People In Passing

In this season of cynicism and spin I would like to point those that aren’t already familiar to Factcheck.org. Thankfully I’m not subject to the droves of “context-free” political ads on TV, as I don’t get any channels at home, but I always check Factcheck.org after political debates. It provides excellent coverage on both candidates and what was said, not said, and totally mischaracterized.

As with all things, DEMAND CONTEXT, check the facts, and make up your own mind. Above all, pay attention. This election requires more effort on your part than listening to the talking heads, sound bites, and believing that when someone says “you can check” that they’re telling the truth and not just hoping you won’t actually check.

About FactCheck.org

Our Mission

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

Go there now.

I never took any art classes and I don’t know how to draw, paint, sculpt, etc… but I have been spending a large amount of time over the past several months getting more and more into my obsession with design. Trying to take apart what I consider “good design” into the process components that might have been involved in bringing those wonderful ideas, or reimaginations, to reality.

During my reading I came across some keywords that have opened my design education. Keywords are the keys to the kingdom when it comes to internet research. You find the right set and they will guide you to all the others. This time it was “Design Thinking”.

I came across the term when reading about Stanford’s d.School and how they were applying the Design Thinking process in a collaborative effort with their business school. One link led to another and I was hooked.

This is good stuff.

This is creative, analytical, visual problem solving.

From Wikipedia:

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.^[1] Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas. There are no judgments in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation. Outside the box thinking is encouraged in this process since this can often lead to creative solutions.

Everywhere I’ve looked I have found applications for this type of problem solving. I like “what if” scenarios (to a point) and I like applying them in open problem solving arenas. I always try to see hurdles as opportunities. More often to run around than jump over.

I’d like to say I’ve been using this type of problem solving for a long time but there is a lot I can learn here. Maybe you can too, in your business, in your personal/social life, wherever.

Tim Brown of IDEO (one of the most successful design firms in the world) is largely credited with coining the term and is it’s lead evangelist. Check out his blog at http://designthinking.ideo.com for some thoughtful musings on the process. Also check out http://www.core77.com for some really hot designs.

I like information and I’m a very visual person. One of my favorite sections of any Wired magazine is the couple pages dubbed “infoporn” which display some sort of statistical information in a creative and potentially impactful way.

Bar and Pie charts just don’t cut it anymore.

I recently stumbled across a site that will give me my pretty data fix whenever I need it. Enter infosthetics.com, a blog dedicated to data visualization and visual design, that scours the nets for interesting infographics.

See links to things represented like:

Gas price by county

An average american’s spending habits

Or videos visualizing Greenhouse Gas production

Or the romantic aspirations of thousands of online daters.

See things in different ways.

I’m not sure when I’ll find the time to title, tag, and describe each of the photos from Maker Faire. I’ve got them up on my Flickr page now so those of you that don’t want to wait, or want to interpret for yourself what it is you’re looking at, please feel free to browse, comment, critique, etc… That way, when I do get around to describing them you’ll be able to see if you were right! (this is my way of encouraging you to look while rationalizing my laziness)

Anyway, in brief summary, Maker Faire was awesome and inspiring. There are so many people out there with excellent ideas that are doing something about them and with 65,000+ attendees, there are a lot of people interested in those ideas.

I love ideas, more on that later.

for now, the pictures.

The 2008 World Affairs Council of Oregon Speaker Series has been announced!!!

This is always an enlightening series. If you’re in the Portland area I highly recommend it.

The 2008 International Speaker Series returns with a diverse roster of influential presenters, each addressing important current topics.

Each of the 2008 ISS events begins at 7 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland.

Tickets for the series are available through
www.worldoregon.org, or by calling 503-552-9888.

Vicente Fox · March 19
“Border Crossings: Immigration, Free Trade, and Security”
The election of Vicente Fox to the Mexican presidency ended 70 years of one-party rule. A charismatic reformer, President Fox played a critical role in Mexico’s democratization and economic revival. A successful businessman before entering politics, President Fox sees immigration as a development issue and the mercurial U.S.-Mexican relationship as central to the stability of the Western Hemisphere.

Kim Dae-jung · April 18
“Challenges on the Korean Peninsula”
Often called “the Nelson Mandela of Asia,” Kim Dae-jung survived five attempts on his life, kidnapping, exile, and imprisonment before he was elected President of South Korea in 1998. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with North Korea, President Kim today condemns the North’s nuclear development program, while also questioning the West’s policy toward the two Koreas.

Dr. Sergei Khrushchev · June 4
“Russia after Putin”
Son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Sergei Khrushchev has been an eyewitness to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Russian state. Originally a missile engineer in the USSR, Dr. Khrushchev is now a U.S. citizen and frequent NPR commentator. Dr. Khrushchev provides a unique perspective on Russia’s future and its changing role in global politics.

Sandra Day O’Connor · Sept. 17
“An International Rule of Law: Balancing Security, Democracy and Human Rights in an Age of Terrorism”
Should the laws of other nations or international bodies have any bearing on American jurisprudence? Do the Geneva Conventions apply to us? Always an independent voice on the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is also its most insightful thinker on international issues. The first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice O’Connor has often been the swing vote on controversial issues, both domestic and international.

Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, is on the road promoting an Open-Source Education site named Curriki (Curriculum + Wiki) where educators, students, parents, and interested people can post and review educational materials.

McNealy has been a vocal leader in the charge for Open Education since he stepped down as Sun’s head honcho. From holding summits on open education to the newly launched Curriki; I believe he is someone with the clout, connections, and money to get this movement moving.

I have been a proponent of open-source education since seeing the amazing gesture of MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative. I believe it has the power to change the world in an incredibly positive way. I’ve been having arguments with friends and strangers about the topic for the past 3 years or so. There is a lot of heated opinion on the topic and a lot of fear.

I’ll put my money on the inevitable change of the system. Wikipedia changed the world of research for many of us. It put an easily accessible, wildly dynamic, sometimes inaccurate (rarely, please, all the media hubbub is about the misuse of the system, critical thinking still has to apply), open platform for information available to EVERYONE. Hopefully this is what Curriki will do for global education.

I will hope to find a way to be a part of this revolution. My first effort OpenCourseNetwork.com was to be a collection of all the courses available through the OCW programs coupled with an emphasis on community, which I felt the OCW sites lacked, and using Moodle to enable the community to actually run their own courses. Due to my limited coding ability and lack of time to dedicate to the effort, it stagnated.

I still believe in the idea. Education for our children will be radically different that it was for us. Don’t look at the incredibly narrow picture of just the children of the USA. Global Open-Source Education holds the promise of bringing high quality education to the children of all the countries of the world. You can either join in and help to make it the best possible system or be one of those people that sits back and mumbles about “back in my day”.