Collaboration Zones – Page 1267 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/05/162011/05/16

Future of the Library versus Future of the Librarian

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, info-graphics/data-visualization, IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Policies, Threats

The future of the library

What is a public library for?

First, how we got here:

Before Gutenberg, a book cost about as much as a small house. As a result, only kings and bishops could afford to own a book of their own.

This naturally led to the creation of shared books, of libraries where scholars (everyone else was too busy not starving) could come to read books that they didn't have to own. The library as warehouse for books worth sharing.

Only after that did we invent the librarian.

The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.

After Gutenberg, books got a lot cheaper. More individuals built their own collections. At the same time, though, the number of titles exploded, and the demand for libraries did as well. We definitely needed a warehouse to store all this bounty, and more than ever we needed a librarian to help us find what we needed. The library is a house for the librarian.

Continue reading “Future of the Library versus Future of the Librarian”

2011/05/162011/05/16

Economic Complexity Visualized–A New Mind Tool

03 Economy, Academia, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, IO Sense-Making, Key Players

face michael ostrolenk — Michael Ostrolenk

The Art of Economic Complexity

A new way to visualize a country’s development.

By TIM HARFORD

Graphic by CÉSAR A. HIDALGO and ALEX SIMOES

New York Times, 11 May 2011

EXTRACT: Strip away the mathematical language of economists, and conventional theories of economic growth are rather crude. Economies produce “stuff,” and if you want more stuff to come out of the process, put more stuff in (like human capital, say). Yet economies do not produce stuff so much as billions of distinct types of goods — perhaps 10 billion, according to Eric Beinhocker of the McKinsey Global Institute — ranging from size 34 dark stonewash bootcut jeans to beauty therapies involving avocado. The difference between China's economy and that of the United States is not simply that China's is smaller; it has a different structure entirely.

Read article, see graphs

Visit the MIT Economic Complexity Observatory

Phi Beta Iota: This is a very promising line of inquiry. It does not include the vital but poorly understood interactions among political-legal (integrity), socio-economic (fairness), ideo-cultural (education), and techno-demographic (balance), and natural-geographic (true cost, sustainability). As with most intellectual work these days, it is a thin slice across one dimension of very complex sphere–the world is NOT flat.

2011/05/162011/05/16

Plastic Bottles & Plastic Bags: Massive Scam & Threat

03 Environmental Degradation, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Policies

Please spread link to this short [4 minute] video if you feel inspired!

From Kyle Thiermann, Surfing for Change:

Hi Everybody,

I'm excited to announce the release of my new movie “Where is Away: Solving
Plastic Pollution in 4 Minutes”. It tracks a plastic bag that I use in my hometown of Santa Cruz California, all the way to the north shore of Oahu, demonstrating both the destruction and solutions along the way. Famous musician Jack Johnson, and Story of
Stuff Annie Leonard join me in this fast-paced journey to highlight the power we all have to end plastic pollution.

Where is Away: Solving Plastic Pollution in 4 minutes

2011/05/152011/05/15

Niall Ferguson’s 4 Reasons Why US Dominance Is Over

08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Missing is the lack of integrity of the US Government…..

Niall Ferguson's 4 Reasons Why US Dominance Is Over

Jeff Cox, 12 May 2011, CNBC

LAS VEGAS—The era of US economic dominance is rapidly coming to an end as an “American Gothic” age sets in and China becomes the new global leader, economic historian Niall Ferguson said.

. . . . . .

01 The “mother of all Keynsian fiscal binges” in which the government spent nearly $1 trillion on stimulus from which there will be a “hangover” with only the timing at question.

02 A “massive monetary binge” in which the Federal Reserve ultimately will print money to the tune of nearly $3 trillion.

03 An ensuing spike in commodity prices, a process that has gone on virtually unabated since the beginning of Fed intervention and for which there has been a recent pullback.

04 China “is not the Soviet Union,” meaning the nation doesn’t have the same destabilizing economic conditions that brought down the former Communist republic.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: Mr. Ferguson is correct on his four factors, but leaves out much more. The loss of integrity across not just the US Government but across every major “tribe” comprising the US nation-state (see our “Paradigms of Failure” and also “Legitimate Grievances“) is the root problem Within that is the collapse of education, the ruthless export of jobs that could have been kept in the USA if infrastructure had been developed properly, the looming private debt collapse (defaults of credit cards and everything else), and the deep social challenge of dealing with several hundred thousand returning veterans who are mentally and physically ill, facing unemployment, and rapidly discovering that their pain and suffering was for nothing.

2011/05/152011/05/15

Reference: Cynthia McKinney Speaks in Tehran

05 Iran, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Policies, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc)

The Tehran Peace Conference started on 14 May and ended today, 15 May, (63rd Anniversary of Palestine's Nakbah ) with me chairing the 7:30 am panel entitled, “Terrorism: Concepts and Contexts.” Members of the Clergy from Brazil, Greece, and the U.S. made presentations as well as international lawyers, academicians, and peace activists from Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela, Spain, Ghana, and Bolivia. My assignment is to write up my report of each of the presentations and submit the recommendations from the panel to the Conference Secretariat.

On Day One of the Opening Plenary with journalist Jim Lobe seated on my right and Rabbis Weiss and Rosenberg sitting in front of me, I was surprised when my name was called to make a presentation at the opening plenary of the Tehran Peace Tribune. I immediately set about writing my remarks and here is what I said:

Cynthia McKinney
International Conference on Global Alliance Against Terrorism for a Just Peace
Tehran, Iran
15 May 2011

How wonderful to be at a Conference where the word “love” is used; we are here because we love humankind. We are here from all corners of the earth; we are against terrorism; we want peace.

However, we must clarify peace. What kind of peace do we want?

President John F. Kennedy answered his question by saying: “. . . not a Pax Americana” imposed on the world by weapons of war. He went on to say that the kind of peace we want is the kind of peace that makes life worth living–peace for all men and women for all time.

No Justice, No Peace. No Truth, No Justice!

But, today, U.S. policy is rooted in lies, injustice, and war. And at home, the people of the U.S. suffer. Racism is acute, despite and maybe because of President Obama; hatred is rampant with hatred of Muslims, incarceration of Palestinians, targeting of immigrants, the lynchings of Blacks, disappearances of Latinos, and the pauperization of the people. People inside the U.S. are under attack in the realm of policy:

Continue reading “Reference: Cynthia McKinney Speaks in Tehran”

2011/05/15

Worth a Look: Community Land Trusts — Coming Home with E. F. Schumacher & the Reinvention of the Local Economy (A Video Gift, 37 Minutes, from Christopher B. Bedford)

01 Poverty, 07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Policies, Strategy, True Cost, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Phi Beta Iota: Kudos to Christopher B. Bedford for his many contributions, this one in particular is most timely now as a global movement for redirecting the manner in which land (and water) are “owned.” As with our native forebearers, land can no longer be owned by individuals–community land trusts are the essential way forward. This is the practice in many countries. This 37 minute DVD is revolutionary.

See Also:

E. F. Schumacher Society

Small Is Beautiful, 25th Anniversary Edition: Economics As If People Mattered: 25 Years Later . . . With Commentaries

2011/05/152011/05/15

Reference: US DOJ Tells Court It Has Authority to Lie UPDATED to include Amended Order of 27 April 2011

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Officers Call

Source (2 Page PDF)

Tip of the Hat to Samurai Sam in the Far East for this one.

Phi Beta Iota: We don't make this stuff up.

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

UPDATE: Here is the full back story. What is revealed is a long-standing US Government practice of lying to Congress and the Judiciary, the other two “co-equal” branches of the federal government. More and more each day we see the naked unethical Emperor for what he/she is: naked unethical tyranny replete with impeachable acts each day.

Amended Order 27 April 2011

Tip of the Hat to Penguin for the update.