Navigating Our Lives, Our Economy, Our World with the Cellphone,

The cellphone has been a basic tool of micro-enterprise in numerous countries for sometime now. On a local level, it provides a relatively cheap means of communication, organization and control. Now it is beginning to create a new paradigm on a global scale. Two articles, again from the New York Times, provide a contrast between the potential of world connection and the realities of global markets, one although abstract is becoming a reality, the other a reality could change how we think about doing business.

SCIENCE | February 17, 2009 The Cellphone, Navigating Our Lives By JOHN MARKOFF
Cellphones have changed how we communicate with others, and now they are changing how we think about information.

The cellphone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer. The four billion cellphones in use around the globe carry personal information, provide access to the Web and are being used more and more to navigate the real world. And as cellphones change how we live, computer scientists say, they are also changing how we think about information.

With the dominance of the cellphone, a new metaphor is emerging for how we organize, find and use information. New in one sense, that is. It is also as ancient as humanity itself. That metaphor is the map. “The map underlies man’s ability to perceive,” said Richard Saul Wurman, a graphic designer who was a pioneer in the use of maps as a generalized way to search for information of all kinds before the emergence of the online world.

TECHNOLOGY | April 28, 2009 In China, Knockoff Cellphones Are a Hit By DAVID BARBOZA
An industry building look-alike mobile phones for as little as $35 is tickling China's pride in rebellious creativity.

“Five years ago, there were no counterfeit phones,” says Xiong Ting, a sales manager at Triquint Semiconductor, a maker of mobile phone parts, while visiting Shenzhen. “You needed a design house. You needed software guys. You needed hardware design. But now, a company with five guys can do it. Within 100 miles of here, you can find all your suppliers.”

Even Chinese mobile phone producers are losing market share to underground companies, which have a built-in cost advantage because they evade taxes, regulatory fees and safety checks.

There are environmental dangers posed by this black market technology, but their is also a sense of backroom disruptive innovation going on as well.

Some experts say they believe the shanzhai phenomena is about being creative, Chinese style.

“Chinese grass-roots companies are actually very innovative,” says Yu Zhou, a professor at Vassar College. “It’s not so much technology as how they form supply chains and how rapidly they react to new trends.”

Related Posts:

• Being There, Being Everywhere, Being Where It Counts
• Even In A Digital World It Takes Real Heart To Make Change
• Unplanned Obsolescence
• Innovation, Disruptive Milestones for the New Millennium
• Combining Efforts, Connecting People - Nokia and Pangea Day Work on a Paradigm Shift
• World changing paradigm shifts come from all directions

Economic CPR with Web 2.0 Help or Hurt?

We have an ever evolving relationship with the Internet and Web 2.0, as individuals, as societies and perhaps as change-agent organizations. What the relationship is depends to a great largely, though not always, on how old you are and what is more important where you live. Below are a series of articles from the New York Times and other sources that I have run across over the last month or so.

At Harvard Business Voices Tom Davenport asks the question that seems to be asked by many of my generation, Is Web 2.0 Living on Thin Air?

I have highlighted some points from the article to get to the meat of his argument.

Instead of finding more ways for us to all yap at each other, in this more sober economy we may want to emphasize other priorities. What new products and services will make for better, healthier lives and relationships? How can companies improve their performance? How can teenagers improve their math and science skills, instead of their texting skills?

But it wouldn't be a bad outcome if the current crisis led to a more diligent, industrious economic climate. Chatting and socializing are important things, but they're not the only things.

Tamar Lewin's New York Times article makes a counter argument that Millennials are OK and that Teenagers' Internet Socializing is Not a Bad Thing US | November 20, 2008

Good news for worried parents: All those hours their teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing, according to a new study by the MacArthur Foundation.

Hanging out online helps teenagers develop "technological skills and literacy," a researcher Mizuko Itoon a new study “Living and Learning With New Media.” said“...their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

What is interesting me more these days is how this works socially to empower people. Because it does have the potential to empower people, governments are wary of it. NOAM COHEN discussed on December 08, 2008, in Link by Link: The Freedoms That Technologies Help Bring. The issue was the Egyptian government demand that Apple disable the phone's global-positioning system, because GPS is a military prerogative.

Arvind Ganesan, director of the business and human rights program of Human Rights Watch, placed the issue in a larger context.

(F)reedom of information as part of the broader, better known, freedom of expression. Transparency about the government’s budget, for example, can be crucial to eliminating corruption and instituting democratic reforms.

(S)econd, he argued that it was important for technology companies to set principles and follow them. “Here is the big question for Apple: Is this an ad-hoc approach or is there a fundamental policy, balancing the freedom of expression and information with the demands of the government?”

The global perspective in regards to economic impact came on November 18, 2008 from ASHLEE VANCE who looked at Computing From Weather to Warcraft

The falling cost of supercomputer systems has allowed a broader range of corporations and institutions to buy them for everything from processing movie graphics to searching for oil.

The presence of supercomputers in emerging nations like China and India says as much about those countries’ growing national ambitions as the changing state of science and business.

Change-agent organizations must and are becoming a part of this new frontier. The question of whether to change is now moot, it is already happening. Defining the change is now the task. There are many seemingly well-established institutions in existence today that are not making the transition which will, I predict, find themselves floundering when younger and smaller institutions use these resources to define the agenda. This in itself is not that illuminating as many others have said the same thing, it is that I work for one of those well-established institutions.

Technology, Design and especially Entertainment from TED

The following came from TED for the Week of March 13, 2009. This is another example or re-blogging what somebody else has done. The reason is that I find it all interesting, and at some level interrelated. I am adding a few more links to what the TEDBlog originally provided. This blog is primarily an exploration in what Tim Berners-Lee created and what has grown from it. What he says about numbers will have a profound impact on the world as demonstrated by some of the links to my Milestones for a New Millennium blog.

This blog has also discovered an interest in design and in the MIT Media Lab. Don Norman's three emotional design cues are Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective. Instead of Don Norman's site, when I Googled "design and emotion", with and without the "and" I got Design & Emotion Society. When I did "emotion and design", the Don Norman site was third and design & emotion - Marco van Hout site was first, regardless of the "and". So things can and do change and the exploring is fun. You will understand what this is all about when you watch the video. Below are the selected videos from the TED site.

20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, music and video: Unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together. Watch this talk >>

This demo from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT Media Lab, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry, was the buzz of TED -- and now the web. It's a device that enables a profound, data-rich interaction with our environment. Imagine Minority Report and then some. Watch this talk >>

PLUS: The TED Blog talks to Pranav Mistry (and he answers questions from the TED.com forum!)

Design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at well-designed products that makes people happy, from fast cars to the Philippe Starck juicer. He names the three emotional cues that a product must strike to become a success. Watch this talk >>

Some Related links:

Human Development - The Measurement of Human Endeavors

Understanding a dollar a day could be an invaluable resource for the Millennium Development Goals

Taking the Measure of Chronic Poverty

Simply the Best: Maeda’s the Man at RISD

Making A Come Back - Does This Mean Design Is Not Dead?

Lesson From Philippe Starck "Design Is Dead" Lesson From Hugh MacLeod "The Future Isn't"

Designing What We Live In, Where We Live At , How We Live

Designing For New Paradigms

Connecting Through Common Technology Connecting Through Common Humanity

This weblog uses FeedBurner the same way naturalists use radio tracking devises on animals, to see where it goes and what it runs into.

Recently somebody, from Taipei evidence suggests, looked up diigo on their version of Google. For whatever reason, my recent post Being Human, Working, Writing Stories, Being Human post showed up on the third page of the search and seems to have resulted in a visit.

What was more interesting was that on the first page of the Google search was a hit from the diigo blog China Earthquake ~ A picture is worth a thousand words. This struck me as being a very human story and one rather well suited for the World Wide Web. The "news" from China provides numbers that are incomprehensible. The degree of tragedy would be hard for anyone to fully express but there are also small miracles to be found. Finding these miracles is part of writing the stories of being human. The change is now we are doing it with computers rather than cave walls.

Another post from the diigo blog provided some more factual information.

Diigo’s development temporarily interrupted by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

On Monday, May 12, at 2:28pm Beijing time (6:28 GMT), a major earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, jolted southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. To give some perspective on how severe 7.9 magnitude is on the Richter scale: according to wikipedia, it’s equivalent to 600 megatons of TNT explosive, or energy released by the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption! Mother Earth has lot of unsettling energy!

Laws of Thermodynamics and Laws of Giving

I have a strong belief in finding solutions to problems through the acquisition and application of knowledge. Not only understanding practical or pragmatic forms of information, but also understanding the deeper principals behind them. At the very least, one should develop some sense of appreciation for them.

Recently I have been going over some of the MIT World videos on a program they had on Meeting the Entropy Challenge.

To be truthful, much of it went over my head, but much of it was both very interesting and informative. I have referenced the ones I personally found interesting elsewhere in this blog, others can be found through the diigo tag links below. One in particular focused on the physics of energy used in engineering and industry, the Second Law and Energy, Stephen Chu, Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Tracing the Second Law by Howard W. Butler provides a good start on understanding the entropy issue.

"Tracing the Second Law", by Howard W. Butler - Feature Article, July 2007 Annotated diigo tags: science, 2ndLaw, entropy

While man learned to control and use fire many thousands of years ago, only in the last 300 years has the nature of heat been given serious consideration. In this short time, it has been explained as phlogiston, a mysterious fluid created by fire, and as caloric, a material fluid flowing from hot to cold. The modern view, that heat is a convertible form of energy, is fewer than 200 years old.

James Joule

The above citations aid providing the principles, but little good is done if they remain in academic towers. Fortunately, there are some stellar examples of how they can be applied.

MIT MechE - News + Events - MechE Features Annotated diigo tags: MIT, engineering, meche

Amy B. Smith is an inventor who creates useful technologies for others. Yet before she could do that, she had to invent something else: a way to channel her skills into a path that was meaningful to her. "When I was working towards my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering here in the 1980s, the chief focus in the field seemed to be cars and bombs," she says. "I don't drive and I don't like war, so I had to find my own way."

Amy Smith was the inspiration for my Genius and Passion at Work post

• - diigo post by brianddrpm

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Genius And Passion At Work

While it is true that social-entrepreneurs need to follow the same basic principals as private-enterprise entrepreneurs, they do have unique challenges. Amy Smith of MIT has made a career of overcoming those challenges. In the video link below, she and 3 of her students provide a close up view of their work and the constraints they have to overcome. Past posts dealing with products becoming a commodity, but what happens when a waste stream becomes a valuable resource? How scalable is a product when it takes an entire village to buy one? What well-meaning but erroneous assumptions do we make when working in the third world? Amy Smith has already been featured previously in this weblog as the inspiration behind Reconnecting to MIT Low Technologies High Aims.

From MIT World » : A Genius for Change, and the Passion to Do It Annotated

diigo tags: design, development, entrepreneurship, innovation, social

If you live in a developing country, chances are you spend a good part of your day engaged in backbreaking, repetitive labor to put food on the table. The MIT students in this Soap Box session have rolled up their sleeves to find simple solutions for the half of the world without access to safe drinking water, electricity, and all the conveniences many take for granted.

Winners' Circle: Amy Smith Annotated

diigo tags: design, innovation, mit

Though Amy Smith—who won the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2000—has displayed an inventive imagination since childhood, it was only after four years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana that she found her true calling. Struck by the fact that "the most needy are often the least empowered to invent solutions to their problems,"

Edgerton Center: Introduction Annotated

tags: design, innovation, mit

The Edgerton Center provides hands-on educational experiences for MIT undergraduates. Carrying on the legacy of Institute Professor Harold E.Edgerton, the Center creates opportunities for students to engage in challenging activities and projects in engineering and science. Through invention and discovery, they are better able to master concepts too often presented only in theory through lectures and problem sets.

The Davos Question

Official Google Blog: The Davos Question

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International Web Star Is 15 Seconds Of Fame Off And On

My HitTail hits are not getting me any monetizing blogging suggestions lately but it continues to come up with some fascinating connections. This time one of the posts was picked up by MobusTV. It is a Spanish language site. Here is the English translation and who they are.

The link at the site is under the Here Comes Another Bubble portion of the

Miriam Reyes entrevista a Anil de Mello sobre lo que ha representado el 2007 y sus predicciones para el 2008. Links: La salchicha de Leds y Here Comes Another Bubble

There is always the chance that it will be gone before anybody looks it up though. I had a very temporary link with the BPS Research Digest blog, linked before dinner gone after dinner.(Now surprise it is back up near the bottom of the post or it is gone you can check). Hopefully it will stay up though to be truthful I would understand if it didn't. This is not a professional research blog.

In the hopes of maintaining my international status with MobusTV, I offer the following update

Global Paradigm Shift Through Global Innovation

Innovation
In attempting to be more precise in assigning relevant meaning to tags I have been using, I have used the tag innovation as applied to those creative changes that have had some economic impact, whether we classify them as high or low or business or social entrepreneurship, as opposed to pure creativity as in art.

The Entrepreneurial Mind back on 12/10/07 gave us Innovation Around the Globe which cites the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship's reports on two new studies highlighting innovation in Asia and Europe.

"A new World Bank study examines the state of innovation in East Asia with a focus on three primary sources of knowledge flow into the region: international trade, acquisition of disembodied knowledge, and foreign direct investment. East Asian economies still rely heavily on knowledge flows from Japan and the US, but the region's economies are beginning to build their own home-based knowledge industries as well."

All three primary sources of knowledge are of interest but what is especially in disembodied knowledge. The second study is a new Information Technology and Innovation Policy Foundation report:

"[F]uture European prosperity depends upon Europe's ability to more effectively deploy information and communications technologies (ICT). The study notes that European productivity growth rates have lagged in recent years, and it identifies lagging use of ICT (especially in service sectors) as one culprit in the process. Like the US, Europe needs to boost productivity rates. But the pressures in Europe are even stronger, due to a more rapidly aging population. How can Europe reverse these trends? The report's author, Rob Atkinson, recommends greater overall private investment in ICT, the creation of public incentives to support such investment, and expanded efforts to promote digital literacy and adoption among the general population of European countries."

Professor Cornwall makes it clear where he falls on the economic philosophical continuum.

"Let us hope that by the phrase "more effective government supports" the authorsare referring to what has proven to be the most effective government support for entrepreneurship -- bureaucrats and politicians getting out of the way of entrepreneurs and letting free markets work. Central planning efforts where government agencies try to pick winners and losers have never proven to be a wise long-term strategy. "

"The most effective means of encouraging private investment is making favorable policy decision for an entrepreneurial economy. Lower taxes, less regulation, and stronger property rights are all key elements. I am afraid that most of Europe has a very long way to go on all three of these critical issues of public policy."

I have to confess to some doubts to this position when I consider the amount of support that Asian countries, especially Japan, have given their businesses. I also have to wonder about the technological bump Asia got from the IT infrastructure investment that was made and how we keep on falling farther and farther behind. I am definitely not in favor of centralized planning but I am also still not willing to fully depend upon the unfettered free market. Perhaps after a few more economic courses I will change my mind.

Reconnecting to MIT Low Technologies High Aims

There are a few past posts that I did not give the full attention that I wanted to at the time I placed them. One of those was MIT Low Technologies High Aims back in October. One goal of this weblog is to make meaningful connections from different sources. MIT continues to be a source of information and nspiration for this Weblog. The New York Times article cites Amy Smith, a lecturer at M.I.T, as the primary brainchild of the International Development Design Summit and a MacArthur winner. The article also feature the D-lab nicknamed “Amy’s World” "In homage to Ms. Smith’s passion for attacking poverty from the ground up".

“Nearly 90 percent of research and development dollars are spent on creating technologies that serve the wealthiest 10 percent of the world’s population,” Ms. Smith said. “The point of the design revolution is to switch that.”

The article also features Dr. Polak, who has become something of a guru to the design revolution movement, and Mr. Brandis who now helps run the Full Belly Project, which develops machines to simplify village work.

“What you try to do in virtually every situation is make their lives more efficient,” Mr. Brandis said. “That’s what the big revolution in America was between 1860 and 1960 — that a person doing a day’s work can produce a lot more product. And that means time is more valuable and that means he has more time to do other things.”

This weblog has also featured other MacArthur winners with an interest in design.

Below is a video of Amy Smith lecturing at TED.


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Boomers Ruling the Old World or Helping to Raise Up a New One

Being a Baby boomer looking for a new paradigm shift means trying to understand where the changes in the world are arising. It is young who create the new paradigms. The old more often than not just recycle the old ones. There does though often seem to be a connection possible between old and young, more often than we acknowledge. More importantly, there are questions being asked and challenges to boomer paradigms that need to be pondered. The personnel paradigm change is accepting that one's old paradigms don't necessarily fit in the world anymore while at the same time not surrendering those that define one's ethics and spiritual foundation. Whether we are old or young the question below applies to many of us today.

The Gig Money v. meaningful work, the battle continues «
Many asked, though, how they could keep their Yers engaged — and frankly, coming to work — in the face of huge salaries from big corporations trying to poach them. The plans they work on have a huge impact on people’s lives, another attendee said, but is that enough for Yers? I’m inclined to say that, yes, along with lots of exposure to higher-ups’ passion, Yers will choose high-impact jobs like these over high-paying, but perhaps less rewarding, ones. (Leaving aside, of course, debt. The average college grad with loans has more than $19,000 to pay back, so s/he may have to choose salary in the short term.)

But I think the key is seeing the dedication of senior staffers. As psyched as these Boomers were about their work, I couldn’t imagine any Yer I know not finding it a little infectious. This seems to be borne out in the research, which Tamara Erickson — one of our recurring Gig experts and president of the Concours Institute — says shows that Yers value expertise above all else, including authority. Meaning that, a lot of the time, we’ll take the old guy with great stories and good advice over the younger one with a big title. So for those senior folks in the public sector or nonprofit world, retaining their Yers may just be a matter of sharing a few tales about the lives they’ve changed.

World changing paradigm shifts come from all directions

World changing paradigm shifts come from all directions. Any effort to change the world or change the market will bring unintended consequences both good and bad. According to Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase out of the 6.3 billion humans on the planet about 3 billion now have access to cellphones and an additional billion will have in the next 2 years. He doesn't try to predict what the future will be, instead he looks at how people will react to it by investigating the ways we interact with technology. The Grameenphone Company has been a past focus of this weblog's inquiries. Jan Chipchase working in countries like India, Brazil, China and the villages of Uganda has made unexpected discoveries about the ways illiterate people use their mobile phones, the new roles the mobile can play in global commerce.

More from Pop!Tech

This looks far more interesting and uplifting than some of the other things I have been dealing with lately - POP!TECH. Fast Company has had a number of articles on the conference.

Live from Pop!Tech: My Kind of Dinner Party
Live from Pop!Tech: Thursday's closing thought
Live from Pop!Tech: The Art of Giving Consumerism Stats Emotional Punch
Live from Pop!Tech: Friday's Closing Thought
Live from Pop!Tech: Losing Books from the Library of Life
Live from Pop!Tech: Questioning Our Slow Instincts and Speed Limits
Live from Pop!Tech: Today's Social Capitalist Assignment

In the meantime TED is blogging on the PopMech Awards

MIT Low Technologies, High Aims

This article from the New York Times SCIENCE from September 11, 2007 talks about the direction MIT is taking to create beneficial paradigm changes.

Low Technologies, High Aims
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
M.I.T. has nurtured dozens of Nobel Prize winners in cerebral realms, but lately it has turned its attention toward concrete thinking to improve the lives of the poor

Go to Updated Post

Do the Mash (Even if You Don't Know All the Steps)

Despite what Business Pundit might advise this New York Times TECHNOLOGY / CIRCUITS from September 2, 2007 advises us to jump in.

Novelties: Do the Mash (Even if You Don't Know All the Steps) by ANNE EISENBERG

Several companies are creating online systems to let ordinary people create useful computer applications by combining different information sources.

NITLE

On one of my recent Internet explorations I found another site which provides a number of resources that fit into my concept of 21st century education. NITLE is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to promoting liberal education. They provide opportunities for teachers (and hopefully others) in liberal arts contexts to create transformative learning experiences for and with their students by deploying emerging technologies in innovative, effective, and sustainable ways. Their mission is to catalyze innovative teaching to enrich and advance liberal education in the digital age. This is going under Pearls of Paradigm Processing Paradigm Shifts through Innovation.

A Question of Nets Malaria and Social Aid 2

My latest post on the malaria net issue on Marginal Revolution received a response from Greg Laden who has an interesting scientifically based blog Evolution not just a theory any more. Gregg is, according to his blog, an independent scholar affiliated with the University of Minnesota (Graduate faculty of Quaternary Paleoecology, Anthropology, and some other departments, occasional instructor, and administrator). He has the credentials and is doing something that this weblog sees as very worthwhile - utilizing other disciplines such as anthropology to get new perspectives by disciplines such as economics on current world challenges. However, that works both ways, anthropology could use some new perspectives from economics. While he does provide food for thought, I do have disagreements or at least alternative viewpoints from his line of thinking. My response follows.

Greg,

First off thanks for the response. Also checked out your blog and was impressed. You would seem to be working at a technical level a number of levels deeper than my college anthropology class. My own view is that is is very beneficial for us to have those with technical knowledge in other fields to provide input to the discussion in other realms. Second you may be being too cynical but perhaps not that skeptical. A few points for consideration - my own included with the caveat that I might be being too optimistic. I would agree with your assessment if we limit the scope of the analysis to one large governmental bureaucratic institution interacting with another. As you point out, one criticism often laid upon these efforts is that this aid helps corrupt governments and little gets to the people who need it. Here is another source of information which addresses both your point that the foreign aid a country receives lands in the pockets of corrupt officials. and the position I wish to put forward . http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/395/ (I can't seem to make links in these posts perhaps because I am using a freebie blogger) This is where I am perhaps being too optimistic but arguably this does not apply to organizations like Acumen Fund which emphasizes sustainable bottom-up solutions over traditional top-down aid. If the nets are actually made in Africa there is less need to my mind for "parental" oversight by outside agencies. I fully agree with you that one of the great fallacies of the "market" distribution method is the assumption that a good will not generate a price unless a government official or economist puts a price on it. There is, however, still an allocation of resources in terms of cost and a value. I am not arguing that the recipients should pay either the cost or any profit value but a system of sustainable distribution should recognize these factors. This approach does more than take a band-aid (albeit a really big and important band-aid) approach helping the sick and poor become just poor. I do have to admit though that this approach does arguably have its limitations in being able to achieve "market penetration" to the degree required because the enterprise can only grow or produce so fast which may not be fast enough for the health need.. Assuming the mind set of a "change agent" with the best of intentions, one needs to manufacture the nets, if not in the country of need then transport the nets, and distribute the nets. I can use a lump sum charity donation in the form of foreign aid but then you have the issue of the bureaucracy tied to the money. Golden Rule - He who has the gold makes the rules. Even if I use your distribution system of showing up in Kinshasa with a barge full of mosquito nets, left unguarded for a month, one still has to consider the first two steps. You don't really get to do "regardless of how they get there". Furthermore, I have to wonder if there wouldn't be the equivalent of the mosquito net scalper arising out of all of this. There is no perfect system and much (most) of what goes on could be a hell of a lot better but hopefully things can get better through new technology and new thinking. Brian

Unsung Heroes of Web 2.0

As great of a fan TED as I am my the idea of intentional paradigm shift that this weblog puts forward is not focused on the 0.0000151% of the population that gets to attend TED Conferences. A New York Times Technology article focuses on The Unsung Heroes Who Move Products Forward.Besides singing the praises of the unsung the article also discusses process innovation.

"Process innovation, even more than most product innovations, also tends to realize its economic potential through a lengthy process of incremental improvement based on learning by doing and other types of learning," he added. "So 'breakthroughs' in process engineering are, if anything, even rarer than in product innovation."

The question is how process innovation can be applied to other fields such as leadership and management. If non-governmental organizations lose their connection to government and have to depend upon themselves, what is left? Many are already autonomous, but many have not begun or have not fully realized the untapped potential of the so-called new economy.

90% Rule

This link is going under Paradigm Pathways Web 2.0 Pathways but the lesson apply to all aspects of bringing about change in the world. The words of George Eliot apply to the resources we find at hand not just the people with whom we work. Even if one get 20% of the people doing 80% of the work supplied with 90% of the resources, it can still results in a massive shift in any field.

Designing for a Better World

Saul Griffith touches upon just about everything this site wishes to support and promote. In a 2006 TED talk he talks about basics of creating design from understanding the science of the universe and how learning from that could bring benefit to the world. He was recently awarded the MacArthur Genius Award for 2007 according to the TED Blog. What he does for me is demonstrates that design is not a matter of "skin deep" veneer but comes from deep understanding and commitment. Here are some other MacAurthur Genius award winners from TED.

In my own evolution of thought I am becoming to believe in the ability to intentionally design one's life to fit one's values. That may seem obvious to some but to actually integrate that into one's life and have it make a difference in the world still seems a challenge. With this in mind I am designing my own "meaning" of the word paradigm.

"Elements making up the defined "meanings of" things or events in the world that can be redefined by one so as to giving "meaning to" something or "meaning for" someone. By intentionally using these elements, one reshapes a small part of this world and perhaps in doing so becomes part of a larger paradigm shift in the world and in turn again within themselves."

I hope Erin Mckean would approve.