Tuesday, September 27, 2005

The Coalition and China, Secret Allies?

I just read a forwarded e-mail that contained news that China is cracking down on individuals and groups looking to distribute information and news in an effort to control information available on the Internet with the nation's goal to only provide "healthy and civilized" news.

As I have been blogging about communications, open and closed systems, and the impact on organizations and culture, this is a nice, slow under-hand pitch for an absolute home run item to blog about.

China must know something that the rest of the world does not if it can seriously make such statements and have the ability to enforce them.

But as we know from our own lives, China will probably make such information that it considers illegal to spread faster than it would otherwise.

If such proclamations were being done to protect and deserve national security, then China is almost to go on life-support soon.

I definitely know that the infamous Coalition have wanted and surely still wants the power to do what China claims it is going to be able to do.

But suppressing information within the Bond is probably more difficult than the task China faces.

When you have an organization of members who have a 100% college attendance rate and a lower graduation rate that is still rather high when compared to the national average, you better bring some serious rewards and consequences in order to achieve such a shameful goal.

But one thing that really caught my eye within the news is that well-known US corporations such as Microsoft and Cisco have been service providers of China within China's effort for communications control.

Time will clearly tell the story, the persecutions, and human rights violations that will be the end result of China's efforts.

I hope that The Coalition realizes the folly of China and moves within the opposite direction.

Here are a few links on articles about China's internet crackdown that I have read:

China toughens restrictions on Internet news

China - Another Internet Clampdown


Freedom of the press...only if it's 'healthy'


VCs Back China Blog Site: $10M


China steps up Web controls but investors untroubled


China is shaping the Internet, and not vice versa


Blogger handbook new tool in the fight against censorship


Handbook Educates Bloggers on Achieving Anonymity Online


Handbook offers tips for cyberdissidents


China Clamps Down on Internet News, Blogs


Saturday, September 24, 2005

Where Will You Begin To Address This Potential Problem--The Seed or The Fruit?

This potentially, controversial page discovered on Google today and all of the links as well have been already made available for public consumption since January 24, 2005.

Should it be banned somehow, considered off-limits, or not further acknowledged like bastardized information?

Like I mentioned before within a blog entry entitled "A Defining Fork in the Road", the integrity of 2 specific mailing lists have already been compromised through carelessness, bureaucratic thinking, and a whole host of other potential reasons.

But now that the information is already within Google's cache, is it illegal or unethical for the page and links to be brought to the attention of other potentially interested parties (among the Bond and/or nonmembers) within a blog such as this one or any other online distribution method where it can be potentially viewed by anyone?

Will I become villified somehow for exposing the truth that I did not create? Is Google somehow at fault?

Is the webpage to be considered fraternally pornographic and not permissible to be forwarded or sent within an e-mail as an URL?

Could you possibly violate some level of protocol yourself for possibly sharing even this blog entry with someone else as a result?

Will everyone else who also recognizes that the emperor is not wearing any clothes become a part of someone's incompetent blame game?

Will anyone care to hold the leadership of the online distribution methods accountable for not fully managing their operations as stringently as possible? If this was any other endeavor, then someone should either be fired, resign, or recalled.

One fundamental reason that such statements ultimately appear online (right or wrong) is that as the above blog entry mentioned that at least two Kappa-oriented mailing lists:

have been compromised by the integrity of its 2-man team leadership. Both mailing lists are controlled by the same parties.

Power in the hands of a few is truly a dangerous thing.


Since both online endeavors have somehow gotten focused on being controlled by the smallest imaginable minority by its current leadership, then its potential for abuse was left totally exposed.

No Kappa online or offline appears to know the hows and whys the current one-man ownership and 2-man leadership obtained absolute control.

Where is the supposed "development team" that I kept reading and hearing about and that was formed and existed after Brothers first congregated and fellowshipped at the Grand Conclaves in Philadelphia in 1995 and Detroit in 1997?

I still hold Grand Chapter via the Grand Board responsible for its hands-off activity for not fully protecting its members through some form of internet policy that I have previously recommended online and offline.

I for one always thought that there was a DEVELOPMENT TEAM that guided the list with continual oversight and implementation of decisions made by a vote somewhere and somehow.

Now that I have discovered that ownership has been restricted to a single individual and management extended to only 1 additional person (2 people total), I know that this situation is essentially the same as a doctor allowing a patient to drive home after being heavily medicated.

The liability goes through the roof for both the doctor (owner and moderators of the lists involved) and the hospital (Grand Chapter) for not taking the steps to insure that such an event could not occur.

Clearly if you check Google, no infractions or potential steps toward the gray area or out of bounds ever took place when the creator of the original mailing list was managing it.

But with bureaucratic leadership, you get bureaucratic results!!!


At a minimum, all mailing lists should be either at two ends of the spectrum: wide open (where it does not matter if the content is further distributed) or totally closed (where the leadership and management of the list continually educates the membership and implements guidelines to ensure that information "leaks" are kept non-existent) than we have seen with this incident of "sleeping at the wheel".

The largest list that I personally manage has over 1000 subscribers and I protect the integrity of the list by either approving every single message or moderating new members to prevent spam from being sent to the list.

On another list that I created (both are nonKappa-oriented), I searched for and promoted a subscriber to the list to a moderator status and she is just as efficient at managing the list as I am.

But it is ultimately foolish for someone to jockey for position and then demonize someone else (the Brother who created the page with good intentions as you shall read from his own words) for doing the unthinkable when the original power-hungry person was the one who left the gate open for the wolves to get into the hen house in the first place!!!

Every other fruit or result can only be traced to the original seed/lapse in judgment by the list ownership and management!


Nothing esoteric was revealed but clearly changes have to be made and it should start at the top of the online distribution method that created the problem and has proven itself to be worried about the wrong things, the wrong people, and the wrong concepts of moving the Bond forward!

What will happen when the truly esoteric or confidential is revealed online?

If the desire of the list is truly to maintain a closed list, then appoint more owners and moderators to the list from every province, approve every message being sent to the list, make the needed changes to the list through educating the subscribers and the technical changes that can be made indeed and then resign from the list yourself because you have truly failed like the former FEMA director!!!

Do not allow your bureaucratic pride to further get in the way of the organization!

Furthermore, if a list could be considered to be a closed list, then why allow members to subscribe to the list from their places of employment?

Every company that has an IT department has the capability to read employees e-mail (sent and received) without a doubt.

One potential recommendation is that only companies that have willfully restricted external access to an user's e-mail like Yahoo!, Google, Hotmail by past precedent would be used to subscribe to a supposedly closed mailing list.

At this point, I am even personally wondering if any internet service provider that actually provides internet access to a desktop computer should be really used for subscribing to a closed mailing list since other people (such as a spouse) are more likely to gain access to e-mail versus a member being required to go to a website (open or closed), receiving a RSS feed, reading a blog, or using the e-mail service of one of the above companies.


Did anyone forget that I was fired in 1995 while attending the Grand Conclave in Philadelphia from a company whose former CEO is going to serve a prison sentence eventually FOR SUPPOSEDLY RECEIVING NON-WORK RELATED E-MAILS (which were from the same Kappa list) VERSUS SENDING THEM?

Although there was another still, unknown reason in play for my dismissal, I could not dispute the reason that was used even though it was not enforced among other employees.

But let's throw out the question that I know will undoubtedly be thrown out by someone: how do you prevent someone from forwarding the messages or copying and pasting the messages somewhere else like a web page or e-mail?

The answer to this is too simple: You cannot and you do not try.

To try to prevent such messages from being distributed elsewhere is futile within the internet era and attempts to suppress information probably ensures that it will get further distributed.

The best thing that you can do is to educate members not to say or distribute anything esoteric, confidential, or that can be directly traced identify someone intentionally (if the message references someone indirectly between the lines) to harm someone's character.


I say this both as a student of communications and as a person who has been the targeted object of someone trying to intentionally assassinate my character through the internet.

If you do not moderate every message sent to a list then as owner or moderator of such lists, you are clearly partially responsible (as is the creator and sender of such messages) for the distribution of the messages if they are intended to harm an individual or lower their perceived value to the other subscribers of the list.

You are entirely responsible if such messages are not fully removed from the archives of the list.


Intent plays a huge role within communications. I compose messages intentionally versus randomly and would quickly apologize for any unintentional acts of lapse of judgment where proven beyond opinion.

I would not allow potentially damaging messages to be sent via a mailing list to prevent them from being possibly forwarded elsewhere if the integrity of the list requires that it is a truly closed list.

With an open list, such security concerns can be implemented successfully as well but are often not needed.

The only risk that I see is being unable to stop someone fully focused and intent on distributing esoteric or confidential information when the sender fully knew that such information should have been known or previously classified as esoteric or confidential in the first place.

Again, if the information is not truly esoteric and central to the documented history of the organization, then the information cannot be fully considered esoteric and confidential regardless of what individual opinions, past traditions, or past protocol has considered it to be.

Within this day and age, there is only expressed confidentiality and not implied confidentiality.


This is why I know without reservation or doubt that I personally have not disclosed anything confidential even with my blog entries that address the operations and politics of the Bond which are evident to anyone paying attention.

I still request that someone clearly identify the URL AND the specific law or regulation that was viewed as violated.

Protocol is not law or confidential no matter how one may feel.

Just check Google for some things that you feel should be considered esoteric or confidential and your head will clearly spin. Someone else has already made the information available somewhere.

But if I were to own or moderate a truly closed list, I would recommend that no one identify or respond to a perceived information "leak" or disclosure of confidential information.

To quickly retaliate or ask questions such "Where were you initiated" and other such questions validates the disclosure RIGHT or WRONG if the angered responses were forwarded somewhere else.

The person who forwards the messages would more than likely report "Why did they get so heated if the news was not true? There must be some truth contained within the message somehow."

It would be better to get angry over FALSE information than to show heated emotions online over TRUE ESOTERIC or CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.

Now as these words proceeded into my mind, I now fully realize that within the situation that I faced last month that the heated display and accusations hurled my way were not related to the issue being raised at all.

It was never about whether esoteric or confidential information was being distributed as it was that I did not choose to silence my own voice through this blog or choose to express myself exclusively under the accuser's control.

But as any fan of "The Matrix" trilogy will recognize that every closed system can be hacked from the scene where Morpheus almost fainted as the ship under his control was being destroyed piece by piece by the machines.

I guess that after 10 years of being Bonded online that we all realize that the original forum achieved its objectives and will live on within a different incarnation and that the present course does not serve anyone purposefully. Simply put, there are too many alternatives to meet the needs of the international, collective body than to focus exclusively on an e-mail solution.

Meanwhile, I will keep checking Google and putting the various URLs within the search bar to see if the discovered pages are still available, although I know that there is one website that will always keep such content available anyway and I know that inquiring minds will want to know the ongoing results of my further research and discoveries!

So I am truly obligated to do my part within the process.

Yours in the Bond!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Dynamic Media Pulse Service Created and It's Free Too

We just hit one out of the park without a doubt on the website for our currently, undisclosed website and the dynamic technology is available for any Brother, Chapter, Province, and the Bond overall.

Our just revealed totally free and forever free Media Pulse service which will allow you to stay totally on top of and in control of any developing news, blog entries, photos, and any other online media about, from, and on the topic of the Bond.

You can easily view the information online or subscribe to it without receiving a ton of messages within your e-mail inbox.

If it is about the Bond, can fog a window, has a reflection or a shadow, or has joined the Chapter Invisible, then you will be on top of it better than CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any other major media organization.


Check it out at the undisclosed website and click on the Media Pulse link.

We will obtain an easier to use URL for the page itself as well or redirect one of our existing domains to the page.

I really hope that you will enjoy the Media Pulse service as well as incorporate the technology into any online endeavors that you are a part of.

Anyone that wishes to get a little more background information on how to add the technology to your websites should contact me directly. I would like to significantly reduce your learning curve if at all possible.

The price should not be paid again and the wheel should not be reinvented.

Yours in the Bond!

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Can You Dig It--Kappa Remixed?

I just saw a very interesting blog entry by Richard MacManus on a new phenomenon called Web 2.0 of taking the best of separate websites and combining them into something beyond what either of the individual websites imagined or could ever think about.

The same dynamic is sorely needed within Kappa. Since I know that a closed mind convinced against its will is of the same opinion still, check out the blog entry for yourself and you will read several parallels that could be applied to the Bond and/or any organization that has a high attrition rate while continuing to profess that "members are not made out of what they used to be".

While there is a great disparity between the online and offline worlds of Kappa and this disparity will decrease definitely as older, computer illiterate Brothers (or probably more accurate technological laggards) join the Chapter Invisible and internet usage is as common or more integrated into the lives of new members than the telephone is now.

The possibilities are still increasing to an infinite realm of opportunities.


Kappa is indeed simply more than a website as websites are known now. But as the telephone and zip codes were just as controversial when they were first created, time shall make everyone become witnesses to new dynamics and applications and variations of the Bond beyond what was created on the evening of January 5, 1911.

Many conservative thinkers within the Bond will go to their graves denying every opportunity they can to the open source philosophy. But they will also refuse to recognize their own integration and usage of the same open source philosophy that has been and will continue to be present in their lives.


If I have an open mind about a topic and another person's mind is closed, then it becomes very difficult for the other person to openly profess or accept their switch to openness without either being potentially recognized as a hypocrite or simply acknowledging that they were possibly wrong in their previous line of thinking. The converse applies as well.

But if everyone was closed initially, then it is easier to accept some degrees of an open mind versus remaining closed and refusing to debate the potential need to switch or take advantage of some opportunities within specific situations.

This is the present state of Kappa and many organizations worldwide.

Open mind = open source. Also, closed mind = closed system.

I now realize that it is not enough to simply present an opportunity to switch, but the dynamics of change require that the new benefits are presented and demonstrated as simply too good to refuse. The benefit of switching has to be greater the cost of staying the same.

But I cannot get away from realizing how all of this has been demonstrated through Hollywood with the movie trilogy "The Matrix".

Web 2.0 is similar to "The Matrix Reloaded" and what has to yet to be created is "Matrix Revolutions".

The blog article mentions that Peter Merholz has said, "The point isn't the features, it's the underlying philosophy of relinquishing control".

Other notable quotes are:

Paul Miller saying:

"Web 2.0 presages a freeing of data, allowing it to be exposed, discovered and manipulated in a variety of ways…
Web 2.0 permits the building of virtual applications, drawing data and functionality from a number of different sources…
Web 2.0 applications work for the user, and are able to locate and assemble content that meets our needs as users…
Web 2.0 applications are modular …
Web 2.0 is about sharing; code, content, ideas…"

Richard MacManus saying:

"the philosophy of Web 2.0 is to let go of control, share ideas and code, build on what others have built, free your data. It's actually a difficult philosophy to live by, when you consider how capitalistic Western society is".

Tim Berners-Lee (the creator of the internet as it is known via hyperlinking and websites):

"My goal for the web in 30 years is to be the platform which has led to the building of something very new and special, which we can't imagine now".

This last statement is clearly the same sentiment of our Founders and should be the position of every member of any organization as a result.

No parent within their right mind wants their children to live exactly and identical to the way that they lived. The lives of the children should show some specific and recognizable degree of progress.

Yours in the Bond!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

A Big Cat Is Now Out of The Bag!!!

I just read an online article entitled "Google launches blog search" and although the means to conduct online searches for blogs was already there, Google has further simplified the process.

I immediately went to the given website URL for the Blog Search capability and typed in "Kappa Alpha Psi" with the quotes to find out who else has been blogging about Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. besides myself.

There are currently 242 blog entries and the number is probably higher with other words used as search keywords.

One nice surprise is that RSS and Atom feeds are available for every search result either in groups of 10 or 100. This means that for those blogs who have enabled the RSS or Atom feeds (through automatic XML in most cases), a new realm has just opened up for a larger potential audience than existed before.

This is where it is going to get interesting indeed.

I have mentioned within blog entries on this blog as well as other blogs that I write for that bureaucracy or secrecy has gotten lost within the shuffle within this new era of the internet and mass communications.

Never again will anyone or organization be able to conduct business as usual as if there are no witnesses for the actions or inactions good or bad.

Many individuals and organizations alike have thought that disgruntled or abused people or former or even current members would go home and sulk in the comforts of their private homes.

Everyone has known that a dissatisfied customer is likely to tell at least 13 other people about bad service versus the 3 or 4 people who are likely to be told about good service.

Now the entire world will be able to know if and when something goes wrong within an organization and even perhaps on an one-to-one level.


Realistically, bad news travels faster hands down and most media outlets say that bad news sells more than touchy-feeling news and stories.

My point is that the magnifying glass to and from everyone has just gotten larger.

Another observation about Google's Blog Search is that older blog entries are listed first than newer blog entries being listed first.

This is understandable since older entries likely have been either linked to or just have been made available to search spiders and robots to have been discovered faster than newer entries.

But if there is a blogger that writes content and/or articles that you like, just consider checking out their other blogs, blog entries, or subscribe to their blog.

Since my blog production has increased steadily over the last couple of months, I imagine that there will be more entries discovered that consistently blogs about Kappa Alpha Psi versus blogs that mention our Grand Fraternity every now and then.

I cannot help but to wonder what the Coalition and corresponding subunits within other organizations are going to think now;)

If it were possible to buy secrecy, the term of secrecy would be terribly shorter and the renewal costs would be even higher.

So now everyone has to operate and conduct their operations to fulfill their own words as in talking the talk and walking the walk as everyone likes to say that they are going to do.


The greater exposure to blogs is definitely going to be a good thing indeed.

Now that subscriptions to mailing lists are going to start fading away to some extent, everyone will benefit from having less e-mail hit their inboxes than before.


Yes my brothers, the biggest cat is now out of the bag! The only other bigger cat to come will be video that does not require a ton of bandwidth.

Yours in the Bond!

Interesting Article Contrasting Open Source versus Closed Systems

Wired News has an article entitled "Open Internet, We Hardly Knew Ye" which contrasts open source against closed systems.

It gives an example regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina where a past legacy of closed systems has worked against hurricane survivors from easily locating loved ones.

The article points out to me that it takes a mindset of being locked down in a bunker with "Us Against The World" corporate motto and philosophy to push aggressively for the further justification for closed systems and restrictions to freeing information.

Check it out for yourself and I would love to hear your pros and cons.

Yours in the Bond!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Federal secrecy is rising rapidly, Keeping Secrets Is Costly

Rebecca Carr has written an article for the Cox News Service that a coalition of conservative and liberal nonprofit groups called Openthegovernment.org found that secrecy is on the rise across all three branches of government and costing taxpayers more money than ever before.

My earlier post "News Comes From All Directions These Days!" and statement "When small groups of individuals keep secrets that would supposedly benefit the masses, then its actions of repressing and suppressing a larger span and reach of achievement becomes immediately deplorable" is especially highlighted when the current Bush administration has used a legal tool called the "state secrets privilege" to keep federal court hearings and documents from public scrutiny 33 times more often than federal officials did during the height of the Cold War among other aspects of the government losing money due to keeping secrets.

Yours in the Bond!

Is E-mail Dead?

I just read a blog entry that asked the above question.

Interesting enough, the article agrees and disagrees with my earlier blog entry entitled "A Not-So New Technology That Now Makes Most Mailing Lists Obsolete".

It agrees basically with my statements "One forward-looking beauty of RSS feeds is that they can effectively reduce the number of hands that a piece of information has to go through to reach each traditional mailing list member" and "A mailing list is now best used to:

1. eliminate unwanted noise (spam); or

2. reduce opportunities for Brothers to be heard; or

3. focus minds on a particular topic or issue".

The article disagrees in spirit with #2 above. It states that mailing lists will have to be used to reach and target individuals versus being broadcast to an entire group.

But since the e-mail is sent to everyone, it cannot escape #1 in that e-mails may be unwanted by many on the list.

Therefore, tags and RSS feeds allow everyone to receive the information for the masses while allowing particular segments to receive information that does not appear on the radar screens of the masses but an interested minority.

So to a certain degree, the interested minority will be able to go deeper into analyzing the pros and cons of trade secrets.

This is the basic principle and benefit that blogs provide and being able to subscribe to blogs via RSS feeds further capitalizes on this opportunity.

Yours in the Bond!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

News Comes From All Directions These Days!

Reuters is reporting with the headline "News junkies find Wikipedia more than encyclopedia" that collective efforts to inform and educate are rapidly becoming the preferred source versus depending upon the singular efforts of individuals.

The article reinforces last night's blog entry entitled "A Not-So-New Technology That Now Makes Most Mailing Lists Obsolete".

The next step in benefitting from such news is understanding that any collective efforts or organizational distribution of information requires that the information is freely released and nothing is considered esoteric.

I am sure that in some cases such as the secret formulas for Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), there are financial benefits and rewards for keeping secrets as well as the defense barriers and borders to keep a nation safe from internal and external threats to its safety.

But the primary trait that is present within any situation where secrecy is the primary asset requires that the secrets are kept for the benefit of the largest number of people possible. Secrets cannot be kept and simultaneously expected to benefit a small minority.

Within the earlier examples if KFC or Coca-Cola were only available for sale to an exclusive few, then its benefit and value to mankind will be minimized. The value is increased because the usage of the secrets are available to all.

When small groups of individuals keep secrets that would supposedly benefit the masses, then its actions of repressing and suppressing a larger span and reach of achievement becomes immediately deplorable.

Again as I have stated before, it has to be the conscious determination of the organization to reveal its secrets voluntarily versus being revealed by a single individual or singular action.

Still, the best thing that is readily available within the progression of distribution information is the removal of gatekeepers which previously kept innovative and unusual or dissenting opinions within back rooms and closets as dirty secrets.

Now the confidence is present that individuals will know what truly has value and what will not.

Yours in the Bond!

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

A Not-So-New Technology That Now Makes Most Mailing Lists Obsolete

Since you are reading this blog, you are possibly familiar with a fairly new technology named RSS, Atom, and/or XML feeds.

The technology allows you to stay current without visiting a lot of different webpages and allows you to choose to read items that interest you once you have found a website that generally produces content such as articles and news that you are interested in.

Once you have located such a website, then subscribing to their RSS or Atom feed (both use XML technology) requires a RSS reader which typically scrolls the headlines or titles for each article.

Some readers even provide a short introduction to the articles as a pop up window.

For Yahoo! users, the My Yahoo! page offers such feeds for you to subscribe to.

I have placed a lot of various methods for you to subscribe to this blog within the right margin through the various icons that you see listed.

Two RSS readers that I am currently using are add-ons to the Firefox web browser.

One reader is called InfoRSS. I really like it since it scrolls right to left at the bottom of your monitor and does not take up too much monitor space.

You can skip to the next feed that you have subscribed to, click on a headline to see a pop up short introduction, or double click the headline to read the full article, blog entry, or mailing list message (depending on the content that you have subscribed to).

Another RSS reader that I use when I get tired of looking at headlines at the bottom of a page or when I really want to find something interesting to read is Sage.

Sage opens a sidebar frame within Firefox just as whenever you would click the History icon within MS Internet Explorer.

Virtually all of the Yahoo! Groups mailing lists can now be subscribed to as RSS feeds.

I really have not experimented to see if the RSS feeds will work for a closed, subscription-only mailing list or to see what exclusivity there is possible.

But as one technology cliche' goes, all information wants to be free. This is the essence of open access, open source, or whatever is the opposite of the we-must-keep-secrets-at-all-costs mindset formed and taken to absurd heights during the Cold War era.

Unfortunately, many within and external to the Bond have caught this cancerous disease and when organizations are involved, the entire system of classifying information as secret or esoteric loses its focus and then everything such as a take-out menu may be classified as top secret as happened within a federal intelligence agency.

One forward-looking beauty of RSS feeds is that they can effectively reduce the number of hands that a piece of information has to go through to reach each traditional mailing list member.

Control freaks hate this but RSS feeds allow the opportunity to reduce any time delays or past behaviors such as having to log in or start up an e-mail program.

RSS feeds are probably already available on some cell phones and I know that they are available on any smartphone or PDA.

Every media outlet or organization that produces a lot of content and information is trying to make their information as mobile as possible without requiring one to being tethered to a desktop computer to gain access.

But the way that RSS feeds will work to a greater benefit within dynamic learning organizations is through the usage of tags which are used to pinpoint or clarify what a piece of content is about.

This is an introduction that I am now proposing is to be used throughout the Bond.

One of the best places to get turned onto tags is through websites that offer collaborative networking of links such as Del.icio.us (pronounced as Delicious) and Technorati. Photos can even be thrown into the mix with a website such as Flickr.

Virtually every new piece of software being created within the past 18 months has or will include RSS feeds in some manner.

Instead of Brothers sending out an e-mail to a mailing list of a website or photo or piece of news that they have found interesting, they can choose to "tag" the media content instead and then it will become immediately available to the entire Bond.


The key is therefore to know what tags or keywords will be most likely used by Brothers.

Tags that I have used include: Kappa Alpha Psi (for the places that will allow the usage of separate words), kappaalphapsi, Kappa+Alpha+Psi (in some cases), nupe, nupes, yoursinthebond, nnlb or the name of an undisclosed website created last month.

This technology is so dynamic that it will be incorporated into every aspect of the internet and become an assumed option that is available to all.

Anywhere that a RSS feed is available, a tag can be used to accurately describe it and allow it to be sent wherever someone might be interested in receiving it.

A sports fan could see sports information while a joke fan could obtain jokes without infringing on the territory of the other one.

Since photos can be tagged as well as podcasts, video blogs, and textual blogs can be tagged as a website URL, all of these can be converted into a RSS feed without any additional effort.

This is the real beauty of the technology. Go to Del.icio.us and Technorati at a minimum and create a free account and start tagging the various websites, photos, and anything else that you run across.

Remember that you can create tags that use your own name, city, chapter's name, college/university, line name, semester of initiation, province, committee, and anything other keyword that you and others will think of in order to share information.

A tag is really more important than a domain name at this point and we will probably incorporate this doctrine into my own company efforts as a result.

The keyword that you use as a tag will then become the password of the hub for various people. You can have multiple tags for a single website or content as well.

Technorati is basically a form of a search engine (like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others you know) that is centered around tags and you can find news and websites and other stuff that interest you all without having to subscribe to a mailing list and receiving a ton of e-mail messages.

I am no longer concerned about spam, having to delete messages, receiving unwanted and/or inappropriate messages, and/or conserving hard drive space after obtaining a Gmail account. The amount of space keeps growing and if I ever catch up to the maximum amount, then something else needs to really be done such as an intervention on one end or another.

I now have directed virtually all of my various e-mail accounts to flow through Gmail since it has one of the best spam filters I have ever seen that is available for free. If you need or want an invitation to obtain a free Gmail account, just let me know and consider it done regardless of whether we actually know one another or have met.

If you have unknowingly made your e-mail address available to others, then you really need a Gmail account more than you think. You can even change the settings so that your outgoing messages are using the e-mail address that you already have been using. It is simply amazing.

But a few final thoughts on RSS feeds and XML technology.

I foresee that various websites and mailing lists will begin to identify the central keywords that stand out in the minds of their visitors and subscribers. The keywords should be placed on a page within the website or a page should be created that reflects the various feeds and tags already identified.


I will be definitely creating such pages for the various websites and mailing lists that I am a part of.

XML is a form of HTML that allows databases to be manipulated as web pages (or even e-mail in my opinion).

Therefore, the usage of RSS and Atom feeds, and XML technology works to speed up the distribution of information while minimizing the number of potential choke points needed to screen the information.

A mailing list is now best used to:

1. eliminate unwanted noise (spam); or

2. reduce opportunities for Brothers to be heard; or

3. focus minds on a particular topic or issue.

All of the above best practices for a mailing list naturally depend on the mental state and leadership capability of the mailing list owner(s) and/or moderator(s) as we all have recently noticed as absent within the NN and KF.

There are no bureaucratic coalition opportunities with tags, RSS feeds, and XML technology however. Hallelujah!

Yours in the Bond!

Will Kappa Pass Similar Tests?

Today's blog entry on my personal blog describes what is going on both physically and spiritually around the world and it is one that all Kappas need to be mindful of and it is entitled "Harden Not Your Hearts In This Season or Else!"

Yours in the Bond!

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Bureaucracy Is The Enemy!

With the recent events of this month and last month, I now realize that bureaucracy is the enemy indeed.

I was just being directed to approach the problem with my talents and passion in a very unique and aggressive way that some may wish to either control or be able to review in advance when they do not have the power or authority to do so anyway.

Since some topics are easily witnessed within Kappa, then they will be addressed within this blog and other avenues created and discovered online and offline.

Other topics will be addressed within my personal blog at http://blog.roneysmith.com or http://roneysmith.blogspot.com (both point to the same blog).

Bureaucracy is the greatest threat to achievement that I have learned. Bureaucracy and leadership failures create, cooperate, and reinforce one another.

Right now in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there are more than enough places to observe and provide insights on the problems and share solutions to correct and prevent from happening in the future.

But rest assured, everything that is visible and will become known has already or is happening within organizations worldwide and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. is not immune whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

Dirty laundry then just becomes the clothes that you wear (publicly or privately) regardless of the opportunity to wash them privately or not (the public airing or washing cannot be avoided regardless).

So if the comments seem to be coming a little slow on this blog, just check out the other one.

Yours in the Bond!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Kappa's Own Hurricane Katrina

It seems that I have been offline after taking a low blow from a psychopath, but I will see my name positively cleared in multiple ways.

The number of Brothers joining a new mailing list has been increasing and there seems to be a fresh round of encouragement flowing.

But my main concern is mobilizing an effort for the hurricane survivors and the mindsets that contribute to the poor response time in emergencies period.

I will need to revisit this post later but one main point is that within emergencies, you do not have the luxury to study the problems facing you as you have in times of peace.

Managers need to study problems since the lack of real leadership causes the levels of understanding to take longer periods of time.