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Controversies with Calamitous Consequences

Published March 3, 2010 Collective Intelligence , Social Transformation Leave a Comment
Tags: controversies, genetic modification, GMOs, irreversibility, Monsanto, USDA

Today is the last day to give feedback to the USDA about an issue that many people, including experts, believe could have disastrous effects on US and global agriculture. The USDA and Secretary Vilsack, in collaboration with Monsanto, are about to lift a court-ordered ban on Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) “Roundup Ready” alfalfa. Information on why this is important, and how to give feedback is below.

(Even if “today” is gone; please keep reading to understand this situation better.)

There are actually two issues here. One is that GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are potentially very dangerous, and the dangers, while controversial, are not yet well enough understood to ignore. The second issue is that Monsanto is another example of a corporation that is simply too powerful to fail. How much power should a single corporate entity have? In Monsanto’s case, the company controls patents on seeds that are currently responsible for 93% of soybeans and 80% of corn grown in the U.S. They also control patents on many other seeds that farmers can’t simply reproduce and replant, but instead they have to essentially pay royalties in perpetuity to Monsanto.

Like Climate Change, GMOs are controversial, and like Climate Change, if those who see huge dangers looming are correct, and if those who deny those dangers prevail, the dangers can not only be disastrous, but practically irreversible.

Undoubtedly many proponents for the dangers of Climate Change may not agree that GMOs are a danger, and vice versa. However, there is at least one thing all groups should be able to agree on: If there is significant evidence that consequences of doing nothing can be not only disastrous, but irreversible, then doing nothing – which means letting corporate and other narrow interests stay on course – should not be an option in intelligent, life-loving societies.

So, regardless of your current position on GMOs, please consider this to be a serious enough issue to put the brakes on Monsanto’s plans until more is known about the consequences.

Here is some background on the issues at stake.

As described in this recent Washington Post article, Monsanto has developed genetically modified seeds that ‘help’ farmers by making Roundup herbicide (which Monsanto also owns) easier and more effective to use, and thus giving farmer’s bigger crop yields. Unfortunately for the farmers, Monsanto has also been regularly raising seed prices and that has been cutting into farmers’ profit margins. But currently most farmers feel that for economic reasons they have to continue buying from Monsanto. Now Monsanto is pushing on the USDA to overturn court-ordered bans on Roundup Ready Alfalfa. Some of the reasons that alfalfa is so important are given below and more in the links.

Here are excerpts from a molecular biologist, John Fagan, who has spent more than two decades researching use of recombinant DNA techniques. Much of his research has been funded by NIH (National Institutes of Health) and the National Cancer Institute.

“Genetically engineered alfalfa would be the first perennial GM crop, and would result in a huge increase of toxic RoundUp in the environment. It would expose livestock widely to both genetically engineered genes and pesticide residues. It would especially affect cows and horses–their health, their reproduction, and their byproducts, particularly milk.”

“Alfalfa pollen is carried far and wide by the wind and bees, so the presence of GM alfalfa in the environment would contaminate organic alfalfa, rendering organic dairy impossible. Consumers who eat alfalfa sprouts would be exposed directly, as well as those who eat meat.

“Despite past positive trends, this is the most serious GMO threat yet, as it creates the legal precedent at the Supreme Court level, for GMO contamination to be acceptable for any crop, with the support of the USDA.”

[Update: More than 200,000 NGOs, farmers, consumers and organic producers call on USDA to prohibit genetically engineered alfafa. March 3, 2010]

Here are links for learning more and to take action (by March 3)– e.g. ,by providing feedback to the USDA.

Providing feedback can take less than 3 minutes.

1. Get informed and take action:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14469696

This takes you to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) where you can send the OCA email letter as feedback by clicking “take action now.”

2. Submit comments directly to the USDA at:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a6b7a1

You can write your own comments, or copy and paste from the letter found at the OCA link above.

Thank you!

Global Warming is better explained as Climate Chaos

Published February 15, 2010 Collective Intelligence Leave a Comment
Tags: climate jokes, dialogue, framing, global warming, record snowfalls

Jokes about record snow falls here and there – e.g. where I live – are making the rounds to poke holes in “Global Warming” ideas. And so are more scientifically-based clarifications that show that global warming is no joke. A problem is, though, that the people laughing at the jokes may not be likely to see or be interested in the clarifications.

Here is one of the best written and substantiated clarifications that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post:

Washington’s snowstorms, brought to you by global warming.
By Bill McKibben, Sunday February 14, 2010

An excerpt:

“In most places, winter is clearly growing shorter and less intense. …But rising temperature is only one effect of climate change. Probably more crucially, warmer air holds more water vapor than cod air does. The increased evaporation from land and sea leads to more drought but also to more precipitation… The numbers aren’t trivial – global warming has added 4 percent more moisture to the atmosphere since 1970. That means the number of ‘extreme events’ such as downpours and floods has grown steadily; the most intense storms have increased by 20 percent across the United States in the past century.

“So here’s the thing: despite global warming, it still gets cold enough to snow in the middle of winter… And the chances of what are technically called ‘big honking dumps’ have increased.”

As a scientific frame for what is happening, “global warming” is very accurate. But as a frame that can quickly get the point across, “Climate Chaos” may be more to the point — the point being that global warming causes a whole range of climate disruptions on a global scale that can be not only annoying but dangerous to many.

Frozen Pipes and Global Warming – and the Need for Local Climate Talks

Published January 13, 2010 Collective Intelligence , Social Transformation 8 Comments
Tags: dialogue; deliberation; climate change; global warming; transpartisanship;

It has been very cold in Asheville recently – and all over the East Coast. Today it is a balmy 45 degrees; but on Monday we woke up and our pipes were frozen. 10 degrees is rare for Asheville!

Our friend Mike, who does home repairs, came to help. Afterwards I mentioned that “Global Warming” should really be called “Climate Disruption.”

He said, “Yes, ‘Global Warming’ is wrong. Have you heard about the conspiracy?” He then told me how he had been listening to Jesse Ventura’s frequent reports about how the government and rich people are making a bundle by convincing people that global warming is a big threat and then getting fat contracts to fix a problem that doesn’t really exist. He said, “It opens your eyes. You should listen on TV, on the True TV channel.” I said that most scientists believe that global warming is real and a very big danger. He said that there is evidence that the scientists are getting paid off.

I didn’t have time then – or a handy list of points to make – to have a serious discussion, so I’m sorry to say that I didn’t follow-up. But my overall thought is that Mike is a very good guy. I honestly believe he would listen to real experts if he truly believed they were real and not speaking out of narrow interests. But he is currently plugged into only one channel.

Asheville is very cool, because you can find all points of view well represented here. There are many people like Mike who listen to only the ‘conservative’ side of the story. And there is also an extremely large and committed progressive community that cares passionately about sustainability, the environment, and the dangers of climate change. And, there are many people who haven’t made up their minds yet about climate disruption, and who probably haven’t really thought a lot about it.

The community includes many, many people who are very knowledgeable about these issues, and also many people who are expert in facilitating group dialogue and deliberations. I also believe that Asheville includes both progressives and conservatives who are not only knowledgeable, but who are also open enough to engage in a fair dialogue. (Note: dialogue does not equal debate. It is not about winning, but about listening and reaching a truth that all sides can get behind.)

I haven’t done the due-diligence yet (mea culpa) but I strongly suspect that these groups aren’t really talking to each other. Like everywhere else, the progressives seem to mainly interact with progressives, and the conservatives mainly interact with conservatives. And when people from the two groups do interact, it’s very hard to talk about this issue without getting frustrated or mad or giving up.

I happen to believe that climate disruption is happening and is a grave danger. But in order to really prevent the catastrophe that we see coming, don’t we need to talk to people like Mike, and to others who currently don’t agree, as well as to people who don’t know what to think? Yes, that includes me. I need to talk to Mike. But how many Mikes can I talk to?

We need help. In order to really break through the frustrations and make progress, we need a structure, skilled facilitators, and a group of honest people that both sides can relate to.

I can easily envision local climate talks, involving real people – citizens and neighbors – of all persuasions, and all over our country. Each side sharing opinions, sharing evidence, and, most importantly, honestly discussing how to make collective decisions about the evidence, and how to evaluate and respond to crucial issues where there will always be unknowns and unprovables – and yet, in the place of absolute certainties, where there will still be scientifically valid levels of certainty. (As one person said recently, “Would you put your child on a plane if 90% of industry engineers said there was 75% chance that the engines could fail anytime in the next year? Or even a 1% chance?”)

I can easily envision these local climate talks. But how to actually make it happen?

I can’t think of a better place to start than Asheville.

Good News: Military Solutions to Crime and Violence are Failing

Published December 28, 2009 Social Transformation Leave a Comment
Tags: Afghanistan, crime, drug war, gangs, Mexico, military solutions, violence

From Sunday Washington Post Front Page:

Violence in Juarez Prompts Officials to Admit Miltary Failure

Why is this good news? It’s of course actually a tragedy: A tragedy that is playing out all over the world as violent criminals (whether motivated by money, glory, or rage) are becoming ever richer and more dangerously armed, and as their abilities steadily increase to recruit tens of thousands of poor and alienated youth to fight for them.

The only good news is that stories like this indicate ever more clearly that a primarily military/police strategy does not work, and in fact does little to reduce the influence and growth of violent criminals and extremists. It is good news that political, civic, and business leaders are realizing that the only real solution has to include dramatically reducing the disenfranchisement of the poor, and especially of youth who are now being sacrificed as ground troops on both sides of the “fight.”

This has – or should have – huge implications for the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan.

Quote from article:

“The United States backed that strategy [Calderon's military-led strategy] under the 2007 Merida Initiative, signed by President George W. Bush. The bulk of the $1.4 billion aid package funds Black Hawk and Bell 412 helicopters, CASA CN-235 surveillance planes, police training and inspection equipment.

“But with the three-year initiative due to expire next year, U.S. officials have indicated that they plan to move from military assistance to a “softer” approach focusing on issues such as institution building, judicial reform and support programs aimed at impoverished youths like those who are recruited by the thousands into criminal gangs. Two-thirds of those killed violently in Juarez are between 14 and 24 years old.

“”It is more sustainable. A helicopter at best is going to have a 25-year life, but a human being in Mexico has a 75-year life expectancy,’ said John Feeley, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. ‘If you can get to the children, you are not just giving assistance, you are contributing in the development of a person, of the society.’”

P.S. – In the same edition of the Post, there was another front page story about the dramatic growth of gangs in and around Washington, DC, and the difficulties of funding youth-targeted programs to help deal with this problem.

Our house in the snowy woods

Published December 19, 2009 Life Leave a Comment
Tags: blizzard, Blue Ridge, Maryland

1PM today (the snow is over the tops of my wellies.)

road down to civilization. (Internet is still on. : )

Collective Consciousness and Compassion

Published December 17, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Consciousness , Radical Middle Leave a Comment
Tags: appreciation, Axial Age, Collective Intelligence, compassion, religion, truth

Compassion was the first round of global awakening.

Collective intelligence is emerging as the second round.

Compassion was the key trait of the Axial Age (roughly 900 BC to 300 BC) that brought forth the great world religions and philosophies, and which led to the great principles of Vedanta, Yoga, Taoism, Greek philosophy and democracy, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. (Good reference: The Great Transformation)

Compassion is a crucial seed for collective intelligence and collective consciousness. Compassion is a recognition of the Other – including the other’s needs – and resources.

But true compassion is not feeling sorry that someone else is different.

An important extension of compassion is to realize that differences are natural, good, and are in fact built into the way Nature and Universe works. For those who believe in a divine Creator, differences can be realized to be a key part of the Creator’s plan.

Compassion sets the stage for appreciation. Compassion is most often focused on recognizing suffering of another and wanting to help relieve it. (The Axial Age was an especially brutal time.) Appreciation is a much bigger recognition of the other, by seeing the other’s gifts, and the gift of exchanging gifts: Knowledge, abilities, wealth, ideas.

True compassion brings with it a great deal of humility.

Arrogance is to believe that you have been told by God or by your own brilliance, and in great detail, that which is good and best for all people and all beings, and for all times.

The key here is “in great detail”. At the deepest levels possible, there appear to be true absolutes, true for all people. These truths can be experienced, but are very hard to express in ways that make sense to all others who have not had all your experiences. Thus “Truth” naturally contains a healthy amount of Mystery.

But when you start adding details prescribing particular practices, beliefs, rules, and laws, then that is when humility becomes especially important:

“These are the beliefs and practices that I have found to be most helpful.

“These are the beliefs and practices that my people have found to be most helpful.”

Thank Heaven for Left Right and Center

Published November 21, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Radical Middle , Social Transformation Leave a Comment
Tags: bipartisan, conversations, dialogue, intelligent design, noosphere, planetary, politics, soccat, transpartisan, tribes

Who else can we thank?

Another way of saying it:

God is not on the Left, Right, or Center.

I know that is blasphemy to millions. But they seem to be worshiping tribal gods. Tribal gods are OK, but brittle.

Thank God, or the creative nature of the universe, that we are not all on the right, or all on the left, or all in the center. We are only all human, and only all earthlings.

If we were all on the right, or left, we would certainly hurtle over the cliff of our choosing, even faster than we’re now approaching the cliff that no one is choosing.

If we were all in the center, we would still be getting closer and closer to the non-chosen cliff, because there is too much investment in the status quo, and too little appetite for change.

But we’re not all in one place, one ideology, one proclivity, one style, one perspective.

That’s not a design flaw; that IS the design.

Even though that’s the design, we rail against it.

Even though, by our nature, we’re not all of one perspective, we’re in huge trouble now because enough of us haven’t waked up to realize that all our perspectives and peculiarities are needed to survive and thrive. Or, that is, all are needed to be part of our on-going conversations, deliberations, adaptations, and innovations.

My heroes (dual gender) are those who have waked up to that, and who are able to speak well, and model well, in ways that are convincing to large segments of center, right, and left. Not just talking and inspiring (though those are important) but demonstrating – not as in protesting, but as in showing how.

Memories, Immortality, and Tulkus

Published November 14, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Consciousness 1 Comment
Tags: corporations, Dalai Lama, institutional memory, Karmapa, memory, organizations, Tibetan Buddhism, tulku

Bodies are memories, constantly remembering how to recreate and repair themselves, with slight deviations, gradually noticed as age.

Bodies – appendages, organs, cells, and genes – also retain a memory of millions of years of evolution, passed offspring to offspring.

Even rocks retain memories of ancient sediments deep in long-gone oceans or in churning fiery depths inside the earth.

Organizations are memories, also remembering how to constantly recreate, repair and maintain, all while learning to adapt. There are restaurants in China that are thousands of years old, governments and their agencies, corporations and their offspring and mutations, all persistent memories.

Without memories, no continuity, no underlying stability, no identity.

During sleep I forget, forget who I am, and dream of strange new identities and settings, shifting from one to the next. I lapse into deep sleep and forget even my dreams. I wake. My body is still here. All my memories are still here – reminding me of my identity, my ambitions and desires, my plans, my worries, my friends and enemies, and what’s in the refrigerator. From nothingness during the night, each day “I” am reincarnated.

And via the Internet we can find how many times and how many people have recorded variations of these thoughts. Together we are the memory of our species.

Now to the most recent reason I started thinking about this:

Tulkus – Passing Memory and Identity from Life to Life

Continue reading ‘Memories, Immortality, and Tulkus’

Good list of 2010 predictions for social media

Published November 2, 2009 Social Media Leave a Comment
Tags: Enterprise, Facebook, filters, LinkedIn, location-based, privacy, soccat, social networks, trends, Twitter

Oct 27 post by Jennifer Leggio (ZDNet):

2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?

The predictions are from 31 people in Jennifer Leggio’s personal network. It’s a great collection, and valuable to read through all of them together. A lot focus on use of social media for marketing, PR, and enterprise collaboration (a lot of the predictors are engaged in consulting or software for those areas).

Common themes: Social media will indeed be ubiquitous; will spread more in the enterprise; will need more privacy controls (or not); will have more location-based apps; will require more filtering.

Here are a few excerpts that especially interest me:

Caroline Dangson, IDC – @carolinedangson

“IDC survey data shows more than 50% of worldwide workers are leveraging the free, public social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for business today. IDC believes the primary reason workers are using the consumer social media platforms is because their organization is not providing these types of tools itself”

(I believe there are other very good reasons for continued use of consumer social media platforms in organizations. E.g., it’s hard to replicate the value of a global platform with 50+ million members .)

Peter Shankman, Help A Reporter Out – @skydiver

“We’ll update to let people know where we are and where we’ll be. And the best part is, we won’t have to. 2010 will be the start of the time where our devices do it for us. FourSquare will auto-update our location via GPS, which will tell Twitter, who will add the #fb tag and notify Facebook”

“we’ll start to accept the concept that hey – maybe we really DO only need one social network ,which will bring us to 2011 – the year of the consolidation.”

Brian Sibley, Sibley PR – @bsibley

“Domino’s experience taught us that when it comes to social media, you can’t just switch it on, like you can a traditional marketing tool. You have to invest the time to build a strong following in order to be able to use it as an arrow in your crisis communications quiver when the time comes”

Brian Solis, FutureWorks – @briansolis

“2010 will be the year that we save us from ourselves in social media…we will stop drinking from the proverbial fire hose and we will lean on filtering and curation to productively guide our experiences and production and consumption behavior and interaction within each network.”

I’m looking forward to reading 2010 predictions from others. Thoughts?

Social Search – What will float to the top?

Published October 23, 2009 Social Media Leave a Comment
Tags: Bing, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, micro blog, Social Search, Twitter

Social search is on big companies’ minds:
Google’s New Social Search Is A Big Chess Move Against Facebook (ReadWriteWeb, 10/21)

So, Bing has Facebook and Twitter, and Google only has Twitter.

Where is LinkedIn in this conversation? LinkedIn’s news sharing is worth looking at. With a few changes it’s potential would be actually greater than either Twitter or Facebook updates.

Why is Twitter so useful? Because I can choose whom to follow, and others can choose whether to follow me. But Twitter has big limitations. Even by creating a selected group of the people I’m following I still have to wade through a lot of non-relevant stuff, and I *mostly* miss a lot of stuff that disappears below the horizon surprisingly quickly – because I look at Twitter at most 2 or 3 times a day, and often go days without looking. Also, 140 characters is very neat. But not always appropriate. It doesn’t really tell me enough in order to decide accurately whether to click through on the links. And they don’t contain enough info to store and search.

I like LinkedIn News because I can quickly grab content from the Web and share it. If I want to share it with a particular group or group of connections, this is great. But something really crucial is missing.

I don’t always want to *push* news and ideas I find interesting to a particular group or set of connections. And I definitely don’t want to spam all my connections. I *do* want to be able to collect news and ideas and keep the items in a single place. And I *do* want to be able to follow/subscribe to collected news and ideas from a selected group of connections and non-connnections. And I want to also be able to go to a single person’s profile and see what news and ideas that person has collected, or to search my connections for news and ideas that match specific tags.

Those changes would make LinkedIn News much more powerful than either Facebook or Twitter updates – precisely because LinkedIn is much more focused on professional value rather than also flooded with personal messages, photos, etc. Plus, LinkedIn profiles tell me much more than Twitter bios, and after all, I already have a lot of important connections on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn’s search capabilities could allow me to find people who share my interests *and* who have impressive profiles and recommendations *and* who are sharing news and ideas from the Web. This would be doing what LinkedIn does best.

What do Meta Networks Need?

Published October 15, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Social Media , Social Transformation 5 Comments
Tags: Collective Intelligence, deliberation, dialogue, Facebook, LinkedIn, network weaving, reputation, social networks, Twitter

(Continued from Basic Case for Meta Networks and Global Transformation)

Meta Networks are:

Decentralized networks of people, organizations and networks,
Bound together by shared goals, values, and experiences.

Meta networks are crucial for fixing global problems before they overwhelm us.

Meta networks need passionate, committed, and talented people, plus ideas, funding, and other resources. But they also need methods and tools to make the individuals, organizations, and network as a whole more intelligent and effective.

Here are four types of methods and tools that meta networks need:

1. Connecting people and organizations.

a. Connecting people to people and organizations to obtain:

- Ideas, expertise and help (employees, partners, consultants, advisors, volunteers)

- Funding (investors, grants, donors)

- Inside Intelligence & Influence (related to potential customers, partners, investors, employees, and suppliers, and agencies, policy makers, communities, etc.)

Examples of tools:
Job, volunteer and consultant matching sites and databases; professional social network platforms for finding needed expertise and affiliations and obtaining trusted recommendations and referrals (e.g., LinkedIn).

Examples of methods:
Network weaving and social network analysis.

b. Connecting people to content
(to obtain news, ideas, opinions, research, experiences, knowledge)

Examples – Generic and specialized Internet search engines, content management and knowledge sharing applications and portals.

2. Sources for Reputation, Fact-checking, Due-Diligence.
(Supports other needs, e.g., connecting people, decision-making, etc.)

Examples: Generic Internet search engines; professional social network platforms for checking professional experience and getting personally trusted insights and recommendations; reputation sites (most are not very mature yet).

3. Messaging campaigns to spread awareness and actions
(e.g., awareness and actions related to voting, contacting policy makers, talking to neighbors, donating, buying or boycotting)

Examples: Social media sites and tools (Facebook, Twitter, messaging tools, etc.)

4. Collective Thinking and Action (big category!)

a) Removing barriers to communication and collaboration.
(Dialogue, listening, finding common ground, consensus-building, conflict transformation, use of stories, symbols and rituals, collective consciousness effects)

b) Identifying, understanding and solving problems
(Collecting facts and perspectives from all relevant sources; Innovating (exploring/scanning/brainstorming); Integrating perspectives to reach consensus/decision on best strategies and tactics; Prediction; Deliberation and planning (evaluating ideas from different perspectives, consensus building); and Getting commitments for action.)

c) Collaborative Action – requiring complex coordination of actions by many people and organizations.

Examples of a, b, & c: Online and in-person methods and tools for dialogue, deliberation, and collaboration. For a partial list see NCDD’s Framework for Dialogue and Deliberation.

What is left out of this list? Or what would you change?

Collective Intelligence is Rewiring not just the Planet, but our Brains

Published June 26, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Consciousness , Social Media 6 Comments
Tags: body map, brain plasticity, evolution, Social Media

A 6/23/09 article in New Scientist reports on “the first evidence that tool use alters the body map.” That is, researchers have found that a human brain’s internal map of the body is adjusted to account for a tool that extends the body’s reach. Researchers were excited to note that this means that a transplanted hand or a prosthetic limb would similarly be incorporated into the ‘body map’ inside the brain. This is an important example of the plasticity of the brain.

What struck me about this article is the implication for collective intelligence and collective consciousness:

The more we use tools that embody collective intelligence, and tools that increase our awareness and use of the perceptions, knowledge and experiences of people in other parts of the world, the bigger and bigger becomes our brains’ “body map” — and “self map”.

As social media are evolving, they are becoming more and more tools for getting things done, visualizing and then solving complex problems, finding answers, getting support we need, etc. A key is the shift from passive viewing of world events on nightly television news (which had its own expansive effects), to a much more intimate using of collective intelligence, and participating in it.

We are physically evolving into a new species – by rewiring our brains to encompass tools for accessing and using collective intelligence.

The two principles that shine through when collective intelligence becomes collective consciousness are:

The Whole is more than the sum of the parts.

And

The Whole is contained in the parts.

The gradual rewiring of human brains to encompass more and more of the whole species and planet is the physical embodiment of this second principle.

(Confession: Whenever I write something like this, which I seem to like to do, I often hear an internal chorus of “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but now what?” The “but now what” is the interesting part.)

In Love with Collective Consciousness, and Networks

Published June 19, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Consciousness 1 Comment
Tags: connecting, human network, planetization, Teilhard

How long have I loved thee, dear Human Network? Let me count the years, since my birth into my loving family, and since my youthful awakening, at age 18, sitting at the feet of Père Pierre, saint of human networks, who wrote again and again about his powerful vision of the planetization of consciousness.

Every person I have loved, appreciated, talked with, liked or disliked, or noticed, has been an experience in the network of consciousness. It is a network for loving, entertaining, trading, learning, making things and buying them, earning a living, and living. It is a network for fighting, ha! Competing, ha! The network always both wins and loses. It grows and shrinks, but now mostly grows, grows more and more threatened by its own incoherence, and ever more heartened by its own brilliance, and compassion, and inspired by its search for solutions to its – our — survival and fulfillment.

How long have I loved thee, dear Human Network? Let me count the years, since my birth, into my loving family, and since my youthful awakening, at age 18, sitting at the feet of Père Pierre, saint of human networks, who wrote again and again about his powerful vision of the planetization of consciousness.

Every person I have loved, appreciated, talked with, liked or disliked, or noticed, has been my own part in the network of consciousness. It is a network for loving, entertaining, trading, learning, making things and buying them, earning a living, living. It is a network for fighting, ha! Competing, ha! The network always both wins and loses. It grows and shrinks, but now mostly grows, grows more and more threatened by its own incoherence, and ever more heartened by its own brilliance, and compassion, and inspired by its search for solutions to its – our — survival and fulfillment.

My favorite twirler

Published June 19, 2009 Life 1 Comment
Tags: baton, Cantrip, Potomac Celtic Festival, twirling

My bonnie lass twirling to Cantrip at the Potomac Celtic Festival.

More info about the bonnie lass: http://www.lisalindberg.com

Five Causes of Media Inaccuracy – illustrated by reporting of the Iranian election protests

Published June 17, 2009 Collective Intelligence , Media Leave a Comment
Tags: Cynthia Boaz, Iran election, media bias

In her piece published yesterday about the reporting of the current Iranian “Green Revolution”, Cynthia Boaz identified five causes of media inaccuracy:

Intentional misrepresentations: Spinning, twisting, distorting, or outright making things up for the purpose of bolstering a particular ideology, political party, or other limited interest.
Sloppy or hasty reporting: “…the inability or unwillingness of reporters to engage in serious investigative or assiduous on-the-ground reporting. For example, when in doubt – where information is sparse or of questionable veracity, and official (government) forces are being challenged by nongovernmental forces, media tend to default to the perspective of the officials, regardless of regime type or ideology.”
Fragmentation, which “involves covering the story in isolated, seemingly unrelated pieces”, which when taken together give a very different impression than a deeper reporting of the whole system would reveal.
Dramatization, which “occurs when the news is encapsulated in short, sensationalistic bits intended to provoke an emotional response on the part of the news consumer.” This seems to be close to the “intentional’ type of bias, since it serves the narrow interests of the reporting agency.
Euphemism, for which Boaz gives the example of using the phrase “’huge crowds in Iran” which can then give the impression that these “crowds” are disorganized, spontaneous types of groupings, rather than strategic, organized and disciplined.

I see the distinctions, and it is important to understand them. However, these five causes can still basically be lumped together as either grossly intentional, or as less intentionally lacking a holistic viewpoint. Lacking a holistic viewpoint can be attributed to effects that may be out of the reporter and agency’s control, such as lack of access to sources or lack of funding; or else they can be attributed to factors that are directly the fault of the reporting agency: lack of competence (sloppiness), or lack of integrity (e.g., a desire to appeal to sensation-seeking consumers in order to be noticed and sell).

In the case of reporting on the Iranian election demonstrations, Boaz states that several of these types of media errors have together given the World the idea that the demonstrations have been chaotic, unplanned, isolated acts that are often violent. In contrast, she says that

“These people are for the most part technologically and strategically savvy, especially when compared to the hardliners and mullahs that make up the ancient regime in Iran. They have studied the nonviolent struggles in Chile, South Africa and Serbia. They understand the dynamics of civil resistance and the power of simply withdrawing individual complicity in oppression. These are the people whose “tweets” and Facebook “status updates” the world is getting live via digital media…”

And that in contrast to what is mostly reported,

“the reality is much richer and more potentially encouraging. The Green Revolution is not just a series of ad hoc protests against a political theft, it is a story of widespread resistance to ongoing oppression. It is not the repression and violence that is most interesting about the news coming from Iran, it is that people continue to resist despite the repression.”

I would love to see more reporting about the intelligent and conscious components of this resistance. How much in depth reporting is even possible in a country that obstructs investigation and punishes dissent?

Most interesting about Google Buzz: Every post and its ensuing comment thread is a web page in and of itself. 1 month ago
Controversies with Calamitous Consequences -When is doing nothing an irresponsible response? http://bit.ly/dnfEB3 re climate and GMO issues 1 month ago
Last day for feedback to USDA re lifting ban on Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa. Feedback takes 2 min. http://bit.ly/dnfEB3 Pls RT. 1 month ago
Recognizing trends is key capacity for transformation. But openness is even more crucial - for preventing stuckness, denial, fragmentation. 1 month ago
RT @yoga_sutras 16. 16. Avert the danger which has not yet come. 1 month ago

100 Trillion Connections

Global Warming is better explained as Climate Chaos

Our house in the snowy woods

Collective Consciousness and Compassion

Memories, Immortality, and Tulkus

In Love with Collective Consciousness, and Networks

My favorite twirler

Five Causes of Media Inaccuracy – illustrated by reporting of the Iranian election protests

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