Conceptual leaps forward often owe their origins to artistic or scientific processes that are far removed form the regular beat of our lives, at the crossroads between Art and Science one can find amazing creative evolution.
Unfortunately we tend to focus more on consumption than on creativity; we don’t nurture or value the creative process and the individuals that take part in it enough we prefer to be passive observers. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being around scientists or highly creative people you know first hand that they don’t see the world like we do at all. Everything to them tends to be a source of inspiration, an opportunity to try, to explore to create and they often don’t really mind that we think that they are quirky. They’re not afraid to expose themselves and try.
Reorganizing our education system and businesses to encourage creative thought and expression seems like a basic need today, but we are not taking the steps to get there fast enough. Some would argue that we are not taking them at all.
Take the time this weekend, disconnect from the matrix to think act differently. We might start something by collectively not being afraid to express ourselves.
Throughout my life I have been involved in media in one form or another. Having had the opportunity to experience professionally both sides of the fence, from holding the mike to being on the business end of one, I still find myself in awe when it comes to the impact that our communication mediums have on the depth of discourse in today’s society.
As a journalist you’re on a never ending quest for the right sound byte or words to effectively communicate the truth of a story in a certain amount of time. On the flip side, you do your best to make your the ideas as clear and concise as possible so that journalists latch on to the right message because in the end you know they have only 30 seconds for you in the next broadcast.
Unfortunately sometimes an idea can’t be crunched down to 30 seconds or even to 5 minutes; you need to explain it because it’s new or outside conventional thinking. But you can’t take the time to explain because if you do nobody will listen, you lose the attention of the audience… and when that happens the advertising revenue that allows media to exist is negatively impacted and can affect their capacity to communicate your message.
Some would say that digital channels change this reality but I would argue that they perpetuate it. Blogs postings have to be short, video clips on YouTube are short, most podcasts’ are short and we text our thoughts in 140 character chunks.
So we are caught in an attention span and media consumption paradox that sometimes limits the depth of thought and advancement of ideas that could positively change our world. But is it in fact a paradox or a reflection of who we are?
Reading the thoughts of Geeks on Ice co-founder in the paper last week got me thinking about the IT industry in our province. It’s a safe bet that if we extrapolated on MacAusland’s research of last year and surveyed all the companies in the province, 90% of us would support the creation of an association. How could we be against a virtuous idea right?
But at the same time, one could argue that today many of the various needs that a provincial association could fill are already being met;
We have strong initiatives in Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John that fill the need to promote regional advantages/strengths and lobby government from the economic development side of things.
Geeks on Ice is a great networking activity, some Cybersocial’s are still active, new networking events like Third Tuesdays have emerged, new associations and new conferences are slowly taking their place to fill needs in specific segments of the industry (not an exhaustive list for course).
So what true needs would a provincial association fill? Industry promotion, Government lobbying, what? And more importantly what would we do with all the regional initiatives that are already well established?
In a perfect world we would be exploring ways of pulling the KIRA and Rising Stars awards and other provincial based initiatives under one umbrella organization at this time. We would find ways to fold the non for profit regional economic development initiatives specific to our industry (promotion, lobbying, labor, etc..) into the association in the form of sub-comities to maintain regional relevance and participation. We would ensure that no activities are duplicated, that a singular focus with regional consideration exists and that everyone pulls in the same direction… for the good of the industry and the province.
Ok… the likelihood of all of this happening rate’s just slightly above my chances of winning the next 6-49 draw this week. And yet, these steps should all be discussed before starting to talk about a viable provincial association. Collectively, we are no bigger than a small city in our province after all.
The collapse of the NBITA many years ago was not the force that pushed regional interests to take precedence over provincial considerations; filling specific needs and leadership did that.
So a simple question, can the amazing local leadership that’s been demonstrated over the last ten years be focused towards provincial goals? Would everyone be ready to give some to possibly gain more?
Imagine my surprise when over supper last night I saw a report from Radio-Canada about Rogers offering a new high-speed cellular network between Moncton and Halifax. A North American first right here in Atlantic Canada!
Knowing full well the cost of using a data plan with the wireless providers in Canada, the first thought that I had was “this is cool”. This was of course after I hearing the cash registers at Rogers go ka’tching!
So back to the subject of the post, are you going to use video calling and will you be able to afford it? It’s a nifty service for sure and it’s a safe bet that over time it will be indispensable just like email and texting have become. But right now, the data plan costs are much too high compared to other markets.
If we could only get a legitimate iPhone service and affordable data plans in Canada that would allow us to take full advantage of mobile device services I would be the first in line to signup. But that’s not the case and won’t be for a while because of the makeup of the competitive landscape in Canada.
I can just imagine that the new running joke in a few years will be “can you see me now?” all while waiting in line at the bank to get a second mortgage to pay for the data plan.
Over the last two years whenever I have spoken in public or given seminars related to technology I have taken the opportunity to expose the public to the NetNeutrality issue.
At the beginning of all of this, nine times out of ten the initial reaction that I perceive is one that can be compared to the “blinded deer (or moose) in the middle of the road look”, its to technical and fundamental. But these day’s I am noticing a distinct change in people’s knowledge of the subject, they know more about the issue but to them it’s all about “running out of bandwidth”.
Within two years people have gone from not knowing about the issue to having opinions that are completely off the mark. The only explanation that I have for this takes its roots in the amount of news reports that talk of Net Neutrality from a “running out of bandwidth” perspective.
It’s an unfortunate example of how the press has simplified a story so much that it looses its core truths. NetNeutrality is now a casualty, and suffers from journalist’s lack of research initiative and the unfortunate realities that come with having all but 30-60 to talk about a subject in news reports.
People don’t know don’t grasp the importance of the issue and its not a real “sexy” subject so I can understand it doesn’t get a lot of air play, but when you stop and thing about the implications of loosing the Net Neutrality battle it tends to give me nightmares.
While the candidates for the next US presidential elections are talking about it with the right terminology and from the right perspective, the media and politicians here in Canada are only slowly waking up and unfortunately they are signing the wrong tune and marching to the wrong beat.
In my original blog post on this subject I asked what we could do to put NetNeutrality on the table with other election issues. Today, we seem to have take a few big steps back and the real question becomes how do fix the publics perception of the issue?
Charlton Heston’s passing yesterday made me think back to an episode of NPR’s On the Media that aired a couple of weeks ago. The report discussed the general misconception that American have about the second amendment.
Most US citizens think that their constitution guarantees them the right to bare arms, that they have the right to own and carry a gun for their own protection. As a reminder here is the complete second amendment text;
I don’t know about you but when I read this the right to bare arms is clearly conferred to “a well regulated militia” that is necessary to ensure “the security of a free state”, something like the National Guard.
Instead of taking the time to read the amendment, most are satisfied and hold as truth what is propagated by popular culture and the Media. Owning a gun is one of the defining characteristics of their culture, it’s as American as apple pie. It is a part of the American dream… It is the American way.
So while Heston’s passing was an automatic link to gun laws in my mind because of his deep roots to the NRA for million of others it will mean that Moses has left the building.
Ok this is cool. It took me all but 5 minutes to setup everything so that updates on the blog would automatically update my Twitter and Facebook profiles. Anyone would have told me back in the day that it would have been this easy… I would have laughed.
I don’t know why I waited so long to leave Jaiku and jump to Twitter, its always a question of time in the end realy. Now going to try this setup for a while.
Finished setting up the new host account and WordPress last night. Easy as pie, tool me all but 20 minutes for everything. It was refreshing.
The simple tweaks to the interfaces where kind of fun to play around with, hey who doesn’t like to leave their paw print right! If I look back at the last 11 years I can say the following with complete certitude… managed services are the only approach that makes sense for 99.9% of every SME’s!
