e-Clippings (Learning As Art)

Wounded Warriors Need Your Help!

We have been at war for over a decade. Afghanistan. Iraq. Multiple deployments. PTSD. IEDs. mTBI. Our men and women of the armed forces have been stressed to greater degrees than any other generation of American fighting forces. Greater OPTEMPO..battles with no front lines...enemies with no uniforms...all of these things have combined to stress not only our warriors but our ability to serve them when they come home. 

The Wounded Warrior Project is one of the many efforts that has stepped into that gap:

"To foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation's history."

The WWP can always use your help and now you have an easy way to do it. 

I'm running in an event in September called the "Tough Mudder." You can go here to see the course description of the one I'm running in. Its about 12 miles long and features everything from balance beam crossings to ice-cold pits of water to a flame-lined, smoke-filled path and even the potential of electro shock! Yeah, its a bit crazy - it should be - it was designed by British Special Forces. Hopefully I make it through! Now Tough Mudder has already raised almost $3 million for WWP and I want to help add to that. If you go to this link, you'll be able to make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project...you'll be helping a great program that serves people who have fought for our freedom and safety. Thanks everybody...even if you don't make a donation...please spread the word. That helps too....and if you feel so inclined, there are still slots available for the event! 

Let me explain the Conference Wish List a bit....

 

(photo by Virpi Oinonen) 

Check out the post just below this one...pretty cool...embedded the Conference Wish List stickie board on this blog...and it works...you can add notes to the board right from this blog AND guess what!? ...You can grab the embed code too (see that semi-transparent box in the upper right-hand corner w the blank notes? Click on the lower case "i" and you should get a drop down box with them embed code available)!!

 

That means that this Conference Wish List really isn't mine...kinda is, I started it but we can all use it...

I have certain interests...learning, mobile, training, anthropology, history, technology, government, enterprise 2.0, game design and development, serious games, social business, etc...but we don't need to limit the Wish List to those topics - in fact, I'd rather we didn't - I think while each of these areas have tremendous conferences focused on those domains - I also think its incredibly valuable to spread our conference wings a bit and travel outside our domains (I even think that the things we see at other conferences can come back to and benefit our 'home' conferences, e.g. new ideas for speakers, sessions, activities). 

So this isn't a plea for self-promotion on my part - I want to know where the best face-2-face experiences are to be had in the respective domains and I happen to think this is pretty cool format to do that in or through...so jump in and add your favs. Thanks! (from everyone)

Conference Wish List (embed test)

Couple of months in with the Asus Transformer Prime...thoughts

So that's my Asus tablet over there. Had it now a couple of months. First tablet I've had and first device I've had running any flavor of Android. Just a couple of thoughts: 

-Its got freaking amazing battery life

-I use it so much for note-taking that I've almost quit writing in my Moleskine (lil sad about that. Actually like the act of writing/drawing and tablets don't even get close to that yet)

-Funny that I immediately strapped a keyboard to it. Makes text entry a breeze but also kills the ability to treat it like a tablet. Humans are weird. 

-The Android market REALLY needs to step up the number of apps optimized for the tablet. Apple is killing them here. 

-The price point is spot on. Judas that iPad is expensive. Might as well get a laptop. After my experience with this tablet I keep wondering if I could justify the cost of the iPad and an iPhone.

-I love the form factor...thin...light...but I do miss the full-featured nature of a laptop running a full-on OS.

-This is awesome for reading...better Kindle than the Kindle

-I'm still figuring out my way around the OS

-I do not have 3G on this model so at my office, w/ no WiFi, this feels really disconnected in a way that a laptop never really did. This really is a creature of the 'net.

-I am feeling the pains of leaving Apple's Walled Garden...looking at apps that run on both and thinking "I already paid for this once.." ....my music is still 'over there'.....

Anyway I think the idea is - have a firm idea in mind for what you want to use a tablet for...I think I've used a laptop for so long, I'm going through some kind of transition (first joker to start the "laptop natives" and "tablet immigrants" meme is gonna get it!) ....I think browsers and tablet/phone OSs still have a way to go before they replace a full OS of any flavor. 

 

The Hacker: The Game

via itunes.apple.com

So this is interesting..gotta say I'm impressed with the look and feel and game play so far..let's design one of these to teach people how to change their default password settings :-)

What Amazing Thing The Facebook IPO Did!!!!

YOU HEARD ABOUT FACEBOOK RIGHT???? $5BILLION IPO!!!!!

You know what changed?

Nothing.

Darfur? Peace in Middle East? Clean drinking water to anybody else in Africa? Any fewer people in this country denied basic civil rights like being able to marry who they want to? Any fewer abused kids today? Nope.

I absolutely mean to be a party pooper. Someone tell me what product got created here. How many sustainable jobs were created today? Did some already rich people get richer? Yep.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-FB although I will say, no other product on the web makes me feel as creeped out at times as FB. I also don't begrudge anyone at FB from the Zuckster on down for pulling down some big cash. I just want us to keep some perspective.

We live in a world full of tremendous joys but also tremendous sadness. The Japanese tsunami. The earthquake in Haiti. The FB IPO impacted none of this. So as all the news feeds and tweets explode with the news of this momentous non-event, maybe we can spare some cycles to think about the Wounded Warrior program. The plight of those fighting for freedom in Syria. You know, the little things that never garner the same attention or interest as a 5 billion dollar IPO. ....and now, back to FarmVille <click click click>

New Years Resolution? How about feeding someone?

So let's just skip the part where I haven't blogged for months ok?

I've been seeing innumerable and inevitable Top Ten Lists, Year-End reviews, Predictions, etc and I thought I wanted to do something different but I couldn't decide what. Yesterday though, I heard a prayer that put things in perspective for me. The line in the prayer that struck me was:

"Ask much of us, expect much from us, enable much by us and encourage many through us..."

I started thinking that I have seen some projects and some people this past year that have really done that and I wanted to talk about some of them here. I also want to make clear - these people are my heroes - they humble me - they put my problems in perspective - they remind me that we live in a larger world than the one we normally let ourselves see - they remind me that the problems we are dealing with (and by default, if you are reading this on a computer you own, in your own house or apartment where you enjoy reliable electricity and clean drinking water every time you turn on the tap, then you are living in the most privileged societies in the world) are largely of our making and that we have a ridiculous amount of power and agency in dealing with them. These folks are amazing (and they are in no particular order). 

•  Kids Are Heroes: Don't think kids can make a difference? Don't think you can? Check out the actions these kids have taken to help everything from other kids, to NGOs to pets to the environment. Its just amazing what a little organization and giving people the tools they need can do to help them really reach out to others in need. When is the last time you or I raised $2300 in six weeks and sponsored 7 children in Uganda? No, really...when was it? For me, never. That's humbling. I also love this project because it makes me hopeful what the world will or could be like when the kids involved with this project grow up and take this experience with them. 
• Greyt Expectations: Racing Greyhounds can be retired from racing from 18 months to 5 years old and they can live to be 15 years old. These are dogs born and bred to be athletes, to perform for our entertainment and this group of fine people work incredibly hard to find good homes for these amazing animals. The kicker is that these animals are bred to not only be fast and fit, without a lot of the hereditary health problems that other breeds have, but also to be well-behaved, quiet, calm and are used to being handled by a lot of different people. They make ideal pets. You should see the set-up at Greyt Expectations - they get dogs who have come off the track sometimes the night before - and they work tirelessly to find these amazing creatures good homes. 
• The USO: I really don't know what needs to be said here. Not trying to be US-centric here (but that's where I live so that usually happens) but if you do live in the US, then while you may not support all of the political policies that involve the use of military force, you should support the men and women who go in harm's way on a daily basis for us and for our country's sake. True, there are a number of wonderful organizations that support our troops but this one is the grand-daddy...I remember walking through airports when I was a kid and seeing the USO clubs there. Look through some of the programs on their site, they include care packages, language training and even MEGS (Mobile Entertainment Gaming System) - yep, they provide fully-contained systems of XBoxs, PS3, Wiis to our troops to give them a break. So while I like the yellow "Support Our Troops" ribbon - how about a donation to the USO to actually do that?
• Charity: Water: Thirsty? Turn on your tap. Grab your BPA-free water bottle. Take a sip. Good right? What if that took three hours for you to do, if you could? Imagine that in Africa, people spend about 40 BILLION HOURS A YEAR just walking for water. BILLION. About 30,000 people die EVERY WEEK from unsafe drinking water. EVERY WEEK. Not month. Not year. Guess what? 90% of those deaths each week are kids under 5. $20 can provide one person with clean drinking water. $5000 can provide a village with water. How much was my last laptop? Yours? How much did we spend on 'stocking stuffers' or coffee or magazines? How much would it mean to you if you had no clean water and someone did something that provided it to you? If you are human and live on this planet - this impacts you. Don't like kids? Hate dogs? Opposed to all things military (including the brave men and women protecting you?)? Fine. How about a little love for humans? Read the founder's story and keep a dry eye. I dare you. 
• free rice: OK....so times are tight. I hear that. You still want to help though? Awesome. How about improving your vocabulary while feeding people? What? Yep. Head to free rice and start playing. Every right answer donates 10 grains of rice. Every wrong answer does nothing but makes you smarter. No cost. You get smarter. You help feed people. Why are you NOT playing on this site? Organize a team. How much time have you spent doing fantasy football this season? How about let's carve 1/10 of that time off to play this game and help feed people. I think that every conference should set aside one keynote session during the conference where everyone will just play Free Rice for an hour. Imagine the food that could be donated!
• Nothing But Nets: Can I borrow $10? Of course, thanks. Can you take that $10 and donate it so that a kid can go to sleep tonight without worrying about getting malaria from an insect bite? Can you think of anything as scary as wondering every night that when you go to sleep, you make wake up with a disease that is one of the leading killers of children in Africa? $10. That's it. How many friends do you have on Facebook? How many $10s is that? How many nets? How many kids sleeping safely?

I want to say also that I love the work that LINGOs is doing and I applaud them for it and urge you to support them as well...I think its awesome to leverage the training industry's expertise to help the world. I'm not trying to start a competition either - except maybe for us to compete with ourselves - let's gamify our lives and see how many "Good Human" points we can ring up or how many "I provided clean water/food/nets/homes/support" badges that we can ring up. I know we have made some strides but these efforts and these people humble me. People are living and drinking water and eating because of their efforts - that is amazing, awesome and humbling. 

 So today, I'll play Free Rice and I'll help my son set up a team there for his middle school. I'll show him the Kids Are Heroes site too. I'll pet our greyhound. I'll look at the USO programs and charity:water and Nothing But Nets and see how I can leverage my social network to support those and other efforts. Those are my New Year's Resolutions. What are yours? I hope that a year from now, I can look back on 2012 and see how many malaria-fighting nets I've helped to donate or how many grains of rice I've won or much water I've helped to provide to people who are dying of thirst or how many of our brave, fighting men and women I've helped pass the time with MEGS (love the acronym :-)) - that would be an awesome - and humbling - 2012. 

This is gonna get me in trouble but...have you ever thought about underground homes?

So I heard this story on NPR this morning about how Joplin was dealing with the horrific toll from the tornado that destroyed 1/3 of the town and killed 162 people. I can't imagine what that must be like. The closest I get is 9/11. Horrible. Tragic.

The story talked about all the increases in alcohol abuse, sexual trauma to children, increase in gambling, and so on. It also mentioned how kids will ask if the tornado is coming back when something innocent like the wind blowing storngly happens. The answer to the little girl's question is of course yes, the tornado is coming back. Every year. Count on it. Roll of the dice if it hits the town again. This is what gets me - if you live in the Southeast (where I grew up) or Tornado Alley - the tornados are coming. If you live on a beach, erosion will eventually take your land if a hurricane doesn't get to you first. Oh, also, if you live on a hill, you shold probabaly be aware of earthquakes, mud slides and for pete's sake, watch out for wildfires. I'm not an ad for anti-depressants - I'm just saying let's be realistic.

I'm fascinated by the way we anthropomorphize storms and nature in general. The cruel truth is that nature doesn't care about us. There are no "viscious" storms, or "cruel" winds...those are human judgements that we put on a non-human entity. (another pet peeve: reporting that someone lost their battle against cancer - they didn't lose - the cancer wasn't playing, it was just doing what it does - I hate the way that saying makes it seem like some people just didn't fight hard enough)

So what's my point? My point is that nature won't change...fires will burn, tornados will come, floods will happen...the key is that WE, the humans in the picture, CAN adapt...what's fascinating is when we don't. I rant about putting wires back on poles so they can be knocked down again instead of burying them...people rant back telling me about the cost but I ask (and never get an answer) how many times can you pay to put them back on poles before the cost levels out? ...but back to the tornados...

Humans have this remarkable ability to adapt. We walk upright. Have opposable thumbs. Binocular vision. We adapt. We change. We also have an amazing capacity to face tragedy and come back and I think what's happened is maybe the wires got crossed...did we confuse adapting with a lack of courage? So here's what I think...if you live in tornado alley, have you thought about an underground home? They can be beautiful, energy efficient and they could give a crap about high winds. If you live at the beach, poles. Hills prone to mudslides, earthquakes and/or wildfires? Get used to no insurance. 

I'm sorry but I'm just amazed that we who have descended from Australopithecus afarensis, have refused our heritage. have refused to adapt. So yes, to those folks in Joplin, to my families living in Kansas and Georgia, to dear friends living in California and Oregon and Washington, to more family lving in Florida - those tornados are coming back - they can't adapt - can we?

$70 for a book published after the author dies. WTF?

I found some great images on Flickr in the "Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, and Social Theory" group and one of them referenced the book "Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory" by Alfred Gell. 

Seems like an awesome book...the reviews all regard it well...so looking at Amazon...there it is for...WHOA! $70!? Are you kidding? Oh wait, its been used as a textbook - so that makes it ok. Now get this...this book was written in 1998 and was published posthumously...that's right...the author is dead so that means copyright will only apply to this work for like another 120 years. Reasonable right?

Judas, I mean really. We are so messed up as a society. I did find the book on Questia...great..except its also locked behind a paywall. So I hope Alfred Gell never wrote anything useful to a lot of people because they will never see it. Ever. Seriously you dopes, brokers from banks that had to use government money to bail themselves out are getting bonuses. BP has only disperesed about $4 billion of the $20 billion its dedicated to help the people in the Gulf. On and on. And we're gonna lock this work up behind some paywalls and here is the thing...if you charged ONE DOLLAR for this book, the publisher would make more money than the current price. Its just so damn stupid all the way around. No one is making money and nothing is getting read. Beautiful. 

More awards bullsh@%t!

So I wrote this little blog post last year about an email I got concerning an awards program. My problem was the cost associated with entering the contest and the utter lack of transparency and the fact that empty contests like this demean our industry and our efforts. Small problems right?

I was actually alerted to this contest by someone in my network but I also just got the email announcing it myself. 

Last year the cost to be in this fine "contest" (pls use airquotes when reading aloud), was over $800 - I guess the economic downturn has hit everyone  and the cost is now down to $575. 

Let me say again - this is the "Brandon Hall Excellence Awards". Now I should say, like I did last year, that I admire not only the some of the work that BHR does but a lot of the people that are analysts there. Really do....BUT....

...awards like these just cheapen and demean our industry. Any awards program that is administered and run by a for-profit company is suspect by nature. Why can't we forge some non-commercial group that will ajudicate an awards program - that would be cool and helpful. One that is not associated with any one conference, publication or company - what about an awards program that is associated with our industry?

Here is one truth - that won't happen on one level because awards programs like this are money makers. Pure and simple. I think another truth is that our industry is just too fractured. We have designers, developers, consultants, academics, 'legends', edupunks and more - how do we bring that group together?

So I'm sorry BHR, I won't be paying the $575 to "get the recognition I deserve"....I hope that will come from my peers, my clients and my stakeholders.