Update from the road. Caution, this is a somewhat strained effort to justify the “work” connection of my relaxing day in Brighton on a beautiful autumn afternoon..
I had a something of a quiet Sunday, before the hectic of the week ahead. The big excitement was watching, with Dan Jellinek and his two children, a procession of vintage automobiles come through Brighton as part of the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
I wondered about the amazing amount of time that these hobbyists put into the care and maintenance of these really amazing vehicles. Its work that goes on “underground” and unobserved for most of the year, yet at least one Sunday a month in November – their work goes on display in a very public way. We must have seen fifty of these cars pass over the course of an hour, and they had been passing by for hours before we arrived (apparently there were over 500 official entries in the run).
I like to think that the many E-Democracy.Org volunteers (and staff) approach our work with something of the passion that goes into maintaining these fantastic automobiles. Unfortunately, much of that work goes on far from the public eye and with little recognition. I suspect that many of our friends and partners consider us a bit crazy, for the time and effort that we put into this unusual project. Some might even consider us a bit weird or maladjusted. However, every once in a while, we get the chance to take our work for a drive and show the public what we’ve been doing. Starting tomorrow, I hope to make my own personal E-Democracy Run from Brighton to Bristol to Oxford to London (with potential pit stops along the way), showing off the work that E-Democracy volunteers, board members, programmers (Groupserver guys), and staff have doing in our garages, basements, offices, and in wifi enable coffee shops – over the course of the last year.
Thanks to all you who have been working so hard to keep the E-Democracy.Org engine running!