out when it will air.

She was looking for direction on what the state ACLU could do on this issue, and I fear that she wasn't satisfied with my answer of "wait and see." There certainly are issues with the state telecom reform legislation (SB 5) passed last year, but that could be preempted by federal legislation. I think we need to wait until the end of the session in Washington and then decide where to go.

On page 15 of this week's Austin Chronicle, there is a photo of an anti-psychiatry rally. It's unfortunate they didn't assign a journalist to do some...you know...journalism. If so, they may have noticed an awful lot of connections between the protest group and the cult of Scientology.

I question the newsworthiness of the photo, but that's their call. They do, however, owe their readers the context and background. For instance, here is an article from an official cult publication that notes a Scientology "humanitarian award" that was conferred to protest spokesperson John Breeding.

The Austin Community Media Forum happened recently. It was a great success. About 46 people showed up to discuss the future of public access television. The Austin Chronicle wrote about the event. There is a report of the event posted to the PACT Blog.

The morning sessions were panels with invited speakers on topics ranging from the history of access television in Austin, to current legislative and regulatory issues. The afternoon was filled with breakout sessions selected and operated by the attendees. There was a good mix of topics: ranging from accessibility to flagship programming to expanding access.

I was most excited to see the broad interest in expanding access television into new media and new communities. I was most concerned to see the lack of youth involvement. Web sites such as YouTube and MySpace show that folks under 30 do want to produce video. So, how to we get them to do community-focused work on access? That question may be critical to the future of access television.

This weekend, help build the future of community media in Austin. On Saturday (June 24) there will be a free day-long workshop. The Austin Community Media Forum seeks to include local experts and stakeholders who will identify challenges and opportunities for local media. The primary focus is public access television, but surely will touch on issues relating to emerging technologies.

Attendance is free, but you must register in advance.

I'm on the steering committee for this event. We've adopted a format that could be really interesting. The morning is plotted out with conventional panels including noted experts. The afternoon session, however, is completely open, and will be determined by the interests of those attending. I'll be leading the session where we plot out our plan for the afternoon. So come prepared not only to listen and learn, but also to engage and participate.

"[H] Consumer" has an interesting article on the computer buying experience at various national electronics stores. It's especially interesting in that the visits happened here in Austin.

The article on the following pages represents a snapshot of our buying experiences at each location. We simply visited each retail store and documented the experience we were presented with. [...] We’re simply offering up our real shopping scenarios along with our thoughts on how anyone searching for a computer to fit their needs should navigate the somewhat treacherous waters of a local retailer.

They seemed to get the best service at the store where the tech staff was filling in for the normal sales folks. Hmmm...didn't I see that in a movie recently?

Read the full article.

I serve on the City of Austin Telecommunications Commission. We are trying to change our name to "Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission" and reorient our charter away from regulated services (which are becoming less a local issue) to broader information and communications technology issues.

Here is a statement I gave yesterday on the matter, to the City Council Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies and Telecommunications.

I moved to Austin sixteen years ago because of Jesse "Guitar" Taylor. Jesse passed away this week.

When people ask how I came to Austin, I usually explain how back then most engineering computing was done on expensive special purpose workstations. I, instead, was doing my work on low-cost PCs running Unix. I forsaw those applications moving from the engineering workstation to commodity PCs, and I had valuable expertise in that area. I saw an opportunity to start a consulting business, and Austin's strong technology sector made it seem like a good place to hang my shingle.

(Turns out I was half right about my technology forcast. Those applications did move to PCs, but they ran Windows, not Unix. PC-based Unix ended up a niche for vertical multi-user applications.)

That story is totally true, but it isn't the full picture.

Back around 1988, I was living in Dallas. I joined some friends for a weekend trip to Austin—my first time there. We visited Sixth Street our first night in town. My friend, a living room guitar player, took us out to hear some music.

My memory of that night was of hearing some of the most smoldering guitar playing I'd ever heard in my life. I learned later that the guitarist's name was Jesse Taylor.

It was such an amazing, electric night. Yet, the people around me treated it as just another night in town. I knew then that Austin was the place I needed to be. So when the opportunity arose, I packed my bags and headed here.

Much of what I loved so much about Austin back then is gone. I do miss Liberty Lunch.

But there is still a lot to like about this town. I'm glad I'm still here. And I've got Jesse Taylor to thank for that.

My favorite coffee shop in Austin is undergoing a change, and change makes me nervous. Trianon the Coffee Place has three locations around town. The Bee Caves Road location is where they do their roasting. The Far West Blvd. location is a short drive from my house. Then there is the Braker Lane location, conveniently located near Austin's hitech ghetto.

They sell both beans and drinks. I buy my coffee beans there. Years ago I used to special order beans from a roaster in San Francisco's North Beach. Thanks to places like Trianon and Anderson's Coffee Company, you can get good beans locally.

If you are a Texan, you probably can't forget the dueling ad campaigns between the phone companies and cable companies during the last legislative session. In the end, a telecom reform bill was passed (during the special session that was supposed to be for school finance) that pretty much gave the phone companies what they wanted.

Whups! It irritates me when people portray the issue as cable versus phone companies, and I just did it myself. Although they were the ones throwing money into TV commercials, there was a surprinsing range of grass roots and industry groups interested in this legislation—all opposed. Nobody supported it but the phone companies and the "think tanks" they fund. But it passed. Grass roots groups are unhappy. Municipalities are suing. It was a very bad, widely reviled bill.

The two biggest broadband Internet providers in Austin have had major, stupidity-induced service outages this week.

First, SBC changed their DNS servers (for user client queries) without telling anybody. They probably figured they didn't need to, because their clients would pick up the change automatically when the next DHCP update occurs.