InfoCompanions » Inspiring

Technology Made Personal

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:34:34 +0000

Check out this cool Google search ad. Love how it makes technology feel “personal” and such an integral part of our life.

Richard St. John: “Success is a continuous journey”

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:41:38 +0000

In his typically candid style, Richard St. John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business’ rise and fall to illustrate a valuable lesson — when we stop trying, we fail.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:28:39 +0000

Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem — the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to build systems and communities that are completely independent of fossil fuels.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ian Goldin: Navigating our global future

admin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:06:05 +0000

As globalization and technological advances bring us hurtling towards a new integrated future, Ian Goldin warns that not all people may benefit equally. But, he says, if we can recognize this danger, we might yet realize the possibility of improved life for everyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:01:38 +0000

Becky Blanton planned to live in her van for a year and see the country, but when depression set in and her freelance job ended, her camping trip turned into homelessness. In this intimate talk, she describes her experience of becoming one of America’s working homeless.

Click here to view the embedded video.

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model

admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:36:05 +0000

Am not a great fan of “concept cars”, but BMW Gina deserves special attention for completely rethinking out of the box. Check out the cool premiere video below, where Chris Bangle, Director of Design, BMW Group, describes the thought process that went behind this cool pair of wheels. No wonder GM and Ford are struggling just to survive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Simon Whatley has some interesting pics. Also check out TechFresh.net for related pics.

Kwame Anthony Appiah and Golden Nugget Theory

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:58:20 +0000

Kwame Anthony Appiah was born in London, raised in Kumasi, Ghana, and educated at Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. A world traveler immersed in everything from ethics to racial identity, he has written often about Africans and African-Americans and has set his fiction in England and Italy.

In this video, takes to task the myths of Western culture and civilization, explaining the “Golden Nugget” theory and its five major errors. Get ready for his deconstruction of a monolith.

Also check out his article in “The Washington Post” titles, “If You Think Your Taxes Are Unjust, Just Think Again”. Chris Navin has a cool review from one of his NY Times articles… check it out at “Kwame Anthony Appiah In The NY Times: The New New Philosophy”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tibet – Technology Bridging the Divide

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:30:37 +0000

What are the first few words that come to your mind when you think of Tibet… spiritual and breathtakingly beautiful landscape? Disputed land? Watch Losang Rabgey share a “lesser known” side of Tibet, one where this ancient tribe of people want to participate in the new globalization as much as you or me. Those of you especially interested in stories where technology can act as a “bridge” to connect people and communities – this is a feast for the eyes and ears! Losang gives a brief demo of Tibetan Himalayan Digital Library, the first online gallery of contemporary Tibetan art, launched as part of the Machik, a non-profit organization working to develop new opportunities for education, capacity-building and innovation on the Tibetan plateau.

In Losang’s words, “Technology can flatten the world for local communities in disparate areas. These same people have other aspirations to be fully engaged in a globalized world but on their own terms as much as on the world’s terms. So if you would like to witness a small but ancient tribe of people move successfully past marginalization and into an empowered bright future, then I invite you to participate in a remarkable story that we hope has a sustainable future.”

Raised in Canada, Losang was recognized as an Emerging Explorer by the National Geographic for her innovative work in bridging cultural divides.

Connect with Losang on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Losang-Rabgey/549208134

Click here to view the embedded video.

Architecture for Humanity

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 05:35:36 +0000

Neema Mgana is a social entrepreneur and was the youngest of 1000 women from around the world jointly nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. She has founded several community organizations like:

1. “Everyone’s Child” – Founded in 2000, “Everyone’s Child” is a community-based organization that provides education, health and other services to children infected by AIDS. Over 200 children receive these services on a daily basis in a community center that the organization built in 2003.

2. “African Regional Youth Initiative (ARYI)”: While a first-year graduate student in 2003, Neema founded this organization which works directly with over 400 community and youth organizations to jointly develop, implement, and evaluate community, national and regional strategies focusing on development issues in Africa.

3. “Forum for Global Action”: In an effort to foster innovative thinking on international development, she co-founded the Forum for Global Action in 2006. One of the focus areas of the forum is on women’s leadership that is being implemented in Africa, Asia, and South America.

4. “African Women of Distinction project”: A peace and justice project created in 2006, the project highlights the leadership role of women in Africa. In addition, it also works with over 180 young men and women in Africa to build and nurture their leadership skills through leadership trainings, mentorship and information and communication technology.

In this video, Neema shares the progress of her partnership with Cameron Sinclair’s “Architecture for Humanity” program. “Architecture for Humanity”, an organization that brings design, construction and development services to communities in need through a global network of building professionals. Neema has paired with Cameron Sinclair to initiate the building process. Together, they’re creating a community-based health center in the rural Singida region of Tanzania.

Connect with Neema on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Neema-Mgana/683867208

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jay Walker – Library of Human Imagination

admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:49:11 +0000

Many of you know Jay Walker as the founder of Priceline.com, who made (and lost) billions during the dotcom boom era. Born 1956, Jay is an American entrepreneur who also founded Walker Digital, a private R&D laboratory based in Stamford, CT. He founded the lab in 1994 with the guiding vision that new consumer applications for large-scale networks represent the key growth opportunity for many industries. In total, Walker Digital has invented about 1,000 applications for the Internet, cell phones, credit-card networks, and casino networks, as well as vending machines and lottery and retail networks. At one point Mr. Walker’s net worth topped USD $4 billion, which was almost entirely Priceline.com stock.

A lesser known fact – Jay Walker is also the curator of the Library of Human Imagination. Check out some of the surprises from his library in this engaging TED presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

His library is 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels, and showcases his vast/crazy collection including 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle, 1535 Coverdale Bible, 1660 celestial atlas by Andrea Cellarius, 1665 Micrographia by Robert Hooke or his Kelmscott Chaucer, real meteorites, an original Sputnik from the 7 surviving Sputniks, an American flag which was carried to the moon and bag on Apollo 11, the original chandelier from the James Bond flick Die Another Day… and many more such brain numbing “stuff” like an Enigma code machine and complete dinosaur skeleton.

Check out some of the pics of his library here: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

The question is – what use is a library if its doors are closed to the “knowledge seeker” – the public? Schoolchildren, executives, politicians and scholars can visit the library by invitation only.

Social Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

admin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:03:06 +0000

I have always been a great fan of Daniel Goleman’s work. His bestseller book, “Emotional Intelligence and working with Emotional Intelligence”, caught the business world by storm. In the book Daniel argued that the secret of success is not IQ, a business school degree, technical know or even years of expertise. Instead, in most cases, it’s Emotional Intelligence that plays the key role.

This weekend I got the chance to catch up with his follow-up work, “Social Intelligence – The new science of Human Relationships”. Daniel describes Social Intelligence as the interpersonal part of Emotional Intelligence. He argues that human beings are “wired to connect” with brains of other individuals. Our brain is “Social”, meaning that our interactions with others, verbal or visual, have a far-reaching biological impact, sending out cascades of hormones that regulate everything from our hearts to our immune systems, making good relationships act like vitamins–and bad relationships like poisons. Daniel points out those emotions are “contagious” – we can “catch” other people’s emotions the way we catch a cold. The “Social Brain” has something called “Mirror Neurons”, which sense both the move another person is about to make and their feelings, and instantaneously prepares us to imitate that movement and feel with them. This is extremely important when you consider implications on the business world, when negotiating with the opposite party, and especially in Leadership. Followers are naturally attuned to mirror the emotions of the leaders.

Hmmmm… does this make it all the more important for leaders to manage emotions? Sometimes I think of a true leader as a symphony conductor – aware and being one with the surroundings, attuned to each and every musician in his group, expert in communication both verbally, by movements of the hand, gestures, facial expressions… all in order to create a state of the art experience for the audience – the final product. Agree/Disagree?

The book points to experiments, like a British study of health care workers who had supervisors on alternate days, once they dreaded and one they liked. One the days the dreadful boss worked, their average blood pressure jumped 13 points for the systolic and 6 for diastolic. Wow. I guess now those law suites we hear of… where employees claim heath issues from workplace harassement, may hold some truth.

Too often, when leaders deliver a message, the content takes the first seat and the “HOW” is ignored. Daniel points out to a study where when a manager delivered a piece of bad news (disappointment that an employer had failed to reach performance goals) with a warm demeanor, people neverthless rated the interaction positively. When good news (pleasure that the goals had been met) was delivered with sullen expression, the interaction paradoxically left people feeling bad. This points to the fact that leader’s emotional tone has a surprising power over the organization.

Interestingly, Daniel points out that today’s technological advances which have given birth to the concept of “global communities” and “online virtual worlds” might have a sinister down-side. He discusses the concept of social corrosion resulting from “technocreep”:

“… There are unknowns in the ways humans around the words are connecting – and disconnecting –as technology offers more varieties of nominal communication in actual isolation. These trends signal the slow vanishing of opportunities for people to connect. This inexplorable technocreep is so insidious that no one has yet calculated its social and emotional costs.”

“The one-person shell created by headphones intensifies social insulation. Even when the wearer has a one-on-one face-to-face encounter, the sealed ears offer a ready excuse to treat the people as an object, something to navigate around rather than someone to acknowledge, or, at the very least, notice.”

Daniel argues, “to the extent that technology absorbs people in a virtual reality, it deadens them to those who are actually nearby. The resulting social autism adds to the ongoing list of unintended consequences of the continuing invasion of technology into our daily lives”

Daniel makes a powerful point… which I hate to admit, I have noticed myself. Looking back, I can see how I switched from the good old paperback edition of books to MP3 versions. The convenience and ease is just undeniably one of those things that attracted me to audio books in the first place. Plugin that iPod and take it wherever you go… the long drive, the gym, the walk from the parking lot to work… however, I realize that I DID get in a “bubble” when listening to those books… sometimes so much so that a 10 hour cross-state drive seemed like something I looked forward to!! Yeah – that’s sick for sure. And lemme not forget my huge twitter list who I believe NEED to know everything and anything I do. And my virtual social network, on those gazillion websites out there, where I HAVE to drop in to “show some luv”. Have you paused and wondered if a comment on “My Wall” is really something that “connects” me to my ”virtual” peep sitting in Russia? Do we really understand Social Networking?

“In 1970s two-thirds of Americans belonged to organizational with regular meetings that they attended. That number has dropped to about one-third by the 1990s… New organizations keep people at a distance. Membership comes via e-mails or mass-mailings, and the main activity boils down to sending money, not getting together.”

I agree with Daniel that this new “communication culture” is still too new. There are unknowns in the ways humans around the world are connecting – and man disconnecting – as technology offers more varieties. Are we losing that “personal touch”? Am still looking for that “right answer” – What do you think?

The book has a vast multitude of stories and references to research materials which makes it a very interesting read. Usually I take at least a week to finish off a book, mostly reading an hour or so in the night… but this one got me reading all through thanksgiving

Check out the “introductory” video by Daniel Goleman below… and also 2 related posts – Daniel points out the connection between Social Intelligence and Leadership, and the inspiring Ted presentation on Compassion and Empathy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Keith Ferrazi – Never Eat Alone

admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:03:23 +0000

Folks who read my previous post on Keith Ferrazi’s book “Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time”, will find this post interesting. A contact pointed me to this video where Keith opens up about the book. You’ll get a chance to see his powerful presentation skills… an awesome and engaging story teller for sure.

In this video, he talks about how to have real relationships in your professional life; how to warm a cold call; finding time to build relationships; opening yourself to others’ generosity, and many other cool ideas, that will help you eliminate artificial boundaries between personal and professional relationships.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Never Eat Alone

admin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:38:30 +0000

So I finally got the chance to get to this book in my reading list, “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi. Keith has a very powerful writing style… no bs, no subtleties, no time wasted in long eloquent sentences. Just straight to the point, and plain straight talk.

Never Eat Alone - Cover

Keith managed to grab my attention from the very first page when he shares his personal life, stories from his childhood struggle. He talks about his less than humble childhood, economic hardship etc. He then introduces his dad as the guiding post, the beacon of direction and guidance for his life. It’s clear that the first few lessons in leadership, emotional intelligence, self-confidence for Keith came from his dad. Like a true leader, Keith builds his connection with the audience (readers) by exposing a bit of vulnerability.

The phrase “Network, Network, Network” has been used and abused over and over again in business schools and professional world alike. However, it’s amazing at how most of the literature continues to be more focused on the “one-sided” and “cold-calling” aspects. The idea of a “network” remains primarily as someone who can get us the next job, or help solidify that next big deal.

This book is the first of its kind that does a great job in bringing out the fact that “Networking” is different from “Connecting”. Keith argues that connecting is a 2 lane road as compared to networking which ends up being a one lane road. Connecting is a constant process of giving and receiving – of asking for and offering help. By putting people in contact with one another, by giving your time and expertise and sharing them freely, the pie gets bigger for everyone. The importance of connecting your circles has always been downplayed or NOT given enough attention in most of the literature so far – something Keith does a great job at.

Keith argues, “Relationships are NOT finite, like a pie that can only be cut into so many pieces. They are more like muscles – the more you work them, the stronger they become. Relationships are solidified by trust. Institutions are built on it. You gain trust by asking not what people can do for you, but what you can do for others. In other words – the currency of real networking is not greed, but generosity.”

Keith talks about his personal experience at Deloitte and argues, “A successful mentoring relationship needs equal parts utility and emotion. You can’t simply ask somebody to be personally invested in you. There has to be reciprocity involved – whether it’s hard work or loyalty that you give in return – that gets someone to invest in you in the first place. Then when the process kicks in, you have to mold your mentor into a coach; someone for whom success is in small or big way his success.”

One of the most interesting chapters in the book talks about the all too familiar concept – Work-Life Balance. Keith states that “Work-Life Balance is BS”. Yup… that’s what he says. Keith argues that a relationship driven career isn’t a career at all… it’s a way of life. “The kind of false idea of balance as some sort of an equation, that you could take this many hours from one side of your life and give it to this other side, flew out of the window. And with it went all the stress of trying to achieve that perfect state of equilibrium we read and hear about so much. Balance can’t be bought or sold. It doesn’t need to be “implemented”. Balance is a mind-set, as individual and unique as our genetic code. Where you find joy, you find balance.”

Contrary to the conventional business wisdom, Keith argues that there doesn’t need to be a rigid line between our private and public lives. “Old-School business views the expression of emotions and compassion as vulnerability; today’s new business people see such attributes as the glue that binds us. When our relationships are stringer, our business and careers are more successful.”

Bottom line – this book proves to be refreshingly different from a gazillion other networking books out there. The focus on “Connecting” vs “Networking”, plus some great real life stories from Keith’s tenure as the CMO of Deloitte and then CMO at Starwood make this a very interesting read. A must read!

Check out the book on Amazon and check out Keith’s website for some of his cool stuff.

UPDATE: Check out my new blog post with a 5 min video from Ketih Ferrazi

The Mystery Box

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:00:00 +0000

J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery — the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield — back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About J.J. Abrams:
As the Emmy-winning creator of the smart, addictive TV dramas Lost, Alias and Felicity, J.J. Abrams’ name looms large on the small screen. As the writer/director behind the blockbuster explode-a-thon Mission: Impossible III, the upcoming Cloverfield and the next Star Trek movie, these days Abrams also rules the big screen — bringing his eye for telling detail and emotional connection to larger-than-life stories.

Abrams’ enthusiasm — for the construction of Kleenex boxes, for the quiet moments between shark attacks in Jaws, for today’s filmmaking technologies, and above all for the potent mystery of an unopened package — is incredibly infectious.

Life at 30,000 feet

admin — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 06:00:00 +0000

When Richard Branson was at school, his headmaster predicted he would wind up either a millionaire or in jail. Since then, he’s done both. He talks about the ups and the downs of his career, from his multibillionaire success to his multiple near-death experiences, from Virgin’s line of spacecraft to the failure of the Virgin condom. He also reveals some of his (very surprising) motivations.

About Richard Branson:
He’s ballooned across the Atlantic, floated down the Thames with the Sex Pistols, and been knighted by the Queen. His megabrand, Virgin, is home to more than 250 companies, from gyms, gambling houses and bridal boutiques to fleets of planes, trains and limousines. The man even owns his own island.

And now Richard Branson is moving onward and upward into space (tourism): Virgin Galactic’s Philippe Starck-designed, Burt Rutan-engineered spacecraft are slated to start carrying passengers into the thermosphere in 2009, at $200,000 a ticket.

Branson also has a philanthropic streak. He’s pledged the next 10 years of profits from his transportation empire (an amount expected to reach $3 billion) to the development of renewable alternatives to carbon fuels. And then there’s his Virgin Earth Challenge, which offers a $25 million prize to the first person to come up with an economically viable solution to the greenhouse gas problem.

Fighting injustice with a videocamera

admin — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Musician and activist Peter Gabriel starts his talk by sharing the painful, personal story behind his own investment in human rights causes. He relates some of the terrible stories he’s encountered throughout his extensive travels, and explains how these stories inspired him to create the human-rights watchdog group WITNESS, which distributes digital cameras to ordinary citizens so they can document injustice and abuse.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Peter Gabriel:
In 1988, Peter Gabriel embarked on the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour. During his travels, Gabriel encountered people with horrific stories to tell: stories of torture, murder and abuse that had been denied and forgotten by those in power. Gabriel became convinced of the profound need to shine a spotlight into these unseen corners of the world.

In 1992, he co-founded the watchdog group WITNESS, which arms ordinary people with digital cameras, enabling them to create and distribute films about the states of their own lives, transforming individual stories of abuse and violation into powerful tools for justice. His tireless advocacy has helped build WITNESS into one of the world’s great engines of citizen journalism.

15 Ways to Avert a Climate Crisis

admin — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000

With the same humor and humanity he exuded in his famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways we can address climate change, from buying a hybrid car to inventing a hotter brand name for global warming. First, though, comes a hilarious set of stories from “The New Gore”, who turns out to be a stand-up comedian.

The former Vice President has plenty of joke material, and he’s funnier than you’ve ever seen him. Then he gets down to grittier matters with a list of actions ordinary people can take to stem the tide of global warming. His message: Doing something is easier than you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Al Gore:
Unlike some in public office, Al Gore always intended to get something done, and since leaving Washington, DC – following the tumultuous 2000 election – he’s still at it. In fact, his campaign for alerting the world to the dangers of climate change has only gained momentum. His Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth is the third most successful documentary ever released at the box office. Gore’s famed PowerPoint presentation has drawn in a reluctant public, with its meticulously researched content and lucid style.

Meanwhile, Gore himself has found his footing as a communicator. The once “wooden” style has given way to a warmth and humor that reveal the depth of his experience as a soldier, congressman, senator, veep, TV executive, teacher and author. Arguably, Gore is better positioned today than he has ever been to affect the future of our environment and world.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.

Inventing and Giving

admin — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Innovator Dean Kamen lays out his argument for the Segway shortly after its official unveiling. As he loops gracefully around the stage, his fact- and figure-reeling betrays his intensity: 50 percent of the world population lives in cities; 43 percent of the refined fuel produced in the world is consumed by cars in metropolitan areas in the US; “the last mile is the problem.” He also gives an update on FIRST — the nonprofit he founded to celebrate teenagers’ achievements in science and technology — and offers a glimpse into his next big ideas: portable energy and water purification for the developing world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Dean Kamen:
Dean Kamen is an innovator, but not just of things. He hopes to revolutionize attitudes, quality of life, awareness. While an undergraduate, he developed the first portable infusion device, which delivers drug treatments that once required round-the-clock hospital care. And, through his DEKA Research and Development, which he cofounded in 1982, he developed a portable dialysis machine, a vascular stent, and the iBOT — a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs (Stephen Colbert took one for a spin).

Yes, he’s a college dropout, but he’s a huge believer in education, and in 1989 established the nonprofit FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to inspire teenagers to pursue careers in science. FIRST sponsors lively annual competitions, where students form teams to create the best robot.

His focus now is on off-grid electricity and water purification for developing countries; another recent project, is a prosthetic arm for maimed soldiers. He’s also working on a power source for the wonderful Think car. And, with more funding in the works, we haven’t seen the last of the Segway.

InfoCompanions » Inspiring

Technology Made Personal

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Richard St. John: “Success is a continuous journey”

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Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil

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Ian Goldin: Navigating our global future

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Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless

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BMW GINA Light Visionary Model

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Kwame Anthony Appiah and Golden Nugget Theory

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Tibet – Technology Bridging the Divide

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Architecture for Humanity

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Jay Walker – Library of Human Imagination

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Social Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

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Keith Ferrazi – Never Eat Alone

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Never Eat Alone

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The Mystery Box

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Life at 30,000 feet

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Fighting injustice with a videocamera

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15 Ways to Avert a Climate Crisis

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Inventing and Giving

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