Future Salon

Future Salon open Mic this Wednesday 30th of November

Unfortunately Doug doesn't feel well and this is why we postponed the discussion with him probably until January. From all of our heart we wish him to get well soon.

Let's take this as an opportunity to do more of the things that are the most fun at the Future Salon, discussing the possible directions it takes and what we can do to positively influence it.

This is why we are doing a Future Salon Open Mic this Wednesday 30th of November.

Please come and bring interesting articles and your ideas about the Future to discuss. We will do a round of introductions as always. Question this time: "One thing that frightens you about the future and one thing that excites you about the world to come."

We will write all of them down and then discuss some aspects in more detail focusing on what can be done to make it happen/avoid it. 

You can also prepare something not over 5 minutes to present in front of all including slides. Therefore the title Open Mic.

I always love the diversity of the group that is coming to the Future Salon and am exited about spending one evening with all all of you discussing possible futures.

We will have Wifi, so bring your laptop for interaction with the audience on the webcast as well as checking things and posting on our wiki: http://www.socialtext.net/futuresalon/index.cgi?future_salon_open_mic where I started to post some ideas, please add yours. 

Please also quickly RSVP so that I know how much food and drinks to order: http://tinyurl.com/94qwu

Details: Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public. Tell your friends. Improve your commute by sharing it with a fellow Futurist. Check the Ride Board for opportunities. Free and open to the public.

See you on Wednesday.

Raising the Collective IQ with Doug Engelbart

Update: Future Salon with Doug Engelbart Postponed

Just talked to Doug Engelbart and he caught a virus and is not feeling well, so we postpone the Future Salon with him. Instead of raising the collective IQ, let's collectively wish him all the best. Get well soon Sailor.

Update II: Instead we are having an Open Mic Future Salon same day, time and place.

Once he feels better we will set a new date for the event. In the meantime you can already fill in your thoughts and links at the Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki.

Next Wednesday, November 30th will be a really interesting Future Salon. Turns out that Doug Engelbart (Wikipedia) just got $200,000 funding to go forward with his vision of Large Scale Collective IQ. When Jeff Ubois heard about that he said: "In what times do we live when a guy like Doug has to scramble to get 200K funding". So true.

Actually 200K today can take you far, especially if you get the attention of people that can change things. Please let everyone and your friends know about this evening.

My latest favorite quote from Doug:
"The better we get at getting better, the faster we will get better."

Doug will tell us what he is planning to do with that money. He told me that some Firefox extensions may be the first things to tackle. If you know Blake Ross tell him to come, I sent him an email, but a couple of gentle reminders may help.

Large Scale Collective IQ [more info] what better Future Salon than this one to push the format to a new height. As always we will webcast the event, and there is Wifi in the room and a chat running for comments from everyone.

Something new is that we will also stream the video into Second Life on Democracy Island. We will have three screens, one showing Doug's presentation, one for the chat and a view into Second Life. Comments made in Second Life will be part of the chat screen. 

Therefore there is no reason not to participate in this daughter of all demos :-) in person if you are in the Bay Area, via the webcast or with your second life avatar on Democracy Island.

It will be the first time that we do this, so there may be some glitches. Hope everything works out.

We are collecting background information and links on our Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki page. Please add your information.

Details: Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public. Improve your commute by sharing it with a fellow Futurist. Check the Ride Board for opportunities. Free and open to the public.

Please RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/9jbfj. This time especially important to see whether we need the bigger room and so we can get enough food and drinks.

The event will be Webcasted check the Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki for the details and we will have an IRC chat too: Server: irc.freenode.net Channel: #futuresalon

Changing Politics is Hard

Micha Sifry was the eCampaign manager for Andrew Rasiej bid to become the number two man in New York politics: Public Advocate. They run an open source political campaign:

We had three over-arching goals for this campaign:
1) that we could push into the public debate some big new ideas about reinventing municipal government, fostering civic engagement, and the value of getting everyone an affordable highspeed Internet connection;
2) that the right way to run for office is to be as open, transparent, people-centered, small-donor-based and network-driven as possible (building on the experiences of various 2004 campaigns); and
3) that reform-minded individuals, groups, writers, editorialists, bloggers, and institutions, along with locally-focused civic activists, would find all of this refreshing and inspiring and they would rally to our banner and help amplify our message.

This is where the potential of new technology lies and where also some of my hopes for positive change are rooted. Unfortunately they didn't manifest this time and Micha Sifry has an excellent post mortem sharing his perspective.

* Tech “community” a fiction?
...
But the fabled tech community turned out to be mostly a fable when it came to actually embracing Andrew’s campaign and setting aside time to spread its message. Yes, about 100 local and national bloggers linked to the campaign. But few made an extended commitment to pitch in. To give one telling example, when I asked a core group of about 30 tech supporters to help us “kick the tires” on our WeFixNYC.com site by sending in a picture of a pothole before we announced the project to the public, at most 3 or 4 responded.

This is where we techies have to wake up, pay more attention. Politics matter and we should do our little part so that the great potential that our new tools offer (See: Extreme Democracy) come to fruition. It is possible, but as this example shows a lot harder than we think.  (The comments are worth reading too)

Large Scale Collective IQ Part II with Doug Engelbart

Update II: Future Salon with Doug Engelbart Postponed

Just talked to Doug Engelbart and he caught a virus and is not feeling well, so we postpone the Future Salon with him. Instead of raising the collective IQ, let's collectively wish him all the best. Get well soon Sailor.

Update III: Instead we are having an Open Mic Future Salon same day, time and place.

Once he feels better we will set a new date for the event. In the meantime you can already fill in your thoughts and links at the Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki.

Many times I have been asked, when will he talk again and today I am happy to announce that Doug Engelbart will present some more about his vision, status and the concrete steps that are taking place to facilitate the evolution of the Large Scale Collective IQ.

Remember last November: When Doug Engelbart left last Friday after talking over 2 hours at the Future Salon at SAP and joining us at Pizza my Heart until midnight he said: "This has been the most understanding audience that I had in a very very long time. How can we continue the dialog." Check out the video on the Internet Archive.

Davibennett created the Processing Engelbart Yahoo Group stuck full with good posts and links to relevant resources on the net. Unfortunately there has not been too much activity lately. Time to bring back the life dialog. Continuing to facilitate the evolution of the Large-Scale Collective IQ at the Future Salon Wednesday November 30th of November 6pm at SAP in Palo Alto.

We are collecting background information and links on our Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki page. Please add your information.

Details: Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public. Improve your commute by sharing it with a fellow Futurist. Check the Ride Board for opportunities. Free and open to the public.

Please RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/9jbfj. This time especially important to see whether we need the bigger room and so we can get enough food and drinks.

The event will be Webcasted check the Large Scale Collective IQ Wiki for the details and we will have an IRC chat too: Server: irc.freenode.net Channel: #futuresalon