Just Found out out The Monuments Men

Somebody sent me an email introducing me to the Monuments Men. I am making it a blog post and taking advantage of the ability to embed videos. This reminds us that our true cultural history is outside of Web 2.0 and that still takes dedicated people to keep it.

Book Page writes, "an account that moves like a Hollywood action adventure…there are heroes to root for, villains to hiss at and an increasingly pressing race against time…Whether you're a fan of art, military history or stories of real-life heroes, the Monuments Men is a treasure worth the hunt".

I hope your blog will profile these great heroes of civilization and share their story with your readers and supporters.

Thank You,

Robert M. Edsel

www.monumentsmen.com

The Morning Joe Show features a video clip with Doris Kearns Goodwin discussing The Monuments Men!

The Greatest Heroine of WWII, Rose Valland-

Passing the Torch: Touching video clip of Robert M. Edsel discussing his last conversation with Lane S. Faison.

Robert M. Edsel discussing the amazing story of one of nine living Monuments Men, German born Harry Ettlinger.

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.

Social Entrepreneurship Gaining Steam in Academia

The establishment of social-entrepreneurship into the academic programs of American Universities is another ongoing social change. While there has been forays of non-profit and community support efforts from universities having a formal degree program is something new. This is a summary of a series of articles that have appeared from time to time in The Entrepreneurial Mind.

2/19/08 The Entrepreneurial Mind on Social Entrepreneurship Gaining Steam in Academia

Dean Pat Raines writes about the growth in interest in social entrepreneurship within academia over at Belmont's blog Strictly Business. Speaking about our own program that launches next fall:

Next fall, Belmont University will begin offering a major in Social Entrepreneurship. The fundamental idea is to provide a practical academic curriculum to serve the fastest-growing segment of society--the millions of individuals that are creating a society of citizen change agents.

The Entrepreneurial Mind has a post on The Entrepreneurial Generation's Answer to Social Change

Dr. Cornwall points out that the Belmont program is to be one of the first in the country he also asserts that today's students are geared for these listing the positive characteristics of that group of 18-21 year-olds he has labeled the Entrepreneurial Generation. Providing what he deems, Some prominent reason for confidence -

• They distrust large institutions.

• They believe that the private sector is much more efficient and effective at solving the world's problems.

The big government proponents, which typically includes the New York Times, would tell us that the problems of the world are too big, and far too complex, for any solution outside of massive government intervention. We like to talk about the War on This Problem, and the War on That Problem, as if the only solution is too overwhelm each social problem with massive amounts of money controlled by huge bureaucracies.

And for good measure he references an article in that same New York Times article

The New York Times ran a column By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF compared this renewed social energy in today's youth with that of their parents' generation in the 1960s -- but with a twist: With the American presidential campaign in full swing, the obvious way to change the world might seem to be through politics. But growing numbers of young people are leaping into the fray and doing the job themselves. Below is a list of some of these programs.

Orphans Against AIDS (www.orphansagainstaids.org), which pays school-related expenses for hundreds of children who have been orphaned or otherwise affected by AIDS in poor countries.

Unite for Sight, has ballooned, and last year it provided eye care to 200,000 people (www.uniteforsight.org).

The program (www.injaz.org.jo) has spread to 12 Arab countries and is aiming to teach one million students a year. Ms. Salti argues that entrepreneurs can stimulate the economy, give young people a purpose and revitalize the Arab world.

Educating With "Bit" Of Literacy

I am still working on bettering my web 2.0 blogging habits. It turns out that a number of visitors reach this webblog through the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant, so another reminder to be careful with my writing. Looking to proper grammar and spelling is in addition to technological issues related to web 2.0 correspondence. This post from Good Experience combines both an educational perspective and a technological one.

Good Experience - Educators and bit literacy by Mark Hurst

The educator's perspective on bit literacy is slightly different from that of the businessperson. Rather than focusing on productivity in the workplace, the educator is more concerned with giving students basic skills to organize their thoughts, know their resources, and properly research their papers. Resourcefulness is important, as is evaluating digital sources.

Here's one educator's review of Bit Literacy (by the president of NAIS, the National Association of Independent Schools) and a transcript of a Web chat I conducted recently with the same folks.

Some of the lessons I wanted to take away with me are:

Compelling Principles, Sensible Tips and Awesome Ideas from Bit Literacy

1. As long as one always empties the inbox at least once a day, bit literacy gives users the freedom to choose when, and how often, to engage the bits.

2. Use the same discipline for one's media diet.

3. First learn, and then, in the business of schools, teach how to evaluate digital sources by surveying www.snopes.com.

4. Model proper sourcing and citations. When you keep and/or pass along interesting articles, save them in "clip format": i.e. copy and paste the article, source, author, title, date, and the URL into your e-mail — then save and/or mail to friends, so you are modeling source authentication.

5. Use "bit levers."
Bit levelers are what Hurst calls the digital equivalent of Archimedes' fulcrum ("Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I could move the earth") to achieve the Jim Collins goals of using "technology as an accelerator.":

• Use keyboard commands (CTRL-S to save, CTRL-C to copy; CTRL-P to paste, etc.) to keep the hands on the keyboard and away from mouse, saving precious time.
• Use macros. Create your own macros (ask your IT director to show you how) to streamline laborious tasks, similar to using Find and Replace in a Word or Excel document.
• Try ActiveWords (PCs) or Typinator (Macs): Google for the free downloadable trial versions of these applications, which allow you to create shortcuts for actions (opening a file, folder, or program) and for words, phrases, or whole messages that one frequently types.
• The downloadable Google Search Bar includes amazing tools:
• Scholar Search for ERIC and other database listings of scholarly articles.
  

Many of these I already do. I will endeavor to do better on crediting people for their work by providing fuller citations. Others, I will give some more thought.

Don't Dumb Down For People Let Them Do So For Themselves

Seth's Blog has a post on "Dumbing down"

Think about the stuff you hear on the radio or read about in mass market publications. When they attempt to cover something you really know about, they seem pretty stupid, don't they? Oversimplifying to the point of getting it completely wrong. They're busy pandering to the masses, dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.

He also has a post on Who are these people? via his Seth's Blog which sounds like he is talking about the same people.

If you look at the numbers, you soon realize that a huge portion of the population apparently:

• Has read two books in the last year, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code
• Uses only two websites, Google and Facebook
• Visits only a few blog posts a day, and every single one of them is on the home page of Digg
• Watches only two or three TV shows, including the Super Bowl
• Eats only at McDonalds
• Watches only incredibly snarky or juvenile videos on YouTube

Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?

Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.

Asking The Big Questions

Beside Edge with "What have you changed your mind about? Why?" and YouTube with the Davos Question, TED and the TEDBlog are also asking "The Big Questions"

Many people come to TED -- and visit TED.com -- seeking something out of the ordinary. A chance to mentally recharge. A chance to step back and consider the really big stuff that's happening. A chance to understand life in a richer way.

• Who are we?
  
  • What is our place in the universe?
    
    • What is life?
      
      • Is beauty truth?
        
        • Will evil prevail?
          
          • How can we change the world?
            
            • How do we create?
              
              • What's out there?
                
                • What will tomorrow bring?
                  
                  • What stirs us?
                    
                    • How dare we be optimistic?
                      
                      • And the point?

The TED | TEDBlog provides a number of Web-based ways to make a difference

+ Share Ron Eglash's cool math tools, for studying math via breakdancing, Latin beats and cornrow braids
+ Dive into Richard Baraniuk's Connexions, a massive repository of open-source class materials
+ Visit Phil Borges' Bridges to Understanding site, which rounds up student films from all over the world
+ Browse Erin McKean's booklist "So You Want to Be a Lexicographer?"
+ Check out the beta of Gapminder World, powered by Hans Rosling's Trendalyzer software
+ Watch video and take action at The Hub, a platform for human rights media and action -- presented by Peter Gabriel's WITNESS
+ Discuss sustainable design and materials on the Cradle to Cradle forums, inspired by the work of William McDonough
+ Learn more about Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child
+ Catch up with Majora Carter's Sustainable South Bronx -- or make a specific gift to SSBx via Changing the Present
+ Calculate your personal CO2 production -- and start helping the planet -- at the website for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, produced by Jeff Skoll

Forwarding webpages with highlights and sticky notes, powered by Diigo

Attempting To Update Videos

My favorite means of learning on the web is watching educational videos like Professor Lewin's physics lectures, MIT World, Econ 100B Macroeconomic Analysis with Professor Steven Wood , TED videos and many others.

I have finally updated the video tag of this weblog so that it includes all embedded videos or slide shows. Also updated to FireFox 3 beta which I learned about from the Wired article. The problem is that all video players are not created equal, at least not on my regular computer. For some reason embedded TED videos using Flash 9.0 have a hard time usually stopping and flashing a continuous 'loading video'. This despite having had enlarged the storage capacity that may be needed by the videos. I don't know if its just my computer, my wife's works fine, but I hope that not too many others are suffering from this. One can always go to the TED talk site itself but having the video handy was nice. It use to work better I don't know what changed. Another video on the blink now, at least for my computer, is Like Trying to Milk a Fish which featured Sam Davidson. Now it stops after about 1 minute.

For the good, the video at the The Fine Print Of Good Design post did not even load up before I upgraded my Firefox. Now it works fine.

All of the YouTube Videos also work fine, but then its Google. Besides updating the video tag, I have also added a diigo sticky note to the video tag link as an explanation and link back to this post. Of course, you need diigo to make it work.

Simply the Best: Maeda’s the Man at RISD

From Fast Company can also be found at Kottke.org

Simply the Best: Maeda's the Man at RISD

• John Maeda, MIT Media Lab guru, artist, designer, computer scientist, author – in short, a guy who comes about as close as it gets to being a Renaissance Man, circa 2007 --- was just named the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the most prestigious design schools in the world. It's a great day for RISD – but also for the design world in general.
  

This is the TEDBlog post on John Maeda

TED | TEDBlog: John Maeda named next president of RISD

• Technology has outpaced humanity, I wouldn't say tenfold, I'd say a millionfold. ... Meanwhile, we're still trying to figure out, what is this stuff for? I think that arts have to advance the culture of knowledge around technology. It hasn't happened yet, but it has to happen.

Design seems to becoming an integral part of not only web 2.0 but the larger economy as well. There is some evidence that I am being too optimistic but the way I am beginning to see design is similar to the way I am beginning to see marketing. Which is no longer as a secondary, stand alone function but a function that permeates other functions of the organization. So then, is one aspect of marketing design that it effectively communicates a truth about you and your organization? I am going to have to do some more thinking about where design and marketing conjoin and where they don't. John Maeda makes the fact that there is a relationship between design and web 2.0 obvious and the nature of that relationship continuously creative and surprising.

Professor Walter Lewin, Web Star Rocks

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star - New York Times

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star

"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Walter H. G. Lewin, 71, a physics professor, has long had a cult following at M.I.T. And he has now emerged as an international Internet guru, thanks to the global classroom the institute created to spread knowledge through cyberspace."

I am one of the many who have enjoyed Professor Lewin's online lectures having gone through his Physics 8.01 and 8.02 video lectures. It was Professor Lewin who showed me the potential of the Internet as a tool for education and learning. Of course the true value is in Professor Lewin himself, the world wide web is merely a highly scalable medium for dissemination. His approach to teaching both in the class room and on the web is an inspiration of what can be created with passion, which is what Professor Lewin exhibits in every class.

"Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store."

Professor Lewin's lectures and other MIT lectures are featured in the Education web-slide found at the post Philosophy For Kids Starting Paradigm Shifts Early .

Philosophy For Kids Starting Paradigm Shifts Early

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Philosophy for kids

I found out about this at the TEDBlog but the original post was from BPS Research Digest. This weblog cited two other articles from BPS previously. Some highlights from the Philosophy for kids article:

Philosophy for kids

Keith Topping and Steve Trickey first reported the short-term benefits of using "Thinking through Philosophy" with children in an earlier study

Teaching children the art of collaborative philosophical inquiry brings them persistent, long-term cognitive benefits, according to psychologists in Scotland.

.

The philosophy-based lessons encouraged a community approach to 'inquiry' in the classroom, with children sharing their views on Socratic questions posed by the teacher. The children's cognitive abilities were tested using the 'Cognitive Abilities Test', a measure which has been found to predict children's performance on external school examinations.

A number of educational weblinks have been found during the last four months of web-trekking. Most of these were placed under the section at the left hand column titled Pearls of Paradigm Processing Paradigm Shifts Through Innovation. Critical thinking is a common thread among them. Before starting on this endeavor the original title was simply Cool Stuff. It changed to Innovation because most of the cool stuff dealt with innovation. Education, on further reflection also belongs in there because it is an essential source for innovation. The concept of Education expands even further when using tags, science, civic media, social entrepreneurship have all been interrelated with education and all benefit from Socratic and critical thinking.

Getting Deeper Into Creative-Destruction

Also spent the weekend doing a bit more studying of economics in particular the concept of creative-destruction. I have added a few more websites to the MyStuff folder for creative-destruction. Finally got around to reading the Wikipedia articles on creative-destruction and on Joseph Alois Schumpeter again to get a better understanding. One disadvantage of the web over a printed book is that it is harder to get and in-depth understanding of a particular perspective. One advantage of the web over a printed book is being able to get multiple perspectives rather easily. Now have a fairly good idea of what Tyler Cowen and Schumpeter mean by creative destruction but need to get a better understanding of how others are using the term. Another concept I have been studying is the "COASE THEOREM" , which I learned about at a Freakonomics post.

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.

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.

Contrasting Left, Right and All in Between

My online persona goes 'bravely" where my day job/real world self would not venture. The Online world seems to have no issue with pointing out the error of ones ways which provides a fairly quick and efficient way to learn or at the very least allows one to externally formulate one's thoughts. Marginal Revolution had a post titled Why the Left should learn to love liberalism. Liberalism similar to paradigm is a word whose definition seems dependent upon who is using it. My philosophical horizons continue to expand with new views. In addition to the ones put forth in the article, a recent Freakonomics post lead me to Liz Seymour - It Started with A Question. I may not agree with her answer but the sentiment of inquiry is a motivating factor behind this endeavor.

My comments on the Marginal Revolution article are below. Again it is an exercise in trying to better understand economics and incorporate that understanding into my belief system.

The discussion seems painted with very broad brush strokes from any particular side each with claimed benefits that I strongly suspect would last about a week and we would be right back at the debate. The range of thought within the discussion though is rather impressive. The concept of Free Market Anti-Capitalism is a new one to my fledgling economic education. Though I have to agree with the observation about Professor Cowen's overstatement. Obviously there are more than just two sides to this debate.

The most recent post packages the issues neatly for consideration. It is easy to agree that "actions have consequences and that only fools and crazy people build economic systems that ignore them.", but that advice applies to both sides of the ideological fence. It is also easy to agree that wealth redistribution is always more creative and prosperous than wealth concentration, because concentration promotes complacency and laziness, while distribution creates opportunity. Historical, from my perspective and here all sides can argue, an extremism of either right or left has resulted in a concentration of wealth or at the very least done a lousy job of redistribution in a sustainable fashion. Most appealing is arguing from empirical experience, because reality isn't interested in who's a liberal and who isn't, but only in consequences and experiences. This still leaves plenty of opportunity for philosophical pondering about moral sentiments and wealth creation. I still lean towards what has been described as classical liberalism but my recent self-questioning raises self-doubts about my premises.

One question that has been on my mind. China is often brought up in these discussions and there are many issues that justify concern and opposition to China's current polices - Darfur and Burma readily come to mind in addition to those cited. Despite that the question still arises as to the best means of having China take a primary role in the world economy. In particular comparing it to the path that Russia has taken and the effects its policies have had on its people and where its stands today in the world. Would anybody want a Chinese "Putin"?

Training our next leaders: Patrick Awuah on TED.com

This looks like a candidate for Pearls of Paradigm Processing under Social and Economic Paradigms. There are a number of other examples of leadership in both business and social change organizations to be found there. Of course, the entire TED site available here is also very worthwhile.

Training our next leaders: Patrick Awuah on TED.com

via TED | TEDBlog by on 8/27/07

Patrick Awuah left a comfortable life in Seattle to return to Ghana and co-found a liberal arts college. Why? Because he believes that Ghana's failures in leadership -- and he gives several mind-boggling examples -- stem from a university system that fails to train real leaders. In a talk that brought the TEDGlobal audience enthusiastically to their feet, he explains how a true liberal arts education -- steeped in critical thinking, idealism, and public service -- can produce the quick-thinking, ethical leaders needed to move his country forward. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 17:42.)