A couple of weeks ago I attended a very interesting panel and live music event put on by Tom Sebastian and John Berg, co-presidents of Swirl, an advertising agency in San Francisco and Bob Weir and Chris McCutcheon from TRI (Tamalpais Research Institute) studios in San Rafael, California. The event, named The Patron Project, took place at TRI's state-of-the-art studio in San Rafael. There were about 150 attendees, mostly from the music industry.
The objective of The Patron Project is to begin an important conversation about the role of patrons in the arts and the role of brands and how brands can better support artists. The panel was composed of legendary musicians including: Bob Weir, Sammy Hagar, Lukas Nelson (Willie's son) and Jerry Harrison. There were also several professionals from the entertainment industry including, Kevin Eagan from Microsoft's e-commerce, Simon Fleming-Wood from Pandora, Jason Fisher from Redbull Media House, Gunnar Larsen from Dolby Laboratories and Dax Kimbrough formerly from EMI Music/Capitol Records.
Bob Weir set a context for the dialog reminding everyone about the critical importance that patrons have played through the ages including, for example, the vital role that the Medici's played in supporting artists during the Renaissance Age. Then, the question was raised exploring the difference between sponsors and patron's--- sponsorship, was pointed out, usually involves a time-limited commitment and the financial backing for one of more specific events. Patronage, on the other hand, focuses on the long-term development and financial backing of artists.
The benefit of Patrons underscores the vital role that seasoned veterans in the music industry can play in the success of younger musicians as they come up in the industry. However, the role of patrons goes well beyond musicians and extends to many of the others arts including: writers, painters, dancers, sculptors, actors, etc. In the new economy with an explosion of online media distribution channels, social media as well as blogs, wikis and other new media tools, calls for creative ways to get visibility and create a following. In a sense, the transformation that is occurring in the music industry is similar to the changes affecting the print industry; the old media tools such as print media and television are being superseded by the Internet and digital distribution methods.
In addition to the critical role of Patrons, it's helpful to think of the role of mentors in helping young artists perfect their craft and navigate the seas within their industry. Mentorship (originally from Greek mythology, Mentor as Odysseus trusted counselor) brings together the notion of a patron with the benefits of a trusted counselor and teacher. In a way, a mentor is a step closer to the artist and provides a nurturing and wise counsel that so many youth yearn for as they enter the arts profession. I've noticed in several conferences, the young participants are hungry for mentors who can help guide them as they contemplate getting experience and building their skills ranging from technical know-how to leadership and personal growth.
A huge thank you to the creators and developers of The Patron Project for courageously planting seeds for a conversation that is needed and will undoubtedly spread far and wide. This is a welcomed dialog that applies to people in all areas of the arts. I look forward to seeing additional events that generate new ideas for young artists to succeed.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Leadership and MOOCs
A couple of weeks ago I attended the "Emerge Leadership Workshop" at NatureBridge in Sausalito, California. This workshop was led by Kathleen O'Brien, John Cunningham, Ann Edminster and David Eiseberg. I found great value in looking at the different dimensions of leadership. Even though the examples and material was drawn form the building industry, the concepts applied to all sectors. In addition to the presentations, there was an amazing group of participants from the for-profit, non-profit, government and education areas. We had time for walks along the beach, reflection, working on case studies in small groups, and the presenting to all the participants. I'm a firm believer that improving the way the we work together in teams and developing our leadership skills is essential to solving the challenges that we face at a local, regional and global level. For more information, check out: http://www.emergeleadership.net/
I've also been researching MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course). MOOCs are web courses aimed at large numbers of students with open access. There's a huge wave of interest in MOOCs since some of the larger universities have entered the space. Stanford, Harvard, MIT and many universities are offering classes through various platforms. Some of the platforms include Stanford's Class2go (open source), Coursera (with nearly 2.5 million members), edX (non-profit started by Stanford and MIT; edX's first class in circuits had 155,000 students), and Udacity. Futurelearn, a British firm, is developing an alliance with 12 UK universities to provide MOOCs. Additional players in the online education space include Khan Academy, which has an incredibly extensive learning modules, and Blackboard which provides online education tools. There are also other firms providing the social networks that facilitate the interaction between online learning communities including GoingOn.
What is interesting about this new online education revolution is that technology now makes it possible to reach millions and potentially a billion or more people with educational content. Many of the MOOCs are free and students from across the globe are enrolling in courses ranging from computer science, database management, history, etc. The potential is there for students to eventually design their own degrees or certificates by taking courses from these well known, prestigious universities.
One of the greatest advantages of MOOCs is that the learning increases dramatically due to the volume and diversity of interaction among the students from countries around the globe. Students enjoy interacting with their peers and learning from their different experiences and points of views. Some of the current challenges with MOOCs involve assessment and creating the necessary infrastructure to manage the sheer volume of questions when courses have tens of thousands of participants. To date, many of the students who enroll in MOOCs do not complete the courses.
Thomas Friedman wrote an insightful piece about MOOCs and online education in his New York Times column (Jan. 26, 2013), "Revolution Hits the Universities." As Friedman points out, "Nothing has more potential to lift more people out of poverty — by providing them an affordable education to get a job or improve in the job they have. Nothing has more potential to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems. And nothing has more potential to enable us to reimagine higher education than the massive open online course, or MOOC..."
As with many new technologies, its still unclear how the online education market will evolve with these new tools. What's remarkable is how quickly a new education paradigm is unfolding.
I've also been researching MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course). MOOCs are web courses aimed at large numbers of students with open access. There's a huge wave of interest in MOOCs since some of the larger universities have entered the space. Stanford, Harvard, MIT and many universities are offering classes through various platforms. Some of the platforms include Stanford's Class2go (open source), Coursera (with nearly 2.5 million members), edX (non-profit started by Stanford and MIT; edX's first class in circuits had 155,000 students), and Udacity. Futurelearn, a British firm, is developing an alliance with 12 UK universities to provide MOOCs. Additional players in the online education space include Khan Academy, which has an incredibly extensive learning modules, and Blackboard which provides online education tools. There are also other firms providing the social networks that facilitate the interaction between online learning communities including GoingOn.
What is interesting about this new online education revolution is that technology now makes it possible to reach millions and potentially a billion or more people with educational content. Many of the MOOCs are free and students from across the globe are enrolling in courses ranging from computer science, database management, history, etc. The potential is there for students to eventually design their own degrees or certificates by taking courses from these well known, prestigious universities.
One of the greatest advantages of MOOCs is that the learning increases dramatically due to the volume and diversity of interaction among the students from countries around the globe. Students enjoy interacting with their peers and learning from their different experiences and points of views. Some of the current challenges with MOOCs involve assessment and creating the necessary infrastructure to manage the sheer volume of questions when courses have tens of thousands of participants. To date, many of the students who enroll in MOOCs do not complete the courses.
Thomas Friedman wrote an insightful piece about MOOCs and online education in his New York Times column (Jan. 26, 2013), "Revolution Hits the Universities." As Friedman points out, "Nothing has more potential to lift more people out of poverty — by providing them an affordable education to get a job or improve in the job they have. Nothing has more potential to unlock a billion more brains to solve the world’s biggest problems. And nothing has more potential to enable us to reimagine higher education than the massive open online course, or MOOC..."
As with many new technologies, its still unclear how the online education market will evolve with these new tools. What's remarkable is how quickly a new education paradigm is unfolding.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Acts of Kindness
During this holiday season, I'd like to share stories and photos from "22 Random Acts of Kindness". (http://www.boredpanda.com/random-acts-of-kindness/).
These uplifting stories highlight the tremendous capacity for compassion and giving that we share as humans.
Enjoy, and the very best for 2013.
These uplifting stories highlight the tremendous capacity for compassion and giving that we share as humans.
Enjoy, and the very best for 2013.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Chasing Ice
Since hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern seaboard of the US several weeks ago, the theme of resilient communities has been at the forefront. Coupled with resiliency the impact of climate change has been the underlying theme. One of the greatest challenges of understanding climate change is seeing the connections of episodic weather patterns over time. In addition, witnessing the changes on our planet has been difficult to grasp.
The movie Chasing Ice, Directed and Produced by Jeff Orlowski and featuring the stunning photography of James Balog provides a stunning record of the impact of climate change as reflected on the vanishing ice around the globe. The film conveys the beauty and horror of witnessing melting glaciers in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland among other locations. We learn about Balog's and his team's determination to document the vanishing ice while photographing the melting ice under very harsh conditions over several years.
The melting ice caps and calving glaciers provide a visible and powerful way of seeing how rapidly our planet is changing. And we see how real these changes are and what actions we must take. The website provides useful resources on how to support the scientific work and how to get involved.
Similar to Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, which elevated the climate crisis to a global level, Chasing Ice will likely follow suit in alerting us about the incredible impacts of our fast changing climate as seen through the melting of glaciers. The movie succeeds in illustrating the passion of James Balog in his quest to tell the story of the vanishing ice, and why we all should wake up and do what we can to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.
The movie Chasing Ice, Directed and Produced by Jeff Orlowski and featuring the stunning photography of James Balog provides a stunning record of the impact of climate change as reflected on the vanishing ice around the globe. The film conveys the beauty and horror of witnessing melting glaciers in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland among other locations. We learn about Balog's and his team's determination to document the vanishing ice while photographing the melting ice under very harsh conditions over several years.
The melting ice caps and calving glaciers provide a visible and powerful way of seeing how rapidly our planet is changing. And we see how real these changes are and what actions we must take. The website provides useful resources on how to support the scientific work and how to get involved.
Similar to Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, which elevated the climate crisis to a global level, Chasing Ice will likely follow suit in alerting us about the incredible impacts of our fast changing climate as seen through the melting of glaciers. The movie succeeds in illustrating the passion of James Balog in his quest to tell the story of the vanishing ice, and why we all should wake up and do what we can to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Whidbey Geodome Project
One of the most awe-inspiring events at this year's Bioneers conference (Oct. 19-21) in San Rafael, California was the Whidbey Geodome's Earth Portal. As a special project of New Stories (a non-profit supporting emerging stories as a tool for understanding humanity), The Earth Portal provides an immersive multimedia experience where we can take a journey from the Earth to our solar system and beyond to infinite galaxies. The Geodome reminds me of the classic Charles and Ray Eames "Powers of Ten" film where we can play with scale.... only in this case we pull away from the Earth, our galaxy and way beyond to an amazing perspective on our place in the universe. The technology is also very well-suited to learn about the many of the ecological issues that we're confronting here on Earth including climate change, fracking, loss of biodiversity, etc.
Everyone who watched the show with me was awestruck by the remarkable perspective that the Geodome delivers. This is a remarkable tool for schools to inspire students (and adults!) about our planet and ways of understanding our role in the universe. Because it's portable, it can be set up temporarily at schools, conferences, fairs, etc. For the past six months, it was set up in Seattle as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the World's Fair.
I look forward to hearing more about the Whidbey Geodome as it becomes better known and experienced by everyone. Check it out!
Everyone who watched the show with me was awestruck by the remarkable perspective that the Geodome delivers. This is a remarkable tool for schools to inspire students (and adults!) about our planet and ways of understanding our role in the universe. Because it's portable, it can be set up temporarily at schools, conferences, fairs, etc. For the past six months, it was set up in Seattle as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the World's Fair.
I look forward to hearing more about the Whidbey Geodome as it becomes better known and experienced by everyone. Check it out!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Google Maps Takes to the Sea
Recently, I learned that Google maps are now being developed for the world's underwater world. Treehugger's article, "Google Unveils Stunning Underwater Street View" (9/26/2012) describes Google's partnership with Catlin Seaview Service to map underwater environments.
Underwater views range from Hawaii, to the Great Barrier Reef to the Philippines. For example, see the Google Maps Ocean collection. Remarkable how the technology that has rapidly spread on land for directions and landmarks is now taking to the sea.
I hope the fascination with these ocean maps helps to motivate enthusiasts to take action to get in the water and protect marine biodiversity.
Underwater views range from Hawaii, to the Great Barrier Reef to the Philippines. For example, see the Google Maps Ocean collection. Remarkable how the technology that has rapidly spread on land for directions and landmarks is now taking to the sea.
I hope the fascination with these ocean maps helps to motivate enthusiasts to take action to get in the water and protect marine biodiversity.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Homo Evolutis?
Recently I watch a TED talk by Juan Enriquez: "Will Our Kids be a Different Species." which touch on bind-bending ideas related to human evolution and biotechnology. It's remarkable to think how rapidly science is taking us to the future. Particularly with respect to stem cell research. How, for example, scientists have taken skin cells from a mouse and been able to recreate a duplicate mouse. And how other organs such as livers (as well as bladders and tracheas) are being reproduced from skin cells. So perhaps we can reproduce any body part or an entire person in the future. And what if we're then able to download peoples memories and implant those memories into another person. These are mind-bending scenarios which quickly bring up a whole slew of moral and ethical questions.
In the bigger picture, we have technology moving at lightening speed with minimal awareness by the general public of these types of experiments being conducted. It's also remarkable to think, as Enriquez points out that perhaps we are in the cusp of a new human species— one being adopted by our kids and lived by our grandkids. His description of the astonishing increase in autism rates just in the last ten years brings up issues and some anxiety about what may be causing this change.
I like how Enriquez presents the facts and lets his audience come so their own conclusions. He makes me curious and want to learn more. You might also enjoy another one of Enriquez's TED talk "The Next Species of Human," where he discusses the economy and it's relationship to our evolution.
In the bigger picture, we have technology moving at lightening speed with minimal awareness by the general public of these types of experiments being conducted. It's also remarkable to think, as Enriquez points out that perhaps we are in the cusp of a new human species— one being adopted by our kids and lived by our grandkids. His description of the astonishing increase in autism rates just in the last ten years brings up issues and some anxiety about what may be causing this change.
I like how Enriquez presents the facts and lets his audience come so their own conclusions. He makes me curious and want to learn more. You might also enjoy another one of Enriquez's TED talk "The Next Species of Human," where he discusses the economy and it's relationship to our evolution.
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