CDFi is no more

Be well, Albany.

CDFi is silence.

After the 15th of December, all communication to CDFi will go unanswered.

We will lose our domain, http://www.federationofideas.net, but all other online presences will exist until the respective services deactivate them for idleness.

Prop 8, Join the Impact, Marriage in NYS

Post Election Town Hall Meeting- Learn How We Can Achieve Marriage in NYS!!

Raise your voice for change in our state! Come find out what the national election and ballot measures mean for achieving marriage equality for same-sex couples here in NYS!
While the national stage is in flux, we are in a unique position to secure rights for all families here in NYS…come find out what YOU can do!!

Friday, November 14th
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Center
332 Hudson Ave
Albany, NY

Updates include: Impact of the election and Ballot Measures, Status of New York State Legislature, Building Community Support for Marriage Equality in New York, and what our next steps are locally.
Questions? Call the CDGLCC at 518.462.6138 or email Q Diamond at qdiamond (at) cdglcc (dot) org, or Peter at Marriage Equality NY at peter (at) marriageequalityny (dot) org

Join the ImPact Protest Rally

Saturday, November 15, 2008
1:30pm – 4:30pm
City Hall
24 Eagle Street
Albany, NY

Wonderful Writing

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/title/

(Thanks to author May-Lee Chai for the heads up)

Here are the initial paragraphs:

Tears to Remember

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: “Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.”

“Save this paper,” she told us. “This is the start of a whole new era.”

And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency.

In short, it was the start of our current era. The Reagan Revolution was the formative political experience of my generation’s lifetime, like the Great Depression, the Second World War or Vietnam for those before us. And in its intellectual and moral paucity, in its eventual hegemony, these years shut down, for some of us, the ability to fully imagine another way…

Event: “Capital District Local First” Bash

For more information and other events, visit http://capitaldistrictlocalfirst.org/

The public is invited to sample local foods, enjoy local music and shop for the holidays at the Buy Local Bash from 5 to 9 PM on Saturday, November 15th. The event will take place at the Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 6th Avenue, Troy. Special guest speaker will be Laury Hammel, noted entrepreneur and author, who will discuss the linkage between building a strong local economy and the area’s ability to do business in a down economy. Hammel’s talk will take place at 6 PM.

Participating local, independent businesses include the Honest Weight Food Co-op, Brown’s Brewing Company, The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Roots and Wisdom, Defazio’s Imports, Le Marche Vert, Tosca, The Spinning Seed, The Flower Girl, Alabu Soaps, The Placid Baker, Java Jazz Cafe, Tough traveler, Digital Artist’s Space, and more than a dozen other businesses from around the Capital District. In addition to samples of local products, attendees are eligible to win gift certificates, gift baskets, movie tickets, locally brewed beer, and other door prizes.

According to Karisa Centanni, Honest Weight’s Education Coordinator, “Laury Hammel’s talk will focus on the many advantages that accrue to communities when business is conducted between neighbors. When money stays in a local economy, it is a strong bulwark against the ravages of a global economy gone badly. Given the current recession, Hammel’s talk will provide important insights about how each of us by our personal buying decisions can help assure that our little corner of the world stays as healthy as possible.”

Businesses that are interested in participating as a vendor at the Buy Local Bash can download information at http://www.capitaldistrictlocalfirst.org or can call Karisa Centanni at the Honest Weight Food Co-op at 518.482.3312 ext. 113.

Laury Hammel

The evening’s highlight will be a talk by Laury Hammel, author of “Growing Local Value – How to Build Business Partnerships that Strengthen Your Community.” Hammel founded and grew The Longfellow Clubs, currently the 54th largest health club business in the US, with $16 million in revenues. He is a recognized industry leader in innovative business practices, social responsibility and community service. Among his other accomplishments, Hammel is a founder of New England Businesses for Social Responsibility (NEBSR); Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a national organization; the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston (SBN); and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Hammel has also been very active in the areas of energy conservation and environmentalism, with a particular interest in the sustainability of businesses.

Enjoy Local Music While you Shop

Local musicians at the Buy Local Bash will include Ashley Pond, Ben Karis-Nix and Amanda Rogers. Pond, who released her debut album, Dala, in 2007, is a gifted singer/songwriter/guitarist who has taken the capital region of New York by storm. Metroland Magazine named Ashley Pond “Best New Solo Artist” in their Best of 2007 issue and followed up with a cover story. In addition, The Times Union, interviewed Pond and gave her a spot in their top 10 local records of 2007.  Ben Karis-Nix recently released his new solo EP, We Are Giants Now. Ben’s recordings, performances, and songwriting have earned him features on the CW show “One Tree Hill,” MTV’s “Road Rules” and “Real World, “NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and MySpace Compilation Vol. 1.  Similarly talented, Amanda Rogers has opened for some of the most acclaimed rock, emo, and jam bands in the industry. She recently released an EP containing new songs and covers of songs by Radiohead and At The Drive-In, played numerous shows in the States and two more tours in Europe. In 2008, she headlined another European tour

North East LGBT Conference

Help organize a major event:

http://www.nelgbtc.com/
Facebook Group: NELGBTC

Today (Thursday Nov 6th @ 5:00 pm in the Campus Center Student Association office CC 116) will be the first planning committee for the 2009 North East LGBT Conference.

We will be having a conference call for students across the North East.
All interested persons are invited to join in on the call to help plan this event!

Cool Event: Bike Polo

http://www.bikealbany.com/2008/10/collar-city-brings-you-bike-polo-in-albany:

Sunday November 2nd, at Basketball Courts in Washington Park. Game starts at noon, everyone is welcomed to come play, watch, take pictures, heckle, look pretty, whatever. All you have to bring is a bike, mallets are provided, and if you’re lucky there might be some hot cider as well.

Afterward everyone will be heading out to a picnic on the Mohawk-Hudson bike-hike trail.

Collar City Polo plays pick-up games every Sunday at 1pm in downtown Troy, rain, snow, or shine. All are welcome to attend. Visit CCP at http://groups.google.com/group/troybikepolo

I will definitely try to make it, hope to see familliar faces, as well as familiarize myself with the non-famillar ones!

Democratic Work!–or is it socialism?

Many wonderful organizations work in the Capital District, ie. Sanctuary for Independent Media, Grand Street Arts, Capital District Gay and Lesbian Center, Troy/Albany Bike Rescue etc., etc. However, every group maintains their own set of mailing lists and calendars.  Those contact informations are at the foundation of a group’s growth, but keeping it all to oneself means the duplication of effort.

I am not, now, proposing the open sharing of each group’s member/participants list.  We would need to obtain permission of everyone already on the lists since no one signed up expecting the wide propagation of their contact information.

The open sharing of events, of program updates, and of general reflective writings should be fairly worthwhile and easy to accomplish.  As always, we simply need the will.  Some groups already accept open submissions, ie CDGLCC and the Honest Weight Coop, but the ease and wide propagation of these publications could be pushed further.

So to readers of this blog, please contact the management of whatever organization with which you patronage.

Let the information (knowledge) flow.

Send yourself or your children to Summer Camp–paid for by Google

Here’s the text:
Passionate about freeing the white space airwaves? Excited about about privacy and data protection? Interested in the debates surrounding net neutrality? If you’re a undergraduate, graduate, or law student interested in in the world of tech policy, have we got a program for you.

After a successful first summer, we are excited to announce the launch of the 2009 Google Policy Fellowship program. The Google Policy Fellowship program is our effort to replicate the success of our Summer of Code program in the public policy sphere and to support students and organizations doing work that is important to the future of Internet users everywhere. Our first class of fellows worked for ten weeks last summer at public interest organizations involved in debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright reform, consumer privacy, and open government.

Those selected as fellows for the 2009 summer will receive a stipend to spend ten weeks contributing to the public debate on technology policy issues — ranging from broadband policy to copyright reform to open government. Our participating organizations include: American Library Association, Cato Institute, Center for Democracy and Technology, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Internet Education Foundation, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, Public Knowledge. We are happy to welcome six additional organizations to participate in the 2009 summer: Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, The Citizen Lab, Creative Commons, Future of Music Coalition, Progress and Freedom Foundation, and Technology Policy Institute.

Check out more details and the application, which is due by Friday, December 12, 2008. And please help us spread the word!

Who wants to play PacMan?

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/WhereCamp_PDX_Takes_on_PacManhattan

Tenants’ Rights Seminar this Tuesday (10/21)

Please forward to friends or clients who might be interested:

There will be a Tenants’ Rights Seminar hosted by the Women’s Bar Association at the Main Library, 161 Washington Ave. The facilitating attorney’s name is Ed Salvo. Topics include

Settling disputes
Eviction
Housing Discrimination

Free and open to the public
Tuesday, October 21st @ 6:00 PM
Main Library, 161 Washington Avenue, 2nd Floor Conference Room