2007-11-15T16:08:00-05:00Joe Clark MicropatronageWhat’s new with Joe Clark’s micropatronage funding drivetag:joeclark-micropatronage,2007:T2007:T2007-11-15aJoe Clark2007-11-15T16:08:00-05:002007-11-15T16:08:00-05:00tag:post-round2,2007:T2007.10.15-revengeUpdate on Round 2<p>
Micropatronage: <strong class="caps">THE REVENGE</strong> was a qualified success, with about 25 donors contributing over $1,000. It came in handy and was actually even more appreciated than the first round. However, I can now attest that there are diminishing returns, literally and figuratively, associated with too many micropatronage drives.
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I am behind on doing the work you all paid for because of another job and an inconvenient combination of wrecking my back and having some kind of low-level cold that gives me enough concentration to read RSS but that’s about it. I do have notes on several topics, and hope to get back on the horse.
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Joe Clark2007-10-22T14:32:00-05:002007-10-22T14:32:00-05:00tag:post-aea,2007:T2007.10.22-revengeMicropatronage: This time it’s <em>personal</em><p>
Last year, I began a <dfn>micropatronage</dfn> campaign to fund me while I fundraised for my research project, the <a href="http://openandclosed.org/" title="OC-Pro">Open & Closed Project</a>. Now I’m giving micropatronage another go. This time the goal is to lobby against closed-door “standards” and in favour of our own open standards, and to propose a radical new deregulation plan that would provide fro 100% accessibility.
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This time I’m trying something new. <a href="http://joeclark.org/micro/" title="Joe Clark Micropatronage">This time <em>it’s personal</em>. Micropatronage: <span class="caps">THE REVENGE</span>.</a>
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Joe Clark2007-09-25T15:05:00-04:002007-09-25T15:05:00-04:00tag:mikropatronat,2007:T2007-09-25-revancheMicropatronage: <em>The Revenge</em>It’s coming. Believe itJoe Clark2007-06-25T10:12:55-04:002007-06-25T10:12:55-04:00tag:openandclosed.org,2007:T2007-06-25-ctvAnnouncing a write-in campaign for fundingYou are now invited to write E-mails in support of funding of the Open & Closed Project as part of a broadcasting-industry process. Remember: Be nice!
Joe Clark2007-04-02T17:09:00-04:002007-04-02T17:09:01-04:00tag:openandclosed.org,2007:T2007-04-02-ctv2Finally, we apply for funding<p>
<strong>Your micropatronage dollars at work</strong>: I’ve <a href="http://openandclosed.org/funding/CTV/" title="Application to CTV for funding of the Open & Closed Project">applied</a> to CTV Globe Media for funding of the Open & Closed Project through social benefits arising from their proposed takeover of CHUM Ltd., or from other sources. <em>This</em> is the big thing I’ve been working on.
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Also: Letters of support from micropatronage <a href="http://openandclosed.org/docs/donorletters/" title="Micropatronage donors’ support letters">donors</a>.
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Joe Clark2007-06-10T10:12:00-05:002007-06-10T10:12:00-05:00tag:openandclosed.org,2007:T2007-06-010-ctvOur last chance for funding (from one particular source)<p>
The CRTC, the Canadian broadcasting regulator, has <a href="http://crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2007/db2007-165.htm" title="CRTC decision">approved</a> the sale of the CHUM television stations to CTV Globe Media, with significant restrictions. CTV was given 30 days to supply the list of recipients of social-benefits spending, for which the Open & Closed Project applied.
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This week, I will be launching a campaign for all micropatronage donors and other supporters to write respectful letters and/or E-mails to CTV to recommend that the Open & Closed Project make it to the final list of recipients. This isn’t the last chance we have for funding, but it is the last chance for funding from this source.
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Joe Clark2007-04-02T17:09:00-04:002007-04-02T17:09:00-04:00tag:openandclosed.org,2007:T2007-04-02-ctvFinally, we apply for funding<p>
<strong>Your micropatronage dollars at work</strong>: I’ve <a href="http://openandclosed.org/funding/CTV/" title="Application to CTV for funding of the Open & Closed Project">applied</a> to CTV Globe Media for funding of the Open & Closed Project through social benefits arising from their proposed takeover of CHUM Ltd., or from other sources. <em>This</em> is the big thing I’ve been working on.
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Also: Letters of support from micropatronage <a href="http://openandclosed.org/docs/donorletters/" title="Micropatronage donors’ support letters">donors</a>.
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Joe Clark2007-03-13T16:12:00-04:002007-03-13T16:12:00-04:00tag:joeclark.org,2007:T2007-03-13-lettresNext thing I’m looking for: Support letters<p>
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I’m putting together a set of letters to Canadian broadcasters pitching them to fund the Open & Closed Project. (Yes, it is really happening. It’s got to.) It is already impressive that I can say I have grassroots support, with 214 micropatrons offering cash donations.
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Now, supporters of all kinds are asked to write some kind of support statement – anything from a couple of sentences to a paragraph or a page – that could be included in the letters I’m writing. Your name would be listed, and the date of your statement, but not your E-mail address or anything else that would lead to spam. (If you have a preferred format for your name – J. Clark instead of Joe Clark, or whatever – let me know.)
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This is an optional step, but if you feel like doing it, just answering in an ordinary E-mail would suffice.
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Joe Clark2007-03-02T14:21:00-05:002007-03-02T14:21:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2007:T2007-03-02-etapes-prochainesA note on next steps<p>
Micropatronage donors may receive E-mails shortly asking for letters or E-mails of support that can be directed at funding sources. In other words, you may be asked to say, in effect, “Not only do I think Joe Clark’s research project is a good enough idea to fund <em>myself</em>, it’s a good enough idea to warrant <em>major</em> funding.” Such support letters will of course be optional.
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Joe Clark2007-03-02T14:20:00-05:002007-03-02T14:20:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2007:T2007-03-02-delaysWhy is this taking so long?<ul>
<li>I had to give three presentations in eight days in February, including a <a href="http://joeclark.org/nord" title="WDN07 notes">major one</a> in Vancouver at Web Directions North.</li>
<li>I was sick for nearly two weeks after Vancouver (as were many others).</li>
<li>I was working on a Woman’s Intuition that it was not quite time to file an application for funding under one of the broadcasting takeovers. Now it is, as <a href="http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Hearings/2007/n2007-3.htm#1" title="Broadcasting Notice of Public Hearing CRTC 2007-3">the CRTC has announced a hearing on the matter</a>. We’re up against 90 organizations for $103 million in funding (but an unknown number vying for the rather limited $1.5 million allocated for “research”).</li>
<li>I am never very productive, except when I have an absolute deadline, a possibly kottkësque admission.</li>
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Joe Clark2007-01-26T14:27:00-05:002007-01-26T14:27:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2007:T2007-01-26.f-uSmall update<p>
...which involves an Anglo-Saxon epithet (provided as a direct quote) that you will have to read about at the <a href="http://joeclark.org/micro/new/#T2007.01.26" title="What’s New at Joe Clark Micropatronage">What’s New page</a>, as I am not in a rush to place that word in an RSS file.
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Joe Clark2007-01-05T14:27:00-05:002007-01-05T14:27:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2007:T2007-01-05a1Post-Christmas update<p>
Things slowed down considerably before and during Christmas and New Year’s, leaving me with a giant to-do list staring me in the face in the form of a pile of 3×5 index cards. As with pretty much everything I’ve done in recent memory, this is not happening as fast as I expected.
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I did file a huge <a href="http://joeclark.org/access/crtc/OTA-2006/2/" title="Reply comments in CRTC OTA hearings">reply comment</a> to the Canadian broadcast regulator, replying, in fact, to about 60 pages of written material and excerpts from <em>450,000</em> words of transcripts. The Open & Closed Project solves a lot of the problems people were complaining about there. Interestingly, two educational broadcasters came out in favour of standards; they, and others, will be getting letters. An important fact I was able to assert is that the Open & Closed Project has industry <em>and grassroots</em> support, with some 170 people giving direct contributions and dozens more lending moral support.
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I also double-checked with many of the authors of previous <a href="http://openandclosed.org/docs/supportletters/" title="Support letters">support letters</a>. Do they still stand by what they wrote? And how, they said. Other support letters are being solicited.
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Donations continue to come in nearly every weekday, an amazing fact given that this program is no longer top-of-mind on many blogs. Perhaps I am the beneficiary of a long-tail effect. Nonetheless, I’m at nearly three-quarters of my goal thus far. I emphasize that equally important, if not slightly more so, is moral support, which remains abundant.
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I am still picking away, however, at converting my giant bibliography from Excel (yes) to standards-compliant HTML. I’m not going to use tables. If anyone can do this faster, please nominate yourselves.
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Joe Clark2006-12-10T17:23:00-05:002006-12-10T17:23:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.12.10a1Update at the one-month mark
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Yesterday was the one-month anniversary of the launch of Joe Clark Micropatronage. Time for an update.
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<ul>
<li>I’m about three-quarters of the way to my nominal goal of $7,777. Approximately 160 people have donated, and several dozen have posted blog entries and/or run banner ads. Shortly, all donors will have received custom thank-you notes, and everyone with any involvement whatsoever has my thanks here.</li>
<li>There’s <a href="http://ability.aol.com/ability/index.php?ID=239&catID=" title="Joe Clark interview">an interview up</a> at AOL Ability concerning me, the Open & Closed Project, and other issues.</li>
<li>Since I am being paid to work, work is what I’ve been doing. I just don’t have a lot that’s published yet.
<ul>
<li>I have completed typing my giant bibliography of accessibility citations (over 300); these remain to be converted to real HTML. </li>
<li>I have met with a methodologist to discuss how to actually carry out experiments. </li>
<li>Support letters are going up this week.</li>
<li>I bought the HDTV captioning spec and wrote a <a href="http://screenfont.ca/fonts/today/708/type-critique/" title="What does the HDTV captioning spec say about typography?">critique</a> of its typography chapter for Screenfont. (It ain’t pretty.)</li>
<li>I have a reasonable to-do list for updates to the Project Web site.</li>
<li>I have more meetings in the offing – e.g., sushi with a tomorrow, hopefully polonium-free.</li>
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</li>
<li>And in a turnabout that I may one day find amusing, I did something I never have done in 16 years online and sent a draft E-mail well before it was ready. As the message was addressed to all the leading deaf blogs and attempted to sell them on the Project, this worked rather less well than planned. I do outreach to blind blogs this week.</li>
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The biggest change is that, on several occasions, I have found myself unusually energetic and able to simply go from one task to another without worry or trouble. I was eventually able to identify these as the previously-little-known feelings of “happiness” and “fulfillment.”
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Joe Clark2006-11-27T13:53:00-05:002006-11-27T13:53:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.11.27a1Doing actual work rather than writing about doing work
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If it seems like nothing has been happening, well, things <em>have</em> been happening.
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<ol>
<li>Donations continue to trickle in. </li>
<li>I sent out the first batch of thank-you notes (some 150). </li>
<li>I have actually been doing work on the research project, including a meeting with a methodologist (my first methodologist); buying and reading a captioning standard; planning additions to the OC-Pro site; and trying to finish a massive accessibility bibliography.</li>
<li>More importantly, I have a <abbr title="Version">V</abbr>2.0 launch upcoming for deaf- and blind-related sites. I have, in essence, been working, not resting on my laurels. </li>
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Oh, and I’ve also been rebutting a few hate sites. I thought there wouldn’t be any of those.
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Joe Clark2006-11-13T18:37:00-05:002006-11-13T18:37:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.11.13a1Now we do Polski<ul><li>Heck, <a href="http://wojciechbednarski.com/web-accessibility/the-open-closed-project" title="Wojciech Bednarski">now we do Polski</a>. I asked <a href="http://Twardoch.com/" title="Adam Twardoch">Twardoch</a> for more-apt translations of the terms in question, with <cite>captioning</cite> and <cite>subtitling</cite> perennially difficult to separate (even for our dear British friends):
<dl>
<dt>Subtitling</dt>
<dd lang="pl">napisy</dd>
<dt>Captioning</dt>
<dd lang="pl">napisy dla niesłyszących</dd>
<dt>Audio description</dt>
<dd lang="pl">narracja dla niewidomych</dd>
<dt>Dubbing</dt>
<dd>dubbing (they just borrow the English)</dd>
</dl>
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And by the way, I can report with thanks that we’re already almost at the halfway point in this nominal $7,777 micropatronage drive.
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Joe Clark2006-11-11T10:16:00-05:002006-11-14T02:18:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.11.11a1106 Diggs106 Diggs <a href="http://digg.com/tech_news/Joe_Clark_s_looking_for_some_micropatronage_love/who">puts us on the front page</a>.
Joe Clark2006-11-10T14:52:00-05:002006-11-10T14:52:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.10a1Update on blog coverage<p>
OK, we’ve had quite a torrent of blog entries, all of them in favour of the micropatronage drive and the Open & Closed Project. Here are some favourites:
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<li>A. Ouimet of the Tea Makers is <a href="http://teamakers.blogspot.com/2006/11/joe-finds-me-patronizing.html">giving away a door prize</a> – Tea Makers desktop wallpaper for any micropatronage contributor who asks</li>
<li><a href="http://staff.interesource.com/priority4/november/joeclark.htm">Tracy Godding</a> of Interesource (as usual, a symphony of red)</li>
<li>Daniel Burka <a href="http://www.deltatangobravo.com/archives/2006/november/supportjoeclark">doesn’t want to sully his layout with our banners</a>. So we double-dared him: We’ll make one that matches his colour scheme and typography!</li>
<li><a href="http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2006/11/09/accessible_m/">Dave Shea</a></li>
<li><a href="http://adactio.com/journal/1203/">Jeremy Keith</a>: “Put your money where Joe Clark’s mouth is.” Touché</li>
<li>“<a href="http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/11/dude-sets-out-to-make-multimedia.html">Dude sets out to make multimedia better for all</a>.” <em>Dude!</em></li>
<li><a href="http://www.acrobatusers.com/blogs/duffjohnson/2006/11/10/help-joe-clark-start-the-open-and-closed-project/">Duff Johnson</a>, the <a href="http://blog.fawny.org/2006/10/19/pdfua-f2f/" title="In the fawny.blog archives: Our happy gang">affable and erudite chair</a> of <acronym>PDF/UA</acronym></li>
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Plus we’re on <a href="http://digg.com/tech_news/Joe_Clark_s_looking_for_some_micropatronage_love/who">Digg</a>, <a href="http://projects.metafilter.com/votes/638">MetaFilter Projects</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/url/46e026ad394528e16d6bd79206dcd373">Delicious</a>, and <a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/people/joeclark/bookmarks/sihobuh">Magnolia</a>.
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I take none of this support lightly. It is solidly appreciated and acknowledged with thanks.
</p>Joe Clark2006-11-09T18:49:00-05:002006-11-10T14:52:01-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.11a2New door prize from the Tea MakersIf you donate to my fund, <a href="http://teamakers.blogspot.com/2006/11/joe-finds-me-patronizing.html" title="Joe finds me patronizing">the Tea Makers will send you a desktop wallpaper image on request</a>.Joe Clark2006-11-09T01:15:00-05:002006-11-09T18:10:00-05:00tag:joeclark.org,2006:T2006.11a1Aaand... we launch!<p>
Aaand... we launch! ¶ More to come, including links to supporters’ pages
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Update: Now we’re on <a href="http://digg.com/tech_news/Joe_Clark_s_looking_for_some_micropatronage_love/who">Digg</a>.
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Further update: There are enough links to the micropatronage drive to follow them on <a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/%22joe%20clark%22%20-harper%20-conservative%20-tories%20-liberal%20micropatronage">Technorati</a> and <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/search?q=%22Joe+Clark%22+micropatronage&ql=en&s=f&pop=l&news=m">Bloglines</a>.</p>