Despite that, I will try to post weekly, but if topics come up that are of interest and immediacy, I will at least attempt a quick note.
Who am I and why should you bother to read my blog? I can answer the first, and give inducements to the second, but ultimately you will decide whether your time is well spent here. Hopefully there will be lively discussions and a minimum of A**holes.
Answering the first question:
I am Dave Tainer, Director of Information Systems at GMHC, a New York City-based Non-Profit dedicated to the national fight against AIDS. In my role, I support the great staff at GMHC by providing them with the tools and the technology to do the best possible job. I offer strategic technological vision for the organization in its fight. Most importantly, I offer technological solutions to the myriad projects in organizing, testing, administering, counselling and record-keeping that are necessary on a day-day basis.
I've been involved in technology, directly or indirectly, since the dawn of the personal PC era, working for the government (Dept. of Energy, FEMA, both at Argonne National Labs), for-profit businesses, and teaching in the computer science department as adjunct faculty at DePaul University. Because I've worked in many different areas of IT (networking, programming, project management, strategy, vision, management, operational), I have a well-rounded view of all that technology can do, as well as what it can't.
I am also very interested in politics and can therefore speak of how technology is affecting our political culture and our political process. What has really sparked me to start this blog is the latest tech-related political flaps, namely, the following:
- Karl Rove's and the RNC's "lost" emails (hardware/software technology)
- the "1984" Hillary/Obama ad (viral video)
- The Giuliani campaign Website SQL flaw (Web/Internet)
- Voting Machines (hardware/software)
Let's hope this is the beginning of long friendship (just hope it's not with myself only)!
Posts
8 comments:
Welcome, Dave!
I think the focus of your blog could not be any more timely. I would love to hear your thoughts on the custom data mashups that use public databases to map the relationships between money spent and votes cast in D.C.
Wired has a great piece on this: "Web Mashups Turn Citizens Into Washington's Newest Watchdogs"
Thank you, mary.
I will be writing about that topic next week. I first wanted to briefly cover the idea of "losing" emails.
DT
Welcome to the blogosphere, Tank. I hope you get around to commenting on the various conspiracy theories regarding electronic voting machines in the 2004 presidential election -- as well as the more recent Florida congressional election in 2006. I'd like to know how you'd recommend we maintain electronic voting machines while still securing an accurate tally that voters can have confidence in.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Tank. I hope you get around to commenting on the various conspiracy theories regarding electronic voting machines in the 2004 presidential election -- as well as the more recent Florida congressional election in 2006. I'd like to know how you'd recommend we maintain electronic voting machines while still securing an accurate tally that voters can have confidence in.
Mr. Tainer
I agree that the assumed immaterialty or transparency of electronic communication (are emails objects?, can electronic voting be biased?, and many more complex issues) is an important topic when applied to political communication. I admire the eforts to bring a locus to such discussions.
I will be very interested in learning more about technopolitics. Even though our friend Al may have invented the internet (and I mean this as a friendly chide), I think the 2008 election will be the first to feel the full impact of technology. While the web played a role in 2000 and 2004, I don't think it was up to today's levels in terms of usage.
I thought that one could never lose emails...at according to all those cop shows on tv...a virtual trail that never went away. My question is can an email forever dissapear?
John:
Do read the second blog posting where I go through all the steps required to completely delete an email. Yes, it can be done, but it requires willful and thorough manipulation.
DT
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