DaveWrites

Dave Atkins (email: dave (at) davewrites.com) is a technologist and writer who blogs about how he blends the work, life, and community aspects of his life at http://blog.davewrites.com and local issues at http://westwoodblog.org. He is also a guest blogger on AllAboutCities.

Dave has worked in startup companies in Silicon Valley and Boston as an Engineering/Technical Operations Manager. Prior to that, he worked on Capitol Hill briefly as Editorial Assistant/Director of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, organized several volunteer political campaigns, and obtained a law degree. He has undergraduate degrees in management and political science from MIT and a law degree from Seattle University.

Dave uses his unique technical and social media perspective to write about and participate in the evolution of media and citizen involvement in community and government. His first political act was to join the disastrous 1988 Gary Hart campaign wearing a button that said "Democracy, not Media-ocracy." Today, the slogan is even more relevant, but increasingly, media tools, as opposed to "the media" are beginning to provide a means to citizen empowerment.

Dave lives with his wife and 3 children in Westwood, approximately 13 miles southwest of Boston.

Featured Blog Posts

• Using a Wiki to Improve Town Governance
• Using Facebook to Build Community
• Be Thankful for What Makes Us Happy
• Develop a bias for action and change the world
• Does Diversity Kill Community?
• hunger for empathy
• Trees are just as important as coffeeshops
• Global will become local

Book Reviews

• Suburban Transformations, by Paul Lukez - All About Cities review of this architecture and planning book proposing a new design process to integrate history into suburban development as a means of creating more memorable and sustainable places.
• Wikinomics, by Paul Tapscott and Anthony Williams - All About Cities review and discussion of how ideas of mass collaboration in the corporate world may also affect cities and community.
• The Missing Class, by Katherine S. Newman - All About Cities review and discussion of how the "near poor" in America should be both a political concern and an urban planning concern.
• The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg - my personal review and consideration of this book with respect to my own liberal Christian/unitarian faith.
• The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore - An angry Al Gore strikes a resonant chord will all those who perceive a death of discourse in public life.
• The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki - perhaps diversity can work to help us make better decisions.