Monthly Archives: April 2011

The 20 greatest soul tunes you’ve never heard

Posted on by
1

I’ve been listening to a lot of soul music lately, new and old. It’s like tea or a nice chianti – you’re never sorry to have a little. And you can serve it almost anytime.

The problem with soul is that people play the same Motown oldies over and over which (while great) no one really needs to hear again. (“My Girl” anyone?) Here’s a buncha soul or r&b tracks I love that I’d never heard of til recently. Got more? Please leave em in the comments! 

Raphael Saadiq — Stone Rollin’

My early vote for song of 2011. Sounds like it coulda been recorded 30 years ago, in a sweatier sexier Motown.

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside — Danger

Don Covay — Mercy, Mercy

I love songs about guys who go see gypsies to get their fortunes read.

The Heavy — How You Like Me Now

From the soundtrack to The Fighter. (If you like this, check “Coleen.”)

Precious Bryant — The Truth

“I like the truth.”

Wilson Pickett — Ninety-Nine and a Half  (Won’t Do)

99.5% = uh uh! Probably one of my favorite “songs you’ve never heard of” of all time. Lost classic.

Betty Harris — What I Do Wrong

Five stars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_FtmrQiew

O.V. Wright — We’re Still Together

Charles Bradley — The Golden Rule

“How can we stop the changes goin’ in America today / Come back to the golden rule”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQU_zHkzU4U

Merry Clayton — Gimme Shelter

She sang it with the Stones. This is her solo version.

Johnny Guitar Watson – Ain’t that a Bitch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6saUWulzHFQ

Bunny Sigler — Sunny Sunday

Sunday late afternoon blues.

The Meters — Hand Clapping Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ifZxD5PJI

Lee Dorsey — Yes We Can

This track’s famous, but I just discovered it recently for some reason. Before Obama said it, Lee sang it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcnEnElRLuk

Aretha Franklin — The Weight

Such an amazing version. Way better than The Band’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reeE8mbh0zA

Aaron Neville — You Can Give

Listen to it here.
“Well I’m glad you found out / just like I knew you would / that a sip of your own medicine / it don’t taste so good.”


Phoebe Snow — Shakey Ground

I’m not sure which I like better — her version or The Temptations version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX7OD9pUvCY

Aretha Franklin — You’ll Lose a Good Thing

Listen to it here.
Lotsa people play the same ole Aretha tunes over and over. Which is a shame cuz she’s got so many great tunes.

Nina Simone — To Love Somebody

Ok, maybe you’ve heard of this one — but it’s new to me.  Came across it through the Joe Strummer documentary on Netflix (“The Future is Unwritten”).

Al Green — I’ve Never Found a Girl

And maybe you’ve already got this one. But it’s awesome and it’s not “Let’s Stay Together.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UV6I4mtHos

Lemme know what you’d add to this list?

Mozilla seeks Product Manager for Hackasaurus. Help kids hack.

Posted on by
2

Another great new job posting at Mozilla. The Hackasaurus project is seeking a visionary Product Manager to help Hackasaurus scale up and go on a global digital literacy rampage. Create software and experiences that teach kids HTML and the building blocks of the web. But more importantly, teach them to think like hackers. More below. Apply here.

Product Manager, Hackasaurus
Mozilla

Learn more and apply here.

Responsibilities:

  • Wake up every morning focused on making Hackasaurus awesome.
  • Build a strategy and product requirements for new  Hackasaurus features, focused on user experience and learning. Ensure that the  tool and curriculum development are tied to real learning outcomes.
  • Own the overall Hackasaurus user experience. Ensure  Hackasaurus “customers” and partners are well served. Create a finished  product on the web that people — especially youth — want to use.
  • Manage the overall development roadmap for Hackasaurus tools (like X-Ray Goggles, HTMLpad, etc.). Work closely with the Technical Lead.
  • Constantly incorporate testing and feedback from learners and users in  the field.
  • Provide project management and support to the Creative and Technical Leads.
  • Enable participation and co-building. Empower communities to help develop the tools and curriculum together. Work in the open and follow open source development processes.
  • Drive links to other Mozilla education projects like School of Webcraft and badges.
  • Help this grow into one of Mozilla’s biggest and most successful global projects. Change the way kids learn the web. Create something on the same level of scope and ambition as the “Boys and Girl Scouts of the web.”

Attributes:

  • Has a mix of technical and educational / curriculum experience.
  • Is passionate about digital literacy and empowering youth.
  • Able to communicate and work with partners, especially Learning Networks.
  • Manage a growing and geographically distributed team.
  • Evangelize for the project and Mozilla’s larger vision for open education and digital literacy.
  • Understand the Mozilla / open source ethos around “hacking” and why teaching youth hacker habits is important

Learn more and apply here.

A recent Hackasaurus event at New York's Hall of Science

About Hackasaurus

http://hackasaurus.org/
Hackasaurus helps youth hack. Hackasaurus tools, events and online experiences make it easy for youth to uncover and mess around with the building blocks that make up the web — empowering them to move from  digital consumers to active producers, and see the web as a space they  can  shape, remix and make better.

Learners make use of youth-friendly tools — like “X-Ray Goggles” and “HTMLpad” — that help them uncover, remix and start creating and sharing on the web in seconds. Youth can also participate in “hack jam” events around the world that make hacking and digital literacy accessible, social and  fun.

Learners come away with  fundamentals like HTML and CSS skills, safe browsing habits, iterative design, and an understanding the web’s conceptual building  blocks. More importantly, they gain hacker habits and the combination of technical and social skills they need to become  active co-creators, shape their online environments, and take charge of their own learning.

Learn more and apply here.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21185874]

Mozilla seeks School of Webcraft manager to change the world

Posted on by
3

This new job posting just went live. Please circulate and shout from the rooftops. This is an amazing opportunity for the right candidate.

Product Manager, School of Webcraft
Mozilla & Peer 2 Peer University

Learn more or apply now.

Responsibilities

  • Wake up every morning focused on making the School of Webcraft awesome. 
  • Shape the School of Webcraft’s overall curriculum goals and learning map. Identify and help deliver the skills web developers need in today’s world.
  • Own the School of Webcraft user experience. Be an advocate for users. Make sure the learning process is clear and feels good for learners.
  • Promote industry acceptance and recognition for the School of Webcraft.
  • Identify the key skills and competencies web developers need, and work with P2PU and Mozilla staff to implement badges and certification to recognize them.
  • Link with internal Mozilla partners (like the Mozilla Developer Network) to drive content development.
  • Link with other organizations and initiatives working on web developer training and curricula (like OWEA, Opera, WaSP).
  • Co-ordinate with Peer 2 Peer University staff, provide input on the online platform technology roadmap, assessment models and badges to support learners and learning outcomes.
  • Enable community participation. Work with the course and curriculum coordinator to identify and support volunteers with leadership potential in the School of Webcraft community.
  • Outreach to the web development community. Speak at developer conferences, engage with related networks, etc.
  • Work in the open. Share and document work through regular blog posts and other public media.
  • Drive regional expansion into new communities. Spread School of Webcraft to new locales and languages.
  • Manage the course and curriculum coordinator.
  • Metrics. Help set metrics for success and evaluate whether we’re reaching those goals.

Attributes

  • Has a web development background. Speaks web developers’ language.
  • Understands the industry perspective. Comfortable communicating with employers.
  • Passionate about web skills training and curriculum. Has some experience with learning and educational innovation.
  • Excellent communication and community-building skills. Comfortable with a peer learning environment that’s all about community participation.
  • Passionate about open source. Understands and loves the open web.

Details

  • This position reports to the P2PU Executive Director.
  • Full time Mozilla employee with full benefits, on an initial one-year term.
  • The position is not bound by location. Open to remote work.
  • The job requires some travel, within North America and internationally.

About the School of Webcraft

http://p2pu.org/webcraft

  • The School of Webcraft is a joint venture between Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU). Together we’re building a grassroots learning community focused on web development based on open standards.
  • Our mission:
  • The problem: Web developer training is expensive, out of reach, and out of touch with how the internet is evolving.
  • The solution: Peer learning powered by mentors and learners like you. Self-organized study groups that leverage existing open learning materials, with a smart social layer over top.
  • The goal: Make web developer training free, open and globally accessible. Offer skills and certification that build careers around the open web.

Learn more or apply now.

Best Hackasaurus event ever

Posted on by
1

The design jam's drawing and paper prototyping station

75 kids. From as young as 11 all the way to pre-College age. Building stuff in the controlled chaos of a mini-maker festival. Becoming experts, teaching each other, and using Hackasaurus tools to learn about how hacking and the web connect to topics they’re already interested in.

Mini design challenges and maker jams for kids

That’s what happened at the New York Hall of Science last week. Check out Jess Klein’s thorough and thoughtful post for a detailed account. It’s our most successful and well-attended Hackasaurus event to date.

And thanks to some stellar work from Mozilla’s Atul Varma and Dan Mosedale, it’s now easier than ever for participants to share their hacks. Using a new easy screen-sharing add-on, learners can post their hacks directly to the Hackasaurus Flickr stream with the touch of a button. Adding Lady Gaga’s face to your Facebook log-in page — and recording it for posterity — has never been simpler.

"i hacked facebook to put lady gagas face on it :) " -- One of the hacks shared using the new easy-share functionality.

What did we learn?

  • Start with stuff participants are already interested in. The event was framed less around “teaching kids to hack,” and more around a specific design challenge. Namely, creating representations of learners’ carbon footprint on the planet, which was part of a larger unit they were already working on.
  • Use existing communities and event structures. Working with the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) “My Carbon Footprint” project allowed the Hackasaurus team to provide an experience for a readymade audience, instead of building from scratch.
  • Use embedded assessment. Atul’s new self-guided missions are a great example — it’s always immediately clear whether what you’re doing is working and on track. Just like in a video game. (Jess will say more about this later.)

Students help prototype exhibits about climate change for the Virtual Hall of Science, the kickoff project of My Carbon Footprint.

  • Create a maker space and divide it up into stations. So that kids can self-select and focus on the aspect they’re most interested in.
  • Make sure kids come away with shareable artifacts. That’s why the new easy-share functionality is so important. Many kids don’t have their own Facebook or email accounts either, so easy sharing is crucial.
  • Build in opportunities for kids to teach their parents. When parents came by to pick up their kids, the kids got to teach their folks. Cool huh?
  • Mix digital and analog materials. For a range of different experiences. Draw some stuff that can be digitized and incorporated into web pages. Get your hands dirty. Bridge the physical and digital.
  • Have food. Duh.