Seeds of Change - Heiner Benking's Blog - quergeist.info
Welcome to the NewsLog or Blog of Heiner Benking. A kaleidoscope of insights and impulses collected first in the DaZiBao (Rio) process Seeds of Change Viewsletter of the Club of Budapest since 1995, continually updated ever since. Now available for broader distribution and comments in this blog - enjoy, and come again !
18 Oct 2014 @ 14:34
Yesterday and Today hectic and full days, important and critical days in my "worlds"... But such is Life here in Berlin and mentally already half in in Nagoya I can only hightlight some titles and links. Besides, we "pushed" another letter by the Commons Causcus to Heads of States for Nagoya !
1) THAT IS INTERNET POLITICS: Das ist Netzpolitik! 10 years critical approaches to the internet and human rights by top movers, shakers, and insiders. I really enjoyed seeing buddies for years from CCC, WSIS, newthinking, ... but alos very interesting new people. Important and critical event - check the sessions ! https://10.netzpolitik.org/schedule and Speakers: https://10.netzpolitik.org/speaker/
https://netzpolitik.org/2014/das-ist-netzpolitik-der-stream/
Some presentations were thoughtful - others have to make us think how to overcome the nightmare of an Orwellian "Monster with 5 eyes",or Sasch Lobo and the "World as an Airport"
2) The Masterdays2014 [link] in Library Sciences in Potsdam, I came too late for Professor Kuhlen, and it is horrible anyway in days of train-traffic strikes in Germany. *****
3) On Sunday the Journalist organized by my press association have a day for online 2014 [link] I recall World Press Center ****
I shared the new Book from Yehezkel Dror
Avant-Garde POLITICIAN - Leaders for a New Epoche without EarthLiteracy!? [link] and informed about our Letter to Heads of States by the COMMONS Caucus and there about point 3 21StCenturyAgora.org ans Stuctured Dialogic Design. Well let us see what is comming out of this.
5) AEDES [link] - Vernissage about Barcelona RE.SET. The Work of the Enric Miralles Foundation [link] and the Birmingham Library - Impressive ! Die Bibliothek von Birmingham und andere Bauten für die Öffentlichkeit [link]
13 Oct 2014 @ 11:53
The National Advisory has an important symposium today and tomorrow in Berlin. The title: Bildungskonferenz: „Vom Piloten zum Standard: Nachhaltigkeit in Forschung, Lehre und Betrieb implementieren“ - Konferenz zu Nachhaltigkeit und Hochschulen des Rates für Nachhaltige Entwicklung free translation: From a pilot/example/blueprint towards a "standard". Education conference about Sustanability in Higher Education,Sustainability for Research, Teaching, Industry
11 Oct 2014 @ 20:36 Entrepreneurship Summit 2014 #ksk14
I am just comming from the YOUTH AWARDS tonight - with lots of flags and great young ideas tackling old, big, deep questions...
Social & Cultural Entrepreneurship !? A lot of big-mouth about serving or making profits, and if, for what.
I confess I am a fan of this gathering of founders, inventors, enterpreneurs, funders and facilitators. We did over the last 3 years side events and I had friends like Marilyn Wilhelm to be inivited again and again over the years.
Tomorrow - like last year - we facilitate our "Magic Roundtables" - see the video:Entrepreneurship Summit 2010: Farah Lenser & Heiner ... ► 2:12►
It is in the OPEN SPACE venue at the Entrepreneuship Summit, where we gather at 11:00 am after the SPEED PITCHING to have these presenters exchange, respond and interact, listen, empower, co-create,... do something that "What really matters" WISDOM PAGES (PDF) see page 315-318 which links to "Orders, Frames, Cosmologies": and Sharing and Changing Realities and go beyond the "I" or "we" (COP - UNESCO Paris) and David Bohm Dialogues to a shared or common fabric we call in German Zusammenhang und Zusammenhalt
I will not repeat my SPOONS and FEATHERS Phaenomenon / Principle or other papers over the years. See our handout at the Summit: http://open-forum.de/magic-roundtable.pdf
8 Oct 2014 @ 17:31
yesterday and today.Top interesting events and symposia.
1) 20 years intergeo. [link] I could not resist to see whos is around and how the mapping and geo- industries developped over the last years. Having invested lots of efforts into a "marketplace for the Earth" - the geotechnica 23 years ago **** I still see some old faces... and this commumity is different or unique. They are aware of scales, levels, frames, thematic overleighs and neighborhoods, fidelity, geo-statistics,.... and many other means and approaches I use ad a "map and model-maker" but which are strange or at best unknown to most people in other fields.
Tell the story of grid and frames ...****
2) Next is the 60th anniversary of the AiF [link] is a unique research network for interactive research of mid-sized companies who partner typically with academic and industrial research. The moderation made very clear that this strong mid-sized, pragmatic research and cooperation is unique and has been very successful over the years.
I left after the OTTO VON GERICKE price award. 3 interesting projects were short-listed. 1) separation of heavy metals from waste-water, 2) mycological analysis to identify fungi in foods or grains in large scale, easy identification analysis 3) zink-coating for steel-structures FEUERVERZINKEN = hot-dip galvanizing in any concrete-steel reinforcement (armierung) in bridges or any such building structures. Given the 10.000 bridges to be renovated, having to be repaired with a life-time of 30 years, when the construction has a life-span of about 100 years, depending on the exposition....
I immediately thought about the constructions world-wide and that the Köhlbrandtbrücke KOEHLBRANDT-BRIDGE [link] over the ELBE in Hamburg was brought near to me. I was working during the construction of tunnel and bridge in the early 70ies and now I learn that the bridge has to be torn down, rebuilt !! A life-span of 40 not 100 years....
No wonder, this is the first prize given the scales, proportions scales and urgency involved... check her the video presenting the winner: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kED0Vv3r9gY&feature=youtu.be check Feuerverzinken: hot-dip galvanization https://www.youtube.com/user/Feuerverzinken
3) Last yesterday is the Leibniz Society assembling politics and Sciences at a parliamentary evening to discuss the Nature-Culture nexus. SCALES and Numbers are central central in the discussion..no wonder... as we discuss bio-diversity now for decades and soon cultural-diversity is on the "table".
4.) Today, Thursday: SMART COUNTRY - The Internet & Society Co:llaboratory[link] is presenting its 10th Inititiative. results: [link] check #SmartCountry
see the project document in ENGLISH:
30 Sep 2014 @ 20:01
Bonn is hosting again one of the milestones of Education for Sustainability events,[link] this time an array of events marking the end to 10 years of Celebrating projects and selfserving promotions. But how to make differences that matters. (see the conference outline under MORE)
Some very practical and even "wise" recommendations have been endorsed. I will add later some links and my afterthoughts of 10 years of "learning".
On the way back, returing from Bonn, pls. give me a break ... as I also need to report in German first !
see below some links and press releases for possible translation
ESD after 2014: follow-up activities to the UN Decade[link]
Draft of World Action Programme passed by UNESCO’s General Conference
During the 37th session of UNESCO’s General Conference from 5-20 November 2013 in Paris the member states have negotiated the draft for a World Action Programme "Education for Sustainable Development".
mehr...
ESD in peer-review of international experts on sustainability
In their second report to the Federal Government of Germany, an international group of experts on sustainable development gives a progress review and suggests how to cope with future challenges.
mehr...
Position Paper "Strategy for ESD 2015+"
In 2013, the German National Committee for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development took a close look at possible follow-up activities to the UN Decade.
mehr...
Federal government reports on ESD in Germany
During its meeting on 26 June 2013 the Federal government of Germany approved of the report on Education for Sustainable Development. Federal Minister of Education and Science Johanna Wanka presented the report in the Bundestag.
mehr...
UNECE to continue cooperation with UNESCO on the subject of ESD
During it's eighth meeting on 21 and 22 March 2013 UNECE's Steering Committee on ESD discussed a strategy for the promotion of ESD beyond the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. mehr... Survey on ESD in the Federal Länder.
In 2012, the Standing conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) ..... More >
24 Sep 2014 @ 21:40
Strange times...
We are gearing towards education for sustainability UNESCO - DESD next week in Bonn and we work towards this - the last 10 years - and now look in FONA 3 making it thrive the next years.
In paralell we gear since week for the UN Climate and GA sessions for the next years, and then we have BAN and OSAMA at UN-television....
I need to sleep ! Come back later - I have just shared our UN COMMONSE ALLIANCE LETTER widely: [link]
Also check FONA: www.fona.de/en/index.php[link] I made a lot of notes about STIG STIGSON and his statement: There is NO GRAND DESIGN and legislators and administrators "muddle in the dark!" AND the personal introduction my our Sentor/Minister Prof. Johanna Wanka.
Check also what we did at FONA around FUTURE TOWNS - FUTURES DESIGN .... [MORE] !!!
And I attendet the SAUDI CULTURE week tonight - I feel we need to bridge the boundaries and speak - even after years of silence... No COMMUNICATION is very dangerous...
21 Sep 2014 @ 16:01
Since a week I hear abour CLIMATE demonstrations in NYC and elsewhere around AVAZZ !! Where to act and get involved? With which founfation, positionm functions, focus, perspectives and prospects? [link]
Check the long view cultural development perspectives and conccerns below /yesterday around EDUCATION; PEACE; CULTUTRes and DEVELOPMENT [link]
But more ciritcal is where to get involved for what ! today and in futures to come...[link]
AND in which context and when!? - So I am thinking here about resources and timing, strategies and tactics to make dfferences that matter. I hope you like the "circle"...
See the "circle" and I hope we find time to negotiate ! scales and positons and perspectives, conretely and embodied, ... see blog entries below..
check also: [link] and more later as links seem to be broken....
MY CONCERN is to make a difference, wheere I can contibute most, sometimes in the streets, other times "hitting the streets" or the "web"..,
20 Sep 2014 @ 08:00
Financially supported my the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) the Association of German Development Organisations (NGOs) VENROpublications:, organized by the World Univerity Service (WUS) is organizing a drafting and preparation event to discuss the state of the arts of education for sustainability and development and prepare an input paper for the last session in Germany to finalize the UN Decade for Sustainability in 2 weeks in Bonn, Germany.
I am registered as I will report for the German Association of Towns and Regions (DStGB) about the follow up process after the Decade and how to build on the achievents of this 10 years efforts. They speak about Transformation after the Term „Sustainable“ is omnipresent, used for everything without any meaning, Pörksen spoke about „Plastic“ words, politics is using for big gestures without shared content, concepts and context. Such „fashionable“ terms can be used if the have no referent, when they are not embodied and can not be negotiated form various perspectives and positions. I propose here again „Concept and Context Mapping“ and „Bridges and a Masterplan“.
Norbert Seitz is summing up Global Learning for Environment, Cultures, Development ... and citing big names from the history of the field of Education, Pardigms, Philosophy ... : Comenius, Alfred Treml, Polanyi, Toulmin, Marcel Hunecke, Paolo Freire, Reinhard Voss, ... this alone is a good justification to come to another gathering, and we now need to go after having a broader, global perspective by other speakers some 5 workshops, I sometimes call it entertainment in Kindergarten; Again presentations and sitting in small groups...
The Opening Presentation by Tobias Troll was also very good ! Congrats to invite him !! - BUT is there a base for his synthetic systemic outlook? based on a few interviews??
His craving for transformation and new paradigms is presented well, but there is no practical approach and just mentioning Transition Towns is not enough. I mentioned Georg Kuehlewind and Metaparadigms **** and there were great talks in the coffee break....
Seitz just said „there is no „masterplan, blueprint, model“ More >
19 Sep 2014 @ 19:52
Yesterday the major National Reseach Centers, HELMHOLTZ Association [link] had their Annual Convention and where to look into Future Research and Challenges in a festive setting in the Capital Representation of the German Telekom. Politics, Administrators and Researchers mingled and discussed technological challenges and breakthroughs.
After some opening words form the Minister and President the first panel was about BIG DATA and second about HUMANS and DATA. It became obvious what data, coded and non-coded at various scales are involved but I missed a little the proportions and consequences, the dimensions and challenges involved.
We heard about Peta-, Exa-, Zetta-, Jotta-Bytes [link] and how many interaction go on around such numbers in our "processing" and in our brains, and how we can process and visualize such data and make the impacts and interactions „communicatable“ and „digestible“.
I had to join this crowd because this topic is dear to me since the early 80ies. I was in computer graphics, vector and later raster visualization, selling the software for all the number crunchers of the world those days....
We sold to research and military, oil and gas and so I learned about many disciplines and their need to manage gargantuan volumes of data. Here an anecdote from 1981:
The CONTROL DATA (CDC) representative visited our sales office and boasted about the volumes all the CDC customers were storing on all their computers. They / we sold EAGLE DRIVES with 80MB and so the data volume was a lot: It was one PetaByte ! We were able to visualize the Sonar Data with UNIRAS software, so the Titanic could be located, and many more stories to be told later...
Today we learned about Peta- – Eta- and Zeta-Bytes and the audience was in awe about the sheer magnitudes... More >
This is Heiner Benking's News Log, a private-public diary presenting events, symposia and happenings in Berlin and elsewhere - my farings, foci, issues and concerns.
PLEASE CONSIDER THIS PERSONAL BLOG an ARTISTIC and PERFORMATIVE MEDIA INTERVENTION !
The Log links to my work and interests and presents issues and special concern of maybe a very small group of "concerned, engaged generalist" - a Global Interest Group (GIG). This needs to be seen in contrast to the ubiquitous Specialized Interest Groups (SIGs), the "scientific" approach to organize subject areas and specialization and standardization and harmonization! of means, nomenclatures, and modes of thinking. My favorite stories in the WHOLENESS SEMINAR include:
BELA BANATHY: "GENESIS
OF GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY" and "IVAN HAVEL: Longing for Unified Knowledge" where a "specialist" runs into the founding session of the early foundations General Systems, mumbling "this is not my field" or where Ivan M. Havel expresses his search for other kinds of knowledge.
As a starter I also recommend to check my MINDPRINT site, where we add the need for HANDPRINTS and MINDPRINTS, as FOOTPRINTS are good to visualize and communicate numbers, densities or consumption per area, but are not sufficient to negotiate and "harmonize" across domains and communicate gains in different cultures, technologies, times,... in short: incompatible but relevant information and our work on dialog, peace, policy-making, and multi-modal, faceted issues and consequences.
What am I? This is a "well-packed" question for which I have not the or a single answer. Some called me an in-betweener, go-getter, facilitator, hub, marvel-hero, trim-tab, bricoleur, bricoleers??? - career designeer, .... Some even "hank" which I disliked or Story which I liked very much !!
I have no single answer as I feel we need to walk the talk and sing and dance Life ! in spectra and fields in multiple embodied spaces.
To nebulous an answer? I am sorry but I do not go for overclaims and oversimplifications, under-complex and over-simplistic approaches with clan-think mindsets about real issues in clear contexts!
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13 Oct 2014 @ 11:53
8 Oct 2014 @ 17:31
30 Sep 2014 @ 20:01
24 Sep 2014 @ 21:40
21 Sep 2014 @ 16:01
20 Sep 2014 @ 08:00
19 Sep 2014 @ 19:52