Random Citizen

Joe Heaukulani is just one Random Citizen helping to transform Hawaii's communities through enhanced engagement and enduring empowerment.

[joe-heaukulani]

Future Friday - Citizenville

I've just finished reading Citizenville by Gavin Newsom. I had picked up this book when it came out, but it was just sitting on my 'to read' pile until now. 'Citizenville' is actually a play on the name of the game, 'Farmville', which is wildly successful at engaging people to take virtual action. How do we get people to take civic action?

Participating in Code for America/Code for Hawaii/Open Data projects, I come across a lot of the problems that Gavin writes about, and we've started on a few of the solutions that have already been successful in other cities across America. But there is a bunch of other things to try out.

He stresses five main themes that will build civic engagement in our cities:

We need the government to be absolutely transparent.

We need to encourage people to use data to create useful apps, devices, and tools.

We need to engage people on their own terms.

We need to allow people to bypass government.

We need more people with an entrepreneurial mindset in government.

"Transparency will increase trust...it all starts with information."

I will be pushing for more open data this year because...

"A closed system preserves the status quo."

[joe-heaukulani]

Throwback Thursday - Peaceful Kalōpā

I ran into one of my cousins this week on TheBUS. He reminded me of the times I had on the Big Island. Here are some peaceful pics from my time there.

Spending time in the field always left much time for thinking and reflection. If I had known about Sun Hemp earlier, I probably would have seeded some before I left.

I thought it was cool that you could see Maui on a clear day. Awesome views, every where you looked. One thing I wished I did more of was take pictures. I've never been much of a documentarian.

I can't wait to go back.

[joe-heaukulani]

TEDx Tuesday - Everyday Rebellion and Minimalism

There will be a lot of marching coming up soon. The Queen Liliuokalani Kingdom Spiritual Walk this Saturday, January 17, 2015 9:30am-6:00pm, and The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade and Unity Rally on Monday, January 19, 2015 9:00am. Both will be celebrating peaceful protesters of the past, but with all the injustices going on here in Hawaii, what shape should peaceful protests be taking in the future.

How and why we started to get involved - why it changed our lives | Arash & Arman Riahi | TEDxVienna

I like these guys and their story of creative non-violent protests taking place all over the world. They created a platform, everydayrebellion.net, to allow people to share and learn different techniques and tactics to use in their own "everyday rebellion". Small, smart, subversive actions will trump big talk every time.

A rich life with less stuff | The Minimalists | TEDxWhitefish

The other TEDx Talk I found, was from a few months ago. I just found it rather comforting, after going through something similar in my recent move. It feels kind of liberating, not being bogged down by the weight of all this stuff that kind of just takes up space after awhile.

After taking a look at their blog, theminimalists.com, it gave me a few more ideas to handle some of the other things that I didn't feel good throwing away or donating, like old family picture albums, or high school year books. For the pictures, I'm thinking about having a scanning party.

I'm hoping super simple protests will take place in the near future.

[joe-heaukulani]

Maker Monday - Recycled Glass

I recently read the article, "Recycling Glass Feels Good but it's Costing Hawaii a Lot", in the Star Advertiser. Apparently, we are losing money recycling glass because it costs a lot to ship out. Either we need to charge more per bottle to import glass to offset export cost, or find ways to reuse/recycle/down-cycle it here.

I need to do a bit more research into this topic. I'm guessing we don't export enough local brewed beer, or jams and jellies to make a dent into all that glass. If you had access to all that glass what would you do?

genesisgalleryhawaii.com

The state has some ideas, but I think we need to come up with something a little bit more innovative. I'll keep this on the back burner for now, but there must be something we can do with all this glass.

[joe-heaukulani]

Civic Sunday - Honolulu Soup

HNL Soup is happening again Wednesday, Jan 14, 2015, 6:00-800pm at Fishcake. I missed the last one, and from what I hear it was amazing. Unfortunately, I will be missing this one too, but I have a few friends that will be presenting so I hope others might make it.

HNL Soup

HNL SOUP is a micro-granting dinner celebrating and supporting creative projects in Honolulu.

Sometimes we can make big things happen with very little. I like this crowdfunded, micro-grant activity taking place and hope other people will replicate it for more projects.

For a donation of $12 attendees receive soup, salad, bread and a vote. Throughout the evening participants will hear from three presentations ranging from urban agriculture to social entrepreneurship. Each presenter will have six minutes to share their idea and answer four questions from the audience.

I think events like these are great ways to increase civic engagement. You get food. You get great ideas. You get to vote. 

At the event, attendees eat, talk, share resources, enjoy art, and vote on the project they think benefits the city the most. At the end of the night, the organizers will collect the ballots and the winner goes home with all of the money raised to carry out their project.

This is the most awesome part. People talking and sharing, and voting for what they think best helps Honolulu.

Winners come back to a future HNL SOUP dinner to report their project’s progress and how they utilized funding provided.

Accountability. Another sign of a good program.

We hope that HNL SOUP will change the way people engage with the democratic process by establishing neighborhood relational hubs across the city.

"Neighborhood relational hubs". Maybe this is how the Neighborhood Boards should be, haha.

At the core, HNL SOUP embodies creativity, community, collaboration, change, democracy, trust, and fun!

I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully I will be able to make it.

frolichawaii.com

I found some awesome art on Frolic Hawaii by Sergio Garzon of the last HNL Soup event at ProtoHUB.

[joe-heaukulani]

Sizzling Saturday - Houseless Farmers

Raina Whiting, community organizer for In The Streets, held a great talk story today at Bodhi Cafe on the houseless and farming. It's always good to see old and new faces coming out to talk over issues. I got to see a lot of great friends that I haven't seen in awhile.

Raina and Elliot Wie, Livable Communities, laid out their idea for a program that would provide housing and vocational and life skills training for houseless individuals that are interested in careers in farming. They asked for and received a lot of feedback, and as they are still shaping the program. took note of some of the concerns that we had.

A lot of us were worried for the well being of the houseless individuals that would be going into this program. We wanted to make sure that they wouldn't be exploited or that this program wouldn't just churn out a bunch of feudal workers. We wanted to know if they would only ever be a worker or if there were opportunities for them to own and run their own farm. And if your making next to nothing as farm worker, how would you ever be able to get your own farm?

My friend and his wife were there and they had done some WWOOFing on the Big Island, and shared their experiences. WWOOF hosts generally provide accommodations and food for the volunteers, however my friends ran across a few too many that were only growing organic greens which command high dollar value for the farmer, but don't really fill your belly. They urged that if food was a similar part of the program, that it should be a staple crop, like sweet potato, cassava, or taro.

Concern was also brought up about the financial sustainability of the program, as well as program length and location. It would be interesting to write this project up and see how feasible or self-sustaining it could be.

We also talked over opportunities to help disabled people with this program, but I think initially they will be focused on finding young individuals who are most likely to be succeed.

Everyone was very passionate and shared great insight. I'm interested to see what becomes of these efforts.

[joe-heaukulani]

Future Friday - Crunch Brunch at The Box Jelly

Something coming up in the near future is Crunch Brunch, a circle for women coding together every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month during brunch time, then breaking for lunch. It will be launching February 7, 2015 and will be from 10am - 1pm at The Box Jelly.

By Rick Audet from San Francisco, USA (mimosas) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This is the brainchild of Britney T-m from The Box Jelly with the idea of creating a "group for women to come together and learn how to code, work on individual projects, and share in resources. Man friends also welcome!"

For those that aren't aware, I have been a Co-organizer with RailsBridge Hawaii, putting on free web and mobile development workshops for underrepresented communities in tech with the goal of building diversity in Hawaii's tech industry. However, being a purely volunteer run group, we rely on the generous support from community partners like ‘Iolani School's Sullivan Center for Innovation and Leadership, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Toshiba Business Solutions, and 88Tees. Also many of our instructors and TA's are from local tech companies like Real Geeks, Ikayzo, Sudokrew, DevLeague, and PasDeChocolat that take time out of their busy schedules to teach a full day's worth of curriculum to our students. This sets some limits on how frequently we hold our workshops, due to funding and volunteer time commitments.

RailsBridge Hawaii at ‘Iolani School's Sullivan Center for Innovation and Leadership 

Crunch Brunch helps solve a problem that our workshops face, mainly sustained engagement. RailsBridge Hawaii workshops are great for introducing people to programming and web development, but for anyone to improve their skills they need to put in the time and write some code. Circles are a great way to support each other's work and ask for help.

I'm looking forward to Crunch Brunch and hope to see you there. If interested in attending let Britney know by joining her Crunch Brunch Circle on LeanIn.org.

[joe-heaukulani]

Throwback Thursday - Citizen Challenge and Rotunda Roundups

With the opening of the 2015 Hawaii Legislative Session opening in less than two weeks, the energy in the air takes me back to my first look at the legislative process back in 2011. I was still a new member of Kanu Hawaii, looking to make more commitment-based changes. Having just following a commitment to vote in the 2010 election, I found the Citizen Challenge intriguing:

Follow one issue during the legislative session.

Contact your legislators at least once during the legislative session.

Fortunately we had some help to complete our commitments.

kanuhawaii.org

Kanu Hawaii and Common Cause Hawaii held a Legislature 101 Workshop at the State Capitol and it was led by the wonderful staff from the Public Access Room--the only one of its kind in the US. This was a process I wasn't familiar with at all, having never paid much attention to politics before.

kanuhawaii.org

I thought it was pretty cool that the room was packed and that there were so many people interested in what I thought for sure was a boring topic. This workshop was broken up into two parts, one part was learning the legislative process itself and the second part was learning the advocacy side of things, learning the ways that regular citizens can participate in this part of government.

After the workshops were over, I was hungry to get started and excited to learn more.

kanuhawaii.org

Once the session started, Kanu Hawaii and Common Cause Hawaii held these weekly Rotunda Roundups at the State Capitol after work. Each week they would explain where we were in the legislative process. They would also invite different groups to come in, and talk about the bills they were following, and some of the tactics they were employing. Often times we would have action steps that we could take immediately after the roundup. We would often go up to the offices of our legislators and make our voices heard.

With many new issues coming up this year, it gives me that feeling of 2011. It should be pretty fun, and I'm looking forward to participating in the legislative process this year. See you out there on the front lines.

[joe-heaukulani]

Web Dev Wednesday - Make Me Hapi

I had a great time again last night at Nodeschool. Ohana JS and HICapacity run this event every month, normally on the first Tuesday. This month, the event was held at The Box Jelly and the room was pretty full.

jamespaulmuir.com

After banging my head against the Functional Javascript Workshop at the last two classes I decided to try the MakeMeHapi Workshop. Hapi is "a rich framework for building applications and services."

The MakeMeHapi module has twelve exercises. I got to exercise 5 before I had to go. Hapi is pretty fun to use, and most of the setup for the problems are somewhat easy to follow.

What slowed me down was having to create these separate html files that had to be perfect, down to the blank line at the end of the file. I wasn't super impressed with that, but because we are doing a lot of templating i'm guessing there really isn't a better way to verify the answer. There probably is, but I just can't think of it right now.

Overall, super happy to be learning hapi. I'm enjoying it a little more than express, but I'm still new at that too. This was a fun Nodeschool and I can't wait for next month.

[joe-heaukulani]

TEDx Tuesday - How to Make an Impact

I have two interesting finds this week. The first talk is from Heather Barmore, TEDxAlbany and the second talk is from Stefan Kertesz, TEDxBirminghamSalon. I chose these two because they both seek to empower people to take action, but use two very different methods.

Go Be Important | Heather Barmore | TEDxAlbany

I know I've written about this before. Find that thing that matters to you and work on that. I like her comments that you should get to know the names of your representatives at all different levels. I like it because it really isn't that hard to do, and interacting with your representatives isn't difficult at all.

Go be important. Use your voice.

We Don't Need to Be Heroes to Be Helpful | Stefan Kertesz | TEDxBirminghamSalon

I enjoyed Stefan's talk as well, and the idea that our brain's get short-circuited when we encounter an insurmountable problem and when we see other people tackling big problems we resort to hero-worshiping and shut down that part of ourselves that think we're not special enough to make an impact.

We're not heroes. But we don't need to be a hero in order to make a difference in people's lives.

[joe-heaukulani]

Maker Monday - Crunch Time

For the next few weeks I will be concentrating on projects that I am working on for the upcoming TEDxHonolulu. I'm on the Interactive Team and we handle all the exhibit space outside the speaker area. Our goal is to create a space for attendees to engage with the ideas presented through interactive displays and activities with the hope of inspiring and encouraging people to take some action after the event is over.

The theme this year is Paradigm Shift and we will be focusing on 7 different areas:

Technology

Entertainment

Design

Community

Health

Education

Environment

This year the event will be at the University of Hawaii Campus Center, and we are hoping to reach out to the different departments to see a lot of the awesome things that are going on.

Paul Bump TEDxHonolulu 2013

I'm looking forward to actually start building things with our time. Time to get our 'creative' on. We have less than three months to go. Crunch Time.

[joe-heaukulani]

Civic Sunday - Citizen Solutions

It's a few days before the State of Hawaii begins its next legislative session. Legislation is just one way to change the way Hawaii works. There are a many other ways people can have an impact on their community.

Think about an issue you care about, whether it be homelessness, biking, clean beaches, or ensuring there will be ahi for generations to come. There are different groups all working on these different issues and they all could use your help. If you can't find any groups, start one yourself.

Groups can have all different types of focus. Some can be more policy oriented, and others may be more geared toward community building, and often times they will be somewhere in the middle. Use whatever skills you have and find ways to participate and engage.

Here are some of the issues I will be focusing on this year:

Homelessness

Housing

Biking

Transit Oriented Development

Food Security

Diversity in Tech

Open Data

So what keeps you up at night? How do you want to impact your community this year? Whatever it is, just know that you are not alone.

[joe-heaukulani]

Sizzling Saturday - Finally Finished and Pho

I finally finished my move today. The upstairs of the Palolo House is now empty, except for a large refrigerator. My uncle has already begun a lot of the demo work having removed the living room carpet and a lot of the moldings in the rooms. He removed all the closet doors, our swinging kitchen door, and hideaway ironing board (which hasn't been used in ages).

I think the renovation will go slowly, but now is probably the best time for it to be done. It feels odd leaving, though I've been in and out of Palolo many times over the years. Still it will be missed.

After all the boxes were loaded, I went with my Aunty Karen to grab some lunch. We decided on Pho Tri, since she's never been before and with it being Saturday, they have a nice 50% off the second pho. That and they include a free soft drink with any entree purchased.

I haven't been there for lunch in awhile, and there was a small line out the door. It was funny too, because as we were sitting the waitress asked where was my friend, Gary N. Most of the times that I've been there I have eaten with Gary, lol.

Anyways, I got my normal combination pho, and my aunty got the seafood pho. I think I might try it next time because it looked pretty good. I always feel sad for vegetables that go wasted on the plate, so most of it ends up in my pho. I think a few straggling bean sprouts didn't make it, but I was fully satisfied.

After lunch, we returned a lot of unused priority mail boxes back to the post office (from my ebay days). We stopped by the Goodwill at Beretania to drop off my grandmother's turkey platter, and a small basket. And finally managed to drop off the rest of the two big boxes in Makiki.

There is still a lot of organizing to be done in Makiki, and I have a lot of stuff that still needs to be donated, but it feels like all the hard work is done and I can take a small breather.

Today was a nice way to start the first weekend of 2015. 

[joe-heaukulani]

Future Friday - Black Mirror, Blackout

After receiving multiple recommendations for Black Mirror, I decided to binge-watch the two seasons (6 episodes) that were available on Netflix. Billed as the ‘Twilight Zone’ for a new generation, there were some expectations to be met. Needless to say, it did not disappoint.

Each episode takes a different look at possible near-futures for our society, all of them pretty dark and disturbing. I think it’s most disturbing to me because you can see some of those futures taking shape now. It is definitely a great critique on some of our current behavior.

I really don’t want to spoil the series for anyone, so just go and watch it. I would love to discuss these types of topics though. I can always hope that Ben Trevino--or HICapacity--puts on another Sci-Fi movie series with panel discussion. Some of the talks there went pretty deep.

Sitting here in the dark of our Makiki Blackout, I can only think of bleak futures for an energy insecure Hawaii. Maybe we are taking part in energy rationing. I mean those building a couple blocks down still have lights. It could be the start of a giant social experiment.

“Who runs ‘Barter Town’?”

I can imagine a small, yet powerful voice crackling through speakers throughout Honolulu.

Maybe a power struggle of a different sort is taking place of which we are completely unaware. I can only hope for Ililani Media to keep me up to date.

My eyes are already straining from staring at this screen in complete darkness. Which tells me two things. One, learn to write faster, and two, I should shut this down before my headache pops my eyes outside my head.

Blackouts are definitely #firstworldproblems.

UPDATE 1/3/2015

Ryan Ozawa has started a small discussion on Black Mirror in one of his recent posts. Ask and the universe shall provide, lol.

[joe-heaukulani]

Throwback Thursday - Twenty Year Detour

A good way to begin thinking about the New Year ahead is to take a long look at the past. In the middle of moving, I came across a lot of old papers and photos.

My uncle David Heaukulani helped us dig into our family genealogy on my dad's side. He had a monthly newsletter that he would send out, and give us information on what was going on in the family. This lead to our Heaukulani family reunion in 1996 at Kalōpā.

That was when I first learned that our family  had some land there. My cousins, Eddie Boy and Eric had spent some time before the reunion clearing the grave area which had been grown over. We only spent a brief time there during the reunion, but it was a special link for me to my family's history.

After the reunion, I was ready to move to Kalōpā and give farming a try. It made sense at the time to my twenty year old self. I had dreams of growing acres of Taro.

But I dropped the ball somewhere between that 1996 reunion and when I started working at 88Tees. I know it's been a long detour for me to try and get back, but that's my plan for this year, farming. And robots.

Yes robots. I've always loved them. I was heavily influenced by Star Wars and Buck Rogers. I know this wasn't the only time I've dressed as a robot for Halloween either.

When the Lego Mindstorms came out I was super excited and rushed out to get it. This was one of the most fun Lego sets I've ever had. Sadly, my robotics experiments also took a twenty year detour.

But now it's time to get back on track. So this year will be filled with vegetables and robots. And awesomeness. Let's have some fun.

[joe-heaukulani]

Startup Saturday - Get Ready For Startup Weekend Honolulu

Startup Weekend Honolulu is just around the corner and there are a few things happening in town that can help prepare you for the event.

source: honolulu.startupweekend.org

11/4/14 Nodeschool November

11/6/14 Intro to Web Applications - Node JS w/ Express

11/8/14 Biz Pitch Camp

11/12/14 Wetware Wednesday

[joe-heaukulani]

#StartupSaturday - Apply for Blue Startups Cohort #4

I just wanted to remind all you entrepreneurs out there that there is one more week to apply for Blue Startups Cohort #4.

source: bluestartups.com

Team Recruitment

Blue Startups intends to recruit teams both in Hawaii and globally via our media outreach, mentor network, promotional partners and affiliations with Asian and Silicon Valley accelerators and the Global Accelerator Network. Blue Startups will select only teams that are highly qualified with a demonstrated ability to succeed. All selected companies must be at a stage in the companies’ life where it is able to take advantage of the program; while at the same time have enough progress with the product that risks of failure have been mitigated. All teams will be required to submit an application via the F6S online application platform maintained by GAN.

Applicant Requirements:

Minimum of two founders per team, maximum of four founders on a team.

The majority of the team must live in Hawaii for the duration of the program.

One co-founder must have a technical background.

Here are a few articles to read if you are still on the fence:

Should You Join an Accelerator? Dear Awesome Startups Don't Join an Accelerator Unless... Why Joining an Accelerator Isn't for Every Startup