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 25 Jun 2004 @ 05:11, by ashanti. Globalization
Open source, and open access are the keys to unlocking the financial barriers to bridging the digital divide. An exciting groundswell movement is developing. From the Mail and Guardian:"Something pretty revolutionary is going down in a dusty patch of Limpopo province. It involves billionaire and Africa’s first astronaut Mark Shuttleworth, a multi-national technology company and the government.
Shuttleworth is so passionate about it, he says it could rocket South Africa into the future: “We are on the cusp of a new era. This is the future of IT.”
He’s talking about open source software -- a revolutionary movement and philosophy that stands up to the likes of Microsoft to ensure computer programmes, such as word processors or spreadsheets, can be used by you, shared with others, and even modified at no cost.....
...At the launch at the Mogalakwena HP i-community centre in Limpopo province on Thursday, Shuttleworth emphasised that if South Africa is to become a world leader, improve the lives of its people and focus on skills development, then open source is the key.
He says open source software is critical to the development of Africa and other developing countries because the flow of information and knowledge is not limited by the software you can afford.....
...It appears the South African government and Shuttleworth are reading from the same word processor. The government agrees with Shuttleworth to such an extent that it has formulated a policy ensuring that open source software is the preferred option for government. The government has recognised the pivotal role that open source plays in economic development and skills creation in the country...."
Full text of the article can be found at the link to the Mail and Guardian cited above.
A parallel devlopment is the groundswell movement towards open access, especially in scholarly publishing. For too long, access to e-journals has been monopolized by corporate interests and has created an "information apartheid" that has deprived millions of people access to high quality, peer reviewed research. The Budapest Open Access Initiative is spreading the word about open access publishing. Researchers are encouraged to publish their material online so everyone can access it, not only the wealthy. A software package is provided so that e-repositories can be set up, and items are retrievable due to the use of metadata harvesting technology. The Open Archives initiative gives practical guidelines.
Yes, everything is indeed, opening up! And therein lies the hope for Africa's future. More >
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 24 Jun 2004 @ 15:17, by ming. Entrepreneurs, Money Making
I still haven't figured out how to be an entrepreneur. It is really what I ought to be. I don't really want to be anybody's employee, at least not unless they pay me a lot of money and let me do what I feel like doing. As it is now, I'm indeed independent, but I tend to be extremely passive about it. I.e. I wait around for people who show up to insist on paying me money for doing something for them. Which sometimes works well, but when it doesn't, I don't have anything very organized to do about it. I'd really like to change that, and be a lot more proactive about it.
Yesterday, at an event for entrepeneurship and franchising, I met a guy who had paid 50,000 euros for a web consultant franchise. It essentially set him up to market himself as somebody who could sell people websites, and then either find people to pay for doing the work, or existing packages he could use for standard functions like e-commerce or help centers, or whatever. And the company provides some infra-structure for that, and provides an image one can borrow, with logos, etc. Duh, he could do the same thing without being anybody's franchise of course. As could I. You create an image for your company, and promote and network, and give people quotes, and then you either do the work yourself, find some software that will do it, or you pay somebody for creating it. Anyway, he was quite happy with his arrangement, and, apparently, having a company behind him made him feel much more confident in doing it, even if it in principle was an unnecessary waste of money. A great business for the franchise company, obviously.
At the same event I spent some time sampling educational CDs and videos about how to form a new small company. Establishing a focus, making business plans, getting financing, choosing a company form, incorporated or not, getting good advice and help, finding offices, marketing, keeping track of the numbers, etc. Nothing big I didn't know. But some of these things are pretty complex here in France, such as the zillion different social taxes one needs to pay in different directions, so it is not very straightforward to choose the proper format. For me it pretty much comes down to that I have to make at least twice as much money as I need to pay myself in order to be able to afford any of the formats, to be able to afford all the social security charges and taxes. Before even getting around to personal taxes. And I don't. It is a bit of a puzzle.
Anyway, on the subject of the proper MBA recommended way of starting and running a business, it is refreshing to then read Dave Pollard's "A Heretical Approach to Entrepreneurship". He's talking about what Charles Handy calls Existential Enterprise and what he himself calls New Collaborative Enterprise. It is a more sensible and centered, but, yes, maybe heretical approach, if we compare it to the MBA way. Do stuff that really is needed, rather than trying to market stuff that nobody really wants. Don't borrow money to do it. Do it with people you really trust and care about. Don't bother incorporating. Make a flat organizational structure without titles, and let things get done organically and collaboratively. Work out between you what each person really needs and wants to get from the business. Create the goals for the enterprise together, and choose the roles that come most natural. Spend quality time time with people. Network effectively with customers and potential customers, and with allies and potential allies, and with coaches and experts that can help you. Keep your own needs and happiness as a priority. Then try to keep the customers happy. Then pay attention to the community around you. You are the guys that make it happen, and it is important that it works for you. There are no absentee owners or share holders or creditors.
I like it a lot. For that matter, I can hardly imagine another way of doing it. But I have to take a hard look at what I'm missing, of course. A clear focus on what I'd want to do, for one thing. And what problems it actually will solve for somebody. And who exactly I'm doing it with. And I'm not really proactively networking and having quality conversations with potential customers, partners and allies. Not that I'm hiding. But I'm not building business. I work on what happens to come my way. Which usually means too much scattered work for too little result, and not much control over making it any different. I know most of the answers, of course, but it is not easy to change one's own patterns. More >
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24 Jun 2004 @ 03:26, by newdawn. Ideas, Creativity
I close my eyes
just for a second
and in that space as I am opening them
a life flashes by
Not my life
someone elses
a brilliant fine aura encircles this man
as he slowly lifts his head
his face is unseen
just defined in
black line and a fine brilliant white aura
it really is beautiful More >
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 23 Jun 2004 @ 10:52, by ming. Violence, War
If you wanted to hand over a set of nuclear missiles to a volatile middle-eastern government, where would you do it in suitable secrecy? The answer is the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. If you remember, that's where the Bush administration equipped Israel's submarines with nuclear armed harpoon missiles last year. story.
So, what if you wanted a place to quietly store top terrorists you had captured, being free to use any methods you can think of to squeeze information out of them? Including torture, drugs and hypnosis. Diego Garcia is again a good answer. Article here at Globe Intel.
What is convenient is for one thing that the island is very remote, and that its previous inhabitants have been forcefully removed, so there's nobody there to complain. But secondly it is that the island is a British colony. Apparently a key U.S. legal ruling states that violations of American statutes that prohibit torture, degrading treatment or violations of the Geneva Convention will not apply "if it can be argued that the detainees are formally in the custody of another country". Convenient, eh. So if these guys are housed by the British, the Americans don't have to play nice any longer.
A problem is of course that the British laws certainly don't either allow for using torture against bad people. Distribution of nuclear weapons is probably not particularly kosher either. Anyway, it is Tony Blair's problem, not George Bush's, as it is done on British soil. Could be an embarrassing situation if it got a lot of publicity. But so far they're getting away with it. More >
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 22 Jun 2004 @ 14:45, by skookum. Ideas, Creativity
Vagabond’s Purse
There is nothing left than a vagabond’s purse
Filled with trinkets from many lands
Each at one time treasured
Now just tinkling icons of no value More >
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 21 Jun 2004 @ 03:47, by jazzolog. Personal Development
Late at night I sit alone and work on deadwood zen
I stir the lifeless ashes the fire won't relight
Suddenly I hear the tower chime resound
Its single sound of clarity fills the winter sky
---Han-Shan Te-Ch'ing
I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgement, it takes place every day.
---Albert Camus
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
---Abraham Maslow
Happy Quartet
1901-02; Oil on canvas
Henri Rousseau 1855 - 1910
There is an urgency pressed upon us toward positive and happy thinking at New Civilization Network. Will new findings about happy people darken the horizon?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times Magazine
June 20, 2004
THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
Against Happiness
By JIM HOLT
Sad people are nice. Angry people are nasty. And, oddly enough, happy people tend to be nasty, too. More >
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20 Jun 2004 @ 18:16, by ov. Investigation, Intelligence
Problems demand by their very definition to be solved because otherwise they would simply be interesting situations and not problems. This structure in itself becomes a problem because the solution is already hidden within the problem analysis and the problem then switches to one of finding a means of obtaining this solution, but this solution may not be the only solution, or even the best solution. It may not even be the desirable solution simply because it usually treats a symptom rather than a cause, since it was the symptom that identified that there was a problem.
Sometimes you have to go beyond procedure and get creative; have to look at things from one or more steps removed and accept that we don't have a clue what the solution is, let alone how to implement it. (But let's save that for another article or this will never get posted -- but somehow I suspect it involves getting to the root causes and tackling the taboo)
This was one of the insights that I picked up last week at a lecture by Bruce Elkin, who was promoting his book for Simplicity and Success. I had been getting his newsletter for awhile and I was thinking of hiring him for a coach but that's a different story. After reading through Ming's NCN collection I thought this point was more relevant.
It occurred to me that Ming's articles, and most of the comments, which were by men, were oriented around a formalized problem solving structure; the engineers and architects of the new civilization. The few females that commented were of a more artistic persuasion and it sounded to me like they didn't think their perspective was being heard, or appreciated. That maybe there are stories and visions that are very important even though they are not concrete enough for the engineer and architect. That maybe we have to birth this baby rather than build it.
Does this fire any neurons? More >
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20 Jun 2004 @ 16:38, by fleer. Systems Thinking
This weekend a new european constitition was finalised. Problem for the european politicians is that the voters don´t want it. 12 years ago Denmark voted surprisingly No to the Maastrich treaty, but with a combination of threats, lies by the media and manipulation it was adopted in a referendum a year later in Denmark. More >
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 20 Jun 2004 @ 09:00, by ming. History, Ancient World
I like the Pyrenees, particularly the foothills. Very green hills and valleys, with the mountains rising up into the clouds further back. Yesterday we visited St Bertrand-de-Comminges, which is a village in the foothills. Today just a small sleepy village. I don't think I even saw any stores. But it is obviously a well-preserved fortified mideaval village on a hilltop. And on top of the hill you find a large cathedral, which obviously indicates that it has been an important place in the past. A great view from there as well. Eagles were hovering over the green valleys. The main parts of Cathedrale Sainte Marie were built in the 11th century by Bishop Bertrand, a cousin of Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, whom I happen to be reading a book about. The church is full of somewhat strange and humorous wood carvings. Lots of pagan influences, The Green Man, mermaids and monkeys, etc. And a magnificent 500 year old organ that is still playable. Having lived in the U.S. for so long, it seems particularly strange and awe inspiring that stuff that's that old can still be standing around.
The town is much older, though. Previously, it was founded in 72 B.C. as the Roman town of Lugdunum Convenarum. It was ruled by Pompei, and grew to a city of 100,000 inhabitants. Lots of ruins have been found, like the amphitheatre and the forum. Seems like you can't dig anywhere without turning up old buildings. Even though the archaeologists can't get their hands on all of it. There's a new school right in the middle of the forum, and somebody's house in the middle of the arena. New stuff built on top of the old. Supposedly archaelogists rent fields from farmers one by one, for a year at a time, dig up what they can find, and turn it back into a field afterwards. More >
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 18 Jun 2004 @ 18:55, by ming. Internet
Richard MacManus wrote a couple of articles about synchronicity and the web: Statis and Synchronicity and A Theory of Synchronicity for the Web. Synchronicity is a term made famous by the psychiatrist Carl Jung. He defined synchronicity as an "occurrence of a meaningful coincidence in time". Further, it as "an acausal connecting principle". Which is to say that a connection occurs through the sharing of a common meaning, not because one event caused the other. Jung went so far as to boldly state that "synchronicity could thus be added as a fourth principle to the triad of space, time, and causality".
Synchronicity has come to mean a variety of things. Laurence Boldt claims that synchronicity reflects the "underlying interconnectedness of all things within the Universe" [my emphasis]. An attractive theory for those of us addicted to Web culture! Stephen J. Davis states that synchronicity is "a very personal and subjective observation of this inter-connected universe of which we are but a small part". Another keyword that pops up in writings about synchronicity is "flow" - which of course reminds me of the Web's Information Flow. When used to describe synchronicity, it's all about the "flow of life". For example, this quote:
"When we are in the flow we experience more synchronous events, more pleasure and less pain. The flow of coincidences is our path to higher ground." So, yes, we need more synchronicity and more serendipity. He doesn't really say how that actually might work, but nevertheless it is an important subject.
We could use a synchronicity engine, really. Some tools that increase synchronicity.
Randomness is one way of going about it, even though it isn't enough in itself. If you look at some random, unexpected content frequently, you're likely to run into something unexpected that really fits for you. Random links used to be popular, but probably give you too much junk most of the time.
Collaborative Filtering might suggest new things to you that you didn't know about, but that fit your interest areas. E.g. Amazon will suggest a book to you that you maybe didn't know about, which has been bought by other people who've bought similar books as you. That's useful of course, but it is rarely what we would call synchronicity.
Blogging and the reading of many news feeds tends to increase synchronicity. You only look at a small sub-section of the world, as you read blog feeds you've already picked as being somehow interesting. You don't control what people write about, and you scan whatever it happens to be. And sometimes themes form unexpectedly. Several people write about the same things at the same time. Which might appear mysteriously meaningful and timely. OK, sometimes it is merely because they happened to read the same article and comment on it. The blog world is a bit inbred, as many people comment on the same things, and mainly scan each other's feeds and standard news sources for input.
Sometimes the most stimulating posts are either when somebody picks some unnoticed or old item or when they write about their own life, without referring to any news item. Looking around for unnoticed or new snippets of information is likely to increase synchronicity, as the item might appear timely and relevant for a bunch of other people, but also unexpected.
I like using semi-random content on some sites I've done. Quotes, web links, pictures, etc. The combinations of what pops up often seems meaningful to people. Like the quote was selected just for them.
It is like the old creativity technique of blindly finding two words in the dictionary, and then pretending that they relate to a particular situation or problem at hand, and looking for the meaningful connection between them. It is very often there, and it is often useful. That's a way of generating synchronicity.
There needs to be a wide-range freedom of motion for synchronicity to be more likely. If I only change between 3 quotes on my webpage, none of them will seem very synchronistic to most people. But if I have a few hundred, and they're good quotes in the first place, many people will find them strangely relevant.
Synchronicity is also increased the more different items I practically can manage to be shown. Again, if I see only one quote per day, chances are fewer that it will be really meaningful than if I could stand paying attention to 100. But I maybe can't. There's a sweet spot somewhere, where you're presented with enough diversity, but not so much that it becomes a blur.
If I go to a party with 10 people, and it turns out that two of us are wearing the same shirt, that's a coincidence I'll notice, even if it is not very meaningful. If we talk, and find out we were wearing the shirt for the same unlikely reason, then it begins being meaningful. But if there were 1000 people, and one of them was wearing the same shirt as me, that would just be statistics at work.
As to the net, the question is how to provide me with an increased number of coincidental fits, in a number that is great enough to be useful, and small enough to be remarkable.
There's probably some strange way of calculating the generative diversity in a volume of information, blog postings or whatever. And then maybe the synchronicity potential. You know, the information has to be sufficiently relevant to me in the first place, for me to bother paying attention to it. But sufficiently diverse and unexpected to supply me with new fits that I couldn't have guessed on my own.
In any stream of data one can measure the amount of information, at least theoretically. If I tell you 000000000000010000, then the information is in the part that is different. The 1 is the interesting part. The rest can easily be compressed into a very small space.
Same with the stream of postings in blog world, theoretically. How much of it is really people talking about the same things, and saying very similar things about them? How much of it is really new? How much of it is information? How much of it is knowledge being transferred, i.e. you actually get something you can do something with?
Synchronicity is often that you send out a signal you weren't aware of, and you get a response. If you're aware of it, it is something else. If I search for something on google, and I find it, it isn't terribly surprising any longer, and it isn't synchronicity. But it might be when I get an answer to something I didn't quite know I was asking.
I vaguely hear somebody mention a book at another table in a restaurant. I walk into a bookstore five minutes later, and there it is on the shelf, and when I open it, I realize it is very interesting and relevant to me. That's a synchronicity.
Aha, that gives some inkling of how we technologically can help it happen. Something needs to capture way more channels of information about you than you normally bother paying conscious attention to. At least not at the same time. What people have been saying around you recently; what clothes you're wearing; what's on your bookshelf; all the people you know; all the subjects you're interested in; all the projects you're working on. And something needs to be matching all these items with other people's items, and items in your surroundings, as a background process.
There's no reason you shouldn't be able to have access to sufficiently extensive and automatic information sharing that you can walk out on the street and something says "Beep! That person walking on the other side of the street is out to buy a washer. You have one for sale. Why don't you talk with him?"
We're simply talking about some kind of location-aware device that knows who's close by, in the real world, or in an online setting. And then some way of representing a large number of needs and wants and what's available. That's the harder part. Expressing a lot of fairly fuzzy human resources and resource requirements in a finite enough way that they can be automatically matched. Even if they might not have been deliberately voiced.
In principle the objective is simple. You'd carry a lot of informational receptors in your space. They will link up with matching reciprocal receptors that are available in your environment. If done right, it is a technology-assisted way of being in the flow all the time.
What most people want is out there, and probably close by. What most people offer is needed somewhere, probably close by.
We could very well get used to having things matched up effortlessly, rather than having to spend a lot of energy looking for things that aren't there. And lot of things would just be working, by lightning speed.
It can take several frustrating hours to look for a suitable plane flight that is cheap and actually available. There's no good reason you shouldn't get the information that you eventaully end up with, but right away, in the first try. It can take hours looking for the right product for some purpose. It can be a good deal of work selling some item, as you need to locate good places, and there are several of them, and you aren't in any way guaranteed to find the people who really want your item. All of that kind of thing could simply be an automatic underlying substrate of connectivity, that connects those things that fit, and lets you know about it, and which doesn't waste your time with all the things that don't fit.
The Synchronicity Engine. We need it soon.
More >
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