February 03, 2012
TEDxBerkeley’s 2012 Theme “Innovation” Kicks Off Third Year at Zellerbach Hall on Feb 4
Tomorrow, Saturday, February 4, 2012, UC Berkeley will gather world leading thinkers, visionaries, creative pundits, philosophers, academics and doers to host the third TEDx Berkeley Event (a 501c3) at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. It's the second year I've been involved in the event and we're thrilled to have a stellar line-up of speakers once again.
The theme this year is: "Innovation." 15 ground-breaking thinkers, leaders and performers will cover a diverse number of global issues and topics, ranging from health and toxicity, politics in a new media world, robotics, machine learning, and mobile computing to the arts through life-changing film & storytelling, micro-finance, the gift-economy and “magic.”
Below is a list of the 2012 TEDxBerkeley speakers and performers. Visit the TEDxBerkeley speaker page for their detailed biographies and updates.
- Carl Bass: president and chief executive officer of Autodesk, Inc., the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software.
- Connie Duckworth: founder of ARZU, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, and a retired Partner and Managing Director of Goldman, Sachs, & Co., where she was named the first woman sales and trading partner in the firm’s history during her 20 year career.
- DeCadence: UC Berkeley’s DeCadence (pronounced dee-KAY-dence, with a capital ‘C’) musical group is best known around the Bay Area for their one-of-a-kind quirkiness and lovable eccentricity.
- David Ewing Duncan: best-selling author of seven books published in 19 languages; he is a journalist and a television, radio and film producer and correspondent. His most recent best-selling book is Experimental Man: What one man’s body reveals about his future, your health, and our toxic world.
- Dr. Maria Fadiman: a leader who works with the human/environmental aspect of conservation, who was named one of National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers in 2006.
- Ken Goldberg: an inventor working at the intersection of art, robotics, and social media. At UC Berkeley, Ken teaches and supervises research in Robotics, Automation, and New Media.
- Charles Holt: speaker & performer, Charles has entertained sold-out audiences around the world, including The John F. Kennedy Center The Turkish-American Association in Ankara, Turkey, and Rikers Island Correctional Facility. He speaks to groups and organizations in order to empower, encourage, and uplift audiences everywhere.
- Gopi Kallayil: does marketing at Google for Google Plus and previously for the Company’s flagship advertising product, AdWords, in the Americas and Asia Pacific and for AdSense, Google’s publisher‐facing product.
- Jodi Lomask: founder of Capacitor, she has been commissioned to create original works for NASA, TED, SFO, Computers and Structures, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Salvadorian Olympic Gymnastics Team.
- Nipun Mehta: founder of ServiceSpace, an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology and gift-economy.
- Tapan Parikh: Assistant Professor at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Neha Sangwan, MD: an Internal Medicine physician, she is also CEO and founder of Intuitive Intelligence, and acts as a corporate communication strategist to empower healthcare practitioners, organizational leaders and corporate employees in their own self-care.
- Tiffany Shlain: honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany is a filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and cofounder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.
- Lindsey Stirling: a violinist for 19 years with a range that extends from classical to rock and roll. She became known as Hip Hop violinist from the America’s Got Talent contest.
- Robert Strong: the Comedy Magician has been crisscrossing the world since 1985 entertaining audiences large and small, young and old, formal and casual, and everything in between. Twice voted San Francisco’s ‘Best Comedian’, Robert has appeared in more than 40 different countries, in all 50 states, and twice at the White House.
Additionally, TEDxBerkeley has collaborated with AppBaker to release an exclusive iPhone app for the event. The app features an interactive schedule, speaker profiles, Twitter wall, and much more. TEDxBerkeley has also partnered with Livestream to provide high-quality live video of the event.
The TEDxBerkeley team includes curators Kevin Gong, a translator who has volunteered for the Global Lives Project; Renee Blodgett, founder of Magic Sauce Media, We Blog the World, a global blog network that covers every culture in the world and Magic Sauce Photography, and Jennifer Barr, VP/Operations at Northern CA Wharton Business School Club; Volunteer and Logistics Coordinator Eleanor Yang; Director of Logistics Navi Ganancial, serial volunteer and social media marketing guru; Director of Sponsorships Linda Xu; Technical Director Rocky Mullin, production volunteer for EG and TEDMED, musician & producer and Speaker Logistics Coordinator David Allen.
February 3, 2012 in America The Free, Arts & Creative Stuff, Conference Highlights, Events, Magic Sauce Media, On Education, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Technology, On the Future, San Francisco, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2011
Steve Jobs Life Lessons: How Do They Play Out In Your Own Life?
The 600 page Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson isn't one I've picked up yet but Lance Ulanoff recently finished it and wrote a piece on Mashable about lessons learned -- aka insights -- from the man who was mysterious to so many of us, being described as creative, driven, intense, mean, focused, innovative, entrepreneurial, masterful, and a genius.
He has been ranked up there with Einstein and by others who are either bitter, anti-Apple or who worked with him and just didn't like the man, as lucky albeit smart.
Below is the list of so called lessons gleaned however for Lance's take aways, read the original blog post, which also includes a page of fabulous inspirational quotes, one of which includes this reminder, "don't settle." I think about that phrase today more than ever.
As we get older, we realize that we have less time to "settle" and live an extraordinary life. When we're really young, even if we subscribe to living a life far beyond "settling," we don't have the wisdom or years behind us to know how fast the decades march on. We often live in the moment which is a beautiful place to live, yet the perspective of time has little meaning.
Next to each lesson learned below, are my own reflections and experiences of working in the technology industry, many of which reflect back to Steve's decisions and mindset. Also refer to my "so long Steve Jobs" blog write-up here,
Don’t Wait
One of the most frustrating things I deal with in working with start-ups with small budgets is how many compromises need to be made on a consistent basis. It has also made me and the entrepreneurs I work with learn how to become more resourceful along the way. That said, I think about the "one chance to get it right" more often than not and this means stepping up to the plate. Work the long hours, hire the right people, don't undervalue marketing or positioning, get the product out there before your competitor jumps ahead of you...the industry just moves too fast.
Make Your Own Reality
My take away from this is connected to "not settling." It's also about building a better life by not accepting the reality you've been given, for you almost always have the power to change a current reality. Sure, you can come up with every excuse in the book: I don't have the money, I don't have the access, I don't have the education, I don't have the resources, yet Gandhi didn't let don'ts, even if they were different ones, get in the way of his success. Steve Jobs didn't either. I say this to teenagers whenever I get the chance: Don't let someone else write your life story or dictate how the chapters should unravel. This one still keeps me up at night sometimes.
Control Everything You Can
This is counter to so much of what the social media afficiandos and purists believe, which is centered around collaboration and giving up control. The latter is also something I see as a new "American" behavior even outside the technology industry where parenting is often about collaborating with your kids rather than disciplining them.
Control helps keep things on target, your vision in tact and products on schedule but it also can result in alienating people around you, not allowing others' creativity to flourish and the inevitable...once you're out of the way, what happens to the company and its products?
Control can deliver great things - look at Picasso's paintings and Steve's iPhone. Yet, those I talk to give Apple three years with Steve gone. I'm not sure that I agree, but you get the idea.
Own Your Mistakes
This is probably one of the hardest things to do, particurly when a bad decision negatively impacts a large group of people. But it's also PR 101: when you do a "dirty," whether it was intentional or not, own it, apologize, commit to fixing it and move on. If Clinton had done that earlier and embraced his actions from a place of leadership, perhaps we wouldn't have spent so many cycles focused on blowjobs more than the state of our economy. Europe trivialized it and we behaved like high school children, including "some media."
Know Yourself
I love this one. Sometimes we know ourselves but don't "give" ourselves what we need and so I'd add to know thyself, trust thyself. One of my favorite quotes and it isn't a Steve Jobs one: Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic
Is it fantastic or is it outstanding? I prefer the latter because it takes us beyond fantastic. Fantastic is an experience, which Steve Jobs certainly created for us again and again, but outstanding is a way of living, a way of being.
Don’t Hold Back
Ahhh, is this one of the reasons I love Italian culture so much? Or why people like Steven Spielberg awes us time and time again? Don't just give it to them baby, but give all of it to them. As big, as great, as dynamic and as extraordinary as you can.
Surround Yourself with Brilliance
This is a general lesson for great leadership. Outstanding leaders do this time and time again. Choosing and "curating" the right team for a project is a skill of a master. And, rather than be afraid that who you surround yourself may just be more brilliant than you, you embrace it.
Build a Team of A Players
Ahhh, mediocrity. There's nothing that drives me crazier than mediocrity, particularly in business. And "real" A players I'd argue don't waste time trying to convince you that they're A players; they just execute.
Be Yourself
Sure, this largely applies to person-to-person contact, whether it's about managing your team or being ethical with your board and calling the right shots. That said, when I see this statement today, I think about truly being yourself amidst a world of cluttered voices on the web.
When I see a tweet, I think "are they doing this as a way to game the system and up their Klout score aka "perceived influence" or are they doing it from a centered, balanced place? aka "this is who I really am and what I really think".
Or, are they trying to deliver an aura or image of what they think is respected by their peers, some of whom haven't been behaving so well lately?
Scrambling to get respect from the gate keepers is all around us and some of the conversations I'm hearing and part of behind closed doors is astounding.
I think to myself again and again, "are we really having this conversation? Is sucking up to X or Y influencer while burying who you really are worth it? It's a game not worth playing because it's a life not worth living. And, yet it's happening all around us. In politics. In technology. In life.
Be Persuasive
There are some people who you would build a moon for even if 1,000 people in a row told you a moon couldn't be built. Steve Jobs had that gift which resulted in outstanding products that changed the way we live our lives. Richard Saul Wurman had that gift when he developed the TED Conference concept. Tony Robbins has that gift when he stands in front of thousands of people. Obama has that gift through his calm and articulate embodiment. Being persuasive by being "real" and "intentional" is the most powerful gift you can give.
Show Others the Way
We all need mentors whether we think we do or not. Sometimes we're the teacher, sometimes the student and sometimes when we think we're the teacher, we end up being the student. I would add to this that the real talent in showing others the way is finding out how people learn and showing them the way in their modality or language. Some teachers only know how to teach from their own modality which leaves a huge percentage of people either bored, pissed off or simply confused.
While it may seem like an awkward aside to raise here, it feels right as I write this. I wish women would stand up for women in business more than they do. I know a lot of incredible women who help, inspire, nurture, fund, and more, however what I haven't personally experienced is women taking risks to help pave the other for others in their peer group. (risking a powerful relationship behind closed doors by speaking up or making things right, speaking up publicly or simply taking the time to encourage in a deep and meaningful way).
By the latter, I don't mean sharing. As women, we do this well. We listen, we share and show our girlfriends we "understand them."
I get some of the reasoning behind why we say no: we're already overspent and don't have the time or energy, we want to reserve that energy for children and family when we're already doing so much, we don't want to risk tampering with a connection that has been instrumental in getting us to our current positions because quite simply, it ain't an easy compromising ride to get there. And so on. That said, the majority of people who have "shown me the way," have been men.
Trust Your Instincts
Steve Jobs was a master at this and most great leaders are too. Women btw are really good at this in their personal lives and we need to know that its an incredibly rich asset in our professional lives too. The best leaders are strong enough to go to a place of solitude when the noise of external voices telling them what to do becomes so loud that they can no longer hear their inner voice. Our inner voices always lead the way.
Take Risks
Silicon Valley is great at taking risks and it all started with the guys at the forefront, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak being instrumental in the early days. One of the things I see with companies outside the U.S. is that risk taking is less embraced because it's not part of their culture.
There are always exceptions of course: great products are great products, and great leaders are great leaders. That said, I have seen hesitation and uncertainty first hand in working with start-ups and entrepreneurs now from France, Scotland, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, Canada, England and others. If you truly believe in something, there's no room for fear and doubt. Trust, believe and take the risk because if you don't, someone else most certainly will.
Follow Great with Great
When I read this, I thought of what those who have been to the top know all too well, "you're only as great as what you've done lately." That said, there are entrepreneurs in the Valley and elsewhere who had a successful exit and never "created" anything else. Yet, they're still part of the conversation, at all the VIP dinners and are even funding other startups because they have the money to do so.
You know the drill: you get access when you have one of the following: power (connections to people or things other people need), money (you can buy that access), position (you hold a title at a major company or in government and can use your influence to help), in the inner circle (are part of a prestigious family, went to college with or are buddies with someone of influence and so the latter three are automatically waived).
What's truly remarkable is when none of those things matter, you push them all aside (or simply ignore them) and just consistently keep building great things that benefit people. Steve Jobs showed that he was capable of that with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Pixar. Other "greats" do the same.
Make Tough Decisions
Tough decisions often make you unlikeable, at least to one group or person. I had a reflective conversation in a long cab ride recently with someone who worked with Steve Jobs in the very early days. He attended a small gathering of like-folks after his death somewhere in Silicon Valley.
A question was presented to another person in the group who also worked with him: did she "like" him?The response was one of silence and no one said a word. A lot of people didn't like him. A lot of people didn't like Picasso.
I'm not suggesting being an asshole is a formula for success but some great leaders who are also artists are often unliked. Steve Jobs was an artist and while he was unliked by many, he was also a visionary who created great things, including inspiration for others to find their own genius inside of them. A gift. Making tough decisions is part of that gift.
Presentation Can Make a World of Difference
It's amazing how many people still rely on traditional Powerpoint slides for presentations. Boring ones. Frankly, I hate speaking in front of large groups and feel "more secure" about my delivery when I use visual aids. Quite simply, its a crutch that helps us move the presentation along when what we should be doing is telling a story from our heart and life experiences that educate, inspire and ultimately move people to action in some way.
Some of the greatest TED talks have used some visual aids, even a slide or two, but 80% of their presentation is about flow and about story. If storytelling isn't the essence of what you deliver, then it most likely isn't an outstanding presentation.
Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity
I would add to this since balancing your intensity isn't the whole picture; balancing your life is what you need so you don't burn out and can find peace with what you signed up, aka your career. If you're not working part-time or gave up a job to raise a family, you're probably spending more time in your work life than any other thing you do. Striking a balance is critical to sustaining happiness and peace with that decision. Life is a long road. Balance sets you free.
Live for Today
Steve Jobs was much more able to go to that place after he learned about his terminal illness. While intellectually we know that we should live for today even when things are going our way, very few people do.
Isn't living for today just another way of saying "be present"? And yet, even if we've hung out in Buddhist temples, spend quiet time on yoga and meditation mats, it's hard to live a very present life all the time. Our brains aren't wired that way. At the core of our decision making, even important ones is our lizard brain, a pretty unevolved part of our bodies. Refer to my post on Linchpins, lizard brains & getting uncomfortable.
While there are people who share their wisdom and bring others up with them as they themselves rise to the top, I see sharing explode when people hit their forties, whether or not they have children. Something happens when you've reached a certain plateau -- call it wisdom, call it inner peace -- where the race no longer matters. Sharing matters more and for some, it's the only thing that matters.
For the original once again, go here as it was my inspiration for this variation...
December 19, 2011 in America The Free, Europe, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Spirituality, On Technology, On Women, Reflections, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 03, 2011
What is REAL Influence? Will Klout & Other Tools Define & Control You or Will You Define Them?
There's been so much buzz -- on and offline -- about Klout's decision to unveil a new formula which supposedly recalculates scores more accurately, the result of which brought most people's "popularity" scores down a few notches, including my own.
While I think what the guys over at Klout are trying to do is admirable and truth be told, we need really smart analytics and measurement tools to break through the noise, what we have today simply isn't accurate enough or "whole" enough to give us the real truth on who's influential and more importantly, in what circles and why.
Wouldn't it be more interesting to know who had a Klout score of 80 in food and wine, 80 in social media, 80 in fashion, 80 in politics and so on?
Wouldn't it also be more interesting if tools like this took into consideration a person's offline influence as well as other things they may have done, such as a bestselling book or created a program that made an African village sustain itself?
Part of the issue is that we're early and all of the vendors trying to innovate in this area are trying to figure it out. I spent time talking to Klout's CEO and founder Joe Fernandez in Dublin recently at a web conference and I think he's a great guy who's trying to do the right thing.
I jokingly complained that I've seen 21 year olds who are new to social media, new to Twitter and new to business whose Klout scores have been higher than mine on some days. There are many things they take into account when dishing out a Klout score, including the level of engagement. Crikey, if you're my niece's age and have thousands of Facebook friends who have a ton of time on their hands and can chat away all day with their friends, regardless of how big the circle is, then no doubt, that online "activity" gets engagement brownie points which goes into the Klout analysis.
While engagement could be high in this 'circle', it is its own ecosystem and the real question is: will this voice influence a certain number of people to buy a certain product or take a certain that builds brand awareness?
I have 3 Facebook pages attached to my name, all of which are mine, but I don't get credit in the Kloutsphere for any of them because they can only give you points for one Facebook account - your personal one. When I asked Joe about this, he had a logical explanation. There are far too many people managing a celebrity or brand's Facebook fan page and they shouldn't get credit for that level of influence when the page is about someone else. Fair enough. But what about those whose Facebook pages are legitimately connected to themselves? Small business owners would also fall into that category.
Yet, despite the fact that the numbers aren't accurate or "whole," tons of vendors and brands are jumping into the lions den and testing things out. Frankly, there's nothing wrong with that. With every evolution and revolution, you need to learn by trial and error just like we did with email after fax, blogging after websites and Twitter after AOL IM.
One of my issues is how much credence we (as an industry) give these early tools and how much of a time waste they are for so many I know including me at times before I kick myself back into perspective, nevermind the cultural impact which has quite honestly turned into a popularity contest. I feel as if everyone is competing to be Ken or Barbie and we're back to high school behavior in a way that's not healthy.
As Geoff Livingston points out in a recent post, "people are spending time debating its merits and deficiencies, as well quantifiable metrics in general."
Scores are one way for brand marketers and PR folks to create a list of targeted bloggers and tweeters they can go after, aka a list of the most influential voices who must hear about their product or service. I get it as I've been on the pitching line - both in front of it and in recent years, on the receiving end with We Blog the World.
As Geoff points out, the most influential people in any given sector aren’t necessarily on social media. They hire other people to serve as community managers. As one example, Klout only gives President Barack Obama an Influence Score of 48.
While we do need analytics and tools for measuring, they need to take offline influence into consideration as well as more complex elements and texture that can extracted from people's social graphs.
It's time to bring in the socialogists and anthropologists. One of the best talks I've heard in awhile on a Web-something stage was in October at Web 2.0 Summit by Intel's Genevieve Bell, an Australian born anthropologist and researcher. She is the director of Intel Corporation's Interaction and Experience Research and her talk was begging the question: what if we built data for humans rather than devices?
Looking at data from an anthropoligical and "human" perspective (bring on more women please), means that we can take the science out of the analytics just long enough to get the pieces that make up the multiple facets of what makes someone who they are into the "measurement" pool.
Christopher Poole (aka @moot69 on Twitter) also raised the point at the same conference that who we are online may not necessarily be who we are offline. In other words, my social graph online may be very different from who I am in my personal life or frankly want to be...the games we have to play with social media to be part of the conversation -- authentic voice or not -- in order to keep up with metrics and measurement are currently robotic and linear at best.
Relationships are what really matter and building them take time. I've been working on (yes, while I LOVE it, it's work and takes time), building relationships for over twenty years and yet, my Klout score is lower than someone who's barely been in business or is even old enough to have a relationship with someone longer than a few years of their adult life.
Geoff also refers to this in his post: "without a relationship, it would be extremely hard to get that high scoring influencer to invest energy into your effort. Instead you would have to focus on the magic middle and build your own influence from the ground up."
Gavin Heaten refers to Granovetter’s “strength of weak ties”. While the original post is now a few years old, his point is still relevant. "Social influence and its impact on action is determined by a large number of “weak ties”. So those blogs which are built around an identity which is well-known to its audience (strong ties) is less likely to carry social influence."
Yet, buzz agents, PR people, marketers and large brands are deciding who's influential or beyond that, who can move their brand or sell products inside that brand....all based on these scores.
I went to the Travel Blog Exchange (known among those in the biz as TBEX) in Vancouver for the first time this past year and it was loaded with travel vendors, resorts, hotel chains, restaurants, retailers and more vying for travel blogger's time and ultimately "ink."
While I spend a few hours a day nuturing a travel and culture blog, I also run a business. Many of these bloggers are doing this full time so are spending a lot of time gathering content from the world's most popular destinations and there is an inherent value in that. Yet, many of these 21-25 year old bloggers are enjoying free trips around the world on some brand's dime based on Klout scores and other things like it.
Fair enough, trust me, I wish blogging were around when I backpacked through SE Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe when I was 22. But I think some other form of value will be necessary in the future as online publishing is being rewritten.
I often wonder if I were blogging and tweeting at 22, whether I would have spent less time chatting with a villager next to a fire on some remote mountain had I been loaded down with technology? When I went on those adventures, I wore nothing but a mid-sized rucksack on my back and an old Fujica AX3. My main consideration was making sure my film didn't get roasted in the Southeast Asian sun or when I went through security lines at airports.
Today when I travel, Foursquare and Twitter (via Hootsuite) are close companions. I often tweet in real time as I'm walking down an escalator and see something interesting and at times, can get so wrapped up in following streams, that sometimes I forget to have a conversation with the guy from Chicago or Tokyo standing next to me.
It's far too easy to get caught up in check-ins, status updates and Klout scores and there's no one who can disagree, that its addictive. It's precisely what makes gamification a godsend to marketers today. And yet with all these distractions, what are we losing and are we forgetting what "real influence" and "real relationships" are in the process?
Refer to my Google+ blog post which talks about data overload and over consumption.
Two decades ago, I would have had a Klout score of zero in the travelsphere and yet by the age of 25, I had been to more places than many travel writers at magazines and newspapers I met along the way.
I didn't spend any time building relationships with influential 'travel sources,' but with the locals I met en route and here is where I captured magical stories, most of which were written down in an old fashioned diary every night by a fire or from a rickety bed.
I would argue that in a world where the lines between marketers and content creators and publishers are muddy, that large brands should ask for more than a little link love, or a certain number of tweets. How about strategic feedback based on years of valuable insights, experience and perhaps connections to people where both sides benefit in a mutually positive way? Airlines take note. It's not rocket science, it's called listening to your customers, and not just those with high Klout scores. Pay attention to what customers are saying -- on and offline -- and implement changes so they're singing your praises alongside your marketing department.
Another example of a missed opportunity for "influencer collaboration". This past summer, I was flown out to a conference with about six other bloggers and while I was given hashtag and Twitter data as well as the program in advance, I had no knowledge of who was attending the conference so I could connect with people who shared similar interests and passions in advance.
Imagine the power of my writing a story about the work of a few of the attendees as well as their speakers? Ammunition for selling tickets the following year, especially if a new initiative formed as a result.
At events where everyone is interesting and has a story to share, the magic of what can be discovered doesn't always happen on the stage. 90% of my best stories are gathered off the stage and compelling input is often found from those who are not asked to speak or haven't written a book.
And, did those speakers who authored books know the bloggers and journalists who were attending? They should have known in advance so they could have taken the opportunity to send us a copy of their book to read before their presentation. Insights would have been much deeper and after-the-talk conversations much more powerful.
Sure, we all could have done our own homework and sure, if we were interested in a particular speaker over another, we could have proactively ordered their book on our own. That's not my point. In a world of over data and over pitching, we need aggregators and curators, and human ones are often the most powerful ones.
Proactively faciliating those connections in a way that is more powerful and intimate increases the likelihood of more stories, especially ones may include more depth and texture.
I think that marketing and PR people have to not only become content creators on multiple channels but also strategic faciliators, aggregators and curators as well. I also think that asking bloggers, tweeters and other online influencers for input into their processes, products, services and ways of communicating will be critical to making this new ecosystem purr.
Events like TBEX for the travel industry, BlogWorldExpo for bloggers and social media addicts, TED for those who thrive on ideas and innovation, DAVOS for those who are participating in the global economy in some way, the national auto show for those who live and breathe cars and thousands of others were created for a reason. Sure, someone thought of an event that would draw people together including sponsors and they could profit from the outcome.
But the real draw for those who attend, even those who fork out the money to host, is the networking and the value of that "in-person" networking over the years. It was one of the reasons people were so upset when COMDEX died, the largest computer show of its kind in the U.S., an event that drew together anyone and everyone who mattered in the industry once a year in the ugly sprawling city of sin Las Vegas.
There, we built a community, and old timers still talk about memories they shared -- in the flesh, not online -- where stories, drinks, food, dancing, ideas, demos and deals were all shared. TED is a great example of a community which has been created both on and offline, and now extended through TEDx events throughout the world.
Relationships are built by investing time in people. In Dublin recently, a group of us were brought to the Irish President's residence and a day earlier, we all listened to the Trinity Orchestra at a college older than the U.S. - there's nothing in an online world, social influence or not, that can take away from those shared memories and moments, some of which may have showed a precious vulnerable side to someone you dare not share online for online is not where that "exchange" belongs.
A deeper dive into what really makes up influence, which includes trust, will improve the current ecosystem we now embrace. It may also change the cast of characters we currently hold in high esteem when honesty, real openness and "human influence" replaces old schoolXYZ networks that keeps things in status quo, maintaining the same dozen voices we hear from again and again, particularly in the online publishing world.
Here, Geoff is spot on when he says "when we focus on influence rankings — tools that quantify a media form’s participants like it was run by journalists — we walk away from the basic truth about these particular types of media. They are relational. They are SOCIAL media.
So, by focusing on lists and not dialoguing and adding value through relevant content and investment, a practitioner is not present. Their effort is bound to have fundamental weaknesses. Building relationships in real life at events, meetings, and through social media are the ways to cultivate better influence.
And oh man, I love his ending: "what is the real reason to quantify big social media influencers? If relationships are your desired outcome, why waste time?"
We've paid so much attention to data for data sake and the last century has paid an unfair advantage to scientific knowledge and stats, that we need to rewrite the rules of what holds value in and out of the boardroom. Francis Cholle in his book The Intuitive Compass takes 223 pages to tell you why our intuition (the quadrant which is defined by relationships and creativity) is critical to succeeding in the next century. (book review coming on We Blog the World before the end of the year in the Books category).
A fundamental question to think about is this: will Klout & other measurement tools like it define and control you or will you define and control them? If we are to innovate, shouldn't we step up and tell the data what really matters? In a Genevieve Bell world, we'd start with humanity and relationships and build up and out from there.
Photo credits in order of appearance: Garagehangover, Obama shot unknown, John Ryan & Associates, a Facebook stream, Selfleadership.com.
November 3, 2011 in America The Free, Europe, Magic Sauce Media, On Blogging, On Branding, On Geo-Location, On Innovation, On Journalism, On People & Life, On Social CRM, On Technology, On the Future, PR & Marketing, Reflections, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2011
Ireland Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Technology at #Founders
November 2, 2011 in Conference Highlights, Europe, Events, On Innovation, On Politics, On Technology, On the Future, Videos, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2011
Mary Meeker: Silicon Valley Innovation May Be Unprecedented
Kleiner Perkin's Mary Meeker delivers a fabulous Internet trends presentation every year at Web 2.0 Summit and this year was no different.
Full of not only data but lots of fascinating commentary and unique perspective, she gave the audience depth and texture over the last year in the areas of mobile, social media, ecommerce, real-time data, advertising and the economy.
She covered the following areas:
1. Globality – We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore…
2. Mobile – Early Innings Growth, Still…
3. User Interface – Text - Graphical - Touch ���- Graphical T ouch / Sound / Move
4.Commerce – Fast / Easy / Fun / Savings = More Important Than Ever…
5. Advertising – Lookin’ Good…
6. Content Creation – Changed Forever
7. Technology / Mobile Leadership – Americans Should Be Proud
8. Mega-Trend of 21st Century = Empowerment of People via Connected Mobile Devices
9. Authentic Identity – The Good / Bad / Ugly. But Mostly Good?
10. Economy – Lots of Uncertainty
11. USA Inc. – Pay Attention.
We learn that Apple, Google, Amazon.com & Facebook remain the mega leaders.
81% of Internet users are outside the U.S. The below shows you usage in the U.S. versus rest of the world.
In other areas of global trends, mobile is booming. As astounding stat: 200 MM farmers in India are receiving government payments and subsidies via their mobile phones. Also, in China over three years, they added more Internet users than exist in the U.S.
Social networkers as of October 2011 by country below. You may be surprised to see Israel, Argentina, Turkey and Chile in the top four. You may also be surprised to see how far down the list the U.S. ranks.
Below shows interesting stats of UK-based Shazam (sound recognition and music discovery), Swedish-based Spotify (music discovery and streaming), Israel-based Waze (driving navigation) and European Soundcloud (sound discovery and sharing). The numbers are astounding and show a huge trend towards "creative discovery" on the web.
She notes that while iPods have changed the media industry and iPhones ramped even faster, iPad growth has gone through the roof. She also shows us that Android growth was bigger than we may have imagined (even faster than the iPhone).
Overall, mobile usage is exploding. It's big and its growth isn't slowing down anytime soon.
This is kind of a scary slide, suggesting that perhaps Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs needs to be revisited. This thought process hasn't hit the third world yet despite the explosion of mobile phones, yet I fear that Maslow's new hierachy of "musts" in Silicon Valley has already been transformed...from what I see, it may be above food/water but below shelter in some cases.
For a full peak at her slides, check out Kpcb's site to learn more.
October 18, 2011 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Events, On Innovation, On Mobile & Wireless, On Technology, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 06, 2011
Steve Jobs Tribute for Misfits: To Your Vision, Your Fire, Your Creativity & Those You Moved to Genius...
Most of the headlines I've read about Steve Jobs' death -- October 5, 2011 -- shout the obvious factoid: Apple's Steve Jobs DIES or Steve Jobs is DEAD. Why not something more honorary like: Steve Jobs Dead Today: The World Has Lost a Technology & Design Visionary, or at least something a little more dignified?
They also say that Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being, however I'd extend the former to the world, not just Apple.
You see, Steve Jobs has the kind of effect that Princess Di had on the world. Yes, really. He "touched" people. He "inspired" people. He moved people to stretch beyond their own limits and beliefs and build something more. Be something more. Care about design in their own creations in a way that would transform people. Care about what they shipped and why. Understand that they had to ship and that delivering what customers want and count on you for, matter more than your ego.
Technology for technology's sake is merely an enabler alone. Useful, sure, but Steve created technology that has been a life changing experience for all of us. Apple's technology is transparent, the way it should be and we are transformed when we use it...the way it should be. Crikey, I'm not even a Mac user. I was, once, a long time ago. Early on in my career in the early nineties, my marketing agency was on Macs and it's the only world I ever knew following my early but limited word processing experience at university in London. (the days of Wordstar, Multimate and WordPerfect).
I moved to the PC world when I started representing enterprise technology clients and thereafter start-ups that had limited budgets so didn't all support Macs out-of-the-gate. My mainstay is a Thinkpad and have 2 other laptops and a netbook.
As a creative myself, its astonishing that I've held out as long as I have. I have a iPhone and an iPad and am a heavy user of Adobe products, all of which would work more seamlessly on a Mac. And yet, the start-up industry has kept me tethered to a PC not to mention Apple's hefty costs and the fact that I have more contacts in the PC world than I do in the Apple one.
That aside, I honor and bow down to Steve Jobs for his brilliance, his creativity, his genius and his commitment to making technology "beautiful." First of all, I'm a woman who lives in Silicon Valley who actually loves design and fashion, a rarity in the technology industry. (above, Steve in 1977 at the beginning of his career)
This is a world who lives in logoed t-shirts, jeans and sneakers and not even hip ones. Living in Europe gave me an appreciation for design and once you have it, there's no turning back. Even the way the French package up one individual chocolate is insanely decadent enough to give a woman who honors and "gets" great design, an orgasm. Yes, really.
It's not something we relish in the states, and yet Steve Jobs says, we MUST. And, he did. Again and again, he did. From the Time Magazine article in their tribute: "Jobs' confidence in the wisdom of his own instincts came to be immense, as did the hype he created at Apple product launches. That might have been unbearable if it weren't for the fact that his intuition was nearly flawless and the products often lived up to his lofty claims." Hear hear.
Who can't acknowledge that consistency of design genius even if you didn't like the guy or believe in the Apple way of life?
Picasso wasn't liked by everyone and frankly if he were alive and I had coffee with him or something more at the time of his most creative days, its likely from what I've read I wouldn't have liked the man (as a woman), and yet....he's one of my favorite artists of all time. I look at his work and can be brought to tears from his genius. Steve has that gift and he has always delivered.
If you're wondering whether I'm equating Picasso's artistic genius to Steve's creative & innovative technology genius, I most definitely am. He deserves this honor. There are few who would deny it. And frankly, genius comes with a little baggage.
The baggage is there with all its bells and whistles with some of the greats I've had the pleasure to work with and for a lot of visionaries the world has ever seen -- authors, scientists, actors, creators, inventors. The list goes on.
As my grandfather who also wasn't an easy man to work for, used to say in so many words, "as long as you're "real" and honorable along the way and don't drag people down or run people over on the way, nearly everything is game. Go get it kid. This is America."
The world has lost a creative genius who inspired people who create for creation's sake, dream about things bigger than themselves, think about making the world a better place and don't, think about making the world a better place and do, and simply love and use Apple products.
My teary-eyed emotion tonight as I write this is centered around this: the man lived his dream every day until the day he died and he lived with conviction. (remember he only stepped down from Apple a couple of months before his death and rest assured they knew the end was near long before August). Since I coach companies on their marketing and social media strategies, things often come across my desk I know won't fly short or long term. They don't have "legs."
When I look at opportunities that come my way, I don't just look at the products, I look at team and most importantly, I look at the man or woman at the helm. I ask myself: is he/she aligned with their vision? Most aren't. Steve is and has always been my one pure example of a man who (like him or not) is aligned with his vision.
Great products aside, his alignment has been an instrumental part of Apple's success. Alignment is the of holy grail leadership in my humble opinion. It's what moves markets and moves mountains.
It's what ends wars. It's what changes history. 
Alignment and kick-ass products aside, the world felt and believed that Steve loved Apple. I do too.
He loved what he created and wanted people's experience with technology to be transformed in ways no one else has touched. He was a visionary but only because he transformed experiences for people across three different industries: computers, film and music.
If entrepreneurs could understand the concept behind genius + passion + simplicity = transformation and nothing else, they might build products differently, investors might spend money differently and other products that we struggle with today might be transforming our lives the way Apple products do. 
Two personal shares: I first met Steve when I was communications head at Dragon Systems, which was later acquired by Lernout & Hauspie and thereafter Nuance. Think speech recognition for those who don't know their history or their story.
I was backstage with my CEO Janet Baker at an Apple Developer's Conference somewhere on this fine pacific coast, Steve and his "corp comm handler" at the time, whose name I still don't remember. Why?
I was mesmerized by Steve's presence, his energy, his electricity and how focused he was about what he was planning to achieve on stage a half an hour later. We were a partner of some sort as much as you could be and stand alongside Steve on stage in front of Apple worshippers and believers.
Janet was in a flowing skirt as I remember it and Steve in jeans and a black crew neck and from a branding perspective, I was thinking 4 things simultaneously: how are we going to look and be perceived next to Jobs and Apple energy knowing there's ten rows of media in the front of the stage? how's my female CEO going to be perceived next to Jobs and Apple energy knowing there's ten rows of media in the front of the stage? what will being here mean for us as a player in the industry if we pull this off well with Steve's support and kudos on stage? AND fourth, He's Kinda Hot.
Yes, really. If I don't admit it now, then when? Janet noticed and we joked about it later. 
Memory number two was meeting him at a D Conference. Not that long in existence, Walt and Kara managed to get both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to participate in a fireside-like chat on more than one occasion and it was a special unique moment in our (the technology) industry to have them together, on stage, in an interactive dialogue under one roof.
I met him randomly in "group moments" between the late nineties and 2010, but they weren't solo moments like the previous two. (btw, speaking of D memories, they have honored his memory by making all videos of his interviews live here in their entirety). Thereafter, I shot Steve. Yes photography for those who don't know it's a major passion of mine.
One of the things I've learned as a photographer, whether you're shooting one-on-one in a studio, with nature as a backdrop, or in some obscure creative setting, it's an intimate moment and you see things AND learn things about your subject through new eyes.
Steve is fun to shoot and the memories still linger. I can only imagine what long-time AP photographer Paul Sakuma must be feeling right now given how many times he has followed him from behind his lens for over a decade.
Below is one of my favorite shots I took of him: (and below "it" is a visual look at his life from the 1970s to the 1990s, links to other news and feature sources, links to obituaries, links to videos, actual videos and a long list of tweets from the first few hours of his death). 
Below, very early days:
More early days: Sal Veder (1984) with Steve Wozniak and John Sculley. 
Eric Risberg/AP: Jobs shows off his company's new NeXTstation in San Francisco. (1990) 
Taken by Richard Drew/AP. 1998 and below Ted Thai's shot for Time Life
Two images below: Louie Psihoyos: Corbis
Brand Ward: SF Chronicle/Corbis
Check out my D Conference write-up of Steve's interview including photos. 
I'll end my personal tribute and comments with a boat-load of comments and shares from editorial sources I respect.
Below these summaries include additional photos, videos of his life, special Apple moments and a Twitter thread of tributes to Steve from many contacts in my own tweetosphere (inc my own), most of which flew out of people's PCs and phones within a few hours of news of his death.
Reactions, Responses and Insights...(photo from Gizmodo)
Says Time Magazine: With astonishing regularity, Jobs did something that few people accomplish even once: he reinvented entire industries. He did it with ones that were new, like PCs, and he did it with ones that were old, such as music. He was the most celebrated, successful business executive of his generation, yet he flouted many basic tenets of business wisdom. See the rest of the article on tribute to his death here. See Time's Top Apple Moments.
Says VentureBeat's Dylan Tweney: "He was often quoted as saying “we’re here to put a dent in the universe.” He did exactly that. From his earliest computers, co-developed with Steve Wozniak, to the smartphones and tablets that his company developed, Jobs showed a singleminded dedication to building products that were easier to use, better-looking and more intuitively useful than what had gone before. He liked to say that Apple’s products were “magical,” and if that’s the case, he was the marketing and technology magician behind the curtain. And if they weren’t exactly magic, Apple’s products were certainly a sufficiently advanced technology."
Huffington Post aggregated comments in a working story, Marketwatch merely reposted Apple's official statement which is below and Mashable more or less did the same. BoingBoing's tribute can be found here.
John Markoff from the New York Times article can be found here. Markoff quotes a Twitter user named Matt Galligan who wrote: “R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful.” Hear hear. ZDNET's take: Steve Job's Big Lesson - Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
From ZDNET writer Larry Dignan: "Innovative. Quirky. Stubborn as hell. Controlling. Great leader. An artist eye for design with an engineer’s brain. Amazing legacy. “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” I’d argue that Jobs is my generation’s Walt Disney.
He entertained. He delighted. And he built something enduring. Jobs was a disruptive force. Given the Disney comparison, it’s a bit ironic that Jobs wound up being Disney’s largest shareholder via the Pixar acquisition. More importantly, Jobs loved what he did. And pursued that love with a passion." The Atlantic Wire, Fast Company's tribute, the New Yorker from August 24, 2011, and Salon's article on The Insanely Great Comeback Kid where Andrew Leonard writes about Steve Jobs's resilience, "His comeback saga is a story of redemption, a fantasy epic in which a great king is toppled, but through force of will and grit and brilliance fights his way all the way back to the throne, and inaugurates an even greater empire."
Below, Steve gives the keynote address to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Monday, June 6, 2011. (photo credit: Paul Sakuma) 
The Sydney Morning Herald's headline has to do with losing cancer fight. The Washington Post's write-up is here.
They say: "Jobs was the first crossover technology star, turning Silicon Valley renown into Main Street recognition and paving the way for the rise of the nerds, such as Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergay Brin. And by changing the way people interacted with technology, Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates transformed their era in much the same way Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller revolutionized theirs with the mass-produced automobile and the creation of Standard Oil." Gizmodo aggregates "shares" of others.
The Wall Street Journal had a very "newsy" headline that didn't capture anything about what we (a grand big we) feel about his loss. (it is the WSJ with an audience who doesn't sign up for emotion and so I get that - thank god for individual voices at times like this however.
While the traditional news sources did a great job at capturing his "kudos", they were very factual accounts of his life and while comprehensive, I was longing for some texture and color. Walt Mossberg did a great job at both. From All Things D's Wall Mossberg: The Steve Jobs I Knew, Walt is the only one who captured "human moments" about Steve from a major news source - thank YOU Walt for stepping up and capturing emotion in a tribute to a man who lived and breathed emotion.
In Walt's words: "That Steve Jobs was a genius, a giant influence on multiple industries and billions of lives, has been written many times since he retired as Apple’s CEO in August. He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries."
Walt then goes on to write about a walk he took with him while Steve was in ill health. "He explained that he walked each day, and that each day he set a farther goal for himself, and that, today, the neighborhood park was his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking well.
I begged him to return to the house, noting that I didn’t know CPR and could visualize the headline: 'Helpless reporter Lets Steve Jobs Die on the Sidewalk.' But he laughed, and refused, and, after a pause, kept heading for the park. We sat on a bench there, talking about life, our families, and our respective illnesses (I had had a heart attack some years earlier.) He lectured me about staying healthy. And then we walked back. Steve Jobs didn’t die that day, to my everlasting relief. But now he really is gone, much too young, and it is the world’s loss." 
ABC News says, "Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications. The Wire Cutter has a personal take on Steve Jobs. President Obama on the Passing of Steve Jobs: “He changed the way each of us sees the world.”
From Google's Sergey Brin: "From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple."
From Sir James Dyson: "He was dubbed a megalomaniac, but Steve Jobs often gambled on young, largely inexperienced talent to take Apple forward; Jony Ive and his team prove that such faith was spot on."
From CEO of Apple Tim Cook: "No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much."
Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg: "Tonight our City -- a city that has always had such respect and admiration for creative genius -- joins with people around the planet in remembering a great man and keeping Laurene and the rest of the Jobs family in our thoughts and prayers."
Meg Whitman, President & CEO of HP: "Steve Jobs was an iconic entrepreneur and businessman whose impact on technology was felt beyond Silicon Valley. He will be remembered for the innovation he brought to market and the inspiration he brought to the world."
Bob Eger, CEO of Disney: "Steve was such an 'original,' with a thoroughly creative, imaginative mind that defined an era. Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started. With his passing the world has lost a rare original, Disney has lost a member of our family, and I have lost a great friend."
Jerry Yang: "Steve was my hero growing up. He not only gave me a lot of personal advice and encouragement, he showed all of us how innovation can change lives.I will miss him dearly, as will the world."
Mark Zuckerberg: "Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you."
Steve Ballmer: “I want to express my deepest condolences at the passing of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of our industry and a true visionary. My heart goes out to his family." Apple's Website Tribute: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple." Apple's Official Statement yesterday on the day of his death: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
Other Informative Links:
- Apple's Iconic Products Since the Beginning
- Top Apple Moments
- Apple Media Advisory (note to employees about his death).
- Interesting story on FutureWell entitled Do Celebrities Get the Best Care suggesting Steve's high-cost aggressive treatment may have sped up the course of the disease - speculative only at this point.
- The Atlantic: This Chart Proves that Steve Jobs is the Best CEO of this Generation.
- LA Times: Steve Jobs dies; Apple's co-founder transformed computers and culture
- Financial Times: Steve Jobs: 1955-2011
- The Guardian: Entrepreneur, Inventor, Genius
- Wired: Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
- Bloomberg: Steve Jobs Dies
- Reuters: Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dead at 56
- Gizmodo's Recap of shares
- Washington Post Photo Gallery.
- Mashable Great Steve Jobs Quotes.
Video Links:
- Sydney: http://media.smh.com.au/technology/tech-talk/steve-jobs-a-lasting-impression-2673421.html
- SF Store: Oct 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP0z1HkIwgQ
- Australia - why we love Steve: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/steve-jobs--visionary-to-virtuoso-20111006-1lakp.html
- More Australia: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/steve-jobs-dead-apple-confirms-former-ceo-loses-cancer-fight-20111006-1lag8.html
- Wired: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/jobs/all/1
- Steve demos Macintosh - 1984: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0FtgZNOD44&feature=player_embedded
- Guardian Life Career Video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/video/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-life-career-video
- 2005 Commencement Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
Steve Jobs Shows Off Macintosh: 1984:
Below is a stream of tweets from my Twitter world worth sharing:
Photo Credits:
- Photo 1: Apple Website in Tribute on October 5, 2011
- Photo 2: Apple - 1977
- Photo 3: Associated Press: 1984
- Photo 4: Ben Margot, AP - 1991
- Photo 5: NeXT - 1988
- Photo 6: Ben Margot - Associated Press 2003
- Photo 7 - Renee Blodgett, Magic Sauce Photography
- Photo 8: Very early days: Robert Foothorap
- Photo 9: Sal Veder, Associated Press 1984
- Photo 10: Diane Walker, Time eLife Pictures/Getty
- Photo 11: Eric Risberg/AP: 1990
- Photo 12: Richard Drew/AP: 1998
- Photo 13: Ted Thai for Time/Time Life Pictures/Getty
- Photo 14: Louie Psihoyos - Corbis
- Photo 15: Louie Psihoyos - Corbis
- Photo 16: Brand Ward - San Francisco Chronicle - Corbis
- Photo 17: Douglas Kirkland - Corbis
- Photo 18: Lou Dematteis/Reuters - 2003
- Photo 19: Susan Ragan - AP - 2003
- Photo 20: Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP - 2004
- Photo 21: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2004
- Photo 22: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2004
- Photo 23: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2005
- Photo 24: LA Times: 2006
- Photo 25: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2007
- Photo 26: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2007
- Photo 27: Tony Avelar - AFR - Getty Images
- Photo 28: Paul Sakuma - AP - 2008
- Photo 29: Eric Risberg in 2008
- Photo 30: Kim White/Corbis
- Photo 31: Paul Sakuma/AP - 2010
- Photo 32: Paul Sakuma/AP - 2010
- Photo 33: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg - Getty Images
- Photo 34: Renee Blodgett - Magic Sauce Photography (taken at D Conference)
- Photo 35: Gizmodo site (images of people who have shared comments and condolences)
- Photo 36: Paul Sakuma/AP - 2011 (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference)
- Photo 37: Tim Gough Image
Lastly from Apple: "Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple Inc.
October 6, 2011 in America The Free, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Technology, Reflections, Videos, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 05, 2011
Georgia Tech's Rosa Arriaga on the Power of Human Censors
Georgia Tech Psychologist Rosa Arriaga talked to the Idea Festival audience about the importance of human censors to not only empower patients to take better control of their diseases, particularly chronic diseases, but improve self reliance overall.
She notes that individuals of chronic conditions aren’t even aware of their own symptoms. She brought up SocialMirror, which is a targeted social network for individuals with autism. Tools like this for patients can help them stay motivated about making their regime a priority, including medicine.
Through his network, the app can provide feedback about what an autism patient should do or not do in a particular social situation, such as what to wear at a particular event, what to say, what to bring to a meeting or party, certain behaviors and so on. The social network combined with caregiver and doctor feedback can be a powerful tool to help patients become so much more self reliant than they could ever have imagined in the past.
This would obviously work for so many other conditions and chronic diseases. She ends with this parting thought and prediction. "The future of health and well-being will be done with social computing and social/human censors.”
October 5, 2011 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Events, On Health, On Innovation, On Mobile & Wireless, On Technology, On the Future, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Future of Medicine is the Engaged Patient Who Makes Their Own Decisions
John Moore who is currently a PhD candidate in the New Media Medicine group at the MIT Media Lab, is working to fundamentally change the role that patients can play in their care by empowering them with knowledge, understanding, confidence, and channels for communication.
He is studying the effect that new technology-mediated paradigms for doctor-patient collaboration can have on education, adherence, and behavior change.
In the future of medicine, his goal is to design systems to make the patient help decide what medicine to take, where the doctor acts as the “guide.”
He gives us in the Idea Festival audience a few sad facts. People retain only 15-20% of what they hear from doctors after they leave the office. Very few actually follow through and take their medicine even after picking up the prescription. He says that the reason that the stats look so grim is because the system we have today has been designed so poorly.
As a result, Moore and his team are working on transforming systems and creating programs that are more integrative and effective. For example, with Parkinsons disease, they can monitor patient’s activity by wearing a device and matching that back to the medicine they’re taking. Patients can also correlate their behavior as well so they can take their medicine in a timely manner. This is being done through online video conferencing and games.
Games are being developed so patients can set goals with their physical therapist in real time and then have the game results and feedback sent back to the clinician while they’re playing at home. This feedback can help adjust and re-adjust exercises and medicine that they do so improvement is more dramatic. Much of this can be monitored at home so a lot can be diagnosed without the patient having to come into the doctor's office, saving both time and money.
Moore wants to empower patients to change how they view their own conditions through experience not through reading or simply doing what a doctor tells them to do. He believes that patients should be able to get interactive feedback in real time.
“The future of medicine is the engaged patient, where they participate in their own ‘care’ program”, ends Moore.
October 5, 2011 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Events, On Health, On Innovation, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2011
Aubrey De Grey Talks Regenerative Medicine, Aging & Rational Denial of Aging Process
In an effort to ignite regenerative medicine and transform the way we think about health and aging, Aubrey de Grey spends his time on airplanes between England and Silicon Valley, as well as to conferences and events where he can evangelize his message to those who help accelerate his mission.
How should we go about developing medicine in the near future? he asks a large group who showed up in Louisville for Idea Festival, who committed their time to be there because they're interested in innovation, advanced learning and making the world a better place.
He encouraged people to think about aging and dying differently. Death from aging is not only “natural causes, it’s anything that mainly kills older people.”
A few stats: about 150,000 people die per day worldwide, two thirds of them die of aging which equates to 100,000 per day. In the USA, the proportion is over 90%.
None of us are getting any younger and those of us who live in the United States know how broken our healthcare system is...we don't like to think what that means while we're still under 50 because frankly it's too painful to go there. It's only when we see our aging parents go through the system, where things don't work, their live savings are wiped out within months, service is inefficient and disagnoses happen more than they should but because traditional doctors aren't thinking holistically rather than incompetence.
Aging is considered ghastly but also inevitable. It is rational to put ghastly but inevitable things out of our minds, even if we have to be amazingly irrational in order to do so. He calls this rational denial.
"But what if that inevitability became unclear?" he asks. The focus of his talk revolved around the following issues and how we can make a difference:
- Repair versus retardation.
- Specifics: the seven types of damage
- Intracellular junk/medical bioremediation
- Longevity: escape velocity: the concept
- Some evidence that LEV is realistic
De Grey made it clear that his focus is centered around health not longevity which is where regenerative medicine comes in, which he defines as any intervention that seeks to restore a tissue/organ to its state before it suffered damage.
Aging is essentially when metabolism ongoingly causes damage and damage eventually causes pathology over time. Options for intervention divide into two different approaches: the gerontology and the geriatrics approach.
The geriatrics approach is better than nothing he says but the gerontology approach isn’t much better.
Damage can be slowed down to some degree and other things along the way can be repaired. He asserts that there are seven deadly things that make up damage in our bodies:
- Junk – inside cells
- Junk – outside cells
- Cells – too few
- Cells – too many
- Mutations – chromosomes
- Mutations – mitochondria
- Protein Crosslinks
If we can develop bioremediation in a way that is sustainable, we can tackle aging diseases that cause damage and eventually lead to our death. Robust human rejuvenation he says, can give the middle-aged 30 years of extra healthy life.
Repairing damage periodically can buy us time. In other words, you can slow aging down.
First generation therapies should be likely to transform the health quality of a 60 year old into a 90 year old body. If you start early, you benefit from buying time and putting off some of the damage from aging by 20-30 years.
Then, 20-30 years later, you can do another therapy that has decades of research and improvement.
Essentially therapies double efficacy only every 42 years. The result is that you can add decades to your life, particularly if you start the therapies early enough.
In Aubrey’s words: “we have a humanitarian duty to fix aging.” Hear hear Aubrey. Hear hear!
Maverick Aubrey de Grey is the editor-in-chief of the journal Rejuvenation Science and co-author of the 2007 book Ending Aging. He challenges the most basic assumption underlying the human condition —that aging is inevitable. He argues instead that aging is a disease --one that can be cured if it's approached as "an engineering problem." His plan calls for identifying all the components that cause human tissue to age, and designing remedies for each of them —forestalling disease and eventually pushing back death…providing for an indefinite lifespan. He calls this approach Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).
October 4, 2011 in America The Free, On Health, On Innovation, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Idea Festival 2011 Recap: From Robots, Art & Science to Education, Politics & Innovation
The Idea Festival is an annual event held in Louisville Kentucky every year. Founded by Kris Kimel, his vision is centered around the following belief: "with innovative ideas we create the future."
I've been meaning to attend for several years and finally made my way down to Louisville this past September for three days of inspiration and electric energy across the areas of science, politics, healthcare, education, music, design, technology and the arts.
Unfortunately, most of us have little opportunity to get out of our daily worlds (and ways of thinking) to learn about, discuss and explore how to integrate diverse and important ideas and innovations. This event's goal is provide a unique “space” for the convergence of great ideas from leading thinkers across the nation and around the globe.
To give you an idea of the diversity of the event, imagine listening to an Army combat veteran Wes Moore talk about his book about a child with the same name who was convicted for felony murder (my write-up here) and Cesar Millan, the world's foremost canine rehabilitation specialist and then Aubrey de Grey about rejuvenation science and aging (my write-up here), and Maz Jobrani on what its like to be a Middle-Eastern American in the 21st century, all within one morning?
Or, hear physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow explore the extraordinary extent to which randomness, chance and probability influence and shape our work and everyday lives? And while your head is full, energetic violinist Lindsey Stirling comes out on stage and has you tapping your foot and smiling ear-to-ear. (write-up on Linsey here).
Inside the Ideas Festival, there were other sub-events, such as the Kentucky Film Educator's Summit, which was free and open to the public. Kentucky's foremost film educators gathered for a unique symposium to discuss the rise of cinema studies and filmmaking programs across academe, their evolutionary future and what it takes for such programs to take root, thrive and remain relevant.
And if science and film isn't your thing, how about a discussion about the science of kissing, which Sheril Kirshenbaum led on the first morning. Azure Antoinette read poetry, Ruby Lerner from Creative Capital brought in a number of genre-bending artists to show off their latest on stage (and at evening receptions), and leading geo-strategist and author Parag Khanna led a discussion around the rapidly shifting political, energy and economic landscape. (my write-up of his talk here).
Installation artist Shih Chieh Huang wowed attendees with his innovative creativity (my write up here).
Patrick Renvoise taught us how neuromarketing can be used to sell more effectively (write-up in depth can be found here), and the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata took us on a wild journey of jazz, funk, rock and soul and what The Sound of Music sounds like with a layer of a little of all of it on top of each of its classically renowned songs. (my write-up of the experience can be found here).
Aneesh Chopra even showed up from the White House to talk about Obama's latest agenda (my extensive write-up here) as did the local mayor Greg Fischer. We headed to the Churchill Downs for taste after taste from the top chefs in Louisville. (I wrote about it extensively here). My write up of Suketu Bhavsar's talk here.
Other more extensive write-ups include how Elizabeth Scharpf is transforming women's lives in Africa one banana leaf at a time, John Moore on the engaged patient and the future of medicine, Georgia Tech's Rosa Arriaga on the Power of Human Censors, and Cory Kidd with his dieting & weight-loss robot Autom. Gambling addict Tim Donaghy talked about the power of addiction and learning from his mistakes. (and how this can be applied to other aspects of our lives outside addictions).
During my Louisville journey, I discovered local artist and glass blower Stephen Rolfe Powell, whose work is nothing short of awe-inspiring. While I was there, I also did a handful of food reviews, so be sure to check out the Kentucky and food/wine categories on We Blog the World for local restaurant and cafe write-ups.
Below is a shot of four of the ten of so bloggers on board for Idea Festival's creative journey. (taken at Churchill Downs, the same downs that hosts the Kentucky Derby every year).
Brown Hotel French chef Laurent Geroli brought a group of about ten bloggers/writers into his kitchen and prepared a 4 course meal in front of our eyes talking us through each dish (Kentucky bourbon was on the table too of course) - check out the food/wine categories as there's an extensive write-up of our experience including 3 videos (also on our YouTube channel). Below is a shot of all of us at the end of the meal. (they gave us very cool personalized chef jackets as well). My write-up of the Brown Hotel restaurant experience can be found here.
Also, my write-ups of Mayan Cafe and Harvest Restaurants can be found here. Below is the infamous pork entree at Mayan Cafe. (definitely order if you are going:)
Idea Festival Labs showcased a number of topics including the Cultural Landscape in and around Louisville (including Ohio River corridor and Yew Dell to name a few), Reimaging the University, Perfecting Our Entrepreneurial Imagination, and Changing the Way Louisville Eats (and the impact of the change on overall health, environment and economy).
ARZU founder Connie Duckworth also discussed her journey from Wall Street to the dirt roads of Afghanistan.
Below is a video clip of an interview I did with founder Kris Kimel on the last day. Listen to the inspiration behind Idea Festival in his words. As for me? I couldn't stop thinking, creating and being inspired for four days and the sheer volume of my blog posts is one indicator of the extent of that inspiration. Meet Idea Festival's founder:
October 4, 2011 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Events, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Science, On Technology, On the Future, Videos, WBTW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
