Technology and Magic Wands (V.08)

Vía Bryan Alexander
Bryan distinguished this quoting the blog Tarina: Teemu Arina's reflections on networked learning, knowledge and collaboration in organizations. And I went on to read more:

"The future of mobile phones is perhaps... not a mobile phone at all, but rather a contextually aware and active mobile magic wand. (...) It's a wand, I tell you. (...) It´s going to combine cloud computing, augmented reality and the internet of things in a meaningful way."
(Teemu Arina, June 30th, 2008, on the history of mobile phones... Go read his blog!)

Plus this wonderfully illustrative comment to Teemu Arina's post:

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The origins of science involved the activities of alchemists and magicians, as much as the entertainment/funding practices of the time. In the early days of scientific practice, research with mechanical devices and other gadgets, frequently took place on stage. Science has evolved as institutionalized practice -in most regions so to say, and in a somewhat "flat world" we marvel with technology innovation and gadgets giving way to "discovery rituals" and cults that prevail in time.

In the the times of Houdini's "challenging the locks and chains to escape the barriers that constraint him" it attracted masses watching and maybe also dreaming about breaking their own chains... whatever those may have been. I like the way the two creative and informed mix&mash works above reflect relations with humans and the mystifying techno-objects we design ... the (techno) cultural practices and quest for something "magic" we sustain.

Dancing the World Around

Where the Hell is Matt?
by Mathew Harding

No need for intro nor description ... just tune in... listen: watch.

Then, you can read About Matt, by himself, and learn more about international travel, video game industry, and ... go find out.

Exploring beyond maps

Link to clip:

Never was the expression "the map is not the territory" so relevant: FYI we still have plenty of "frontier(s) of science ... and space" within our planet.

Dr. Robert Ballard doesn't need much presentation if you've watched the clip. After reading TED's 2008 Bio my first move was to go directly to the Jason.org site to learn more, and register.

Observing the clip again several times with students, it brought forth conversation flows drifting on to NASA's explorations, and the ways it may have fostered many of the technologies we now enjoy. NASA's surprising new storytelling capabilities IMO, show it has revamped at least a bit in its communication strategies, by outreaching with social-multi-media, opening some space for participation, "folksonomy" and fun. e.g. Twittering MarsPhoenix and the "Spacevidcasts", highly info-edu-entertaining leads I came across -once again- via NYTimes AND Twitter. It might be just a one person in NASA focusing on the Twitter activity, hopefully more, I find it a wonderful tool to inform and motivate kids learning languages, sciences, et al, to use, comment, observe... and go for more.

Recently a science researcher had distinguished NOAA, as his preferred site for climatology data, and it also rang more than a bell: the many cute stories involving submersibles and ocean exploration heard back in '98 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The island (University base for the mapping & exploration project with Internet 2!!) appears to be Rhode Island, and the site of Dr. Robert Ballard, appears listed under "The NOAA Ocean Exploration program". Although at the NOAA site, it doesn't show unless you run a search for it, then it shows this.

Stand by...

Awake in Sardinero
Originally uploaded by MarquiBeck

News update since the last Twitt(encounter) in Asturias: encuentro Twittero de Asturias in Oviedo last April:

* first public examination as teacher oposición past! in Spain (system org deserving another post, soon in Sistemas en Blog).
* 4th year anniversary as free-lance instructor and conversation coach (becoming sustainable!) and yes, it's much better in the north and split between regions.
* nill activity in Flickr for it won't stop raining!!!
* rain taking care of my state-of-the-daily-fumes ... usual "bitching" about pollution in the region and other smog related...
* summer is around the corner and I'm booked almost till August!!! (free-lance & self-employed know this means: celebrating)
* Hacienda: income tax done! And decent accounting pro found and hired. Hope to get btr deal than last year: shock when moving here from Cataluña learning the tough way that in Asturias, officers get a %bonus for limiting our returns... You thought administration served us the citizens? Ha!! Self-employed don't get the support the employed get with Tax, digital Padre program (paternalismus dixit) discriminates non-windows' users and design sucks! They also discriminate free-lance instructors, in relation to show business free-lancers, who get a better deal. The latter can deduct all costs if directly related (travel, gas expenses), we depend on the officer's moods, lot's of arguing and a formal complaint. Should we Lobby? They invite you to upgrade to full enterprise -bureaucracy fees for initial paperwork only, around 1200€ . Confirmed by Oviedo Chamber of Commerce, leading to many other expenditures, consulting, tax % and VAT increase, etc. etc. Believe this system was designed for Spain pre-labor flexibility plans ... right?
* on TwittAstur -group version, seems it will remain as "encounter" status only, we're all too busy to "walk the talk", and it's now final exams' time. Hoping there might be another kedada/gathering soon. The TwittAstur gang, has a lot to share and infoloop.... Stay tuned!

From Dis-enabling to Enabling

An International Psychology and Education Congress took place in Oviedo, Spain, this past week. The diversity of frameworks attempting to dialogue and debate was a very interesting experience to observe, according to the reports of some participants. Hopefully the planned integration of these two major areas of inquiry -if it does occur, might evolve into a different type of "learning organization". Think "win-win" you guys!! for a change...

At the same time, the now confirmed c h a n g e of Governance at the University of Oviedo following the electoral process, might bring forth not only new challenges (some change for starters) but also (hopefully) a bit more of an evolutionary learning context in the future.

Now back to check "what's up" in virtual planet following favorite authors, experts in "thinking tools" who actually "walk the talk", and evolutionary learning communities, that do exist and "insist", I came across this:


See: Howard Rheingold's Vlog
Yochai Benkler's web

Science, Politics and the Media

By way of the Exploratorium, I found this very informative talk excerpt of Speaking Science 2.0, given in May 2007 by Chris Mooney.



The other speaker who does not appear on this video, Matthew C. Nisbet focuses on the "intersections between science, media and politics", informing on the implications and uses of the concept of "framing", extensively on his Blog: Framing Science.

My line of work is far from politics and the media, but I do apply "re-framing" and constructive intervention in conversational practices: to enhance English language communication pragmatics and skills, operating with Spanish native speakers. I first learned about "re-framing" as a concept-frame/work applied in systems and cognitive sciences, observed it being applied with good results in family therapy and group dynamics, to facilitate cultural and generational change, and foster creativity, amongst other possibilities.

Going back to "Science, Politics and the Media" and with the coming elections in the US and in Spain, together with the ecological issues at stake, the above clip needs to be underscored, in order to generate awareness, demanding: "productive policy action". I live in Asturias region, where these days there is a "low profile" controversy on who is to blame for an oil slick along the Avilés estuary...with the local media seemingly more inclined towards the political controversy they are also "framing", while informing that "probably there will be no investigation outcomes". Understanding: -quote- "no serious legal responsibilities".

Last but not least: "Monkey see, Monkey do" on "Mirror Neurons" by Daniel Glaser, on the Nova Science Now-PBS archives from 2005.

Smart Bird

I wrote this post in 2004 when I started blogging. Things have changed quite a bit since then, so it needed a few twitches here & there.

Sometime in the '90s I stumbled upon incredibly inspiring thoughts spread around by Allan Wilson, Professor at University of California at Berkeley. Professor Wilson had established three conditions, which were necessary for a species to improve its abilities in a given environment:

i) the members of the species must flock and move around in herds, rather than sit individually in isolated territories

ii) some of the individuals must have the potential to invent new behaviours and skills

iii) the species must have an established process for transmitting a skill from the individual to the entire community, through direct communication

The story of the different birds. Via the works of Arie de Geus probably triggered other ideas that had been informed in study and work exploring constructivism and systems' thinking a the university, but let's get back to the story of the bird(s).

Two species of birds living in England had a very different approach to learning and sharing socially: the titmouse and the red robin. Both took advantage of the old milk bottles that were left uncapped by the milkmen, to sip a bit of the cream that floated on top of the milk.

Changes in the milking business brought a technology to cap the bottles with seals, which had contrasting effects on the two populations of birds. The titmouse population learned how to pierce the new seals that capped the milk bottles, and "spread the word" because they were social birds.

The robins were territorial birds with a strong inclination to single male leadership, disallowing other males from settling in the proximity, limiting the chances to share knowledge that may have been beneficial to all. They were stuck.

You can follow some other interesting leads such as the above on Arie de Geus's The Living Company , here some quotes from an interview posted on Dialog on Leadership, Sept. 1999, read on 2004 :

"I’m beginning to see more and more loops that strongly reinforce the idea that there are hierarchically, higher placed living systems, higher than the human being. I called them "A Living Company," because basically I talk about the commercial population of the institutional world population. I talk about commercial tribes, but there are many other tribes. ..."

How my avatar came to be

The bird you see above was grabbing bits of toast from my lunch bag, while I sat reading at the Asilomar conference center in Monterey Bay, California, a decade ago. It reminded me of the story.

There were many birds like this smart one, at the MIIS university campus in Monterey Bay, flocking around and grabbing bits here and there. I wondered if they were behaving like the Titmouse birds ... or like the Robins.

The story emerged again much later Spain, when I needed an avatar, upon joining Twitter in 2007. I've lived in Spain for many years now and noticing how resilient we can be in Europe, when faced with changing trends in communications and information media... (well, in some countries more than in others ... ), I cannot but wonder ... will it play like the story of the Titmouse... or more like the one of the Robins?