reboot 9.0: HUMAN

Theoretical Man: being human right there with public man So, tell me what does make us so wonderfully human? What I have discovered through my own experience is that being human has something to do with the need to balance paradoxes. We - humans - we are just one. The same animal that gets up in the morning and has breakfast un-showered, is the same animal who shows up at the office in suit and tie - or whatever equivalent - for negotiations, job interviews or a dry key financial indicators presentation. But that is not the end of the story, we are really just one, just one culture. we all know this, and we all know that this is not all, there is a paradox of existence that needs to be balanced, the we and the I. In this presentation I will focus on one aspect of theoretical man, the balancing of the public and the private, and what that may or may not have to do with technology.

The logic of theoretical man centers around language, representational language, and the very creation - invention - of culture through language. While on language let me add a note to my use of the words man and men. To me a man is genderless and it is a figure of speech, it is not about gender. There is enough information and scientific data out there to corroborate or underline just about any theory or opinion that you may come up with, it borders on total meaninglessness. I chose an ab initio approach, that is, from first principles. I have based my observations on my own knowledge in solid state physics and quantum mechanics, with the help from the contributions of Benoit Mandelbrot, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Bertrand Russel, Kurt Gödel, Richard Sennett, Christof Koch, Gregory Bateson, Lance H Gunderson and C S Holling, to name a few of the major influencers of my thinking. Of course Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Lawrence Lessig and David Galipeau continue to provide good pointers along with all others with whom I interact in one way or another. This will continue along the lines of what I sketched in The Rise of Public Man.

reboot is happening in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 31 and June 1, 2007.

Technorati Tags: danniejost, human, public man, reboot 9.0, reboot9, social architecture, sustainability, theoretical man

Why is it that Blogging is not about Blogging?

Greg Vernon took the initiative to video record this session and wrote a few words about it . Stephanie Booth live-blogged it while participating in the discussion during BarCampSwitzerland. Henning summarized what the discussion was all about very well in his blog.

Thanks to all!

My own thoughts as to what was guiding the live inquiry that we conducted during this session were posted here.

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampswitzerland, blogging, public man, swissbloggers, switzerland, theoretical man, video

Review: BarCamp BlogCamp Switzerland

On Saturday I did go on this little outing to Zürich to experience my first BarCamp that the local organizers insisted on calling BlogCamp, and it was not without some mixed feelings. From this perspective, it is perhaps not surprising that I returned home with mixed feelings, and that a look at the echo on the Blogsphere leaves me once more with them feelings still mixed. First the good news: 0. Meeting Stephanie on the train in Bern made the whole trajectory rather short. Of course we had arranged this through IM ahead of time and texted the necessary confirmations. Communication today is not what it was when my son was born 23 years ago. 1. The organization was well done, all ran smoothly. The way from the Polybahn to the lecture halls of the HG were well marked, and upon arrival I got from Corsin a number to pin somewhere on my clothes like I had not had since I was doing track and field. A simple, no nonsense solution to the problem of tagging the odd 200 bodies at the the meeting or unconference. Congratulations to the organizers. Well done! 1.extra: There were fruits, including bananas, besides croissants (that I can not eat), plenty of juice, water and coffee. I really appreciated that for such an informal meeting it was rather well catered, including the pretty smiles of the people helping out. 2. I met for the first time a few really interesting people and whom I would like to see again or somehow interact over them cables and wifi networks surrounding and connecting us. In no particular order they are Christian (link?), Stefan, Jürg, Henning, Pia, Sarah, Kobi, Peter, Greg and most likely a few whose name I neither wrote down, nor marked somewhere in my list of participants that had been handed out to me at the entrance. I had a fun time listening in and giving my two cents at Gabor's session and then later connected to him via Facebook although I did not get a chance to talk with him face-to-face. If I forgot you, drop me an email or comment. I am a bit chaotic, especially when I am working on a few projects at the same time, make that very chaotic. 3. It was great to see and speak, albeit briefly, with some of the same old suspects like Matthias, Leu who did quite a fun flick of those willing to brave being shot by a Nikon D70s, and of course Bruno. Unfortunately I did not get much of a chance to talk to Nicolas Berg although we do know each other from what to me seems to be another lifetime. I went to Stephanie's session which was quite enlightening. Take home lesson, bilingual bloggers are the bridge builders across language and culture barriers. 4. I was immensely pleased with the lively and insightful discussion in my session of "Why Blogging is not about Blogging" that Stephanie not only brilliantly contributed to, but also live-blogged! How does she do it? I look forward to seeing and listening to the video that Greg recorded, and all my thanks to you Greg for taking the initiative on this one. All my thanks and admiration especially for those who dared to explore what was perhaps not an easy inquiry of what blogging might be about. Shameless self promotion follows: If you are interested in more of the mysteries of Theoretical Man, the next installment is most likely going to be at reboot 9 in Copenhagen in just a few fast weeks at the end of May. 5. The wifi worked (most of the time). And now for the things I really did not get... I wonder what is the value of this bit that Kobi and a few others reported on. In my view a bit sophomoric, and the kind of thing that really does not serve any constructive purpose. But it might be just me, I only have second hand information, and this is the kind of action that went by me unnoticed at the event. Ah, Peter, that thing with "Christoph Blogger" is sort of cute, but it sort of ranks right there with blond jokes, and is forgotten before the morning after arrives. Good try! Fooled you, did I? Overall, the positive far outweighs the negative in MNSHO.

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampswitzerland, blogcamp, blogging, ETHZ, public man, swissbloggers, switzerland, theoretical man, zurich

BarCamp BlogCamp Switzerland

Via Pia and the creation of Leu here it is: Pink hair, red anything, jumping high and plain just being big does get you noticed! So, it is not about just size, there is colour and motion at play too? 23 seconds!

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampswitzerland, blogcamp, humor, humour, leumund, switzerland, zurich

Tomorrow: BarCampSwitzerland

Why is it that blogging is not about blogging? I am really quite curious about this event, and if I was reasonable, I would not be going because there is all that other stuff that I ought, should or want to be doing, and this just does not quite fit in the plan, and then it does. I am holding a workshop next month on blogging and I have been having a lot of conversations on the topic with a variety of people from theatre directors, linguists, editors, journalists, book authors, and school teachers. Blogging in my view is today's alchemist's panacea. The thing is that today's alchemists call themselves something else, but I am not quite sure what it is that they call themselves. I am having a difficult time these days taking a lot of very serious sounding people too seriously. This may all just be related to the fact that recently I had to do background checks and get claimed facts to be confirmed, and as is often the case, it is hard work that involves going offline and doing some hard cross-checking of facts, talking to people, seeing documents, assessing validity and authenticity of documents... etc, etc. These days for me, if there is something difficult to find, it is a real fact. When in one of these blogging conversations very intelligent people tell me that blogging is just diary keeping in public, I wonder what it is that has not yet communicated and why it is that they arrive at this conclusion. I like to turn blogging around on its head, and then look at the process of finding information on the web, including blogs. So, you have a real interest in Neurospora crassa, how are you going to find any reliable information on it on the web? Ok, N. crassa does not turn you on, you are interested in something more real like Cuban cigars, or how to treat athlete's foot. When do you know that you have found information that is reliable, accurate and useful? How do you evaluate the quality of the information that you are being presented with in a website? What does that have to do with a blog? Fact is, and this one is a fact, that blogging applications have made it possible for anybody with an internet connection and personal computer to put anything from text to video on the internet. How to make use of all of that which gets regurgitated, agitated and thrown on the web is the challenge. Blogging is a piece of cake. Blogging is accessibility and communication technology, and it is a tool of the affluent cultures that can afford personal computers and internet connections. Its instantaneous and global character do give it a powerful reach, and those fearful of the spread of information have all the reason to be fearful. What if the facts get out there in the public? What if the best of strategic planning and agendas get to be known ahead of time? After all, secrecy is still the currency of power. What are the power gate-keepers to do when secrecy ceases to be a valid currency because what was secret has become common knowledge? But we are not there yet. Secrecy still rules, even in the age of information and the knowledge worker. So, what is blogging all about anyhow? Join me tomorrow, and we will give it a go!

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampswitzerland, blogging, communication, facts, public man, questions, search, secrecy, switzerland, theoretical man, validity, veracity, verification, zurich

BarCamp Switzerland March 24 in Zurich

Under the motto "ein mal ist kein mal" or however it is that it is written, I have made plans to be at BarCampSwitzerland this Saturday and present a little about "Why Blogging is not about Blogging, and other Mysteries of Theoretical Man" as announced in the unAgenda.

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcampswitzerland, public man, switzerland, theoretical man

Reboot 9.0 HUMAN

Reboot9 is going to happen on May 31 and June 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Human! Given that today I started my day by scribbling on an index card "there are days when I just write the future, it is one of those days today" I look forward to seeing a lot of friends, and new faces there.

Technorati Tags: copenhagen, human, denmark, reboot9

Power and Control

For a while just think Ungdomshuset and then think again... When you get rid of the unnecessary issues, this is one version of what you get: Save the Internet | Rock the Vote via Lawrence Lessig.

Technorati Tags: access, creativity, culture, intellectual assets, internet, publishing, reaction, revolution, technology, www, youth

Oh Games!

Twitter and Jaiku early in the morning do have their appeal as a set of disjointed headlines broadcast directly by people whom I am interested in. Joi Ito is at GDC and I went and looked at the site briefly while in the process of starting my day with distractions. I found one item worthy of note about Warren Spector's presentation. If nothing else, it brings together for me the world of storytelling and games, and as far as I am concerned this has more potential than plain linear canned entertainment can bring you. We - that is, humans - do learn by play. Yes, yes, that is indeed how we learn best, while playing, forget this serious crap stuff... it is all about play. Why am I interested in this? My interest in the internet was rekindled years ago when I found myself living with a geek-on-games. Given that this one geek was conceived and raised by me, and I can claim responsibility for teaching him how to change motherboards and dealing with PC hardware along with other traumata that a mother imprints on her child including having taught him how to play chess while he was in kindergarden, his interest and passion for games has challenged me ever since. If that was not enough, I am a storyteller, and I do have a deep passion for anything to do with storytelling and view it as a most valuable heritage and vehicle of culture transmission. I am very pleased to be in such grand company as Luc Besson, another addict of the storytelling meme.

Technorati Tags: culture, games, GDC, internet, joiito, narrative, jaiku, storytelling, twitter, warrenspector

Food for Thought: Open Access

"Journalists, like moths and drunks, seem attracted, irresistibly, where the light shines, not where the key lies" CRITIQUE OF : Goldacre, Ben (2007) Open access and the price of knowledge . The Guardian , Saturday February 10, 2007. (Also appeared in badscience.net ) Ben Goldacre has his heart in the right place, but..."

Pitting Petitions Against Pit-Bulls: Sense Versus Sensationalism

Reading through this makes me think that Open Access needs some clear communication. The issues are a bit complex, but what is changing is the publishing medium - the middle man - and the publishing houses are in dire need of reinvent themselves. However the knowledge owners producing the information ought to be doing a bit more hard thinking as to how they want to share their goods.

Technorati Tags: culture, information, knowledge, oa, open access, ownership, publishing