Sarah Granger

June 15, 2011

Recent thoughts on open government and cybersecurity

Filed under: government,new media,policy,politics,security,technology — Sarah Granger @ 12:36 am
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The two biggest issue areas in IT policy that I’ve been working on the past few years include open government and cybersecurity. While they may sound like they’re in opposition, that’s not really the case. It is possible to have smart security and open government. Not everything can be open, not everything can be secured. The devil’s in the details.

Here’s a video of me talking about open government to the California Democratic Party’s Science & Technology Summit a few months ago: http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer5.swf

And on the cybersecurity side, I’ve been speaking on a lot of panels and providing training sessions trying to provide a framework where non-technical policy advisors and politicos can better understand the issues and proposed legislation.

This week I’ll be speaking at Netroots Nation on a panel entitled “Cyberwar: Wikileaks, Stuxnet, and the Proactive Progressive Response.” Last month, I spoke at the Truman National Security Project annual conference. Tomorrow I will be on WWL Radio’s “Think Tank” show for a few minutes talking about recent cyber attacks (Citibank, Lockheed, RSA, IMF, Sony, the Senate… the list keeps growing).

February 21, 2011

Professional Update

Filed under: technology,politics,media — Sarah Granger @ 11:46 pm
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Since I haven’t been blogging much lately, I thought it might be worthwhile to put up a professional update.

In early February, I spoke at the Democratic Science and Technology Summit organized by the California Democratic Party Internet Caucus at Stanford University. As of January, I’m now chairing the USACM Digital Government committee of the U.S. Association for Computing Machinery Public Policy Council.

I spoke on American Public Radio’s “Marketwatch Tech Report” about online password security in mid December. The show was also heard on NPR. Netroots Nation held a one-day event in November in San Francisco just following the election, entitled “Netroots California,” where I provided a social media training. I also spoke about online campaigns and election resources on CBS 5 News in San Francisco three days before the election.

For the 2010 election, I directed nonpartisan political coverage for BlogHer, including featuring women candidates and women bloggers. I also worked with two partners in the Women’s Campaign Consortium with the Women’s Campaign Forum, advising a wide range of women candidates running for Congress on online outreach and getting out the vote through new media. Articles I wrote during the election can be found at The Huffington Post, SFGate, and BlogHer.

I was inducted in June as a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, where I’m brushing up on global affairs, particularly related to cybersecurity. I was also asked to serve as the communications director for the San Francisco chapter and as the national cybersecurity affiliate group co-chair. Being a part of the Truman community has been a wonderful experience so far – the people are truly top notch.

I’m sure there’s more from last year, but that’s what I had on my site that I thought was worth mentioning. Usually I keep professional news all in one place on my site, sarahgranger.com, so that’s an easy way to keep track of what I’ve been doing throughout the year. I work on a wide range of projects, so it’s nice to have most of it in one place.

October 22, 2010

Social media in political campaigns

Filed under: new media,politics — Sarah Granger @ 10:13 pm
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I could write volumes about social media use in campaigns, but I put up a post at SFGate that explains where we are now, esp. in respect to local and statewide races for the 2010 election.

January 16, 2010

Fem2 and the Politics of Inclusion

Filed under: government,politics,technology,women — Sarah Granger @ 2:39 am
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>I’m submitting a session for the Gov 2.0 Camp LA Women in Technology track. Here’s the scoop:

Although the concept of open government & transparent processes assumes equal ability for participation, there are still spaces and situations in the world of online politics and government 2.0 where some or all women get cut out of the discussion or added as an afterthought. This session will address ways to ensure equal possibilities for all.

Transparency and open government assumes inclusion, so questions of how to outreach and include all groups are important. Since Gov 2.0 Camp LA specifically wanted to address problems of women, this session will focus on that (vs. specific ethnic groups, for example). Because as much as we’d like to think this new online world order provides instantaneous equality, there are still areas of gender bias. Online new boys’ clubs have in some ways subtly disregarded women of equal status in online communities, causing rifts, bad feelings and a dilution in the quality of the conversation on important political and policy discussions.

Through the efforts of groups like Fem 2.0 and individuals like Allyson Kapin (@womenintech) and Shireen Mitchell (@digitalsista), some of these issues have been getting attention, but we’re still not there yet. This session will discuss some of the problems and solutions to this complex issue.

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

November 9, 2009

Recap of a busy week – politics, new media, gov 2.0 and more

Filed under: blogging,government,media,new media,politics,sfbayarea,social media,technology,writing — Sarah Granger @ 5:24 pm
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>Last week was a whirlwind on the local level… after Newsom dropped out of the CA governors’ race, I wrote a piece about it that had a pretty good reception at The Huffington Post but was maimed by trolls at SFGate. Having seen this happen before for other writers, I reluctantly decided to remove all comments. I reviewed the problem with other blogger friends who confirmed it’s a common problem for newspapers-turned-online publications.

I put up a detailed response at SFGate explaining the problem to readers and the community there and received a lot of letters via e-mail in support. The SFGate staff also were responsive as well, looking into what they can do with the system that will help solve their comment moderation problem. (IMO it shouldn’t be that hard technically – they’re using Moveable Type – it’s more a matter of budgeting the staff time and having a smart plan in place.)

After spending way more time on that last week, I was able to shift gears back to tech, I finished an article about Twitter Lists for Digital Landing. I’ve been researching Twitter Lists since they first launched, and one of my lists of the Women in Politics & Tech group (WIPT) was put on the Change.org list of Ten Feminist Twitter Lists.

Saturday, I headed to CA Data Camp where I caught up with local government, non-profit and media people who are passionate about open government. We talked about data specifics, data transfer, local applications, data and media and the related national scope. I’ll be putting up at least one post at the Personal Democracy Forum about that. Here’s a great summary at Spot.Us. Meanwhile, I was invited this week to be on two more conference program committees. More on that when they’re official.

Meanwhile, as we were finishing up with the data apps in SF, the House voted on their final version of the healthcare reform bill. It was interesting to follow that on Twitter while in a room full of government software developers. Finally, I was surprised this morning to be on a list of Top 20 Women Political Bloggers (I think the list is a subset of liberal bloggers who are also moms).

This week, I’m working on an article about Google Wave and editing a book on confidential information. I’m also working on a couple new gov 2.0 related projects that I hope to write more about soon.

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

October 20, 2009

I can’t even keep track any more.

Filed under: media,politics,technology — Sarah Granger @ 6:52 am
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>I’m involved in a lot of really incredible projects and have been over the past few years so much that I don’t even have a running list, it all moves so quickly. But every once in a while I like to log some of it here for the few people (mostly friends & colleagues) who peruse my blog from time to time.

Recently, I joined the San Francisco Chronicle online “City Brights” local luminaries at SFGate.com and I’m really enjoying writing there. I wish I could duplicate myself and write there every day, but it’s not in the cards quite yet. For Netroots Nation, I co-organized three panels. I’ve also been continuing to write for The Huffington Post, Digital Landing, BlogHer, MOMocrats, the Personal Democracy Forum (& techPresident).

I’m doing less right now for WomenCount due to the economic climate, but I’m still very involved. Through our radio show, I interviewed Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project, and Christine Pelosi, California Democratic Party leader and daughter of Nancy Pelosi. Vivanista profiled me in their “Quintessential Careers” column in June. And as of September, the CRAVE SF Guide is out, a book featuring great women-owned businesses in the Bay Area including SFBayStyle, one of my projects.

As policy has been an ongoing theme, I’ve had the opportunity this year to be involved with 3 pretty major pieces of legislation nationally and at the state level. And although I only provided input on small pieces of each bill, I feel that I was able to help on some level. (Of course none of it has passed yet; let’s wait and see.) Nationally, I reviewed cybersecurity legislation through the U.S. ACM Public Policy committee, I helped finalize Congresswoman Speier’s bill to create a new presidential commission on women via WomenCount, and I worked through the Jr. Leagues of California State Public Affairs Committee that will help educate new mothers and their families on postpartum depression and related problems.

CFP 2010 will be in my neighborhood this year, so I’m looking forward to participating on the program committee however I can. It should be a great conference. In a few days, I head to the Web 2.0 Summit. I just recently helped tech review edit the Gov 2.0 compilation book being published by O’Reilly which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have another couple of potential book projects in the works as well. No official news yet there.

I’ve had a few new media clients through PublicEdge, and some new speaking engagements. I have been doing a lot of trainings to women’s organizations on how to use new media for social good. I’ve also been working on a few iPhone apps helping with strategy in terms of new media as well. And I have some exciting meetings planned in Washington, D.C. that I hope to be able to write about soon as well.

Meanwhile, I continue to study and read and learn about technology and government, politics, policy, security, and all of the other areas that interest me. I never seem to have enough time to read all of the articles and books I’d like to read, but I try to stay on top of the most important issues.

I’m sure there’s something else I’ve forgotten, but again, it’s a lot to keep track of pretty much all the time. Cheers!

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

July 20, 2009

Wassup?

Filed under: blogging,business,media,politics,writing — Sarah Granger @ 5:09 pm
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>A lot’s been happening lately for me – elsewhere… so here’s a bit of a summary for those who are curious. Also, I keep recent news of what I’ve been doing professionally updated typically at my professional website, SarahGranger.com.

My new media consulting (via PublicEdge) is going well. I’m working primarily with WomenCount as their director of new media. It’s been wonderful working with elected women and women candidates on the blog, the radio show, and via Twitter. I’ve also been helping some online publications, start-ups, nonprofit and other political organizations.

In March and April, I received two awards. March’s was a collective writing award given to an issue of Bay Area Parent where I wrote an article about gifted children (what it’s like to have one, and what it’s like to be one). In April, I received a new media award from the California Democratic Party, which was entirely unexpected but felt nice to be recognized for my political new media work.

I’ve been speaking at a ton of conferences lately. In February, I spoke at Fem 2.0. In March, I was at South by Southwest Interactive. In April, I provided a couple of trainings on social media and then I spoke at the Nonprofit Technology Conference on 3 panels. I also spoke at the Netroots Nation New Media Summit and at the 140TC conference. All three of those were in the Bay Area. I organized 2 other panels for the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in June. Then in August, I’ll be speaking on 3 more panels at Netroots Nation. I’m looking forward to a break from conferences for a while after all of that.

Recently, I was featured in Vivanista’s “Quintessential Careers” column for my work with SFBayStyle, and I was interviewed for an Entrepreneur magazine piece about social media as well.

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

July 4, 2009

July 4th Patriotic Song List

Filed under: government,music,politics — Sarah Granger @ 7:01 am
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>In honor of the celebration of our Independence Day, I put together as many patriotic tunes as I could find for an iTunes mix. Many didn’t make the cut, but I selected my favorites that fit together in the most celebratory arrangement I could work out for a July 4th cd mix, song list here (downloadable on iTunes as an iMix called “Sairy’s July 4 CD Mix”:

“Star Spangled Banner” performed by The U.S. Military Bands
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by The Andrews Sisters
“Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springstein
“Our Country” by John Mellencamp
“American Pie” by Don McLean
“America, the Beautiful” sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
“America” by Neil Diamond
“This Land is Your Land” by Woodie Guthrie
“The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Jennifer Hudson
“My Country! ‘Tis of Thee” sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
“America” by Simon & Garfunkel
“R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A.” by John Mellencamp
“Only in America” by Brooks & Dunn
“U.S. Blues” by the Grateful Dead
“Yankee Doodle Dandy” performed by The Hollywood Studio Orchestra & Chorus
“When The Saints Go Marchin’ In” performed by The Dukes of Dixieland
“Strike Up the Band” arranged & performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra

Happy Fourth of July!

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

February 4, 2009

My Afternoon at the White House

Filed under: government,media,politics — Sarah Granger @ 6:46 am
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>
Me behind the podium in the White House press briefing room today.

I arrived late to the press briefing, but luckily the Press Secretary was behind schedule as well. After I settled next to the wall (where apparently CNN would catch me on TV anyway), I tweeted the press briefing. Then I spoke with press staffers about some stories I’m working on, talked with some other reporters including Katie Couric, who was there with other major anchors to interview President Obama. After that, on my request, someone from CNN took my picture and convinced me to stand behind the podium for the shot. It was a fun afternoon.

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

February 1, 2009

Fem 2.0

Filed under: blogging,politics,technology,women,writing — Sarah Granger @ 8:06 am
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>The question of where to go in terms of the feminist movement in the future with new media and the new millennium is a big one, and several people got together to plan a conference and brainstorming session around this concept. Feminism encompasses a broad range of ideals including gender equity, equal rights, pay equity, reproductive choice, and much more.

The challenge of the original feminist organizations as well as some of the newer ones is: where do we go now? The Fem 2.0 conference and online dialogue will hopefully provide some direction in this area.

I’ll be speaking on one of the panels about feminism in the media and how to help women’s organizations expand their outreach online. The conference is being held Monday, February 2nd at George Washington University in Washington, D.C..

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http://www.sairy.com/

….. by Sarah Granger

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