Video: Trailer for “Mapping Frogtown: Stories from Elysian Valley”

August 26, 2010

Above is the trailer for a video I’m making for the Frogtown Artwalk in Los Angeles. It’s been a fun project to put together. On Saturday August 28, there will be screenings at 7:50pm, 8:30pm, 9:00pm and 9:30pm in Elysian Gateway Park (near intersection of Blake Ave & Knox Ave) in Elysian Valley/Frogtown, Los Angeles.


What I did at @Netroots_Nation in Las Vegas: #MockICE, #Broadband, #StopICE, etc.

July 27, 2010

1. Participated in a political theater action (see media coverage below):

2. Moderated panel “Building a National Broadband Plan: How Activists in California are Bridging the Digital Divide for Racial Justice

3. Moderated panel “Crimmigration Under Obama: Pushing Back Against the “Enforcement-only” Immigration Regime

Also see individual videos from our panel on the Detention Watch Network blog.

4. Connected with lots of great folks doing important challenging work around the US.

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Media Coverage/Sharing of the #MockICE action [list in development]:

  1. Carlos in DCFake ICE Checkpoint at Netroots Nation 2010: Only White People Asked for IDs and Some Progressives got Offended [VIDEOS] Organizers Respond
  2. Change.org: Immigration Enforcement Targets Illegal European Invaders in Vegas
  3. Chicanisima: How can you tell if someone is “illegal?”
  4. Daily Caller: Papers, Please: Activists jokingly demand white bloggers show ID before getting lunch
  5. Daily Kos: ICE Checkpoint @ Netroots Nation…
  6. Firedoglake’s La Figa: “Where Are Your Papers!?” Latino Activists Stage “Raid” at Netroots
  7. Friends Committee on National Legislation: It’s Our Community: Immigration News
  8. Immigration Law Link: Making a Mockery of Arizona Immigration Law
  9. Joe.My.God.PAPERS PLEASE: Immigration Checkpoint At Netroots Nation
  10. L.A. Progressive: Turning the Tables at Netroots Nation: ICE Checkpoint Forces Participants to Think about Profiling
  11. Reform Immigration for America blog: Fake ICE checkpoint sparks debate
  12. Sum of ChangeICE Checkpoint @ Netroots Nation…
  13. Vivir LatinoICE checkpoints at Net Roots Nation
  14. Vivir Latino: More from the Netroots Nation 2010 Mock ICE Checkpoint : Considering Assault at the Fronteras
  15. VozMob: Teatro Popular

Headed to Las Vegas for @Netroots_Nation (#NN10)

July 21, 2010

Thanks to a scholarship from Democracy for America and America’s Voice, I’m headed to Las Vegas for  Netroots Nation, the yearly gathering of American progressive bloggers and online activists.

I helped organize and am moderating two panels:

If you’re not able to attend, you can listen in with Twitter: search for #NN10.  If you add #Broadband for my first  panel and #StopICE for the 2nd, you’ll be able to follow live tweet notes.

Along with other immigrant rights folks, I’m also planning to raise concerns about immigration enforcement throughout the conference and we’re planning an action related to SB1070 in Arizona.

I’m looking forward to the get-together even though temps are going to be above 100 degrees this week in Vegas. I’ve heard the buffet at the Rio (where we’re staying) is the best in town…


New video: Intro to Welcoming America

June 23, 2010

I just finished this new video for Welcoming America. What do you think?


Inventor of Twitter Hashtags Thinks They Are Overused (& I Agree)

May 27, 2010

In case you missed it earlier this month, the tech blog Gigaom had an interesting post The Short and Illustrious History of Twitter #Hashtags about Chris Messina, the guy who “invented” hashtags and what brought them out of the “geekosphere”. The post mentions that Messina now thinks that hashtags are overused.

I agree with Messina and am concerned that overusing hashtags keeps Twitter in the “geekosphere” and scares off people who aren’t yet using this great tool. Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with tech-oriented communities online and I don’t think Twitter will save the world. My concern is how we use them and unintentionally create barriers or exclude people from experimenting with digital tools. I’ve had conversations with folks who don’t use Twitter and get tripped up by “all the weird symbols”.  For these non-users, Twitter seems like another language that has to be learned. My question: why should it be?

Let’s take a step back and think about why we use hashtags. I’ve found that following hashtags or search terms is often more effective than following people on Twitter. If you’re using the search feature on Twitter or an application like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, hashtags and search terms make it far easier to find conversations and information from sources you might not know.

With this in mind, my contention is that hashtags should be reserved for tweets on a topic that does not include the search term in the tweet body. For example, here’s a sample tweet that demonstrates overusing hashtags:

Urgent Action Needed – Harmful #Immigration #Detention Amendments Introduced in Senate. http://… #ri4a #p2 #cir #dwn

The final four hashtags are useful because they are abbreviations and tags that many people follow.

But why is it necessary to tag immigration and detention? If I’m following the search term “immigration”, I’ll have a fuller understanding about who’s talking about immigration than I would with #immigration. Searching for #immigration is far narrower. I think you should only use #immigration if the word immigration is not in the body of the tweet. Using #dwn also tags tweets that relate to immigration enforcement. (The http://… is meant to indicate a link but I’m trying to protect the identify of the tweeter I’m reviewing).

So in summary, here’s how I think we should use hashtags and search terms:

  • When you use Twitter search or set up your Twitter desktop application, search for hashtags that are abbreviations, like #ri4a or #p2 but, for real words, don’t use the hashtag, like “immigration”.
  • For the most part, try to use hashtags at the end of tweets and in front of well-known abbreviations. To discover these hashtags, follow the lead of other tweeters on the topic you’re interested in.
  • If the tweet you’re sending doesn’t contain a key search term, add a hashtag at the end of the tweet followed by the real/whole word. For example, if I’m sending a tweet related to the Gulf oil spill, I could add #environment or #green at the end so people following those terms will see it.

So, using these suggestions, this is what the above tweet would look like:

Urgent Action Needed – Harmful Immigration Detention Amendments Introduced in Senate. http://… #ri4a #p2 #cir #dwn

Isn’t that easier to read?

I’m interested to hear what you think of these suggestions for making Twitter more accessible to new users. What do you think?


Video: Immigrants in America, A Hollywood Perspective

May 15, 2010

I made the video above for the Opportunity Agenda to document their event in LA earlier this month.


Immigration Arts, Culture & Media events in New York & Los Angeles

April 30, 2010

We are thrilled to welcome two final guests to our panel on Monday: Immigrants in America, A Hollywood Perspective:

Panelists join:

  • Nick Schenk, screenwriter, Gran Torino
  • Ligiah Villalobos, screenwriter, Under the Same Moon
  • Leon Ichaso, Writer/Director, El Cantante
  • Bruce Evans,  Senior Vice President of NBC programing
  • Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Humane immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
  • Alan Jenkins, Executive Director, the Opportunity Agenda

We are also expecting a few surprise guests!

You can follow live-tweets from the event with #ImmArts


Join the Conversation about Immigration Arts, Culture & Media in NYC, LA and Online

April 21, 2010

There’s been lots of speculation lately about whether immigration reform will be the next big issue that Obama Administration and Congress will tackle. While many people have strong opinions about immigration, the question remains about how best to “move the hearts and minds” of Americans to support immigrant rights.

To explore creative ways to do just this, the Opportunity Agenda has gathered artists and activists together into an Immigration Arts + Culture Working Group. The first results of these discussions are two public events in New York and Los Angeles. I’ve been helping out with promoting and documenting these events via social media.

The first event last week in New York was sold out and featured several interesting speakers: advocates, a printmaker, a musician/DJ, a playwright and a filmmaker. One idea that stuck with me is that the arts enable us to imagine the future we want to see (i.e. a future that respects immigrant and human rights).

I enjoyed the challenge of documenting the happening with different social media tools and learning along the way. Despite the lack of wifi in the underground space, I took some notes via Twitter: search for #immarts (and lots of running upstairs to street level). The video above is an audio slideshow of Mira Nair‘s keynote address (and another experiment of mine). I also interviewed the speakers right before the event and will have a video ready very soon. We also posted photos of participants and their “immigration stories” on Facebook and invited them to tag themselves.

On May 3 in Los Angeles, the Opportunity Agenda will hold a second event, “Immigrants in America: A Hollywood Persesptive.” If you’re in town, be sure to RSVP right away: seating is limited!

Stay tuned for more audio, photos and video…


Participate in the L.A. Media Reform Summit on March 27!

March 21, 2010

Facebook alters Event Listings: No longer possible to hide “Not Attending”

March 14, 2010

Not long ago, I praised Facebook for changes it made to it’s event listings function: namely the ability to hide people who said they couldn’t attend an event. To me, this made sense: if you’re promoting an event, you want to highlight the number of people who are coming, not the naysayers.

Now suddenly this week this feature is GONE! I wrote to Facebook admins, hoping that this is a glitch and not a design change. At this point, I’m fearing the worst.  Perhaps this feature ate up some critical storage space on their servers?

What can you do in the meantime? I’ve started deleting “Not Attending” folks on the “Edit Guest List” page for each event. Maybe in the long run, this will help me identify folks who never express interest in my events and help me edit my Facebook lists (i.e. if someone continually says no, maybe it’s time to remove them from the guest list).

Even so, I still think the Hide feature will be sorely missed. I’ve adapted to other Facebook design changes but now this? I am registering my opposition to this change and urge Facebook to bring the checkbox back.

Join this Facebook group if you agree.

What do you think? Is the “Hide Not Attending” feature gone for good? How can we get Facebook to change its mind? How will you live without it?