Anderson@Large

Let’s Tumblr

I wrote my first blog post on Jan. 20, 2005. One thousand seven hundred and five posts later, I still enjoy blogging.

In the era of Web 2.0, I also curate news and information on microplatforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

In a recent post, Mathew Ingram, a senior writer with GigaOM, asked what happens when journalism is everywhere:

One of the real threats to traditional journalism that come out of this phenomenon (if there are any) is that the ability to report and publish and broadcast the news in real time from events such as the Zuccotti Park protests can turn anyone into what journalists have traditionally been: namely, a trusted filter for the news. Mitchell describes how one college student created a summary of the event that got tens of thousands of views in a matter of hours and was embedded by the Washington Post. Does that make him a journalist? Of course it does — in exactly the same way that Pakistani programmer Sohaib Athar became a journalist by live-tweeting the raid on Osama bin Laden, something NPR digital editor Andy Carvin described as a “random act of journalism.”

There’s an app for mobile journalism -- Tumblr. I signed up for Tumblr back in 2009 but I did not publish my first post until yesterday.

Let’s get ready to Tumblr.

Have You Voted Yet?

I’m part of the 99 percent.

Now that I have your attention :-), I hope you will “just take five” and vote for me for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award.

Thank you.

It’s My Birthday

Yes, it’s my special day. Fortunately it only happens every five to 10 years ;-).

It’s also the day before voting begins for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award. I’m one of the nominees.

As a voting rights advocate, I LOL that I’m the first one listed. Studies show that ballot order matters.

So I thank you in advance for your vote. Check back tomorrow for the link to the site.

Now back to my irregularly scheduled program.

Meet The Innovators

Ten years ago, my idea to write and produce a documentary about the 2000 election debacle was met with skepticism. After all, I had no film training or experience.

But I had a story to tell and access to the players. I assured the director and editor if they just followed what I wrote, audiences will like the film. They did and audiences did. My documentary, “Counting on Democracy,” aired on PBS stations nationwide.

It was déjà vu in March when I heard Startup America Partnership CEO Scott Case say African American entrepreneurs are largely invisible to investors. I thought, hmm, I should do something about that. And the seed for “The Innovators” was planted.

“The Innovators” will be crowd-funded. I have 29 days to raise $25,000. With your support, I will make my goal. So please help a sister out and go to Kickstarter and kick in what you can.

I thank you in advance for your support.

Head in the Cloud

It’s Day 2 of Philly Tech Week. For most of the day, my head will be in the cloud – cloud computing, that is.

First, there is a workshop on why nonprofits should care about cloud computing.

Later, I will attend CloudCamp Philly.

At the end of the day, I should understand why Amazon’s cloud computing customers are not on “Cloud Nine.”

It's My Anniversary

Six years ago today, I published my first blog post. I published it on the fly at Harvard, where I was attending a conference, Blogging, Journalism & Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground.

I did not own a laptop in 2005 so I had to practically beg a staffer to let me use her computer. I'm audacious but I was not going to show up at an invitation-only event without having published a single blog post.

Three laptops and nearly 1,500 posts later, I'm still passionate about blogging.

But passion doesn't pay the bills. And you know “ain't nothing going on but the rent.”

If you value this independent source of news and information and fact-based commentary, show me some love on my anniversary and make a donation.

To paraphrase Gwen Guthrie, a fly girl like me needs an iPad. Thank you for your support!

Transparency for Thee, but Not for NAACP

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post about Wells Fargo’s sponsorship of the NAACP’s 101st annual convention that ignited a controversy. The heat from bloggers smoked out NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Ben defended the NAACP’s partnership with Wells Fargo on the grounds the agreement “improves their practices and increases their transparency in ways that go far beyond what we could win in court.”

But there’s nothing groundbreaking about an agreement that commits Wells Fargo to doing what it says it is already doing.

Don’t take my word for it. Click here for “Wells Fargo & Co. Responsible Lending Principles for Consumer Credit.” The page was last updated Oct. 1, 2009.

Also, Wells Fargo has had an African American Business Services program since 1998.

As previously noted, I know Ben. I should also note that Ben has called me, but I have not returned his call. The reason: I don’t want to hear that I should trust him and not my lying eyes.

Instead, Ben should just answer the questions:

How do the “fair mortgage lending principles” differ from Wells Fargo’s Responsible Lending Principles for Consumer Credit?

Was a formal partnership agreement signed? If so, how will it be enforced?

Does the NAACP have the resources to examine the lending practices of the fourth-largest U.S. bank with more than 27,000 employees?

How will the NAACP be able to succeed when the Treasury Department, after a $25 billion $36.9 billion bailout, has not been able to get Wells Fargo to change its behavior towards struggling homeowners or increase access to capital for small businesses?

The Service Employees International Union’s profile of Wells Fargo states:

• Wells Fargo put taxpayers on the hook for up to $36.9 billion in bailout funds and programs plus an unknown amount from the Federal Reserve's $8 trillion in emergency programs. This money was supposed to help the banks get the economy going again. But little of this money has gone to relieve struggling homeowners and increase the flow of credit to small businesses.
• Despite its large portfolio of at risk mortgages, Wells Fargo has started trial mortgage modifications for only 11% of its 292,515 borrowers who are eligible for the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program (and are at least 60 days past due). At Wachovia, which Wells Fargo acquired in 2008, the number is even lower, 2% of 74,231 eligible borrowers.

SEIU should demand that the NAACP answer the questions. After all, SEIU is mobilizing support for the “Showdown on K Street.”

SEIU and allies will call out lobbyists for Big Bank -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo -- who are using campaign contributions to weaken financial regulatory reform.

The New York Times reports the NAACP and SEIU are organizing a rally in October to “create momentum for President Obama and Congress to enact more progressive-minded legislation on jobs, a financial overhaul and other matters.”

In his blog post, Ben wrote the NAACP paid a price for filing the lawsuit against Wells Fargo:

It was not without a price. Just before I did so, I informed our board that we would need to revise down our corporate revenue projections because we would be bringing lawsuits against corporate supporters . . . .

[...]

Wells Fargo stopped supporting our national events shortly after we announced the suit.

Ben asserted the agreement “does not interfere with but complements lawsuits brought by cities which are largely for remunerative damages.”

We now know dropping the lawsuit has been remunerative for the NAACP. But the civil rights organization has not disclosed how much remuneration it has received from Wells Fargo.

In addition to sponsoring the annual convention, Wells Fargo is a co-sponsor of the upcoming Leadership 500 Summit.

There is no such thing as free money. The question remains: What is Wells Fargo getting in exchange for its corporate support?