Much has been said about Web 2.0, social networking, and or course our friends at the RIAA.  Love those folks – yeah, not so much really.  You see the RIAA (or the Recording Industry Association of America) has pretty much outlived their usefulness.  Traditionally as middle-men in the delivery of music, they have enjoyed near monopolistic power over the industry and the consumers of it’s content (that’s you and me).  I won’t go into the evils of the RIAA and how the industry is rapidly changing blah blah blah, as many others who know much more than me are much better at explaining it than I, which isn’t to say I haven’t tried.  I think most people are slowly coming around and understand that it’s a New World and the game it is a-changing.  That’s great news for you, me, and especially the artists that have been held hostage by the RIAA since the invention of the phonograph.

Bum Rush the Charts (BRTC) is an example of how we can take back control of our media.  At it’s core, BRTC encourages everyone to buy a specific song on a specific day from iTunes.  The point?  to illustrate that consumers don’t need the RIAA and neither do the artists that have been beholden to them.  Interested in this social experiment?  Head on over to iTunes on March 22, 2007 and purchase the song ‘Mine Again’ by Black Lab and let’s see if we can’t take back our music and make it Mine Again.

On Thursday, March 22 – click here to purchase the song and help make your voice heard.  It will only take 2 minutes and .99.  Thanks!

To hold you over until then, enjoy the latest video from Black Lab for free (take that evil RIAA!)  Enjoy.

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A recent story just popped up on BoingBoing this morning and caught my attention: It looks like the LAPD has started to blog and share their images with flickr. How cool is that? Now, I doubt that we’ll get sensitive information or anything like that, but I think that it will help go a long way to opening communication between the LAPD and, well, just about everyone else. From the Chief:

Our online journal is an interactive tool that we use to deliver real-time, unfiltered information. We invite you to take a look inside the Department to learn more about the men and women in blue who have sworn to protect and to serve you.
By using this Blog, the LAPD hopes to maintain an open dialogue with the communites we serve and those who have an interest in the men and women of this organization. We encourage you to express your opinions about current events through respectful and insightful discussion. We reserve the right to refuse to post those comments that contain inappropriate language and/or material. In the near future, we intend to expand our Blogging capabilities to all 19 Area Stations.

Now, I don’t need to point out that we are in the middle of Silicon Valley, isn’t it high-time that our local government get on with it and start using tools to help increase communication with the Citizens? RSS, Weblogs, Flickr, Tags, Buller, Buller?

LAPD BLog – (http://lapdblog.typepad.com/)

Citizen San Jose, what does that mean? What does it mean to be a Citizen?
Well, Wikipedia states that

Citizen journalism, also known as “participatory journalism,” is the act of citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,” according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information…

That is exactly what I envision for Citizen San Jose. We are the reporters. We are the writers. We are the shapers of policy. City Council doesn’t determine what is best for our city, we – the Citizens do. I have always found it frustrating that while there is lots of really good information on the net, citizens are generally pretty much shut out of the picture, especially when it comes to local politics. We hoard information. Not intentionally, but the systems that are setup for us to communicate with each other leads to further division, rather than bringing us together. Let’s change that. Let’s learn from each other. Let’s communicate. Let’s take the power back from City Hall, from City Council, and let them know what we see in the future for San Jose. This blog will report on various things around San Jose. Some politics, some entertainment, some just miscellaneous stuff. Some good, some bad, but always informational. Want to contribute, sure thing, just register as an author on this site and start blogging. No moderation, just has to be about San Jose.

Look for the companion podcast (feed to be found at http://feeds.feedburner.com/CSJ )to along with this as well. Currently I have been trying to record most of the Mayoral debates and other meetings surrounding that topic. Got ideas? Let’s hear them.

Citizen San Jose – because it is our town.