Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

As someone who covers current internet technology trends, especially those that have to do with social media, it was exciting to discover that right here in Tampa there is an innovative social media project underway right now: Kidz Connect. This three-week program through ZoomLab is a summer camp whose goal is to promote cultural exchange through theatrical performance.

At the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Patel Conservatory, Bay Area teens in Tampa are hooking up with teens in Amsterdam (at IVKO Montessori School) via video streaming in the virtual world Teen Second Life where they are learning about each others lives, culture, and more. Together, through online collaboration, the 30 teens involved in this workshop will create a live theater and online performance based on the theme, “What is Real?” which will be performed on Saturday, June 28th (tomorrow!).

As they work together, the teens will also be learning how to craft digital art within Teen Second Life as part of the project’s goal to provide the students with an introduction to video and sound production. The students will also be participating in live theater, music, and dance presentations performed on stage at TBPAC as well as streamed to the internet and in Second Life.

To see just how the project has gone thus far, I recommend you read the camp’s blog at http://kidzconnect.org .  But to see the end result, watch the performance live on the net Saturday:

Saturday, 28 June at 2 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. Amsterdam (GMT+2)

Saturday’s show will be presented live in Tampa, Florida, at the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. See the Patel Conservatory site for tickets to attend the Saturday show in person.

To watch the video stream:

During those times, the video stream will be broadcasting live. It will also be archived for viewing at a later date.  You must have QuickTime Player installed in order to view the webcast. Click here to watch the live video stream

To watch in Teen Second Life:

If you are a teen, you can also watch it in Teen Second Life. Go to http://teen.secondlife.com/ and click “Free Basic Account” to create your username. Then download the Second Life application, install it and log in with the username you just created. To go to the show, search for the “Kidz Connect event” group and join it, then you can click on this SLURL (Second Life URL) which will give you the option to teleport directly to Kidz Connect Island.  Click here to watch in Teen Second Life

This article was written by Sarah Perez, who writes for Microsoft’s Channel 10, ReadWriteWeb, and maintains a personal blog at sarahintampa.com

Steve Otto is a great guy.

He’s been around these parts for a mighty long time, and has covered all the ups and downs of Tampa Bay.  He gives of his time and well-recognized name to a bunch of charitable organizations, and is always somewhere doing something for someone.

But it sure is tiring hearing about how the old newspaper days were so much better.  It seems that once a month he is going on about the old Tampa Bay Times afternoon daily, and how the community is suffering since less paper ends up in a garbage dump.

His latest is another complaint about how the blogosphere is helping to kill newspapers.

The American Amateur Press Association showcased a panel discussion on the future of newspapers and the printed word, and newspaper types were typically irritated:

There was plenty more to be gloomy about, not just declining circulations but also the growing realization that it is not just that younger readers are getting their news elsewhere as it is that they aren’t getting news at all.

[Context] is what newspapers have provided: a thoughtful, organized context to the news instead of the scattered who-knows-where-it-came-from stories off the Net.

Then he provides the zinger:

I remember in 1961 when then FCC Chairman Newton Minow said TV had become a vast wasteland. We would be hard-pressed to argue it has improved in almost half a century.

I wonder what he would think of the blogosphere.

Hey Steve, check it out:

There are hundreds of TV networks.  A great majority of them are certainly a waste of time.  However, there are a significant number of them that are quite marvelous, and can keep you up to speed on those things that are important to you.  I think we can make a great argument that TV has improved since 1961.

Like TV, the blogosphere landscape includes much wasteland as well as oases of wonderful.  The beauty is that you can choose to visit those websites that you find relevant to you, and ignore the others.

As to the demise of newspapers, that is a natural progression.  A newspaper is simply a way of delivering content.  Just because over the past 40 years, the best journalism has come from newspapers, does not mean that paper is still the best way to deliver that important news.

I don’t think Steve really laments the loss of “newspapers,” but rather “journalism.”  And instead of blaming the internet, I believe his complaints should be directed toward Media companies in General.  Of course, someone at the AAPA meeting had already pointed that out to him:

“I’m saddened what’s happened to papers. They seem to have adopted a can’t-beat-them-let’s-join-them attitude with the ‘them’ being cable TV that features sensationalism and celebrities’ misery. I see it on a daily basis. I have had to take at least 10 calls this week about the son of Hulk Hogan.”

Hmmm.  Seems like an impartial observer might say that newspapers are a vast wasteland.

Diverting journalists to stories like this, media conglomerates chose to go after bigger and bigger audiences, instead of focusing on delivering important news to those who care.  And those who do care about that important news are moving on to other providers, including radio, television, and, yep, the blogosphere.

The truth is, in order to find that “context,” citizens can no longer count on the “newspaper” to provide it.  Like Steve Otto, we are now forced to spend valuable time and take several avenues to learn it on our own, from any media available.

That we are able to make an “honest attempt to tell the story of a community and the world around it” by publishing online is a good thing, not a waste. 

Last week, Wayne Garcia found that Tampa was unflatteringly featured on the Colbert Report in a bit about that big flag at I-4 and I-275. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out.

Any woman past a certain age can remember a time when gender bias was open, blatant, ugly. Gender discrimination is still around, but these days it’s usually more subtle than the historic kind and the kind that was aimed at Hillary Clinton during her run for the Democratic nomination for president.

PMS jokes, mood swing jokes, make-up jokes and comedy routines about her pants suits were routine. So were comments about how she looked, whether she deliberately showed her cleavage at a dinner, her nagging wife voice and - and worse.

Male candidates were not subject to similar attacks.

You may well have heard some of those jokes or sexist comments coming out of the mouths of people you know and love.

But there wasn’t anything funny about the yearning by many women to see the ultimate glass ceiling shattered. Some of those women not only remember but experienced discrimination. So the idea of a woman president was pretty heady. Clinton’s loss was their loss and they took it hard.

I felt a certain disappointment as well, but not as much as some because, though I’d love to see a woman president, I didn’t much like Hillary and I couldn’t cast a vote for her or anyone simply based on gender. Or age, or race, for that matter.

William March, political writer for The Tampa Tribune wrote a thoughtful piece in Saturday’s paper in which he asked a number of local women how they felt about Clinton’s loss and whether they would support the presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Some said they would; others said they would but reluctantly.

National stories indicate that some women - even young women - are so disappointed and/or angry that Clinton lost that they will simply not vote at all. Others say they will vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, even though they are Democrats. And quite a few are angry at the Democratic Party for not speaking out about the sexism aimed at Clinton.

The Tribune’s editorial section followed March’s story up on Sunday with a package in Commentary featuring many of the same women March quoted sounding off about the gender factor.

Rosemary Goudreau, the Trib’s editorial page editor, artfully summed up female discontent, while former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, Clerk of Courts Pat Frank, and historian Doris Weatherford added their voices to the discussion.

While Freedman and Frank seem angry, Weatherford explained the discontent in her usual thoughtful, measured way.

Subconsciously, women, particularly older women who have witnessed a lot, resent the fact that nobody ever says thank you, and that (women’s) issues are put off to later,” she wrote.

I agree with Weatherford about the resentment and completely understand the anger some women feel over Clinton’s suspension of her campaign. Recent personal incidents in my own life have fueled exactly those feeling in me.

Only after some real soul-searching did I come to understand that I’d spent far too much time time and energy focusing on something I can’t change. The only healthy and productive thing to do is keep on keeping on.

Will women eventually get the appreciation we deserve? I don’t know. But I can continue to educate my grandchildren about how things were, how far women have come - and how far we have to go.

Crime in Drew Park?  That’s how it goes.

Crime in Suitcase City?  What do you expect?

Crime in Ybor City?  Such is life.

Crime in South Tampa?  OMG!  This is horrible!  Send in more cops!  Raise my taxes!

Tampa Tribune Community Columnist Buzz Kelly writes an opinion piece that is sure to be well-received outside of Palma Ceia.  Buzzy K says crime is out of control in South Tampa, and your Tampa Police Department needs to increase patrols:

…it’s increasingly clear we need more protection. The weekly crime reports are rising - vandalism, robberies, car thefts, home invasions. This once idyllic part of Tampa is changing. We need marked cars cruising the streets, patrolling, watching, checking. I’ll say this: If South Tampa is becoming Baghdad, and if my taxes have to go up so Humvees can guard us, I’ll pay it.

Good Grief! The last thing we need is a bunch of cops driving Hummers. But what about this rising crime in South Tampa?  I haven’t read that anywhere. It must be true, because his victimized friend agrees:

Telling me about it later, she said, “This is South Tampa, a safe neighborhood … things like that aren’t supposed to happen here!

How many stories do you read in the papers and see on the news on a daily basis?  But Buzzy K is not concerned with crime until a personal friend of his is a victim.  The best part is that he already is convinced that TPD prefers South Tampa anyway:

“South Tampa has the fastest police response time in the city, usually less than 10 minutes…

C’mon, now Buzzy!  That’s ridiculous.  Do you really believe that TPD pays more attention to SOK than the rest of the city?

I asked TPD PIO Andrea Davis about that. She told me that there are no statistics to back up Buzzy’s claims, and suggested Mr. Kelly check out the TPD website.

We did it for him.

A quick glance at the Tampa police crime activity maps shows steady crime rates throughout South Tampa (priority 1 and priority 2 crimes) across the last six months - no rise in sight.

As for response time, according to the 2008 budget, TPD has an average response time of under 7 minutes for priority 2 crimes.  For the entire city.

This is the sort of thing that feeds the reputation that those who live in South Tampa are nothing but selfish brats.  But we know plenty of South Tampa folks who do not feel this way.  Based on this and a couple of his previous columns,

• When we vacation, we’re rich enough to afford an animal lady to care for our pets.  You should too.
• The recession is great!  Poor people are desperate and will work cheaper!

perhaps this is the closest his posh life has been to crime, and he’s just a little freaked out.

I had an opportunity Saturday to attend an Anonymous vs. Scientology protest in Clearwater. For those readers who aren’t familiar with the string of global protests occurring in the last few months, here’s a quick primer:

Anonymous is a loosely organized group of people from the internet who are protesting what they believe are Scientology’s human rights violations. Anonymous members also believe Scientology is run like a business and therefore shouldn’t qualify as a church for governmental purposes.

The church’s spokespeople have said Anonymous is a group of cyber terrorists and only one member stepping out of line could cause a religious war. They consider Anonymous to be more or less a group of religious bigots trying to take away Scientology members’ constitutional rights.

Tied in to all this is a video of Tom Cruise talking about the church, lawsuits, bomb scares and veiled threats from both sides. Type the phrase “Anonymous vs. Scientology” into any search engine, and you’ll come up with results ranging from pictures of protests to newspaper articles to YouTube videos. Anonymous has a large base of net savvy members to create content; one of the more publicized sites is Xenu.net, home of Operation Clambake. The church relies on spokespeople to release statements to the press when trouble arises and directs people to Scientology.org to learn more about the church and claim Anonymous is a terrorist organization in Anonymous Exposed, a documentary available online.

Anonymous organized a full day of activities Saturday, from ex-Scientologists speaking out about the church to pizza and cake at Coachman Park. I arrived around 2 p.m., just in time to watch the picketing and speak with a few Anonymous members. On an interesting side note, the street leading to Coachman Park was blocked off, which protesters assured me was a common tactic Scientologists use against them.

Anonymous members were constantly on the move during the protest, because it is illegal to block Clearwater sidewalks. They carried signs with slogans like “Religion is Free, Scientology Isn’t” and chanted as individuals and a group. At least one protester told various people “Don’t worry, we’re from the internet.”

Many picketers wore masks or bandanas across their faces, because they said they were afraid of Scientology’s retaliation. The crowd was composed largely of college-aged men and women in their late teens to mid 20s, with a few older protesters scattered among them. As a whole, they seemed to have a healthy sense of humor; one of the publicized goals of their campaign is to make the world laugh at Scientology.

Protesters were quick to point out that they weren’t protesting Scientology as a religion but were instead protesting the leaders who dictate church rules, practices and doctrine. The practice they focused on Saturday was “disconnect,” a practice Anonymous says the church uses to separate families.

Pat Harney, a Scientology spokeswoman, emailed me a prepared statement that says in part:

The Church encourages and helps its members to have excellent family relationships, whether their relatives are Scientologists or not. In fact, relationships between a Scientologist and the rest of his family routinely improve after his involvement in Scientology, because through Scientology one acquires the means to increase communication and resolve any problems that might have existed before.

Over the phone, Harney assured me that Scientology builds connections between families instead of destroying them and reiterated that she was worried a few Anonymous members might take matters into their own hands and ignore directives for peaceful protest by group organizers. She stated that the church has received bomb threats, death threats and harassing phone calls over the last few months and will not stand idly by if it comes under attack.

The statement she provided also says

For the past 3 months, members of Anonymous have been conducting a hate campaign against Scientology churches and their members.

Behind their self-serving statements, they are perpetuating criminal acts.

Why this matters to Tampa residents:

The future is here, and it’s right in our own backyard. The group Anonymous is an internet based group that has no real leaders and no central organization. It is a group of individuals who will do whatever they can to achieve a common goal. While the number of protesters in Clearwater has gone down with each protest, they still drew in approximately 170 people from across the state on Saturday. Take into account this was a global protest, and the numbers jump exponentially.

Some members are looking into nonprofit status for the group and are starting an advertising campaign. Often, members who are in constant contact with each other online do not know the identities of their comrades in real life.

Also, Scientology has some major resources at its disposal. They aren’t afraid of getting their legal team and the police involved when problems arise and are adamant about protecting their rights and members.

Both sides have their own PR campaign to paint the other side as ugly as possible. And, because Anonymous has no central authority to call a halt to the campaign against the church, it could potentially go on forever.

Since protesters are anonymous and loosely affiliated, the church can work to stop individuals who break the law, whether it be through vandalism or threats, but they can’t do anything against the group as a whole.

What happens with Anonymous now could influence the way groups organize well into the future.

Commissioner Brian Blair says that those Hillsborough County students who want to honor a "Day of Silence" need to just shut up.  Errr.. need to NOT shut up.  Or something.

David Caton is looking for ways to kill Tampa’s domestic partner benefit program.  Caton is the executive director of Florida Family Association, a group that wants to "improve and protect our moral environment."  This guy and his organization want to regulate your life, keep you away from pornography and homosexuality.  I want him to keep his nose out of my bedroom.

Back on March 30, a St. Pete Times article suggested that Ybor businesses are banking on lesbian basketball fans. That Friday, TBO said Tampa’s Final Four Games Are a Big Draw For Lesbians, and an updated version of the same story appeared on Saturday’s front page of the Trib as Final Four Gives Lesbians Forum To Celebrate Women.

Tuesday we were able to read the reaction from readers in the letters to the Tampa Tribune editor:

JUNE AMBROSE of Plant City says old people don’t like to read about lesbians:

I could not believe my eyes at this front-page headline. It was brought to my attention Friday evening as being the Saturday headline through the Internet copy of The Tampa Tribune, but I was adamant that our newspaper would not run such a sexist and low-class headline.

I believed this newspaper had much better taste and consideration for the numerous retirees and the, as yet, “Bible Belt” that we live in. Absolutely disgusting!

Hey June, I was out and about on Sunday, and many of the basketball fans here were of or near retirement age. Lots of them were talking to known lesbians. In fact, some of those lesbians were old people, too. Perhaps you ought to live and let live.

RICHARD BRUSS of San Antonio thinks lesbians belong on cable TV or on the back page:

So this is front-page newsworthy Tribune news?

And for this we just renewed our annual subscription!

The Tribune really sanctions this behavior? Everything has to be politically correct and tolerated by all, but it does not have to be on the front page. This looks like a headline that you would find in the “tabloid section” of the grocery checkout line. We are constantly inundated with this in TV programs and other ways. And if you do not agree, you are not tolerant.

Hey Richard - are you an idiot? A story in the newspaper does not mean that newspaper approves of the subject. It simply indicates that there is something noteworthy going on in your community. Nobody forced you to mingle with these people you feel are unacceptable. And yes - you are an intolerant jackass.

JEAN LIDINSKY of Tampa prefers to read about gay men:

Your April 5 front-page story was certainly not welcoming to the fine student-athletes, coaches and staff members who visited Tampa this week for the NCAA Women’s Final Four. The Tribune has lost sight of the fact that these competitions are solely about one thing: ability.

I doubt that the San Antonio newspapers have printed any articles that nickname the NCAA Men’s Final Four as the “homosexual super bowl.”

Hey Jean - don’t be stupid. Gay men don’t only go to the men’s Final Four. For instance, if you were an executive at a local company, they might just be your customers, too.

PATRICIA L. EVENS of Tampa wants an apology:

This is a disgusting way to get attention in print. There is an apology due here. Do it!

Hey Trib - I’ll take this one. Dear Pat Evans, I guess you would prefer to watch lesbians get attention on video. That’s awesome. I apologize if your friends search the web for your name and find that you might just be a homophobic attention-seeking whiner.

Spring Hill’s CARLOS TEDDER says the Tribune may be struck down by God!:

The space given to this story is disgusting. Surely there are more newsworthy issues to be placed on your front page. To me it was unwarranted, with the only purpose to advance the homosexual agenda.

Shame on the Tribune for promoting this lifestyle by your space granted to it. In doing so you have placed yourself against Almighty God who says it is an abomination to Him, regardless of what many in any society may find acceptable behavior. I prefer to stand with Him.

Sheesh Carlos, God tells me to love my neighbor, and didn’t include any caveats about their personal lifestyle.

But maybe all these intolerant folks have a point. Are a gathering of lesbian sports fans news? Does it matter what kind of people show up to local sporting events? Even the Orlando Sentinel says the Final Four is about basketball, not the sexual orientation of its fans.

The Tribune also made a point to tell us that the St. Pete Grand Prix is “inviting to families with young children and upscale corporate customers…” while the St. Pete Times got quotes from businesses who said Grand Prix “visitors are a blend of northerners and an international crowd, citing folks from Poland, France, Germany and Scotland.”

In my humble opinion, what matters is that these visitors - gay, race fans, northerners, families, basketball fans, and (gasp!) Europeans - come here and spend a lot of dough. What matters next is that these folks find our slice of the world to be a fun place to visit again (and bring more money). All of you who want to pretend that folks unlike you don’t exist can stay in your bubbles if you like. The rest of us will be busy trying to make all feel welcome.