EchoDitto - Barack Obama

Last Night a Dorkbot Saved My Life - posted by Anne Keenan

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:43:37 -0800

A few weeks ago, I read an EchoDitto Labs blog post about Dorkbot DC, which prompted me to search for a NYC equivalent. Bingo! Dorkbot NYC meets the first Wednesday of every month only a few blocks from our office. Perfect, for someone like me who is essentially lazy.

What is Dorkbot?
dorkbot-nyc is a monthly meeting of artists (sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students, scientists, and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creative use of electricity. dorkbot meetings are free and open to the public. Since we started dorkbot-nyc in 2000 many other dorkbots have sprung up around the world. See them all at: http://dorkbot.org
Well, I mean, of course it started in NYC.

I got to the gallery a little before 7 and found a seat toward the front. Being shy and a little nervous that someone was going to ask me to solder or explain how the internet works, I then had 15 minutes to busy myself with my iPhone, and furtively check out the room. Things looked promising: all projectors and mics seemed to be working; everyone seemed pretty friendly; and someone had brought my favorite snack, kettle corn, to share. Ready.

The first presentation was two guys explaining their new open-source program to push user interfaces to mobile devices (called Mrmr). The premise is that you can build interfaces to control computer programs and then send them to someone’s mobile device. Then that person can control the program from their phone. Their example was a computer visualization program where you could adjust the angle, static, distortion, etc.

The best part was that they actually explained it in human language. When open for questions, the discussion became a little more robot-based, but I pretty much followed. If you are a robot, and would like more robot details, check out their site.

The details of how this will actually be helpful in real life are a little vague, but they did suggest we could use it in museums to send interactive content to people or add it to interactive billboards to let passersby interact with them. Pretty fricking cool…

When the next presenter, Andrew Senior, started talking, my heart skipped a beat. His three projects were explorations of artificial life—life forms that live on television radiation, words that come alive and crawl toward each other, robots that help plants achieve optimal energy storage. Amazing. I recommend watching this video immediately. And then swooning.

All in all, I left the meeting filled with nerdy hope for the world. There are people out there working on amazing projects, not for money, not for fame, just for the joy and intellectual challenge of it. I love these people. And plan to spend the first Wednesday night of every month with them. Wanna join me?

P.S. One other thing filling me with nerdy hope for the world: the Obama Yes We Can video. It’s #1 on CNN and on Google Video for a reason. These geniuses (or… celebrities) have turned a political speech into a relatively catchy video. The kind that makes you want to listen again and again so you can sing along to it. Just when you think there’s nothing new in the world, smart people come along.

The hits keep on coming - posted by Mike Carvalho

Tue, 02 May 2006 16:41:51 -0700

If you're interested in picking up some selections from a Grammy-winning recording artist after last night's awards ceremony, you're in luck. Not only is there a substantial library of these recordings available online, but there's new material being released just about every week. Best of all, you can get them all completely free of charge — and no, that doesn't mean you have to fire up some Napster clone or troll MySpace.com profiles looking for free MP3 files.

The recording artist I'm talking about is Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), winner of this year's Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. Obama won recognition for his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," beating out nominees Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, Sean Penn and George Carlin.

Thanks to his commitment to producing regular podcasts, anyone can tune in to hear Sen. Obama's thoughts on the issues of the day by visiting http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/ or subscribing to the podcasts using iTunes. Of course, the Grammy-winning recording is definitely worth picking up, but thanks to these podcasts you can always hear the latest and greatest direct from Capitol Hill. I'd like to see Kelly Clarkson or Bono top that.

Congratulations to Sen. Obama on the Grammy, and to his forward-thinking internet and communications teams who keep the podcasts coming.

Job Opening: CTO - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:22:12 -0700

Jim Brayton has been EchoDitto's Chief Technical Officer and the guiding force behind our technology strategy since our humble beginnings last March. This week, Jim's leaving EchoDitto to work as Internet Director for Barack Obama's senate office. It's a dream job-- we wish him the best of luck and are looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

In the meantime, though, we have a job opening. EchoDitto is officially seeking a CTO. If you live near DC (or would consider relocating), have strong technology management experience, and would enjoy using your expertise to fight for child hunger, workers' rights, and other exciting projects, we want to hear from you. Write futures-at-echoditto-dot-com.

Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, and with minimal supervision, the CTO is responsible for all facets of EchoDitto’s technology operations, both internally and on external, client projects. S/he also leads the EchoDitto technical staff and ensures timely and on-budget completion of client deliverables. S/he leads EchoDitto and its client organizations on technology decisions, including: software platforms; third-party vendors; web-based technology and tools; and strategic direction.

The full job description is here (PDF).

The newest "Online Office" - posted by Carey-Leah Havrilko

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:14:29 -0800

EchoDitto launched Senator Barack Obama's official website today. We're proud to have been working with the Senator and his staff since the middle of their campaign last spring. This new site is hopefully only the beginning of his official presence online, but everyone was anxious to get something up, as he's been a US Senator for two whole weeks now. As proud progressives/democrats/blue staters/what have yous, we wish him luck and will be following his (hopefully many) accomplishments in the Senate with great interest.