Sunday, February 28, 2010

Chestnut Tree: Virtual worlds have unique perspectives and proportions.

Harbin ethnography:


Virtual worlds have unique perspectives and proportions. And Second Life has its own avatar/bird's eye point of view, and is its own unique space for digital construction of virtual 'physical' objects, as a consequence of the Havok Physics Machine which informs this virtual world software, and makes virtual objects appear as if they have gravity. Many people who participate in my virtual Harbin in Second Life, have also participated in other virtual worlds, as well as in much other media on the World Wide Web, so this context limits limits the novel experience of virtual Harbin. By engaging both actual and virtual Harbin Hot Springs for ethnographic comparison, and having ethnographically built the virtual Harbin, my research focuses exclusively on these two interwoven field sites. Because actual and virtual Harbin are so closely related, I limit my ethnographic focus on virtual worlds to this comparison. Both actual and real Harbin share an openness, a focus on pools and freedom, and even on soaking. And how this will emerge in virtual Harbin makes for a fascinating study, and comparison. The language of these Harbin field sites here is also especially richly comparable. I thus intentionally narrow my field sites to aspects of these two Harbin, and related language.

Everyday Actual and Virtual Harbin. ...















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/chestnut-tree-virtual-worlds-have.html - February 28, 2010)

Sunshine: Techniques for eliciting loving bliss, decades into a duet w a friend, Grateful Dead & Jefferson Airplane, 1960s Music as Metaphor


Techniques for eliciting loving bliss, naturally, and after decades into a 'duet' with another? What might such techniques be, I asked myself in silent meeting today, while eliciting the relaxation response? How might they be as easy as heading into the Harbin warm pool and cuddling with your friend, decades into your relationship?


*

And then I walked across the San Francisco Civic Center / Opera Plaza area, from the meeting I was attending, to a cafe next to a bookstore, to begin listening to the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane, with joy, freedom, and 'flow' in mind. Check this out:


Somebody To Love / White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1cfTMdjkYM

The announcers themselves are a trip. And, anthropologically, where did the culture - here in San Francisco and the Bay Area - which generated this, go?


Here's the Grateful Dead playing in Oregon in 1972. They're making music together, and improvisationally, too. They're listening and jamming. Is Jerry high? He looks like he could be as high as a kite.

Grateful Dead Dark Star 08 27 72 1 4) (Sunshine Daydream)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8d0h-QYbQ

There's rapport, there's bliss and there's communitas of the concert goers - and this is a benefit for the Springfield Creamery near Eugene, too (so, business is just part of the fabric). And there are at least 4 (ten-minute) sections to this jam. Blow it up on your screen. The video sequences are a trip ~ early multimedia. And think what this art could also be - amazingly beautiful scenes that took you into all kinds of extraordinary mind spaces; our brains are 3-D generators in so many ways).

And the Dead played together for around 3 decades, - an ongoing kind of bliss. How to do this together with a friend, and as family comes along?


*

So, I think learning from this psychedelic music of the 1960s, learning from listening, trusting, as well as from the kinds of open, improvisational 'structure' aspects (silent meeting and meeting for business) of the Society of Friends, can be bases for eliciting bliss. But beyond the Friendly Folk Dancers' "Infinite Joy" web site {http://www.infinitejoy.com/ffd/}, I don't know of many historical examples in Friendly literature of Friends exploring bliss, as part of a kind of corporate process. {I see silent meetings as a kind of group relaxation response}.


*

So, make music with a friend like the Grateful Dead made music over decades? Yea, and jam with these possibilities ...


















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/sunshine-techniques-for-eliciting.html - February 28, 2010)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Earth Alaska: Information Technology & Society class invitation TODAY on Harvard's virtual island in ONE HOUR

Information Technology & Society class invitation TODAY on Harvard's virtual island: worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - PUBLIC, Free, Open Course - starts in one hour at 11 am Pacific Time here: slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/113/47/25 Come join the conversation. Today: Social History of the Internet.


*

Here's the transcript from today's Information Technology & Society class on Harvard's virtual island socinfotech.pbworks.com/InfoTechSoc5












(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/earth-alaska-information-technology.html - February 27, 2010)

Sea Valley Wall: Harbin Spatiality and Scale, Comparison, Actually and Virtually

Harbin ethnography:


... ideas conversation-generating at the same time.

“Actual/Virtual Harbin Hot Springs' Ethnography” examines the on-the-ground and interactive, digitally-generated Harbin, drawing on fieldwork which I began, in many ways, while a resident at Harbin in 2005, through today. I first went to Harbin in around 1993, so I haven't been able to contact many people who were there in the 1970s, let alone in the 1960s. And my virtual Harbin has been through a variety of constructive iterations, but my building of the current one, as well as field work will begin in 2010. Spatial comparison involves a number of complications. Actual Harbin Hot Spring's scale is just right for many people, and is somehow pleasing in a aesthetic/spatiotemporal sense of human scale. The whole Harbin Valley is just right not-too-big and just right not-too-small from an human experience sense; it's pleasing to be at Harbin, to look around across the valley at the ridges and it's enjoyable to walk to the top of the Harbin Valley in about an hour, and all over the property.

Virtual worlds have unique perspectives and proportions. ...










(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/valley-wall-harbin-spatiality-and-scale.html - February 27, 2010)

Friday, February 26, 2010

Warm Water: PUBLIC Info Tech & Soc class, Methinks the Dalai Lama is a good example of someone who engages PRACTICES for bliss, The Harbin warm pool

Information Technology & Society class this Saturday on Harvard's virtual island: worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - World University & School has a PUBLIC, Free, Open, All languages & levels MISSION, which is open to YOU to Teach, Learn & Create ...


*

Scott:

Methinks the Dalai Lama is a good example of someone who engages PRACTICES for bliss which work vis-a-vis eliciting loving bliss neurophysiology, naturally ... How to rock out with bliss, when and as we want it?


FB friend:

I think Eckhart Tolle is another good [and secular] example.


Scott:

:) I like the Dalai Lama's blithe cheeriness, in spite of the continuous intransigence of the Chinese government, for example. And, agreed, the power of Now is powerful, indeed. MDMA-like rocking out bliss practices, however, are an interesting focus of inquiry.


FB friend:

I've never come close to replicating MDMA-like response. Well, there was one time, but it was very short lived.


Scott:

sounds enjoyable :) and I think further research is needed ...



*


Scott:
in the Harbin warm pool at body temperature is coming home to deep relaxation response, with ease. Out of the warm pool ... time to get in ...

Himalayan blue granite: Readers - This interpretation of actual & virtual Harbin is pool-centric, Others may choose simply to go into the Harbin pools

Harbin ethnography:


... generate ethnographic representation.

This book won't please all of these readers at the same time. In engaging the academic discipline of anthropology, some may find the language of this book to be too formal. Others may find it too distant from their unique experiences of Harbin's milieu itself. Others may wish that this volume's interpretation of actual and virtual Harbin is not so pool-centric, while others, after reading this text, may simply go to Harbin to be in the pools there. Those whose interests lie primarily in life in virtual worlds may wish that I had not spent so much time on the actual Harbin ethnography, and those who find knowledge about virtual avatars and worlds redundant may wish I had focused this text solely on the ethnography of actual Harbin. While I can hope that a few of these groups might find edification with some parts of this book, I recognize that not all readers will find all of these ideas conversation-generating at the same time.

“Actual/Virtual Harbin Hot Springs' Ethnography” examines ...








(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/himalayan-blue-granite-readers-this.html - February 26, 2010)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Himalayan balsam: Harbin ethnography for social science-oriented university undergraduate and graduate students, Magic Bus, Harbin wiki?

Harbin ethnography:


... Harbin's emergent cultural formation in unanticipated ways.

I would like this book to be read by not only anthropological and social science-oriented university undergraduate and graduate students, and also by a more general audience such as people who might buy Rory MacLean's “The Magic Bus: On the Road from Istanbul to India,” including Harbin residents. I also hope it will be read by scholars, students, and designers of virtual worlds, for is on-the-ground/virtual comparison. And I hope scholars in science, technology and society studies, as well as information technologists, will read this book. Those interested in the 1960s, counterculture, resistance movements, communitarianism, radical-political and utopian envisionings, and gardening, may also find helpful ideas here. Those who live in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, Open Simulator, Open Cobalt, and many others, may also find this book richly relevant to their lives. I hope also for many different groups of unanticipated readers. A Harbin wiki (editable web pages) may also emerge out of this book, significantly and colorfully created by Harbin residents, as both a form of new ethnographically-informed, group communication process about Harbin, as well as an online way to archive and generate ethnographic representation.

This book won't please all of these readers ...










(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/himalayan-balsam-harbin-ethnography-for.html - February 25, 2010)

Vista: Questions & Observations about Creative Commons' World University & School, posted to Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig's Online Wireside Chat

Here are some questions and observations about World University & School, which I posted to Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig's Wireside Chat, partly about Free Culture, in a group commenting process, next to the live video - openvideoalliance.org/event/lessig/?l=en - which was streaming to where I was sitting in a cafe in Napa, California, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and moderated by Elizabeth Stark. I would guess that between 20 and 50 people were also posting observations and questions in this group chat process, that worked via twitter with its 140 character limit. You post to twitter and these posts were forwarded to the Open Video Alliance web page, next to the live video of Lessig.


Larry Lessig is the main author of Creative Commons' law.




What's the future of Creative Commons' free, remix University (worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University)? #wireside scottmacleod.com


Thanks for a fascinating talk. What's the future of the Creative Commons' free, remix University? #wireside Northern California scottmacleod.com


Invitation to help create a Creative Commons open, free Univ & Sch in all languages worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses - scottmacleod.com


Let me know if you'd like to help "Creative Commons" the FREE University worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s scottmacleod.com


Let's 'Creative Commons' the university #wireside World Univ: worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s like Wikipedia & MIT OCW


free degrees at 'edit page' World Univ. & Sch worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Ph.D.s will increase - FREE Harvard Ph.D. #wireside


Free Harvard Ph.D. in Education at the open, 'edit this page' worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University -an expression of CC #wireside


check out World University & School - a free, 'edit this page' worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - expression of CC #wireside


Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig is talking here online NOW: openvideoalliance.org/event/lessig_live about the internet















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/vista-questions-observations-about.html - February 25, 2010)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sheer Drop to River Bed: Harbin is curiously alive with understanding - culture I think you'd say

Harbin :)


Arrived at Harbin at 10:22 -


*

A Harbin truck drove around Front Gate house,



*

I parked past the Meadow building road on the left side, where I camped for 10 very wet days in Jan 2008 when first beginning beginning field work -


*

I walked along the village path which has sheer drop far down to the river bed ...



saw persons feet up in warm pool area on the edge - into the pools, soon.


*

The road from the three corners when you lose phone contact is definitely transitional

- arrivals and departures -

The car has been central to arrivals and departures at Harbin.


*

Harbin is curiously alive with understanding - culture I think you'd say ... Shared inference - I feel this while there ... I learn about it in talking with people ... this is perhaps part of a long conversation about healing at Harbin, which I also occasionally have with people there.









(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/sheer-drop-to-river-bed-harbin-is.html - February 24, 2010)

Big Sur: Drawing on History of Ethnography, Multisited Fieldsites, Harbin is International

Harbin ethnography:


I draw richly from the history of ethnography, and the questions it has asked, for this book because it's this century-old body of questions, research and writing, which allows me to understand what is so fascinating about Harbin, as well as plan for and build a virtual Harbin for actual/virtual anthropological comparison. I also draw on long critiques of ethnographic method to highlight alternative possibilities. [Quote from my online paper. The changing 'nature' of the "anthropological field" has been examined by the writers Marcus and Fischer (1986) and Gupta and Ferguson (1997)]. They suggest that anthropologists have historically looked at and gone to "the field," a specific, physical site that has traditionally been geographically bounded. The actual Harbin Hot Springs is unusual as an anthropological field site in modernity in its remarkable boundedness in a valley at the end of a road in northern California, and the actual, virtual construction of a virtual Harbin will further stretch the anthropological analysis of multi-sitedness of the anthropological field sites in a globalized world, especially in relation to Harbin on-the-ground. Virtual Harbin, open to people from around the world, will internationalize actual Harbin, which already draws people from all over the world, in novel and fascinating ways. Virtual Harbin will extend actual Harbin's emergent cultural formation in unanticipated ways.
















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/drawing-on-history-of-ethnography.html - February 24, 2010)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Himalayan Muntjac Deer: Ethnography as experiment, Harbin's unique pool area, Representations and Harbin

Harbin ethnography:


The ethnography of my actual and virtual field sites of Harbin Hot Springs is itself a methodological experiment, due to Harbin's unique pool area, and its emergence from the Human Potential Movement, the Holistic, Natural Movement, and Universal Spirituality, and the 1960s, and what has taken shape on-the-ground over nearly 40 years. Building on a century of ethnographic fieldwork, and a large body of research about the 'virtual,' I suggest that ethnography as method reveals much about counterculture at Harbin, actually and virtually. I trace a trajectory of the 'virtual' from within the practice of ethnography itself, where Malinowski's “Imagine yourself...” in a new place, such as the Trobriand Islands, and, Geertz's emphasis on understanding the “native's point of view,” both of which suggest similar kinds of virtuality (Boellstorff 2007:6) to the idea of a virtual world 'avatar.' And while, not in the scope of my actual/virtual Harbin ethnography, I take this a step further to suggest that this is part of symbolizing which we human primates engage in, as well as in, for example, the understanding of ideas that Plato proposed, and of “saying something about something,” to quote Aristotle. Representing both actual and virtual Harbins, ethnographically, is to explicitly examine the 'virtual,' anthropologically, and is the methodological experiment I engage in.














(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/himalayan-muntjac-deer-ethnography-as.html - Feburary 23, 2010)

Wolves in Sun: A dog sitting in the sun in relaxation response & v-a-v Yoga Twists & Bagpiping, World Univ's PUBLIC MISSION, 'Writing' Subjects at WU

A dog sitting in the sun on the winding Canyon road yesterday seemed to be in the relaxation response 'dog purring.' Yoga twists, as well as bagpiping, this morning also opened relaxationresponse.org/steps' possibilities. The relaxation response is great bodymind neurophysiology :) How to 'explore' its many qualities?

*


worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University
- PUBLIC, Free, Open, All languages & levels MISSION. Open to YOU to Teach, Learn & Create

*

Writing World University & School, by inviting YOU to write WUaS by subject, like Wikipedia:

worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - like Wikipedia - WRITE about SUBJECTS to teach. Let's write World Univ & Sch to FLOURISHING

*

The Public Mission:

Mission: World University & School's (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware) - mission, in reaching out to the entire world, is to provide a free, wiki-based education platform and, through facilitating the development of broadband worldwide, to make our service accessible to under served parts of the world. The WUaS mission is thus to facilitate all levels of teaching and learning opportunities (and future degrees) through an open, editable wiki in all languages, nation-states and subjects with great universities, and for One Laptop per Child countries and everyone.









(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/wolves-in-sun-dog-sitting-in-sun-in.html - February 23, 2010)

Monday, February 22, 2010

Biggest Whale: Harbin Ethnography as Methodological Experiment

The ethnography of my actual and virtual fieldsites of Harbin Hot Springs is itself a methodological experiment, due to Harbin's unique pool area, and its emergence from the Human Potential Movement, the Holistic, Natural Movement, and Universal Spirituality, and the 1960s, and what has taken shape on-the-ground over nearly 40 years. Building on a century of ethnographic fieldwork, and a large body of virtual research, I suggest that ethnography as method reveals much about culture at Harbin, virtually and actually.

















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/biggest-whale-harbin-ethnography-as.html - February 22, 2010)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Iceland Poppy: What is counterculture in the context of this kind of anthropological, descriptive analysis, in relation to conceptions of culture?

What is counterculture in the context of this kind of anthropological, descriptive analysis, in relation to conceptions of culture? I hope to characterize counterculture through the following ethnographic analysis of Harbin.


*

What is counterculture in the context of this kind of descriptive analysis, in relation to anthropological conceptions of culture, involves a kind of creative response of people in the 1960s to modernity, my second line of analysis. Counterculture here informs a concept of virtually human in the sense of acting out of alternative roles or identities, both actually and virtually, in response to modernity (e.g. Burning Man, in-world and on the ground, too). And rather than defining and reifying counterculture, I'll begin to characterize counterculture through the following ethnographic analysis of Harbin. (But briefly, counterculture is a progressive de-reification or de-thingification of culture, with aspects of protest, resistance and reversal vis-a-vis cultural processes shaped by modernity). Here, counterculture – more and less of the freedom-seeking movements of the 1960s now still trickling 40 years later - emerges as very diverse, creative responses to modernity. Avatars - the virtually human – in virtual Harbin are further, freeing instantiations – now digitally mediated – of the freeing experiences, especially in the Harbin pools, of being at actual Harbin. So, to engage the meaning of virtual as “almost,” vis-a-vis Boellstorff (2007:5), I'd like to suggest that modernity throws off the balance of humanity, and that both actual Harbin and virtual Harbin make it possible to consider anew, and reconfigure the 'virtual' through place-making, subjectivity and community. Anthropology as “a positive and definite study of the human knowledge of the human (Wagner 2001:xvii),” to cite Boellstorff, “can help reveal the layers of contingency within the category of the virtually human, rather than exiling such contingency into a category of the poshuman and thereby retrenching the borders of the human itself” (Boellstorff 2007:5). It's through this ethnographic study, and comparison, of actual and virtual harbin that I engage ethnographic methods – participant observation through fieldwork, and write a text, an ethnography, to elucidate these two lines of analysis.


















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/iceland-poppy-what-is-counterculture-in.html - February 21, 2010)

Frog fish: Please Comment on World University & School for the MacArthur Digital Media Learning Competition

Please Comment on World University & School for the MacArthur HASTAC Digital Media Learning Competition: http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg for http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University before Monday Feb. 22 at noon PT.

Your comments will help a lot!


Thank you!














(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/frog-fish-please-comment-on-world.html - February 21, 2010)

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Dragon Millipede: Not culture, but counterculture is the 'killer application' in both actual and virtual ways at Harbin

Harbin ethnography:

... By engaging a key anthropological form of descriptive analysis for comparison in both actual and virtual field sites, I depart from other approaches to qualitative analysis of both how Harbin Hot Springs might be considered in other academic disciplines, as well as prescriptive analysis, which many other researchers of virtual worlds have engaged in. In this book, I synthesize ethnographic analysis of two comparable field sites to highlight virtuality, and the possibilities and limitations of ethnographic comparison of the actual and virtual.

This actual / virtual comparative approach highlights the significance of representation in understanding and characterizing ethnographically both actual residents and visitors to actual Harbin, as well as the ways in which avatars have emerged, due to digital technologies, to offer beginning ways to explore the “virtually human.” As my first line of analysis, I suggest that life for actual residents and visitors, emerging from the milieu of the 1960s, can be delightfully countercultural, and freeing, at Harbin, for some; drawing on the literature of the virtual, avatar life in this actual / virtual Harbin context, makes possible new forms of counterculture (e.g. exploration of a variety of freeing roles / the possibility to build and thus create new possibilities). And I also show that avatars in virtual Harbin in Second Life offer the possibility to explore a curiously doubly-liminal space. People find freedom at actual Harbin. I therefore develop the argument that both actual Harbin and virtual Harbin open possibilities for kinds of virtual experience, which, in many ways, are countercultural, and thus make possible the exploring of 'avatar-ness,' and virtual freedoms, in their own lives in relation to their computers, as people and individuals. Thus in my analysis, actual Harbin, in relation to virtual worlds and to virtual Harbin, becomes more virtual than the multimedia, interactive representation of Harbin, for people/visitors, due to a kind of actuality of counterculture on-the-ground, which is a kind of virtuality more 'real' than virtual Harbin, due to its 'realness'. The real and the actual are more vivid instantiations of the virtual, than the virtual, due to actual Harbin's nowness; the experience of warm pool is too difficult to replicate digitally, for example. And I also characterize how counterculture emerges in relation to culture in uniquely Harbin ways, actually and virtually, where both influence the experience of Harbin residents and visitors. In addition, the milieu (culture) of on-the-ground Harbin makes both actual and virtual Harbin counterculturally freer, a key concept in the analysis of counterculture, - actually and virtually.

What counterculture is here, in the context of this kind of descriptive analysis, - in relation to anthropological conceptions of culture - involves a kind of creative response of people in the 1960s to modernity, my second line of analysis. ...








(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/dragon-millipede-not-culture-but.html - February 20, 2010)

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus: Introducing World University School Presentation - in Second Life

Check out this Slide Presentation:








*

This is a slide presentation from the Second Life Community Convention in August 2009 in San Francisco.




(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-world-university-school.html - February 20, 2010)

Zombie caterpillars: 'Information Technology and Society' Second Life class transcript on Harvard's virtual island, Origins of Information Technology

'Information Technology and Society' Second Life class transcript, on Harvard's virtual island



[20:08] Aphilo Aarde: And you, Mel, in Belgium?

[20:08] Melchizedek Blauvelt: indeed

[20:08] Aphilo Aarde: And Jonathan?

[20:09] Aphilo Aarde: Which city, Mel?

[20:09] Ju Roussel: yay Jonathan switched from Berry's event to here!

[20:09] Aphilo Aarde: And Jonathan, what city are you in?

[20:09] Melchizedek Blauvelt: A small town between Ghent and Bruges

[20:09] Aphilo Aarde: Great!

[20:09] Aphilo Aarde: OK

[20:09] Aphilo Aarde: I'm sitting in Berkeley, California, and live nearby.

[20:10] Melchizedek Blauvelt: Might know the song "Marieke" by Jacques Brel

[20:10] Melchizedek Blauvelt: She was from here

[20:10] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[20:10] JonathanE Cortes: I Im in UK :-)

[20:10] Aphilo Aarde: I familiar with it ...

[20:10] Aphilo Aarde: Where again, Jonathan?

[20:10] Aphilo Aarde: Near London?

[20:11] Aphilo Aarde: I suspect Sanhya will be here, soon.

[20:11] Aphilo Aarde: Let's start, however ....

[20:11] Melchizedek Blauvelt: Nah San had a RL art gallery opening to attend to unfortunately

[20:11] Ju Roussel: Jonathan is in Manchester I believe

[20:11] Aphilo Aarde: Hello AB ... long time ...

[20:11] Aphilo Aarde: OK ....

[20:11] ArseBringer Simon: Yes hello been busy

[20:11] Aphilo Aarde: Nice to see you!

[20:12] JonathanE Cortes: Manchester UK soz

[20:12] Aphilo Aarde: So here's the course wiki http://socinfotech.pbworks.com

[20:12] Aphilo Aarde: which you also have in the notecard I sent you.

[20:13] Aphilo Aarde: And I'm teaching this course for the open, free, wiki World University & School

[20:13] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University

[20:13] Aphilo Aarde: which has much material on it.

[20:14] Aphilo Aarde: For general academic courses, MIT Open Course Ware, and Berkeley's http://webcasts.berkeley.edu are two of the best sources

[20:14] Aphilo Aarde: And the open wiki World Univ & Sch builds on these for its approach

[20:14] Aphilo Aarde: youtbue.com/edu aggregates much academic video - too - a remarkable growing site.

[20:15] Aphilo Aarde: So about Information Technology and Society

[20:15] Aphilo Aarde: We've covered, mostly, history and actors

[20:16] Aphilo Aarde: But I'd like to go further with these

[20:16] Aphilo Aarde: to look at teh link between the Information Revolution and social transformations

[20:16] Aphilo Aarde: Information Technology is important because a new kind of society

[20:16] Aphilo Aarde: has already emerged.

[20:17] Aphilo Aarde: What was the social context in which the Information Technology Revolution

[20:17] Aphilo Aarde: helpted to transform the 1970s society into a new society?

[20:18] Aphilo Aarde: There were a number of processes that interacted in the Information Revolution formation.

[20:18] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Information Technologies themselves - so MICROELECTRONICS, COMPUTERS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

[20:19] XiuJuan Ying: hello all sorry i late

[20:19] Aphilo Aarde: 2 a kind of Socioeconomic Restructuring in the U.S. of capitalism -

[20:19] Melchizedek Blauvelt: hi XiuJuan

[20:19] Aphilo Aarde: a kind of periestroika

[20:19] XiuJuan Ying: hi Mel

[20:19] Aphilo Aarde: "exactly"

[20:19] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Xiu

[20:19] Aphilo Aarde: Welcome

[20:19] XiuJuan Ying: hi Aphilo apologies

[20:20] Aphilo Aarde: and 3 a change in the values

[20:20] Aphilo Aarde: as a result of social movements

[20:20] Aphilo Aarde: and alternative cultures

[20:20] Ju Roussel: (thinks to herself: Perestrojka is a brand, it is hardly comparable)

[20:20] Aphilo Aarde: - the mess of the 1960s -

[20:20] JonathanE Cortes: HI Xiu

[20:21] Aphilo Aarde: so 3 is Cultural Change

[20:21] XiuJuan Ying: hi Jona

[20:21] Aphilo Aarde: peresroika, here, was an opening in Russia, that was transforming

[20:22] Aphilo Aarde: in the 80s - and such an opening occurred in the 60s in the U.S.

[20:22] Aphilo Aarde: The result came from a combination of all 3 processes interacting

[20:23] Aphilo Aarde: And in today's talk, I hope to engage this more analytically, building on previous classes' descriptions

[20:23] Aphilo Aarde: So, it's as if technology doesn't come first - to shape society - in my analysis

[20:24] Aphilo Aarde: But also society doesn't create technology, either

[20:24] Aphilo Aarde: It's the interaction of these three processes that is what led to this revolution

[20:24] Aphilo Aarde: So these three processes came together at history in the 1970s

[20:25] Aphilo Aarde: by ACCIDENT

[20:25] Aphilo Aarde: These events were not predetermined

[20:25] Aphilo Aarde: instead, their interaction is what's significant

[20:25] Aphilo Aarde: Again, these 3 factors - mostly in the U.S. and the West -

[20:26] Aphilo Aarde: are 1. the Information Revolution, 2 a kind of economic restructuring, and 3. Culture Change - the 'mess of the 60s;

[20:27] Aphilo Aarde: and it's the interaction that leads to our society which is "The Network Society"

[20:27] Aphilo Aarde: This is the argument of this course, drawing on Prof. Manuel Castell's resarch and trilogy

[20:27] Aphilo Aarde: "The Rise of the Network Society"

[20:28] Aphilo Aarde: By these 3 processes interacting - bumping together -

[20:28] Aphilo Aarde: NEW FORMS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION EMERGE

[20:28] Aphilo Aarde: a kind of socioeconomic restructuring of the capitalist system

[20:29] Aphilo Aarde: And this restructuring happened at the same time as 'perestroika' in the communist system

[20:30] Aphilo Aarde: As an aside, Castells' wife is Russian and they were following Russia as Castells was at UC Berkeley closely

[20:31] Aphilo Aarde: and while perestroika may not have been occurring throughout the Soviet system, to respond to a point you were making, I think that an argument can be made for a kind of perestroika in Russia, in conjunction with your experiences, Ju.

[20:31] Aphilo Aarde: So a combination of 1 the effects of information technology 2 socioeconomic restructuring and 3 culture change (60s)

[20:31] Aphilo Aarde: leads to the emergence of the NETWORK SOCIETY

[20:32] Aphilo Aarde: What is the process of socio-economic restructuring?

[20:32] Aphilo Aarde: It involves changing the rules of the game, without changing the game.

[20:32] Aphilo Aarde: To clarify:

[20:33] Aphilo Aarde: Social systems are organized around Means and Goals

[20:33] Aphilo Aarde: When a system goes into crisis, some people who want to change the goals

[20:33] Aphilo Aarde: are called revolutionaries, and what occurs are revolutions

[20:34] Aphilo Aarde: When a system goes into crisis and you don't want to change the goals, you change the means.

[20:34] Aphilo Aarde: And in the 1970s in the U.S. and the West (including Communist Russia)

[20:34] Aphilo Aarde: there was quite a substantial crisis

[20:35] Aphilo Aarde: likethe 1930s, which was bigger

[20:35] Aphilo Aarde: and it was characterized by huge inflation

[20:35] Aphilo Aarde: At one point, the system couldn't operate

[20:35] Aphilo Aarde: And inflation become too high,

[20:36] Aphilo Aarde: and companies couldn't calculate the cost of borrowing monies.

[20:36] Aphilo Aarde: Prices were high, too.

[20:36] Aphilo Aarde: In the 1970s, strategies and policies from companies and governments, to set goals in order.

[20:36] Aphilo Aarde: And this RESTRUCTURING worked - within the existing goals of the system.

[20:37] Aphilo Aarde: In a parallel situation,

[20:37] Aphilo Aarde: the socialist system, the "statist" system

[20:37] Aphilo Aarde: with the state is at the center - not markets - the state tried restructuring and decomposed.

[20:38] Aphilo Aarde: This happened in Russia, and China changed to socialism under capitalism.

[20:38] Aphilo Aarde: ... which were mechanisms that challenged the system

[20:39] Aphilo Aarde: So, the ECONOMY is organized in a system around money-making -

[20:39] Aphilo Aarde: by companies, private businesses, especially through investment

[20:40] Aphilo Aarde: No money-making, no hiring

[20:40] Aphilo Aarde: How do you make money out of business?

[20:40] Aphilo Aarde: There are 4 ways.

[20:40] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Increasing productivity

[20:41] Aphilo Aarde: - how much output you generate per unit of input

[20:41] Aphilo Aarde: If you make 10 pairs of shoes for sale, their vlaue should be more than the costs

[20:41] Aphilo Aarde: The output needs to be more valuable than the input

[20:42] Aphilo Aarde: For this process of increasing productivity, you need

[20:42] Aphilo Aarde: brains, technology and organization

[20:42] Aphilo Aarde: Without PROFIT, there is NO ECONOMY

[20:42] Aphilo Aarde: And PRODUCTIVITY is the bottom line

[20:42] Aphilo Aarde: The second thing you need is

[20:43] Aphilo Aarde: 2 More efficient management

[20:43] Aphilo Aarde: and the third key way to make money out of business

[20:43] Aphilo Aarde: is with

[20:44] Aphilo Aarde: 3 lower costs - i.e. the product's price stays the same, with less resources

[20:44] Aphilo Aarde: i.e. same aount of leather, chemicals and all in the shoe example, but for cheap costs - so, less to labor, - less than what one charges,

[20:45] Aphilo Aarde: and lower environmental costs, and all of this has to do with

[20:45] Aphilo Aarde: the POWER OF Management over Labor

[20:45] Aphilo Aarde: And the fourth way you make money out of BUSINESS is

[20:45] Aphilo Aarde: 4 by EXPANDING MARKETS

[20:46] Aphilo Aarde: with more consumers per unity of what one sells, so the product can be cheaper.

[20:46] Aphilo Aarde: ... because you have the advantage of volume.

[20:46] Aphilo Aarde: ... with which to make money.

[20:47] Aphilo Aarde: What happened in the mid 1970s, in the U.S. and the world, is that companies and governments proceeded in ways that, all together,

[20:47] Aphilo Aarde: increased productivity, increased efficiency of management, lowered costs, and expanded markets

[20:48] Aphilo Aarde: How did they do this?

[20:48] Aphilo Aarde: Through 4 mechanisms.

[20:48] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Much better information technology

[20:48] Aphilo Aarde: 2 FLEXIBILITY in magagement, work, distribution systems and in capital markets

[20:49] Aphilo Aarde: This flexibility was largely connected to introducing new forms based on NETWORKING rather than VERTICAL organization.

[20:50] Aphilo Aarde: And this occurred, particularly, through RAPID Feedback loops between management and workers.

[20:51] Aphilo Aarde: Lower costs occurred due to relative low costs of computing and microelectronics and telecommunications, themselves.

[20:52] Aphilo Aarde: Also, if one can extract more work from employees, more work for less money, more money for computers and less for workers, there's a change in the POWERE relationship between

[20:52] Aphilo Aarde: Management and Labor

[20:52] Aphilo Aarde: And this was reflected in the dramatic decline in UNIONIZATION

[20:53] Aphilo Aarde: In the late 1950s, about 34% of the work force in the U.S. was unionized

[20:53] Aphilo Aarde: IN the 2000, that number had declined to about 13.5%

[20:53] Aphilo Aarde: and in the private sector, it was at around 9%

[20:54] Aphilo Aarde: And in FINANCE and HIGH TECH, unionized labor was at less than 2%

[20:55] Aphilo Aarde: And What happened in the mid 1970s, in the U.S. and the world, is that companies and governments proceeded in ways that, all together,

[20:55] Aphilo Aarde: more influence by

[20:55] Aphilo Aarde: 4 the MEDIA via GLOBALIZATION

[20:56] Aphilo Aarde: Globalization includes myth, ideology, politics and an historical process over the last 80 years.

[20:56] Ju Roussel: !

[20:56] Aphilo Aarde: With GLOBALIZATION money could circulate in GLOBAL MARKETS around the world.

[20:57] Aphilo Aarde: Concerning assembly lines, COMPANIES could invest now in a globalized world

[20:57] Aphilo Aarde: in favorable markets.

[20:57] Aphilo Aarde: And companies can SELL EVERYWHERE

[20:58] Aphilo Aarde: but this is an unqual process

[20:58] Aphilo Aarde: For example, HIGH TECH sells in India

[20:58] Aphilo Aarde: but Indian textiles don't sell as well in the U.S.

[20:58] Aphilo Aarde: And in the 1970s, MARKETS expanded dramatically

[20:59] Aphilo Aarde: And this lowered the cost of production relative to price.

[20:59] Aphilo Aarde: Companies were always looking for most favorable conditions.

[21:00] Aphilo Aarde: And INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY is critical for

[21:00] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Networking

[21:00] Aphilo Aarde: 2 Globalization

[21:00] Aphilo Aarde: These 2 new conditions wouldn't exist without information technology.

[21:01] Aphilo Aarde: Bot fast computing and telecommuncations are needed for both.

[21:01] Aphilo Aarde: from all stops to all stops

[21:01] Aphilo Aarde: Without advanced information systems, you couldn't have dense networks of AIR transport

[21:02] Aphilo Aarde: on which the global economy is based.

[21:02] Aphilo Aarde: AIR TRANSPORTATION is dependent on information technology.

[21:02] Aphilo Aarde: ... for CARGO shipping

[21:02] Aphilo Aarde: and CONTAINERS

[21:02] Aphilo Aarde: where the system doesn't tolerate miscalculations

[21:03] Aphilo Aarde: It's avery complicated global network based on very precise systems.

[21:03] Aphilo Aarde: About CULTURAL CHANGE

[21:04] Aphilo Aarde: This involves new ideas & new forms of civil life

[21:04] Aphilo Aarde: Many of the things taken for granted

[21:04] Aphilo Aarde: would have caused tremendous problems 30 years ago

[21:04] Aphilo Aarde: And much of this started with FREE SPEECH in Berkeley in 1964.

[21:05] Aphilo Aarde: and the STUDENT in PARIS in May 68

[21:05] Aphilo Aarde: * STUDENT MOVEMENT

[21:05] Aphilo Aarde: And this happend IN ALL western capitals.

[21:05] Aphilo Aarde: What happened?

[21:05] Aphilo Aarde: There were DIverse PROTESTS

[21:06] Aphilo Aarde: What was important was the FREEDOM of the Person, vis-a-vis the SYSTEM

[21:06] Aphilo Aarde: It was somtimes selfish

[21:07] Aphilo Aarde: there was the sentiment, for example, that "Nobody is going to give me orders."

[21:07] Aphilo Aarde: And this BLEW UP an entire system of authority on which all societies are based.

[21:08] Aphilo Aarde: The sheer number of ideas that emerged changed the way society thinks.

[21:08] Aphilo Aarde: And something deeper also happend.

[21:08] Aphilo Aarde: These PEOPLE moved into INSTITUTIONS

[21:08] Aphilo Aarde: and these people became VOTERS

[21:08] Aphilo Aarde: How fundamental was the change?

[21:09] Aphilo Aarde: Well, for one, Women as equals is NOW the standard.

[21:09] Aphilo Aarde: and two, ENVIRONMENTALLY, there was a newly learned respect for the BALANCE OF NATURE

[21:10] Aphilo Aarde: where people, as part of this CULTURAL CHANGE, informing the Information REvolution

[21:10] Aphilo Aarde: begain to think about the use of the car

[21:10] Aphilo Aarde: and the idea that "pollution is a problem" emerged

[21:10] Aphilo Aarde: as well as the idea of the "ozone layer"

[21:10] Aphilo Aarde: These were previously unthinkable!

[21:11] Aphilo Aarde: and thirdly, the idea of INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

[21:11] Aphilo Aarde: emerged significantly

[21:11] Aphilo Aarde: where "I want to develop my own thing" became widespread, in a way which wasn't

[21:11] Aphilo Aarde: previously thinkable.

[21:12] Aphilo Aarde: And the LIBERTARIAN quality now became denatured ... broken down

[21:12] Aphilo Aarde: via the PERSONAL COMPUTER idea

[21:12] Aphilo Aarde: which came from a cultural idea that said

[21:12] Aphilo Aarde: "I want something for me" ... and this

[21:13] Aphilo Aarde: became INDIVIDUAL SOFTWARE - what a radical concept

[21:13] Aphilo Aarde: (As an aside, check out this GREAT, free SOFTWARE at the open, free World University & School -

[21:14] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software)

[21:14] Aphilo Aarde: (WORLD UNIV & SCH is like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware - so open and free in all alngauges, nation states subjects and at all levels).

[21:15] Aphilo Aarde: So the idea of INDIVIDUAL KNOWLEDGE came from a culture

[21:15] Aphilo Aarde: which valued INDIVIDUALISM as a supreme value.

[21:15] Aphilo Aarde: And these CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS happend in 3-4years

[21:16] Ju Roussel: [a point to the naysayers and all those worried about accreditation more than knowledge and learning]

[21:16] Aphilo Aarde: from 1968-1972

[21:16] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[21:17] Aphilo Aarde: (Societal processes can be compelling, JU, so keeping World Univ & Sch open and free and where people -y ou and I - can teach about anything

[21:17] Aphilo Aarde: is important - WILD even - and in conjunction with degree granting over time.)

[21:18] Aphilo Aarde: So these three factors - 1 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2 ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING and 3 CULTURAL CHANGE

[21:18] Aphilo Aarde: all interacted and resulted in the NETWORK SOCIETY

[21:18] Aphilo Aarde: SOCIAL OUTCOME

[21:19] Aphilo Aarde: An analysis of history, culture and the uses of technology that SYMBOLIZES this

[21:19] Aphilo Aarde: transition is the INTERNET

[21:19] Aphilo Aarde: We'll look at economic dimension sof the internet and the WWW later

[21:20] Aphilo Aarde: And the INTERNET makes the the transition between this INFORMATION REVOLUTION which I've been characterizing

[21:20] Aphilo Aarde: and NOW -

[21:20] Aphilo Aarde: For you newcomers -

[21:20] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com

[21:21] Aphilo Aarde: This is a course about INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

[21:21] Aphilo Aarde: on Harvard's virtual island

[21:21] Aphilo Aarde: It's the first course of WORLD UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL

[21:21] Aphilo Aarde: like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware

[21:21] 3Helix Frequency: Thank you Aphilo.

[21:21] Aphilo Aarde: which is here: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University

[21:22] Aphilo Aarde: You're welcome

[21:22] 3Helix Frequency: I'm just Ju's trainee,

[21:22] Aphilo Aarde: And please join the Second Life group - Soc & Info Tech - Aphilo on Berkman

[21:22] Aphilo Aarde: for more information.

[21:23] Aphilo Aarde: So, we'll begin next to look at the SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

[21:23] Aphilo Aarde: but before we begin

[21:23] Aphilo Aarde: Are there questions of the INFORMATION REVOLUTION

[21:23] Aphilo Aarde: which we've been talking about

[21:23] Aphilo Aarde: or about this course Information Technology and Society?

[21:24] Aphilo Aarde: or about World University and School?

[21:24] Aphilo Aarde: (I hold office hourse for an hour after this class, from 1-2p SLT here on Harvard's virtual island).

[21:24] Aphilo Aarde: Any questions?

[21:24] Aphilo Aarde: before proceeding with the Social History of the Internet?

[21:24] JonathanE Cortes: no,thx

[21:25] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Andromeda?

[21:25] Andromeda Mesmer: A general, only somewhat related question -- I have had enquiries from people in Asia about where there are free classes in English in SL.

[21:26] Aphilo Aarde: Good question, Andromeda

[21:26] Andromeda Mesmer: I have suggested attending Raymond Frog's lectures on Racialism on wednesdays, which are in voice stream and typed text -

[21:26] Aphilo Aarde: I'll just point out a few, remarkable resources at World Univ & Sch for open free classes

[21:26] Andromeda Mesmer: But other than that, and recommending your class -- what else might I say?

[21:26] Aphilo Aarde: and teaching and learning material.

[21:27] Aphilo Aarde: Great

[21:27] Aphilo Aarde: Here are some free degree programs linked at World Univ & Sch - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Free_Degree_Programs

[21:27] Aphilo Aarde: There's a free Harvard Ph.D. in education

[21:29] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings

[21:29] Aphilo Aarde: lost my connection briefly

[21:29] Aphilo Aarde: So, World Univ and Sch focuses on great Universities' free and open content

[21:29] Aphilo Aarde: listed above

[21:30] Aphilo Aarde: WUaS also aggregates course collections here:

[21:30] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#University_course_listings

[21:30] Aphilo Aarde: And as an open university and school, if you'd like to teach

[21:30] Aphilo Aarde: a course to your web camera,

[21:31] Aphilo Aarde: you can post it here:

[21:33] Ju Roussel: oups

[21:34] Andromeda Mesmer: Lost connection :(

[21:34] Ju Roussel: It's like in real Harvard :D

[21:34] JonathanE Cortes: is that it ?

[21:34] XiuJuan Ying: toilet break

[21:34] JonathanE Cortes: is it finished for today

[21:35] XiuJuan Ying: no

[21:35] Ju Roussel: Most classes there are furnished to look as classical old New England Mecca of Knowledge, but technologically a tad outdated. Not that I would see it as negative! :)

[21:36] Andromeda Mesmer: The building behind us is as real a replica of a Harvard building as they could do it - except that I am sure the door does not squeak like that :)

[21:37] Ju Roussel: Is it on the Lawers' side?

[21:37] Ju Roussel: It reminds me a halfof another building.

[21:38] XiuJuan Ying: welcom bak

[21:38] Ju Roussel: yay, Aphilo cloud is here.

[21:38] Aphilo Aarde: My apologies ... screen and computer froze ... first time ever

[21:38] Aphilo Aarde: Hello again.

[21:39] JonathanE Cortes: wb

[21:39] Aphilo Aarde: screen and computer froze ... first time ever

[21:39] XiuJuan Ying: lot problrm on sl yetsaday

[21:39] Aphilo Aarde: Well, I was relating

[21:39] Aphilo Aarde: how you could all teach at World Univ & Sch

[21:40] Aphilo Aarde: as an open, free University and School

[21:41] Aphilo Aarde: (And here collections of Courses again: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Course_listings.27_aggregates)

[21:41] Aphilo Aarde: And here's where you can post an individual course: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses

[21:42] Aphilo Aarde: Andromeda is taking a course posted in this section.

[21:42] Ju Roussel: It's coming Apihlo, at our own pace though... It's good to learn courage from you.

[21:42] Aphilo Aarde: And you'll see this course listed in this same area: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Individual_courses

[21:42] Aphilo Aarde: What's coming Ju? Free, Open education?

[21:43] Ju Roussel: Us with the teaching ideas (or is it just me, dunno)

[21:43] Ju Roussel: ...of free, open education, of course!

[21:43] Aphilo Aarde: Yes ... agreed ... and World Univ & Sch is just a complementary resource

[21:44] Aphilo Aarde: like Wikipedia which we've all made together - in a kind of group knowledge production process

[21:44] Aphilo Aarde: The open free World Univ & Sch is also group knowledge production.

[21:44] Aphilo Aarde: Hi Geda!

[21:44] Aphilo Aarde: Long time ...

[21:44] Geda Hax: Hello Aphilo !

[21:44] Geda Hax: Yes, indeed ;)

[21:45] Geda Hax: But saturday is a way easier day for me to come to your classes

[21:45] Aphilo Aarde: Since my machine froze, I don't think in the last 15 minutes that we'll proceed with the Social History of the Internet this week

[21:45] Aphilo Aarde: Instead, we'll begin again next week with the Social History of the Internet here from 11a-1p

[21:46] Aphilo Aarde: Let me first ask you how'd you'd build a community for World Univ and Sch?

[21:47] Aphilo Aarde: I'm curious to invite you all to participate in the World Univ & Sch as moderators.

[21:47] Ju Roussel: Teaching side, or student body?

[21:47] Aphilo Aarde: What you are drawn to ...

[21:48] Aphilo Aarde: If you join the Google Group on the notecard for this class

[21:48] Aphilo Aarde: you'll see in the Google Group's Google documents

[21:48] Aphilo Aarde: the moderators' lists

[21:48] Aphilo Aarde: where you can see and choose what you might like to participate in.

[21:49] Aphilo Aarde: There's a budding music school

[21:49] Geda Hax: May I have this notecard too please?

[21:49] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Music

[21:49] Aphilo Aarde: Yes!

[21:50] Aphilo Aarde: People have taught music to their web cameras, and I've aggregated this to this wiki page

[21:50] Aphilo Aarde: where anyone can add anything

[21:50] Aphilo Aarde: I'm doing it by instrument to start ....

[21:50] Ju Roussel: I have a number of hundreds of management professors and graduate students on my side, it is all a matter of vision, time, and extreme organization...

[21:50] Aphilo Aarde: this is the idea behind World Univ & Sch's wiki

[21:51] Aphilo Aarde: Teach to your web cam and add it to this wiki

[21:51] Aphilo Aarde: all subjects, etc.

[21:51] Aphilo Aarde: interesting JU - World Univ is free and open ... and welcomes free and open content.

[21:52] Aphilo Aarde: Also!

[21:52] Aphilo Aarde: World University has entered a MacARthur competition

[21:52] Andromeda Mesmer: Would an engineering class on a very narrow subject be appropriate? And can that be done with an avatar teaching?

[21:52] Aphilo Aarde: I'd love to get your comments at the Digital Media Learning Competition site.

[21:53] Aphilo Aarde: MacArthur HASTAC Digital Media Learning Competition: http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg for http://worlduniversity.wikia.com Request for Comments for World University and School!

[21:53] Aphilo Aarde: Your ideas are very important for generating a conversation

[21:53] Aphilo Aarde: I'd be very grateful if you could go to the dmlcompetition site, log in, and add your thoughts.

[21:54] Aphilo Aarde: Did you get the notecard, Geda?

[21:54] Aphilo Aarde: Who else needs the notecard?

[21:54] Geda Hax: Yes, just did , tks

[21:54] Aphilo Aarde: great

[21:54] Aphilo Aarde: So besides the music school at World Univ & Sch

[21:54] Aphilo Aarde: there's also a lot of Free Educational Software

[21:55] Aphilo Aarde: And there's Second Life learning material - spread throughout

[21:55] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software

[21:55] Geda Hax: What about teaching people about virtual wolds things , like to teach some building in SL , would that be interesting to your project Ap ?

[21:55] Aphilo Aarde: there's a LOT of free sofwtare there

[21:56] Aphilo Aarde: Absolutely, Geda! if it's free and open, please post it to the wiki and I can help

[21:56] Aphilo Aarde: World Univ & Sch is an 'edit this page' free, open school, so like Wikipedia

[21:56] Geda Hax: yes it would be free and open for sure

[21:56] Aphilo Aarde: which I hope will attract much of the world

[21:57] Aphilo Aarde: I'm personally intersted in making a virtual Harbin Hot Springs http://harbin.org as an anthropological field site for virtual studies

[21:57] Aphilo Aarde: for a project I'm working on

[21:57] Aphilo Aarde: but haven't figured out how to find the space. Perhaps we could talk about this.

[21:58] Aphilo Aarde: What might all of you be interested in teaching and learning ...?

[21:58] Ju Roussel: You might want to join different groups of educators here on SL

[21:58] Aphilo Aarde: I've added much of the material at WUaS , so no what's there.

[21:58] Aphilo Aarde: Do you have a link Geda about teaching building in SL?

[21:59] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Ju, I'm in quite a few related groups.

[21:59] Andromeda Mesmer: How much space do you need?

[22:00] Aphilo Aarde: Well, I'd love to model actual topography 1700 acres at 3:1 or 25:1 - perhaps up in the SL sky somewhere

[22:00] Ju Roussel: There are open platforms now in testing stage that are very promising for educators - which I'm sure you guys are all informed about. Cheaper than SL. Hopefully easier to work with too.\

[22:00] Geda Hax: Nope , I dont as I have never taught building

[22:00] Aphilo Aarde: (I've wanted to do this for a number of years, but haven't found the opportunity).

[22:00] Aphilo Aarde: ok, Geda

[22:01] Aphilo Aarde: Open Simulator and OPen Cobalt are two

[22:01] Aphilo Aarde: but SL has community and a network

[22:01] Aphilo Aarde: that's rich, and around a fairly open platform.

[22:01] Andromeda Mesmer: Aphilo, there are many free schools that teach building in SL, various levels, many times a day. New Citizens Inc. and Mystical Mastery are just two of them.

[22:01] Ju Roussel: (That was to Q about how to find space).

[22:01] Aphilo Aarde: So, we're now in office hours ... and the class is over ... sorry about the crash

[22:01] Ju Roussel: Happy Hippsters!

[22:02] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[22:02] Ju Roussel: the building school - they are intensive there

[22:02] Andromeda Mesmer: Tutorials2Go has screens that you can operate if you join the group - it is free to join the group.

[22:02] Aphilo Aarde: Good to know, Andormeda, Thanks!

[22:03] Aphilo Aarde: So I encourage you to participate in World University and School

[22:03] Andromeda Mesmer: There are too many schools to really count - Happy Hippsters is another -

[22:03] Aphilo Aarde: and please comment at about World University and School at

[22:03] Aphilo Aarde: for the MacArthur HASTAC Digital Media Learning Competition: http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg for http://worlduniversity.wikia.com Request for Comments for World University and School!

[22:04] Aphilo Aarde: Agreed, Andromeda ... and I hope to aggregate the best, open free content.

[22:04] Andromeda Mesmer: Oh Aphilo - there is also an "Unseen University" in SL - not sure if they have classes or not - from Terry Pratchett's novels :)

[22:04] Aphilo Aarde: to World Univ & Sch and facilitate this rich resource.

[22:05] Aphilo Aarde: Interesting ... Please add them, as you did before with Frank Sweets' course, to the wiki

[22:05] Ju Roussel: Woow! Slurl for the unseen Uni?

[22:05] Aphilo Aarde: Andromeda has added an individual course to World Univ & Sch! :)

[22:05] Geda Hax: A maybe you can teach about making textures , that would be interesting as well

[22:05] Aphilo Aarde: Very ...

[22:05] Andromeda Mesmer: Well -- I have the simple-minded technique about teaching textures in 15 minutes -- :)

[22:06] Aphilo Aarde: has an education section?

[22:06] Aphilo Aarde: Do people know about the Second Life events calendar which

[22:06] Aphilo Aarde: I've posted this section about Second Life at World University and School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses#Second_Life_Teaching_and_Learning_Opportunities

[22:06] Andromeda Mesmer: Under SEARCH button at the bottom of the window >>>>Events >>>>>>Educational >>>>>you get a flood.

[22:06] Aphilo Aarde: which has the SL events calendar.

[22:07] Aphilo Aarde: There's always a question of quality of teaching and learning materials online. In World Univ & Sch, I'm partly

[22:08] Aphilo Aarde: focusing on great universities' open and free content, as a kind of standard, and screen for quality.

[22:08] Aphilo Aarde: And that informs the Second Life content I post at World Univ & Sch, as well.

[22:08] Andromeda Mesmer: Well, Frank Sweet/Raymond Frog's lectures on the development of the unique US race concept are excellent.

[22:09] Aphilo Aarde: Yes! And thanks for posting that course to World Univ & Sch!

[22:09] Andromeda Mesmer: I recommend those highly - every Wednesday - twice.

[22:09] Aphilo Aarde: Here's the SL calendar: http://secondlife.com/community/events/

[22:10] Aphilo Aarde: Click on the pop down menu and select education for classes in Second Life

[22:10] Aphilo Aarde: That's probably the best avenue into what's available in SL.

[22:11] Aphilo Aarde: ... in terms of education.

[22:11] XiuJuan Ying: i got to go

[22:12] Aphilo Aarde: On the World University & School wiki, there are also other Second Life resources

[22:12] XiuJuan Ying: bye Aphilo and all

[22:12] Aphilo Aarde: By poking around you'll find them

[22:12] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks for coming

[22:12] Ju Roussel: Take care XiuJuan

[22:12] Aphilo Aarde: By Xiu

[22:12] Andromeda Mesmer: Bye Xiujuan

[22:12] Aphilo Aarde: Next wee at 11

[22:12] Geda Hax: ta ta dearie bye

[22:12] Geda Hax: oh sorry , this animation is stuck on me since halloween

[22:13] Aphilo Aarde: We'll talk about the Social History of the Internet next week

[22:13] Geda Hax: interesting material Ap , tks for the links.

[22:13] Aphilo Aarde: I lost this week's transcript in the crash

[22:14] Aphilo Aarde: so I'll try to post a modified version from before.

[22:14] Andromeda Mesmer: I have part of it -

[22:14] Aphilo Aarde: Do you have it Ju?

[22:14] Aphilo Aarde: Could you email it to me, please, since you were here from the beginning.

[22:15] Ju Roussel: Thanks Aphilo, very informative. Yes I will just edit out all the group info I received meanwhile and send it on a notecard

[22:15] Ju Roussel: or sure, email

[22:15] Aphilo Aarde: helianth@gmail.com

[22:15] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks very much!

[22:15] Ju Roussel: OK!

[22:15] Andromeda Mesmer: How often do you come into SL these days, Aphilo?

[22:15] Ju Roussel: Thanks for today, very informative. Back to my thesis and job applications! :))

[22:16] Aphilo Aarde: http://scottmacleod.com has much of this information for this class and a lot of other useful resources

[22:16] Aphilo Aarde: I pop in a couple of times a week

[22:16] Ju Roussel: See you all next week!









*



In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.



I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to

socinfotech.pbworks.com over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with time.



Please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School


For more information:
scottmacleod.com








(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/zombie-caterpillars-information.html - February 20, 2010)

Friday, February 19, 2010

Great Barrier Reef: Let's anticipate with wiki worlduniversity.wikia.com all 9.2 billion of earth's learners, Is reading a technology of the brain?

Let's anticipate with the open, World University and School, and 7300ish languages {http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages}, all 9.2 billion of earth's learners online in 40 or 50 yrs.


*

Is reading a technology of the brain, which is learnable? Teach to your webcam about this at worlduniversity.wikia.com if you know. How is reading understood usually? Not usually as an information technology of the brain, I would guess ... But this seems reasonable to think of literacy as an information technology, which helps people understand written ideas.



















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/great-barrier-reef-lets-anticipate-with.html - February 19, 2010)

Floristic Composition: Harbin Hot Springs Ethnography: Hippies, Healing, Counterculture, and Clothing-Optional Virtual Harbin cont., Actual/Virtual

Harbin Ethnography continued:


I'm an anthropologist whose work has focused on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Internet, communication technologies and multimedia in the past (MacLeod 2006), but in this book, I develop these interests in new directions. “Harbin Hot Springs Actual/Virtual Ethnography: Hippies, Healing, Counterculture, and Clothing-Optional Virtual Harbin” is an actual and virtual anthropological study. By creating an actual/virtual comparison, I'm departing from many anthropological studies, to create a new approach to ethnography. Whether or not one can began to examine aspects of new forms of virtual culture which have correlates with actual life is a claim, which we can study and learn about.









(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/floristic-composition-harbin-hot.html - February 19, 2010)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Trobriand: World University & School as the online 'Stanford-MIT-UC Berkeley-Harvard-Quaker/Friendly' school, in all languages, Scheduling Bliss

World University & School would like to become the online 'Stanford - MIT - UC Berkeley - Harvard - Quaker / Friendly' worldwide teaching & learning school, in all languages.


*

What's the 'iTunes music sequencing list' of bliss- & optimality- generation-scheduling in your life for your neurophysiology? For decades? Human agency is real here.


*


Woke up - thought of a lullaby - 'All Through the Night' - found "Rise Up Singing" on shelf - started singing in morn ... this lullaby is about sleep neurophysiology, in part, - and singing shapes something, too, in life.


*

In the Harbin warm pool at body temperature is coming home to deep relaxation response, with ease. Out of the warm pool, in the city, less so ...














(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/trobriand-world-university-school-as.html - February 18, 2010)

Trobriand Islands: Imagine yourself as an anthropologist at Harbin

Arrivals and Departures.


Imagine yourself as an anthropologist, newly coming to Harbin Hot Springs in the early 2000s, decades after the '60s have passed, and beginning to do field work, but as your field work develops you find that your participant observation focus is drawn to the Harbin pools, neither a traditional 'field' nor terra firma, and where a curious kind of harmonizing and openness seems to emerge. Imagine further that you are completely new to anthropology, and that Harbin will become your place of study because the hippy culture there is fascinating and you want to understand it, and write about it for future generations. Imagine, too, that you have been building virtual islands in Second Life and Open Simulator, a contemporary open source virtual world, and see that building a virtual Harbin would be great, and it would also allow you to do something completely new in anthropology, – create a virtual field site for the study of 'counterculture,' and potentially to preserve and perpetuate the 'culture' you find at Harbin, in a completely new form.

Some anthropologists will recognize the paragraph above as coming into conversation with Bronislaw Malinowski's “Argonauts of the Western Pacific,” published in 1922, as well as Tom Boellstorff's “Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human,” published in 2007. Both Malinowski, and Boellstorff now in a virtual world, develop a significant, historical trajectory in anthropological research of the importance of field work and participant observation, emphasizing the actual experiences with which writers have reached their conclusions. Both Malinowski and Boellstorff take the methods and theories of anthropology, regarding “actual” experiences, “actual” belief, and “actual” life, and apply them to writing ethnography. In this actual/virtual Harbin Hot Springs' ethnography, I'll engage these anthropological practices in both writing comparable ethnographies of the actual and virtual in one book, and, in anthropologically building a virtual Harbin, I'll explore how these constructive practices of building an anthropological, virtual field site - for ethnographic study - furthers practices of constructing the actual and the virtual, - of developing new forms of anthropological representation, in understanding the virtual.

I'm an anthropologist whose work has focused on UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Internet, communication technologies and multimedia in the past (MacLeod, 2006), but in ...












(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/trobriand-islands-imagine-yourself-as.html - February 18, 2010)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Male Antennae: Harbin Notes, Warrior Energy, and Dreads, Bobs, Color, Antennae

It was first sunny day of spring for me visiting Harbin this year, when many people were sunbathing naked, and some doing yoga, on the sundeck for much of midday.


*

There were also a lot of people for a Wednesday in what is still winter.


*

I saw hints of 'warriors' in the pools. One man was wearing wrist bracelets - hinting of gauntlets and a kind of sign of strength, and a large, matching neck-amulet. This man's dark hair-style hinted, too, of a Mohawk. Another young, blond, curly-haired man energy hinted at a kind of young warrior, as well. In the Rainbow Gathering-tribe aspect of Harbin, 'warrior energy' of yore - of historical, human periods (e.g. Greeks) - isn't that far from the surface of people, or at Harbin, although most people, these days, seem a little more like they're spa visitors, than in the mid-1990s or possibly in the 60s and 70s. These differently, embodied time aspects at Harbin are fascinating to me. And all of this in modernity.


*

I also saw a lot of people with gray hair - a fair amount of it long-ish gray haird - contrasting, for me, with what I remember from the mid 1990s, when many people in the pools had very interesting, more youthful hair, - dreads, bobs, colors, antennae, ribbons in their hair - in colorful, hippy ways, often grouping together in group huddles and cuddles in the warm pool.






*

Nephrotoma alterna

naturfoto-cz.de/photos/krasensky/crane-fly-1126.jpg



harrisoncountyhealth.com/crane_fly.jpg


Crane Fly







(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/male-antennae-harbin-notes-warrior.html - February 17, 2010)

Polypore: On the Harbin village path, I smelled ripe, wonderful, green spring



Polypore: On the Harbin village path


On the Harbin village path,
I smelled ripe,
wonderful,
green spring.

Oh, the soft moistness,
in the air,
welcomes me
to linger.

Thank you.













*



White Cheese Polypore (Tyromyces chioneus)










(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/polypore-on-harbin-village-path-i.html - February 17, 2010)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Litchi chinensis: How to ease into 'better expression for richer flow experiences' when practicing music?, Planting Trees at worlduniversity.wikia.com

How to ease into 'better expression for richer flow experiences' when practicing piping, freely and creatively? Scheduling an hour of music-making in the morning isn't enough - the 'flow' possibilities border on 'great-trippy' ... How to learn these, in terms of sequencing tones?

back to piping practice


'one-ing' with - playing in synch with - the great composer, and Piobairreachd & Ceol Mor {light music} piper Donald MacLeod - is one way ... on my MacBook Pro reading 'Lament for Captain MacDougall' music in pdf listening to the CD (which I bought:) via iTunes :).

How do you learn musical expression to generate rich, meditation-like, 'flow' experiences?


And how to contribute to creating a culture of music-making ... wworlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Music's music school?


*

A robin is sitting, full bodied, on the wide wooden railing of my deck, watching the world go by in the morning - robin relaxation response - red plummage is fluffed - laying low and bird watching

Ah ... a female, gray robin 7 feet away in the old fruit tree that's just beginning to flower, which also has 3 smaller birds, one with a red head ...

A Facebook friend writes:
ah, a young female northern harrier was sitting on my fence about 10 ft away when I arrived home for lunch, the hawk was watching the snow accumulate and scouting out the bluejay nest for some egg poaching



*

California hills & eastern ranges from Canyon are rich-green-verdant right now - fruit tree planting here now & at worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects too - picking good stock


*

To Harbin on this day





*

Lychee (Litchi chinensis) Mauritius

farm3.static.flickr.com/2564/3945384214_4c54fdcb9a.jpg







(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/litchi-chinensis-how-to-ease-into.html - February 16, 2010)

Natural Bonsai: Chapter 1, Harbin ethnography today, The Subject and Scope of this Inquiry, Go Play

Harbin ethnography today:



Chapter 1

The Subject and Scope of this Inquiry

Arrivals and departures – Everyday Harbin – Terms of discussion – The emergence of actual Harbin – The emergence of virtual Harbin – Harbin Residents – What this, a book, does.



Harbin Gate House


Figure 1.1



Harbin 'Gate House' in-world

Figure 1.2


After you check in at the gate at Harbin, one Harbin resident who has worked there for years often says "Go play."
The interaction 'energy' is good. This resident, who has some native American ancestry and grew up in Maine on the northeastern coast of the U.S., has been a resident at Harbin for almost 2 decades. His words, in a way, say what Harbin is about.
Emerging from the 1960s and 1970s, Harbin in many ways is about freedom to play, at Heart Consciousness Church, which Harbin became around 1977, a few years after Ishvara bought the Harbin property in 1972. A lot of people have come through the Harbin front gate, and most come to play. Harbin is fun and free, apart from modernity.
*
Lao Tzu is supposed to have been asked by the gatekeeper of his city (possibly 2,300 years ago), as he was leaving some strife there (as I've heard the legend), to write down his philosophy, which became the "Tao te Ching." Successive generations have translated and transcribed this text over millennia, and it's a remarkable 81 chapter poems and book, partly about 'non-action,' drawing on many metaphors, including that of water, to understand and create a philosophy of life.
**
The Harbin gate seems to work in reverse. People are welcome at Harbin to soak in the pools, and to play. And some also find creativity at Harbin in the vision and milieu here. And geothermal waters continue to fill Harbin Hot Springs' pools, and hippies and other free spirits, from the San Francisco Bay Area, northern California, and from all over the world, come through the Harbin gate to enjoy the waters.

Harbin Hot Springs is an expression of a vision emerging from the 1960s and early 70s, which is actualized in an ongoing way, in its valley in Lake County, California, nearly 40 years later. So coming through the Harbin gate, for some, is like coming into an altered reality, a kind of virtual world. The Harbin Hot Springs' world is open, and free, and a place where people can do what they want, perhaps in contrast to what some people experience in modernity. (Harbin Hot Springs is similar to the Rainbow Gathering, which also started in 1972, when two tribes, one from northern California and the other from the Pacific Northwest and a bunch of other folks from all over mostly the western U.S. gathered in Colorado to celebrate the Rainbow Festival, and which has met annually in national parks in the first week of July since then). Harbin Hot Springs is open all the time and is a hot springs' retreat center, emerging out of the human potential movement, the holistic, natural movement and universal spirituality, and while the language some use to describe Harbin may have changed over the decades, Harbin's countercultural, clothing-optional, pool-centric milieu remains unbroken since at least the early 1970s.


Imagine yourself:



(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/natural-bonsai-harbin-ethnography-today.html - February 16, 2010)

Mantis shrimp: 'Information Technology and Society' Second Life class transcript on Harvard's virtual island, Origins of Information Technology

'Information Technology and Society' Second Life class transcript, on Harvard's virtual island



[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: Did all of you receive the notecard I sent to the "Soc and Info Tech - Aphilo on Berkman" group list here

[11:06] Ju Roussel is Online

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: Who did not receive it - this notecard has information relevant to this course.

[11:06] Aphilo Aarde: Great

[11:07] JonathanE Cortes: brb have to re boot

[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[11:07] JonathanE Cortes is Offline

[11:07] Aphilo Aarde: Here's the course wiki again: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/

[11:07] JonathanE Cortes is Online

[11:08] sandhya2 Patel accepted your inventory offer.

[11:08] XiuJuan Ying accepted your inventory offer.

[11:08] JonathanE Cortes accepted your inventory offer.

[11:08] Kevin Menczel is Offline

[11:08] XiuJuan Ying: ty

[11:08] JonathanE Cortes: thx

[11:08] Melchizedek Blauvelt accepted your inventory offer.

[11:08] Aphilo Aarde: yw

[11:08] Ju Roussel accepted your inventory offer.

[11:08] Aphilo Aarde: I just passed out the notecard again

[11:09] Daisyblue Hefferman is Offline

[11:09] Aphilo Aarde: We'll begin shortly - but I'd just like to bring to your attention http://webnographers.org again, as well as the course wiki - where I'm posting notes - http://socinfotech.pbworks.com

[11:10] Marian Dragovar is Online

[11:11] Aphilo Aarde: Are there any questions from the last times?

[11:12] Marian Dragovar is Offline

[11:12] Ju Roussel: [We are listening...]

[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: I'll address nanotechnology a little today

[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: So in this revolution

[11:13] Aphilo Aarde: of information technology KNOWLEDGE IS VALUE

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: And Where is knowledge?

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: It's sometimes in universisites and in research labs

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: but it's particularly in 'scientists'

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: Knowledge is generated by human minds

[11:14] Aphilo Aarde: and bodies

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: human minds are the critical source of value

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: in the Information TEchnology reovlution

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: This is the founding concept of this course

[11:15] Aphilo Aarde: So, to recap a little further

[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: the founding discovery of the IT revolution is the transistor in 1947 at Bel Labs in NJ

[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: And this led to a Nobel prize for 3 people -

[11:16] Jules Mandelbrot is Online

[11:16] Aphilo Aarde: William Shockley was the leader of this team

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: ANd he saw extraordinary possiblities for the transistor

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: which was created by a whole network of scientists at Bell

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: But Bell Labs couldn't take advantage of it

[11:17] Aphilo Aarde: because they were a telecommunications monolpoly

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: and they couldn't go into another business, due to antitrust regulation in the U.S.

[11:18] Aidan Aquacade is Online

[11:18] Aphilo Aarde: Other businesses would have had to pick it up, but businesses were not interested.

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: So Shockley treid to create his own lab, after asking RCA and Raytheon corporations - they said no, - that vacuum tubes were enough.

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: (They were using vacuum tubes for early stereo equipment, for example.

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: Other possibilities?

[11:19] Aphilo Aarde: Shockley didn't see many ...

[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: So he came to Palo Alto, California, because his mother was there.

[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: Shockley was depressed - He had a Nobel prize, but nothing to do!

[11:20] Aphilo Aarde: He LATER became a Stanford Professor.

[11:21] Aphilo Aarde: Beckman Labs in the Silicon VAlley area said that the TRANSISTOR sounds interesting.

[11:21] Aphilo Aarde: So Beckman Labs helped Shockley start a conductor business

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: They could do that because a whole network of Palo Alto electronic companies was forming.

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: And because Stanford University was supporting entreprenial companies -

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: Stanford had an entrepreneurial attitude.

[11:22] Aphilo Aarde: But all of this was ACCIDENTAL

[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: Actors are necessary for this story

[11:23] Aphilo Aarde: (My method here is to tell the story, analyze the story, and look at the factors, including the actors).

[11:24] JenzZa Misfit is Online

[11:24] Aphilo Aarde: A man named TERMAN, who was a graduate student in the 1920s at MIT, wanted a Ph.D. in electrical engineering

[11:24] Aphilo Aarde: worked there after getting his Ph.D. got tuberculosis, and then went back to California.

[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: He decided to take a position at Stnaford, and later became Dean.

[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: He wasn't a great researcher or engineer, by many accounts, but he could identify great MINDS.

[11:25] Aphilo Aarde: In his researcher, he was experimenting on radar technology leading to electronics.

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: There was a lot of research on radar at the time, including by Hewlett and Packard.

[11:26] Aphilo Aarde: Terman was asked why they didn't make something practical.

[11:27] JenzZa Misfit is Offline

[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: But Hewlett and Packard - young researchers at the time - didn't have any money

[11:27] Aphilo Aarde: So Terman took $700 from his own pocket and gave it to Hewlett and Packard, who started a company.

[11:27] JenzZa Misfit is Online

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: World War II started and their radar-related and other devices became very valuable.

[11:28] sensu20 whispers: watch that third sip

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: They sold millions of these to the Defense Department.

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: After WWII, Hewlett Packard was a very established company.

[11:28] Aphilo Aarde: And Terman becaome a provost at Stanford.

[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: This example could be amplified - many companies in Silicon VAlley had similar beginnings.

[11:29] Kazuhiro Aridian is Online

[11:29] JenzZa Misfit is Offline

[11:29] Aphilo Aarde: Terman convinced Stanford to use assets they had at the time - LAND - to start companies.

[11:30] Ju Roussel: Do you think the same process is happening now?

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: And in 1951, they started the Stanford Industrial Park, emerging out of Stanford University

[11:30] Aphilo Aarde: Good question - JU.

[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: Well, Stanford doesn't have nearly as much land to lease to engineers emerging, in part, out of Stanford, so we have a very different landscape ... and the culture of milieu

[11:31] Aphilo Aarde: which we'll look at in a while is less 'emergent' but I do think there's a lot of innovation still happening.

[11:32] Melchizedek Blauvelt: Right now the opposite is happening it seems, people seem to be extremely risk-averse (free content) and on the lookout for instant gratification (Twitter)

[11:32] Aphilo Aarde: I'd like to mention World University & School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University - which I'm developing, as an example

[11:32] Aphilo Aarde: This class is the first at it - although WUaS does link the 1900 courses of MIT Open Course Ware, and the

[11:32] Ju Roussel: Yes, did you notice any more interest after I mentioned WU at Metanomics Community Forum Thursday? ;)

[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: free open courses at Berkeley and Yale, for example ... all of these might be examples of contemporary kinds of bases for innovation.

[11:33] Aphilo Aarde: Thank you, Ju!

[11:34] Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: I think World University & School will grow gradually ... through word of mouth, such as what you did the other day at teh Metanomics Community Forum

[11:34] Aphilo Aarde: Interesting Mel

[11:35] Aphilo Aarde: I would say that innovation around Open Source and Free Ware carries on - alongside business - and that Twitter, even, is yet another example.

[11:35] Spider Mycron is Offline

[11:35] Ju Roussel: Sorry for being disruptive - the so called 'triple helix' relationships and success of Silicon Valley does not give peace to European politicians (and researchers, as well!)

[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: of open source and free ware, as is Second Life ... but it's how people make new things with these technologies that's so fascinating - and I'll make the case that so much has been done by accident and hacking, as you'll see).

[11:36] Aphilo Aarde: Yes, Ju - Japan tried to recreate the Silicon Valley culture in the 70s and 80s - but it's not very reproducible.

[11:37] Ju Roussel: You can't 'make' them.

[11:37] Aphilo Aarde: So, back to the Stanford Industrial Park in the 1950s.

[11:38] Aphilo Aarde: Terman convinced Stanford to use assets they had at the time - LAND - to start companies. And in 1951, they started the Stanford Industrial Park, emerging out of Stanford University

[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: And there were a lot of Stanford engineers and computer scientists in these newly forming companies

[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: in the openness of California culture in the 1950s

[11:39] Jules Mandelbrot is Offline

[11:39] Aphilo Aarde: And the Stanford Industrial Park also had access to Stanford faculty and students.

[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: Any new enterprise had to be approved by Stnaford - they alone could offer long term leases to companies.

[11:40] Aphilo Aarde: So Terman was able to pick and establish the first companies to be tenants -

[11:41] Aphilo Aarde: and the first was Hewlett Packard.

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: and the other was Varian

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: which also made radar parts

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: During the 1950s, under the initiative of Stanford, a cluster of innovative companies

[11:42] Aphilo Aarde: around Stanford

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: emerged - and, remember, it's this clustering which has made industrial revolutions so far-reaching.

[11:43] Aphilo Aarde: So into this context comes Shockley.

[11:44] Profdan Netizen is Offline

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: And the cluster of emerging companies on the West Coast, however, was not up to the level of east coast US companies.

[11:44] Profdan Netizen is Online

[11:44] Aphilo Aarde: (Like RCA and Raytheon, and a variety of companies relating to MIT, for one).

[11:45] Bon McLeod is Offline

[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: Shockley decided to go into Microelectronics, and brought with him the best MINDS from Bell Labs -

[11:45] Aphilo Aarde: The argument for this course is that MINDS are the raw material of the Information TEchnology revolution, again

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: Eight young engineers came west from the East Coast

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: 6 came from Bell Labs

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: and 2 from other labs.

[11:46] Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[11:46] Aphilo Aarde: They all wanted to work with Shockley

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: 1 was Bob Noyce, who later became known as the Mayor of Silicon Valley, and who worked on integrated circuits at Intel

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: Schockley's company failed

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: He was a genius, but a horrible person.

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: He later became a prominent professor.

[11:47] Aphilo Aarde: He tried to demonstrate the biological inferiority of women and African Americans, for example.

[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: But he was a genius - he was stubborn, actually

[11:48] Aphilo Aarde: He wanted to work on micro-circuits, but not in SILICON

[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: - we're still in the 50s, before silicon was used for chips -

[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: Shockley wanted to work in GALLISUM ARSENIDE

[11:49] Aphilo Aarde: *GALLIUM ARSENIDE

[11:50] Aphilo Aarde: Because of Shockley's wish to work with this material, the 8 engineers left Shockley Semiconductor - leaving the company an empty shell.

[11:50] Aphilo Aarde: And Shockley became a professor at Stanford.

[11:50] Aphilo Aarde: But due to the transistor, Shockley and others invented MICROELECTRONICS

[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: and migrated KNOWLEDGE to Silicon Vally.

[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: These 8 young engineers, and others, started Fairchild Semiconductors, now in the mid 1950s

[11:51] Aphilo Aarde: And each of these engineers alter split to create their own companies

[11:52] Aphilo Aarde: Fairchild led to INTEL and AMD, etc. - still the key processor manufacturers

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: and 140 COMPANIES WERE SPUN OUT of Fairchild - ASTOUNDING, in a way

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: In 1959, integrated circuits were invented.

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: And the Defense Department made up 50% of th market.

[11:53] Aphilo Aarde: Research programs for Microelectronics developed.

[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: In 1957, something else happened

[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: to put all these developments in context

[11:54] Aphilo Aarde: Can anyone say what happened?

[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: Sputnik - the Russian satellite system - was launched.

[11:55] Ju Roussel: :)

[11:55] Aphilo Aarde: It was the 1st human made satellite circling the earth

[11:55] XiuJuan Ying: were the americans pleasd

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: It also suggested that the backward Soviet system was overtaking the Americans into SPACE

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: :)

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: So, the Defense Department responded with money for TECHNOLOGY

[11:56] Aphilo Aarde: - that's how pleased they were

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: And in 1959 - a race to the moon emerged

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: "Nothing to be done there"

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: "No Night Life"

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: "Cannot Moonlight"

[11:57] Aphilo Aarde: Humans do interest things - don't you think :)

[11:57] XiuJuan Ying: no atmosphere

[11:58] Aphilo Aarde: After the extraordinary events of 1959, the military THEN became involved with technology

[11:58] Ju Roussel: Sputnik vs. First Man on the Moon. SL'ers were discussing where else in the Solar system there can be life.

[11:59] Aphilo Aarde: So, to recap - we have Microelectronics, Computing, and Telecommunications emerging on the one hand

[11:59] Aphilo Aarde: and Genetic Engineering, on the other hand

[12:00] Aphilo Aarde: Yes... SETI projects - Search for Extraterrestrial Life are legitimate science projects - if life emerged on earth ... genetic engineering - then it's logical that it may have emerged elsewhere

[12:01] Aphilo Aarde: but of course, life on earth emerged in very specific conditions 3.5. billion years ago, which may not be easily replicable

[12:01] Aphilo Aarde: GENETIC ENGINEERING - as another key aspect of the INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY revolution

[12:02] Aphilo Aarde: In 1953, it started - in hospitals, and with Crick and Watson decoding life~

[12:02] Aphilo Aarde: And it became TECHNOLOGY when UCSF and Stanford experimented with splicing

[12:03] Aphilo Aarde: (Remember the definition of technology for this course involves replicability, which gene splicing builds on).

[12:04] Aphilo Aarde: So Stanford, Maryland, DC, Virginia and Harvard were all major centers for gene splicing.

[12:04] Mab MacMoragh is Online

[12:04] Aphilo Aarde: Back to SILICON VALLEY

[12:04] Ju Roussel: Interestingly, Watson was always @ Cold Spring Harbor?

[12:05] Aphilo Aarde: Another key aspect to the information TEchnology reovlution were CULTURAL developments.

[12:05] Aphilo Aarde: not sure, JU - cold spring?

[12:05] Ju Roussel: CSHL - the 'Meca' of geneticists

[12:05] Ju Roussel: NY State

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: The cultural development that was so significant on a wide scale - was the ability to innovate by THINKING NEW APPLICATIONS

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: that weren't there before.

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: This emerged directly from the cultures of 1960s

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: Thinking Differently

[12:06] Aphilo Aarde: involves rebelling against the establishment

[12:07] Aphilo Aarde: Counterculture didn't want revolution; they wanted THEIR revolution.

[12:07] Aphilo Aarde: Culture inthis context was extremely important, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area

[12:08] Aphilo Aarde: where alternative forms of COMPUTING emerged, linked to the personal computer.

[12:08] Aphilo Aarde: This computer, which was originally called the microcomputer, came directly from the Homebrew Computer Club - in Sausalito (Marin county), Menlo Park (in the south SF Bay), and San Francisco itself.

[12:09] Aphilo Aarde: They were about finding codes that could work on computers.

[12:09] Aphilo Aarde: They created a world around new languages - computer languages.

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: And countercultural scientists such as Stewart Brand, who edited and wrote the Whole Earth Catalog

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: became public figures for counterculture

[12:10] Aphilo Aarde: And offered a 'bridge' betwen society and hippies

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: So culture was very important - and there was a lot of thinking about what to do with it.

[12:11] Profdan Netizen is Offline

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: This thinking had to to with

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: 1 decentralization

[12:11] Aphilo Aarde: 2 making things small -/ micro

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: 3 opening up source code to the public.

[12:12] JonathanE Cortes: Iv got an old coppy of that

[12:12] Zinnia Zauber is Online

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: These ways of thinking were ENTIRELY different from the thinking of IBM and ATT, etc.

[12:12] Aphilo Aarde: of what Jonathan?

[12:13] JonathanE Cortes: whole earth

[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: So to bring things together,

[12:13] Ju Roussel: Oh ues IBM could not figure it out for next 2 decades

[12:13] Aphilo Aarde: The Whole Earth Catalog is great - and worth perusing again and again t0 this day, for the way of thinking.

[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: So to bring things together, the most extraordinary aspects of the Information TEchnology Revolution were due to

[12:14] Aphilo Aarde: 1 an entrepreneurial attitude, partly relating to Stanford

[12:15] Aphilo Aarde: 2 that technology migrated from major research centers (like Bell Labs) and that then military money 'watered' all of these innovations.

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: 3 the cultural revolution from counterculture - leading to thinking differently, esepcially around technology

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: ANALYTIC AND SYSTEMATIC

[12:16] Aidan Aquacade is Offline

[12:16] Aphilo Aarde: What created Silicon Valley as the site of this information revolution?

[12:16] Zinnia Zauber is Offline

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: As background:

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: concerning regional economies ...

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: 1 All regional economies are based on

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: A. raw materials

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: B. capital (money)

[12:17] Aphilo Aarde: C. labor

[12:17] Gentle Heron is Offline

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: What was specifc to Silicon Valley?

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: There were specific forms of each of these.

[12:18] Christinapsu5152 Palianta is Online

[12:18] Ju Roussel: specialization/concentration of specific resources?

[12:18] Aphilo Aarde: A the raw material was knowledge and information generating capacity

[12:19] Zinnia Zauber is Online

[12:19] Aphilo Aarde: so, not exactly universities, and this knowledge came from Bell Labs, and then diffused.

[12:20] Aphilo Aarde: B Capital first came significantly from the military - but these were PULBIC monies, not private

[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: (yes - Ju - around knowledge)

[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: C labor - was hihgly skilled, technical and scientific labor

[12:21] Aphilo Aarde: with origins at Stanford and Berkeley - and with market origins, as well.

[12:22] Aphilo Aarde: It was part of these university's policies to produce more Ph.D.s in these years

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: to catch up with Harvard and MIT.

[12:23] Aphilo Aarde: Berkeley and Stanford produced less than half the Ph.D.s that Harvard and MIT produced in the 1950s and 60s.

[12:24] Aphilo Aarde: And then Stanford decided to fund engineering, and Berkeley got money from the State (of California and the Federal Government).

[12:25] Aphilo Aarde: In the 1960sHarvard and MIT produced 4 times as many Ph.D.s - and had a deliberate government policty to support this.

[12:25] Aphilo Aarde: So the government started to support financially more Ph.D.s in California, as an Inveestment in the Technology revolution.

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: Regarding B - CAPITAL again

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: There was a problem here

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: These technology businesses were RISKY

[12:26] Aphilo Aarde: They have to try something NEW

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: They also have to be stubborn, and keep trying

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: A startup on average fails 7 times.

[12:27] Aphilo Aarde: Venture capitalists liked to give money to failures - you'd have to conclude

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: In the 1960s, when the technology revolution was about to explode, there was no capital available.

[12:28] Michele Mrigesh is Online

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: So, two kinds of special capital developed.

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Capital which was designed to be lost

[12:28] Aphilo Aarde: 2 Capital which was defined as speculative

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: Money started to work as capital.

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: And the one who gives the money did not ever expect a return.

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: And who can do that?

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: The government.

[12:29] Aphilo Aarde: But why?

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: (International pride and competition?)

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: Actually, because they expect a return down the line -

[12:30] Ju Roussel: Cold War

[12:30] Aphilo Aarde: that is, because the capital investment comes back ...

[12:31] Aphilo Aarde: (the cold war - sputnik above - did spur the military to invest heavily in technology , but we're talking abou capital - so different institutions, as well).

[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: It's the part of givernment that doesn't care about cost, only performance

[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: > MILITARY INVESTMENT

[12:32] Aphilo Aarde: (rarely does capital not care about cost, or risk, another way of thinking about cost).

[12:33] Marian Dragovar is Online

[12:33] Aphilo Aarde: When you have to survivie, you don't count money - and this was the concern during the cold war, for some, in the US Defense Department).

[12:33] Aphilo Aarde: What made

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: Silicon Valley original was the unlimited funds from the military.

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: Companies could fail.

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: ... in this context.

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: If, finally, you might get a CHIP,

[12:34] Aphilo Aarde: you get military superiority.

[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: And it worked out exactly that way.

[12:35] Aphilo Aarde: 20 years later, the U.S. outperformed the Soviety Union completely - in 1984.

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: So, you have a purely military strategy in the 1970s, with all the money the military poured into informatio technology - and it paid off.

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: 2nd Source of capital

[12:36] Aphilo Aarde: - the capital you're ready to lose, because when you win, you win really, really big.

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: Overall, in the 1990s, venture capitalists had increased their bets by a factor of seven, counting potentially losses.

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: The reward came a little bit later.

[12:37] Aphilo Aarde: When industry developed, people from industry became rich.

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: Venture capital money came originally from inside industry.

[12:38] Aphilo Aarde: ... by starting to work together with other established firms.

[12:39] Aphilo Aarde: And all these special RAW MATERIALS, CAPTIAL, AND LABOR came together in one area - the SF Bay Area.

[12:39] Aphilo Aarde: And something else happens, as well.

[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: UC Berkeley Professor AnnaLee Saxenian in her book "Regional Advantage"

[12:40] Aphilo Aarde: compares Silicon Valley with the Boston rt 125 area

[12:40] Tutti Jupiter gave you villa cristine.

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: She shows how in the 1960s adn 70s, the Boston area was far ahead in

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: Microelectronics, computers, telecommunications, the internet

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: leading to new networks of technology and genetic engineering.

[12:41] Aphilo Aarde: Around these technologies, there are 2 key factors

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: 1 industry structure of specific companies which are suppliers

[12:42] Marian Dragovar is Offline

[12:42] Aphilo Aarde: Here networks of companies are developing knowledge of what they do best.

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: Universities do the same.

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: Complex organizations organized around networks constitute themselves again and again through history.

[12:43] Aphilo Aarde: 2 social networks also formed

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: THe world of silicon valley was made up of individuals, building their own companies, doing their own thing

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: People were required to sign confidentiality statements

[12:44] Aphilo Aarde: But in Silicon Valley, these were limited to 6 months only !

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: Otherwise, you wouldn't find people to work for you!

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: The edge shifted so quickly.

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: Social Networks - where peopl emet after work to talk about work sprang up.

[12:45] Aphilo Aarde: The key thing was a process of excitement about work

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: among engineers, students

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: that then network and lead to people creating their own companies

[12:46] Aphilo Aarde: This created a milieu of permeability - where nothing was stable

[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: And this is the missing link for understanding CULTURE in Silicon Valley when there was so much creativity - and which Saxenian documented.

[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: This leads to synergy where 2+2 = 5, not 4

[12:47] Aphilo Aarde: Why?

[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: Putting things together whose added value is more that things as separate entities, due to INTERACTION

[12:48] Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[12:48] Aphilo Aarde: and the added value du to elementes in the process.

[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: The FACT that Silicon Valley culture

[12:49] Aphilo Aarde: people and companies could talk to one another generated a MILIEU OF INNOVATION

[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: equaling a cluster set of research centers, companies, venture capital companies, labor markets, and

[12:50] Aphilo Aarde: professional organizations which - through INTERACTIONS - create synergy

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: Despite the traffic, congestion of Silicon Valley, people keep coming to SV

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: People get hooked and never get out.

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: This is the machine creating this revolution.

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: The Japanese tried to reproduce this pattern unsuccessfully ... because it wasn't organic.

[12:51] Aphilo Aarde: LAST STAGE

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: GLOBAL NETWORKING

[12:52] Hydra Shaftoe is Online

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: connecting to othe rplaces around the wolrd with the same SYNERGY generating capacity.

[12:52] Aphilo Aarde: This didn't happen the same way as in Silicon Valley.

[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: Electronic companies originally started to produce chips in low cost comopanies, particularly in the southeast ASIA

[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: The ADDED VALUE is really in the abiity to ADD KNOWLEDGE for profits.

[12:53] Aphilo Aarde: CRITICAL: is the ability to connect around the world, such as Taiwan does.

[12:54] Aphilo Aarde: So, how NETWORKING works in SOFTWARE

[12:54] Ju Roussel: or, knowledge without commercialization of ideas does not go far..

[12:54] Hydra Shaftoe is Offline

[12:55] Aphilo Aarde: yes, Ju, yet OPEN SOURCE and FREE WARE and NONMARKET INFORMATION PRODUCTION (Benkler) seems to be a new part of economic processes, fascinatingly.

[12:55] Aphilo Aarde: So, how NETWORKS works in SOFTWARE

[12:56] Aphilo Aarde: e.g. in Banglaore - These networks are generally organized by IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: Someone from India, China or Taiwan comes with an Electrical Engineering degree, stays, learns the trade,and creates a company

[12:57] Aphilo Aarde: and then reestablishes contact with the country they came from, through their company

[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: Through personal connections, Silicon Valley has established worldwide networks, but not to all places in the world.

[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: So there's a different kind of production system worldwide.

[12:58] Aphilo Aarde: SUMMARY

[12:59] Mab MacMoragh is Offline

[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: How the information technology revolution lead to a new PARADIGM OF Technology and Socioeconomic organization.

[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: PARADIGM

[12:59] Aphilo Aarde: A paradigm here is a cluster of interrlated innovations, technoloies, managerial

[13:00] Aphilo Aarde: innovations. This cluster is able to generate new products and processes leading to synergies and improving productivity.

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: PARADIGM the system needs each other for progress in every field to come together.

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: So, to close - here are the five aspects of this new information technology paradigm.

[13:01] Kate Miranda is Offline

[13:01] Aphilo Aarde: 1 It's about INFORMATION GENERATION AND PROCESSING

[13:02] Profdan Netizen is Online

[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: 2 It's PERVASIVE, AND IT INVADES AND INFLUENCES EVERY DOMAIN OF SOCIOECONOMIC ACTIVITY

[13:02] Aphilo Aarde: 3 CHARACTERIZED BY NETWORKING - mentalities, companies, people, etc.

[13:03] Breeze Underwood is Offline

[13:03] Aphilo Aarde: 4 there's a quality of FLEXIBILITY - the system is such that it can reorganize and reprogram components without disintegration

[13:04] Breeze Underwood is Online

[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: 5 There's a TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE in integrating this OPEN SYSTEM, not closing, and which is bounded only by technological devleopments.

[13:04] Aphilo Aarde: NEXT week

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: 1 Context of braoder social and political circumstances of IT REVOLUTION

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: 2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNET

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: So, that's what I wanted to relate to you this week.

[13:05] Ju Roussel: Great story, amazingly put together by you. Applause!

[13:05] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks :)

[13:06] Melchizedek Blauvelt: yay!

[13:06] sandhya2 Patel: thank you

[13:06] JonathanE Cortes: thx very good

[13:06] Aphilo Aarde: The information technology revolution is fascinating - and I'd also like to acknowledge Professor Manuel Castells' research and contribution to this.

[13:06] XiuJuan Ying: thanx Aphilo, interesting as usual :-)

[13:07] Cat Abeyante is Offline

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: I'd also like to invite you to begin to talk about World University and School - to explore how the open teaching and learning possibilities there might begin

[13:07] Dusty Artaud is Online

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: to generate and ongoing culture of innovation ...

[13:07] Aphilo Aarde: There are already a lot of resources there.

[13:08] Mab MacMoragh is Online

[13:08] Cat Abeyante is Online

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: And thanks for your observations ... type chat allows for multiple concurrent conversations ...

[13:08] Ju Roussel: Yes, very interesting, let me know if there is any way to help you from here out-/in- world

[13:08] Ju Roussel: so I went to the spreadsheets today

[13:08] Aphilo Aarde: Thanks ... will do ... I'd like to invite you all to join this Google Group

[13:09] Ju Roussel: and shamelessly added myself

[13:09] Ju Roussel: [posted via g group]

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: Great!

[13:09] Aphilo Aarde: Ju

[13:09] Ju Roussel: The most amazing thing is - I followed your blog from before Christmas

[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: As part of this Google Group, there are spreadsheets with beginning lists of moderators for World Univ a& Sch ubjects

[13:10] Ju Roussel: That is, before I realized you were in-world

[13:10] Aphilo Aarde: 'Subjects,' 'Languages,' and "Nation States'

[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: Great Ju, as well - here's my blog, too - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/

[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: For the Google Groups World Univ spreadsheets, they're an opportunity to engage what you know, or what you'd like to learn

[13:11] Aphilo Aarde: Adding your name to them is a little like becoming a Wikipedia moderator

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: And Wikipedia has something like 14 million articles in 272 languages

[13:12] Ju Roussel: I have a team of 900+ business admin./management studies authors potentially contributing.

[13:12] Aphilo Aarde: all shaped by us, so I welcome you to teach something to your web camera at World University & School, about whatever you like :)

[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: or learn something - great free software there -

[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software

[13:13] Aphilo Aarde: Interesting, Ju.

[13:13] Tarek String is Online

[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: World Univ & Sch is about fee and open teaching and learning - with an academic focus on great universities' open, free content.

[13:14] Ju Roussel: :) I coordinate a semi-open source :) project. Learned so much from them so far!

[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: Please add links to WUaS by clicking 'edit this page'

[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: I'm interested in generating community

[13:14] Aphilo Aarde: So, thank you all very much for coming.

[13:14] Kazuhiro Aridian is Offline

[13:15] Aphilo Aarde: And I'll be here next week

[13:15] sandhya2 Patel: thank you for your presentation

[13:15] sandhya2 Patel: : ))

[13:15] Aphilo Aarde: the web is remarkable for learning opportunities

[13:15] Aphilo Aarde: yw, Sandhya!

[13:15] Tarek String is Offline

[13:15] Ju Roussel: Have a great weekend, everyone.

[13:15] XiuJuan Ying: thany you for a great talk

[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: yw - see you next week - and I have office hours now, if you have any thoughts

[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: obsrvations, questions.

[13:16] XiuJuan Ying: i have now joined yr google grou

[13:16] Kymsara Rayna is Offline

[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: Great, Xiu! Thanks

[13:16] Aphilo Aarde: http://socinfotech.pbworks.com/ is where this transcript can be found





*


Welcome to Information Technology and Society





*


In this class we'll focus on how the information technology revolution developed, especially vis-a-vis long time Berkeley Professor Manuel Castells' research on the Network Society, as well as webnographers.org - a wiki bibliography on virtual ethnography.



I invite your questions, and I'll post a version of the text from each class to

socinfotech.pbworks.com over the weeks.

There's already a lot of information on this wiki, which will develop with time.



Please join the Google Group for World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT Open Course Ware -

groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School


For more information:
scottmacleod.com







(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/02/mantis-shrimp-information-technology.html - February 16, 2010)