Category: Durham

RDCH: Twitter users in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill

Last week I created a new user on Twitter called RDCH. It stands for Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. The idea is for this Twitter user to act like a group. I’ve been using Twittervision Map and Google to find people who’ve identified that they live somewhere in the Triangle aka RDCH. (That includes Apex, Cary, Carrboro, etc.) ex. Location: Durham

While I’m logged into the RDCH user account I goto the different Twitter users I find and add them as friends. So far in about three days RDCH has 88 friends and 33 followers. You make friends they decide to follow you.

I hope this helps people meet each other in person and make new friends. Another neat “feature” I’ve discovered is the with friends page. If you goto twitter.com/RDCH/with_friends you can read what all these people are doing. Its like a group micro-blog! This page has an RSS feed too at twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/6140022.rss.

I’ve been trying to use the contact medium in ways that could help all these neighbors of mine. So far I’ve shared info such as weather updates for Chapel Hill and Hurricane information. Going to build the friends list and hopefully the followers and announce a party or a flash mob.

What do you folks in RDCH want this user to do?

Apologies aren't enough

Wonderful and inspiring article/interview with John Hope Franklin in this weeks Indy: John Hope Franklin: Apologies aren’t enough.

But one has to wonder how far apologies will go in righting past wrongs. Is it the scab that, left unbothered, will heal wounds, or is it merely a quick-fix Band-Aid, slapped on to make the ugliness of injury just go away?

Franklin, who knows what it is to grow up in a world where one’s rights and equalities are constantly being questioned, refuses to let go. He thinks it’s not just time for somebody to apologize, but to do something about it.

“No one knows the price that I’ve paid for what I’ve gotten out of this world and this life,” he says. “My efforts represented sacrifices untold, indescribable. They don’t know what my mother went through to see that I had opportunities, and even the fundamentals such as food and clothing and so forth. They don’t know what my grandfather, on my father’s side, paid in terms of taxes so that white young men could go to the University of Oklahoma, where my own father could not go.

“And I don’t see any reason why I should get over that kind of exploitation of my immediate family—my father, my grandfather, my mother, and so forth. I see no reason I should get over it. I see every reason why there should be compensation, apologies, particularly in the hypocrisy it’s represented, in their saying on the one hand that all men are created equal, and on the other hand, them saying if they’re created equal, some are more equal than others.”

BlogTogether Logo Contest

Win a iPod Shuffle by designing a logo for the ultra-cool blogger group BlogTogether. Anton has set up more info here about the contest. Entries are due by March 31st.

Here is more info about BlogTogether for inspiration.

The Brief

BlogTogether is the name of an initiative to connect bloggers and blog readers both online and in person. Blog refers to the weblog tool for publishing online content. Together relates to our mission to gather bloggers in face-to-face social settings. BlogTogether also includes a service effort to encourage self-expression, civic engagement and community building. The logo should include the words blogtogether, in any font, upper or lower case, together with a logo graphic, with any color scheme. I have no other criteria, but I do like simplicity. Once we have the new logo, we will build a new website design around it, and the relaunched site will continue to act as a blog/resource about our blogger meetups, Blogging101 teach-ins, occasional happy hour events and our annual conference.

Help Teach Someone to Read or get their GED

Might you be interested in helping someone learn how to read? If so please contact Yashna Padamsee at the Durham Literacy Center ASAP. yashna (at) durhamliteracy (dot) org More info bellow.

I worked in AmeriCorp for one year at the Durham Literacy Center. Its a serious organization that’s been working very hard teaching people for over 20 years. Helping someone increase their reading literacy can have a dramatic effect on the quality of their lives. If you want to see the world change for the better this is a great place to start!

Please blog about this if you live in the Triangle Area. Thank you.

From Yashna:
Do you want to be a tutor with DLC?

Why you would:
To make a difference in your community!
Empower an adult through reading, teach an adult English, help a teen get his or her GED.

Here is how!

1. Attend a one hour volunteer orientation

When: 2.26.08 6-7pm OR 2.28.07 6-7pm

Where: Lakewood Baptist Church/ Education Building
2100 Chapel Hill Rd.
Durham, NC
Google Map

How: Call or email to sign up OR just show up!

2. Sign up for tutor training (TT) at the orientation
NOTE: *If you missed the orientations please call in you want to register for TT

3. Attend tutor training
(required to attend all three dates)

Monday March 5, 2007 6-9pm

Wednesday March 7, 2007 6-9pm

Saturday March 10, 2007 9am – 3pm

4. Get started with a student.
Work one on one with an adult student twice a week to help improve their reading and writing skills.

Looking forward to working with you!

phone: 919 489 8383 ext 27
fax: 919 489 1456

www.durhamliteracy.org