rejon.org is Jon Phillips.

I am working hard and trying to stay in and on regimen right now knocking off the backlog, killing yer tasks you wondering about, making code, projects, and more before heading off to CNBloggerCon in Guangzhou this weekend!

Here is the synposis of my talk discussion tomorrow night in Beijing, which is more like a discussion over something I’ve been thinking about much and trying to remember exactly why I am doing all this source sharing and contributing. Its not quite so existenstial — ok, maybe it is! Regardless, I want to hang out, meet more people in Beijing, have some drinks, and talk about the following:

Why Share Your Source?: High Priority Free Software and Culture Projects
Why do thousands of people around the world work tirelessly, oftentimes unpaid, hours contributing software and content to the world through free/libre and open source (FLOSS) projects? How is that seconds after Obama is elected, his Wikipedia entry is updated freely by a swarm of volunteers around the world?

This presentation examines the rationale beyond “feel good magic” of why people contribute time freely in the FLOSS and free culture movements. Jon Phillips discusses the reasoning behind contributing to large scale collaborative projects by first discussing his own past and current involvements with Creative Commons, Open Clip Art Library, Open Font Library and Inkscape in order to open up discussion about how and why people contribute to FLOSS and free culture projects. The presentation closes with a discussion about the highest priority free software and cultural projects important for the world and china.

The ultimate goal for the presentation is to have a discussion with all participants in order to examine why we contribute and what we feel the highest priority projects are for ourselves, china and the world.

Time: 7pm
Date: Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Location: Traktirr Russian Restaurant, 5-15 DonZhiMen NeiDaJie,DongZhiMen west of DongZhiMen subway
Phone: 8407-8158
Map: here

I have a love/hate relationship with Linux User Groups as in mostly hate from bad experiences that turned me off from Linux for maybe a good 2 years when I first started grad school back in 2001. Luckily I met Bryce from Inkscape and all the other Inkscapers helped change that bad feeling I got that all Linux people were arrogant.

After speaking at Gnome.Asia (yes, I still updated slides!!!), which the Beijing Linux Users Group setup and ran, I have the utmost respect for these guys and the cool projects they are working on. Trust me, its more than how they get free beer at all their events and stay out all night on most of their meetings — and I will not be swayed from my regimen my friends

Taking a cue from Lessig, and also post-talking with my parents, go vote Obama. Please!

I went to extra lengths this year to get a backup ballot and fax in to make sure my vote is counted (in California nonetheless) since I’m in Beijing xinxai. Thanks to my dad for helping with this as well! My dad just called and confirmed this. I proceeded to make sure that he (my #midwest #barometer) knows just how important it is that he and my mom vote Obama, since they live in Missouri!

It is super important for more than just local politics, but for global politics, peace, and more importantly, the global economy, for as many as possible to vote for Obama.

I am not a believer in magic, but more of the sorts that the president is a temporary dictatorship. Regardless, vote like Chomsky would say, for the lesser of the two evils.

Oh, the “(or die)” part above is a joke. I will tell you kind readers though that I did dangle the changing of holiday travel from Beijing to Missouri over my parents if they don’t vote Obama Yeah! Extreme times require extreme measures

On Monday of this week, myself, Lu, Mitu Hopu, and our friend Lu Jia visited the closest point of desertification near Beijing, Tian Mo. It took alot of turns to get there to the point our off-license taxi looked ready to give up on this pursuit. We prevailed to find our beloved sand dunes with 2 camels out front and a Chinese park troll trying to charge us all 25 RMB per person to enter the park, which semi-sadly consisted of only two massive sand dunes. Regardless the size of the dunes, we had an amazing experience with the strangest set of characters also seeking out these bald spots forming in the landscape.

View Larger Map

Lu and I took the photos, and she has some chinese text to go along with at her blog.

We traveled over 200 Kilometers to get to this location. So did two different couples to get their photos taken by a jesus-like art figure carrying a frame as burden for us all! So did a couple whose car got stuck in the desert sand. So did about 50 young Chinese soldiers who apparently get to goof off all day.

Of course, China has many vast desert deserts:

Even where we live. Cao Chang Di, is under assault from the desert helping to breed ideas and research like Cao Chang Mo (ah, a project waiting to be completed).

The Chinese government is not doing enough to combat desertification as “the desert is sweeping into China’s valleys, choking rivers and consuming precious farm land. Beijing has responded with massive tree-planting campaigns, but the Great Green Walls may not be able to buffer the sand, which could cover the capital in a few years.”

While this is a problem for some, others like our troll gatekeeper friend are setting up businesses around the desert, brining in camels, and offering horse rides for 20 RMB an hour.

Pick a side! Are you for the desert or against it!