Web 2.0 Never Forgets – Developing a Professional Digital Footprint from Alvin Trusty on Vimeo.

Here are the Valentines we sent to school with the kids this year.  We managed to fit two pictures on a 4×6 photo and had them printed by Snapfish.  Taffy didn’t seem to mind the attention.

I met Lawrence Lessig this evening (he’s the skinny one in the picture).  He gave a lecture at BGSU – From Copyright to Corruption and Back Again.  The talk was a little less than an hour and in true Lessig style had more than 650 slides.  I talked with him for a few minutes before his presentation.  I only had time for a couple of questions.

Q1 – Who is the tougher crowd?  A room full of college students or the US Supreme Court?

A1 – Definitely the college students.

Q2 – Who will win in the end?  Shepard Fairey, Mannie Garcia or the Associated Press?

A2 – I actually represent Shepard, so I’m a little biased.  He will win.

It was a pleasure to meet the founder of the Creative Commons foundation.  Lessig said (for the first time in public) that more than 350,000,000 works have been licensed with some form of Creative Commons.  He talked mostly about copyright, but has shifted his energy to a campaign against corruption.  Combining the efforts of Change Congress with a new (yet to be named) group, the goal is to change the way money gets to politicians.  One statistic he gave was that the average investment with a lobbyist in Washington D.C. gives a 22,000% return.  He then gave example after example of how congress has made the wrong choice in legislation, choosing the side of the lobbyists over represented constituents.  If the money can be taken out of the equation, politicians should stop voting like idiots and start representing the people who elected them.

The talk was informative, entertaining and inspiring.  If you have the chance to sit in on a lecture, I highly recommend it.

Each year the Black Knight Marching Band names the Most Promising Young Marcher.  KELSEY GOT THE AWARD!!!

Please wish the BKMB the best as they compete in the OMEA State Marching Band Finals on Friday.  It is the first ever for the school. 

Every year, on the day after Trick or Treat, the local school has Knight’s Fest.  The mascot of the school is the Black Knight and the design and layout of the elementary building is that of a medieval castle.  Knight’s Fest gives each student a chance to dress up in some sort of medieval costume (we see a lot of knights and princesses on Trick or Treat night) and participate in a parade, concert and Knightly games.  Of course the elementary principle is the king and the school secretary is the queen.  Often they ride in a horse drawn carriage during the parade.

Every day the elementary, middle school and high school have video announcements.  With the addition of a TriCaster this year, KnightVision (catchy name) has become an impressive daily broadcast on UStream.

They were onsite during Knight’s Fest and happen to interview Maria (it’s about 13 minutes in).  Notice the text over the lower third in the video.  The whole operation is produced by the students.  They operate the cameras, mix the video in real time adding Creative Commons music and pipe it out to UStream.  There must be a long line to get into the class, because they certainly look like they enjoy what they are doing.

The video class also broadcasts Van Buren sporting events.  Our football games this year have had three cameras mixed down live with scores and other overlays.  Hopefully instant replay review is not in the near future for high school sports.