1. Adomanis: He appears to have set himself a goal of becoming a recognized expert on Russia and is pursuing the goal with great energy. His facility with the language gives him an enormous advantage. He writes well and the bull terrier persona he favors is appealing. I don't have sufficient breadth of information to recognize when he is distorting the statements of others. Nevertheless I think he is a rising star. I believe he would be insulted if you put him on the governing network but did not give him a widget for his blog.
2. Rauhauser: I looked through the links he sent you and read some of his diaries from Daily Kos. I do not understand what he is doing, probably because I am unfamiliar with Twitter. If you think I should acquire knowledge about Twitter, let me know. As best I can tell Neal provides Twitter-related services to political campaigns. I will send him a message later today introducing myself and see what I can learn.
3. Nicholas Carr/David Brooks: http://trueslant.com/toddessig/2010/07/09/read-a-book-surf-the-web-you-dont-have-to-choose/ This guy, a psychologist, has a common-sense take on the thesis of these idiots, and suggests that the psychological research on the subject is not entitled to a lot of respect. As you know, my own take on it is that it is elitist nonsense. Sometime long ago I saw Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. give Barbara Walters or somebody a tour of his maisonette on Fifth Avenue, which included, of course, elegant rooms for reading and study, but I doubt even he would maintain that leisured reflection is essential for good thinking. What little we really know about Shakespeare suggests he wrote in a hectic and ungenteel environment.
4. The Captain Sean Carasov: he wants to be involved in the super-secret thing Barrett is cooking up, and also asked me for your hushmail address; the one you gave him did not work. Is this just his idiom, or is there some background I want before I reply to him?
5. Suggested work groups for governing network: I am beginning to wonder if the the Governing Network is well named, being mostly understood as a support organization for the blogger/journalist network, whereas things you have discussed, particularly recently, such as providing website assistance to Enlighten the Vote and finding volunteers for Rauhauser's political efforts, as well as connecting journalists writing about science with actual experts and engaging with bicycle activists, add up to a coalition of intellectually honest people, diverse in both beliefs and activities, quite different from groups built around defined clusters of issues. Great idea, I like it, but we haven't described or conveyed that yet. So maybe a redefinition or even re-naming of the Governing/Legislative network is indicated.
Possible task groups:
--Website help for Enlighten the Vote --See if we have people who want to work with Rauhauser (I might myself, although I have distaste for the Democratic Party in this state) --Design a structure that will connect journalists and scientists for assistance in preparing individual articles
--Come up with a replacement for the Workshop blog, which is inert and uninteresting and will break down when we have a large number of participants, which could occur overnight --Write up the specs for the widget software, so it can be programmed. (Scott and I will take a stab at this, but some experts would do better.)
--Write a constitution for the governing network --Assume leadership of the Africa Project