This is just amazing – check out www.sciencecommons.org this site is serving as an open source repository for the world’s science information. This type of project just boggles my mind especially since this was no already happening. The possibilities for something like this are endless: giving individual scientists the knowledge to build upon the research of others and innovate in new ways!!! My mind almost hurts from excitement!
Over the coming months I will begin to feature people and organizations that are forwarding the conversation. A friend of mine, Zach Kolodin, has recently started an organization called Young People First. The organization seeks to create a Young People’s Agenda designed to organize young people around America’s chronic problems. Organizations like this are precisely what is needed to connect conversations and create joint-action. I believe that this organization is truly sourced in the idea that “we did not put our ideas together. We put our purposes together and we agreed. Then we decided.”
In order to truly create change we cannot continue to talk at each other offering outworn ideas and opinions. We must get to a deeper level and join our commitments and use them as the basis from which we move forward. This idea is reflected in the writings of Scottish Mountaineer William Hutchinson Murray:
But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money— booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence.
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!
Please watch the video below, provided to me by Zach, then visit IdeaBlob where you can find more information about the organization. If you like what you see vote for it. Each vote is important and if the organization gets enough votes they will be awarded a $10,000 grant. You can also check out the organization’s website at Young People First.
In this video Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy,speaks passionately about a series of interrelated issues. The central assertion in his talk is that we can have a green revolution AND fight poverty in our country at the same time.
Van speaks to a shifting paradigm of presence in the world. More and more people are becomming more aware of themselves and their actions. People are becomming aware of how their actions impact those around them and then ripple out to affect those around the world.
Take a look at this video and as yourself, ‘what solution am I working for?’
“Our answer is the world’s hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress.
This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. It is a revolutionary world we live in, and thus, as I have said in Latin America and Asia, in Europe and in the United States, it is young people who must take the lead. Thus you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.”
Youth is a quality and a state of mind that gives us the ability to continually see the world through new eyes and different lenses. Bobby Kennedy spoke of the outworn dogmas and slogans of the previous generation and cited that what we need is the quality of youth. If we are to tackle the growing problems of tomorrow we need to go back to the visions of yesterday. We need to go back to a time when we saw the world differently: before we decided things are just the way they are.
When a newborn baby opens its eyes for the first time it sees a world without labels and identities. It sees a world through the eyes of infinite possibility. That is the quality that we need now, not just in our leaders but among the general populace. Kennedy said that in order to create the world that we all want to pass down to our children that we require the “qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”
It’s time that we demand this quality of our leaders and of ourselves. I will now leave you with some questions to spur some creative thinking…
When you were a child how did you see the world?
How does the way that you saw the world as a child differ from the way you perceive the world now?
What is not possible now that you thought was possible when you were a child?
Who do you know that as an adult displays the ‘qualities of youth’ that Kennedy describes?
If you know a person like that, how do they personify these qualities?
Bobby Kennedy is an example of someone who displayed the qualities of youth. The video below is another speech that he gave called the Mindless Menace of Violence which highlights his thinking.
What types of opportunities would one laptop per child in the world provide to those who couldn’t afford one otherwise? One laptop per child, access to the internet, healthy food and healthcare, combined with education is what everyone in this world needs. Nicholas Negroponte is plugging in one component that will allow all children and people to connect conversations and purposes with one another and begin to move the conversation of the world forward.
In order for us to tackle the toughest problems in the world we need to start by making sure that there are open lines of communication. Communication and listening are two significant factor that will allow those in the United States (and around the world) to work with others nations to finally begin tackling issues like poverty in a wholistic way that creates local solutions. This TED Talk by Hector Ruiz opens up the discussion of connecting the entire world through the internet.
How do you act as an agent of connection? That is, how do you connect people’s conversations? In my experience, one of the most important aspects of connecting conversations is by being trusted. By acting as a trusted node those whose conversations you’re connecting will feel comfortable in the fact that you are leading them down a “safe” path. I put the word safe in quotations because safe does not mean comfortable, nor does it mean easy.
Once you are considered trusted it is also important to know your purpose. You don’t necessarily need to have a specific purpose in connecting two conversations, though you do need to understand how bringing people together will benefit your greater purpose. For me, by knowing my own purpose I am able to listen for conversations that I feel should be connected in fulfillment of my greater purpose. Specifically my greater purpose is to end poverty and bring an equality of opportunity to the world. Therefore, I listen for conversations that are moving down that path and work to connect them in any way that I can.
Above is a video from Global X which is a site that posts interviews with leading social entrepreneurs. Below you will find a quick description of the video.
Taffy Adler works in Johannesburg, a city often described as one of the most dangerous places to work in the world, but he has been able to get the trust from the community by giving its people the right opportunities to help them grow.
He shares two pieces of advice with Global X: “First, stay focused! Don’t get distracted. Second, it’s hard to argue with success, so plan to launch a successful organization, and other things will come to you.”
The purpose of this site is to create a place for people to discuss joining purposes and joint-action. This is a safe space for people to be in inquiry about what it means to them to connect with others in a way that fosters deep, purposeful, and powerful action. I will share my own thoughts where appropriate and mostly I will seek out what others are saying using their thoughts as a point of reference to forward the larger narrative.
Just in case you are wondering, the quote under the banner is from an Ancient Mayan Text called the Popol Vuh . I first heard about it from a friend of mine named Nick and then read it in a book entitled Presence written by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers.
Here is a website I’ve been looking at a lot recently that is really onto something…
SocialVibe