Thomas Maillioux's Posts - Urgent Evoke2024-03-29T10:48:32ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMailliouxhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2209188378?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=3au5e0rg9sw18&xn_auth=noUnexpected health heroestag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-30:4871302:BlogPost:1099922010-04-30T20:30:00.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
Year after year of heroic (and let's face it, very often American) movies have taught us that in the face of adversity, there'll always be a lone hero to save the day/the country/the president/the world. Of course as exciting as it feels to watch it happen, it's only a movie : until the early 21st century, it was hard to get actual data on how people - you, me, everybody - would react in the case of a pandemic : information that would prove invaluable to scientists and health professionals all…
Year after year of heroic (and let's face it, very often American) movies have taught us that in the face of adversity, there'll always be a lone hero to save the day/the country/the president/the world. Of course as exciting as it feels to watch it happen, it's only a movie : until the early 21st century, it was hard to get actual data on how people - you, me, everybody - would react in the case of a pandemic : information that would prove invaluable to scientists and health professionals all over the world to better plan emergency response, to better know of the potential help they could receive in a crisis situation from the local population and through what means...<br/><br/>And then 2 games happened.<br/><br/>We often quote World of Warcraft as the epitome of MMORPGs, but in 2007 it also became a major provider of information about the reaction of civilians during a health crisis, "thanks" to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident">Corrupted Blood incident</a>. At first a curse locked in a specific area of a game, it accidentally escaped into the WoW world because of a glitch exploited by players and spread on to the next victim, and on to the next victim.<br/><br/>One could have thought that, much like in Max Brooks' books Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, people would have massively fled the contaminated areas, getting away from harm..And unknowingly spreading the disease. However, in the midst of this wave of disease exilees also appeared a minority of people who set up help, informed others, organized free health services to treat their fellow avatars - all this witnessed by Tufts University assistant research professor of public
health and family medicine and University of North Carolina<br/>
graduate student Eric Lofgren. Fefferman even expressed the possibility to design more virtual diseases to study their spread and evolution in this virtual environment.<br/><br/>In 2009, <a href="http://www.argn.com/2009/04/coral_cross_pandemic_preparedness_from_the_hawaii_department_of_health/">alternate reality game Coral Cross</a> scheduled to prepare the Hawaiian and worldwide population to the onset of avian flu pandemic through gaming, became a life-size experiment and monitoring of that same disease. Run for the Hawaii department of health, it also had the scientific validation that World of Warcraft's Corrupted Blood incident, because of its entertainment-oriented nature, couldn't completely claim. In Coral Cross as well, appeared categories of "players" that would isolate themselves from the community to prevent the disease from spreading, others that would assume the roles of information carriers helping tame the panic movement and keeping others informed.<br/><br/>Both taught us a lot about the unpredicatability of the human nature in the face of crisis, at least in some of us. Not lone heroes, but together with the help of a connection to each other and resources like those of the Network, teams that could save lives and contribute to turn a tide.<br/><br/>And you, what will <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> do ?<br/><br/><br/>PYRAMID STRUCTURES R GOOD 4 Utag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-30:4871302:BlogPost:1098842010-04-30T19:00:00.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
Back at the beginning of the 21st century, people were still cursing and cursing at pyramid schemes and Ponzi-like scams as they rampaged through the bank accounts of unsuspecting people who didn't know better. Who'd have thought a few decades later we'd use the principles they were based on to help stop the Blue Flu of 2020 ?<br></br><br></br>Bookheads all over the world had started experimenting with information and best practices distribution networks by late 2010 after companies, ideological groups…
Back at the beginning of the 21st century, people were still cursing and cursing at pyramid schemes and Ponzi-like scams as they rampaged through the bank accounts of unsuspecting people who didn't know better. Who'd have thought a few decades later we'd use the principles they were based on to help stop the Blue Flu of 2020 ?<br/><br/>Bookheads all over the world had started experimenting with information and best practices distribution networks by late 2010 after companies, ideological groups and associations that all had something to sell - products, ideologies, consulting services, you name it - tried to get into teachers' good grace so that we, in turn, would promote it all on to our colleagues and our pupils through hardcore lobbying and political and economical pressure. That had been the last push : after that, a small coalition of librarians had started a movement to provide free, open information to all the teachers who needed it, and spreading in turn the relevant information to their colleagues. It was organic it was unofficial, it was efficient even though it could have gone wrong in so many ways, and a complete bottom to top solution to a problem the Education Nationale ministry in our country would have struggled with for months before giving the OK for a state-approved solution.<br/><br/>Back to 2020. People coughing blue mucus everywhere, breathing masks, flourishing industry for drugs and pharmaceutical companies in general. We all remember how much the 2010 "swine flu" pandemic cost the country and in this post-crash economy, no one wants to see the State pay up millions of euros again for vaccines that'll not be used : so instead of waiting for instructions from "the Ministry", somewhere in France - maybe in just one little school, maybe in several at once as it often happens with organic networks - a nurse and a librarian must have sat down together and spread the information about the old swine flu prophilactics technique and asked the other members of the network to pass it on : from one group of teachers to their school nurse to librarian to another school and another librarian and nurse and teachers, and so on...Along the way, teachers and their students designed public domain health information posters and flyers, while others kept updating the information as health professionals and the State gave more information - thus transforming the country's educational infrastructure into something it had always been meant for...<br/><br/>Prepare its citizens for whatever would come up in the future.<br/>"Eddie Paul - cutting his own path"tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-18:4871302:BlogPost:454122010-03-18T22:00:00.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
I'm not gonna lie : I'm a sucker for technology - but not in the way you might think.<br></br><br></br>To many people, technology is an end : you buy the latest gadget because it is the latest gadget, not because of what you can do with and that's how instead of using technology, technology uses you. That I can't go for - not anymore.<br></br><br></br>What I can go for, is using technology for a reason or, as Eureka would put it, <span style="font-style: italic;">to change lives</span>. In order to do that you…
I'm not gonna lie : I'm a sucker for technology - but not in the way you might think.<br/><br/>To many people, technology is an end : you buy the latest gadget because it is the latest gadget, not because of what you can do with and that's how instead of using technology, technology uses you. That I can't go for - not anymore.<br/><br/>What I can go for, is using technology for a reason or, as Eureka would put it, <span style="font-style: italic;">to change lives</span>. In order to do that you need to know a lot and learn a lot - and that's where my hero comes in.<br/><br/>I first heard of Eddie Paul in MAKE Magazine's volume 21. Judging by his company EPI Design's website, you might think, just for a split second, that he's just another car shop guy - but Eddie Paul is actually an impressive inventor. He has designed tons of things from pumps, to engines, to animatronic cars, to fake sharks for the Cousteau family to dive with and is pretty much self-taught since he dropped out of high school. His magic method ? If you want to learn something, just read everything you can find on the subject, get the tools, go and make it. All you need is want it. And once you're done making something, go out there and share it : "if you do a good job, people will find you".<br/><br/>This is the kind of spirit I love - hands-on, practical approach, no limits to what you can do, and sharing it with the world to help or inspire others. I just emailed Eddie Paul through his e-mail adress on EPI Industries, and I hope he'll answer !<br/><br/>EDIT : Eddie Paul answered not too long after I e-mailed him ! He thanked me for choosing him as an EVOKE hero and invited me to drop by his shop at EPIndustries when I have the occasion :)<br/>"Think like a child"tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-18:4871302:BlogPost:453432010-03-18T21:46:09.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
The secret that stuck with me the most as I read the 33 (what a magic number !) secrets of social innovation was number 5 from Paul Polak's list, "Think like a child". Why ? Let me tell you story...<br></br><br></br>When I was a kid - 10 or 11 years at best - my dad shared with me a series of books called Dune, by Frank Herbert. You probably heard of it, if not read it : the story of teenager Paul Atreides, a boy who can see the future and guides his people towards freedom. The character that stuck…
The secret that stuck with me the most as I read the 33 (what a magic number !) secrets of social innovation was number 5 from Paul Polak's list, "Think like a child". Why ? Let me tell you story...<br/><br/>When I was a kid - 10 or 11 years at best - my dad shared with me a series of books called Dune, by Frank Herbert. You probably heard of it, if not read it : the story of teenager Paul Atreides, a boy who can see the future and guides his people towards freedom. The character that stuck with me the most...Wasn't Paul.<br/><br/>The character that stuck with me the most was Paul's mentor and teacher Thufir Hawat. Thufir was a mentat, a human supercomputer who would tell you that the secret to being a good mentat was thinking like a child, turning your mind into a net - without prejudice, without preconceptions, without assumptions, just letting everything you see, everything you hear filter through, pull up the net...And see what your mind decided to keep.<br/><br/>Thinking like a child is one of the keys to doing grand things because children don't know of, nor believe in limits yet. They won't come up with words like "you can't do that" or "it's impossible", because they haven't been "contaminated" by the limitations we submit ourselves to as we grow up - or grow old.<br/><br/>Thinking like a child is also one of the things I hope to be able to do for another few years, to be able to think out of the box - and be able to completely forget there can be such a thing as a box in the first place, allowing me to see possibilities where others might not...<br/><br/>And share it all with them. Because when you're a child, you need friends to play with ;)<br/>"Consider these limes juggled, Thomas !"tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-13:4871302:BlogPost:349472010-03-13T23:30:00.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
When I woke, one last knock died through the wooden door, into my room.<br></br><br></br><span style="font-style: italic;">"Thomas, c'est Youssef ! Réveille-toi !"</span> My mind took some time to piece it all together. Youssef, that was one of the kids I had met during the scouting romp 2 days ago. End of high-school with a brain the size of half planet according to his family, friends and teachers, self-taught programmer, beginner maker, he had shown me some of his projects but shy as he was, our…
When I woke, one last knock died through the wooden door, into my room.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic;">"Thomas, c'est Youssef ! Réveille-toi !"</span> My mind took some time to piece it all together. Youssef, that was one of the kids I had met during the scouting romp 2 days ago. End of high-school with a brain the size of half planet according to his family, friends and teachers, self-taught programmer, beginner maker, he had shown me some of his projects but shy as he was, our interview didn't last much. I patted around for my glasses, found them on the bedside, got a light on and opened the door in a yawn.<br/><br/>The kid was litterally jumping up and down, holding an old rugged laptop in his hands, typical recycled processing power kids in India, Tibet, all of third world had done wonders. Youssef was holding it against his chest real hard, talking in quick approximative French that concluded with a <span style="font-style: italic;">"C'est génial, non ?"</span><br/><br/>A silence, and a smile. There was something going on there that should be worth losing a few hours of sleep. "Would you say all that again, slower this time ?" and as I grabbed a pen and notebook to write down details, he walked me through his objective, his thoughts, his programming - and boy was it the good stuff.<br/><br/>What Youssef showed me was a program that he had been working on for about a year now : based on a barebones open-source Artificial Intelligence engine, it would collate data from different sources and put it in wiki form automatically. In a country that still knew how precious bandwidth time was and that had been struck so hard, like so many others, by the 2016 famines that it had needed as many young workers as possible to get on with the farming, it made sense that one of them would develop something capable of mining separate sources of data and making something meaningful out of it.<br/><br/>"It's all about statistics and building models and choosing your sources, but that way we can set the program to a dedicated task, like, collecting information on the most cost-efficient way to set up solar panels in the area and it'll scan the web for the information, filter it, tag it with the source and date of extraction and put it in wiki form. Or it can do the same from a wiki that already exists !<br/>- Can it now...Are you confident that your program works ?<br/>- YES ! 100% !<br/>- Works for me. Set it to..." And we set it up.<br/><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186528?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<br/>10 minutes of turning on and off switches on the settings file and the copy of the Network collaborative wiki on my computer started rearranging itself into an orderly, relentlessly creative chaos. I clicked the odd stray link into place after reviewing it, only to see a warning pop-up : <span style="font-style: italic;">pattern acquired</span>. "It learns how you write and organize stuff", added Youssef with a smile.<br/><br/>I grinned big and sent a message to <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/FiacreODuinn">Fiacre</a> after Youssef left. <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/evoke-librarians">He and his Librarians team</a> would have one hell of a time helping Youssef tweak his system and clean up his code the way a programmer should - but it would all be for the best. In the end, maybe they could even have him help with the expert system they were putting together from the GEAS and Network data. There was a ton of applications to imagine there.<br/><br/>Teenage inventors are awesome.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">FACT :</span> In 2009, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1212005/Teenager-invents-23-solar-panel-solution-developing-worlds-energy-needs-human-hair.html">Tibetan teenager Milan Karki invented a solar panel including human hair</a>, that could be sold for 23$ and help developing countries with their energy needs for the years to come if massively scaled and deployed. Everywhere around the world including in developing countries, the challenges of energy force people to come up with innovative solutions to their problems. Young inventors and teenagers look at problems with new eyes, providing answers more experienced inventors wouldn't have thought of. In return, we can teach them how to make the best out of their inventivity by giving them access to better hardware, different techniques and an access to the works of others they sometimes lack.<br/>Juggling mental limestag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-13:4871302:BlogPost:346322010-03-13T15:50:11.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
I shut the lid of my laptop and sighed, rubbing my eyes. KM scouting and training missions had a way of being a blessing and a curse : the blessing part involved meeting people, talking with them, test their strong points and weaknesses and see which ones had what it takes to juggle mental limes deftly enough that they'd be able to cope with the data that needs to be integrated in local Network nodes management systems : most of the time, that means meeting awesome people with a unique point of…
I shut the lid of my laptop and sighed, rubbing my eyes. KM scouting and training missions had a way of being a blessing and a curse : the blessing part involved meeting people, talking with them, test their strong points and weaknesses and see which ones had what it takes to juggle mental limes deftly enough that they'd be able to cope with the data that needs to be integrated in local Network nodes management systems : most of the time, that means meeting awesome people with a unique point of view on what information is and getting to know to what tune their world rocks <a href="http://twitter.com/Bookmore2020/status/10390425344">like tonight</a>. The cursed part ? Juggling limes on your own until other jugglers join. Especially in cities like Casablanca, that generate data by the truckload every second.<br/><br/>Getting up from the floor and wiggling my ankles a little, I walked to the balcony overlooking Casablanca and looked at the nighttime traffic remembering the premisses of my work on the parrallels between information traffic and material traffic. Most people don't explicitly realize how much the two are alike, but they still feel the need for it. I let out a sigh that turns into a small white cloud and <a href="http://urgentevoke.wikia.com/wiki/Guilds">mentally review the list of Guilds</a> - one of our newest, Agents-generated structures - that offered me to join their ranks to try and help organize stuff. All fascinating people and I want to help each and everyone of them, but it feels like the days don't have enough hours and the Network not enough facilitators.<br/><br/>That's one of the reasons why I'm so nervous about what I see here and there around the Network nodes these days : noise all over the place, as if our organization was being flooded by brilliant ideas and unable to keep them organized, making it harder for everyone to get somewhere. Things would be so much easier if the participations on our forums were point-blank stupid. Sadly enough they're brilliant, which makes it that much harder to sift not the Good from the Bad, but the relevant from the irrelevant - the signal from the noise. Is it because our mission is more and more relevant to more and more people ?<br/><br/>I stretch, look at the nighttime traffic some more, and think we need something, something simple to help with that. But what ?<br/><br/>It's late night/early morning in Casablanca and I think I could use some sleep. Tomorrow, I'll need to make sure the people I met today can juggle limes real good !<br/>Chill outtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-07:4871302:BlogPost:210052010-03-07T16:24:52.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
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<br></br><br></br>Typical March Sunday near Paris : cold, sunny, a walk in the park with the wife and kid like so many other couples in the area. People from all walks of life, countries from all over the world - the famine migrations of 2016 have made the immigrant sociocultural fabric so much more of what it used to be that inter-cultural struggles have started to come down. Everyone's an island - but everyone's started to build bridges.<br></br><br></br>Life with…
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<br/><br/>Typical March Sunday near Paris : cold, sunny, a walk in the park with the wife and kid like so many other couples in the area. People from all walks of life, countries from all over the world - the famine migrations of 2016 have made the immigrant sociocultural fabric so much more of what it used to be that inter-cultural struggles have started to come down. Everyone's an island - but everyone's started to build bridges.<br/><br/>Life with the EVOKE network - because it's a lifestyle, not a job - is wonderful, exciting, always full of adventures but it's nice to take a break sometimes. And by break, I mean taking a plane to stay with your family for a day. I'm lucky enough to have a wife that doesn't mind too much yet and my daughter, well...She still only cares for ducks and swans and won't know Mommy and I were hopping all over the world until we tell her when she's older.<br/><br/>I remember when I first moved here to teach, then stayed as I moved from journalism, to blogging, to being an Agent while Christina continued with her artistic training and career. Crappy end of the 19th century building, poverty, social unrest and unemployment. People were even talking about the end of the world and in 2012, Man almost brought it upon himself out of paranoia. In 2016, the massive migrations among other ills have redistributed worldwide populations all over the planet and thanks to the 2019 SEHI initiative - think of the Network minus the anonimity - things started to get better : people training people to train people to make their lives better through inventivity, creativity, questioning their limits and buying humanity some time. Thanks to them, things got better for Agents too : people started believing that the SEHIs were The Network coming public at last, and we were able to continue our work in peace.<br/><br/>Here today, gone to Africa tomorrow and back in a few weeks, then the United States for some downtime while it's over. I kiss my wife, I hug my kid.<br/><br/>Right now, I'm still home. It's true what they say : there's no place like it.<br/><br/>FACT : In 2008, the Institute for the Future and Jane McGonigal's team designed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperstructCreators">SuperStruct</a>, a game designed to make the general audience aware of the five threats we'll have to face in the future : information crisis, food crisis, weather crisis, health crisis and power crisis. It inspired thousands into thinking and tackling the challenges of the 21st century through projects like Reconstruct, The Weather Project, The New Poney Express and the Nomadic Mark Up Language. Like EVOKE, it suffered from a lack of data organization. Will you be able to face this challenge - this final threat - and succeed ?<br/>Contact !tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-04:4871302:BlogPost:120722010-03-04T11:00:00.000ZThomas Mailliouxhttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ThomasMaillioux
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<br></br>"And to wrap this up, here's the best piece of news for the day..." I paused, enjoying the moment. "The last node of the Indian hackerspaces network is now live ! You guys have put together your own, completely built from scratch, nation-wide communication infrastructure tying these innovation spaces together, and to hackerspaces all around the world. Give yourselves a big round of applause !"<br></br><br></br>It was a room of 50 hackers, but the…
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<br/>"And to wrap this up, here's the best piece of news for the day..." I paused, enjoying the moment. "The last node of the Indian hackerspaces network is now live ! You guys have put together your own, completely built from scratch, nation-wide communication infrastructure tying these innovation spaces together, and to hackerspaces all around the world. Give yourselves a big round of applause !"<br/><br/>It was a room of 50 hackers, but the cheering made it sound like it was two, three times that and was the perfect conclusion to 4 months worth of work estimating needs, scouting for instinctive hackers, coordinating efforts over the country with the help of other Agents and finding alternate solutions on the way with everyone's help. Perfect in an organic, networked way and so worth it.<br/><br/>"It's been awesome working with you guys and I'm very sad to leave - but I know that I'll hear a lot of you all, your hackers, and the inventions you will come up with. There's some face-changing waiting to happen, and thanks to you India will play its part. <span style="font-style: italic;">Namasté</span> !"<br/>
<br/>And with this, it was over. They were chatting with each other, already resuming the bouncing idea back and forth as I collected my last notes, shook some hands and headed out. This hackerspaces network was going to thrive, because it was in these people's minds before it was a reality the EVOKE teams helped make come true.<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234172201?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<br/>The phone caught me as I was picking the last of my stuff and thinking of how nice it would be to go back to France and the US for some time off. Guy going by the name of Number, first name Unknown. So much for time off !<br/><br/>"Hello, sir !<br/> <br/>(... ?)<br/><br/>Yes, everything went fine. The usual kinks to work out here and there, nothing a little protovating couldn't solve. Give it another few months, 2 years at worst and India's hacker and maker culture will thrive and promote innovation. The network should also provide local to national scale relevant information...And I think they already want to extend its features. We should see some really good stuff coming out of all this.<br/><br/>(...?)<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234172373?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
<br/>Sure ! I was going to start my way back to Europe to spend some time with the wife and kids, so it's right on my way. I can be in Morocco by...Early next week ? Would that work ?<br/><br/>(...)<br/><br/>Perfect ! I'll report in as soon as I get there. Thank you, sir.<br/><br/>---<br/>FACT : In 2010, Afghanistan started rolling out their own made-from-scratch wireless communication network through the FabFi project, an open source, wireless communications project. You can read more about the whole project, its structure and features on <a href="http://fabfi.fablab.af/">the FabFi project website</a> !<br/>