Unconferencing: A Recursive Conversation: My friends Rob Paterson and Chris Corrigan have a podcast conversation
with the UK's Johnny Moore about 'unconferencing' -- running a
conference without speakers, using conversation facilitators instead.
It's an enlightening conversation, involving three very intelligent
people, and if you haven't listened to podcasts this is a great first
listening experience and model (and Johnny's 'show notes' of the
highlights are excellent). But ironically, given the subject, I got
frustrated just listening -- I wanted to jump in and participate in the
conversation, but because of the medium, I couldn't.
Ray Ozzie on the Inflexibility of Large Corporations: Ray Ozzie, now bogged down in the bureaucracy of Microsoft, talks with Wendy Kellogg on a variety of subjects. Thanks to Innovation Weekly for the link. A teaser:
Sadly, I think [large corporations] have a lot of issues going on inside them
that make it very difficult to embrace some of these innovations.
Frankly, the path that we’re on leads one to believe that a lot of the
benefits of these innovations are accruing to small businesses and
individuals much more readily than [large corporations]. The reason: [large corporations]
are really different from the public Internet in that they have fairly
substantial compliance issues. They have control hierarchies related to
technology acquisition and enablement of end users. They mandate the
use of certain technologies and mandate that others not be used. They
control the upgrade tempo. I’ve never seen the technology environment
as divergent as it is right now between what’s going on outside
and what’s going on inside [large corporations].
There are other issues as well. For example, the search technologies
that work on the outside of [large corporations] are completely different
from the ones that work on the inside because, at least in today’s
Internet, people like to make things public. They tag things, they
write things on blogs, and post pictures to Flickr, whereas within [large corporations], there are many well-entrenched things related to hoarding,
hiding, and securing information that results in information being
siloed. So some of the core ways that relevance is determined on the
open Internet, such as references, don’t work on the inside—you don’t
have people writing in a public forum within a corporate network
talking about and pointing at other things, because everything is in
these little compartments.
Socially & Environmentally Responsible Housing in Three Days: Necessity Housing
is creating inexpensive, well-made housing using local materials in a
responsible manner, where it is most desperately needed, and putting
them up in three days. Watch the time exposure video.
Bush Impeachment Timeline Still Tracking Nixon's: Even conservative pundits now admit that Bush's secret law permitting spying on Americans without warrants is against the law, and grounds for impeachment.
Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link.
Guide to Phishing: As a follow-up to my earlier article on phishing, here's a complete paper on the subject, with examples of all the tricks. Thanks to Rudy Breda for the link.
GTD Procrastination Process: 43Folders has another way of Getting Things Done for procrastinators. Try it, and tell me if it works for you.
Great African Music Video: Malian musician Salif Keita's wonderful song Yamore is now available online as a video. Watch it here.
Instead of a quote this week, here are the Hanover Principles, written by Bill McDonough and adopted for the 2000 World's Fair, as a framework for a sustainable world (thanks to Kenny Ausubel for pointing these out):
- Insist on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition.
- Recognize
interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend
upon the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every
scale. Expand design considerations to recognizing even distant effects.
- Respect
relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human
settlement including community, dwelling, industry and trade in terms
of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material
consciousness.
- Accept responsibility for the
consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability
of natural systems, and their right to co-exist.
- Create
safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with
requirements for maintenance of vigilant administration of potential
danger due to the careless creation of products, processes or standards.
- Eliminate
the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimize the full life cycle of
products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems, in
which there is no waste.
- Rely on natural energy
flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their
creative forces from perpetual solar income. Incorporate the energy
efficiently and safely for responsible use.
- Understand
the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever and design
does not solve all problems. Those who create and plan should practice
humility in the face of nature. Treat nature as a model and mentor, not
an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.
- Seek
constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. Encourage direct and
open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users
to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical
responsibility, and re-establish the integral relationship between
natural processes and human activity.
Merry Christmas, everyone. No post tomorrow. Talk with you again on Boxing Day.
Image: The astonishing cover from last week's New Yorker by Anita Kunz. The right-wing bloggers are up in arms about this cover. |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
