SB Native Jameson Acos Shares Impressions after Attending the Obama Inauguration

Posted by admin on: Fri 23rd Jan, 2009

The following is an update from Carp/Santa Barbara native Jameson Acos, who is currently attending law school in DC. He was able to get tickets to the Obama Inauguration! Published with permission from Jameson.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to witness last Tuesday's inauguration of President Obama and partake in some of the festivities over the four-day weekend and it was truly a historic experience. I think that is the best way to describe and think about the whole thing. We now have an African-American man and his family as President of the United States and residents of the White House. That is a historic change and I feel blessed just to be able to witness the ceremony and the emotion as it happened. But here is a quick breakdown of some of the events of the past weekend.

First and foremost was the inauguration itself. I was somehow won the ticket lottery and was given two blue standing section tickets for the inauguration. Thank you Senator Feinstein. So due to the warnings and advice of media etc. I was on the Metro at 6 a.m. to go celebrate with all the other millions. As soon as I left my house it was crowded and it did not become uncrowded until I got home nine hours later. But one of the coolest things about Obama crowds is that for the most part people are very happy and excited. Anyway, so we got in what was supposed to be the line but of course turned out to be a fake line as soon as the gates actually opened and everyone rushed to the 10 yard wide funnel which everyone in my section had to go through. But after a few cold hours literally sardined next to thousands of my closest friends we got onto the lawn in front of the capital. It was a pretty good spot I think, but the big jumbo-tron was still my best view of the ceremony. Its hard to comprehend how many people were there down on the mall that day because everywere is a crowd no matter where you go. But the ceremony was emotional and fun. Between the boos to Bush, the Obama chants, the celebrity "dignitaries", our chief justice forgetting the constitutional magic words, and lots of flag waivers I really got the feeling that everyone came out to see history, to see it first hand, even on a jumbo-tron, to be there and feel the cold and comraderie of Obama becoming the new President of the United States of America.

I also went down to the mall for the concert on Sunday afternoon. Again, crowds the whole time but again it is what I have coined a "happy riot" sort of crowd, where there are so many people with so much energy but all positive happy energy. (I came up with that phrase after going out in DC after Obama had won the office in Nov) But the show was cool. I though Jamie Foxx's impression of Obama was great, and the song by Wyclef and Sheryl Crow was really good, which surprised me because I usually don't like Sheryl Crow. I thought having U2 be the band right before Obama was a little wierd because they are four guys from Ireland and they definitly emphasized that in their show. Not who I expected to introduce the next president of the U.S. Many of the speakers talked about Lincoln and JFK and MLK which was interesting and appropriate for the time and place, but sometimes Jack Black telling me about Lincoln was not really believeable. But Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Hanks where good. After that I tried to walk home through Georgetown which was a bit too much once it got dark. Lesson learned: its real cold, wear lots of clothes. LOTS.

So those were the two big events that I saw this weekend. But since restaurants were open 24hrs and bars till 4 am there was plenty of time for other sorts of celebration. In the end, what I really took out of the weekend was the fact that a big change has happened in American politics. There is a lot of hope and pride in many people as well as skepticism and doubt in others. But like Obama has chosen to emphasize, it is time to get back to work.

So now I am going to try and read 40 pages of Legal Ethics before class.

Cheers,

Jameson Acos

JD Candidate 2010

American University

Washington College of Law

P.S. This is a cool video that captures the feeling of DC. And feel free to share all this with friends.

We'd like to thank Jameson for sending along his thoughts for us to share with SB!

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Tags: presidential inauguration, barack obama, washington DC, local, santa barbara, jameson acos

Is City2.0 a threat to the Indy?

Posted by admin on: Fri 26th Dec, 2008

Matt Kettmann - the Senior Editor at the Independent - and I have been having an engaging ongoing conversation about the changing online media environment - especially with regards to 'competition' between City2, and the Indy (or any other local news oriented sites for that matter). While much of our talk has revolved around 'how to sustain investigative journalism' (which we both agree is of immense importance), it would inevitably come back to this idea of a 'shortage of eyeballs' for viewing online advertisements, which are the life-blood of nearly any online publication. This argument was at the root of why newspapers, like the Indy, might not warm to the idea of offering any in-depth analysis or coverage about a new project like City2. It's competition. Plain and simple.

Today, I stumbled across an article from TechDirt.com by Tim Lee, that unpacks the issue a little - at least with regards to 'news aggregators'. Here's an excerpt (my emphasis added):

"What aggregators do is make it a lot easier for readers to find new news sources. That's good for an up-and-coming site with a lot of great content, because aggregators enlarge the potential audience for the content. But it's not good for a mediocre site with a large readership based largely on inertia. The easier it is for readers to find news sources of news, the faster mediocre news sites will bleed readers. We tend to think of competition in terms of price, but competition is important even when a business is already giving its product away for free. More competition forces sites to create more and better content, have fewer and less intrusive ads, and offer content in formats that are convenient and appealing. The increased competition enabled by aggregators may be bad for some websites, but it's unambiguously good for consumers. " (more here)

As I've mentioned before, I see aggregators as being no different than one of many local 'news stands' in front of Cantwell's, or La Bamba Market. Visitors are able to choose which publication to read. The Independent considering City2 a competitor makes about as much sense to me as the Indy considering La Bamba a competitor. During our Poodle Radio podcast/interview, Matt graciously acknowledged this point. I acknowledged that the issue is complicated City2's forays into other online functionalities.

Though City2 does have other features that are very tasty, the Indy has very little to worry about for many reasons:

- We are aggregating, so we are absolutely generating additional traffic for all local news sites (we are pretty sure this won't mean a dip in anyones stats, though we'd be curious if it did).

- We offer locals the ability to write and send in their own locally themed content. Often this content winds up referencing (and therefore linking to) existing 'hard news' stories for context. This also equals more traffic.

- The Indy is pretty much the only big online game in town, and still manages to play reasonably fair and deliver great content. So the added 'stress' that aggregators provide (that weeds out the bad content), shouldn't really be stressful at all, for the reasons mentioned above. The only threat that we aggregators pose (as was mentioned above) is by keeping it on it's toes, and gently encouraging the paper to keep up the good work. Local news must keep on being relevant, sharp, interesting and useful to the community.

But this does bring up an interesting problem, which is really what's at the heart of the issue. Newspapers, are businesses. Businesses look out for their bottom line. The disconnect occurs when because newspapers have the additional cultural responsibility of reporting news, and creating content that benefits and informs the community - and they are understandably conflicted about their role in covering news that may mean a more challenging environment for them. My personal take (though it's easier for me to say this) is that the well-being of the community - which includes providing access to a rich and diverse ecosystem of information - should always come first.

Obviously, there is a lot more to discuss. I for one am looking forward to more out-in-the-open conversations about this issue. It benefits everyone.

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* note: Matt Kettmann did give us a chance to talk a little bit about ourselves, and this specific issue in their 5th Poodle Radio podcast. We were grateful for the opportunity to have some attention, and hope that we will be able to develop this conversation further.

** note: I realize that this issue is now complicated by the recession. Maybe we'll focus more on the local online environment with regards to that challenge next time.

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Tags: citizen news, sbopinion, santa barbara online news, citizen journalism, aggregators