Fascinated by the fact that San Quentin State Prison is on Yelp.

Though it looks like this started out as a snarky joke, I’m loving the re-appropriation of the space for conversation about prison conditions and tourist mentality. In some ways I think having students look at review sites like Yelp as sites of civic participation offers tremendous potential. I think students accessing and engaging in conversations through these venues offer the kind of imagination that’s lacking in much of today’s youth-organizing and public participation methods.

Somewhat reminds me of what’s happening with book reviews for The Possessed. The debate around the Macmillan vs. Kindle situation is clouding authentic book review. (Full disclosure, I found this site from reading the author’s blog. This guest post, in particular, is fantastic.)

Only tangentially related, I’ve been feeling skeptical about crowd sourcing and grant funding. I’m excited about the Refresh Everything project, but feel it’s going to mainly help those that need help less than those that can’t directly connect and leverage mass online participation (like, say, public school teachers and students in South Central Los Angeles). I’m still wrapping my head around this but when my Twitter and Facebook feeds are full of advocates to vote for TFA and other well-established programs, I can’t help but wonder what other voices are being left out. More to come on this topic – there is, after all, a whole year for this program.