Seven questions for thought leaders and activitst?
1) Have we improved mankind’s ability to meet its challenges? (on a scale of [0..100] )
2) Do our stakeholders think we will be capable of making a difference in #1?  [0..10]
3) Are we articulating our vision clearly and effectively?  [0..10]
4) Do we have an adequate plan?  [0..10]
5) Do we have the right people in the right roles to reach the next level in #1-4?  [0..10]
6) Are we all enjoying this?  [0..10]
7) Are we improving our answers to #1-6 fast enough?  [0..10]

Questions by my hero Rob Stephenson, curator of the Tech Museum Virtual

Videos worth watching and music worth listening to

I just made an Amazon store of music and books from Round World Media partners

Feel good for 3 minutes-music video–– UC Santa Cruz meets Mexican Wrestling http://bit.ly/110npw

Great Latin American music stream–Round Whirled Records http://bit.ly/ZqkZu

Political musical theater now at your local supermarket

Amazing monologue on Health Care

Dear Lily–innovative music video with a purpose

The Making of a Model

From Peru the lovely Pamela

I almost forgot my two videos

How to keep  your cell phone from ringing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtggzsZgq0&feature=player_embedded

Protect your passport from being hacked, cloned, or pirated

Creating My Story

I’d like to be a consultant that helps people incubate innovation. That includes ethnographic research, user-centered interaction design, and helping the client re-frame their questions.

I do this naturally. I think my grandmother would call this a “buttinski” that’s Americanized Yiddish for “Some one that butts in.” I like to like to hear peoples’ problems and then help them look at the problem from different points of view.

I grew up feeling like “an outsider” so I see the world from different points of view. In sum: I have no taste, because taste is relative to your cultural paradigm. So, it allows me to see things from a variety of perspective simultaneously.

This is my passion but now how do I turn it into a business?

I’ve been told by several people I respect (Betsy Burroughs and Ramana Rao) that I need to tell my story.

According to Michael Goldhaber we are now entering the attention economy. So my story has to be compelling (grab peoples’ attention) and be short and it has to resonate with something in their own experience.

How do I begin to take my life and reduce it to a four sentence paragraph. From Latin American Revolution to innovation buttinsky?
Not a good title. (But it does have the word butt in it and Beavis and Butt Head author writes: “Butts are funny” http://filmtv.eserver.org/beavis-and-butt-head.txt)

Let me start by laying out the elements of a good story?

According to learner.org :

“What Goes into a Plot?

Narrative tradition calls for developing stories with particular pieces–plot elements–in place.

Exposition is the information needed to understand a story.

Complication is the catalyst that begins the major conflict.

Climax is the turning point in the story that occurs when characters try to resolve the complication.

Resolution is the set of events that bring the story to a close.”

Ok, this seems too hard. Let me look for another approach.

Creating a corporate identity, that seems like it might be easier.
A quick Google search turned up “A corporate identity acts as a signal for the type of business that you are. It should be an idea that pulls together why you do what you do, what it is you are actually going to do and how you are going to do it.”

Ok, this defines the final product, so I’m still stuck with creating the original plot line.

Still too hard. I’ll try a quick Google. It turns up the wikipedia version. I’ll try brainstorming to this:

“Initial situation – the beginning. It is the first incident that makes the story move.
My birth
My parents as radical activities
My alternative education
My living outside mainstream culture
Living in Latin American revolutions
My formal education
My lack of formal education
My living as an outsider tying to blend in
My work as a journalist
My work with peasants, workers and Indigenous people
My awards

Conflict or Problem – goal which the main character of the story has to achieve.
Help clients make lots of money
I help client make innovative breakthrough
I help an individual make a breakthrough
We have a great time
We become friends

Complication – obstacles which the main character has to overcome.
Old paradigms are hard to break
Once people believe something to be true all evidence points to that truth

Climax – highest point of interest of the story.
I see the solution
Suspense – point of tension. It arouses the interest of the readers.
Will the client see it or is the idea too far out?
Denouement or Resolution – what happens to the character after overcoming all obstacles/failing to achieve the desired result and reaching/not reaching his goal.
I reach my goal- innovation occurs
Conclusion – the end of the story.”
I satisfy the client and they tell all their friends.

It’s so hard to brainstorm by myself.

I’ll try the plot-o-maticit is basically a mad lib game. I have a soft spot in my heart for mad libs. We created a mad libs type game to teach grammar years ago.

So here is what the automatic plot generator wrote:
The High Paid Consultant
an original screenplay concept
by Vale3rie

Drama: A kind hearted prostitute teams up with a well-built female cyborg to find the true meaning of love. In the process they rescue a super intelligent chimpanzee. By the end of the movie they buy 7 washed up ex-SNL cast members and end up winning the admiration of their universe, living happily ever after.
Think Ernest Goes to Camp meets Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

Ok, now I’ll take that plot structure and add my own content:

Story:
The child of 60’s radicals teams up with Computer Visionary Dr. Douglas Engelbart and visual journalist Eileen Clegg to effectively communicate his vision for raising the collective IQ. In the process she discovers her talent for facilitating the creative process. By the end of the movie she has helped clients get unstuck and unleash their full creativity leading to an effective and innovative approach.

Well, not too bad for a first pass. I’ll keep working on it. But I do have rave reviews on linkedin

What do the reviews say?

“Valerie is one of the most creative persons, I have ever met. Almost three years ago, she was using blogs and wikis for education. She likes to learn new technologies and apply them to teaching and learning. Every time I interact with her, I discover some new perspective. I enjoy working with Valerie.”

Dorai Thodla, Co-founder, iMorph, Inc

“Valerie and I co-taught two courses on collaboration and the applications of Doug Engelbart’s ideas of collective IQ, capability improvement, and innovation. Valerie is astonishingly creative, and can likewise bring remarkable work forth from students. Her capability to spark creative thought in others is exceptionally valuable.”
Jamie Dinkelacker, Google

Oh, I needed that…outside validation from two awesome guys.

I have developed a one handed typing glove

Figleaftechnologies.com/glove.html

Looking for the perfect biz dev person to help us

What if I wrote a blog and nobody came?

Microsoft Error Mesage Haiku

While trying to interpret the statistics of web traffic to my site I rediscovered a jewel I had posted in 2001 Microsoft Error Message haiku poems
http://www.roundworldmedia.com/haiku.html

Stewart and Colbert in 2008

Last  night I went to hear some local musicans at the local jazz club and during the break a big group formed around a young man. As they left the circle each was elated and saying thins like, “that’s great,” “I’m getting one,” “awesome.”

I peeked through a whole in the crowd and there in the center was a young man holding open his button down shirt and puffing out his chest to display his T-Shirt that read:

Stewart/Colbert 08

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/stewart+colbert?CMP=KNC-G-EF

My Favorite Bumper Sticker: “Honk the Fibonacci series if you like electronic music”

Dorai Thodla’s delightful blog made my day by destracting me from my mundain chores and leading me into the place where magic meets logic: the Fibonacci series.
http://dorai.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/knowledge-spiral/

What if instead of measuring the value of our lives we measured the quality of our lives. Part of that measurement would have to be the amount of love we gave freely and willingly and second it might be a measure of the time spent contemplating the awesome nature of nature.

It just a big small world

Isn’t it amazing how many people we have incommon but we don’t know it.

Creating an Educational Networked Improvement Community

In the Fall of 2003 Dr. Douglas Engelbart invited a small group to his home for three days of meetings to plan the formation of an Educational Networked Improvement Community (EdNIC) dedicated to improving how we teach and learn. What followed was three years of innovative collaborative educational experiments and the formation of a prototype of an Educational Networked Improvement Community (EdNIC).

I formed an experimental class at California State University, Monterey Bay, in applying Engelbart’s framework for hypermedia design in . The class was based on a mix of classic constructivist principles and “applied Engelbart.” The class provided students with a rich array of resources to collaboratively construct their own meaning. Field trips, informational interviews, and group work were key elements. Each student acted as a member of our EdNIC. Dr. Jamie Dinkelacker joined in the experiment and brought a wealth of knowledge about Engelbart, communications, and the high tech industry. There were two class requirements. One was to collaborate with classmates and second was to design a multimedia prototype that incorporated Engelbart’s ideas including multiple views, high resolution addressability, scalability, and open source.

Professor Cookesy (Indiana University East) framed Engelbart as an Information Age philosopher who challenges the philosopher Immanuel Kant’s notion of time and place. By facilitating networked collaboration in a global community through both synchronous and asynchronous modes both notions of time and space come into questions. Engelbart’s work also challenges the traditional notion of “the human knowing system” and current epistemologies. Professor Cooksey integrated what she coined as “The Engelbart Hypothesis” into a traditional Philosophy class at Indiana University East (IUE).

Student Reflections on the Collaboration
The inter-university exchange affected the students on many levels. Students repeated three main themes in their reflections on the experience:
• The inter-college exchange made them feel like they were part of a historical movement.
• The notion of bootstrapping knowledge across disciplines and within the class was highly effective
• Exposure to different perspectives through different media was “mind expanding.”

Becoming Part of Social Movement
“We all felt a part of something much bigger than ourselves, a part of something that also made us bigger.” reflected Networking major Denise Gant. “There was a realization that our scholarship was part of a broad community. We weren’t just an isolated group of intellectuals…”

Paradigm Shifting
Our class discussed Engelbart’s notion of bootstrapping knowledge via well-organized Dynamic Knowledge Repositories but when we put it into practice with the IUE undergraduate students we saw the real power of inter-discipline exchange. The CSUMB students soaked up the philosophy student presentations and papers. Student Charles Spidell writes, “By reading the philosophy students’ posts, we are exposed to alternative ways of thinking and ultimately it affects the direction of my work in media.”

Many of the series students testified that the course provided them with sophisticated cognitive tools. CSUMB student Fredrick Josh Warren wrote, “I feel this class was the most influential for me as far as applying class work to real life. Because of this class, I know feel very confident about any problem I face.”

Gerardo Avila explained his experience as a paradigm shift that provides him a broader set of cognitive tools for problem solving.
“Paradigm shift defined: A complete change in thinking or belief systems that allows the creation of a new condition previously thought impossible or unacceptable…
“Paradigm Shift: In our own way each of us was attempting to apply Doug’s ideas to our interactions with each other… I no longer saw the class as a project to complete; rather I saw the class as a classroom where I could learn and expand my knowledge. I didn’t want a project plan, I wanted more ideas that could change the way I approached knowledge.”
“At school and at work, I looked for new ways to approach problems and solutions. Just like Doug could view data from different perspectives, I wanted to view situations from different perspectives…. I am now always looking in different directions and accepting different views.”

Unintended Consequences
What came out of the class was far beyond our expectations. Based on student testimony the results were that students:
• Developed a passion for Engelbart’s ideas and creative problem solving that continued well beyond the course
• Become filled with hope
• Changed perspectives
• Increased critical thinking
• Worked collaboratively
• Felt part of something bigger
• Developed projects beyond the scope of the class
• Engaged in holistic and meta-learning techniques

Several Engelbart scholars and members of the Bootstrap Alliance Board attended our final class presentation and offered their support of the project. The Bootstrap Alliance made a $12,000 donation to CSUMB to support the project in the Spring 2005.

Phase III
In Fall 2004 Engelbart attended the class’ final presentation. Moved by the student progress, he called for the Networked Improvement Community to scale up and include a broader number of universities.

Eight Engelbart scholars from around the world to participate in a series of recorded online dialogs to define and discuss Dynamic Knowledge Repositories and Networked Improvement Communities. The scholars included: Professor James Whitehead, UCSC, Dr. Jaime Dinkelacker, Carnegie Mellon University, West, Robert Duval, ARIADNE Belgium, Professor Brian Fisher, University of British Columbia, Dr. Robert Stephenson, Wayne State University. The students in the class served as observers and transcribers of the recorded dialogs and worked on their individual projects.

The practice of articulating thought, dialoging and reflecting on the dialog deepened our understanding of Engelbart’s writings and sparked other groups to dialog about Engelbart. All eight of the scholars want to continue the bi-weekly dialogs.
By studying and applying Engelbart’s work students can experience significant cognitive growth and expand their ability to consciously engage in meta-learning and meta-cognition.

The Future
The value to the students and to the professional development of the scholars was, by all accounts, valuable. All parties involved would like to continue but it would require more resources dedicated to creating a dynamic knowledge repository to house the collective knowledge product.