Bamboo for Pandas

Many of you will have heard me talk about the need for pandas to have bamboo. Not just enough to survive, but corridors to link them together so they can mate.

People are like that. Bamboo feels like ideas. When I meet people like Ben Segal, it’s like finding air, water, food. The essential stuff for me to not just survive, but thrive.

“I am convinced that today the main challenges for the Internet (and hence ISOC) are more social and economic than technical, and that progress depends on effective programs of education and dialogue.”

From Ben’s election statement as a trustee for the Internet Society in Geneva.

As someone working the in the field of education with an emphasis on dialogue through blogging, I couldn’t agree more.

Perhaps this is why, sitting here blogging at LIFT08, I am delighted to see several speakers that help us explore these ideas.

But there is still an underlying frustration I am feeling at LIFT which, apologies to anyone that has been caught in the clutches of one of my angry rants today, centres on this.

We keep exploring the “How”, the technical side I guess and how the social can be appropriated in support of the technical or the economic. But what we are still lacking in this space is the “Why?”

Why are we wanting to innovate, to create, to advance technology in society, to overcome challenges and take up opportunities.

I can only hope that the wonderful inclusion of the sustainablilty section will be emphasised in the takeaways summary.

So much potential in the room… where will people direct it….

So you think Technology is God?

Moving now to the elephant on the table we’re not hearing much about. Flesh. Not the stuff you cut to insert augmentations and enhancements (bbrrrrrr Dalek Sek aka the, ironically, very lovely Kevin Warwick). The flesh we press together. The stuff we make real love with, real friendships with in the here and now – in “meat space” as William Gibson calls it. The stuff that holds our organs in, our hearts, our minds, our real senses.

Next year I humbly request a section, a thread, an ongoing reminder about the need to be grounded. To be HERE. To be on the earth, truly connected, not above and beyond it. That kind of patriarchal arrogance has gotten us into this mess in the first place. Read Joanna Macy World as Lover, World as Self to get a grip on reality and priorities.

Yes, I applaud the appropriate use of technology for the well being of all beings and the planet we all call home. No, I do not think the hype about Technology as Religion is being well balanced here at LIFT08 (with some noble and Nobel exceptions).

What about practical tips for unplugging. Having run TV Turn Off Week in Australia, I want to hear about Unplug from Computers Week. Dave Stone, a young upandcoming uber geek we know in digital Brighton has just come back online after a much needed break. I want to co-present with him next year in an interactive session that puts the focus back on the flesh. That reminds us how to protect and even enhance our Mental / Emotional / Physical / Spiritual Environment.

A quick search for “internet free week” or a chat with almost anyone at the conference would confirm this is necessary.

Why am I so angry? Well it’s not just the hangover from fondue and wine. It’s much worse than that. It’s the anger, nay the RAGE I share with Jasmina Tesanovic and people all around the world, mothers, fathers, adoloescents, citizens about the outcomes of rampant partiarchy. It’s why we need people like Joanna Macy here as the antitode to all this:

Technology as God (insert other concept eg. Human Supremacy over Gaian Paradigm) + Testosterone = Money + war + a dying planet.

If these issues are not going to be explored at LIFT, then were and when? We just don’t have the time to wait.

Thank Dog and God, all the Buddhas and Allah and Gaia and the stars and the moon I met Ben Segal here. If you haven’t yet, do yourself a favour. But stand in line. True humanists that can integrate head and heart are, sadly, few and far between. Let’s hear from more of them.

A voice of reason please…. Vote One for Ben Segal or Joanna Macy to keynote LIFT next year.

The topic? Let’s hear what you think…

Bruce Sterling Opens LIFT

Nikolas + Carla = black swan factor

The High Impact of the Unexpected

I love Bruce Sterling. His book Disruption has stayed with me for over a decade. His predictions about the way technology will create even more manipulative political campaigns have come to pass. Think: the President-elect with an ear bud connected to feedback system in realtime that tells him what to say to keep the audience happy… Think: the shadowy power behind the throne with their hand fair-up-the-clackers of the puppet king.

The way he described how trust and reputation would be created and served online have come to pass. Think Couchsurfing or epinions and how we now expect our online karma to run over old-world dogma. Hyperlinks keep subverting hierarchy and our actions speak louder than our job title. New kinds of community can emerge.

Brucey baby’s laconic, voice of reason tells it like it is. 2008 is going to be a crap year, he says. Nothing to really inspire or motivate us there. Sorry. So he takes us on a random riff about this and that, building rapport and entertaining.

It’s great to see the work of futurism and journalism brought into an idiosyncratic person style that engages you and makes no false claims to empirical science.

What is truth and reality anyway? Outside of the physiological fact of the way hearts and lungs function, most claims to truth are subjective anyway, so why try and pretend otherwise. So why not take part in truth yourself….
I will always trust the word of someone who puts themselves fully into the frame. I want to know the context, the editor.

Bruce knows what’s going on in the world and has a great skill for feeding it back to us in a way we want to hear.

He said Gates would rather try and cure malaria than stay at Microsoft pretend Microsoft is interesting. There were a range of insightful remarks in his opening.

Then the Sarkozy / Bruni obsession began. Entertaining, well thought out, well communicated. The central point being, they are a “Black Swan” (”a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations”) when looked at as a futurist. That their rise and rise to power in 2008 marks a point in time we should be looking at. His scenarios involving the axes of ambition and publicity led to a central predication about the Empress Bruni becoming a central figure in the world, bringing together the power of celebrity and politics like perhaps never before.

I agree with him. I’m just not sure why it is was a keynote for LIFT. There are a great many other topics that might have been more relevant. Mind you, knowing Bruce, the Black Swans might just turn out to be flying into our digital Twin Towers.

And I can’t finish without mentioning my hometown Perth is the only place you can find a real black swan, bizarrely. But I found a pair in Norfolk the other day. What is it with these birds? They’re starting to follow me all around the world. Is it a sign to phone my Mum?

Metacognition on learning at LIFT – Part One

Okay, so blogging these presentations is deepening my learning. I can listen and type at the same time, move between the presentation in this space and their website, downloading and checking email as I go.

But heck, I’m a woman! Multi-tasking comes naturally to people that breastfeed.

;-)

Also realising that I now have a common experience with others in the room. I have arrived. I belong. We are all here together now.

Loving Venture Night at LIFT08

Viewdle – video search with face recognition and more. Very cool. Check it out. Revolutionary.

Wuala – “the skype of online storage”. Simple, neat. Watch these guys.

Mixin – a really exciting new way to organise your (online) social life. Gra is going to love it. Destined to be very popular with the Twitter/Dopplr/Upcoming… possibly even the Facebook set. Can’t wait to try it out with the Brighton/London folk. Well mashed and stirred. “Social applications have a long way to go, currently in their infancy and strangely disappointing.” Mixin is meant to take things on to the next level. Let’s see how it goes. “Helping you digest the noise”. Scoble is rawther juiced up about the whole thing. Rightly so.

Pixelux – interactive physical simulation technology…. brand/media experience channels, multi-sensory. Takes the stuff we have seen in conceptual art spaces forward into super slick stuff that the retail marketing folk will clamour for. It will be in our face, seducing us to buy buy buy before you can shake a mouse at it. But beautiful, beautiful stuff. Will be good to see what the cultural and heritage sector can do with it. LCD, Plasma screen, projection on to floors.

Cocomment – “Helping you track your conversations on the web.” You know how we struggle to manage our conversations in the blogsophere? Well here’s a great free tool that really helps. Let’s all get on and give a go… Enhances conversations, helps you track what you said and who said what to whom. The speed has improved a lot recently. More work to be done on the useability we hear from early adopters (eg. Scoble). Another social networkto maintain though? I’ll let you know…

clipperz – “think of it as a web rollodex”… “free and anonymous online password manager”

and more to come.

Downloading Wuala closed alpha trial right now, just registered for cocomment. Love it. Love seeing the response from the expert, whizzbang panel, asking all the tricky questions that Gra would be thinking and asking if he was here. Sniff.

So far every venture that’s been chosen is fantastic. Really enjoying being in at the ground level with “The New”.

Somewhat ashamed to have posted the question about “where else if not Venture night…” on the LIFT community blog.

Battery just about dead, brain full, drinks are calling… out the door right now…

First Moments at First Lift

So here we are. Venture Night. Just flown in. I know basically, no-one, although a few lovely people have offered accommodation, dinner, indeed the press pass that got me here in the first place. An old Swiss woman at the airport paid for my bus ticket. So far so good. Feeling cared for.

First thoughts. It’s kind of scary arriving at something like this, on your own, new-ish to Europe, this side of the “industry” – and it does all feel very “industry” tonight. Was a bit challenged by the lack of social lubricants on arrival at the Salle, but lots of fresh fruit always helps.

Venture Night. Looking forward to hearing about Co-comment

Having played with the buddy system a bit on the LIFT website, I’m wondering what kind of synchronicity might take this forward into actual meetings. Hello to all I’ve made intial, online contact with – wherever you are. Still loads of people not registered yet, so I’m pretty sure tomorrow is indeed the main event.

So far I cannot get a sense of the creative, artistic emphasis of LIFT. The walls are covered in complex business model diagrams. Lots of serious looking people in black with edgy glasses. Lots of shaved heads. You know the scene.

Actually, I’m lucky to have even made it. Dear Bea (age 7) had a major wobble this morning. Generally she is very independant and very into Daddy, but there she was this morning, gasping for air, tears throbbing out, “Don’t go Mummy. Please don’t go away”. Next time I’ll plan our goodbyes for a time other than getting ready to go to school.

If you are reading this Bea Bea, I hope you enjoy the little treat I left in bed for you, and remember to give Maxi and Gra a special hug for me tonight. Only 5 sleeps and we wil be back together. I can only imagine being all the closer for the separation.

Conferences hey. Sure hope I chose the right one to spend the jet fuel and heart ache on.

We shall see.

Feeling very brave and a long way from home. Babe in the woods, by the lake at least. Roll on the inspiration, connection, learning and becoming.

As they are setting up for the start-up presentations here at Venture Night, I am now reflecting on what my intention for coming to LIFT was.

Hmmm… I guess it’s partly about being in the world, seeing what people are doing in this expansive, ever-changing field of technology and society. Making the most of living in Europe, so far from hometown Perth (Western Australia) now that we live in Brighton and Gatwick / Newhaven offer such riches at our doorstep.

It seems a good chance to get away from normal life and reflect on where things are at with Authentic Blogging, life, the universe and everything.

It seems a good chance to learn how to be just me, without my little family to surround me, day in, day out. I had a feeling on the plane, seeing and hearing children all around going away on skiiing holidays, that the next time I travelled with Bea and Gra, I would be much more grateful for their chirruping comments, excitement and assistance.

Truth, Dialogue & Hyperlinks – a response to Fabian at LIFT08

Written in partial response to a very engaging post by new LIFT08 mate Fabian Kalker on the community blog.
……….

I want to offer this… as a social constructivist, educator who doesn’t hold a lot of store in absolute truth outside the physiological reality of the way hearts and lungs function, for example.

We construct our own truth by documenting it and reflecting on it. For women, even more than men, the dialogical process is essential. It is for all of us, certainly if we want to create consensual truth that takes us forward together.

When I teach blogging, I say, the first audience for your blog is YOU. So whether Libby or Fabian think your blog post is a load of old cobblers is NOT primary, it is secondary to the process. For me one of the most interesting processes is that of human becoming. How we can self-educate to realise who we are and what we are here to BE, to do.

I hold the fundamental belief that if people live more whole and authentic lives, that make sure their inherent talents and abilities are developed, their values and beliefs revealed and applied, then all will be better… will will evolve. I also hold the fundamental belief that everything is interconnected in ways we cannot yet fully understand. That the Quantum Physicists and Buddhists seem to have so much in common becomes less and less of a surprise. But oh… the mysteries. The questions.

Never before have we needed the wisdom of the crowd to prevail. If we leave it to the traditional custodians of “the truth” (eg. think industrial-military complex, church, media barons, tenured professors) then we will continue to get the same truth and consequences we have been getting. We will get closer and closer to the anhihalation of the human species. The earth will survive, but we will not.

The competition for truth doesn’t aid these processes, but healthy debate and dialogue, like LIFT and blogging offers, certainly does.

Yes, there are many iterative steps in these processes, a lot of half-backed ideas and opinions being expressed. But perhaps we can rejoice in the diversity of voices, the opportunity for the many rather than the few to experience their own voice and have it echoed and reflected, to be in the conversation. To be co-creating the highest truths we can aspire to. To be working together without artificial hierarchy. Thank god hyperlinks subvert hierarchy!

There is of course an increasingly important role for editing, aggregation and other ways for us to filter content to meet our needs.

Thanks for your stimulating post! I’ll get into it all some more soon.

Libby