C/Net News publishes Media 2.0 and a Web 2.0 Blog

c/net News.com publishes daily reports on Media 2.0 including information about Social Networking applications. It also publishes a News.blog Web 2.

A recent article on September 26, profiled "Wallop," another social networking site that will compete with Friendster and MySpace.com. Another similar site is Facebook.com.

In the article Karl Jacob, Wallop's chief executive, said in a statement. "It’s about the trend of self-expression moving online."

My own review of these and similar social networking sites seems to indicate that individuals are encouraged to express their interests in popular culture, but not much emphasis is placed on interest in natural resources, the environment or other important activist issues. For example, global warming is a multifaceted issue that has the potential to dramatically change the lives of the many millions of people participating in the Social Networks mentioned above. Searches on the Internet reveal many discussion groups, blogs and web sites that do have a lot of participants on natural resource issues. I am interested in knowing more about how, or if, individuals include these interests in their social network profiles.

Our own efforts with Mountain Visions to work with natural resource projects to develop interactive web sites with community networking centers does include the invitation for people to participate in the projects. Some of these people may also decide to include their personal natural resource interests into one of the major social networking sites mentioned above. For example, we are creating projects now using Wiki and other applications. I will write more about these in the near future.

Only 1500 Comments on Idaho's Roadless Plan

After President Bush rescinded the Clinton 2001 Roadless mandate governing 58 million acres of roadless land in America, he gave state Governors the opportunity to come up with their own plan. This action has been overturned by a U.S. Magistrate Judge, until a full environmental impact study is done.

Meanwhile, some states including California, New Mexico, Oregon and others have chosen to keep development out of roadless areas. But Idaho's Governor Kempthorne directed the County Commissioners to conduct public hearings to come up with a petition to create new plans to allow development in roadless areas in Idaho. Meanwhile Kempthorne has become the new Secretary of Interior and interim Governor Risch (who has just over a month left to serve) has just announced his own plan minimizing the allowable roadless areas from 9.3 million Idaho acres down to 3.1 million acres.

The Idaho Statesman today wrote an article about this plan and noted that 1500 Idaho Citizens had commented at the public hearings held in Idaho this past year. My reaction - only 1500 comments on an issue that affects everybody in this state, forever? How can politicians be so arrogant and dis serving of the public to act on so little public input? The people of Idaho and the U.S. deserve better.

When President Clinton was considering the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001 it was supported by more Americans than any other similar rule in U.S. History. 1.6 million comments were made and more than 95 percent supported the Roadless Rules. Bush, Kempthorne, the County Commissioners, and Risch know these facts, but chose to insult the will of the American people by choosing their own form of public input.

I hope that some of the new Social Networking opportunities on the Internet will start to develop a public reaction to the decisions by politicians who create plans that affect everybody in Idaho and other states as well, when only 1500 people comment.

Gary's new Video Blog (Vlog)

I have finally started my Video Blog (Vlog) with a few experimental posts. As I started this I realized, given some time, I could post links to several hundred video sequences I have done in the past.

This is just the beginning. I expect to post videos of current events as a higher priority.

The link to the gogrimm-vlog is here.

Note on September 17, I posted a High Definition video on my Vlog and a link to Mountain Visions pages where several other HDV videos can be viewed.

Sun Valley Sustainability Conference - Sept.27-30, 2006

In Sun Valley, Idaho on September 27-29, 2006, educational practical knowledge and expertise will be presented by high level speakers with global knowledge from across the country. The 2006 Sun Valley Sustainability Conference web site contains details and Registration information.

On the agenda are important topics such as "Global Warming," "Healthy Homes," "Sustainable Communities," "Solar Electricity," "Land Conservation," etc.,. In the morning of Saturday, September 30 there is a "free tour of green homes, gardens and businesses."

We may be able to attend sessions on Friday afternoon and the tour on Saturday. The topics covered at this conference should be of high interest to citizens of Idaho. Hopefully Social Networking projects can be developed to allow many more people to participate in discussions about these topics via the Internet.

Technorati registration

I am creating a link to my Blog with Technorati. I am also trying to figure out how to create more of a presence on the web for this Blog in order to get more participation. It appears this is a process that will take some time to do effectively.

Technorati Profile

Boulder-White Cloud Wilderness Bill

I wanted to start uploading images with my posts when I can. This image is in the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains in Idaho. The prominent peak in the background is "Castle Peak." Katy Flanagan and I have shot and produced interactive 360 degree panoramas in this are and you can find them on our Mountain Visions Idaho > Interactive Virtual Tour pages.

The Idaho Conservation League has also published some of these panoramas on their "Seeing Wild Idaho" section. In addition they have published a "Special Update" for the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill just passed through the US House of Representatives.

I have been involved in Wilderness issues during all of my adult life. I have been frustrated by the "Public Input process" primarily organized by Federal Agencies. During the 1970's we tried to initiate citizen input "networking meetings, conferences and newsletters with limited success. Examples include conferences that gained national interest on topics such as "Wilderness Use Ethics" and "Wilderness and Individual Freedom" I have hard copy documentation for the Wilderness Use Ethics conference but cannot find reference to it on the Internet at this time.

Today, Social Networking applications that are available on the Internet should dramatically increase citizen opportunities to be involved in Wilderness and other public land and natural resource issues. I believe that the Idaho Conservation League, The Wilderness Society and other environmental organizations should be learning how to use these new tools and incorporating them into their web sites.

Fwiki - A New Web application can supplement web sites

Today, September 11, 2006, PRWeb released a newswire describing FWiki as "A revolutionary new web application is now available for Internet users."

I believe that one or many "Wiki" type projects could be developed with the Interactive Multimedia and Community Networking projects Mountain Visions is now developing. These include the "Jamaica Protected Area Trust", "Idaho Weed Awareness" and "River Menders." Past projects we are still involved in might also begin to develop new Wikis, Blogs, and discussion groups as the tools become easier to use. Additional projects include the "Interactive Watersheds" project that involved 5 major watersheds across the country, "Ridge to Rivers Trail System," "The Floodwood, Choices for a Working Forest," "Seeing Wild Idaho," and many others. (See Mountain Visions web site).

The PRWeb article notes that "The power of the application is that it can be used by bloggers and site owners to enhance their blog or web site and even create a page that drives traffic to an existing site."

Look for more information about our experiment with different Wiki features and programs in the near future.