UC Irvine hosted a budget write-in this week and I can’t imagine why we’re still putting pen to paper.

While delivering letters in bulk to our state legislators is much more civil and respectful than the protests and disobedience that have been observed around UC campuses this past month, aren’t there more innovative, collaborative and effective ways in which to communicate our dismay with the state of the State and University?

After all, isn’t the University of California the top public institution in the world?  Don’t we produce Nobel Prize winners and Fulbright Scholars, life-saving research and game-changing technology?

Advice to UC students.  Take what you know best — Facebook, YouTube, Twitter — and turn it into a campaign that legislators can’t ignore, toss aside, or hand to an aide to craft a scripted response.

The write-in would have been a good opportunity for student leaders to flip out their mobile phones and interview each other about the personal impact the fee hike will have on them come the new academic year.  It was a chance for students to plead their hardships, share their personal stories, and talk about their needs… and to tell their stories through a new medium to legislators and public citizens alike.

If just a 1,000 students from each campus joined a Facebook fan page or custom website that integrates Facebook Connect (or the like) and allow students to voice their concerns online – that would be a collective power of 10,000 voices telling their story to the public. The public and media can then help pay it forward and tell tens of thousands of other people how devastating the fee hikes are.

A letter only goes to one person, and your voice may or may not ever be heard.  But new media content can be shared, redistributed, repackaged, emailed, linked, tweeted…  The same effort put into a letter can be put into a message that has the potential to be heard across the world.

And all it takes it the one story that becomes viral.  The one story that tugs at the hearts of the voters of California, the philanthropist across the globe, and the legislator who votes on the UC budget.

How about a video profile of how much it costs to be a bio major:  How much are your textbooks?  What additional lab fees do you pay?  And how are you able to afford the expensive rent around Westwood, Irvine, Santa Barbara?

Letter-writing campaigns didn’t even work in my time as a UCSA Legislative Affairs member or ASUCD External Affairs Chair.  What worked were the face-to-face meetings with the educational committee members, staffers for the legislators or better yet the legislators themselves.

Today, students have the best tools at their fingertips: new media and social networks.  Whether it’s a student, parent, professor or staff member speaking, why aren’t we using these innovative communication mediums, which are either no-cost or low-cost, to effectively lobby the State and its citizens?

A collective voice is a powerful thing when used the right way.

Protesting and rioting may have worked in the 1970s.  But times are different. Technology is different.

The UC’s budget is an obvious mess, and I have strong personal opinions about it.  What it boils down to though, is there’s plenty of blame to spread.  But I don’t think it’s too late to make a new media move — the right move — to influence change from the ground up.

Picket signs, the wood sticks and magic markers to poster board is so last millennium, and so un-ecofriendly.  If you want to be heard, to be green, to be innovative with your message, take a lesson from the 2008 Presidential elections.  That wasn’t that long ago…

As I watch it, I can’t help but be nostalgic for this week last year when I was experiencing Prague in person.  The feeling towards Americans then was, I bet, far different than it is today:

STOP PRASATUM, POLICE NICH UNIFORMACH!
YANKEES & RADAR GO HOME!

I don’t know why I feel so connected to Prague.  All I know is I really want to go back, and hopefully even live there one day.

Sadly, no confirmation of MMS.  And definitely no video capture ability either according to the interview.

Some protests are taken to the streets, others through petition or boycotts.  Today, an issue a half a world away is gaining momentum online through social networks and new media platforms.

The New Zealand Internet Blackout – which I first read about on Read Write Web (@rww) – is an online social media movement that asks Kiwi’s and non-Kiwi’s alike to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law ‘Section 92A‘ :

…that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.

Find out how exactly to update your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Web site profiles at the Creative Freedom Blackout page.

Here are some images you can use for your profiles. Just right-click to save to your desktop and upload to your profile pictures:

I’ve blacked out Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

I did my obligatory post on the randomness of me:

1. It did not say that I would have bad luck for seven years if I didn’t do it.
2. The first person that tagged me is someone I don’t know too well, and I felt like I got to look into his soul. So I wanted to share back.
3. Whatever I wrote on this list, I would be remembered for at my memorial service – not the 25 skeletons in my closet, which are reserved for those who I’ve shared those experiences with.
4. And because as much as I’d like to say I’m a trailblazer… I am a conformer.

OK – I’ll end there.  25 Random Things is the only fad I’ll succumb to… Until the next one from a friend – who I may or may not be friends with in real life – tags me in Facebook and inspires me all over again.

From my Facebook post…

What the heck:

1. I used to work with maximum security inmates @ San Quentin. They were the nicest men. This experience definitely shaped my views about the death penalty.
2. I have bad luck with valets. Twice in a row the same car was crashed. The second time it was totaled. Neither time was I in or near my car.
3. I can’t leave the house or go on any extended trip without a Nikon – an SLR usually, but a pocket one will do.
4. I dream of being the Barefoot Contessa, and Paul is my Jeffrey.
5. I want to attempt the Crystal Cove sprint marathon this year.
6. I was voted “most technologically advanced” in high school. Really, that was a category.
7. I want to skipper a sailboat through the Panama Canal.
8. The first conversation I ever had with Paul lasted over 7 hours… I don’t think we realized we could have the rest of our lives together yet then. (Of course now, we don’t even live together… but somehow it works!)
9. I much prefer Northern California to Southern California.
10. I kept my maiden name and added Main just to see if my name would extend to three lines on the driver’s license (Sherry Lynn Kokoro Hashimoto Main). It didn’t.
11. I don’t *hate* many things, but I do hate it when people don’t like me or are not pleased with me.
12. I am a snob. I know it. I need to fix that.
13. Someone once told me I was intimidating. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. That’s not the vibe I give out, is it?
14. I used to compete in abacus competitions. I am bad ass at adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I rock at mental math.
15. I have dreams that I am running really fast and all of a sudden I take off and am soaring, and everyone looks up at me perturbed. I want it to really happen one day.
16. If I could have dinner with five influential people dead or alive, they would be: Leonardo Da Vinci, Barack Obama, Lawrence Lessig, Robin Williams, and Madeleine Albright.
17. I named my goldfishes Cat and Dog. So I wasn’t lying when I said I had a Cat and Dog growing up.
18. I wrote an essay in 1996 about My Role Model and it won me some scholarship money. It’s still true.
19. I play the piano, clarinet, contra-bass clarinet, percussion (quads, bass drum, marimba, etc.), and Rock Band guitar. I dream of being in a symphony. Something about being one of many to make something beautiful.
20. I have a blog about all things social media, food, policy and photography.
21. I’m addicted to Twitter and wish they would just hire me already. Follow me @sherrymain.
22. If I had to brand myself with tattoos, these would be included: Apple, Marc Jacobs, All-Clad.
23. I’m so detail oriented, I forget to see the big picture. Even when I make a note to remember to take a step back.
24. I don’t tell family and friends “thank you” enough. So THANK YOU.
25. I’m glad this list isn’t a game of truth or dare… Boy would I lose all your respect then!

Moya Watson gives a great recap on her blog.  Here are some highlights that I enjoyed from the recap:

Web meets the president

“Were it not for the Internet, Obama would not have been elected President,” said Arianna Huffington in Friday’s great panel, The Web and Politics (with John Heilemann, Arianna Huffington, Gavin Newsom, and Joe Trippi). “It wasn’t the age of the candidate that mattered in this election,” she continued, “It was the age of the ideas.”

Web meets (dirty) politics

We’ve just experienced the terrible flipside of “truth into our living rooms,” which is that the Internet can also be used, with devastating effectiveness, to spread attacks and lies into our living rooms. Here are some specific examples from the fight against Proposition 8 — all true:

• Videos propagated on YouTube in which the official “Yes” campaign equated gays with Hitler
• No On Prop 8’s Web site attacked by denial-of-service (which we overcame mightily, thanks to our Web techs)
• Personal attacks from people in the blogosphere throughout open, unmoderated threads (when another side might have had closed threads)
• Videos propagated by the official “Yes” campaign using children without their parents’ agreement or permission
• Gay people (and straight alike) getting anti-gay “Yes” ads served on their site because the yes campaign invested heavily in Google AdWords

Web meets TV

“TV is the biggest medium in America that hasn’t been democratized yet,” said @ev. “Twitter changes how people connect with people – if you expand that to a very large user base, it can change culture.” Pointing out that it’s not just social, Evan continued, “it has potential to see aggregate real-time information, like during the election.” Add Current TV to the mix and what happens?

“With Twitter and this broadcast model together, what happens is that you can get alternate viewpoints WHILE they’re being broadcast” -@ev

Green is the new Web

Calling himself a “recovering politician,” Al Gore took stage late at the summit to a standing ovation, saying that the “redeeming quality of the election” was that “all humans are created equal” and that this “would not have been possible without the Internet.”

Web meets the iPhone

AND more…. read the whole blog post and video/photos links here.

Hoping to get to the Web2.0 Expo in the spring.  Anyone wanna’ go with??

Barack last tweeted the morning after the election:

We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you. Thanks 11:34 AM Nov 5th

If you have a Twitter account, send Barack a message with “@barackobama” in your tweet.

The power of collective action, and hopefully the beauty of democracy in a hi-tech world!

Side note:  I’m twittering more than blogging these days.  Much easier and faster!  RSS my tweets or follow me on my Twitter page.   (Will be merging Lost in Mastication to Voix de Novice soon as well, so I’m not managing multiple blogs.)

Something else that is really cool about this is this:

So, to help you get out the vote this year, CREDO is making all outbound domestic calls free this November 4 during your state’s polling hours, on both CREDO Mobile and CREDO Long Distance.

We hope you’ll call all your friends and urge them to get out and vote. We’re picking up the tab, so you won’t need to worry about the cost.

Everyone I know, or at least care to pick up the phone and call will already be voting or have gone to an early voting poll this week.

But I’ll take advantage of reaching out and touching someone.  Probably Pablo or Mom.

On Friday, we told you about the happy ending to months of negotiations to modernize the Franking rules that govern how members of Congress can use the Internet to communicate with us about their work. The new rules just passed by the House and Senate allow members of Congress to communicate with us on sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Flickr without recrimination. (We advocated for these rules changes through our bipartisan collaborative effort, the Open House Project, and through our popular Let Our Congress Tweet campaign, the first Twitter-based petition to Congress, which hundreds of you joined.)