More Data = Better Pattern Detection

From Technology Review, "Foursquare Gets a Big Check," by Jessica Leber

Continuing in this direction is giving Foursquare a lot more data about the places people visit than it would have as a standalone app. And the more data it has, the more valuable that data is because of the patterns it can reveal about how large groups of people move around and, importantly, where and when they like to spend their money. As I covered in an article today, wireless carriers are trying to build businesses as location data providers as well (see “How Wireless Carriers are Monetizing Your Movements”).

Puerto Rico Tech Summit 2013

Calling all "amantes del Internet libre," the Puerto Rico Government is sponsoring the first ever technology summit focused on raising the consciousness and use of government enabled Application Programming Interfaces (API).  This is an unprecedented vote of confidence in the local software development community, which makes me super excited.

The Puerto Rico Tech Summit, is scheduled for June 6, 2013 in the Puerto Rico Convention Center. In conjunction with a program of workshops and tutorials, the summit will also feature the first ever Government Hackathon.

All of this follows the recent announcement of the Governor's MOU asking for Rest API's from all of the major government agencies, Governor Garcia Padilla has signaled a new era in software development in Puerto Rico.  Led by Giancarlos González and Roberto Rosario, this new initiative breaths fresh air into an IT industry that is stagnated and smothered by monopolistic software industry practices.

Python Parranda - InstallFest

On May 11th, the Puerto Rico Python Interest Group (prPIG) is proud to announce our first ever Python Parranda.  The Parranda is part Python InstallFest and part Meetup/Sprint. It will be Saturday morning from 9am till 12pm at the Telegrafo building on Ponce de Leon, San Juan, Puerto Rico.  

The group decided that getting the Python community ready for the upcoming Puerto Rico Tech Summit. what was most important need.  The Tech Summit, 06/06/13, is sponsored by the Puerto Rican Government, and it’s CIO Giancarlos González.  The first of it’s kind, the Tech Summit is a direct outreach to the Puerto Rico software development community to participate in access to governmental data; especially the Government Hackathon being held simultaneously with the summit.  

The data being made available for the hackathon is a direct result of the MOU Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed on 2/28/13.  Following President Barack Obama’s lead, Governor Garcia requested every government agency to make an API within 90 days.

Note: prPIG is kindly sponsored by the Internet Society, through their Community Grant program.  We are deeply grateful for all of the support we have received so far, it has been well beyond our wildest expectations.

Welcome Home, Pa'lante!

Today, I finished the conversion of MC Dondees, to yours truly.  It feels good to step out from behind the curtain.  The myriad reasons why we did it, shall remain locked in the past.  MC Dondees was a bad joke taken to the extreme.

Culebra, PR

For, good or worse, writing as MC Don Dees allowed me to rant about everything we learned about founding technology in Puerto Rico.  We thought we going to make a difference, and we did, but never in a way that we could actually monetize our traffic.

In the end, the concept of an Internet advertising startup based in Puerto Rico will always be sentenced  to a life of starvation.  I guess good, old Bob Davila from EnterPRize, knew it from the beginning.  The evidence eventually proved him right.

Even today, the non-existence of an Internet Advertising industry in Puerto Rico is astonishing.  Furthermore, the complete lack of search engine marketing is even more perplexing.  WTF? Search Engine Marketing is the most effective form of direct advertising ever invented.  Why would anyone NOT want to do it?

Disposable Society

Every Monday the Solid Waste Department picks-up all of the "escombro" in my neighborhood.  I often scoot along ahead of them and snatch what I can before the truck comes.  As a sculptor, it truly is "one man's garbage is another man's treasure," but some of the stuff I find is still in good condition. 

Some of it is perfectly good household decorations, furniture, barbeques, or even tools (for example).  They are thrown out, smashed up and deposited in our overflowing landfills.  40 to 50 times a year, in thousands of neighborhoods, all across Puerto Rico.  It is such a waste! 

Someone Will Save It

If people think that the government workers "save" any of it, regardless of condition, they are mostly mistaken. Sure I'm sure if something "primo" appears, they might save it, but in general, they do not.  It's not their concern. What people throw out is to be scooped up and thrown away.  It takes them too much time to sort through the artifacts and determine if something is serviceable.

They're an afterthought in a disposable society.  If it's of no value to someone, then it must be worthless.  It is no wonder that there are so few antique stores in Puerto Rico!  I've had discussions with people about this topic, and the general take-away is that rescuing something from the landfill is beneath the common Puerto Rican.  To do so, brings shame upon your family.

Need Is Ignored

Yet, there are families in Puerto Rico that survive off of what others discard.  We've all seen someone pushing a shopping cart down the street picking up aluminum cans in order to feed his family.  Recently I've seen sites open up that buy scrap metal.  There are usually lines of beaten pickup trucks loaded down with all types of metal.  Some of it is scavenged, and I'm sure some of it is stolen, but that's another problem all together.

I just wish that there was some way that neighborhoods could collect serviceable goods found in the "escombro" and donate it to a distributor.  The distributor couldn't pay for it, because people would then begin outright stealing, just to sell to these places.  So it has to be done from the simple perspective that there are families and organizations that could use the stuff that has been thrown out by the affluent.  If only we could find a way to collect it and send it to those that need it.

Yes, I know, I'm too idealistic.

Puerto Rico Has The Second Highest Income Inequality

After Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico has the highest income equality in the US.

La Perla, Old San Juan

The Census has released a map plotting states' respective Gini coefficients. A Gini coefficient measures the income disparity in a given area; i.e., its gap between rich and poor was lowest.

Among all states and the U.S. territories, the District of Columbia led with a coefficient of .534, followed closely by Puerto Rico at .531. The state with the biggest income disparity is New York.

Most remarkable is that the U.S. continues to have an average rate — .475 compared to 2010's .469 — that rivals El Salvador's.

From Business Insider.

Analysis

Over the past 60 years, Puerto Rico has gone from a place where nearly everyone was broke as fuck, to a place that you ain't nobody unless you rich as fuck.  If you think that things got bad in the US during the "Great Depression," conditions in Puerto Rico were literally third world.

Along comes "Operation Bootstap" and Puerto Rico instantly became a thief's dream; stacks of free money for every crime imaginable.  There was so much cash left over, that even "honest" and self-made men, could even get in on the action, and still come out squeaky clean.  Some even became our most "revered" citizens.

We instantly created a privileged class of citizens.  The "1%" became our ideal, our role models.  As more families distanced themselves from the lower caste, businesses learned that there was a new breed of citizens who wanted to prove to their neighbors that they were no longer part of the "99%."

Just try to reconcile these two recent  headlines: "Puerto Rico's children mired in poverty that dwarfs rest of U.S" and "Puerto Rico Launches New Luxury Mall Project in San Juan."  I wonder who will want to go there most?  The "1%" or the rest of the posers on the island who need to "prove" that they are "entitled" to shop there?

Puerto Rico and NASCAR?

In an unusual juxtaposition of memes, "Puerto Rico Does It Better" now graces the hood of a racing car in the NASCAR Pro Series

Rev Racing is excited to announce the new partnership between its driver Bryan Ortiz and the Puerto Rico Board of Tourism. Via Short Track Action

Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, and driver of the No. 4 Rev Racing Toyota, will be displaying this new sponsor during the upcoming NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway. Puerto Rico Board of Tourism is the official source of information for all those traveling to the island destination. “Puerto Rico Does It Better” will be displayed on the hood of Ortiz’s car for this weekend’s G-Oil 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

 “I am happy and proud to have the support of the Puerto Rico Board of Tourism on my car for the upcoming K&N races,” said Ortiz. “It will be the first time that they have been involved with NASCAR and I’m hoping for a good run in both of the upcoming races with them on board. Hopefully we can continue this partnership for years to come.”

Analysis

This is actually a pretty common practice in motor racing. In Formula One racing, if a driver can bring advertising money to the table, they are much more likely to get a chance to join a Formula One team.  Best of luck to Ortiz, I hope the new sponsorship takes him to new heights in his career.

Electric Daisy Carnival 2012 Photos

Electric Daisy Carnival Dancers

Exclusive photographs courtesy of Mis Tribus and Insomniac.

Still sorting through all of the pictures of EDC Puerto Rico 2012,  I've already uploaded seven (7) sets of some of the early action in kineticFIELD and circuitGROUNDS.  They are available on Mis Tribus' Photo album page on Facebook. So far I've got:

• EDC 2012 Dancers - kineticFIELD
• EDC circuitGROUNDS
• EDC circuitGROUNDS Mi Gente 
• EDC circuitGROUNDS Dancers 
• EDC circuitGARDENS DallasK 
• kineticFIELD Mi Gente 
• kineticFIELD Manufactured Superstars  

Oh yeah, I was also able to get an autograph from DATSIK before we was carted off to party on through the night. Check it out:

The Electronic Daisy Carnival Experience

Insomniac hosts an another incredible experience in Puerto Rico

Dancers + Datsik = Awesome

It's been some 30 hours since Electronic Daisy Carnival, and I have to admit: "I'm still reeling from such an intense experience."  I still can't hear out of my right ear, I still can't seem to drink enough water, my arms and legs ache, and I've still got to go through some 2,700 photographs I took during EDC.

One of the things that Insomniac understands is generating engagement (involvement) by appealing to multi-sensory experiences.  As they put it, they are not concert producers. they are experience creators.  From the props, to the costumes; from the rides to the art; from the dancers to the light shows, an Electric Daisy Carnival is like no other event you will ever attend. 

No matter how crazy fans may get, their events seem to be able to harness an audience's emotions and reflect it back to them in a way that creates an electrifying experience.  At least for this humble photographer, I'd have to say that this year's Electric Daisy Carnival was one of the best moments of my life.

Thanks to everyone involved and there is a lot more to come.

Spotlight: Save A Sato

I've blogged about animal cruelty in Puerto Rico a number of times.  For what it's worth I think it is the sad result of a society which treats animals as things, and completely ignores the extreme demand of over population on a closed ecosystem.

When people ask me where I live, I usually tell them "I live on a rock in the middle of the ocean."  Consisting of approximately 90% volcanic rock, Puerto Rico is literally that, a rock in the middle of the ocean. My point is, just like any closed ecosystem, everyone, everything, is constantly competing for very limited resources.

One source of hope for me, is the small set of people who have chosen to help our animal management crisis.  I've reported on one other organization, but I want to do more to shine a spotlight on the incredible work going on in Puerto Rico to combat animal cruelty.

Spotlight - Save A Sato

Save A Sato is a non-profit organization dedicated to easing the suffering of Puerto Rico's homeless and abused animals. "Sato" is slang for street dog. We rescue Satos from the streets and beaches, give them medical care, food and shelter, and plenty of love. When they are healthy, we send them to one of our shelter partners for adoption into loving homes.

Recently they received the honor of being reconized by Animal Planet's "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan. From their blog:

"Save A Sato has been honored with $5k grant Award by the Cesar Millan Foundation, to keep helping the satos of Puerto Rico!! We feel so honored for this great gift of love! Many many satos will be helped!! Special thanks also to Juan Agustin Marquez from the documentary 100,000 for helping the satos of Puerto Rico and also showing to the world what we do everyday to help the strays of Puerto Rico. We want to share a picture of Cesar's Foundation Facebook Page, of the announcement, we feel so proud!!"

I want to express my deepest gratitude for everyone who helps to make Save a Sato one of the shining examples of animal love and caring in Puerto Rico.