Inclusion--Is Our 2020-Vision!

Slides of My First 24 Hours of Freedom!

Link for Voter Registration

Portfolio Website for Doug Cavett for VT governor

Go Fund Me Site for Doug Cavett for VT governor

Listed above are some better attempts of accessible links for "Our 2020-Vision Campaign." No longer am I using "https" addresses, and I have tried to spell it out as to what you are going to find. Learning how to do any of this is a challenge in and of itself, but being aware of the need to learn more accessibility techniques is a challenge I welcome. I will continue to try and improve these sites as I stumble my way to initially get it published in whatever way I can manage. I am very grateful to have learned of these needs as early on as I have.

In reflecting upon inclusion and accessibility in regards to "Our 2020-Vision Campaign," it really made me stop and think about how many things I have been doing to try and please the sighted person rather than providing adequate accommodations for those that are visually impaired. I like the idea of "Universal Design" and looking at the "opportunity of design to empower everyone!" I will continue to look for these opportunities to empower everyone as I move forward in producing our multimedia campaign, and I welcome advice as to how to create these accommodations since I am barely learning these things for the first time ever. Compassionate communication, cooperation and collaboration is the way of "Our 2020-Vision Campaign."

It should be noted that the VTDOC outright refuses to make accommodations for anyone required to take the Risk Reduction Programming that allows Vermonters to come home to their families upon completion of this program. The bottom line is that many benefits of the program are denied to Vermonters with disabilities. As taxpayers, we pay approximately fifty lawyers in the Attorney General's office to protect the VTDOC in their outright violation of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. "Our 2020-Vision Campaign" disagrees with protecting this approach of a reduction of benefits as the accommodation allegedly made.

I have also witnessed people who are in the care and custody of VTDOC with mental health issues locked into segregation as an "accommodation" for their disabilities. I have witnessed retaliation and punishment as an answer to these same people trying to stand up for their rights as people with disabilities. Another common accommodation is to take the 504 status away once someone enters into VTDOC. There are enough contracted counselors, providers and other professionals that are willing to compromise their integrity in order to keep their lucrative salaries with the State of Vermont. If we can't comply with these laws in a real way, the politically correct legislature means nothing.

I know I have to learn more and I will.

Plugged-In and Platform Posted!

https://sites.google.com/view/dougcavett4vtgovernor--e-portf/home

www.gofundme.com/dougcavett4vtgovernor

Thanks for checking in with our Vision for Criminal Justice Reform this week. Currently, we are spending $175 per day for a fellow CCV student and campaign manager to sit it jail day after day because VTDOC hasn't made approving his residence (his freedom) a priority! If he's not out by Thursday, he could be dismissed from class, costing taxpayers even more money in loss of revenue and grant funds. Why??  This exemplifies why this was the most exciting week as far as making exponential progress in getting our message (and Platform) out through the ePortfolio application of digital media (See Link Above). I have found this site extremely easy to use, in order to cover a lot of information through on-site pages, and also using links to other sources of information. I am considering discontinuing our website just because of the simplicity that this site provides for adding new information as time goes forward.

I really enjoyed incorporating photos that I had picked out previously from our assignment to create our campaign's logo (the banner). I don't feel that they fall into the realm of "slide junk" because they all represent the marketing of our State as well as "Our 2020-Vision Campaign." I also gave the credit that was due for the photos as well as that for myself in creating the site for "Our 2020-Vision Campaign." (An interesting copyright conundrum) They also worked very well to make the pitch for registering to vote and/or making a contribution for the things that Vermonters feel most passionate about. As this is a work in progress, I was happy to be able to make "buttons" for the first time, and I hope to use these to give the reader more areas to explore. I am being conscious to be consistent in the ease of navigating this site. I still have other options to explore including finding fonts and color schemes.

Apps are totally new to me! I am just starting to figure it all out, but it seems like you just have to open them up like Webware, but I found that some do cost a nominal fee, and they do appear to get downloaded on my iPhone. I like the concept of Webware, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn where everybody can use them simultaneously with no need to install or un-install. I don't see Apps taking over this type of Webware, although I do use Spotify and the Nike Run Club Apps and they are quite sophisticated considering how little input I provide for them. Freeware, on the other hand, is more of a marketing gimmick I suppose, and marketing gimmicks always get replaced. I downloaded a Chemistry-Molecular Structure program because they just didn't have these available while I was teaching Organic Chemistry, and I thought it would help me review for some Environmental Science debates in the upcoming future. I found this on the CNET blog; both CNET sites had lots of examples to choose from.

What I would like to see is some Apps for following government spending. If it did anything at all, it would make them accountable for what they are spending, and where, at the time that the money is being taken out of the coffers.  Former Governor Peter Shumlin, and his administration, still use the ballpark figure of "at least $200 Million" lost on looking at Single-Payer Health Care, and can't  or won't give Vermonters any clearer picture of that spending, yet he was elected twice on this unfulfilled promise.

If people knew how arrogantly The Department of Corrections wastefully throws away hundred dollar bills as fast as they can, in order to increase their budget for the following year, maybe real reform and real economic growth would result. Does anybody know a software engineer that wants a project to work on?? In my opinion, Freeware would not suit this purpose, Webware would probably do, but lower product demand would make it more of an App project. What do you think??

www.sec.state.vt.us/elections/voters/registration.aspx  

Please remember to Vote, it will take two minutes to register online with the link listed above.

Most Gratefully, 

Doug

Vermont Needs Criminal Justice Reform, Now!

dougcavett4vtgovernor.solutions
gofundme.com/dougcavett4vtgovernor

Thank you so much for checking in with us to see what you can do for Criminal Justice Reform. Voting and visiting our brand new website, listed directly above, are the best ways to be that change you want to see. The website will be undergoing constant updates, so please visit us often and be  ready to give us as much feedback as you have time for. We appreciate all of your help and support. 

  

If you want to take 2 minutes right now to register to vote online, please go to:

www.sec.state.vt.us/elections/voters/registration.aspx, and click on "Register to vote online."

My experience in bringing this grassroots campaign into the world of digital media has not been easy for a novice like myself, but I made the executive decision to invest in an upgrade on our domain name in order to take full advantage of bringing our message to as many people as possible. Instead of a dot-com or dot-net domain name, we are truly what our name says we are, a website for "Solutions."  

We used the Wix website builder, but my technological competence level is struggling with design issues, yet both our research and basic intuition make it very clear that the message is the most important aspect to focus on. I can't wait to get to this stage. It has been proven that content items, like links to voter registration sites, have as much as 10-40% impact on our viewers, while style has virtually zero impact. Of course these two aspects work together synergistically as the data suggests. The Header Text (153%) and a Bold Directory Link (220%) both provide the biggest impact on turning "browsers into buyers." Grassroots we are, but that doesn't mean we won't be using the best analytics we can to have people join in on our campaign. (It's not exactly something we need to "sell," it's just letting people know where they too can be the change they want to see.)

"Web design is the creation of a website and web pages to solve a communication problem," and that is exactly what we are doing, solving a communication problem. Vermonters have been throwing away $200 million dollars a year on a Criminal Justice System that openly declares that it is using that money to create more crime in the neighborhoods of Vermont. (See 28VSA 1b, and VTDOC policy #371, 4.2) I will get a link eventually, because this is the communication that has been hidden for so long. If you feel a little angry or frustrated about this, that's good. It takes evoking emotion in an issue on a website to get people engaged and ready to solve the problems through immediate action.

My research on communication through websites stated that our brains like order, left to right, top to bottom and just saying what you need to say, similar to my immediate call for people to take the time to register to vote. Just as I will include links to these statutes and policies that make you wonder why someone hasn't already stopped this waste of money. (Remember, crime pays the one-percenters very well!) This website has to let you know how to be a part of using that $200 million to assist your own desires and not just the one-percenters. Websites are a two-way street, browsers achieve what they want and site operators achieve what they want as well. I was very glad to learn what HTML, CSS, PHP and all the history of Browsers were, now I have to deliver the product for our campaign.

For more proof of why Vermont needs Criminal Justice Reform, please click on the link below to see how this man got five years in prison for a correctional officer making up a false story about a piece of paper allegedly stopping to hit her in the nose and glasses, when the uninterrupted trajectory of the paper was accidentally caught on videotape. These are the links a website needs to draw attention to the subject, with real proof.
https://vimeo.com/user95131696/review/317398625/d0f53c264d

Don't Be a Number, Vote!

"Be the Change You Want to See,"

 Mahatma Gandhi

This posting reflects on the Grassroots approach to creating a multimedia digital portfolio for "Our 2020-Vision Campaign," in a Mahara Journal Format.

The Audience it is intended for is my classmates and instructor at CCV, but it is also for all Vermonters to see how they too can "Be the Change [They] Want to See."

The Topics discussed this week will include, but not limited to, social bookmarking, photo editing sites, and who's controlling who, us or the machine (computer)? I happen to see our government as the machine, and isn't our government "For the People," and not for itself?

The Purpose is to reflect on how these topics relate to formulating something real, out of something theoretical. (i.e. a government for the People, out of a government Of the People and By the People)

Let me first start out with discussing "The Machine is Us/ing Us," by Michael Wesch, Asst. Prof. of Cultural Anthropology, at Kansas State University, because this really relates to why I'm learning to do this and also my painful experiences in trying to learn this.The very first thing he discusses is what I have the most difficulty with, that being the flexible nature of digital text. The ability to add links to anything and everything is awesome, or should I say the ability to look at the links added by someone else is awesome. Having little or no experience with any computers, software or Internet because our State believes this is a way of correcting people and/or growing our economy, has left me completely inflexible. My current problem is that my banner is not being recognized by the server?? Who knows, but I did stretch out some of these atrophied muscles to produce several campaign banners with scenes of Camel's Hump and layered with encouraging "Vote 2020" images and text to point people in direction of my name and position of governor being sought. I incorporated all this flexibility that Mr. Wesch spoke about, by constantly inputting my perseverance into the photo editing sites of PHIXR, GIMP, Photoshop, Flickr and Pixlr. The output really is only as good as the one doing the input (lol), but the embedded photo of my son and I (above) was photo done in PHIXR. Eventually I learned how to get some free downloads and trial memberships from Adobe Photoshop to do what I really wanted to do which was to find some iconic Vermont pictures and layer them with text for "Our 2020-Vision Campaign." The bottom line is that the machine is still using me because I don't have enough knowledge yet to completely defend myself from the machine hiding my work and dreams. This is not unlike our government hiding the truth from the people because the average person is not versed in the language of the law, nor do they have the time and money to defend themselves against the one-percenters' input into our government. Flexibility with our machines and our government will only be fully realized when we all have equal input.

Social Bookmarking and the del.icio.us website sounds like a phenomenal idea. I am one that loves to gather information, and I have often complained that our public schools suffer greatly from teachers not sharing their coveted, prized lesson plans that they don't want to share because of the hard work they put into creating them, but this social bookmarking avenue begins to breakdown the time needed to research issues. When I was in prison, we did this by collecting templates of cases we had won, and redistributing them to all the others being abused, illegally imprisoned or otherwise having their civil rights knowingly violated by our State officials. I haven't had a chance to investigate this site yet, but it is definitely for me in distributing and gathering facts about our government operations that everyone should know about. I am not worried about the amateurness of the folksonomy on these types of sites because we should all be looking at things with a critical thinking. Most of our government news is like "His-story,"  but instead it is their story, not our story.

These "Plain English" tutorial sites are fantastic! If you are like me and know nothing about everything on the computer, Internet or social media sites, this guy is your guy to listen to. I went from Social Bookmarking, to RSS, Social Media, Blogs, Social Networking, Wikis, Google Docs and Google Reader. This is how someone has taught the machine, which in turn is teaching me, and I in will then use to teach people with "Our 2020-Vision Campaign." I am in CT right now running a campaign with managers in Newport, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Johnson, Jericho, etc. etc. and it is all through these multimedia avenues that I have just learned in the last month of being released from the clutches of domestic terrorism at its best.

The RSS way of having the news come to me will be crucial, especially since I don't have the constant barrage of local Vermont news flowing at me in CT. Also, I just don't have the time to be hunting it down with having to learn, manage and apply all these other campaign necessities. I have for the first time had a Facebook account and really enjoy it, but at some point I will have to branch out again to experience Twitter and others.

Even though our machines and our governments use us to get the input they need to work for us, it is still our responsibility to find out what they are hiding from us and how to stop that from happening.  I am so thankful for the guidance I am receiving from CCV, my constituents, and this wonderful digital multimedia world. Now, if I can only outsmart it one more time to present our new banner.

 www.gofundme.com/profile/doug-cavett-iykxm

I did it with a little help from my niece at the University of Kansas, Thanks Courtenay!! We changed it to a jpg file instead of pdf. I still am not really sure what I am referring to, but it is here. Then I enlarged it to fit the page. The vision lives on. Please register to vote. Thanks, Doug

I Have Become a Face and not a Number.

 

 

#40577 is No Longer!

 

Today's posting will follow the "FATP" format, and illustrate the effort needed to overcome the abuse suffered in that euphemistic world of "Corrections."

 

Form - Mahara Journal

Audience - Classmates and Instructor (All of whom can become conscientious voters)

Topic - The Long Tail, Social Media, and Cloud Computing

Purpose - Synthesis of and Reflection on This Week's Resources

 

Guiding Questions:

1.  How has the Long Tail, Cloud Computing, and Social Media influenced my life?

2.  Why do I need to know about these things in my field?

3.  Why might have your instructor opted not to use the Cloud for this course.?

 

1.     Now that the most important part of my life isn't performing the "naked monkey dance," required by our State "Correctional" officers for their enjoyment and my ability to avoid being locked into a prison cell eighteen hours a day, I am happily influenced by the Long Tail, Cloud Computing and Social Media every waking hour of the day. Every morning I venture into a new and exciting part of these worlds that I have never seen before. Albeit, it is scary as well, navigating the possible traps of signing up for things that I've never worked with before. I have an entire notebook set aside specifically for passwords and usernames. I have memberships with all sorts of groups, organizations, and businesses who all want my attention from the moment I awake--and I want their attention as well. It really is a part of the Self-Actualization process that Maslow and Chris Anderson spoke about in "A Synthesis of Free". In fact, I had this discussion with a fellow inmate right before leaving the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, VT.  We were advocating for any possible use of the Internet for inmates, even if it were highly censored, like communist countries.

       By 5am, I am down to check my emails, then my emails from my "Candidate's Committee," who have a direct link to "Corrections" and I have to use a censored email service that charges outrageous prices. (Definitely not "Free" to communicate with slaves, literally or figuratively.) They are slaves because the 13th Amendment says they are, as well our Vermont Constitution in Chapter 1, Article 1 (eventually, I'll learn to add a link here). I then check my text messages, a whole new concept, but the only sure-fire way that my nineteen year old son will answer me. I then tackle my two online classes that both have to do with using technology, and proving that I still have the mental fortitude to persevere through all sorts of unknowns. After having my mind opened to all these new possibilities of using multimedia applications, I try to sign up and use a new application each day, just so that I can feel the maximum amount of frustration and elation simultaneously. Bottom line, I love it! Although I am still coming to understand all the applications of the Cloud, I believe my Apple Music is lost in this Cloud somewhere, and I am glad to know that I don't have to "buy the taxi" as Tim and Michael so appropriately described it for an old guy to understand. I am sure the Cloud will continue to increase it's influence in my life as my life continues on in the "Free" world. As far as the Long Tail influencing me, I guess that as soon as I start finding Apple tunes to pay for, or some other sort of site that allows me to find all these "misses" then I'll be a winner too. For now, I've only had 21 days of freedom and influence, in a direct way; I'll keep you posted as we journey onward to the race for governor, using a self-produced, multi-media portfolio for our campaign.

 

2.     It is so important for me as a gubernatorial candidate and as a future governor to be able to use these items in a way that I can communicate with the citizens of Vermont, and to know how these things are affecting our State's population on an individual basis.  The Cloud concepts of: 1. Scalability, 2. Instant Availability, and 3. Saving Money, are all obvious advantages for individuals, businesses and government operations. This makes it imperative for me to fully understand the infrastructure and it's applicability for making appropriate use of the Cloud technology. Also, being able to explain to folks the wisdom of venture capitalist, Kevin Laws, and his observations that: "the biggest money is in the smallest sales" and that "the most successful businesses on the Internet are about aggregating the Long Tail in one way or another," is very important for our Vermont economy, especially our more rural areas that are still struggling to have broadband Internet services. The whole idea of the Long Tail opens up markets for that "99%," or as Vann-Adibe describes the "misses," found in products/services which could be provided by any of our creative and entrepreneurial Vermonters who lack big start-up and marketing monies. I find the Long Tail, Cloud Computing and Social Media absolutely essential to my new field of public service, hence my reason for a  planned, total-emersion into all applications immediately upon my release from VTDOC.

 

3.     I honestly do not know why we are not using the Cloud, but I have a few ideas. Maybe it is because we wouldn't be able to access all the information in a group format. In other words, maybe one of the Cloud's limitations is that it can only be accessed by individuals that set it up or have special access. Maybe it's because we are all in different remote locations. This is an area that I will have to further research, but I look forward to seeing how and why this decision was made and how it will affect my use moving forward.

 

All in all,  every assignment we have is an awesome adventure of learning and fun for me. I truly believe this is the avenue of Self-Actualization, and until we infuse it into the oppressed segments of our population, we will suffer as a society. Thanks for tuning in, and stick with me as I move into my fourth week of being exposed to these multimedia applications. Please register to vote, it may be the only way we keep this awesome privilege. (Another place I wish I had a link for you to register online.)



First Official Letter to the "Candidate's Committee"

January 16, 2019
 
Re: Official Announcement of "Our 2020-Vision Campaign" and first official letter to the  "Candidate's Committee."
 
Dear Committee Members:
 
Congratulations! We have persevered through incredible adversities to succeed in having a voice in our State's decision-making, and now, we have the best job ever! Simply stated, our job is to improve the lives of our friends, families and neighbors--everyday. Greatest of all, we come from such diverse backgrounds, and offer such unique talents and perspectives, that we will succeed in "Being the Change We Want to See."
 
The next two years will prove to be very exciting and beneficial for establishing our platform for Criminal Justice Reform. On Sunday, January 13th, I left the Northern State Correctional Facility and headed to St. Mary's church in Newport, where, very unexpectedly, our faith and courage in our mission was indirectly recognized and blessed by Fr. Rijo Johnson. Our mission further manifested itself in visits to the Judd House and Teen Challenge to briefly converse with our fellow committee members and our neighbors in need, before finally arriving in Burlington to set up our campaign headquarters and visit with my adult "foster children." On January 14th, I met with the Vermont Secretary of State's Office to review campaign finance regulations and the procedures for filing the "Candidate Registration Statement," with the State of Vermont. On January 15th I received the official State-embossed certificate, declaring the intent of candidacy for the position of Governor.
 
The unique choice of our "Democratic/Republican" party affiliation assertively puts forth our ideology of breaking down barriers and creating massive opportunities for Empowerment, Education, Employment, Equality, and Justice. Our platform starts with Criminal Justice Reform, and does not end until everybody has a voice in making a difference through peaceful and harmonious actions. We need to raise the bar of dreams and expectations to the extreme, because Love conquers all.
 
Today, January 16th, and as promised, we launch "Our 2020-Vision Campaign" on my Mom's 84th birthday. A special thanks and shout-out to Darren Couture and Angel Felice for the beautiful blue rose for Mom--she loves it!
 
Thanks for all your encouragement and support; together, we will do this.
 
                                                                           Most Gratefully,
 
                                                                            Douglas Stewart Cavett