Author: N.Z. Bear

I’ve teamed up with Glenn to help motivate the blogosphere to seek out pork spending & urge their Senators & Representatives to cut it to help fund the Katrina Recovery effort. Check out the new page, and Glenn’s announcement post.

Given his history, you’d think they’d be paying him to reading the thing.
Could become a booming business if he’d broaden his scope, actually. Just think how much he could get paid to not read the NYT, WaPo, etc…

From Kitchen:

Earlier this morning the Andrew Rasiej campaign sent out an email asking people to post about the candidate for public advocate on their blogs tagged with “Rasiej”. Then they were asked to run some searches over at Technorati. The results are on the front page :
The concept behind this strategy is one of pure viral marketing for the sake of free publicity. The problem with this, of course, is that corporate marketing departments will be able to follow suit and game the system to get their products on that front page. I wonder how Technorati is going to handle this one in the future.
This is an interesting experiment, though. I hope my fellow bloggers will join in with the coming John Roberts SCOTUS hearings. Let’s see how we can work with this knowledge to virally spread our opposition to Roberts using these blog and search tools to the max.

To answer the question of how Technorati is going to handle this in the future: they aren’t, at least not with a code-fix, as there really isn’t a reliable technological method for distinguishing between “real” spikes in interest in a subject and manufactured ones. Trust me on this: I’ve tried.
They will be able to handle it, however, because they are lucky enough to be tracking trends in a community, which — disjointed and fractured as it may be — actually has some vague codes of decent behavior, and when members of that community do something stupid, others will tell them so.
So let me be the first: this is a stupid idea.
Technorati provides a useful service to the blogging community — take it from me, one of their competitors. Trying to game their rankings — just like gaming my Ecosystem — does nothing but damage and distort the valuable information they provide. It’s dumb, and worse than that, it’s rude.
So don’t do it. End of public service announcement…

Many folks in the blogosphere have opposed the idea of having a Congressional “Commission” appointed to investigate the preparation for and response to Katrina, citing (in my opinion, justified) fears that it will turn into a circus like the 9/11 Commission did.
So here’s a suggestion: why not attempt to create a blogosphere-driven commission? Bloggers are already doing much of the investigative work of a commission, but rather than do a post here and a post there on different aspects of the failures that lead to this disaster, why not try to organize a group to actually produce a structured report that could then stand side-by-side with whatever report the ‘official’ commission produces?
One way to do this might be to set up a Wiki that would allow bloggers to collaborate and contribute bits of information they have accumulated on the various sub-topics needing discussion (Federal response, state response, local response, etc.). The Wiki itself might prove robust enough to then be the final report, or alternatively, it could be edited into a more traditional document.
I’m not a huge Wiki-guy myself, and many aren’t, so that’s just one possible way to do it. The mechanism isn’t important: what’s important is finding a way to apply some organization and coherence to the power of the blogosphere and aim all that potential at this particular problem.
I will state up-front that I’m overloaded with other projects right now so I can’t really step up to drive this one myself (although I won’t rule out participating at some level). So who wants to volunteer?

The response of the onlne community to the needs of those affected by Hurricane Katrina has been tremendous. Already, projects are springing up across the web to provide aid in a myriad of ways.
And this makes sense: in the immediate term, one of the key challenges Katrina’s aftermath presents is one of information distribution: whether that is connecting refugees with their loved ones, or to match relief groups with those in need. And that is something that the distributed information processing power of the web is exceptionally well suited for.
I’m one of those people developing such projects: first with the for Relief effort and now by working with Hugh Hewitt on a new project to connect groups needing relief with those who can provide it. And yesterday, a thought occurred to me: with so much activity happening to develop so many different tools to help the relief effort, we should all not just be talking to one antoher, but actively trying to work together as efficiently as possible.
To facilitate this communication, I’ve created two mailing lists, as follows:
Katrina Relief Projects

This mailing list is meant to provide a communications mechanism for the vast number of web developers who are creating websites and databases to aid in the relief effort.
Goals of the list include:

Katrina Relief Volunteers

This mailing list is meant to provide a mechanism for connecting developers creating databases and websites to aid in the relief effort with volunteers who have the skills needed to assist in such projects.

I sincerely hope that if you are involved with a web relief project, or want to be, you’ll join me in the effort to ensure that we don’t just attack Katrina’s problems with enthusiasm and energy, but also do so in a way that applies the best efficiencies and synergies that the web can provide.
Any questions or suggestions, please e-mail me as always…
Update: Many folks responded to my request yesterday for people with time to do web research. Well, here’s one task I could use some help with: getting the word out about the mailing lists to all the different developers who are creating Katrina relief web projects.
If you’ve got some time on your hands and are willing to help, here’s what I’d ask you do:
– Search the web for Katrina relief projects
– When you find one, identify a contact responsible for the effort and e-mail them a link to this post with a brief explanation (feel free to cut and paste from the post)
– Post a comment here with the URL of the project and indicate who you contacted. DO NOT POST THE ACTUAL EMAIL ADDRESS, because this will expose that e-mail to spam-bots, and that’s rude.
If I can get a few people working on this today, we can cover the web in no time and get this effort moving. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Folks:
The response yesterday was tremendous, far exceeding even my most optimistic hopes. With this momentum established, there seems no reason to stop now. So, in a spur-of-the-moment decision made with Hugh Hewitt when I by his studio yesterday (audio here), we’ve decided to turn Blog Relief Day into Blog Relief Weekend. I will be keeping all the relief pages front-and-center here at TTLB at least through the Labor Day holiday next Monday.
In fact, I don’t want to just keep going as-is: I want to go even further. So here’s a few announcements and requests:
International Blogbursts: To date, bloggers from 20 countries have signed up for the effort. This is a great start, but I think we can do even better. I’d like to ask bloggers across the world to set up country-specific blogbursts to aid the relief effort. This is especially important because unlike in the U.S., I am sure that internationally, the plight of Katrina’s victims isn’t quite as front-and-center in the mainstream media, and so bloggers can truly help in raising awareness of the situation and the massive need for aid.
So, I’d ask for some non-U.S. bloggers to step up to the plate and volunteer to organize a blogburst in their country. If you’d like to volunteer, please e-mail me and put “International Blogburst” as the subject line of your message, and I’ll promote your efforts here at TTLB and beyond.
Corporate Sponsors: I’d like to ask companies everywhere to consider joining in the Blog for Relief effort by pledging to match donations made by bloggers during the drive. Whether you are a small business owner running your own Mom & Pop store, or a CEO/SVP at a multi-billion-dollar corporate giant, there’s a place for your organization in this effort, however small or large a pledge you can make. Corporate sponsors will, of course, receive prominent placement here at TTLB — and from the many bloggers that you will be aiding in the effort. If your company is interested, please e-mail me and put “Corporate Sponsor” as the subject line of your message. And if you think your company might be interested but aren’t at a level to make such a decision yourself: please, pass it up the chain and try to get your corporate leadership on board!
Next Steps for Meeting Relief Needs: Hugh Hewitt has made an outstanding proposal in his latest Weekly Standard column, and I’ve signed on board to help launch the effort. The idea is simple: to create a web portal where organizations in the area affected by Katrina can broadcast to the world their needs, and the world — and in particular, similar organizations elsewhere — can step up to meet those needs.
I’m already at work designing the basic framework of such a system, but the one thing that is certain is that we will need help. For sure, we will need the following:
– Web hosting: We expect that initially the directory will be hosted here at TTLB, but will ultimately migrate to be a separate stand-alone effort. If there is a hosting company that would be willing to donate a dedicated server or two for the effort, that would make life much simpler. Update: The fine folks at Hosting Matters, who currently host TTLB, have agreed to donate a server to the effort!
– Web Developers: I’ll be hacking the initial code myself in my usual style, but I may need help. If you know LAMP development and would be willing to assist, please speak up.
– Web researchers & site editors: To launch this effort, we will be looking for people to help out in scouring the web for charities, identifying their needs, and also simply monitoring the portal and ensuring things are running smoothly. If you are interested and have the time to commit, let me know.
If you can help in any of the above ways, please e-mail me and put “Meeting Relief Needs” as the subject line of your message.
That’s it for now, folks. The thing to remember is that this is just the very beginning of the ordeal for the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been derailed by the storm. And therefore, it must also be only the very beginning of our efforts to assist them…

The day is here, and I would ask bloggers everyone to join in today and encourage your readers to give, give, and give some more to the Katrina relief charity of your choice.
If you are a blogger and want to participate, here’s what you should do:
1) Select a charity you’d like to support from this list or add your own.
2) Register your blog here
3) Post at least once on your blog about the charity of your choice. Make sure to include a link to Instapundit’s roundup page and the TTLB Katrina Relief page, and e-mail Instapundit the URL of your post.
4) Encourage your readers to donate to your recommended charity, and send them to the contribution logging page at TTLB to record their donations.
And yes, I am trying to encourage some friendly competition here. Tomorrow morning I will be publishing “leader boards” which show which charities are receiving the most donations, and which bloggers have been most successful in encouraging their readers to donate. So get your readership fired up!
Everything above is just my suggestion: the important thing is just to devote your energies today to doing something that will help those who have been affected by the storm. Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming interest and support: now let’s see if we can do some good…

As I’ve created a page for bloggers to sign up to participate in the Katrina blog relief day proposed by Hugh and seconded by Glenn. TTLB’s Katrina Relief page can now be found here.
If you are planning on supporting the effort this Thursday, here’s what I would ask you to do:
– Select a charity you’d like to recommend your readers donate to, and check if it is already listed in the TTLB database here.
– If your charity isn’t yet listed, add it by using the form here
– Register your blog using the form here
It has been a real rush job for me to hack together the code to support this stuff, so please bear with me if things aren’t quite as perfect and elegant as we all might wish.
On that note: there are a load of charities which have already indicated they will be supporting the Katrina relief effort. If someone (or someones) would start combing the blogosphere for good charities and adding them to the database, that would be wonderful. I’m focusing my time/energy on ensuring the infrastructure works, so if others could take on the data-entry work, that would be most helpful.
And for the record: I’m not in charge of this project. Nobody is. I’m stepping in to provide a way for bloggers to indicate their support for the effort because, well, I can. This is what I can do, and I encourage everyone to think about what they can do to support the goal we all share: to raise as much money and support for relief efforts to aid those effected by Katrina as we possibly can.
I’m a little fried, so I have not yet created any automated way to share the weblog and charity data with other sites that may want to create aggregators or otherwise use the information I’m collecting. I’ll try to get that done in the morning, but for now, if you want to leverage this info, please e-mail me and we’ll figure it out.
Thanks, all. Now let’s do some good…

Hugh Hewitt suggests the bloggers could agree to set a day for a unified blog beg” and Glenn suggests this Thursday, September 1.
I’m in. Here’s what I’ll do here at TTLB:
1) Set up a registration page where bloggers planning to join in can say so, including providing information (if they like) about where they are blogging from and the charity they suggest donations to.
2) Make the database as publicly accessible and available as I can, so that anybody else who wants to create an aggregation page or otherwise use the list can do so.
3) On the day of the event, I’ll create a dedicated community page for it, and run that as TTLB’s front page.
Other suggestions are welcome, and I’ll try to think of how else I can help during the day today. I should have the registration page up and running tonight…
Update: The registration page is now available…

Fox News, reporting on the problems resulting from last-minute use of the Lousiana SuperDome as an emergency shelter — September 2004:

“While this building certainly can accommodate a large crowd for a four-hour event, we’re not equipped to handle 30,000 or 40,000 people for three or four days,” said Superdome general manager Doug Thornton.
In 1998, people showed up with insufficient or no food, and complained when the Dome served them hot dogs and orange juice. When kept from leaving after the storm because of a curfew, shouting matches erupted with security and police. Some occupants hauled off televisions and furniture.
“I’d say 99 percent of the people were fine,” Thornton said. “But we didn’t have enough security people to handle the crowd and prevent problems.”
The Superdome can withstand most catastrophes; the roof is built to stand up to 200 mph wind and even deep flood water wouldn’t reach the second level 35 feet from the ground.
There are potential problems nonetheless. Although the building has its own generators, they would not provide lights or air conditioning for the entire area if electricity went out. Nor would pumps providing water to second-level bathrooms function.
Just as during Georges, the Dome has only a small work crew for Ivan, which means providing security and services gets even harder, Thornton said.
“The office of Emergency Preparedness and the city decided that the Dome would not be operated as a shelter,” he said. “That means we are not equipped as one.”
The city previously provided shelters for those unable to leave when storms threaten. Now, the Red Cross will not set up shelters for a storm larger than a Category 2, saying New Orleans — much of which is below sea level — is not safe in bigger storms. Because of that, the city concentrates on evacuation first.
From a planning standpoint, Nagin said he did not regret keeping the Superdome from use until the last minute. “As far as an empathy standpoint,” he conceded, “we could have moved a little quicker.”

I’d certainly like to know whether any of the lessons learned from last year (and the years before) were applied and if the SuperDome is better prepared this time around. In particular: how much fuel does the emergency generator have, and how long can it run?
And yes, that’s the same mayor Nagin who waited until the very last minute to declare an evacuation this time around.

Louisiana State Law, negligent homicide: