Chris Ke Sihai's Posts - Urgent Evoke2024-03-29T00:09:01ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihaihttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2209243846?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=25c3ug6l7wzw3&xn_auth=noGong Hao! Evokationtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-17:4871302:BlogPost:1520532010-05-17T09:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
<font size="3"><font size="4">Capacity-building in Africa by moving educator/entrepreneur to Africa with capital and project, to create jobs and provide training in open-source collaborative systems.</font><br></br><br></br></font><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211750?profile=original"></img></font></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="2">(This is a placeholder image. I need a graphic designer!)…</font></p>
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<font size="3"><font size="4">Capacity-building in Africa by moving educator/entrepreneur to Africa with capital and project, to create jobs and provide training in open-source collaborative systems.</font><br/><br/></font><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211750?profile=original" alt=""/></font></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="2">(This is a placeholder image. I need a graphic designer!)</font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;"><font size="3">Gong Hao is a Chinese phrase translating approximately as 'together we are great' or 'being better by being together' with connotations of 'synergy' (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts) as well. <br/></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3">Before you can achieve anything you need a 'brand' - an idea or vision, and values, that people can clearly identify and associate with. Gong Hao's values are openness, collaboration and wealth creation. Our vision is of a future full of new possibilities and hope - greatness through working together.<br/></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4">1. The Place</font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary: An online project with global impact, Gong Hao will be based in Africa and will provide jobs and training opportunities.</span> (I currently teach in high schools and universities in Taiwan.)<br/></font></p>
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<p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">1.1. Every project needs a base camp. As an internet venture, Gong Hao is not tied to any particular location and <span style="font-weight: bold;">is free to locate itself anywhere</span> as long as internet access and electricity are reliable. The processes and tools involved are not especially difficult to master, and any reasonably smart person is capable of mastering them. I have ten years of experience in education, so I know what is involved, and am confident that it will be cost-effective to develop a centre of excellence in one of several <span style="font-weight: bold;">African countries</span>.<br/></font></p>
<font size="3"><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">1.2. Gong Hao is intended to foster global awareness, collaboration and idea-sharing through the medium of the internet, especially among students. As a catalyst for change, it can potentially make a difference to every person who becomes involved - anywhere in the world - and by extension to all the people they come into contact with.<br/></font></div>
<font size="3"><br/></font><font size="3"><font size="4">2. The Challenge</font><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary: Address the opportunities revealed by the first season of Evoke related to learning content, educational and business processes, online tools, and the way in which Africans are often dependent on external providers for web-based solutions.</span><br/><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.1. The academic content of Evoke is excellent, and if optimised for teachers worldwide could be a very potent teaching tool;<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.1a. for students participating in their own language to <span style="font-weight: bold;">learn</span> about social issues<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.1b. as <span style="font-weight: bold;">motivational content</span> providing opportunities to practise/learn another language<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.1c. as a <span style="font-weight: bold;">tool</span> to learn about business processes, project planning, etc.<br/></font></div>
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<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.2. There is strong demand from teachers for an ongoing Evoke-style program, rather than the current limited ten-week format.<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.2a. reduced time pressure allows students to research issues more deeply<br/>2.2b. teachers can localise content and make it more relevant to their students<br/>2.2c. interaction between students creates a global community and long-term friendships<br/>2.2d. idea-sharing between teachers allows for ongoing refinement and development of new content<br/>2.2e. a more systematic approach and clearer metrics allows for student reports and award of certifications<br/></font></div>
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<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">2.3. The first season of Evoke has identified several key needs which, if met, could result in many more social innovation projects being created.<br/></font></div>
<div style="text-align: left; margin-left: 80px;"><font size="3">2.3a. there is a need for 'spaces' where chat, deeper discussion, and other interaction can take place outside the parameters of the formal program<br/>2.3b. members have indicated a need for collaborative space in which to develop content - ie a wiki that is part of the official structure<br/>2.3c. members need to be able to form special interest groups (as well as classes) or <span style="font-weight: bold;">guilds</span>, some private some public, to focus on their pet topics and spin-offs<br/>2.3d. templates or structured tools for the creation of projects would channel participants' energy into '<span style="font-weight: bold;">business DNA</span>' solutions, facilitate clarity, and identify stumbling blocks that can then be brought back to the community for analysis<br/>2.3e. other tools, eg <span style="font-weight: bold;">USHAHIDI</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">Moodle</span>, would enable users to replicate existing successful projects in their own communities<br/>2.3f. if users could make announcements about their needs it would be easier to locate specific resources, ie a classified advertising facility<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3"><br/>2.4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">As investment continues into the hardware necessary to enable wider internet access across Africa, the software skills of the region are lagging behind.</span> Many people have great ideas that they can't put into practise because they are not able to build websites of their own.<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;"><font size="3">2.4a. without education in the use of open-source tools, the only alternatives are expensive proprietory solutions or so-called "freemium services" which are designed to collect data with the intention of selling something to people who don't have a lot of spare cash.<br/>2.4b. lack of skills condemns Africans to be consumers rather than producers of services that add value<br/>2.4c. <span style="font-weight: bold;">content and services</span> created by non-local organisations is unlikely to <span style="font-weight: bold;">meet local needs</span> as effectively as equivalent-standard offerings from local producers, resulting in lower value for the local consumer, which reduces the usefulness of the internet and affects the ROI of the organisations investing in hardware<br/></font></div>
<font size="3"><br/></font><font size="3"><font size="4">3. The Idea</font><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary: To create an online learning platform using FREE open-source tools, with initial content similar to Evoke plus additional tools which will facilitate the creation of new projects (from the idea stage to "seed-funding ready"), make this platform reproducable and customisable by anyone, and offer additional content and services on a for-profit basis.</span> There will be three versions of the finished product completed simultanously, and development will be in three phases.<br/><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">3.1 <span style="font-weight: bold;">Phase 1: Build a website using entirely free open-source tools:</span><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">3.1a. to offer an Evoke-style experience without the time constraints as detailed in 2.1 and 2.2 above<br/>3.1b. with all the facilities necessary to enable the creation of more social innovation projects as detailed in 2.3 above<br/></font></div>
<font size="3">Phase 1 should be complete by end <span style="font-weight: bold;">August 2010</span>, before the start of the new school year, and can be accomplished with minimal resources. (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Multi-language support</span> is available if crowd-sourcing translations can be accomplished.)<br/><br/>3.2 <span style="font-weight: bold;">Phase 2: Clone phase 1, and make it available FOR FREE in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">three different ways</span>:</span><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">3.2a. JOIN GONG HAO (unmoderated/commmunity moderated) - anyone anywhere is free to use the site and learn, act, imagine, collaborate, plan, and initiate projects<br/>3.2b. TEACH GONG HAO (teacher moderated) - a seperate site which teachers can use as an online school for their students, more tightly focused on structured learning and assessment with less 'adult' interaction<br/>3.3b. CUSTOMISE GONG HAO - anyone anywhere will be free to download and install the complete Gong Hao package on their own web server (or local computer) and add/change material/features of their own as they see fit<br/></font></div>
<font size="3">Preparation for Phase 2 can be completed as part of Phase 1, however it will be time-consuming to administer on an ongoing basis. Software upgrades, troubleshooting, community management, etc all create a need for a <span style="font-weight: bold;">full-time staff</span> to take care of this.<br/><br/>During Phase 2, customer service can be outsourced temporarily but the permanent solution is to develop a community around the project that will be able to meet its needs as it grows. Phase 2 is therefore an investment/development period, leading to <span style="font-weight: bold;">monetisation</span>. Phase 2 will include <span style="font-weight: bold;">relocation</span> to a permanent base of operations, preferably in <span style="font-weight: bold;">Africa</span> and should last about one year.<br/><br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">3.3 <span style="font-weight: bold;">Phase 3: Monetisation of Gong Hao,</span> by providing <span style="font-weight: bold;">additional services and content</span> on a paid basis using a similar model as the one used successfully by the Joomla! development community. eg:<br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">3.3a paid moderation/mentoring/teacher services for schools which are able to pay for specialist input to their online classes<br/>3.3b. specialist webhosting and management (ie we set up and maintain your Gong Hao installation for you, under your own URL)<br/>3.3c. pay-for-access content in addition to the core material<br/>3.3d. <span style="font-weight: bold;">corporate sponsorship/social responsibility programs - especially by enabling companies to enrol their staff into Gong Hao with a branded presence and professional guidance to devlop socially aware thinking and the</span> <span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">habits of innovation</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">that are also useful in business</span><br/></font></div>
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<div style="margin-left: 80px;"><font size="3">3.3e. providing specialised real-world teaching staff to schools wanting to complete the Gong Hao program - eg in Taiwan where I currently live and make my living as a freelance teacher.<br/></font></div>
<div style="margin-left: 80px;"><font size="3"><span style="font-style: italic;">3.3f. suggested: some kind of franchised certification program under WBI supervision</span><br/></font></div>
<font size="3"><br/></font><font size="3"><font size="4">4. The Money</font><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary: This is a business. It can make money, potentially lots of money. It may need investment funding, although not necessarily. US$1,000 seed funding would be nice, the right mentor is essential.</span> There are various obvious options listed below, but the key thing to remember is that Gong Hao engenders the creation of communities where large numbers of people with a shared interest and passion congregate. Surely we can find a way to sell something to these specific demographics?<br/><br/>(Edit: Since I wrote this, Evoke has modified the awards by teaming up with Global Giving. This creates more opportunities to think about, and I'll try and update this section in the next few days.)<br/><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">4.1 I have the resources to build this platform myself with/without the US$1,000 seed-funding, but it would be a <span style="font-weight: bold;">significant investment</span> in time and money. (Some programming needs to be outsourced.) There is no way I can afford the ongoing administration and development, so it needs an immediate source of income or else a capital injection which will enable me to devote myself to it full-time.<br/><br/>4.2 I live in Taiwan, which has a strong for-profit educational industry which I work in. There is interest among educational establishments in using this platform, which creates the potential to act as a service provider and recruit/train a group of teachers who will conduct specialised classes in schools. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Margins</span> are typically at least 60%, potentially <span style="font-weight: bold;">up to 200%</span>, and this could prove to be a lucrative sideline alongside the core web platform.<br/><br/>4.3 Schools worldwide may be willing to pay for online services such as specialised mentoring or moderation, or for additional teaching resources. This is untested.<br/><br/>4.4 Organisations which decide to run their own website may opt for a managed solution in which we provide a hosting package and ongoing technical support, development, etc. Again, this is untested and is also unlikely to be a big earner.<br/><br/>4.5 Most large corporations have social responsibility programs and/or staff training programs which could benefit from joining Gong Hao. We could offer specialised support for companies participating in a complete outsourced social innovation program, complete with company-branded presence in a global community, ie advertising. The most obvious applications are:<br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">4.5a a company-wide social innovation program which fulfils the companies' social responsibilities by focusing staff (say 1-2 hrs/week) on global issues and at the same time <span style="font-weight: bold;">fosters the habits of innovation</span> which are the lifeblood of any business<br/>4.5b Gong Hao as a tool to teach language skills, specifically report writing and presenting<br/></font></div>
<font size="3"><br/>4.6 Basing the project in Africa will, over time, create a pool of skilled labour in an emerging market with strong demand for locally-produced web-platforms. Low labour costs also make it theoretically possible to provide outsourced services to clients worldwide through services such as elance.com but ths is unlikely to be a big earner<br/><br/></font></div>
<font size="3">Social web projects need to acquire a <span style="font-weight: bold;">critical mass of users</span> in a limited time in order to be successful. Based on past experience, I don't have the ability to achieve that on my own. We will also probably need an injection of cash, and would prefer to work with <span style="font-weight: bold;">investors</span> who would also <span style="font-weight: bold;">take an active interest</span> in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">development</span> of the business. Additionally, selling an online training program to major corporations while I am based in Taiwan will probably be difficult, and we will need introductions and representation.<br/><br/>The partnership with Global Giving sounds like an excellent way to get the word out to potential sponsors. The services outlined in 4.5 above would be an excellent inducement to major corporations which donate to social causes, while the global education resources may be more attractive to other donors. I'm keen to work with such a well-established organisation which can make it possible to reach out to large numbers of people, whether they are donors, sponsors, or potential users of the sites.<br/><br/>Actually setting up the operations centre in Africa should not be classed as a charity project. I have experience teaching the skills required to build and maintain this type of website, and am certain that people in Africa are perfectly capable of learning to do so. The objective is to create a globally competitive centre of excellence which can turn a profit. There are many sources of funds available which may be willing to invest in this project if we can acquire some momentum by winning an Evoke award. eg <a href="http://www.shellfoundation.org/pages/core_lines.php?p=corelines_content&page=aspire">Shell Aspire</a><br/><br/>At this moment, my objective is to secure the assistance of a top-class mentor who could advise and assist with these key components. After reading the bios of the available mentors I have drawn up a list of people who all individually could help Gong Hao a lot. But it's very difficult to say "I want this guy" because that means turning my back on some amazingly talented and cool people. So, if you don't object, I'd like to list all of them in no particular order and just hope that at least one will get in touch:<br/><br/></font><ul>
<li>Erik Hersman, not just because of Ushahidi, but because of the obvious connection with AfriGadget and the iHub.</li>
<li>Sebastian Barajas, who not only can introduce Gong Hao to potential corporate users but also because he knows a lot about corporate finance.</li>
<li>Chelsea Seale, for her interest in developing young people in Africa, especially in the computing field, and her connections to sources of finance.</li>
<li>Anne Shongwe, because she already works developing interactive digital media in Africa.</li>
<li>Nicolas Gorjestani, who has access to people who can make things happen and is also focused on learning systems. <br/></li>
<li>Jamie McAullife, an activist in the field of providing meaningful employment opportunities for vulnerable youth in the Middle East and North Africa. <br/></li>
<li>Paul Gabie, the development specialist with a focus on education. Who else to talk to about providing education services on a fairly large scale in Taiwan, or globally online?</li>
<li>Derek Lomas, for his expertise in making online learning fun.</li>
<li>Roger Schank, because he has built a for-profit business around providing "learning-by-doing, story-centered curricula in schools, universities, and corporations."</li>
<li>Ethan Zuckerman, a serial entrepreneur who has experience shipping people like me to teach people useful stuff in the developing world.<br/></li>
</ul>
<font size="3"><br/></font><font size="3"><font size="4">5. The People</font><br/></font><ul>
<li><font size="3">Myself: I am a freelance teacher from the UK, working in high schools and universities in Taiwan. I have been building websites as a hobby/skills development project for about five years, and have always been interested in social issues. I have extensive experience of living in different countries and cultures, and also volunteer at a local charity focusing on domestic abuse. I also ride a motorbike, sail, dive, learn Taiji and yoga, and am generally pretty gung-ho sort of guy.</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Naturally, I have a network of collaborators, friends, associates, colleagues, etc., but haven't approached anyone to join this project yet as I am unlikely to go ahead without the mentoring support I need.<br/></font></li>
</ul>
<font size="3">I'm drawing up a list of advisors, people I can draw on for ideas. So far, I have the following:</font><ul>
<li><font size="3">Emer Beamer of Butterfly Works, who is leading a project to integrate Ushahidi into the Joomla! web system - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.buildingbridges.co.ke/">www.buildingbridges.co.ke</a></font></li>
<li><font size="3">Chris Hallett software developer for the madblanks software that enables quizzes, complex user input, interactive comics, etc.</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Don Foster, Member of Parliament (UK)</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Graham Watson, Member of European Parliament</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Jessie Chao, an auditor at Deloitte</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Philippe Grelon, President of Veolia Environmental Services, Hong Kong</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Gus Adapon, of Taiwan Business Angles Network, and Executive Producer of Pinoy Sunday, a movie about migrant workers</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Jackie Goldbourne, who writes text books at Oxford University Press</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Rueyling Tzeng, researcher at Academia Sinica</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Florence De Changy, reporter with AFP and freelance documentary maker</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Wendy Mitchell, fundraiser at the Chinese Garden in Portland, Oregon</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Angela Wu, head of the English Training Centre at National Taiwan Normal University</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Zefrank (tbc), viral marketing pioneer and the only person I've ever had an email from that actually gave a speech at TED</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Elias Ek, President of Enspyre Consulting and co-Chair of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei's SME Centre</font></li>
<li><font size="3">John Liao, head of Business Inubator Centre, Chinese Culture University</font></li>
<li><font size="3">Sze-yi Chen, advocacy and fundraising at Garden of Hope charity<br/></font></li>
<li><font size="3">Brian, my dog</font></li>
</ul>
<font size="3"><font size="4">6. Progress so Far, Immediate Obstacles, The Future</font><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary: I've given this a lot of thought and tried various things out. I'm pretty sure I now have a good handle on what is involved, have many ideas for the future, and have put a few wheels in motion:</span><br/><br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">6.1 I have a meeting scheduled next week with the Chair of the Education Department at NTNU, Taiwan's leading university in the field, to give a presentation on the use of Evoke in the classroom. If I can get NTNU on board then it is extremely likely that I'll be able to offer a classroom program next semester, in September. There are approximately 250,000 students nationally in any given year group.<br/><br/>6.2 I have experimented with a proof-of-concept website, and almost everything required is available "off the shelf" and can be integrated together, including: Complex user profiles, blogging, a forum, project management software, announcements, groups/guilds/classes, school report card generating, wiki, Ushahidi, Moodle, and multi-language support. There will need to be a small amount of custom software, and I have already talked to developers about this:<br/></font><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="3">6.2a The biggest single problem is how to link 'evidence' to personal profiles in a way that is easy for the user to understand. Blogging (as with Ning) is easy, but I want something more user-friendly and have spoken to a developer who has written similar applications in the past. It's do-able, but might cost some $s.<br/>6.2b I'm terrible at graphic design, and will need to pay for (or solicit free) templates and artwork in order to make the site more visually attractive.<br/>6.2c There need to be a few 'tweaks' to different softwares so that they share more information, eg user profiles on blogs, profiles, forums need to be synchronised. Everything is using the same database, so it's just a question of telling the software to look for A instead of B. Easily done by an expert.<br/>6.2d The points system, user ranks, grades, etc., is not optimal at the moment, but the conversation continues about what would be the best approach to take. Technical solutions can follow the educational debate.<br/><br/></font></div>
<font size="3">6.3 There are some legal issues with employing foreign teachers in Taiwan High Schools, all solvable. The simplest way is just to work with an existing provider, although this cuts profits considerably. The industry is in the middle of a "shake out" and it is probably possible to buy out an existing company for very little money and take over the license and resources.<br/><br/>6.4 I have been reading about the "World Without Oil" game, and others. As we're building an expandable platform, new modules such as WWO (or generated by the community) can be supplied as installable expansion packs.<br/></font></div>
<font size="3"><br/></font><font size="4"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Final Word</span><br/><br/></font><font size="4">I'm very excited about this project! I came to Evoke after seeing Jane's speech on TED, because I am looking for new educational tools. Evoke is not exactly what I'm looking for, but it's a great first attempt and has shown me the way forward. Now that I'm familiar with the concept of ARGs, I can see huge opportunities to grow this market using a combination of free and for-profit services and tools. I have all the right skills, and I'm in just the right place at just the right time. I just need someone with a bit more relevant experience to guide me and help to get the word out.</font><br/><br/>Final final word: (21 May, 11am) I came into this program when it was already more than 2/3 over, and was then locked out twice by Ning for a total of four days. I work full-time, have other projects under development, and this week I have an extra-high workload. Completing everything, including this Evokation, to the required standard is a major challenge. As Evoke haven't yet managed to acknowledge my submission, I am assuming that there will be some leeway given to people like me who need to keep working on their Evokations. It's a plan, and plans are never 'complete' so I will continue to edit and add to this page until someone locks me out again. I hope that's OK.<br/>Resources for Evokationstag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-16:4871302:BlogPost:1518362010-05-16T23:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I've been looking at other people's plans to try and get good ideas about PRESENTING my own plan, and I wanted to share a few resources with the community.<br></br><br></br>There's an awful amount of passion on show at Evoke, and some of the Evokations look amazing. But many are also a bit 'one-sided' in that they focus on the problem rather than the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">strategy</span> for solving it and what you can contribute. They're all about what we need (in order to solve…
I've been looking at other people's plans to try and get good ideas about PRESENTING my own plan, and I wanted to share a few resources with the community.<br/><br/>There's an awful amount of passion on show at Evoke, and some of the Evokations look amazing. But many are also a bit 'one-sided' in that they focus on the problem rather than the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">strategy</span> for solving it and what you can contribute. They're all about what we need (in order to solve the problem) rather than what we can offer the people giving their time and money to support us.<br/><br/>Let's face it, for most of us, US$1,000 isn't going to make a big difference. We're going to need a lot more in the future, so at some point we will need to be approaching other organisations to ask for funding.<br/><br/>Your Evokation is just the first in a long series of funding pitches. And in many cases, we will need to have some long-term plan to make the project self-sustaining.So I've been looking for information about what investors look for, and how to talk to them.<br/><br/>A great place to start is <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_s_rose_on_pitching_to_vcs.html">this TED video on how to pitch VCs</a>.<br/><br/>And here's a really great insight into the other side of things: <a href="http://socialinitiative.se/english/for_companies/selecting_projects">advice
for companies looking for a social project to sponsor</a>.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/business-finance/equity-funding-private-equity/454-1.html">This article</a> includes the following great advice, whether you're starting a business or an aid program: <b style="font-style: italic;">Be prepared.</b> <span style="font-style: italic;">When you do get in front of
the venture capitalist, be prepared to demonstrate the following:<br/>
</span><ul style="font-style: italic;">
<li id="trln">A clear understanding of your business</li>
<li id="trln">A clear understanding of the barriers to entry and other hurdles of business</li>
<li id="trln">Drive and ambition</li>
<li id="trln">Relevant experience</li>
<li id="trln">A vision for the growth of the company</li>
<li id="trln">The character, expertise, experience, and skills of key members of the management team. <br/>
</li>
</ul>
Here's <a href="http://energypriorities.com/entries/2006/10/what_do_vcs_look_for.php">a good article about investing in energy projects</a>.<br/><br/>The <a href="http://www.bbaa.org.uk/index.php?id=4">British Business Angels Association</a> provides this handy graphic and advice:<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://www.bbaa.org.uk/library/media/BBAA_ladder_of_finance_web_1.jpg"/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The methods used by Business Angels to decide which businesses to invest in varies greatly, however, the following issues are all taken into consideration:</p>
<ul>
<li>The expertise and track record of the founders and management</li>
<li>The businesses competitive edge or unique selling point</li>
<li>The characteristics and growth potential of the market</li>
<li>Compatibility between the management, business proposal and the business angel's skills and investment preferences</li>
<li>The financial commitment of the entrepreneur</li>
</ul>
If you know of any other good resources about PRESENTING you Evokation, please list them below.<br/><br/>Thanks<br/>Gamers, teachers, I need your ideastag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-15:4871302:BlogPost:1510832010-05-15T02:41:30.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I'd like your opinions about motivation, especially as regards Evoke. I've seen some posts about the gameplay aspect of this site, and some posts about teaching, but not seen the two groups talking very much.<br></br><br></br>I used to work in sales, now I'm a teacher, and I'm participating in Evoke after seeing <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html">Jane's TED speech about using games to teach people</a>. I use stuff like…
I'd like your opinions about motivation, especially as regards Evoke. I've seen some posts about the gameplay aspect of this site, and some posts about teaching, but not seen the two groups talking very much.<br/><br/>I used to work in sales, now I'm a teacher, and I'm participating in Evoke after seeing <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html">Jane's TED speech about using games to teach people</a>. I use stuff like <a href="http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/">Third World Farmer</a> to stimulate conversation quite often. (Be careful, this one can be addictive.)<br/><br/>Sales is a science. It's a process of understanding your customer, helping them to understand their own problems more clearly, directing them to define a solution, then presenting them with something that solves the problem as they define it, and finally making it affordable/attainable. Sometimes, you have to mislead people in order to influence their understanding and decision-making, and I was never very good at it. But teaching is basically the same thing.<br/><br/>I just saw <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html">a brilliant speech about math education in the USA</a>, in which the speaker says: <span style="font-style: italic;">I sell a product to a market that doesn't want it, but is forced by law to buy it.... it's just a losing proposition.</span> (It's 11 minutes, and well worth the investment in time.)<br/><br/>Clearly he gets it, teaching is all about presenting information in a way that motivates people, which is where Jane comes in. Evoke is presented as a game, with points and runes to chase after. It's also time-limited, which in my case meant trying to do everything in just six weeks.<br/><br/>I'm trying to figure out:<br/><ul>
<li>does the points system detract from the learning objectives?</li>
<li>does the time limit motivate people or make them feel that the goal in unattainable?</li>
<li>what else should I be considering that I haven't thought about this early in the morning?<br/></li>
</ul>
Games are all about commitment.<br/><br/>The key thing in sales is to obtain a commitment at each step of the process. The customer should have said "yes, I believe in you and your reasons for talking to me, and I have defined my problem as X and I really do want to solve that problem because the benefits are Y, and my ideal solution will be Z. I would really love to have Z, and if you can show me something that can do that and it's affordable then I will buy it."<br/><br/>If they haven't 'bought' you then nothing that happens after that point means anything. If they haven't bought you then they won't buy your vision. Even if they bought you, if they didn't buy your vision then your solution isn't going to solve their problm, no matter how cheap it is. And so on.<br/><br/>Sometimes people will nod their heads and go along with you, just to make you happy, but they're not committed. They just comply with your wishes until it comes to closing the sale, and then they make objections. (I don't like the colour.) A poor salesperson responds to the objections, a good salesman rewinds the process until they find the point where they stopped getting commitment and started getting compliance.<br/><br/>As a teacher, my students will comply in order to get the grades that keep their parents happy. Or, if I do my job properly, they will become emotionally committed to doing what I want because they see some benefit to themselves in extracting knowledge from me that is useful for them. Teaching is all about motivation, not facts. But the facts have to made available in bite-sized packages so that the students can digest them. In other words, we make the learning attainable, affordable in terms of effort required. Jane talked in her speech about games presenting goals that are achievable at each level. Same same, but different1<br/><br/>Similarly, Evoke has tried to use the 'game' format with points and runes to motivate people, to get commitment. I'm very interested in this concept and would like to hear other people's insights as to the successfulness or otherwise. The final task, Imagine10, was accepted by 146 people out of 19,348. Learn1 was accepted by 4,399 people out of a smaller original group. What's going on? What can be learned?<br/><br/>NOTE: THIS IS A RESEARCH POST AHEAD OF MY EVOKATION, PLEASE BE CONSTRUCTIVE, IT'S NOT INTENDED TO BE A PLACE TO BITCH ABOUT STUFF YOU JUST DON'T LKE. GIVE REASONS FOR YOUR OPINIONS.<br/><br/>Thanks<br/>Chris<br/><br/>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>I looked up some related topics, please add others that you know of.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-win">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-win</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/constraints-are-vital-and-fun">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/constraints-are-vital-and-fun</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-politics-points">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-politics-points</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-is-boring-and-garbage">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-is-boring-and-garbage</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/this-is-an-excellently-crafted">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/this-is-an-excellently-crafted</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-actually-make-this-a">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-actually-make-this-a</a><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/our-game-evoke-points-and">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/our-game-evoke-points-and</a><br/><br/>And finally: <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/the-wired-interview-with-jane">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/the-wired-interview-with-jane</a><br/><br/>Resistance is Uselesstag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1498032010-05-13T14:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is a story I wrote a couple of years ago, copied here for the benefit of anyone dealing with impossible demands.<br />
<p><br></br></p>
<p>One of my students told me something wonderful last night, and I want to share it with the world.</p>
<br />
<p>It has to do with the power of positive thinking, improvised comedy, success in our endeavours, an advertising slogan used by a famous sportswear company, and the ritual humiliation of English teachers in high schools. It may also be relevant to students of…</p>
This is a story I wrote a couple of years ago, copied here for the benefit of anyone dealing with impossible demands.<br />
<p><br/></p>
<p>One of my students told me something wonderful last night, and I want to share it with the world.</p>
<br />
<p>It has to do with the power of positive thinking, improvised comedy, success in our endeavours, an advertising slogan used by a famous sportswear company, and the ritual humiliation of English teachers in high schools. It may also be relevant to students of Leonardo Da Vinci and Sun Tzu, but it begins with a question I really didn't want to answer a few weeks ago:<br/></p>
<h6><font size="4">Who will be Snow White? <br/></font></h6>
<br />
It happened during a program I was teaching at Sacred Heart High School inearly August. It's common for these summer camps to include some kind of final show, and this year it had been decided by someone that the foreign teachers would be required to put on some kind of performance.<br/><br/>
<br/>
<p>I personally dislike these shows. They detract from the educational objectives, put unfair pressure on the students, and anyway... I'm not good at drama. I'm an "old-school" teacher who focuses on serious stuff, not silliness like this. So I wasn't very happy about the idea of getting up on stage. And I was even less happy when my colleagues decided that we should base our act on "Snow White" and then expected me to play the lead role. So I resisted.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Resistance is a funny thing, we all do it, but according to sources as diverse as ancient Chinese generals, renaissance artists, and modern thinkers like Nicholas Taleb, it's not beneficial. I keep hearing, again and again, that <b>the secret to success is to work with the opportunity that is in front of you rather than insist on how things "should" be in your opinion</b>. As Bruce Lee apparently once said: <i>If you're wedded to one outcome, you're dead.</i><br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Well, eventually I gave up. I accepted that the world had decreed that I would wear a dress in front of several hundred people, and focused my energies on making the most of the situation. I made some changes to the script, and the result was actually pretty good. I also learned a few unforseen lessons, and had to admit that the experience had been good for me. Like the shoe company says, <b>"JUST DO IT!"</b><br/></p>
<img src="http://www.taiwanchallenges.com/archive/images/stories/singles/PQ/snowwhite/imgp0157a.jpg"/><br />
<p><br/></p>
<p>After the show I talked about it with <a href="http://www.taiwanchallenges.com/archive/Schools/NTPU/" target="_self">one of my university classes</a> . The students are mature adults in continuing education and a lot of our energy is devoted to career development issues. So this was a natural topic of conversation, and I hoped that it was beneficial to the students to talk about it.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>So, yesterday we were talking about Chinese attitudes to success. We started with the traditional factors <i>- destiny, luck, feng shui, philanthropy, education -</i> and discussed how relevant they are in the modern world. And pretty soon we were talking about making your own luck, taking responsibility for outcomes, and so on. One of my ladies then told me something that really made me happy, so here it is:<br/></p>
<blockquote><p>A few days after the "Snow White" class, my student's boss announced he<br/> wanted to form a new team within the accounting department to deal with<br/> various issues. The staff were reluctant - resisting - and my student <br/>
recognised in herself the same behaviour that we had discussed in class.<br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>The boss was asking "Who will be Snow White?" and everyone was looking <br/> at everyone else. It's really tough to be honest with yourself and say <br/> "I'm doing the wrong thing here, I need to change," but somehow she <br/>
managed to just do it - she volunteered to not only join the team but <br/>
also to take responsibility for it. She accepted the challenge before <br/>
her and became the team leader.<br/>
</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>And she's enjoying it! She's glad she forced herself to stop resisting.<br/> She's more satisified with her job, liking herself more, and she even <br/> got an unforseen pay rise too. She was very excited to talk to her <br/> classmates about how her career had taken a step upwards as a result of <br/>
something she learned from me.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>And naturally I was delighted too. This is what people pay me for, so I really</p>
<p>feel like I delivered the goods for her. <br/></p>
</blockquote>
<h6><font size="4">The lesson here is that whenever you face a situation that makes you <br/> wish things were different, it doesn't help to let those feelings rule your responses. <b>Ask yourself "Who will be Snow White if I don't?"</b><br/> After you have made the decision you will find that the crown fits you quite well, and hundreds of people love you. We all have a princess inside of us, just waiting to get out. And it's not necessary to kiss any frogs! <b>Just Do It!</b></font> <br/>
</h6>I just read the rules...tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1493282010-05-13T04:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
EDIT: This post is now redundant as the rules have been changed. Hallelujah! And thanks to the PTBs for listening....<br></br>
<br></br><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="4">Thanks for this feedback. Points all well taken. In the spirit of EVOKE -- we listen, learn, adapt and evolve. EVOKATION prizes now open to all
agents of any age. See blog --…<br></br><br></br></font></div>
EDIT: This post is now redundant as the rules have been changed. Hallelujah! And thanks to the PTBs for listening....<br/>
<br/><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><font size="4">Thanks for this feedback. Points all well taken. In the spirit of EVOKE
-- we listen, learn, adapt and evolve. EVOKATION prizes now open to all<br />
agents of any age. See blog --<br/><br/><a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/05/13/prize-categories-open-to-all-ages/" target="_blank">http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/05/13/prize-categories-open-to-all-ages/</a><br/><br/>
Good luck with the EVOKATIONS and looking forward to continue to be<br />
inspired by all of you. <br/></font></div>
<br />
<br />
<br/>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\<br/><br/>Orignila message reads:<br/><br/>... and discovered that I CANNOT submit an Evokation.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/rules-for-playing-evoke">http://www.urgentevoke.com/page/rules-for-playing-evoke</a><br/><br/>3.1. Conference Fellowship – Young Innovators<br/>3.1.3. ELIGIBILITY: Player must have been <span style="font-weight: bold;">born on January 1, 1980 or later</span>.<br/><br/>3.2. Mentorships<br/>3.2.3.3. All players must have been <span style="font-weight: bold;">born on January 1, 1975 or later</span><br/><br/>In order to find this page, I had to click on a link in the "Happy Evokation Day" post that is tucked away on the front page. I only looked for it because I received an email with the fabulously informative content:<br/><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">Urgent Evoke<br/>A crash course in changing the world.<br/>A message to all members of Urgent Evoke<br/></div>
<br/>Due to the formatting of the page, the rest of the message is hidden.<br/><br/>When I started this project, I was initially put off by the fact that it wasn't clear what I was expected to do, and I subsequently wrote <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/forum/topics/about-about">an article about this fact</a>. In <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/forum/topics/evoke-15-for-teachers-and">my Evoke 1.5 discussion</a>, I also asked about the Terms and Conditions - something I had actually read.<br/><br/>Clicking <a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/01/27/about-the-evoke-game/">the About button</a> at the top of the page takes you to a blog which doesn't list these rules, but does have the following messsage at the side. I've highlighted the bit that is misleading:<br/><br/><div id="right-about"><div><p style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">EVOKE is free to play and <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">open to anyone</span></span>, anywhere.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">The game begins on March 3, 2010. Players can join the game at any time.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">Players who successfully complete ten game challenges in ten weeks will be able to claim their honors: Certified World Bank Institute Social<br/> Innovator – Class of 2010.<br/></p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Top players will also earn online mentorships</span></span> with experienced social innovators and business leaders from around the world, and scholarships<br/> to share their vision for the future at the EVOKE Summit in Washington<br/> DC.<br/>
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">EVOKE was developed by the World Bank Institute, the learning and knowledge arm of the World Bank Group, and directed by alternate reality<br/> game master Jane McGonigal.</span> <br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Nowehere visible does it say that there are age restrictions. I have made a serious effort to find out what the rules are, but nobody bothered to put them in a place where I could find them. I have tried to be proactive about addressing this issue, but nobody seems to care. I really want to protest the way in which the managers of this site have failed to communicate clearly. It's just not good enough.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>EDIT: Jane kindly replied to this very quickly, with a clarification.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">At any rate, if you sincerely want mentorship, my advice is to submit your evokation and say exactly which mentor(s) you want to work with and why, and we will ensure that they at least see it.</p>
</div>
</div>Taipei, City of the Future.tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-12:4871302:BlogPost:1483942010-05-12T18:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
In 2010, Taipei hosted a horticultural festival that saw huge investments in plant life all over the city. In addition to the already leafy main thoroughfares and many city parks, city residents soon noticed that the ever-active construction industry had disappeared behind forests of green. The temporary fences that usually surrounded construction sites were replaced with sturdy frames containing thousands of flowering plants.<br></br><br></br>Ten years later, as conservation work continued in the…
In 2010, Taipei hosted a horticultural festival that saw huge investments in plant life all over the city. In addition to the already leafy main thoroughfares and many city parks, city residents soon noticed that the ever-active construction industry had disappeared behind forests of green. The temporary fences that usually surrounded construction sites were replaced with sturdy frames containing thousands of flowering plants.<br/><br/>Ten years later, as conservation work continued in the older city areas, rebuilding projects had transformed many of the uglier parts of the city. New, energy-efficient buildings appeared and as the city's Mass Rail Transit system expanded, the number of cars on the road fell dramatically.<br/><br/>Taipei has always been at the mercy of natural disasters like earthquakes and typhoons. But flood control measures ensured that by the early 21st century, most people in the city looked on typhoon strikes as a welcome chance to take a day off work and stay at home, with the probability of some 'typhoon holiday' shopping as soon as the rain stopped. The deep flooding of the 1980s and '90s became little more than a folk memory.<br/><br/>Earthquakes remained a threat, but improved building codes and 'natural selection' ensured that the impact of all but the biggest quakes would be minimal for most people. All the same, emergency response teams were maintained and 'safe' areas such as parks were designated as emergency centres where supplies could be distributed and medical care could be found. Taiwanese teams continued to be deployed worldwide in the event of natural disasters, from Haiti in 2010 to Los Angeles for the big one of 2017, and India during the flooding of 2019.<br/><br/>Although the city became more green on the outside, the biggest change was the reusing of many old industrial buildings, and some office and residential space, for urban farming. Jobs were created, and a whole new industry grew up using super-efficient indoor agriculture methods that cut the city's reliance on imported foodstuffs by 50%.<br/><br/>All in all, by 2020, Taipei was in pretty good shape.<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211114?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<br/>EDIT: Ooops, I finished this at 3am, and didn't realise I put the wrong MRT map in at the top. The system will be expanded to look like this:<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211408?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<br/>I can't speak highy enough of Taipei's public transport system. Compare and contrast with London or New York! <br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://cobra.ee.ntu.edu.tw/ciaa2006/img/mrt.jpg"/></p>
<br/>Taiwan adopts Kilowatt Hour as currencytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-12:4871302:BlogPost:1480002010-05-12T15:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Taipei, ROC: Taiwan today became the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt energy as the basic commodity underwriting it's currency.</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"></br><br></br>The New Taiwan Dollar will remain in circulation indefinitely, but from 1 April 2020, electrical energy must be paid for using the new currency, forcing banks to convert all existing customer accounts into multi-currency accounts. Under the scheme, customers can use their debit cards in…
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Taipei, ROC: Taiwan today became the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt energy as the basic commodity underwriting it's currency.</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"/><br/>The New Taiwan Dollar will remain in circulation indefinitely, but from 1 April 2020, electrical energy must be paid for using the new currency, forcing banks to convert all existing customer accounts into multi-currency accounts. Under the scheme, customers can use their debit cards in the normal way or withdraw the new currrency from ATMs nationwide that have been replaced as part of the government's drive towards becoming the world's first energy-based economy.<br/><br/>Withdrawals will initally result in the customers going overdrawn on their new accounts, as no exchange rate has been set. Instead, people will need to buy Kilowatt Hours from the organisations that have been issued the currency, said Wee Pei-yoo, a spokesman for the newly-created Taiwan Power Bank. He went on to say that the intention is to create a market for the new notes, offered in values of 100KWH, 500KWH and 1MWH, which will encourage people to use them for other transactions.<br/><br/>"We hope very much that people will recognise the value of a currency that reflects the basic wealth of the nation," said Pei-yoo, before adding "energy is the new gold-standard, and one kilowatt hour will always be one kilowatt hour. We've issued the new currency to leading retailers, online stores, and banks for them to sell at whatever price they can get."<br/><br/>The move follows the financial turmoils on global markets over the last two years after the UN declared that the world had reached 'peak oil,' the collapse of several leading banks in China and Russia, and defaults on sovereign debt by major countries including the UK. <br/><br/>Analysts have responded positively to the move, noting that Taiwan relies mostly on marine energy and has invested heavily in electrically powered vehicles. No new fuel-burning motor vehicles have been permitted on Taiwan's roads for three years, and tough legislation has been introduced making it more difficult to keep existing cars on the roads. With the entire economy shifting to electrical power, a free-floating currency backed by the country's energy resources is seen as a hedge against future instability. "You can't go wrong," said Gabriel Martin, chief currencies strategist at the World Bank's Centre for Financial Security, "nobody's going to speculate against something as real and fundamental as this."<br/><br/>Meanwhile, on the streets, the general public also welcomed the new currency. After years of price hikes and blackouts, energy security is never far from people's minds. "I'd like to receive my salary in KWH," said Pei Mee-nao, a factory worker. "Everything I buy depends on the price of energy, so it would be great if my salary would always buy the same amount of it."<br/><br/>Business owners also expressed interest in the same idea. "It would simplify everything," said Paul Holze, international communications manager for mobile phone giant HTC. "If energy and labour are priced in the same way then all the other variables become manageable. We could forecast our costs more accurately, insulate against the kind of mess that resulted from the last crisis, and of course it would encourage us to invest in our energy production facilities, which would push the cost of energy down and benefit everyone in these troubled times."<br/><br/>So how long until that happens? According to the Taiwan government, civil service and military salaries could be paid in KWH as soon as next year, with the whole economy making the shift within five years. Maybe the question to ask is, how long until other governments start following suit?<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234208379?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234208681?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234208871?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>My bonsai dolmen, link.tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-12:4871302:BlogPost:1475732010-05-12T08:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
Q: Some problem with the tagging thing. Was my last post too long, or has the thing stopped working? I can't log my evidence.<br/>A: Probably the post was too long. No reward for hard work, is it?<br/><br/>The proper article can be found here - <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/indigenousity-and-my-bonsai">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/indigenousity-and-my-bonsai</a><br/>
Q: Some problem with the tagging thing. Was my last post too long, or has the thing stopped working? I can't log my evidence.<br/>A: Probably the post was too long. No reward for hard work, is it?<br/><br/>The proper article can be found here - <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/indigenousity-and-my-bonsai">http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/indigenousity-and-my-bonsai</a><br/>Welcome to the Evoke Network.tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-12:4871302:BlogPost:1471102010-05-12T01:00:26.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
We are a global organisation dedicated to solving the world's global problems. You are joining a network of agents who have taken individual responsibility for saving the world.<br></br><br></br>At Evoke, we believe in democracy - not the kind of democracy where you vote for someone to take responsibility for your future, but the kind of democracy where every individual counts. We believe it's up to us to make a difference.<br></br><br></br>Our members are people like you. We come from different backgrounds…
We are a global organisation dedicated to solving the world's global problems. You are joining a network of agents who have taken individual responsibility for saving the world.<br/><br/>At Evoke, we believe in democracy - not the kind of democracy where you vote for someone to take responsibility for your future, but the kind of democracy where every individual counts. We believe it's up to us to make a difference.<br/><br/>Our members are people like you. We come from different backgrounds and have different talents and knowledge to contribute, but all of us have gone through a process of self-discovery and made a decision to become super-heroes. We have realised that if we wait for someone else to solve the problems around us then everybody else will wait for us. And so we have resolved to act.<br/><br/>Before we act, we learn. Most of the world's problems are related to lack of understanding, and because we don't have a vision for the kind of future we can build. So as well as learning and acting, we imagine. We imagine better futures, and act to make them real.<br/><br/>Learn. Act. Imagine. These are the keys to saving the world.<br/><br/>To be a successful Evoke agent, there are a few things you will need to remember. Changing the world means changing people, and people often resist change. Always remember that people have their own reasons for doing things and that you need to understand them if you want to change anything. And, no matter how hard we try, we can never be sure that we're right. Good Evoke agents listen much more than they talk. Wisdom may be found in the most unlikely places, so always encourage people to tell you what they know or believe, and be respectful of what they say.<br/><br/>Most importantly of all, Evoke is built on the philosophy of positive change, the principle that we build rather than destroy. In your career as an agent, you will encounter many obstacles and much opposition. If you meet these problems head-on, you will be in constant conflict. If you learn to avoid conflict, to turn the opposition to your advantage, then you will succeed.<br/><br/>Remember, always say "yes, and ..." rather than "yes, but... " and you will always have momentum. Every time you say "but" you are stopping the conversation andd have to get started again. If you always say "and" then you are always adding energy to whatever it is you are doing, while steering that energy in the direction you want to go.<br/><br/>And finally, if you're having problems winning people over to your way of thinking, then try doing something spectacular. If you do something to make people go "wow!" or something to make them think, then they will pay attention to you. Evoke agents are leaders before anything else, so it's good to find ways to make people pay attention to you.<br/><br/>It's all about branding. Not everybody has the time or education to understand the details of your proposals, but they will follow your lead if they have faith in you personally. Build your brand by doing things that communicate your values and beliefs to as many people as possible. Let them know what you stand for, show them that you care and that you know what's best. And then they will follow you in a crisis.<br/><br/>Oh, and finally, watch out for the enemy:<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211149?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<br/>My new site has disaster response capabilitiestag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-12:4871302:BlogPost:1470702010-05-12T00:15:51.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
<a href="http://ingeniousity.net">http://ingeniousity.net</a><br></br><br></br>The problem with dark sites is that nobody knows they are there until it's too late. And when you find them, you're not familiar with them so they have to follow a fairly simple format - like a brochure. All the information flows in one direction.<br></br><br></br>My new site, still under development, contains many tools that can be used in an emergency. By cultivating a large member base during normal times, it is possible to build…
<a href="http://ingeniousity.net">http://ingeniousity.net</a><br/><br/>The problem with dark sites is that nobody knows they are there until it's too late. And when you find them, you're not familiar with them so they have to follow a fairly simple format - like a brochure. All the information flows in one direction.<br/><br/>My new site, still under development, contains many tools that can be used in an emergency. By cultivating a large member base during normal times, it is possible to build familiarity with all sorts of tools that will be useful in an emergency. <br/><br/>Obviously, the wiki will be an important source of information. A discussion forum is an important place to ask questions and get answers from other members of the community. Geographical distirbution of resources and problems can be plotted using the Ushahidi feature, and responses can be managed using the projects tool.<br/><br/>Using this combination, anyone visiting this site can not only get general information; they can also report what is going on, find out what is going on, find out what needs to be done, keep track of what is being done, request help, offer help, share resources, find out where the resources are, and invent other ways to solve their problems.<br/><br/><img alt=""/><img alt=""/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211015?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234210893?profile=original" alt=""/></p>One Laptop Per Talibantag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1448682010-05-10T15:22:20.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is just an idea for an Evokation, and as I already have a big one under development, I'm quite happy to see someone take this and make it their own.<br></br><br></br>Here's the deal: the biggest single problem in some areas of the world is that one particular group has a monopoly on 'the truth' and are able to maintain that monopoly by restricting access to information. In places like Afghanistan, where few people have access to education, religious authority is claimed by people who are free to…
This is just an idea for an Evokation, and as I already have a big one under development, I'm quite happy to see someone take this and make it their own.<br/><br/>Here's the deal: the biggest single problem in some areas of the world is that one particular group has a monopoly on 'the truth' and are able to maintain that monopoly by restricting access to information. In places like Afghanistan, where few people have access to education, religious authority is claimed by people who are free to interpret The Koran as they see fit. In fact, Taliban actually means 'students' in reference to the organisations' powerbase in the religious schools of the region. The schools, known as 'madrassas,' apparently teach a very restrictive interpretation of Islam that most modern muslims would be uncomfortable with.<br/><br/>It's a bit like the situation in medieval Europe where a corrupt and intolerant church pursued it's own agenda, claiming moral authority to do so. The difference is that even though different interpretations exist, there is no equivalent of the Gutenberg press, because nobody can read.<br/><br/>But in the modern world, we do have computers and interactive programming, and media files. We also have intiatives such as "<a href="http://www.acommonword.com/">A Common Word</a>," sponsored by King Abdullah of Jordan and endorsed by most of the world's leading Islamic scholars. The aim of this initiative is to remind people the world over that Judasim, Christianity and Islam all have one common message at the centre - compassion, love and respect for others:<br/><br/><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">Indeed, the most fundamental common ground between Islam and
Christianity, and the best basis for future dialogue and<br />
understanding, is the<br />
love of God and the love of the neighbor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">Never before
have Muslims delivered this kind of definitive consensus statement<br />
on<br />
Christianity. Rather than engage in polemic, the signatories have<br />
adopted the<br />
traditional and mainstream Islamic position of respecting the<br />
Christian<br />
scripture and calling Christians to be more, not less, faithful to<br />
it.</span></p>
</div>
<br/>So, imagine yourself meeting the people behind <a href="http://www.altafsir.com/">The Tafsir Project</a> and collaborating with them to create a multi-media foundation course in Islam for beginners. Leading scholars from all over the muslim world introduce their favourite lessons, and you create visuals to go with them and add translated commentary.<br/><br/>Then you load the whole thing onto a hundred thousand (or a million) XO laptops, or ruggedised mobile phones, and any other suitable device you can come up with. These laptops are then distributed throughout Afghanistan, not just to schools but to individuals. Pretty soon everyone has a talking Koran at home, telling them God's message and God's will, and everyone becomes a student of Islam.<br/><br/>I would hope that those calling themselves Taliban would have no choice but to study harder and faster than everyone else, and start acting as their religion tells them to. In time, the Taliban would become respected members of the community - the true custodians of law and order.<br/><br/>It's worth a try, no?<br/>The future is nowtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-09:4871302:BlogPost:1433722010-05-09T08:00:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
<span style="font-weight: bold;">I think the first thing the next Evoke needs is clarity.</span> Who is this site for, and what are it's objectives?<br></br><br></br>As of today, 46% of participants are from the USA - a country which is listed seperately at the top of the 'select a country' thing, so I assume the target market is Americans. This is kind of odd, as <a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/">the official explanation</a> is:…<br></br><br></br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">I think the first thing the next Evoke needs is clarity.</span> Who is this site for, and what are it's objectives?<br/><br/>As of today, 46% of participants are from the USA - a country which is listed seperately at the top of the 'select a country' thing, so I assume the target market is Americans. This is kind of odd, as <a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/09/who-created-evoke-and-why/">the official explanation</a> is:<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic;">EVOKE was created by</span> <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The World Bank Institute</span></a> <span style="font-style: italic;">
as a direct response to African demands – namely, universities’ request to develop ideas to engage students in real world problems and to develop capacities for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.</span> <br/><br/>Capacities where? In the USA? Or in Africa, where people probably don't need to be lectured about how many people live on $2 a day. <br/><br/>Is Africa even a place? I'm a <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html">Hans Rosling</a> fan and agree with his idea that Africa is a diverse region with diverse problems and diverse solutions. I really don't think Evoke should be promoting the idea of Africa as one place with one set of problems, to be solved by Americans.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">There needs to be a clear mission statement, explaining who is expected to participate in the program and what the desired outcome is.</span> My personal belief is that these issues affect everyone, and in today's globalised world everyone has as much to learn - or to contribute - as anyone else, regardless of their origin. But you need to be clear about what you expect people to achieve, so that you don't get hundreds more <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-is-not-working-i-fear-we">posts like Samiran Roy's complaint at lack of progress</a>. <br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Based on the figures available, I am going to venture the opinion that less than 1% of registered agents will complete everything.</span> If the goal is to build capacity, and the tasks are the way we measure success, then the capacity that has been built is a lot less than it could have been. I think part of the problem is the mismatch between players' expectations and the realities of the game.<br/><br/>And, <a href="Julio%20Cesar%20Corona%20Ortega">as Julio Cesar Corona Ortega points out</a>, it's not really a game anyway. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Not yet.</span> I was skeptical at first about <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html">Jane M's theory that gaming can teach people to think like heroes</a>, but I'm starting to believe it. All the complaints and angst are indicative of a deep well of passion and commitment that is waiting to be tapped, and I'm very positive about the future possibilities.<br/><br/>I see the current iteration of Evoke as just the first attempt, a proof of concept that it is possible to mobilise large numbers of people to solve major issues. If the first round of results are not as great as hoped, then we have learned a valuable lesson in how to go about it next time around. As <a href="http://www.mikelitman.com/blog/#">Mike Liman</a> says, <span style="font-weight: bold;">"you don't have to get it right, you have to get it going."</span> He also goes on to say <span style="font-weight: bold;">"... and the market will give you feedback,"</span> which is what is happening now. Instead of bitching about Evoke's failings, the appropriate response is to become a social innovator and <span style="font-style: italic;">do something about it yourself</span>. <br/><br/>So, Evoke 2.0 should have a greater emphasis on the duty of the individual to take responsibility, take the initiative, take control. This means adding tools and mechanisms to enable people to get things going, and shifting the focus away from 'points farming'.<br/><br/>I've already made <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evokistan-interactive-graphic">a suggestion for a modification to the graphic novel part of the site</a> which is intended to change the reader from a passive participant to an active decision-maker. I hope that Evoke 2.0 will embrace this ethos more fully, instead of giving people a simple 'check for completed task' challenge as at the moment. Points are a powerful motivator, strangely enough, and making the awards system more complex with 'shades of achievement' could transform the experience.<br/><br/>My primary Evokation (I'm submitting more than one.) is <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/forum/topics/evoke-15-for-teachers-and">a proposal to rebuild the existing site</a> using open-source tools, power it up with all sorts of additional capabilities, and make it available to anyone anywhere. This means that anyone can join after 12 May, there will be a platform to turn ideas into projects-in-progress, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">teachers will be able to run classes around the Evoke concept</span>. I plan to make the whole thing clone-able, so anyone can set up their own site and use it as a base for additional projects of their own, and make everything available in different languages.<br/><br/>Ideally, in my mind, the next iteration of Evoke will be an upgrade to this package, containing all the new missions and capabilities. It can be added to all and any of the Evoke family of sites. If successful, there will be a logistical problem due to the huge amount of evidence to review but that's not my problem. {insert smiley here}<br/><br/><font size="5">OK, on to the questions asked in the briefing:</font><br/><ul>
<li>WHICH great challenges and social problems should the EVOKE Network tackle next?</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">I believe, based on the evidence submitted, that most people who are attracted to the game already have a grasp of many of the problems. They are more concerned with the HOW, so I would focus on opportunities and core knowledge.<br/><br/>In no particular order:<br/><ol>
<li>Open source and collaboration, from video mash-ups and appropedia to Joomla and Open Office. ACT: create or implement something under GPL</li>
<li>Ageing populations and longevity. <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html">Lots of good talks on TED.com about technology</a>, but what about demographic and economic impacts?</li>
<li>Basic economics, supply and demand, specialisation vs trying to do everything yourself.</li>
<li>What can we learn from fiction? Describe a message you learned from a book, movie etc. Make a suggestion for a modern parable.</li>
<li>Migration and displacement. Describe, make contact with immigrant community, and imagine yourself settling somewhere else.</li>
<li>People trafficking and slavery.</li>
<li>Black Swans, chaos theory, emergent systems. From Gaia to Google, to 9/11, to Harry Potter, to the financial crisis.</li>
<li>Sovereignty, personal and national, minorities; <a href="http://www.unpo.org/">the UNPO</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand">micronations</a>, charter cities, US 'Indian' sovereignty. Describe one, invent your own, nations in 100 years.</li>
<li>Mega-corps, power of capital, corporate responsibility, Johnson & Johnson credo vs Enron.</li>
<li>Hidden costs - get people to look deeper. <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_builds_green.html">Embedded energy/water, etc</a>.</li>
<li>Different forms of democracy, government: voting systems, monarchies, meritocracy, famous dictators good and bad. Describe one different from your own, propose changes to some system and HOW, and imagine global governance in 10 or 100 years.</li>
<li>Mindshare, memes, the battle for ideas. Design a marketing campaign.</li>
<li>How to fund a project: government, NGO, donations vs profit. Identify a source of funding, write a short proposal (practise Evokation), imagine outcome in ten years.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html">Violence</a> and coercion: emotional, verbal, physical and ways to break the cycle. Language, peer pressure, dependence, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/emily_levine_s_theory_of_everything.html">power relationships between subject/object</a>.<br/></li>
</ol>
</div>
<ul>
<li>WHERE in the world should the network try to build up new EVOKE communities?</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">NOT the USA. Growth will happen there anyway, with the result that one cultural perspective becomes dominant. this natural growth should be balanced by cultivating representative communities, eg pick:<br/><ol>
<li>one arabic country</li>
<li>one expatriate community</li>
<li>one engineering association</li>
<li>and maybe try and find an MNC or two that will give staff time off to participate as part of their corporate social responsibilitystrategy.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<ul>
<li>WHO would you encourage to play Season 2?</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><ol>
<li>All the people who signed upfor season 1, but didn't do anything. Start by asking them why, and what do we have to do to re-inspire them.</li>
<li>Schools and universities<br/></li>
<li>As above, major multi-nationals that can also provide sponsorship.<br/></li>
</ol>
</div>
<ul>
<li>HOW would you change the game for Season 2?</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">I will start by redesigning and relaunching season 1, and use the feedback to modify season 2 after that. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/forum/topics/evoke-15-for-teachers-and">See my post about Evoke 1.5</a><br/></div>
<ul>
<li>WHAT new tools would you want as an EVOKE agent?</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">project management, ushahidi, an advertising board, general forum, wiki, multi-language support<br/></div>
<ul>
<li>WHY would you come back for a second Season? What more would you want from the experience?</li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">I might ask why Evoke wants me back! Is this an advanced course for those who graduated season 1? There won't be many of us. Or is it to be pitched at the same level as season 1, for all the people who are not currently your customers? If the latter, then perhaps the season 1 graduates should be invited back in a community leader role instead? Having a hundred people to help the newbies would be a tremendous asset, and having a medal proclaiming "Alchemy's little helper" would be more motivational than any number of power points.<br/></p>Evokistan - Interactive graphic novelstag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-08:4871302:BlogPost:1423862010-05-08T06:00:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
To be honest, I haven't taken much notice of the comic book stuff on Evoke. When I come to this website, I see a 'panel' and nothing else. All that stuff described in the investigation file is hidden. I have no idea where it is, and didn't even know it existed until today. I don't know who the heroes are, and don't have a lot to contribute in terms of developing a story that has remained hidden to me. <br></br><br></br>I just checked, and it works in IE, but I use Firefox. If you want me to look at…
To be honest, I haven't taken much notice of the comic book stuff on Evoke. When I come to this website, I see a 'panel' and nothing else. All that stuff described in the investigation file is hidden. I have no idea where it is, and didn't even know it existed until today. I don't know who the heroes are, and don't have a lot to contribute in terms of developing a story that has remained hidden to me. <br/><br/>I just checked, and it works in IE, but I use Firefox. If you want me to look at this stuff, it has to be <span style="font-weight: bold;">compelling</span> and easily <span style="font-weight: bold;">accessible</span> to everyone. Currently, it's not. <br/><br/>Anyway, here's my suggestion:<br/><br/>The graphic novel should be an interactive story. Players adopt the role of a character in the story from a list of
options. <br/><br/>Below each panel there should be a choice of options, each leading to a different result. Each following panel within the mission comes with a new set of options, and each option leads to a different result. Many panels in one mission means many potential outcomes. The objective is to navigate through the mission and see what outcome you get.<br/><br/>Your results will be posted on your profile and be worth a certain number of points. The results will also be carried forward to the next mission and will influence the course of events. Players will have a rank based on the outcomes they achieve as the game progresses.<br/><br/>I doubt this will be easy using the Ning platform, but <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">I've just looked into how this can be done, and it's pretty easy using off-the-shelf open-source tools.</span> Basically, anything that can be flowcharted can be reproduced as a 'decision tree' and adding the graphics is no problem at all. The tools to do this already exist and are easy to use. The difficulty is to plan out the story arc and possible outcomes.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">So the obvious topic for the first mission of Evoke 2.0 is open-source, crowdsourcing, GPL, etc. As the current season was eager to embrace Ushahidi (also open-source), perhaps the second could introduce tools like Joomla, drupal, wordpress, firefox, The Gimp, mediawiki, winamp, VLC, etc?</span><br/><br/>EDIT, part 2: the recurring theme throughout season 2 is a mythical country called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haroun_and_the_Sea_of_Stories">Kahani</a>, which has all the problems that will be addressed during the
ten weeks. Players will have to navigate their way through the storyboard in order to reach the outcomes they desire for their country. The software can remember numeric values representing unemployment, civil unrest, transparency, corruption, quality of life, etc. and these will be adjusted depending on the choices players choose. Believe me, this stuff is easy from a technical perspective. It just needs <span style="text-decoration: underline;">really complex story-planning</span>, but we have nine months to make it happen.<br/><br/>I picture season 2 opening with an image of 2-3 people discussing the Evoke network and wishing it was active in their country. Their options will range from doing nothing to googling alchemy to doing something themselves (the 'correct' option).<br/><br/>They can then navigate through a flowchart, with options to make use of various tools they will discover as they go along. These tools wil be needed in later missions, and they may need to go back to the beginning if e.g. they get to mission five and discover that they missed the free software they need to make something they will need.<br/><br/>There should be plenty of clues about how to proceed in the learn section of the mission, and the early missions will be fairly simple anyway, to ensure that players are able to progress without too much trouble at first.<br/><br/>Learn: A list of open-source projects, from wikipedia to TED translations to Joomla. Objective: write about one of them.<br/>Act: install some free open-source software on your computer or server, or contribute something to an open-source resource. Write about your experience.<br/>Imagine: The future of intellectual property. <br/><br/>Related issues: music downloading<br/>Looking back on my first centurytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-07:4871302:BlogPost:1417982010-05-07T15:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
You don't need me to tell you that 'indigenous' doesn't mean anything any more. We're all global citizens these days and national governments don't really matter. We're all free to live anywhere and it's not cool to cling to an ancient identity just because of who your parents were or where they came from. But I'm glad to see that many people today are adopting cultures through the World Heritage Cultural Diversity Project. It still amazes me that today people will sign ten year contracts with…
You don't need me to tell you that 'indigenous' doesn't mean anything any more. We're all global citizens these days and national governments don't really matter. We're all free to live anywhere and it's not cool to cling to an ancient identity just because of who your parents were or where they came from. But I'm glad to see that many people today are adopting cultures through the World Heritage Cultural Diversity Project. It still amazes me that today people will sign ten year contracts with Cultural Guilds and commit time and money to preserving arts, perspectives, and knowledge from around the world. When I was young, people followed football teams. Now they join global nations.<br/><br/>Fifty years ago, very few people cared about the skills of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation">Polynesian
Navigators</a> and preservation was the job of a few enthusiasts with obscure academic grants. I couldn't imagine then that there would ever be ten thousand people criss-crossing the Pacific Ocean at any given time. It doesn't matter that we come from all corners of the world, today we're all navigators and that's all that matters. I'm thoroughly enjoying my new heritage, and glad I picked something adventurous. Can you believe I nearly chose Icelandic?<br/><br/>As my first 100th birthday approaches, I can't help appreciating that when I was born in 1966 <a href="http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:GBR&dl=en&hl=en&q=life+expectancy+at+birth+uk#met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:GBR">my life expectancy was a little over 71 years</a>. People were born, got educated, found a job, worked hard, got married and raised kids, and retired at the age of 65 with the expectation of having a few years more during which their health would fade until they died.<br/><br/>This was the assumption which governed my early life, but fortunately for me I was a bit too rebellious (stupid) to get suckered into 'the machine' and instead I found myself wandering the Earth having adventures and promising that I would settle down some time in the future. And when the future arrived, I had realised somethig wonderful.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things never work out the way you expect them to!</span><br/><br/>It's an amazing perspective to have, and one which people seem to have lost these days even though the pace of change is astonishingly fast. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law#Other_formulations_and_similar_laws">Variations on Moore's Law</a> mean that our abilities continue to grow exponentially, but still I see people planning for tomorrow as if it will be the same as today. Don't you young people learn from history?<br/><br/>Dring the first five years of the Human Genome Project, only five percent was completed. Five years later, it was 90% done to 90% accuracy. <a href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Structural_Biochemistry/DNA_recombinant_techniques/Human_Genome_Project#TimeLine_of_Major_Goals_Completed:">And in only thirteen years, 99% was complete to 99.99% accuracy</a> - two years ahead of schedule and a lot more cheaply than anticipated. As our abilities grow and costs come down, all our planning goes out of the window.<br/><br/>When I was born, heart transplant patients were lucky to get an extra year of life. By the time I joined the first Evoke, back in 2010, they could add decades to a life and <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/alan_russell_on_regenerating_our_bodies.html">researchers were starting to grow the first artificial organs</a> for implantation into patients. Today they're commonplace, and nobody expects me to die any time soon. My life expectancy has gone from 71 in 1966, to 80 in 2010, to 120 today in 2066. And by the time I reach 120, they'll have fixed the next set of problems and I'll be planning my next career.<br/><br/>I pity my friends who made their retirement plans on the assumption they would die at 80. It's lucky for me I saw the light fifty years ago and started to rethink my long-term strategy. I do hope that you young people will do the same and avoid the trap that many of your grandparents fell into. <br/><br style="font-weight: bold;"/><span style="font-weight: bold;">The key is to build wealth for tomorrow. Experiences, your capital fund, ongoing learning, a network of friends and professional contacts, these are the resources that will sustain you through the coming centuries. Slow and steady is the way to go, amassing a diverse global portfolio of intellectual and social capital as fast as you invest your different currencies.</span><br/><br/>Don't worry now about buying property in a city that may fail in twenty years like Tokyo did. Use your wealth wisely, invest in the utilities that everyone needs: food, water, energy, and avoid speculation. Concentrate on value investing. Remember, sooner or later there will be another financial crisis and if you're over-committed then you lose half your healthcare fund. Diversity is the foundation of wealth. Diverse knowledge, diverse understandings and perspectives, diverse friendships, diverse skills, diverse resources of all kinds will enable you to cope with all the upheavals and challenges ahead. Diversity engenders resilience, and resilience is essential in a long-term view of the world where nothing can be taken for granted.<br/>Fighting the boredom during a pandemictag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-06:4871302:BlogPost:1401542010-05-06T11:00:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I regularly have to endure periods of 20-30 hours where I can't really leave home due to typhoon weather. During a pandemic, it is possible that people will have to stay home for many days, even weeks, due to containment measures. (I faced ten days of quarantine during the SARS outbreak.)<br></br><br></br>In these situations, we start to go 'stir crazy' and desperately need to keep ourselves occupied - especially if we face the threat of dying in agony because of an invisible killer. People need…
I regularly have to endure periods of 20-30 hours where I can't really leave home due to typhoon weather. During a pandemic, it is possible that people will have to stay home for many days, even weeks, due to containment measures. (I faced ten days of quarantine during the SARS outbreak.)<br/><br/>In these situations, we start to go 'stir crazy' and desperately need to keep ourselves occupied - especially if we face the threat of dying in agony because of an invisible killer. People need distractions.<br/><br/>Watching TV, etc., are OK for a while but they're passive activities. Online gaming is a means to 'do' something, but how many households have enough computers to keep the whole family occupied? It seems to me there will be a need for activities.<br/><br/>On the other hand, this enforced idleness provides people with space in their otherwise busy lives to attend to all sorts of projects they have been putting off. This would be the time to fix that wobbly table, make a scrap book, learn how to do card tricks, and inevitably to have those difficult conversations with the people around us we've been avoiding forever.<br/><br/>People will need a source of information and direction at this time that <span style="font-style: italic;">takes into account</span> their current crisis but is not <span style="font-style: italic;">about</span> the crisis. I think a wiki/forum combination where people can share ideas about 'how to do X' and 'what to do about y' would be a great resource for a population that is starting to bounce off the walls of their homes. This would be fairly easy to set-up, and might help to keep people sane during a traumatic time.<br/><br/>The call would be to anyone and everyone to help their community and share their knowledge about everything from mending home appliances, to cooking, to home education, to family games, etc. Everyone has something to contribute, not just the doctors, and by contributing we maintain a sense of purpose and resolve to survive and prosper.<br/>Life during the SARS outbreak in Taiwantag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-05:4871302:BlogPost:1391462010-05-05T08:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
In 2002/3 it looked for a while as if the world was about to end. I was a recent arrival in Taiwan when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome appeared on the scene, and watched events unfolding with a sense of detachment from reality. It was happening to 'them' but not to me.<br></br><br></br>In retrospect, that was a pretty stupid attitude to take. But most of us are guilty of denial when faced with threats we can't really comprehend. Disease is an invisible enemy, and until it actually starts affecting…
In 2002/3 it looked for a while as if the world was about to end. I was a recent arrival in Taiwan when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome appeared on the scene, and watched events unfolding with a sense of detachment from reality. It was happening to 'them' but not to me.<br/><br/>In retrospect, that was a pretty stupid attitude to take. But most of us are guilty of denial when faced with threats we can't really comprehend. Disease is an invisible enemy, and until it actually starts affecting people close to us it remains someone else's problem.<br/><br/>So the big issue I got from this task was that risk = <a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/Microsites/NiemanGuideToCoveringPandemicFlu/CrisisCommunication/CoveringRisk.aspx#risk">hazard + outrage</a><br/><br/>This is the priniciple that perceived danger and real danger are different things, and are damaging in different ways. When formulating a response to an outbreak, it is important to deal with the pereceived danger as well as the real one. I posted two pics in the photos section, taken during the height of the crisis when I had no work to do due to school closures:<br/><br/>One shows <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/photo/disinfecting-the-whole-city">the army driving around the city spraying disinfectant</a> - a pretty pointless act from the perspective of killing germs, but one which reassured a jittery public. People need to see that their government is taking action, and that there is someone to call on if they need help. The presence of all those "action" people was intended to make people feel that the situation was under control, although personally I feel it added to the sense that we were under seige. Daily reports on the news about medical staff being prevented from leaving the hospitals designated as treatment centres didn't help either.<br/><br/>The other is of <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/photo/disinfecting-the-whole-city">a normal day on the MRT (subway, underground, metro, U-bahn)</a> . Many businesses were closed, or operating a minimal service to reduce the risk of people infecting each other. And most people preferred use private travel instead of public transport for the same reason. So, instead of being packed with commuters, the train was almost empty and it was easy to read the advertising. But it was all boring public health announcements, no exciting bikini-clad girls encouraging me to buy something.<br/><br/>The lasting memory of that time is the way that, even with relatively few casualties, the disease caused an enormous disruption to normal life. The security that is a feature of our civilised developed world disappeared almost overnight, and we were like frightened animals trapped in a pen - waiting to see who would die next. I comforted myself by staying at home and reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death">the impact of the Black Death in Europe</a> on Wikipedia: <span style="font-style: italic;">This has been seen as creating a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European history.</span><br/>Women are not "the other"tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-05:4871302:BlogPost:1391272010-05-05T08:02:48.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
All this stuff about empowering women, and especially the encouragement to donate instead of actually doing something is really starting to piss me off.<br></br><br></br>Gender equality starts at home, with the way we treat each other on a day-to-day basis. True, the laws we pass are a reflection of the prevailing attitudes among the people who make the laws, but in democratic societies at least, the people who make the laws are not required to be bigoted chauvenistic control freaks in order to get…
All this stuff about empowering women, and especially the encouragement to donate instead of actually doing something is really starting to piss me off.<br/><br/>Gender equality starts at home, with the way we treat each other on a day-to-day basis. True, the laws we pass are a reflection of the prevailing attitudes among the people who make the laws, but in democratic societies at least, the people who make the laws are not required to be bigoted chauvenistic control freaks in order to get into power.<br/><br/>So the best story I've read recently concerns <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601360.stm">a Japanese politician who is taking advantage of his legal right to paternity leave</a>. This is a right that people already have, but rarely exercise due to convention. There isn't any point in giving people rights, empowering them, if they won't take the gift. There's no point donating to or otherwise supporting any worthy cause if we ourselves don't live the dream and lead by example. So, hats off to Hironobu Narisawa!!<br/><br/>But while researching this article I came across <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/04/15/2003470618">this opinion piece in the Taipei Times, titled ‘Saving’ women from themselves,'</a> listing some of the small ways in which women remain inferior, the other, not like 'us' and needing to be protected instead of recognised as equals.<br/><ul>
<li>The woman’s dormitory of Fujen Catholic University operates an 11:45pm curfew</li>
<li>Taipei First Girls’ High School forbids students from wearing shorts as they are actually passing through the front gate of the
school.</li>
<li>The Ministry of National Defense (MND) recently announced a rule in which enlisted women and female officers eating off-premises have to
cease drinking alcohol at 9pm and return to barracks.</li>
<li>the armed forces are to tighten up gender-based rules in their bases, “strictly forbidding [male] personnel from inviting women colleagues off
premises for dinner at night,” ... “for their own good.”</li>
<li>Women’s freedoms are curtailed to one degree or another, in how they go about their work, how they present themselves, how they spend their
leisure time, or what they wear — at times they have to wear a skirt and<br />
other times they can’t show their knees or their legs.</li>
</ul>
(<font class="">By Chen Yi-Chien 陳宜倩,</font> assistant professor in the Graduate Institute for Gender Studies at Shih Hsin University and a member of the Standing Executive Committee of the<br />
Judicial Reform Foundation. )<br/>Typhoon Morakot huge disaster - result of human stupidity?tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-05:4871302:BlogPost:1388682010-05-05T01:32:15.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
While researching this one, I came across <a href="http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2009/08/hsiaolin-village-act-of-god-or-men.html">a fascinating blog post</a> about a reservoir project in Taiwan that is being blamed for the loss of 500 lives last year.<br></br><br></br>In short, water is being diverted from one area to another in order to put it in a reservoir. But in doing so, environmental damage is caused that leaves many areas less resilient in the event of major events such as typhoons. Last…
While researching this one, I came across <a href="http://michaelturton.blogspot.com/2009/08/hsiaolin-village-act-of-god-or-men.html">a fascinating blog post</a> about a reservoir project in Taiwan that is being blamed for the loss of 500 lives last year.<br/><br/>In short, water is being diverted from one area to another in order to put it in a reservoir. But in doing so, environmental damage is caused that leaves many areas less resilient in the event of major events such as typhoons. Last year, the village of Hsiaolin in southern Taiwan was buried under a huge mudslide with the loss of 500 lives, and it is claimed that the culprit is a nearby water project related to the Tsengwen Reservoir.<br/><br/>One of the leading voices in the environmental movement in south Taiwan is Huang Huan-chang of Tainan Community University. He has also been involved with <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2010/03/11/2003467744">campaigns to ensure that food is not produced onland contaminated with industrial waste</a>.<br/><br/>He's hard to contact, and doesn't appear to have a website. That's something I could help out with. I've written to his university offering to set him up with a page, blog, forum, and whatever else he needs.<br/><br/><br/>The only currency that matterstag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-05:4871302:BlogPost:1388592010-05-05T00:54:18.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
The foundation of all modern economies is energy, so it makes sense to me that ultimately money is just a measure of our ability to buy energy. Energy is the ultimate commodity, and the best basis for a global currency.<br></br><br></br>It has been suggested many times that the Kilowatt-hour will one day be the standard unit of exchange around the world, in the same way that wealth was once measured in gold, or buffaloes. One company is now trying to create this currency, in the form of the Kilowatt…
The foundation of all modern economies is energy, so it makes sense to me that ultimately money is just a measure of our ability to buy energy. Energy is the ultimate commodity, and the best basis for a global currency.<br/><br/>It has been suggested many times that the Kilowatt-hour will one day be the standard unit of exchange around the world, in the same way that wealth was once measured in gold, or buffaloes. One company is now trying to create this currency, in the form of the Kilowatt Card - <a href="http://www.kilowattcards.com/">http://www.kilowattcards.com/</a><br/><br/>The idea is that you buy the cards as a form of paper money. You can redeem the card at their website, and the company pays your electricity bill for you. They are trying to extablish themselves as a kind of clearing house for the trading of domestic electricity, and issuing paper against their future ability to pay for electricity.<br/><br/>The probability is that energy prices will rise as demand increases and fossil fuel reserves decline, so Kilowatt cards may be a good investment as the issuer will have to pay whatever price the utility company charges when you cash your cards in. It sounds like a great idea, but the organisation behind it is not being very transparent about ownership or assets - ie who is backing this new 'currency' and how do we know if they'll be able to redeem the cards in the future.<br/><br/>All the same, it's a great idea and if it was adopted by a reputable international organisation it could change global economics forever.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.kilowattcards.com/template/index.cfm">http://www.kilowattcards.com/template/index.cfm</a><br/>Ushahidi, an alternative use??tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-27:4871302:BlogPost:1063142010-04-27T16:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I've been musing this week on the connection between economics, security/resilience, and 'systems'. It suddenly occured to me tonight that Ushahidi is a tool that may be adaptable to enable systems for more efficient economics as well as in response to disasters.<br></br><br></br>To begin with, you need to see this video about how a systemic failure in Africa resulted in famine even while there was a food surplus - <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/video-for-my-ushahidi-post">Eleni…</a>
I've been musing this week on the connection between economics, security/resilience, and 'systems'. It suddenly occured to me tonight that Ushahidi is a tool that may be adaptable to enable systems for more efficient economics as well as in response to disasters.<br/><br/>To begin with, you need to see this video about how a systemic failure in Africa resulted in famine even while there was a food surplus - <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/video-for-my-ushahidi-post">Eleni Gabre-Madhin: Building a commodities market in Ethiopia</a> <br/><br/>The issue is one of information. Farmers don't know where the customers are or how much they are willing to pay. They don't know the situation today, although the spread of mobile phone technology is alleviating the problem somewhat. But they still have no way to know what the situation will be in the future. <br/><br/>Who else is growing the same crops? How is the weather in other parts of the country? How much of any given crop will be produced by other farmers? And how many people across the country/region will want to buy that crop?<br/><br/>Eleni's solution is to build a commodities exchange, an enormous World Bank-inspired solution. But would Ushahidi serve a similar purpose? Could a network of reporters submit enough information about what is going on every week or month to enable the entire population to forecast what will happen in a few months or years time?<br/><br/>Instead of just mapping crises, why not map food production and rainfall so that everyone knows where the water and food is? Why not map populations and food stocks so everyone knows where the shortages are? Avoid the crisis by knowing what you are likely to need in the future and preparing appropriately.<br/><br/>A measure like this would contribute a lot to food security in cities. Not exactly urban resilience, but I really don't want to talk about yesterday's earthquake and landslides.<br/>A word from a wise old mantag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-27:4871302:BlogPost:1062532010-04-27T15:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
A little while ago I came across <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/tiki-taane-tangaroa">an amazing piece of music</a> by the celebrated New Zealand artist Tiki Taane. It's called "Tangaroa - God of the Sea" and voices his anger at the continuing rape of the world's oceans. In his own words: <span style="font-style: italic;">After the 2004 Tsunami I started asking a lot of questions about the world, our environment and about myself. I really felt the anger and rage Tangaroa had towards…</span>
A little while ago I came across <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/tiki-taane-tangaroa">an amazing piece of music</a> by the celebrated New Zealand artist Tiki Taane. It's called "Tangaroa - God of the Sea" and voices his anger at the continuing rape of the world's oceans. In his own words: <span style="font-style: italic;">After the 2004 Tsunami I started asking a lot of questions about the world, our environment and about myself. I really felt the anger and rage Tangaroa had towards mankind as we have shown no respect for the ocean and its inhabitants, and for this I feel sad and ashamed. I wanted to write a piece of music that embodied that aggression and power, something that could be felt on many levels. Tangaroa was born.</span><br/><br/>The navigator cultures of the Pacific Ocean have/had an incredible understanding of their world and could navigate thousands of miles between tiny islands without any modern instrumentation. In fact, they were doing this long before Europeans dared go out of sight of land but this knowledge has almost been lost in recent times. Thankfully organisations like the <a href="http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/welcome.html">Polynesian Voyaging Society</a> are now actively working to keep these skills alive, and to promote understanding and respect for the ocean.<br/><br/>I share Tiki's feeling, but looking at <a href="http://Tikidub.com">his website</a> also gave me another gift which is the one I would like to share here.<br/><br/>"Tangaroa" was produced as a collaboration between Tiki and his father, Uekaha, their first. Reading Uekaha's commentary on the creative process, I can't help but be deeply moved by ... something, but I'm not sure what. There is a wisdom here that I don't understand yet, and this mystery is a powerful reminder that cultures other than my own have a lot to teach 'us'. Here, copied from Tikidub.com, are his words:<br/><br/><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The words came to be, as often the best things do, from a spark of inspiration at an unrelated event.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">A few years back, I was attending a 3-day seminar about “wairua” with my partner Simone, and we were busy creating a waiata that we could perform together as part of a production at the very end. Simone came up with some beautiful kupu about Taane Mahuta, Tangaroa, Tawhirimatea, and Rongomatane and I put a waiata together inspired by her whakaaro about these concepts. This is a way that we often work together; we co-create, build, and layer concepts and sounds.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">So when Tiki came to me with some beats and asked me to put something together I adopted the same process…although at first I wasn’t sure if I liked what he had given me to work with! It was so different to anything I had heard before…my first thoughts were – freaky! It sounds like some techno seagulls! How can I put some wairua into these sounds which were so foreign to me? I was afraid to get out of the box I had put myself in and create something so different to anything I had done before.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">As Tiki and I talked things started to reveal themselves to me – Tiki talked at length about the profound experience he had when he went to Rarotonga, the launch place of the great Tainui waka, and his journey tracing its path to Kawhia, which coincided with the tragedy of the Indonesian tsunami. He talked of the extremes of emotion he felt during the trip, of moodiness, anger, and a rawness to his soul that previously he had worked hard to ignore.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">The proposed collaboration between us could not have taken place without both of us being prepared to lay something bare.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">When I listened again to the beats I put aside my inhibitions – and I heard the haka beat properly – the 1-2-3 1-2-3 of the waltz and the haka, the heartbeat of human consciousness, the primeval sounds of the cosmos and of nature….and I found wairua. I turned the words of our waiata into a mantra – tu mai te ihi, tu mai te wehi, tu mai te wanawana…together with this I put our shared concerns for the environment, for the forces of nature, and our coexistence with the demigods and kaitiaki we share Te Ao Marama with.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">Originally I had thought that my whakaaro and the music were diametrically opposed…but through the process discovered the link was my son and his journey, and my aroha for him. He gave me the way in.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">With a haka the beat must be right, it’s all about the timing, the flow and weave of words and sounds…and so I acknowledge the beautiful kupu that Simone has given me, and the korero of Tikis journey and the beats he had created, and everything I bring with my own stories, and <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/tiki-taane-tangaroa">here we are now. Tangaroa.</a></span><br style="font-style: italic;"/><span style="font-style: italic;">-Uekaha Taane Tinorau</span><br/></div>
<br/>EDIT: I wrote to Tiki Taane letting him know about this post and received a very enthusiastic thank you note this morning. I love this job!<br/>Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaiitag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-27:4871302:BlogPost:1060452010-04-27T09:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is an amazing project, designed mostly to get free energy from the ocean, but as a by-product is also produces lots and lots of fresh water.<br></br><br></br>The idea is that sea water is warm at the surface and cold at the deeper places. If you bring the cold water to the surface then you can use a heat engine to extract some useful energy as it warms up. In the process, a lot of water gets evaporated, and subsequently condenses as fresh water. This can be used for drinking, agriculture,…
This is an amazing project, designed mostly to get free energy from the ocean, but as a by-product is also produces lots and lots of fresh water.<br/><br/>The idea is that sea water is warm at the surface and cold at the deeper places. If you bring the cold water to the surface then you can use a heat engine to extract some useful energy as it warms up. In the process, a lot of water gets evaporated, and subsequently condenses as fresh water. This can be used for drinking, agriculture, etc.<br/><br/>Fresh water from the oceans, for free!* Great!<br/><br/><a href="http://www.keaholepoint.org/">http://www.keaholepoint.org/</a><br/><br/>(*After you build a big expensive OTEC plant, of course.)<br/>About building websitestag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-17:4871302:BlogPost:953022010-04-17T14:41:45.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is mostly a response to Ursula's <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/next-step-ecological-units">questions<br />
in this post</a>, but I think the answers are relevant to others too. (It's also a follow-up to <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/about-your-evokation-business">this one about business plans</a>.)<br></br><br></br>As for your project itself, I think it's a wonderful idea. Now let me please get on my soapbox and shout at you about tools for building…
This is mostly a response to Ursula's <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/next-step-ecological-units">questions<br />
in this post</a>, but I think the answers are relevant to others too. (It's also a follow-up to <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/about-your-evokation-business">this one about business plans</a>.)<br/><br/>As for your project itself, I think it's a wonderful idea. Now let me please get on my soapbox and shout at you about tools for building websites.<br/><br/>DO NOT ever start hand-coding xml and css, or trying to recruit programmers until you have first exhausted all the free off-the-shelf options out there.<br/><br/>There are thousands of people worldwide writing free software that can be tweaked to do all sorts of amazing things. I am familiar with one called Joomla which is a good content management system with many extra features that enable you to manage communities, maintain directories of stuff, etc. It's not really suitable for your needs, but how about a wiki? You could have your own (empty) wikipedia in place in just a few days if you wish. Of course, it's not really ideal because you need to be able to search a database. But let me ask you a question:<br/><br/>Is your idea really any different a from computer dating site? People would search on the criteria you mentioned (site, sun, soil, water, sq footage, time to tend and zip code) and maybe a few others such as indoor/outdoor, food plants of different kinds, flowers, etc. It's no different from looking for a date, and each 'profile' would be information specific to that plant in those circumstances.<br/><br/>I just took a quick look and there are FREE softwares out there which claim to enable the creation of dating sites. Why not try one and see if it's suitable for your needs? You may want to change the template later, to get the look and feel you want, but the first job is to get the functionality you need. This would be the easiest way for you to test the concept out without having to build a complex site.<br/><br/>I'll go out on a limb and say that you can also probably 'bridge' between different softwares. This would mean that you could have a searchable database (dating site) linked to a detailed wiki giving generic information about each plant, or each locality, or both. You could probably even embed the dating search within the wiki, so that the entry for any given community will also have a 'click here to find suitable plants for your situation' function.<br/><br/>As for the issues you mention:<br/>Getting started: there must be info out there that is fairly universal. If not, then it needs to be written, and a wiki sounds like the way to do that.<br/>Climate data: is available from various sources online, and there are applications for some CMS programs that grab that data and make it available within any site.<br/>Complexity/failure: I think it's just not that simple, and succesfully raising plants requires a lot more thinking and commitment than some of us want to admit. Are you sure that this project isn't inspired by a sense of personal failure resulting from the erroneous belief that it should all be easy?<br/>#14: People need to make a living. Why is Windows not free? Your response, effectively to start an open-source movement, is excellent.<br/><br/>I didn't read much of the rest (not enough time, but you've obviously put a lot of thought into this) but I must say that <span style="font-weight: bold;">the guilds idea</span> was very intriguing. <br/><br/>Seriously, I doubt you'll make money reselling seeds. I would focus on building a community, and then act as an advertising channel to seed suppliers and others with relevant products.<br/><br/>About your Evokation business plan....tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-17:4871302:BlogPost:952962010-04-17T14:32:27.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is mostly a response to Ursula's <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-be-a-good-critiquer">questions in this post</a>, but I think the answers are relevant to others too.<br></br><br></br>Some notes in the order they come up:<br></br><br></br>Your comments comparing the application process to a school paper are spot on. It would be good if Evoke were to provide a sample or three indicating what they want. (Instead of samples of more ambitious projects, and the caveat…
This is mostly a response to Ursula's <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-be-a-good-critiquer">questions in this post</a>, but I think the answers are relevant to others too.<br/><br/>Some notes in the order they come up:<br/><br/>Your comments comparing the application process to a school paper are spot on. It would be good if Evoke were to provide a sample or three indicating what they want. (Instead of samples of more ambitious projects, and the caveat <span style="font-style: italic;">We don’t expect that your EVOKATION will be as fully-formed as those of
these teams, some of whom have spent a year or more working on their<br />
projects.</span>)<br/><br/>Of course you can create a business without a plan. Even with a plan, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder#Moltke.27s_Theory_of_War">Moltke's maxim</a> remains true: "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." In other words, as soon as you begin operations, unpredictable events will render your plan more or less obsolete. I believe it was Napoleon who claimed to never have had a plan of operations, and <a href="http://www.sonshi.com/learn.html">The Art of War</a> is all about keeping your options open.<br/><br/>All the same, a plan serves to identify points of weakness in your approach. It can help you prepare for some of the things that can go wrong, reducing the number of things to worry about, and maybe even convince you to abandon your current course. It's a process of thinking more clearly about what you're doing and educating yourself about what you need.<br/><br/>And while your dad may have done well, there are plenty of people who haven't. The absence of a plan in one case doesn't mean that not having a plan is always bad.<br/><br/>A non-profit is a business just like any other. There are legal requirements just like for-profit companies, and probably a whole load of extra regulations due to the tax situation. You need to have money coming in, you need to pay the bills. The books have to balance at thhe end of the month. You need to define your market, <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/apple-and-innovation">figure out how to bring your product or service to that market and neutralise any competing inferior alternatives</a>. <br/><br/>Oh yeah, and if you're asking someone else for support they are always going to ask for a plan. If they don't know you then what else are they going to base their decision on?<br/><br/>Answer: people support people. More precisely, people support people who are able to communicate an idea clearly and effectively. People like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Jimmy Wales, or even Geroge W Bush are examples of this. Bush may have appeared to be an illiterate hick, but he spoke to his audience in terms they understood, and was extremely good at what he did.<br/><br/>You have to first of all identify who is potentially going to support you, and then you have to be able to communicate with them. From the sounds of things, you're not ready yet to be the public face of your project. One solution would be to team up with someone personable, another would be to do something else for a while that will help you develop that part of your personality and skill set. Or maybe you need to be the lead nerd in an organisation of nerds, and you're actually the perfect person for the job but you don't realise it. Believe in yourself, and great things can happen.<br/><br/>If you're going to try and create a project, you need to be a whole bundle of different people all rolled into one. You have to be an organiser, delegator, leader, accountant, marketing expert, firefighter,... and also be able to provide some service or product that people want. <br/><br/>The mechanics of running a business are very different from the mechanics of, say, building a website or fixing washing machines, or cutting hair. Don't confuse "providing your product or service" with running a business. In your ccase, you need to be able to manage a community too. It's a tough combination to get right, and it's not something I would embark on alone. (Actually, I have tried several times and failed.)<br/><br/>As for your project itself, I think it's a wonderful idea. Now let me please get on my soapbox and shout at you about tools for building websites.<br/>Apple, and innovationtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-17:4871302:BlogPost:952662010-04-17T13:16:04.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I'm inspired to write this short piece after seeing this on Evoke: <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/learn1-469">Looking around i see that many people need to learn about their<br />
customers.</a><br></br><br></br>I agree completely, but <a href="http://brettduncan.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/steve-jobs-on-focus-groups/">I also read somewhere</a> that Apple does not conduct 'focus groups' when developing new products.<br></br><br></br>Steve Jobs actually knows his customers better than his customers…
I'm inspired to write this short piece after seeing this on Evoke: <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/learn1-469">Looking around i see that many people need to learn about their<br />
customers.</a><br/><br/>I agree completely, but <a href="http://brettduncan.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/steve-jobs-on-focus-groups/">I also read somewhere</a> that Apple does not conduct 'focus groups' when developing new products.<br/><br/>Steve Jobs actually knows his customers better than his customers do. Or maybe he's just a better salesman? He's good at selling his ideas to people, which is a skill that some of us need to improve on.<br/><br/>It's not enough to have a great idea, or the solution to everyone's problems. You need to be able to help people to see things that are hidden from them, such as that using a condom is a good idea in a society where more than half of people have AIDS, or that if you let women play an equal role in society then everyone is better off. Quest 007 is all about overcoming resistance from other people, so maybe it's a topic we should discuss in more detail??<br/><br/>Start here: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html</a><br/>Raising money.... easy!tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-13:4871302:BlogPost:914942010-04-13T16:43:43.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
I don't have any entrepreneur points yet, so I did something entrepreneurial - I went to see a telemarketing company:<br></br><br></br><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Me: Hi, I'm doing this project supported by the World Bank Institute. If they give me US$1000 for my new social innovation project, will you call five hundred companies for me and raise whatever else I need?<br></br><br></br>Them: You want us to sell an opportunity to be associated with your project? Saving the world, endorsed by the World Bank…</div>
I don't have any entrepreneur points yet, so I did something entrepreneurial - I went to see a telemarketing company:<br/><br/><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Me: Hi, I'm doing this project supported by the World Bank Institute. If they give me US$1000 for my new social innovation project, will you call five hundred companies for me and raise whatever else I need?<br/><br/>Them: You want us to sell an opportunity to be associated with your project? Saving the world, endorsed by the World Bank Institute? Sure. We'd love to. We can make appointments for you to go and give presentations to the right people at major companies with corporate giving programs. Er.... what's the project?<br/><br/>Me: I haven't decided the project yet. Does it matter? Do I have to pay you?<br/><br/>Them: It matters when we decide who to call, but as long as it's a good project we'll support you. <span style="font-weight: bold;">For free.</span><br/><br/></div>
I'm starting to think seriously about my Evokation now. I do hope that anyone out there who is feeling pessimistic about Evoke will take a moment to think about the value being a Certified WBI Social Innovator. Maybe this website won't save the world, but it can give <span style="font-weight: bold;">YOU</span> the leverage to make a difference. So go for it.<br/>Intervention Day, 10th Anniversarytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-13:4871302:BlogPost:914222010-04-13T15:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
Next week it will be the 10th anniversary of the day the aliens landed. The government has declared a national holiday and there will be fireworks, all the usual stuff. But not many people will be celebrating.<br></br><br></br>For one thing, there's another monster typhoon brewing in the Pacific. All those fancy new fusion generators don't seem to have fixed the weather. I remember the first television interviews when the aliens tried to explain what they could and couldn't do for us. They were like…
Next week it will be the 10th anniversary of the day the aliens landed. The government has declared a national holiday and there will be fireworks, all the usual stuff. But not many people will be celebrating.<br/><br/>For one thing, there's another monster typhoon brewing in the Pacific. All those fancy new fusion generators don't seem to have fixed the weather. I remember the first television interviews when the aliens tried to explain what they could and couldn't do for us. They were like tiresomely indulgent parents, fixing this, giving us that, but warning us that we would still have to learn to deal with difficulties.<br/><br/>I'll be OK, here in my penthouse apartment. I got rich when shares in the oil companies dived because the aliens offered us cheap, sustainable, non-polluting energy. I figured that it would take ten years for everyone to make the shift from oil burning cars and trucks, and in the meantime there would still be big profits for the oil companies, so I put my life savings in at the bottom of the market. <br/><br/>I was right, and of course the powers-that-be moved quickly to ensure that the new technology didn't fall into "the wrong hands." So the existing energy companies built the fusion generators, and continue to build them all over the world and make huge profits because demand for energy continues to exceed supply. It will take decades more to meet the needs of everyone because we just don't have enough skilled people to build an entire new global infrastructure, and in the meantime we're still burning coal to make electricity for our cars.<br/><br/>Still, the air is noticeably cleaner. Or is that just the usual pre-typhoon weather? It was a bit of a shock to learn that climate change has always been real and wouldn't go away just because we stopped releasing CO2. I remember the alien who called herself Gaia, shaking her head when the interviewer asked her about that.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic;">I'm a fan of your <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8594000/8594561.stm">scientist James Lovelock</a>,</span> she said. <span style="font-style: italic;">He figured it out years ago, an ecosphere is a self-organising system that tends towards stability - up to a point. But that stability is always going to be disrupted by the cumulative effect of events which seem inconsequential. Edward Lorenz figured that bit out in the 1960's when he discovered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect#Origin_of_the_concept_and_the_term">The Butterfly Effect</a>. The Earth's climate has always varied, and always will.</span><br/><br/>So I'm going to sit here and drink my champagne while nature unleashes it's fury on a world that is only just starting to learn, and drink a toast to Gaia.<br/>Challenge: Choosing Which Babies Will Die This Yeartag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-13:4871302:BlogPost:911402010-04-13T09:30:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
Most of the problems addressed so far in Evoke come down to how resources are allocated. The issue of 'unfairness' crops up in many blog posts. I want to solve a real-life dilemma that goes beyond fair, beyond who 'deserves' help, and which comes down to someone having to make a decision about which babies will die unnecessarily this year. If possible, I want to try and minimise the relevance of money to this issue and embrace all the other forms of capital out there - especially social capital…
Most of the problems addressed so far in Evoke come down to how resources are allocated. The issue of 'unfairness' crops up in many blog posts. I want to solve a real-life dilemma that goes beyond fair, beyond who 'deserves' help, and which comes down to someone having to make a decision about which babies will die unnecessarily this year. If possible, I want to try and minimise the relevance of money to this issue and embrace all the other forms of capital out there - especially social capital - to find a solution.<br/><br/>It started with this video on TED.com: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_chen_a_warm_embrace_that_saves_lives.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_chen_a_warm_embrace_that_saves_lives.html</a><br/><br/>In it, we see a simple technology that has the potential to save millions of lives. But in the comments below the talk, we see some hostility. For example: <span id="t_94655"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a just an attempt to monetise a problem
already solved for free ($25.00 is a lot of money for the target group). It is called "maternal-infant skin-to-skin contact" or the Kangaroo Method and was invented in Bogota, Colombia by Dr Rey and Dr Martinez since 1978... it is supported by UNICEF and has gone global and you don't need a hi-tech hot water bottle, the child is held against the mothers skin. This free method is superior and these people do not even mention it on their website or in their presentation. This is just another Northern NGO-Business in my opinion</span><br/><br/>After reading that, my first thought was "when does the mother sleep?" After all, the Embrace only works for a few hours at a time. It seems to me that it's a useful technology within the context of a proper care regime, and the hostility is due to people insisting that their solution is better. Either or, instead of both as required. Zero-sum, instead of combined benefits.<br/><br/>All the same, the real issue is one of control. The root cause of the hostility is the feeling of disempowerment that comes from having a rich sponsor take care of you when you really want to solve your own problems. And this was highlighted for me when I read a comment from someone who asked a simple question:<br/><br/></span><span id="t_89009"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">how can I purchase this? could anyone advice me about
it.</span><br/><br/>The person asking the question is in Sri Lanka. I have no idea if he's a doctor, healthcare official, parent with an urgent problem, or whatever, but he clearly</span> feels that this technology fills a need.<br/><br/>So, on his behalf, I looked at the Embrace website, but it's all about fundraising and advocacy. Not much help for parents or healthcare professionals whith premature babies. This is fair enough, I suppose, if they're a start-up trying to get funding to save the world. You can't launch a product without resources and at the moment they're in the process of gathering the resources they need. It's all about resources, and in the meantime, babies are dying.<br/><br/>But this product is basically a sleeping bag with a quantity of wax in a pocket in the back. Sri Lanka is a country with a strong textiles industry, and a degree of industrialisation that should make it possible to produce synthetic wax. The key requirement is for a substance that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transition">undergoes phase-transition</a> at the right temperature. It's a well-understood phenomenon, solutions already exist, so surely a country like Sri Lanka has all the resources necessary to implement their own solution right now instead of waiting for an NGO in Washington DC to raise money?<br/><br/>I tried to imagine myself as one of the founders of Embrace. There I am, with my great idea, and all I need is some money to make it happen. Then I can set up some kind of production facility, or outsource it to China, publicise the new product, and persuade health-care providers to accept my gift or cheap solution to their problem. And <span style="font-weight: bold;">it's up to me to do it because nobody else is going to.</span><br/><br/>Isn't that the whole point of Evoke? All the quests are about turning ordinary people into superheroes. All the missions are about encouraging these future superheroes to understand and solve the biggest issues. The desired result is thousands of social innovators starting projects that will change the world, and it starts by <span style="font-weight: bold;">changing us from passive spectators into active leaders</span>. Evoke is designed to create more people who will stand on the stage at TED.com showcasing brilliant new ideas <span style="text-decoration: underline;">which they own</span>. But in the process it turns us into control-freaks.<br/><br/>It's a worthy cause, but what about the people who could help themselves if they only knew how? What about the ones who can't wait for me to raise enough money to roll out my idea worldwide? What if my idea could be easily implemented by anyone with appropriate resources, but instead they have to wait for me to provide them with a solution? Very often, the only thing that people really need is knowledge.<br/><br/>I would hate to be sitting in my office in Washington, looking at an email request from someone who wants access to my great new technology and having to tell them "I'm sorry, but you can't have it yet. We don't have enough money to offer it in your country at this time. India gets priority."<br/><br/>Why should India get priority? There is no reason other than that we have some connection to India, and we have to solve the problems that are in front of us before we start looking for new problems. Nobody is wrong to give priority to India, but try telling that to a mother in Africa.<br/><br/>The problem here is not "a rich northern NGO-business." The problem is old-fashioned economic thinking which doesn't take account of new forms of currency: knowledge, reputation points, social capital, collaborative networks and the technologies that make them possible. (Phew, now I've answered the brief to get my ACT5 20+ courage points)<br/><br/>We have to find better ways of helping people to help themselves. It's called empowerment, and is infinitely preferable to dependency.<br/><br/><font size="4"><span style="font-weight: bold;">So here's the challenge:</span> Find a chemist or materials scientist. Obtain complete instructions for small-scale manufacture of materials that undergo phase-transition at 35-38 degrees celsius, especially those with a high latent heat capacity. Help me to create online teaching material that is available to anyone in the world, giving a complete step-by-step guide to making your own low-cost incubator. I'll create a website hosting this, and any other similar 'help yourself' project.</font><br/><br/>In fairness to Embrace, I should also point out that someone from the company did eventually reply to the comments on TED.com in a constructive and pro-active manner. I will draw his attention to this post and ask him to share his technical data.<br/>Recovering natural methane from watertag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-13:4871302:BlogPost:910972010-04-13T08:23:27.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
This is a great story about a project to remove methane that is dissolved in reservoirs created by hydro-electric dams - <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6638705.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6638705.stm</a><br></br><br></br>Organic matter sinks to the bottom of the lake and is broken down by microbes. The process is anaerobic, and one of the by-products is methane gas. Methane is a major greenhouse gas and can also be burnt as a relatively clean fuel, but in deep lakes it remains dissolved in the…
This is a great story about a project to remove methane that is dissolved in reservoirs created by hydro-electric dams - <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6638705.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6638705.stm</a><br/><br/>Organic matter sinks to the bottom of the lake and is broken down by microbes. The process is anaerobic, and one of the by-products is methane gas. Methane is a major greenhouse gas and can also be burnt as a relatively clean fuel, but in deep lakes it remains dissolved in the water due to the pressure.<br/><br/>After it passes through the turbine to make electricity, the pressure is reduced and the methane is released, just like when you open a can of soda. Then the methane escapes into the atmosphere, helping to keep the polar bears warm.<br/><br/>Brazil is now pioneering systems to capture the methane and use it to power gas turbines and provide more energy from the same dam. This increases the efficiency, lowers the cost of energy, reduces environmental damage, and is an all-round good thing. (Especially if you're a polar bear.)<br/><br/>After learning about this I read more into the subject and came up with a refinement of my own, as described in <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/exploding-lakes-as-an-energy">my act3 post</a>.<br/>Exploding Lakes As An Energy Source?tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-13:4871302:BlogPost:910902010-04-13T08:00:00.000ZChris Ke Sihaihttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
In 1986, approximately 1,800 people were killed when <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/lake-nyos.htm/printable">Lake Nyos in Cameroon 'exploded' without warning</a>, producing a tsunami and a huge cloud of CO2 which asphyxiated people up to 25km away. Many other lakes around the world face a similar threat, and I've been thinking of ways to turn this problem into an opportunity.<br></br><br></br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption">Exploding lakes</a> are deep bodies of water…
In 1986, approximately 1,800 people were killed when <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/lake-nyos.htm/printable">Lake Nyos in Cameroon 'exploded' without warning</a>, producing a tsunami and a huge cloud of CO2 which asphyxiated people up to 25km away. Many other lakes around the world face a similar threat, and I've been thinking of ways to turn this problem into an opportunity.<br/><br/><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption">Exploding lakes</a> are deep bodies of water in which the lower levels are saturated with CO2. The gas is dissolved just like it is in can of coke, and held in place by pressure from the water above. If the water is disturbed, eg by volcanic activity, and pushed upwards then the reduced pressure causes the gas to form bubbles which rush to the surface. But as they move upwards they suck in more water beneath them, releasing more bubbles in an uncontrollable chain reaction which 'overturns' the entire lake and brings all the water from the bottom to the top.<br/><br/>The CO2 is usually the result of organic matter decomposing at the bottom of the lake, so it increases with time.<br/><br/>For the lake to be at risk of exploding, the CO2 concentration must be very high and in most places this never happens due to the normal flow of water out of the lake or movement within the lake that stirs the water and prevents dangerous build-ups of gas. But the CO2 still causes problems in, for instance, hydro-electric schemes. As the water flows out through a turbine to generate electricity, there is a reduction in pressure which causes the bubbles to 'erupt' violently and this cause <a href="http://www.usbr.gov/pmts/hydraulics_lab/hydstructures/cavitate.html">damage to the turbines</a> over time. It's called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation">cavitation</a> and is a big engineering problem which affects hydro-electic schemes with very deep reservoirs.<br/><br/>One solution is degassing, and this is where it gets really interesting.<br/><br/>By lowering a long tube vertically into a lake with a lot of gas dissolved into it, one can limit the spread of any activity. Drawing some water upwards releases bubbles which rise upwards, drawing more water into the pipe and creating a self-sustaining flow of water and gas which can result in a spectacular fountain. This has already been demonstrated successfully at Lake Nyos. The water and gas are seperated in a controlled manner and the concentration of CO2 can be reduced to safe levels. But the cool thing is that you don't need any ongoing energy input (ie a pump) to move water from bottom of the lake to high in the air. <span style="font-weight: bold;">You have a free source of kinetic energy.</span><br/><br/>I don't have any information about whether the degassing plants that are currenly in trials just use a tube and rely on massive energy being available, or whether there are any special tricks involved. I do know from reading <a href="http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/th_nozz.html">Richard Nakka's Rocketry website that shaping a nozzle correctly will cause a moving fluid to accelerate</a> according to principles that are well understood. So I'm guessing that in theory any body of water with gas dissolved in it can be induced to keep moving by using the power of the emerging bubbles.<br/><br/>There are only a few known exploding lakes, but there are many bodies of water with lots of CO2 dissolved in them - hence the damage to hydro-electric schemes on the Amazon River. The biggest of them all covers 70% of this planet's surface - the ocean, and I remember being given a demonstration of the power of dissolved gas in seawater a few years ago.<br/><br/>We were on a diving trip, and someone took a plastic soda bottle down with them. At 30m depth, he filled the bottle with seawater and closed the lid tightly. When he opened it at the surface, it was like a can of Pepsi after being used as a football - it sprayed everywhere! Imagine how much energy is stored in seawater at a depth of thousands of meters!<br/><br/>Strangely enough, scientists working on <a href="http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/ps_power.html">OTEC projects</a> - which address issues of energy security and water supply - complain that 20-40% of the energy they produce is used to pump water up from the deep ocean to the surface. If sea-water contains dissolved gas, and dissolved gas can be liberated to create kinetic energy, then why are people pumping water? I don't understand this, so I have written to <a href="http://www.nelha.org/">one of the major research centres</a> to ask if they have thought of this.<br/><br/>I'll let you know the response.<br/><br/><br/>