Monday, November 08, 2010
See Socialtext in action in just 5 minutes
See Socialtext in action in just 5 minutes
Product Demo
See how your organization could use Socialtext to keep people and teams synchronized, engaged and informed, and to move quickly to take advantage of new opportunities.
See Socialtext Signals in Action
PRODUCT DEMO, 2:30 MINUTES
See Socialtext Groups in action in just 3 minutes
PRODUCT DEMO, 3:00 MINUTES
See SocialCalc in action in just 3 minutes
PRODUCT DEMO, 3:00 MINUTES
See Socialtext Dashboard in action in just 4 minutes
PRODUCT DEMO, 4:00 MINUTES
Wiki Workspaces
Socialtext Workspace is an easy-to-use enterprise wiki that reduces by 1/3 the time your staff spends searching for information and people every day, and speeds up cycle times in every function across the organization.
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How often do you ask yourself, “Where was it I saw that? Who sent it? When did they send it? What was the file called?” When we use e-mail and attached documents to get our work done, topics get fragmented across many places. According to IDC, employees spend up to 25% of their day looking for information. The process of getting work done involves a series of conversations – asking questions and gathering ideas and feedback. Instead of fragmenting a topic across different places, you need a single go-to place for each topic. And your conversations need to be released from the constraints of a document paradigm, so with each interaction you get the full context of the who, what and why.
Collaborate seamlessly
With Socialtext Workspace, people do their work on group-editable web pages that are visible to authorized others. With a go-to place for each topic, people can collaborate and build on each others’ ideas all in one organized place. Topics are no longer fragmented across different conversation streams and documents. Instead of writing onto a word document or drafting an e-mail, you simply write your content onto a shared web page, using simple WYSIWYG just like you do in the other applications you use on a daily basis.
When you create an e-mail, you can even have the contents of the e-mail posted to a workspace. All you have to do is include the e-mail address of the workspace in the address bar of the e-mail you’re composing. You can even create a new wiki page automatically by putting the new page name in the subject of your e-mail. This way your e-mail gets recorded in a place that is searchable, findable, linkable and persistent, where others can add their input and see each others’ contributions all in one place. This is an easy way to groom teams off of reply-all e-mail madness.
Get the power of rich context
Since Socialtext workspace pages support text, rich text, embedded images, video, and attachments, your conversations are no longer limited to a single media format. You can link to or include not only all relevant conversations from Socialtext workspaces, but also any relevant content and data from enterprise systems and the web. In addition, the Socialtext workspace pages let you see who made each contribution, so you always have the context of the people behind the content. This gives you the surround sound that context provides, for each conversation.
Socialtext 4.0 Video
See Socialtext 4.0 in action in this short demo video.
Let's take for example a presentation that today would be sent around in e-mail and stored on various desktops and shared drives. On a Socialtext workspace page, this presentation could be surrounded by text that explains when and how to use it, an embedded video that shows someone else giving it, a link to a page with speaking points, an attached .PDF customer story and explanatory text about why the customer story is effective as a leave-behind for this particular presentation, an attached NDA form with a note to help you remember to get it signed and who to give it to, links to other resources, and more. You have the full context of the who, what, when, where and why as you work with others to accomplish your goals.
Know what’s going on, always
With automated feeds and configurable alerts, you have easy ways to stay up to date. Socialtext automatically keeps track of the pages you’ve shown interest in, and keeps you apprised of changes made to those pages in an activity feed. You can also opt to be notified of changes made within any workspace you belong to, on a timeline you choose. You can specify pages you want to “watch,” and be alerted whenever their content changes. You can choose to follow colleagues, and see their activities in an activity feed. And of course, at any time you can click to a workspace view that shows recent changes.
Every user can customize their own personal home page and monitor what's most important to them at a glance using widgets and activity feeds. Another dynamic, flexible way to keep in touch is through Socialtext Desktop, which shows activity streams of the people you follow and pages you’ve edited. You can also see the microblogging streams of your colleagues on both your dashboard and Socialtext Desktop. The configurable pop-up notification that comes with Socialtext Desktop alerts you to new Signals, Socialtext’s 140-character social messages.
With these automated mechanisms, new insights and ideas spread quickly and broadly, eliminating lag time and allowing the organization to move faster and adapt quickly to change. With everyone working openly, you learn about conversations that can be valuable to doing your job more effectively, completed work that you need to do your job or can re-purpose, and people you may want to add to your social network. With knowledge sharing now a byproduct of getting work done, you automatically get what you need to inform your decisions and increase your effectiveness.
MOBILE FEATURES
Collaborate on the go
If you are mobile, you’re likely on the front lines with customers and prospects, and you need to continue to get updates and fast answers from colleagues. Socialtext automatically detects when you are using your mobile browser and serves up an optimized mobile interface into the full collaboration platform. You get all the powerful microblogging, social networking, browsing, activity streams and notification features of Socialtext, on the go.
Work offline
When you are mobile, in some cases access from a mobile device will meet your need. But at other times you may need to do work that is more involved than can be reasonably done on a handheld device, such as update a manual. With Socialtext Workspace you can also work offline. You can download a pages while you have web access, edit them while offline, then synchronize changes back to the server when you come back online.
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Socialtext Desktop
Socialtext Desktop is a dynamic desktop application for using Socialtext. It is built on Adobe AIR technology which delivers a rich internet application that works across all desktop platforms – Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
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Socialtext Desktop shows you the Signals (140-character social messages) posted by your colleagues. You can choose to see the microblogging stream for colleagues you follow, or for everyone in your company who uses Socialtext. You also use Socialtext Desktop to post your own Signals. Signals give you a great way to quickly share with a broad group.
Socialtext Desktop also shows you the activity streams for the people you follow and the pages you’ve edited. The configurable pop-up notification that comes with Socialtext Desktop alerts you to new Signals and keeps you apprised of what people are working on.
Desktop Video
See Socialtext Desktop in action in this short demo video.
You can monitor the same activity streams (page edits, blog posts, comments, profile changes, Signals) and also post Signals from Socialtext Dashboard. Socialtext Desktop simply gives you an additional dynamic way to stay informed and in touch.
Socialtext Desktop is free for Socialtext users. It requires that you are running Socialtext release 3.3 or greater, with Socialtext People enabled. If you don’t already have Socialtext up and running, you can sign up for a free 30-day free trial.
To download Socialtext Desktop, just enter your email in the box to the right.
Socialtext Desktop in Action
PRODUCT DEMO, 4:00 MINUTES
Socialtext Mobile
If you are mobile, you’re likely on the front lines with customers and prospects, and you need to get updates and fast answers from colleagues just like you do when in the office. Socialtext comes with a mobile interface that lets you continue to stay connected and updated while on the go.
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With Socialtext Mobile, the Socialtext platform is available to you anytime, anywhere. You can stay involved in microblogging conversations, stay apprised of what’s going on via activity streams, get to the workspace content you need, access co-worker profiles, and more.
Socialtext Mobile automatically detects when you log in from a mobile phone and serves up an optimized mobile interface. It lets you continue to work in Socialtext all the powerful ways you do while in the office:
Socialtext Mobile Video
See Socialtext Mobile in action in this short demo video.
Participate in private and secure microblogging conversations via Socialtext Signals.
Stay up-to-date on what others are working on and sharing via activity streams.
Click to look up a colleague’s profile, and click to communicate with him or her.
Collaborate on content that is automatically shared with others via workspace pages.
Socialtext Mobile is platform independent, providing support for a variety of mobile devices. It currently supports Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices. Socialtext Mobile comes free as part of Socialtext.
See Socialtext Mobile in action in just 4 minutes
PRODUCT DEMO, 4:00 MINUTES
Integration
Socialtext Connect lets you surface critical events from enterprise applications and inject them into the Socialtext collaboration platform, where employees from across your organization collaborate and take action. People can see those events in the Socialtext application streams they monitor and, where authorized, send updates to the enterprise systems from Socialtext.
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The New Social Layer
Until now, critical information, events and processes have been locked in enterprise applications and only accessible to the people who use the particular application. By integrating enterprise applications with our social software, the Socialtext collaboration platform now creates an important new technology layer in the enterprise architecture – the social layer – which spans departments, geographies and systems.
Socialtext Connect works with both on-premise and cloud-based enterprise applications such as CRM, ERP and document management systems.
Standards-based
It also integrates with and leverages the fast innovation taking place in web-based consumer applications such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz. Socialtext Connect adheres to established and emerging web standards, including Twitter Annotations and Google OpenSocial. Socialtext also plans to support the activitystrea.ms standard.
Three core components of Socialtext Connect
Connectors. A Connector serves as a bridge between an enterprise application and Socialtext. Connectors use Socialtext's ReST API, and can be built to connect any application to Socialtext. Connectors can be built by IT developers, system integrators, and third-party developers. Socialtext has a pre-built Connector to Microsoft SharePoint and a pre-built Connector to Salesforce.com.
A Connector can be hosted in the cloud, as a plug-in to Socialtext's hosted service or appliance, or on the enterprise application itself.
Signals Annotations. A Signals microblogging message can be enhanced with a rich presentation of metadata from the enterprise system, such as a chart, image, graph or video. These Signals Annotations enrich the value of application streams. Signals Annotations are built to the emerging Twitter Annotations standard, and will evolve with that standard.
App Bots. An App Bot is a bi-directional software agent that listens for specialized events or information from an enterprise system, a web application or Socialtext, and writes to these applications.
App Bots can be built with different levels of sophistication, including:
App Bot that provides a simple alert. For example, when the sales forecast is changed downward by a specified % in Salesforce.com, an App Bot posts a short message to a specified group microblogging channel in Socialtext. Or when a document is changed in the Sales Tools library in Microsoft SharePoint, an App Bot posts a short message on the Sales Group microblogging channel in Socialtext.
App Bot with a mashup of rich media from multiple sources. For example, when inventory falls below a certain threshold in an ERP system, an App Bot posts a short message, along with an associated Annotation with a map that overlays from the ERP system the locations of the nearest depots that have unallocated stock of the missing item, along with the stock level.
App Bot that is interactive. For example, an App Bot that monitors Twitter for messages from a particular customer, posts a short message alerting Socialtext subscribers to that Tweet, and allows the user to post a message back to Twitter.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
“The Chris Matthews Show.”Should Pelosi stay or go?
Chris Matthews hosts “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Monday through Friday on MSNBC. Matthews is also the host of the syndicated weekly news program “The Chris Matthews Show.”
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Interview of Mark Zuckerberg
Interview of Mark Zuckerberg and Erick Tseng of Facebook with Techcrunch and Financial Times. Awesome long interview. cc @parislemon
Barton Seaver: Sustainable seafood? Let's get smart
About this talk
Chef Barton Seaver presents a modern dilemma: Seafood is one of our healthier protein options, but overfishing is desperately harming our oceans. He suggests a simple way to keep fish on the dinner table that includes every mom's favorite adage -- "Eat your vegetables!"
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions
About this talk
Using animation, projections and her own moving shadow, Miwa Matreyek performs a gorgeous, meditative piece about inner and outer discovery. Take a quiet 10 minutes and dive in. With music from Anna Oxygen, Mirah, Caroline Lufkin and Mileece.
Using animation, projections and her own moving shadow, Miwa Matreyek performs a gorgeous, meditative piece about inner and outer discovery. Take a quiet 10 minutes and dive in. With music from Anna Oxygen, Mirah, Caroline Lufkin and Mileece.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
eClicker 1.0 - iPhone Application - Big Nerd Ranch
Real-time polling app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Version 2.0 adds the ability to use any Wi-Fi enabled device with a web browser (Smartphone, laptop, etc) as a client.
East Atlanta Kids Club
East Atlanta Kids is a special club just for Kids. They always have interesting activities for the Kids to participate in. The Kids recently created a art project in celebration of our new President.
Monday, November 01, 2010
How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
Paul Jay: Top six ways Obama and the Democratic Party allowed a resurgence of the Republicans
How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
Nov. 1 - TRNN Tomorrow the American voters will chose which brand of elites they want to govern them, Senior Editor Paul Jay said, quoting Conservative columnist George Will.
"Surely in a democracy it's time for us to quit being sentimental and say the question we settle in an election is not whether elites shall rule but which elites shall rule," Will originally stated.
“George Will did something that no one is supposed to do on American television: Acknowledge that we live in a class society,” said Paul Jay. “Of course, in elections we hear all about the middle class. One would think that presupposes there is a lower and an upper class... but no one wants to talk about it, never mind suggest it’s the elites that rule.”
In 2008, people voted for the elites that “promised change they could believe in”, but less than two years later, public enthusiasm for the Democratic Party has dwindled while the Republican Party has gained momentum.
“President Obama and the Democratic Party could lose 50 or more seats in the House, might lose control of the Senate and a string of governorships across the country,” said Jay.
Jay said that part of that momentum can be attributed to choices made by Obama’s administration. “The Democratic Party allowed Republicans to rebrand themselves as populist behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.”
Jay lists six major choices of the Obama administration that allowed the recovery of Republican Party, starting with the choice to not investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney for criminal actions while in office. Obama left the previous administration off the hook for the costs of a war founded on lies, and an economy founded on gambling, and now the origins of the present mess are lost in the public memory.
Failing to demand a system overhaul for the the broken-down banking and automotive industries are number five and four. Instead, Obama appointed a staff from Wall Street to help mend a system in need of complete renovation, and similarly failed to build a green economy out of the GM/ Chrysler bailout, said Jay.
“The message could have been if you want public dollars, then you have to serve the public interest.”
Not defending the public option for health care reform is reason number three.
“When the process began, polls showed that most people were ready for a government run health insurance program of some sort. The insurance industry wanted a more regulated environment where everybody had to buy insurance. The industry got what they wanted, big Pharma got a sweetheart deal to boot, and most people were left dazed and confused by the process.”
Choice number two is failing to change American foreign policy.
“The underlying assumption that the U.S. must dominate the globe by projecting military power everywhere goes unquestioned. The almost trillion dollar military budget goes untouched, when the funds are desperately needed at home,” said Jay.
The number one thing Obama’s administration did that allowed the GOP to make such a resurgence, said Jay, it to strive for bi-partisan agreements. Instead of fighting for the policies he promised, Obama compromised at the expense of the American public.
“By not fighting for a bigger more effective stimulus package. Not fighting for a direct government jobs program. Not fighting the deficit hawks by taxing those who had cashed in during the bubbles, and making them pay down the debt. Not fighting for promised legislation that would have made organizing unions easier and for polices that would have significantly lowered workers tax burden and raised wages. Not seriously dealing with urban poverty and immigration reform, which would have given blacks, Latinos, young people and the poor a reason to vote on Tuesday.”
Finally, echoing George Will, he said “Perhaps it’s way past time we realize that we are not one nation, there really are two Americas. That the lack of civil discourse and extremes of competing ideology is not the underlying problem but a symptom of an objective difference of interest. That what’s rational for most billionaires may not be so sane for the rest of us.”
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To read/view the full interview - How Dems Allowed the Tea Party to Rebrand the GOP
Transcript
Welcome to the The Real News Network, I’m Paul Jay in Washington.
On Tuesday American voters are going to choose which section of the American elite they want to govern them. Who says that’s the choice? Conservative pundit George Will did, that was in the fall of 2008 during the Presidential elections.
Here’s what he had to say: "Surely in a democracy it's time for us to quit being sentimental and say the question we settle in an election is not whether elites shall rule but which elites shall rule"
George Will did something that no one is supposed to do on American television. Acknowledge that we live in a class society. Of course, in elections we hear all about the middle class. One would think that presupposes there is a lower and an upper class (unless we live in something like an open-faced sandwich society), . . . but no one wants to talk about it, never mind suggest it’s the elites that rule. Mr. Will had to get pretty angry to break down that wall.
Well, in 2008 the majority of Americans decided to vote for a section of the elite that promised change they could believe in. Who would have imagined in Jan 09, when pundits were talking about a Democratic Party dynasty that could last for a decade, with such enthusiasm and so much public support, that two years later President Obama and the Democratic Party could lose 50 or more seats in the House, might lose control of the Senate and a string of governorships across the country.
Of course a lot of factors went into this but here's my top six list of Obama Administration decisions that set the stage for a Republican resurgence.
Number 6: Not investigating Bush and Cheney for criminal actions while in office - including the deaths of at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians in a war founded on lies; illegal wire-tapping; authorizing the use of torture; and at the very least, for gross negligence or worse in the events that led to the attacks on 9/11.
First of all, it would have been the principled thing to do. It would have told all future administrations they are not above the law and the constitution. From a political point of view, it would put the Republicans on the defence for years to come. This decision not only let Bush/Cheney off the hook for all of the above, it was the start of Obama’s naïve bipartisanship policy, that left the previous administration off the hook for the economic meltdown as well. Instead, Bush is rehabilitated with an assignment to go help Haiti.
Number 5: Bailing out bankers and not the banking system. Obama appointed a Wall Street crowd to advise him, allowed public money to refloat banks and investment houses that gambled and lost, without demanding any real public control or any public interest mandate. Bankers made more obscene bonuses and continue to sit on billions of cash, while unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies ruin countless lives. Instead of taking advantage of a moment when bankers were on their knees, he gave them back keys to their Lamborghinis.
Number 4: Not using the GM/Chrysler bailout as an opportunity to build a green economy. President Obama campaigned for rebuilding America's infrastructure and a new green transportation system. Instead, after billions of public dollars, we are getting an auto industry based on lower wages, fewer jobs, making more or less the kind of cars they were already making. The message could have been if you want public dollars, then you have to serve the public interest. If a public option made sense for health insurance, why not for the auto industry as well? If we are going to take climate change seriously, where was there a better place to start?
Number 3: Not defending the public option for health care reform. The summer of 2009 was the start of the Tea Party surge and the rebranding of the Republican Party. For months, the White House fiddled while their health care reform burned. When the process began, polls showed that most people were ready for a government run health insurance program of some sort. The insurance industry wanted a more regulated environment where everybody had to buy insurance. The industry got what they wanted, big Pharma got a sweetheart deal to boot, and most people were left dazed and confused by the process.
Number 2: Not bringing a promised new mindset to US foreign policy. The underlying assumption that the U.S. must dominate the globe by projecting military power everywhere goes unquestioned. The almost trillion dollar military budget goes untouched, when the funds are desperately needed at home. Not only did this help to fiscally tie the Presidents hands, it put him in an unholy alliance with the Republicans who gave him more support for his Afghan adventure than he had within his own party. It also freed the Libertarian section of the Tea Party, people like Rand Paul who say they are against empire and the two wars, to cover up their unholy alliance with people like Karl Rove and the others that not only brought us two wars but also the Patriot Act and other things Libertarians are supposed to abhor.
The Number 1 reason for the resurgence of the Republican Party: The Democratic Party allowed Republicans to rebrand themselves as populist behind the skirts of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. How did the Dems accomplish this? By not fighting for a bigger more effective stimulus package. Not fighting for a direct government jobs program. Not fighting the deficit hawks by taxing those who had cashed in during the bubbles, and making them pay down the debt. Not fighting for promised legislation that would have made organizing unions easier and for polices that would have significantly lowered workers tax burden and raised wages. Not seriously dealing with urban poverty and immigration reform, which would have given blacks, Latinos, young people and the poor a reason to vote on Tuesday. By trying to negotiate by-partisan agreements instead of calling on the millions of people who voted for Obama to mobilize in the streets and on the web in support of policies that are more likely to have been effective. To talk to their neighbours; to win them over to a real change of course. In other words, by fighting for the change people thought they had voted for.
In 2009, when we were looking into the abyss, millions of people would have supported such dramatic and rational measures. Now, millions of voters are rejecting half-baked stimulus policies and think that radical reform will come from trickle down voodoo supply side economics, ideas that should have been buried a long time ago. And millions of people here and around the world will pay a terrible price for the austerity measures a Republican victory is sure to bring.
So in the end, George Will was right. As things stand, we get to choose between which section of the elite will rule. And maybe we do have to hold our nose and choose the elite that we think will do us less harm.
But perhaps it’s way past time we realize that we are not one nation, there really are two Americas. That the lack of civil discourse and extremes of competing ideology is not the underlying problem but a symptom of an objective difference of interest. That what’s rational for most billionaires may not be so sane for the rest of us.
Yes, we would like everyone to be in the same rowboat, all working hard to “get things done”, to solve the grave problems facing us. But the problem is some are sailing around in yachts, and the harder the rest of us row, the bigger those yachts get. The real division in America is not between the Democratic and Republican parties, it’s between the people who day after day, are out there pushing those oars and those that are taking a cruise.
Municipal Meltdown in Harrisburg
Municipal Meltdown in Harrisburg
Elections an afterthought in capital city of key state as bank debts threaten basic public services
Sunday, October 31, 2010
紀登斯：全球能源管理，需要第三條路
影音簡介／
油價飛漲，原物料價格屢創新高，全球能源管裡瀕臨崩潰邊緣，「節能」成為最熱門的議題。在這個關鍵時刻，英國重量級社會學家，曾經提出「第三條路」深刻影響台灣的紀登斯，在倫敦接受《天下雜誌》專訪，帶來最前瞻的觀察與思考。（採訪：吳韻儀）
英國社會學家紀登斯：底層脫貧，才有穩定發展
這是政權更替的大時代。除了台灣換上國民黨重新掌舵，同屬亞洲小龍的南韓也換了新掌門；在歐洲，法國結束一場轟轟烈烈的選舉；到南半球，澳洲新選出會中文、重環境的總理；幾個月後，美國的改朝換代，更是各方矚目。
�@�̡G吳韻儀 �@�X�B�G天下雜誌
但是，想想現在的情況，沒有一個政府眼前不是問題連連。即使在民主最成熟、經濟連續十五年景氣的英國，新首相布朗上任不到一年，聲望直直落，甚至傳出要提早改選、結束布朗政權的風聲。
很重要的原因，就是全球化下、財富重分配的大難題。不論左派還是右派，似乎都無法創造均富的社會。
英國經濟雖然吸引了全球資金、連續十五年成長、打造超越紐約的金融中心。但是，《國際先鋒論壇報》報導，英國貧窮問題沒有改善，相對貧窮的人口達一千三百萬人，社會流動已經倒退到戰前時代。你是誰、住哪裡、屬於哪個階層，才決定你分到什麼樣的經濟果實。不平的民怨開始蔓延。
「領導人要注意社會態度的轉變，」英國重量級社會學家、上議院議員紀登斯（Anthony Giddens）指出，「英國政府尤其應該協助最底層的人脫貧。」
英國成長的重要智囊
英國在每一個難關、每一段發展，都有重要智囊與政府共同思索方向。紀登斯就是英國過去十年成長的重要智囊。
紀登斯是英國現代對政治與思想極具影響力的社會學者，他所提出的「第三條路」，就是前任首相布萊爾施政的基本藍圖。他現在進入英國上議院，對於英國一路的發展、未來的挑戰，都有最貼近的觀察與思考。
紀登斯坐在倫敦政商流連的雀爾喜區（Chelsea），從他熟悉的社會結構變遷談起。現在，英國最富有的五分之一人口中、即使程度最差的孩童，在七歲時的表現就已經超過最貧窮的五分之一人口中、程度最好的孩童；富有家庭的小孩半數一路念到大學，但是最貧窮家庭的孩子，只有十分之一取得大學學位。這是英國未來很大的問題。
患不均，不只是英國的問題，也是全球的新難題。紀登斯曾任英國倫敦政經學院院長、現在參與政經學院全球治理研究中心（Center for the Study of Global Governance），更從全球角度來思索當代政府的挑戰，呼籲應該有更廣泛的國際合作。
以下是紀登斯接受《天下雜誌》獨家專訪的內容。
問：近來主要已開發、民主國家都換了新政府，但似乎都碰上問題，不是很順利。你的觀察是什麼？
答：世界各國都面臨不同挑戰，現在不同社會的人、同樣都期待改革，領導人要注意社會態度的轉變。去年底澳洲選舉產生新政府，就是人民期待因應環境變遷有所改革、領導人心態應改變的例子。
新興與發展中國家，包括印度、中國、拉丁美洲國家，發展迅速、社會階層與區域發展很不平均，在社會和諧與凝聚上有相當嚴重的問題。德國、法國等先進國家則面對更開放市場、改變退休與福利制度、提升人力的改變。
全球化造成不平等
問：如何面對全球化下快速成長、造成不平等的問題？
答：說全球化造成不平等，我認為太簡化了。
不平等的因素很複雜，產業的改變，例如製造業的消失，階層的改變，甚至包括家庭結構的改變、單親家庭比例愈來愈高也是原因。英國、法國、美國單親家庭的比例達三分之一，許多單親家庭屬於社會底層、處於劣勢、很難找到工作。
種族間的文化差異也會造成不平等，例如在英國的印度和亞洲人在教育和經濟上表現都很傑出，巴基斯坦、孟加拉、西印度群島的人表現較英國人遜色。愈來愈多元的國家都有不平等的情形。就連社會向來較平等的北歐國家，也面對下階層擴張的問題。
不過，全球化毫無疑問的是不平等的因素之一。尤其全球化金融市場最上層的人，似乎是連結在一起，賺到大筆財富，企業獲利也大幅超過一般員工收入，幾十年前的落差沒那麼大。
全球化的影響，也不只在經濟發展，也創造不同文化之間的交流。不管我們喜不喜歡，我們已經處在文化多元的社會。
在文化多元的社會環境下，我認為教育尤其重要。
教育不僅幫助經濟發展，更提升公民水準、開拓對世界的觀點、全方位了解其他文化。現在各國愈來愈重視高等教育，因為要適應變化迅速的複雜社會。全世界都轉向知識經濟，全球六八％的ＧＤＰ都是來自服務業，未來十年這比例還會增加到七五％，英國八○％的人口都必須倚靠知識經濟，增加投資大學教育愈來愈重要。
問：過去英國有很成功的經濟改革經驗。在全球化下，改革的方式與挑戰與過去有什麼不同？
答：英國過去幾年經濟表現很好，是從八○年代柴契爾夫人執政時期就開始的重大改革，削減工會力量、開放勞動市場、創造就業機會。但是，柴契爾的政策也造成很多不平等的問題。
全球化前改革比較容易，政府可以掌控本國經濟、影響經濟發展與成長率、用政策提高就業率。自由開放後政府的主導力不像過去，但是政府的角色還是很重要。
協助貧童脫貧
面對不平等，沒有完美的政策。雖然我認為應改善富人逃漏稅問題、多徵稅。但要求富人繳更多稅，可能不利創造就業機會，就連勞工局也不願意，也擔心他們跑到其他國家去，對整體社會可能更不利。
現在政府要大力投資在人才教育、公共服務、基礎建設上，這些都是經濟發展的基本條件、提升現代公民水準的基礎。政府尤其必須協助最底層的、最貧窮的人脫貧，要幫助底層的人有穩定的經濟來源，尤其要照顧貧困孩童，那些孩子七、八十年後都還在社會上。
問：如何協助貧童脫貧？英國有什麼政策嗎？
答：協助貧童脫貧，主要透過幫助小孩來幫助父母，同時建立更好的照顧體系與鼓勵學習的環境。初等教育重要，但同時要給父母更多時間陪同孩子，這對於貧窮階級很不容易。愈有錢、就愈有能力負擔服務，富裕的小孩也覺得自己比窮小孩優秀，嚴重的不平等問題在一開始就阻止了未來發展機會。
英國貧童的比例蠻高的、做得不好，很需要改變。這不是全球化經濟該有的現象，頂端的人似乎搶走了下面階層人的財富。我們面臨兩個問題，一面是超級富人，底層的問題又牽涉種族問題，很難用社會體制改善，可能要花好幾世代的時間改善。
如果要改善孩童的命運，必須有全方位的方式來做。英國開始從家庭、學校，改善七十萬孩童的生命，但還有三百萬的孩童身陷貧困之中，平等還是很遙遠。
問：你提到全球化金融市場最上層的人好像都連在一起。這些超級資本主義富人，現在似乎不受任何政府約束。英國政府如何平衡吸引資金與課稅的問題？
答：我不太喜歡超級資本主義這個說法，因為它的焦點是單一面向，不夠精確。我比較喜歡全球資本主義（global capitalism），讓我們注意國際化面向。
不合作，很愚蠢
過去全球經濟以國家為主體，現在資本組織在世界各地擴張，逃避國家的稅賦制度，影響很多層面，他們層層包裹各種風險，沒人知道這些風險最後對世界金融的影響、沒人知道明年會發生什麼事。
的確需要更嚴格、更好的管理制度，而且國際社會真的需要更多合作。如果不合作，大筆資金為了節稅，跑到那些政治腐敗國家的銀行戶頭，如果合作建立管制方式，就可能有更多資金釋放出來。這關係到每個國家的利益，如果不合作改進，很愚蠢。國家還是很有力量，我希望十年內會有更多稅制管制。
當然，建立全世界有效的規則制度比想像中還要困難，不單只是對資本市場來說困難而已，管制核子武器、面對全球暖化都很難，各國制度要結合、在超越國家的資本力量之中取得權力平衡，很困難。
這是很巨大的改變，政府不可能靠自己做到，沒有那麼多資源，必須合作，跟企業、市民或ＮＧＯ一起努力。
還有心理層面的困難，人很難為未來需要改變而從現在開始行動，就像年輕人不願意戒菸，二十歲怎麼會去想四十歲的日子。
我們處在人類歷史上很危險的階段，我們期待新一代領袖建立全球治理的方式。
問：你是政治人物長期諮詢的智囊。你認為新世代的領導人該有什麼樣的特質？
領導者要夠敏銳
答：首先，新領導者要有世界觀，我們所處的世界是全球化的，國家領導不能獨立而行，他必須跟其他領袖合作，不管國家的規模，都一定要跟國際組織合作。這是今天與三十年前最大的差別。全球化的意思就是互相依賴，現在與通訊科技出現前不同，大家互相影響。
領導者也必須是改革者。
世界變化迅速，除非能挖個洞、抵抗改變。在多元文化下，領導者還要夠敏銳。十九世紀末從歐洲到美洲的移民，通訊太困難，就失去跟母國聯繫，可是現在的移民會感覺到自己在母國的國際通訊網絡裡面，每天保持聯繫，跟上個世紀很不一樣了，個人對於國家和世界的概念都變了，有些人無法適應，世界各地都可以看到基本教義派和世界主義派，如果領導階層過度反應，會發生很多激烈的衝突。（盧昭燕整理）
Zagat brings best restaurant guide to mobile
What's the best restaurant guide company? Zagat. Been at it for 30 years and they have the most complete databases of great places around the world. Did you know they now have a mobile app? Here you get to meet co-founder Nina Zagat and also the head of mobile, Brian Charles, and they show you their latest.
Starbucks CIO shows off Starbucks Network
I had breakfast with Starbucks CIO, Stephen Gillett, and he during that he showed me the new Starbucks Network, that released that morning. It includes content from a range of partners and shows up anytime you start wifi in one of its stores. 31 million people a month do just that, so it's always interesting to see what Starbucks is up to.
Get around your local mall easier with FastMall
FastMall is a mobile app that helps you get around your local mall. Need to know where the Apple store is? This app will show you and will help you navigate there. How does it do that? Without GPS! Here CEO Sam Feuer shows us how it works and tells us what happened to his business after Apple featured it in the app store.
Lewis Black on XM Radio's "Unmasked"
Lewis Black on XM Radio's "Unmasked," hosted by Ron Bennington.
Video: Musician/Comic Reggie Watts Improvises Song About Pancakes Using Only His iPhone During Sirius XM Interview
Your iPhone, now a musical instrument. Musician slash comic Reggie Watts was recently interviewed by Ron Bennington (of Ron & Fez fame) on Sirius XM’s Unmasked. (Unmasked is a series of long-form interviews, hosted by Bennington, with comics, musicians, writers, etc. It’s quite good, and is a pretty much proof positive that, for all its faults, Sirius XM can actually be worth a damn every once in a while.) This bit, I thought, would be particularly interesting to you iPhone fans out there. It may also interest those of you who like pancakes.
What we have here is Watts, who forgot to bring his equipment to the interview, completely improvising a song using only his iPhone. (And as we all know, improv is quite difficult.) I don’t know if the song is officially tittled “Pancakes,” but if I can suggest a subtitle, how about, “Yeah, that’s pretty great”?
Incidentally, I may be working on a music+iOS thing in the coming weeks. Hopefully it turns out all right, knock on whatever.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
English Language Learners in Middle and High School: An Introduction
English Language Learners in Middle and High School: An Introduction
Featuring Kathleen Leos, Deborah Santiago, and Susan Lafond in a discussion on English Language Learners (ELLs). Our expert panel discusses demographic trends, instructional strategies, school-family partnerships, and college readiness.
Building Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition
An inside look at the EMP|SFM team and how they've gone about creating Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition which opens 10/23/10 at Seattle's EMP|SFM. See how the full size ships used in the reimagined series came to Seattle and the hurdles the EMP|SFM team had to overcome to get the ships inside the building. Also includes images of artifacts being displayed in the exhibition. Full details at www.empsfm.org/bsg
Friday, October 29, 2010
Empire - The new arms race
Empire - The new arms race
Al Jazeera: The world has entered a new arms race, but what justifies this global military addiction?
稀土戰爭開打！ 中國限出口 日美發飆！俄韓日越印 新島鍊全面堵中國！
「10月29日」週五有話好說預告：中國限制稀土出口，日本美國歐盟叫苦連天！痛批中國不該拿稀土當成國際談判籌碼！中國號稱和平崛起，但是日本、南韓、印度、俄羅斯、越南等國卻飽受中國威脅。美國趁機合縱連橫，重新建立更強大的圍堵中國的島鍊，美國國務卿希拉蕊跟總統歐巴馬這一兩個禮拜相繼訪問亞洲，是為了強化圍堵策略，還是要跟中國握手言和？
Thursday, October 28, 2010
MyCityWay gives you a tour around NY
Are you visiting New York soon? You'll want to put MyCityWay on your mobile device. Why? Watch the video and you'll meet the team and see all the information it brings to your fingertips.
上網，找朋友一起忘掉網路吧！
研究報告(連結為PDF下載)指出，68%的美國人有離線焦慮症(disconnection anxiety)。不分年齡層，只要沒上網、沒收到email，就頭腦昏昏、焦慮、緊張、無法滿足，甚至出現恐慌、歇斯底里的狀態。
年輕人焦慮的理由大都是社交壓力，擔心與同儕有隔閡。年紀稍長者的壓力則來自於工作安危。
報告還指出，有63%的黑苺機使用者會在浴室裡送email，當然年輕人則喜歡在臥室裡，邊睡覺邊上網。
離不開網路嗎？之前有人推一天不上網(Shutdown Day)活動。現在更推動，一年52天不上網(一週安排一天絕不上網)。不上網的這天，要好好看書、親子互動、用筆寫信、畫畫、跳舞、戶外活動...。
關掉大大小小的電子螢幕(電腦和手機)，絕對是個大挑戰！4月22日地球日，少用電一點，少上網一些，也許說服自己挑一天不上網。您覺得呢？
延伸連結：
．Forbes編輯沒有手機的慘痛影片(點3)最後他哭著要回手機...
After 3 Years In Stealth And $20 Million Raised, Aro Mobile Shows Some Skin — Some Android Skin. And We Have Invites.
So what is Aro? Currently, it’s a piece of software that runs on top of Google’s mobile Android OS. But it’s not just another layer like some of those awful skins that OEMs design for Android. Instead, it weaves itself into the OS and uses AI and machine intelligence to make sense of what you’re doing with your phone. It natively ties into your email, phone, calendar, address book, and browser to make them potentially much more useful to you when you’re on the go.
Video: Spaceport America Inaugurated By Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise
Among the many things about living in the year 2010 that blow my mind (robot vacuums, smartphones, Google Books), the fact that we are at the beginning of commercial space flight is, incredibly, not constantly on my mind. Yet advances are constantly being made, most visibly by Virgin Galactic, which just this last week inaugurated the commercial facility for vertically- and horizontally-launching aircraft. I mean spacecraft. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to saying that.
Spaceport America, in addition to having a snazzy logo, sports training facilities for Virgin Galactic pilots spacemen, a 10,000ft runway, and will serve as Virgin Galactic’s headquarters for the next two decades. Want to visit? Good luck with that — you should probably just watch this video.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
WITN: “I Don’t Care what a Rich Person in Camden, Maine Says”
As he explains here, Paul spent the latter half of last week in Maine for PopTech.
Which is great because while he was outside the Valley he was eligible to be a guest on Why Is This News. In this week’s episode, then, he talks about his highlights of the conference and elaborates on his comparison between it and TED. Meanwhile Sarah finds herself in the unusual position of being the one defending
CloudMagic Intro Video
Open Gmail in a new tab or refresh an existing Gmail tab to start using CloudMagic
Advanced search options
These are query words that perform special actions in CloudMagic:
Email Search Operators
Operator
Definition
Example(s)
from: Search only in the 'from' address of email Example: from:Peter
Meaning: Show all emails from Peter
to: Search only in the 'to' address of email Example: to:Martin
Meaning: Show all emails sent to Martin
filename: Search only in the 'attachments' of email Example: filename:pdf
Meaning: Show all emails which have pdf files as attachments
Example: filename:sales
Meaning: Show all emails which have 'sales' word in attachment filenames
subject: Search only in the 'subject' of email Example: subject:reservation
Meaning: Show all emails with word reservation in subject
body: Search only in the 'contents' of email Example: body:furniture
Meaning: Show all emails with word furniture in body
cc: Search only in the 'cc' address of email Example: cc:Jessica
Meaning: Show all emails cc to Jessica
bcc: Search only in the 'bcc' address of email Example: bcc:Paul
Meaning: Show all emails bcc to Paul
Contact Search Operators
Operator
Definition
Example(s)
name: Search for a 'name' in contacts Example: name:Mark
Meaning: Show all contacts with name Mark
email: Search contacts for particular email address Example: email:jane@hotmail.com
Meaning: Show contact for jane@hotmail.com
Sunday, October 24, 2010
面對面，和你說石化！
來賓：
國光石化科技公司 董事長 陳寶郎
彰化環保聯盟 理事長 蔡嘉陽
衣食住行，都離不開石化產品。石化投資帶來工作，但卻有人堅決反對。
台塑連續大火，燒出雲林人對六輕的恐懼國光石化，給彰化帶來的是繁榮還是威脅？聽專家說，不如聽當事人自己說。國光石化董事長陳寶郎，彰化環盟理事長蔡嘉揚，在有話好說，面對面和你說石化。
主持人不主導討論方向，僅做簡單開場及結尾。節目進行中，來賓可自行決定討論主題、回應澄清對方質疑，亦可向對方提問。
一次發言長度為兩分鐘，雙方結論預計以一分鐘為限。現場貴賓將以各種手板道具進行具體論證，為樹立台灣公共論壇的優良典範。
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Compensation committees: What HR needs to know
Canadian HR Reporter TV's Amanda Silliker sat down with Robert Lavasseur, senior consultant and principal with McDowall Associates in Toronto, to talk about the role of compensation committees, the challenges they face and what HR managers can do to have a successful relationship with compensation committees.
Future of Fund Management and Banks
Urgent ethical questions. Over the last decade I have lectured to thousands of fund managers from many different institutions including banks, responsible for hundreds of billions of actively managed investments, mainly entrusted to them by pension funds. The global economic crisis highlighted a number of fundamental problems within the industry, that had been there for many years, and remain unresolved. Issues such as over-charging, low performance, lack of confidence of fund managers in their own funds. Restoring trust has to be an urgent major priority. Without it, the industry as it is cannot survive. Wat ch keynote at Mercer client event.
Read more: Future of Fund Management and Banks
Supersize your PC. Play it all on your TV
Veebeam Overview from Veebeam on Vimeo.
Play Anything. Share Anything.
Veebeam is the easiest, most affordable way to wirelessly stream anything from your laptop to your TV.
It lets you combine the amazing video and audio performance of your current HDTV with the never-ending entertainment options available on your existing laptop.
It lets you share all your digital content with your family and friends.
Easy
When you’re ready to watch a movie, plug the USB antenna into your laptop and stream anything directly to your TV. It’s that simple.
Affordable
Starting at $99, Veebeam lets you make the most of your big HDTV and that new high capacity laptop…without breaking the bank.
Looks Great
Your digital media files will never look better than on your big HDTV. That’s because Veebeam outputs 1080p video.
Plays Anything
If your PC can play it, Veebeam can send it on your TV. From TV shows and movies from popular sites like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube to downloaded video and personal photos.
Secure wireless USB
Why use another wire to connect your TV and PC? Declutter your home, cut the cables, and simplify your life by going wireless.
Diminished Reality: Impressive Video Manipulation In Real-Time (Video)
Scary or cool? This technology developed by a team of researchers at Technische Universität Ilmenau in Germany is probably both. Their so-called “Diminished Reality” system makes it possible to manipulate video in real-time. As opposed to Augmented Reality, which adds virtual objects to real world images, Diminished Reality removes selected objects from video recordings.
The way it works is that first, the object to be eliminated from the footage has to be specified and detected. After that, the system analyzes the immediate surroundings of the object, for example the look of a table it was standing on, and fills out the empty space with that information.
According to the researchers behind this Diminished Reality application, this process just takes a few milliseconds and works both for video streams and static pictures.
This pretty impressive video provides more insight:
Change +: Tatyana Mamut, “Changing Daily Habits at Scale”
Change +: Tatyana Mamut, “Changing Daily Habits at Scale” from IDEO on Vimeo.
How can organizations spur system-wide changes in people’s daily habits? In the 1990s, Western businesses introduced new tools, rules, and norms to the Russian market to transform Russians’ hygiene habits, with great success. By examining this and other examples, a framework for changing behavior at the systemic or societal level emerges. While habits are indeed hard to break, seeing the challenge through the lens of an actionable framework can help organizations start successfully inspiring change in people’s daily choices.
http://vimeo.com/11517296
The Role of Design in Service Innovation
The Role of Design in Service Innovation from IDEO on Vimeo.
A talk by Axel Unger, Head of Health Practice, Europe, IDEO at the conference "Innovation in Healthcare Delivery", jointly hosted by the London Business School and the Cambridge Judge Business School on July 16th 2010 in London.
In his talk Axel argues how the role of design in innovation is not only about providing the right solutions and answers but is also about asking the right questions. He discusses how we need to be inspired, frame, evaluate iteratively and evolve innovative solutions, with strong user participation in the process.
The faces of tomorrow’s book
The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch IDEO’s vision for the future of the book. What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
TALKS - Ze Frank's web playroom
About this talk
On the web, a new "Friend" may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation -- and reward it with something more nourishing. You're invited, if you promise you'll share
Every presentation needs this slide in it. (Laughter) It's beautiful, isn't it? Do you see? All the points, all the lines. It's incredible. It is the network. And in my case, the network has been important in media, because I get to connect to people. Isn't it amazing? Through that, I connect to people. And the way that I've been doing it has been multifaceted. For example, I get people to dress up their vacuum cleaners. (Laughter) I put together projects like Earth Sandwich, where I ask people to try and simultaneously place two pieces of bread perfectly opposite each other on the Earth. And people started laying bread in tribute, and eventually a team was able to do it between New Zealand and Spain. It's pretty incredible. The video's online. Connecting to people in projects like YoungmeNowme for example. In YoungmeNowme the audience was asked to find a childhood photograph of themselves and restage it as an adult. (Laughter) This is the same person -- top photo, James, bottom photo, [Jennifer]. Poignant. This was a Mother's Day gift. (Laughter) Particularly creepy. (Applause) (Laughter) My favorite of these photos, which I couldn't find, is there's a picture of a 30 year-old woman or so with a little baby on her lap, and the next photo is a 220-lb man with a tiny, little old lady peaking over his shoulder.
But this project changed the way that I thought about connecting to people. This is project called Ray. And what happened was I was sent this piece of audio and had no idea who generated the audio. Somebody said, "You have to listen to this." And this is what came to me.
Recording: Hi, my name is Ray, and on yesterday my daughter called me because she was stressed out because of things that were going on on her job that she felt was quite unfair. Being quite disturbed, she called for comfort, and I didn't really know what to tell her, because we have to deal with so much mess in our society. So I was led to write this song just for her, just to give her some encouragement while dealing with stress and pressures on her job. And I figured I'd put it on the Internet for all employees under stress to help you better deal with what you're going through on you job. Here's how the song goes.
♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
♫ you gonna have to send me home ♫
♫ 'Cause I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
Now you might not be able to sing that out loud, but you can hum it to yourself, and you know what the words are. And let it give you some strength to get the next few moments on your job. All right. Stay strong. Peace.
Ze Frank: So -- Yeah. No, no, no, shush. We've got to go quickly. So I was so moved by this. This is incredible. This was connecting, right. This was, at a distance, realizing that someone was feeling something, wanting to affect them in a particular way, using media to do it, putting it online and realizing that there was a greater impact. This was incredible. This is what I wanted to do. So the first thing I thought of is we have to thank him. And I asked my audience, I said, "Listen to this piece of audio. We have to remix it. He's got a great voice. It's actually in the key of B flat. And have to do something with it." Hundreds of remixes came back -- lots of different attempts. One stood out in particular. It was done by a guy named Goose.
Remix: ♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
♫ you gonna have to send me home ♫
♫ Cuz I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ I'm about to whip some ♫ --
ZF: Great. So it was incredible. That song -- (Applause) Thank you. So that song, somebody told me that it was at a baseball game in Kansas City. In the end, it was one of the top downloads on a whole bunch of music streaming services. And so I said, "Let's put this together in an album." And the audience came together, and they designed an album cover. And I said, "If you put it all on this, I'm going to deliver it to him, if you can figure out who this person is," because all I had was his name, Ray, and this little piece of audio and the fact that his daughter was upset. In two weeks, they found him. I received and email and it said, "Hi, I'm Ray. I heard you were looking for me." (Laughter) And I was like, "Yeah, Ray. It's been an interesting two weeks." And so I flew to St. Louis and met Ray, and he's a preacher. (Laughter) Among other things.
So but anyways, here's the thing, is it reminds me of this, which is a sign that you see in Amsterdam on every street corner. And it's sort of a metaphor for me for the virtual world. I look at this photo, and he seems really interested in what's going on with that button, but it doesn't seem like he is really that interested in crossing the street. (Laughter) And it makes me think of this. On street corners everywhere, people are looking at their cellphones, and it's easy to to dismiss this as some sort of bad trend in human culture. But the truth is, life is being lived there. When they smile -- right, you've seen people stop -- all of a sudden, life is being lived there, somewhere up in that weird, dense network. And this is it, right, to feel and be felt. It's the fundamental force that we're all after. We can build all sorts of environments to make it a little bit easier, but ultimately, what we're trying to do is really connect with one other person. And that's not always going to happen in physical spaces. It's also going to now happen in virtual spaces, and we have to get better at figuring that out. I think, of the people that build all this technology in the network, a lot of them aren't very good at connecting with people. This is kind of like something I used to do in third grade.
(Laughter)
So here's a series of projects over the last few years where I've been inspired by trying to figure out how to really facilitate close connection. Sometimes they're very, very simple things. A Childhood Walk, which is a project where I ask people to remember a walk that they used to take as a child over and over again that was sort of meaningless, like on the route to the bus stop, to a neighbor's house, and take it inside of Google Streetview. And I promise you, if you take that walk inside Google Streetview, you come to a moment where something comes back and hits you in the face. And I collected those moments -- the photos inside Google Streetview and the memories, specifically. "Our conversation started with me saying, 'I'm bored,' and her replying, 'When I'm bored I eat pretzels.' I remember this distinctly because it came up a lot." "Right after he told me and my brother he was going to be separating from my mom, I remember walking to a convenience store and getting a cherry cola." "They used some of the morbidly artist footage, a close-up of Chad's shoes in the middle of the highway. I guess the shoes came off when he was hit. He slept over at my house once, and he left his pillow. It had 'Chad' written in magic marker on it. He died long after he left the pillow at my house, but we never got around to returning it."
Sometimes they're a little bit more abstract. This is Pain Pack. Right after September 11th, last year, I was thinking about pain and the way that we disperse it, the way that we excise it from our bodies. So what I did is I opened up a hotline, a hotline where people could leave voicemails of their pain, not necessarily related to that event. And people called in and left messages like this.
Recording: Okay, here's something. I'm not alone, and I am loved. I'm really fortunate. But sometimes I feel really lonely. And when I feel that way even the smallest act of kindness can make me cry. Like even people in convenience stores saying, "Have a nice day," when they're accidentally looking me in the eye.
ZF: So what I did was I took those voicemails, and with their permission, converted them to MP3s and distributed them to sound editors who created short sounds using just those voicemails. And those were then distributed to DJs who have made hundreds of songs using that source material. (Music) We don't have time to play much of it. You can look at it online.
"From 52 to 48 with love" was a project around the time of the last election cycle, where McCain and Obama both, in their speeches after the election, talked about reconciliation, and I was like, "What the hell does that look like?" So I thought, "Well let's just give it a try. Let's have people hold up signs about reconciliation." And so some really nice things came together. "I voted blue. I voted red. Together, for our future." These are very, very cute little things right. Some came from the winning party. "Dear 48, I promise to listen to you, to fight for you, to respect you always." Some came from the party who had just lost. "From a 48 to a 52, may your party's leadership be as classy as you, but I doubt it." But the truth was that as this start becoming popular, a couple rightwing blogs and some message boards apparently found it to be a little patronizing, which I could also see. And so I started getting amazing amounts of hate mail, death threats even. And one guy in particular kept on writing me these pretty awful messages, and he was dressed as Batman. And he said, "I'm dressed as Batman to hide my identity." Just in case I thought the real Batman was coming after me. Which actually made me feel a little better. Like, "Phew, it's not him."
So what I did -- unfortunately I was harboring all this kind of awful experience and this pain inside of me, and it started to eat away at my psyche. And I was protecting the project from it, I realized. I was protecting it. I didn't want this special, little group of photographs to get sullied in some way. So what I did, I took all those emails, and I put them together into something called Angrigami, which was an origami template made out of this sort of vile stuff. And I asked people to send me beautiful things made out of the Angrigami. (Laughter) But this was the emotional moment. One of my viewer's uncles died on a particular day, and he chose to commemorate it with a piece of hate. It's amazing.
The last thing I'm going to tell you about is a series of projects called Songs You Already Know, where the idea was, I was trying to figure out to address particular kinds of emotions with group projects. So one of them was fairly straightforward. A guy said that his daughter got scared at night and could I write a song for her, his daughter. And I said, oh yeah, I'll try to write a mantra that she can sing to herself to help herself go to sleep. And this was "Scared."
(Video) ♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
♫ I don't know why but it helps me get over it ♫
♫ The words of the song just move me along ♫
♫ And somehow I get over it ♫
♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
Okay, so I wrote that song, right. Thank you. So the nice thing was is he walked by his daughter's room at some point, and she actually was singing that song to herself. So I was like, "Awesome. This is great."
And then I got this email. And there's a little bit of a backstory to this. And I don't have much time. But the idea was that at one point I did a project called Facebook Me Equals You, where I wanted to experience what it was like to live as another person. So I asked for people's usernames and passwords to be sent to me. And I got a lot, like 30 in a half an hour. And I shut that part down. And I chose two people to be, and I asked them to send me descriptions of how to act as them on Facebook. One person sent me a very detailed description. The other person didn't. And the person who didn't, it turned out, had just moved to a new city and taken on a new job. So, you know, people were writing me and saying, "How's your new job?" I was like, "I don't know. Didn't know I had one."
But anyway, this same person, Laura, ended up emailing me a little bit after that project. And I felt badly for not having done a good job. And she said, "I'm really anxious, I just moved to a new town, I have this new job, and I've just had this incredible amount of anxiety." So she had seen the "Scared" song and wondered if I could do something. So I asked her, "What does it feel like when you feel this way?" And she wrote a sort of descriptive set of what it felt like to have had this anxiety. And so what I decided to do. I said, "Okay, I'll think about it." And so quietly in the background, I started sending people this.
(Audio) ♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
So I asked people whether they had basic audio capabilities, just so they could sing along to the song with headphones on, so I could just get their voices back. And this is the kind of thing that I got back.
Recording: ♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
ZF: So that's one of the better ones, really. But what's awesome is, as I started getting more and more and more of them, all of a sudden I had 30, 40 voices from around the world. And when you put them together, something magical happens, something absolutely incredible happens, and all of a sudden I get a chorus from around the world. And what was really great is, I'm putting all this work together in the background, and Laura sent me a follow-up email because a good month had passed by. And she said, "I know you've forgotten about me. I just want to say thanks for even considering it." And then a few days later I sent her this.
(Audio) ♫ Right now, it feels like I forgot to turn the light on ♫
♫ And things that looked so good yesterday ♫
♫ are now shades of gray ♫
♫ And it seems like the world is spinning ♫
♫ while I'm standing still ♫
♫ Or maybe I am spinning I can't tell ♫
♫ And then you say ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ And now the words sing ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Now everybody sings ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
Thank you.
(Applause)
On the web, a new "Friend" may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation -- and reward it with something more nourishing. You're invited, if you promise you'll share
Every presentation needs this slide in it. (Laughter) It's beautiful, isn't it? Do you see? All the points, all the lines. It's incredible. It is the network. And in my case, the network has been important in media, because I get to connect to people. Isn't it amazing? Through that, I connect to people. And the way that I've been doing it has been multifaceted. For example, I get people to dress up their vacuum cleaners. (Laughter) I put together projects like Earth Sandwich, where I ask people to try and simultaneously place two pieces of bread perfectly opposite each other on the Earth. And people started laying bread in tribute, and eventually a team was able to do it between New Zealand and Spain. It's pretty incredible. The video's online. Connecting to people in projects like YoungmeNowme for example. In YoungmeNowme the audience was asked to find a childhood photograph of themselves and restage it as an adult. (Laughter) This is the same person -- top photo, James, bottom photo, [Jennifer]. Poignant. This was a Mother's Day gift. (Laughter) Particularly creepy. (Applause) (Laughter) My favorite of these photos, which I couldn't find, is there's a picture of a 30 year-old woman or so with a little baby on her lap, and the next photo is a 220-lb man with a tiny, little old lady peaking over his shoulder.
But this project changed the way that I thought about connecting to people. This is project called Ray. And what happened was I was sent this piece of audio and had no idea who generated the audio. Somebody said, "You have to listen to this." And this is what came to me.
Recording: Hi, my name is Ray, and on yesterday my daughter called me because she was stressed out because of things that were going on on her job that she felt was quite unfair. Being quite disturbed, she called for comfort, and I didn't really know what to tell her, because we have to deal with so much mess in our society. So I was led to write this song just for her, just to give her some encouragement while dealing with stress and pressures on her job. And I figured I'd put it on the Internet for all employees under stress to help you better deal with what you're going through on you job. Here's how the song goes.
♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
♫ you gonna have to send me home ♫
♫ 'Cause I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
Now you might not be able to sing that out loud, but you can hum it to yourself, and you know what the words are. And let it give you some strength to get the next few moments on your job. All right. Stay strong. Peace.
Ze Frank: So -- Yeah. No, no, no, shush. We've got to go quickly. So I was so moved by this. This is incredible. This was connecting, right. This was, at a distance, realizing that someone was feeling something, wanting to affect them in a particular way, using media to do it, putting it online and realizing that there was a greater impact. This was incredible. This is what I wanted to do. So the first thing I thought of is we have to thank him. And I asked my audience, I said, "Listen to this piece of audio. We have to remix it. He's got a great voice. It's actually in the key of B flat. And have to do something with it." Hundreds of remixes came back -- lots of different attempts. One stood out in particular. It was done by a guy named Goose.
Remix: ♫ I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ Oh, if you don't leave me alone, ♫
♫ you gonna have to send me home ♫
♫ Cuz I'm about to whip somebody's ass ♫
♫ I'm about to whip some ♫ --
ZF: Great. So it was incredible. That song -- (Applause) Thank you. So that song, somebody told me that it was at a baseball game in Kansas City. In the end, it was one of the top downloads on a whole bunch of music streaming services. And so I said, "Let's put this together in an album." And the audience came together, and they designed an album cover. And I said, "If you put it all on this, I'm going to deliver it to him, if you can figure out who this person is," because all I had was his name, Ray, and this little piece of audio and the fact that his daughter was upset. In two weeks, they found him. I received and email and it said, "Hi, I'm Ray. I heard you were looking for me." (Laughter) And I was like, "Yeah, Ray. It's been an interesting two weeks." And so I flew to St. Louis and met Ray, and he's a preacher. (Laughter) Among other things.
So but anyways, here's the thing, is it reminds me of this, which is a sign that you see in Amsterdam on every street corner. And it's sort of a metaphor for me for the virtual world. I look at this photo, and he seems really interested in what's going on with that button, but it doesn't seem like he is really that interested in crossing the street. (Laughter) And it makes me think of this. On street corners everywhere, people are looking at their cellphones, and it's easy to to dismiss this as some sort of bad trend in human culture. But the truth is, life is being lived there. When they smile -- right, you've seen people stop -- all of a sudden, life is being lived there, somewhere up in that weird, dense network. And this is it, right, to feel and be felt. It's the fundamental force that we're all after. We can build all sorts of environments to make it a little bit easier, but ultimately, what we're trying to do is really connect with one other person. And that's not always going to happen in physical spaces. It's also going to now happen in virtual spaces, and we have to get better at figuring that out. I think, of the people that build all this technology in the network, a lot of them aren't very good at connecting with people. This is kind of like something I used to do in third grade.
(Laughter)
So here's a series of projects over the last few years where I've been inspired by trying to figure out how to really facilitate close connection. Sometimes they're very, very simple things. A Childhood Walk, which is a project where I ask people to remember a walk that they used to take as a child over and over again that was sort of meaningless, like on the route to the bus stop, to a neighbor's house, and take it inside of Google Streetview. And I promise you, if you take that walk inside Google Streetview, you come to a moment where something comes back and hits you in the face. And I collected those moments -- the photos inside Google Streetview and the memories, specifically. "Our conversation started with me saying, 'I'm bored,' and her replying, 'When I'm bored I eat pretzels.' I remember this distinctly because it came up a lot." "Right after he told me and my brother he was going to be separating from my mom, I remember walking to a convenience store and getting a cherry cola." "They used some of the morbidly artist footage, a close-up of Chad's shoes in the middle of the highway. I guess the shoes came off when he was hit. He slept over at my house once, and he left his pillow. It had 'Chad' written in magic marker on it. He died long after he left the pillow at my house, but we never got around to returning it."
Sometimes they're a little bit more abstract. This is Pain Pack. Right after September 11th, last year, I was thinking about pain and the way that we disperse it, the way that we excise it from our bodies. So what I did is I opened up a hotline, a hotline where people could leave voicemails of their pain, not necessarily related to that event. And people called in and left messages like this.
Recording: Okay, here's something. I'm not alone, and I am loved. I'm really fortunate. But sometimes I feel really lonely. And when I feel that way even the smallest act of kindness can make me cry. Like even people in convenience stores saying, "Have a nice day," when they're accidentally looking me in the eye.
ZF: So what I did was I took those voicemails, and with their permission, converted them to MP3s and distributed them to sound editors who created short sounds using just those voicemails. And those were then distributed to DJs who have made hundreds of songs using that source material. (Music) We don't have time to play much of it. You can look at it online.
"From 52 to 48 with love" was a project around the time of the last election cycle, where McCain and Obama both, in their speeches after the election, talked about reconciliation, and I was like, "What the hell does that look like?" So I thought, "Well let's just give it a try. Let's have people hold up signs about reconciliation." And so some really nice things came together. "I voted blue. I voted red. Together, for our future." These are very, very cute little things right. Some came from the winning party. "Dear 48, I promise to listen to you, to fight for you, to respect you always." Some came from the party who had just lost. "From a 48 to a 52, may your party's leadership be as classy as you, but I doubt it." But the truth was that as this start becoming popular, a couple rightwing blogs and some message boards apparently found it to be a little patronizing, which I could also see. And so I started getting amazing amounts of hate mail, death threats even. And one guy in particular kept on writing me these pretty awful messages, and he was dressed as Batman. And he said, "I'm dressed as Batman to hide my identity." Just in case I thought the real Batman was coming after me. Which actually made me feel a little better. Like, "Phew, it's not him."
So what I did -- unfortunately I was harboring all this kind of awful experience and this pain inside of me, and it started to eat away at my psyche. And I was protecting the project from it, I realized. I was protecting it. I didn't want this special, little group of photographs to get sullied in some way. So what I did, I took all those emails, and I put them together into something called Angrigami, which was an origami template made out of this sort of vile stuff. And I asked people to send me beautiful things made out of the Angrigami. (Laughter) But this was the emotional moment. One of my viewer's uncles died on a particular day, and he chose to commemorate it with a piece of hate. It's amazing.
The last thing I'm going to tell you about is a series of projects called Songs You Already Know, where the idea was, I was trying to figure out to address particular kinds of emotions with group projects. So one of them was fairly straightforward. A guy said that his daughter got scared at night and could I write a song for her, his daughter. And I said, oh yeah, I'll try to write a mantra that she can sing to herself to help herself go to sleep. And this was "Scared."
(Video) ♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
♫ I don't know why but it helps me get over it ♫
♫ The words of the song just move me along ♫
♫ And somehow I get over it ♫
♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
♫ At least I don't suck at life ♫
♫ I keep on trying despite ♫
♫ This is a song that I sing when I'm scared of something ♫
Okay, so I wrote that song, right. Thank you. So the nice thing was is he walked by his daughter's room at some point, and she actually was singing that song to herself. So I was like, "Awesome. This is great."
And then I got this email. And there's a little bit of a backstory to this. And I don't have much time. But the idea was that at one point I did a project called Facebook Me Equals You, where I wanted to experience what it was like to live as another person. So I asked for people's usernames and passwords to be sent to me. And I got a lot, like 30 in a half an hour. And I shut that part down. And I chose two people to be, and I asked them to send me descriptions of how to act as them on Facebook. One person sent me a very detailed description. The other person didn't. And the person who didn't, it turned out, had just moved to a new city and taken on a new job. So, you know, people were writing me and saying, "How's your new job?" I was like, "I don't know. Didn't know I had one."
But anyway, this same person, Laura, ended up emailing me a little bit after that project. And I felt badly for not having done a good job. And she said, "I'm really anxious, I just moved to a new town, I have this new job, and I've just had this incredible amount of anxiety." So she had seen the "Scared" song and wondered if I could do something. So I asked her, "What does it feel like when you feel this way?" And she wrote a sort of descriptive set of what it felt like to have had this anxiety. And so what I decided to do. I said, "Okay, I'll think about it." And so quietly in the background, I started sending people this.
(Audio) ♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
So I asked people whether they had basic audio capabilities, just so they could sing along to the song with headphones on, so I could just get their voices back. And this is the kind of thing that I got back.
Recording: ♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
ZF: So that's one of the better ones, really. But what's awesome is, as I started getting more and more and more of them, all of a sudden I had 30, 40 voices from around the world. And when you put them together, something magical happens, something absolutely incredible happens, and all of a sudden I get a chorus from around the world. And what was really great is, I'm putting all this work together in the background, and Laura sent me a follow-up email because a good month had passed by. And she said, "I know you've forgotten about me. I just want to say thanks for even considering it." And then a few days later I sent her this.
(Audio) ♫ Right now, it feels like I forgot to turn the light on ♫
♫ And things that looked so good yesterday ♫
♫ are now shades of gray ♫
♫ And it seems like the world is spinning ♫
♫ while I'm standing still ♫
♫ Or maybe I am spinning I can't tell ♫
♫ And then you say ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ And now the words sing ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Now everybody sings ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
♫ Hey ♫
♫ You're okay ♫
♫ You'll be fine ♫
♫ Just breathe ♫
Thank you.
(Applause)
| Ray - Whipass goose remix .mp3 | ||
 | ||
 | Found at bee mp3 search engine |  |
Schiff vs. Henwood on Economic Crisis
Schiff vs. Henwood on Economic Crisis
Free market guru Peter Schiff debates Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer on causes and solutions
Free market guru Peter Schiff debates Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer on causes and solutions
French Students Protest Pension Bill
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Newsy: On the eve of a major vote regarding France’s new pension bill, student protests ran rampant
Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
Newsy: On the eve of a major vote regarding France’s new pension bill, student protests ran rampant
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