photo: grant potter

I am very grateful to have been able to take part in organizing the Contact Conference, an event that pitched itself as a working festival of innovation, a social technologies exhibitor space, and a celebration of the potential of a network culture.

And it was definitely all those things, so mission accomplished there. The energy in the room was great, the recipients of the three $1oK Innovation Awards worthy, and the four projects conceived and launched at the event exciting. (more details on those things below in Douglas Rushkoff’s letter to participants)

But that’s really only a part of the story.

The bigger picture here is that if we start from the premise that “the system is broken” or “we’re at a critical turning point’ or that “we’re in a global transition,” or any such broad sweeping statements about the functionality of our social/economic/political/environmental/technological/scientific systems, and the majority of the world’s population is either deeply dissatisfied or at the least has an itching feeling that there is something that is just not right… then the only sane choice left is to act. Continue reading →

We’ve just accepted our 2nd round of scholarship winners for the upcoming Contact Summit. (here‘s the first round.) Every week we’re getting a more interesting mix of hackers, technologists, artists, activists, and change agents registering for the event! You can still apply for a scholarship to attend or register here.

When we opened up registration for the upcoming Contact Conference in NYC, we wanted to make sure there was an affordable option for students, artists, and activists to attend. We set up a scholarship rate and asked for a brief statement of intent and bio from the applicants. Below are a few of the folks we’re excited to have join us at Contact!

Mandy Hixson is interested in how technology facilitates dialogue between people and groups that was not previously possible. She has worked for CouchSurfing as their Organization Organizer, and is now working with World Food Garden, a networking site for sustainable gardeners. She is also a fellow at Jaaga Creative Commons Grounds, an arts, technology and education space. Mandy is involved in various capacities with several other projects, including BetterMeans, an online collaboration system, and Human Doings, a volunteer powered work exchange network. Continue reading →

wordpress delivered these stats to my inbox the other day… cool to see how the community blossomed this year!

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 170,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 7 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 69 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 98 posts. There were 208 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 53mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was February 2nd with 5,297 views. The most popular post that day was iPad: Overhyped Flop or a case of Great Design Thinking?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, stumbleupon.com, wordpress.com, facebook.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for emergent by design, venessa miemis, collaboration, ipad flop, and design thinking.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

iPad: Overhyped Flop or a case of Great Design Thinking? February 2010
153 comments

The Rise of Collaborative Consumption October 2010
83 comments and 86 Likes on WordPress.com

What is Design Thinking, Really? January 2010
98 comments and 3 Likes on WordPress.com

who’s the architect? March 2009
37 comments

36 Awesome Idea Hubs to Spark Creative Thinking, Innovation, & Inspiration November 2009
7 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com

Hi!

Tonight I tweeted “i am compelled to make you a mixtape.”

i got a response from @Twilliamson15 suggesting we make this a community sharing event.

Sounds fantastic.

So here’s the deal:

Use your preferred music sharing service (I’ll be using Grooveshark) to make a playlist of music worth sharing.

What’s “worth” mean?

Whatever you think. Something that moves you, inspires you, saddens you, keeps you company during your workout, calms you, energizes you. Bring it.

Post the link to your playlist either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter with hashtag #mixtape and I’ll pick it up.

We’ll take entries until next Wednesday November 24th, then compile our playlists for your listening pleasure here in time for Thanksgiving the 25th.

Looking forward to hear your favorites!

– v

check out @Twilliamson15 post – “PLN Mixchange”  http://thetechnorateteacher.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/pln-mixchange/

This morning I was getting some seeds started for my garden, and I was reminded of a tweet from a few weeks ago where I said something to the effect of ‘customer service is now more like gardening and less like hunting – nurture relationships.’ Well, the SCRM crowd (social customer relationship management) pushed back. [@wimrampen @grahamhill @ekolsky @myjayliebs @mkrigsman @SameerPatel @pgreenbe @kitson, you know who you are!] They said this wasn’t the case, and that studies had shown that customers don’t really want a relationship with a brand. To me, “relationship” doesn’t have to mean I’m going to have you over for dinner. There are levels. It can just mean that I will recommend you to a friend. I let it go at the time, but I want to go for Round 2.

Continue reading →

Fellow Travelers,

This post is intended to serve as a benchmark for the progress we’ve made since the inception of this blog. What started as a personal exploration into the self and the emerging Network Culture has evolved to be a collaborative effort to better understand ourselves and our process, to share resources and gifts, and to learn and grow.

I am continuously humbled by the level of participation, the depth of thought and insight, and the consistent support and encouragement that have been contributed here daily. And not just to me, but to each other.

I believe we have reached a new level of cooperation in this past few weeks, and it bears acknowledgement before we progress further. I want to take an opportunity to reflect on what I perceive has happened so far in this collective learning loop, to capture this moment, so that we’ll always have a point of reference as we continue on this journey. I can only imagine that things will get more exciting and innovative from here on out. Continue reading →

Good morning, Infosphere!

Over the past few months, I’ve been wanting to set up “Metathink Mondays.” Essentially, once a week, post an insight or a question that we can all ponder and reflect upon, in the service of making us smarter. Then, I’ll collect all the feedback, assemble it into another post or ebook that would be like an ‘insight report’ for all of us. We’ve done this once before, but I know we’ve all grown since then, so I’d like to revisit the topic.

What’s Metathinking?

So, if you haven’t been following along here, I’ve been working on this concept I’ve dubbed “metathinking,” or “a way of figuring out what the hell is going on.” We’re surrounded by all these streams of information, complexity, and accelerating change, and just trying to find a way to keep up. Well, there’s no way of “keeping up” – it’s flowing and it’s only getting faster. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel that will keep us from drowning. As Clay Shirky put it, “It’s not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.” While the programmers and engineers improve the quality of search, we need to be doing the same – but not with code, with people. Continue reading →