dc

Being geeks, its seemed appropriate that our service project for the National Day of Service utilize our geek skills.  Thanks to my network, we ended up testing donated monitors at CCNV Homeless Shelter.  Cheryl Harrison, Mickey Panayiotakis and I were offered a large room with donated equipment stacked randomly everywhere and a promise to check on us later.  The room was full of monitors, printers, cables, and random items I could not identify.  One box we came across was full of laptops.  Laptops with no power cords.  Now who would donate a box of laptops with no power cords?  Best of intentions, I'm sure.

Dealing with the whole room would require weeks.  We found a couple of working CPUs, created a system for testing the monitors and marking them "Good" or "Bad".   A couple of hours later we had tested about 50 monitors.  

Masses of donated equipment is an issue for many community tech programs.  Folks with good intentions offer up used equipment but the recipient of the donations then has testing and distributing the equipment to deal with which is time consuming.  Who ends up doing that work?  Very often the result is a room full of equipment, just as we encountered.   

Someday in the future when the inauguration of '09 is very much in our past, what will we remember? I hope I remember the feeling of excitement in the crowd. I hope I remember what one person I interviewed referred to as a sense of unity. I hope I remember the well wishes for Barack Obama. I hope I remember black and white folks crushed into metro cars with very few complaints.

The adventures Cheryl Harrison and I found/created during the past few days will be easier to remember:

• Watching Ludacris perform just feet from me,
• Testing about 50 monitors for CCNV Homeless Shelter,
• Dancing at Madam's Organ,
• Wandering the streets with masses of other wanderers, all intent on finding someplace to be when the inauguration took place,
• Singing along at the Metro Ball, and
• Recording the Metro Minstrel during the Metro Ball.

I think I will also remember the day to day:

• Tweeting everything,
• Editing and posting video as often as possible,
• Catching sleep when I could,
• Interviewing, or trying to interview, folks in the metro, on the street, wherever we found them.

Folks asked me if going was worth the craziness. My answer is definite - ABSOLUTELY.

Two days before I was to drive to DC for the inauguration craziness, I backed out of my garage with a car door open.  Bent the door back.  It looked REALLY bad.  What did I immediately do?  Who did I turn to?  My online network.  I knew SOMEBODY or rather SOMEBODIES would be online to help me figure out this problem.  Lots of folks jumped in with support, both logistical and emotional.  The end of the story?  I got 3 positive recommendations for one Rife's Autobody.  I took it there thinking I would be leaving it there.  But this amazing dude shifted the door so it would latch and bent the top of the frame so I wouldn't have a huge gap.  Freakin Fabulous!  My car was now safe to drive. 

Social networking is not just a marketing tool for me.  My online network is my support network.  Themore I interact with folks online, the more they know me and trust me.  And yes, the more they know me and trust me, the more likely they are to recommend my professional services.  

Brian Lockrey of Assist Data Recovery shot a video of me discussing online and offline networking with a group of my tweeps (friends on Twitter).  The video should have been edited, but well, in all honesty imovie was giving me fits and I'm about to leave for DC for my inauguration adventure!  So, if you are strapped for time, just watch the first 4-5 miutes.  You'll get the idea.