In attendace: Adam, Bernard, ae, Ruby, Brian, Anton and Corey. It being May 11th, Corey was celebrating his wedding anniversary; Christina joined us later after her lab work with C. elegans. Bernard shared his good news: he’s decided to go back to school, and expects to be studying in JOMC and SILS this fall. Somehow, we got to talking about parents and adult computer literacy. Bernard suggested to Brian, who’s trying to coax his mother to using her computer, that the best way to teach adults is to start with vocabulary. Brian replied that instructors need to relearn how they talk about technology; he recommended Doc Searls’s two-part article, Getting Flat. I talked about communication tools for families, and related how, at a recent family reunion (during a tense powwow), my family mentioned how important our family website is for keeping the siblings informed. Bernard related how he bought his father an early facsimile machine, and they kept in touch with volumunious fax transmissions. Brian brought up Paul’s post about the Chapel Hill city website coming makeover, and he encouraged the bloggers in the area to raise the level of civic discussion about whether the city should so quickly be outsourcing such a vital online task. (Orange Politics has since taken up the conversation.) That led to chat about local media coverage of blogs. I suggested I’d propose to the Independent that they have a column about local blog postings, similar to its zine column. (Fiona, I’ll be in touch soon.) Turns out the N&O has a new online column about local blogs. (via Paul) Ruby said she needs more contributors and guest bloggers at Orange Politics. Contact her if you want to write for that site. Ruby also related her recent runin with the dimwits at MSNBC, who ridiculed Ruby and Brian’s unique wedding site. Brian told of the logo contest for podcastercon.org – get your entries in today.