onfocus

When you enter Yosemite, a ranger gives you a map and some other papers. One of the papers is bright yellow with bold letters: "This is active bear country!" Sometimes you'll see a large grey tube on the side of a road with a sign that says "bear trap." (a picture.) At each campsite they provide bear lockers to store your food. If you happen to leave a cooler lying around outside of a bear locker, the park rangers will confiscate it. (I found that out the hard way on my first trip to Yosemite.) These are the motions you go through when camping at Yosemite, and it's just part of the routine. Even though these bear signs and warnings are all around, it wasn't the first thing on my mind when going for a hike...until now.

The Snow Creek Trail is on the North end of the valley, and is the steepest ascent to the high country. We didn't see anyone else on the trail. (Even hiking the length of the valley to Yosemite Falls once above this initial climb, we only saw two backpackers.) The first part of the trail is switchback after switchback after switchback. About 2/3rds of the way up, with Preston in the lead, he yelled down to Chief and me, "Bear!" We all froze.

I could hear the bear rustling in the bushes, but I couldn't see it. I tried to remember everything I had casually read about what to do when you see a bear. A fuzzy algorithm appeared: if (grizzly) {play dead?} elseif (black bear) {make a lot of noise?} I couldn't remember which went with which. I calmly yelled up anyway, "What kind is it?" Preston yelled down, "It's a brown bear." That didn't help too much. Then I worked out another algorithm: startled bear = bad. I yelled up again, "Does it know we're here?" Chief said, "I think so." I was looking for an escape route, and trying to figure out the best way to go. Should I run uphill? Down the trail? We all stayed frozen. Then I had a good look at the bear as it made its way across Chief's path. I yelled up, "It's coming down Chief!" He stayed still and got an even better look at the bear as it crossed the trail about eight feet away from him. The bear made its way down across the switchbacks and through the bushes.

We regrouped a ways up the trail and tried to remember what we were supposed to do. My adrenaline was flowing, and I wasn't so cool under the pressure. I think Preston, on the other hand, got a close-up picture of the bear. With the flash!

After seeing the size of a bear, and being with one in an uncontrolled environment, I'll read those bear warnings and safety tips with a heightened awareness.

Camped in Yosemite the past couple of days and went on some spectacular hikes. I didn't take as many pictures this time around, because I was focused on surviving the trek. I survived, but I'm going to be feeling yesterday's hike for a few days. What an amazing place.


Yosemite Falls and Half Dome

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Yosemite Valley

NYC Bloggers is mapping the location of bloggers in New York. Their mapping system is impressive. [via Blogger] Blogging has a lot in common with other forms of Internet communications that came before: usenet, IRC/instant messaging, etc. But I think local geographic-based organization is something completely unique to weblogs. It's funny that a global communications tool is connecting people who live down the street from each other. It's also inspiring.

I'll be gone and off the grid for a few days. I should be back with lots of snapshots.

Another view of Mt. Shasta

We spent Sunday in Portland. We started and ended the day at Powell's Books. It's three stories and an entire city-block of books. I could have spent the whole day browsing there. There are other specialty Powell's stores around Portland: cooking, technical, and travel. (It's not the only game in town, though, because we saw quite a few book stores.) We spent the rest of the day walking around the city. It was a very nice time with beautiful weather. I'm looking forward to visiting Portland again. I took a bunch of pictures. I hope you like buildings.


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The painted cows in a few of the pictures are part of the CowParade project.

skp and I went to Oregon over the holiday weekend. We had a great time, though it was a lot of time to spend in the car. I'd never been to Oregon before so I was surprised that you can't pump your own gas. You'd think that would make the gas more expensive, but compared with California's prices Oregon gas was cheap. Oh, and no sales tax was nice.

Like Jason, I was impressed by Clay Shirky's analysis of the LiveJournal community. Especially his findings about groups of 12 and how they allow people to have a satisfying experience. Since then, I've been noticing groups of twelve. Maybe it's a natural way to organize. I tried to come up with a list of famous 12's.

1. 12 apostles in Christianity
2. 12 causes of samsara in Buddhism
3. 12 tribes of Israel in Judaism
4. 12 people on a jury
5. 12 months in a year
6. 12 signs in the zodiac
7. 12 original American colonies (ok, 13 if you count Delaware)
8. 12 days of Christmas
9. 12 tone musical scale
10. 12-sided snow crystal
11. 12 immortals in Greek Mythology
12. 12 beers in a 12-pack

Yeah, so it was tough coming up with 12 groups of 12. But I think there's something to the idea that a group of 12 is easily divisible into smaller groups, yet maintains the identity of the whole.

Now the question is, how do you build community software that accommodates groups of 12, and encourages that equilibrium point? And how can the whole community scale (another great article on the subject by Clay Shirky) without loosing their individual group identities?

Are there other famous 12s?

PR Watch: Spinning the Web: "Some PR firms have also planted ringers in online chat rooms--paid consultants who defend their clients while concealing their financial ties to the company being discussed. 'A small industry is emerging among consultants who specialize in spinning online discussions to favor the positions of companies and interest groups,' the New York Times reported in October 1999. Audrie Krause, for example, works as a consultant for AT&T but has represented herself online as a 'consumer advocate' during discussions of broadband Internet access, a subject in which AT&T has a vested interest."

I think identity literacy and skepticism without disclosure are going to be important as PR firms use the Web more and more in an attempt to manage perception about issues and companies. The balance between privacy and disclosure is difficult, and hopefully online community developers can find ways to make it easier.

Anyway, the article quoted above shows how PR firms view the Web; both as a threat and an opportunity.