I’ve arrived in Philly. I left this morning, boarding one of those tiny turbo-prop planes with seats made of concrete and about as much foot room as a VW beetle full of clowns.

(The Swannanoa Valley from the air. Warren Wilson is in the middle-ground, left edge of the photo hidden by clouds.)

After the delayed jump from Asheville to Charlotte, it was a mad sprint across the Charlotte airport to pick up the connecting flight. Fortunately after all the running, this was a larger jet with more forgiving seats.

A couple people told me that Philadelphia was a city full of jerks before I left, describing it as “like grouchy New Yorkers with none of the charm.” So far today all the locals have been very nice, courteous, and helpful. Checking into the Sheraton where the conference is being held, I had enough time to wander the city a bit.

(The Sheraton City Center hotel with a neat church on Franklin Plaza in the foreground.)

I ended up in the Mutter Museum (a museum of medical oddities). I think that place is the single most disgustingly intriguing spectacle I’ve seen in a while. Like rubber-necking on the highway, only educational and very dusty.
My goals for the week are:

* Learn a bunch

* Meet new people

* Blog it

* Eat an authentic, honest-to-god Philly Cheesesteak

Until tomorrow…

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From ‘A Softer World’

There is an argument made against privacy that says someone who isn’t engaged in criminal behavior has nothing to hide. This method of thinking allowed the US government to slowly sap away our civil liberties in the wake of the 9/11 attacks–many have just accepted that trading privacy for security is acceptable and used the “nothing to hide” argument to rationalize what was, essentially, a decision based on fear. However, limiting the government’s ability to intrude in our private lives is easy compared with attempting to control how personal information spreads on the internet via gossip. Rather than spies or wiretaps, gossip is often gathered by those we trust and spread online by people who don’t understand or appreciate the potential for the damage it can do. In reality, privacy is about much more than concealing wrongdoing.

Internet-based abuse (‘cyberbullying’) and privacy / relationship issues are still massively misunderstood. The complexities of online sociality are probably the biggest ‘generational divide’ between modern teens and adults. To help put it in perspective a bit, here are some numbers…

I HAVE A MYSPACE ACCOUNT!!1!