Hawaii Blog

KGMB9, the local CBS affiliate, launched a bold (and technologically tricky) initiative tonight during its 5 p.m. newscast. Called ‘i9News,’ it carved out a significant portion of the half-hour broadcast to share feedback from viewers.
Sure, any newscast worth its salt pimps its e-mail address these days, and “picture of the day” submissions are a staple. [...]

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From the heady, shaky days of Howard Dean to the triumphant ascent of Pres. Barack Obama, there’s no question that the web is a vital tool for organizing and fundraising. Social networks have turned the grassroots into netroots. If you’re running for office today, you need to have “presence.” You better be on Facebook. And [...]

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Hawaii Rep. Neil Abercrombie is hoping to move from Washington D.C. to Washington Place in Honolulu, today making official his long-anticipated run for governor.
True, it was the worst-kept secret in local politics (I blogged it as a sure-thing in November, and I was late then!), and every media outlet had the story yesterday (after Abercrombie [...]

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The Honolulu Twestival was yesterday. I was one of the organizers. It figures that after I implored everyone to help publicize it, the event is over by the time I mention it for the first time here.  But where I fell short, many others excelled, and the evening was a fantastic success.  Our goal was [...]

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This afternoon, the state Council on Revenues is giving a briefing on the state economy at the Hawaii State Capitol. And at least two people are Twittering from the briefing as it unfolds: Ian Lind (independent investigative journalist and blogger) and Georgette Deemer (Communications Director for the Hawaii House of Representatives and former state film [...]

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At about 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 26, a lightning storm over Honolulu apparently knocked out electricity for almost the entire island of O’ahu. As people from Waikiki to Kaneohe were plunged into darkness, those that still had battery operated gadgets gathered and shared information online to determine the extent of the blackout.
Of course, a [...]

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Island geeks are crazy for Twitter. And now Hawaii designer Valentino Valdez of VALDEZign has unveiled (unofficial) Personalized Twitter Shirts. Valdez is using the custom T-shirt printing service Zazzle to print and ship the shirts, but will apparently be designing each shirt on demand as orders come in.
The design is strikingly simple. Your Twitter username is [...]

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AT&T’s cellular network in Honolulu failed this morning, disconnecting thousands of customers for at least six hours. (As I type this, service is restored in some areas, like downtown, but not in Mililani.)  At first I thought I just missed a bill payment, but it didn’t take long to realize it was a significant service [...]

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Manoa Geeks — the Web 2.0 inspired social geek gathering I now help organize — is upon us! Come on down Thursday evening to Thirtyninehotel in Chinatown to talkstory and catch up with what’s going on in Hawaii’s vibrant tech scene. There’ll be food, drink, and lots of cool stories and websites to share.
This meetup [...]

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Another day, another microblogging service: Today I checked out Rejaw. And the best way to describe its offerings is to compare it to its many peers.
Rejaw is a microblogging service like Twitter, except instead of a 140 character limit, you’ve got an expansive 1,000 characters to work with. (A limit I had to suss out [...]

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