Dr. Weblove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 01:52 PM CDT

There are many driving forces that explain the "why" of Burnt Orange Report, and one of them is our love for technology. Matt was one of only twenty-five Social Media Award winners in Texas for a reason. KT is sought out -- from people in Austin, in Texas, and around the country -- for his technological expertise because he was one of the first to crash the gates after the first starting gun of the Netroots political movement was sounded many years ago.

I wasn't like that. I grew up as an English major at UT who loved to read and loved to write. I don't use Tivo. I only started using Twitter a couple months ago when it hit its mini-critical mass awareness. I'm still learning all the functions of Facebook, Google Reader, Delicious, et. all. I came to write for BOR at the urging of a friend because of my interest and passion for politics, not for my interest or passion in this new technological tidal wave -- a force so strong I often feel like I'm struggling just to keep my head above water.

It was only recently that I've stopped struggling and begun to learn how to truly surf the web.

Over the past year or so, I've learned to embrace the unfathomable largeness of the online world and treat it with a spirit of exploration and hope, instead of a lethargy of trepidation and fear. Though I don't think I'll ever quite match KT or Matt's impressive aptitude with the subject matter -- at times I think that they breathe binary -- I have found a way to turn my eagerness and curiousity into productive learning and practical application.

Yes, as has been the case with every adaptation throughout history, education has empowered better understanding of the internet and an ability to work within its existing power -- or, as I said before, to truly surf the web. Education continues to be the silver bullet -- a true instrument of progress that is immensely profitable to those who have the opportunity and the desire to harness its limitless power.

A lot of my education comes from working so closely with KT, Matt, and the entire BOR crew. A couple of the classes I've taken at school -- including Nicco Mele's course on digitial media, politics, and power -- have gone a long way towards enhancing my entry to the online world. But I've also found a number of terrific websites that have given me an opportunity to think and explore new ideas about technology in ways I'd never considered before.

Therefore, in the interest of paying it forward, today's links -- or "clearing the cache" as the excellent website techPresident puts it -- are focused on stories gathered from various sources on new innovations and technology. Please add your stories in the comments, too, and pay attention to our new "BOR Reader" on the top-right of our page as KT, Matt and I share technology stories -- as well as political stories -- with everyone.

Happy surfing -- and if you like the sites, you should sign up for the RSS feeds to follow them regularly:

• Legislation 2.0.2 (techPresident): An excellent story about how some legislators aren't just goofing off with new technology like Twitter, but actually using the internet to solict input on how they can do their jobs better (for example -- Senator Claire McCaskill asks how to better do government contracting oversight and is taking cues from the responses).
  
  
• Internet Explorer 8 & Google Chrome (Wired): Internet Explorer launches a revolutionary (and long-overdue) browser while Googl...well, just read this:
  

  While Microsoft was busy rolling out a new version of Internet Explorer Thursday Google has been busy pushing the boundaries of not just the web browser, but what the web itself is capable of doing. [snip]
  
  And Google Chrome is certainly not the only browser encouraging developers to experiment with both the browser and the web. Mozilla has an entire division of the company — Mozilla Labs — devoted to the very same sort of envelop pushing.

  Follow that link and scroll down the page to watch a video showing what Google Chrome can do.
  
  
• Sony & Google to launch e-Library that will dwarf Kindle (NY Times): Google is going to give Sony's Reader 500,000 of their online books whose copyright dates have expired.
  
  
• List of Web 2.0 Resources: This PDF has a great bibliography -- including a number of online white papers that it directly links to -- that serve as an archive to explain the theory of Web 2.0. A link you should bookmark and return to time and time again.
  
  
• Twitalyzer: This amazing website measures your performance on Twitter. Almost scary.
  
  
• What is Web 2.0? (Tim O'Reilly): Finally, I have to provide the link to the definitive article on Web 2.0 -- written three and a half years ago. If you only read one thing and really want to begin understanding the whole web/technology movement, read that piece.