Government 2.0

I just finished a group presentation for a Knowledge Management course I am taking for my MBA. The company we presented is a huge data mining firm called Attensity. They focus on a wide variety of industries with specific attention being placed on goverment. Check it out…

9/11… An Inside Job?

With the birth of the long weekend I had a few films that I wanted to indulge in. A friend let me borrow “Enron… The Smartest Guys in the Room” which I really enjoyed. It was extremely interesting to discover the degree in which money and power can produce such corruption and ultimately lead to the tragic downfall of what was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies in the world.

I then dove in to a 2007 documentary film by Peter Joseph that I have been wanting to watch for a long time. The film, discussing historical and modern day conspiracies including religion, the banking system and 9/11, is called “Zeitgeist.” It spawned greater interest in the events of 9/11 and I ended up finding another movie that I just as throughly enjoyed. This latest film is called “Loose Change” is was written and directed by Dylan Avery. It takes a more in depth look at the events of September 11th with extremely shocking footage and factual information. There are a few different editions of the film so take your pick. This is the edition I checked out and of course, I highly recommend it…

Us Now

I recently had the opportunity to check out the premier of a documentary film called “Us Now.” The film features Canada’s own Don Tapscott, author of one of my favourites: “Wikinomics”, as well as JP Rangaswami and Clay Shirky. The main idea of the film describes Social Networking and discusses how websites like facebook, flickr and youtube allow us to “reorganize almost any aspect of our own lives.” The film goes as far as discussing a new type of goverment where ‘the people’ are much more actively involved in the process via the internet. Imagine a goverment run the way wikipedia operates… open source government? Really?

Check out the trailer:

Starbucks Cares… Do You?

Al Gore Challenges You

Yesterday, Al Gore spoke in Washington, DC. He proposed a challenge to all Americans to commit to producing 100% of electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon free sources within the next 10 years. Check out some highlights.

Obey Giant – WORLDWIDE PROPAGANDA DELIVERY

A friend of mine sent me a link to a thought provoking clothing company. The company is called Obey Clothing and they have been PROPAGANDA ENGINEERING since 1989. The idea behind the company is that the viewer uses common sense and consideration when observing stickers or other propaganda material. Shepard Fairey is the innovative mastermind behind the company. He took a picture of Andre the Giant, made it in to a sticker and put the sticker everywhere. The sticker contains nothing but an image, no words, nothing.

The idea is to PROVOKE THOUGHT about the mechanics of the system we live in…not to destroy it. Everyone has to live here. Plus there are extreme individuals who wish to label all street artists as vandals and push for harsher and harsher penalties and prosecution.

“The cities build tennis courts, basketball courts, football fields, even skate parks at millions of dollars cost to the tax payer. Where are the public mural walls? It’s all about control of the public space. If the opponents of street art are the only ones who speak out then they will be the only ones who are listened to. The idea is to fight fire with fire and express ourselves intelligently. If we don’t come across as a bunch of vandals we may find that the silent majority is actually supportive of public artistic expression.” -Shepard

Shepard was also responsible for the Obama image above. Pure talent! Check out http://obeygiant.com/ for more information.

Authors@Google: Don Tapscott

These past few days I have had some spare time at work so I decided to be productive (I have a sales job and am paid based on volume not time – I love it). I just finished reading Wikinomics for the second time. If you watch a movie like Fight Club or The Matrix the second time you will get so much more out of it. The same is true for Wikinomics. I took my time, researched what I had not previously heard of, and learned so much more. So I did some research and found a 50 minute video of Don Tapscott speaking at Authors@Google. Some interesting findings:

Don Tapscott on Democracy…

“We have a broadcast model of democracy that may have been appropriate for the TV watching Boomers but is not appropriate for young people today and that’s why young people are not engaged. It’s like “I don’t want to be broadcast to. Give me engagement!”

He continues with his views on American politics. “Hi, I’m a politician. Listen to this 30 second negative add where I attack my opponent around an issue that you could care less about and then you go vote for me and I’m going to broadcast you for four years and then you get to do it all over again. Well you wonder why young people are not involved.”

That by the way is the best and most cogent criticism of politics in America that I have heard too!

Although I too am Canadian, I did some research on the race between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. I found an interesting contest created by Eli Parisor and the people at moveon.org. In 2004, they designed a contest where everyday people were told to create a political video describing “Bush in 30 seconds”. Check out the 2004 winner Child’s Pay.

Moveon.org has created a second contest “Obama in 30 seconds.” Now it’s time for people of all ages to collaborate, innovate, and create. Incentive you ask? Moveon.org will air the winning ad nationally and the winner will also receive a 20,000 gift certificate for a camera and editing package.

This is what companies, politicians and governments need to do to young people involved. The days of twenty-four hours in front of the television are over. The Net Generation wants to create, collaborate, and edit. Check out the 2008 winner Obamacan as well as other honourable mentions at Obamain30seconds.org

Taken from Obamain30seconds.org and Authors@Google: Don Tapscott

We want change.