Comments on: OCE Discovery07: Remarkable? http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/ OPEN creative communities Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:40:08 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Rohan Jayasekera http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-21205 Rohan Jayasekera Sat, 12 May 2007 09:55:32 +0000 http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/#comment-21205 Mark, that's an excellent point about how OCE could have comped prominent tech bloggers to cover the event. The high price tag no doubt kept many people away (that's why I didn't go). This illustrates my point about oil and water: OCE lives in one world, bloggers in another. It need not stay that way, but OCE lives in the world of large command-and-control organizations (which include all governments and most educational institutions), and inviting the rabble is not something that comes naturally. Mark, that’s an excellent point about how OCE could have comped prominent tech bloggers to cover the event. The high price tag no doubt kept many people away (that’s why I didn’t go). This illustrates my point about oil and water: OCE lives in one world, bloggers in another. It need not stay that way, but OCE lives in the world of large command-and-control organizations (which include all governments and most educational institutions), and inviting the rabble is not something that comes naturally.

]]> By: Mark Kuznicki http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-21016 Mark Kuznicki Fri, 11 May 2007 13:44:43 +0000 http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/#comment-21016 First, thanks Hasan for a fascinating counterpoint. India as a giant entropy sponge is an image that will stick with me. I think what Homer-Dixon is highlighting is exactly that loss of "cool and easy mastery" of the world the West has become accustomed to. He's pointing to the difficulties of decision-makers and technocrats in managing complexity. Rohan is correct, Florida, Kurzweil and Homer-Dixon didn't say anything new. I had heard their talks before, or read them, and wasn't about to summarize them again here. As for the message, I think it is an important one. Maybe not to most Ontarians, but there is value in providing a platform for those involved in commercializing technology research to tell their stories and to make connections to commercialize their research. My concern was that that platform could have been improved to get those individual stories to be told. Specifically, comping prominent technology bloggers in various tech domains to visit and cover the event would have been very smart in my opinion. First, thanks Hasan for a fascinating counterpoint. India as a giant entropy sponge is an image that will stick with me. I think what Homer-Dixon is highlighting is exactly that loss of “cool and easy mastery” of the world the West has become accustomed to. He’s pointing to the difficulties of decision-makers and technocrats in managing complexity.

Rohan is correct, Florida, Kurzweil and Homer-Dixon didn’t say anything new. I had heard their talks before, or read them, and wasn’t about to summarize them again here.

As for the message, I think it is an important one. Maybe not to most Ontarians, but there is value in providing a platform for those involved in commercializing technology research to tell their stories and to make connections to commercialize their research.

My concern was that that platform could have been improved to get those individual stories to be told. Specifically, comping prominent technology bloggers in various tech domains to visit and cover the event would have been very smart in my opinion.

]]> By: Rohan Jayasekera http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-20897 Rohan Jayasekera Fri, 11 May 2007 05:02:20 +0000 http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/#comment-20897 Mark, you went to the event to hear what Florida, Kurzweil and Homer-Dixon had to say, yet you wrote more about the lack of free WiFi than about what they said. I'm guessing that they didn't say anything new. If so, that would explain why the event was "unremarkable". I suspect that if any of those three is going so say something new, it'll be at a more significant event. Which would not make this event a failure. I imagine its goal was to bring together people involved with OCE in one way or another, and it may well have succeeded. I think you're commingling the world of grant applications etc. with the world of BarCamp when they're really like oil and water. As for the message you think should be taken "out there", why? Do any Ontarians really need to be convinced that there are some good minds among us? I would argue that such puffery is not only a waste of money but is counterproductive in that it gives the illusion that something is being accomplished. Mark, you went to the event to hear what Florida, Kurzweil and Homer-Dixon had to say, yet you wrote more about the lack of free WiFi than about what they said. I’m guessing that they didn’t say anything new.

If so, that would explain why the event was “unremarkable”. I suspect that if any of those three is going so say something new, it’ll be at a more significant event.

Which would not make this event a failure. I imagine its goal was to bring together people involved with OCE in one way or another, and it may well have succeeded. I think you’re commingling the world of grant applications etc. with the world of BarCamp when they’re really like oil and water.

As for the message you think should be taken “out there”, why? Do any Ontarians really need to be convinced that there are some good minds among us? I would argue that such puffery is not only a waste of money but is counterproductive in that it gives the illusion that something is being accomplished.

]]> By: Hasan http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-18755 Hasan Thu, 03 May 2007 12:48:18 +0000 http://remarkk.com/2007/05/02/oce-discovery07-remarkable/#comment-18755 >Homer-Dixon (sometimes referred to as “Dr. Doom�) tells a >cautionary tale of an increasingly complex future and a >civilization at risk of collapse; Homer-Dixon has it wrong. Complex systems do not collapse: they become more resilient. It is demonstrated in nature, where the ecology is complex and highly linked. The loss of one component will not bring down a complex network, but in a simple network a single change would be. What he is probably means by "complex" is probably better termed "hungry." Our demands are increasing, and so our appetite will too. The end result will be that we will end up looking like India, which is a country where demand outstrips supply in every aspect of life. The entire country is like a giant entropy-increasing active-sponge, which sucks up and digests every concentration of power and wealth, to distribute it to as many people down the chain as it can. That is the way most of the world lives, but North America (due to it's short 500 year old history) has not hit that plateau yet. What happens in a complex world is that you lose the individual ability to make decisions and control your fate. d they follow the swarm rather than take charge of it. In a sense, that mentality would be the end of the detached Western approach to life, with it's cool and easy mastery of a easy and yielding world, and ability to plan for the future in isolation by ignoring the rest of the world. >Homer-Dixon (sometimes referred to as “Dr. Doom�) tells a
>cautionary tale of an increasingly complex future and a
>civilization at risk of collapse;

Homer-Dixon has it wrong. Complex systems do not collapse: they become more resilient. It is demonstrated in nature, where the ecology is complex and highly linked. The loss of one component will not bring down a complex network, but in a simple network a single change would be.

What he is probably means by “complex” is probably better termed “hungry.” Our demands are increasing, and so our appetite will too. The end result will be that we will end up looking like India, which is a country where demand outstrips supply in every aspect of life. The entire country is like a giant entropy-increasing active-sponge, which sucks up and digests every concentration of power and wealth, to distribute it to as many people down the chain as it can. That is the way most of the world lives, but North America (due to it’s short 500 year old history) has not hit that plateau yet.

What happens in a complex world is that you lose the individual ability to make decisions and control your fate. d they follow the swarm rather than take charge of it. In a sense, that mentality would be the end of the detached Western approach to life, with it’s cool and easy mastery of a easy and yielding world, and ability to plan for the future in isolation by ignoring the rest of the world.

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