Nix Bits

So I was feeling all invigorated from attending my first Rising Tide on Saturday. Unfortunately, I ended up working all night and felt like a zombie on Sunday. There was simply no way I could string two coherent words together, much less complete whole sentences.

It really was fantastic to meet everyone that I’ve read, enjoyed, and sometimes interacted with these past three years: Celcus, Jeff (Library Chronicles), Maitri, Ali (Fiyo on da Bayou — a new blog for me), Dangerblond, Sophmom, Liprap, Eli, Karen, Varg,Schroeder, Adrastos, Tim, Loki. I’m sure there’s more. I tried to take notes….

I’ve got to update my blogroll now…

So, in true New Orleans fashion, the official program got started about 15 to 20 minutes late. But once underway we had John Barry deliver the keynote. I’ve read Rising Tide and his several post Katrina editorials but it’s different hearing the man in person.

He really drives home the point that our problem here is a solvable, manmade and national problem. For example, when we talk about the loss of marsh-building sediment in the river, it’s not just the flood protection levees that have caused that. According to Barry, half the sediment loss in the river occurs in the Dakotas due to dams built to provide power to that region.

His essay about What You Need to Know About Katrina, is required reading.

My favorite quote of his from the day: “Risk communication is simple. You tell the truth.”

This was followed by the Education panel that included Leigh Dingerson, Cliff, G-Bitch, Christian Roselund, and teacher Jeffrey Berman. This is a topic that I just don’t know that much about so the discussion was very interesting to me. It was interesting because despite all the trumpeting in various publications about how great this “experiment” is in New Orleans, the changes in the educational system are incredibly confusing.

For me, Cliff really cut through with his parent’s perspective and historical view of the educational system in New Orleans.

We don’t want to have anything with the RSD schools. I went there and was an honors student and when I got to UNO, I hadn’t seen half the stuff up there … I don’t want to go to the same schools, I don’t want the same education … A large part of the population doesn’t care.

Cliff also talked about the isolation of people in his community that “don’t read the paper, don’t watch WWL, don’t read blogs” and the suspicion that engenders. It’s that kind of history that leads people to label idealistic young teachers like Jeffrey as “carpet baggers” and has him seeing only 3 or 4 parents on a parent-teacher conference.

I don’t know what the answers are here but I’m a lot more engaged and interested in what’s going on with the educational system as a result of being at RT. And I’m reminded that when you read these puff pieces in the paper that could be school board press releases, your skepticism is warranted.

Jeffrey moderated an interesting Journalism panel that included Lee Zurik, E, Kevin Allman, and David Winkler-Schmit . This was a lively panel and Jeffrey did a great job preparing.

The crowd really roared when Lee acknowledged Karen and Sarah for initially breaking the NOAH scandal. And that’s very important to bloggers because we’re not getting paid for this. So it’s all about reputation. At least in New Orleans, bloggers aren’t just reacting to the news, they’re on the leading edge and working with the “professional” media in critical and constructive ways.

Much discussion centered around the idea that the “cream rises to the top” in blogging. More and more people link to a story and it gains traction. We were all struck that not only do Lee (“My eyebrows are real”) and his counterparts read blogs, but Cerasoli and others do too. Lee scoffed more than once at the notion of “amateur investigators”; it’s clear that he gets that this is the essence of citizen involvement. I was struck at the parallels between blogger journalism and Open Source software — but I’m a geek like that.

Lunch was graciously provided by J’anitas. Breakfast was courtesy of levees.org who also premiered a brief film debunking some popular notions about New Orleans and Katrina that they hope will gain some national attention. It’s nothing we don’t all know down here. I’ll have to send it to a few friends and family out of town and get their take on it.

The final panel of the day was the Politcs panel moderated by Adrastos. Lots of discussion about the DA’s race and approach to crime in the city. Ethan Brown spoke emphatically about how insanely high our murder rate is in this city compared to any other place in the country and he’s right. It’s completely out of control. And while the DA alone can’t fix it (we need a new mayor and police chief), prosecuting low-level drug offenders isn’t doing us a damn bit of good.

At the end of the panel, I asked perhaps too snarkily, what was next for our current mayor when he leaves office in 2010. Dangerblond said she would be glad that “the nightmare was finally over.” But Greg actually said what I was thinking. Nagin is not going away unless he somehow gets indicted and put in jail and even that won’t necessarily knock him out. “He will run for something else” . Unfortunately, I agree.

All in all it was a fantastic event and I’m looking forward to RTIV and perhaps spending a little more “face time” with some new friends.