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Edward Harran

Ideas - Inspiration - Insights

08
Feb 2010

Tier 1 Micropatronage - (Beta) ((micropatronage))

 
This is a beta presentation for my Tier 1 Micropatronage service.
I am only offering this service to three organisations.
If you are interested, please give me a bell.

Eddie

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05
Feb 2010

#eddieinmelbs

Had a great time in Melbourne.

Some photos @rosshill sent me.

@rosshill
"I loved the eddie+rexster+rosshill+hafeez collective #crazyinnovators"



       
Click here to download:
eddieinmelbs.zip (1670 KB)

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04
Feb 2010

Social Media and Mental Health Support

I did a presentation/workshop to @reachoutmh in Melbourne earlier this week, together with @stevehopkins and @joannespain, where we talked about Social Media and Mental Health Support.

I shared my experiences dealing with Bipolar and how social media helped me overcome it.
Here are the slides. (Although they might not make much sense without context. Nevertheless, here they are....)

Thanks to @servantofchaos and @sarahmoran for sharing their wisdom as well.

 

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25
Jan 2010

Career

The term, 'Career', is outdated.

A 20th century hangover.
It is a myth.

Happiness is what matters.
Self-actualization.
There should be no division between your personal and professional lives. 
Your "work" needs to matter - to you. Giving your time, your brainpower to something that doesn't align with your core is not healthy. 
Just do what you love. That is it. No if's, not but's - just do what inspires you. 
And if you don't know what it is, keep looking. Don't settle for less.

I hope in the coming decades we will look at the term , 'career', and laugh at its absurdity.
Humans should be pursuring happiness.
Expressing all that they are.
That should be their full-time job.

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25
Jan 2010

Official Press Release - Palomar5 and GAFFTA Partnership

         
Click here to download:
Official_Press_Release_-_Palom.zip (816 KB)

The innovation program Palomar5 extends its activities
to the US in 2010
• Start of a 4-month pilot cooperation with GAFFTA in San Francisco
• Former camp residents get another thrilling place to continue their projects

Berlin, San Francisco, January 22nd 2010: After the successful premiere of Palomar5’s 6-week Innovation Camp in Berlin in fall 2009, the non-profit organization and its extended network of participants, experts and partners will proceed the exploration of creative spaces throughout 2010. While continuing operations at the newly renovated Berlin home base, Palomar5 is spreading its wings internationally to enlarge its network, continue working on existing projects, spark new ideas and boost discussions within the core topics springing from the network of young inventors, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs.

In the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA), Palomar5 has found an ideal partner to join in the effort to make the world a little more humane, sensible and interesting. From February 1st, Palomar5 will take a temporary place within GAFFTA’s San Francisco studio. In this “Hub”, members of the Palomar5 network will continue with projects that emerged from the Palomar5 Camp and involve themselves in activities of GAFFTA team.

“This cooperation is based on a mutual belief in the benefits of open exchange, multidisciplinary surroundings and the will for change” explains Josette Melchor, Executive Director of GAFFTA. Mathias Holzmann, Co-founder of Palomar5, who just came back from his visit adds: “I expect that our Palomar5 projects will strongly benefit from GAFFTA’s inspiring environment and network - and vice versa.”

During the pilot cooperation, the following Palomar5 projects will be further elaborated in the GAFFTA Studio:
· Strata Labs: A networking effort thinking about new tools to visualize and utilize data
· A Human Right: A project to grant the world the human right of information by providing free access to broadband Internet.
· Dada Technology: A Technology making the exchange of information between devices and people more haptic, humane and efficient
· Display2000: Exploring and building large versatile neon-tube displays
· Show Me Love Lab: An initiative aiming to make work more lovely
· Startup4Startups: Founding a culture for startups to help each other to start up

Besides working on projects, Palomar5 is also going to host interactive workshops and other events in the GAFFTA studio to share experiences with the public and kick-off new ideas and discussions together

About GAFFTA: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture. Guided by the principles of openness, collaboration, and resource sharing, our programs promote creativity at the intersection of art, design, sound, and technology. By making digital culture accessible, substantive and inspiring, we aim to help realize the greatest power of technology: to bring us closer, faster."

About Palomar5 e.V.: Palomar5 was founded 2009 as a non-profit initiative in Berlin with the aim to explore and construct ideal creative spaces while building a network to build and test these. Fall 2009, Palomar5 brought together 28 “Digital Natives” from all around the world in a six-week innovation-camp to discuss and prototype tangible solutions within the broad topic of “the future of work”. Thirteen main projects connecting technology, business and culture sprung from this camp - together with a culture of great trust, personal freedom and humane working methods that Palomar5 aims to share with the outside world. Palomar5’s main sponsor has been Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world’s leading telecommunication companies.

Links to the organizations:
Palomar5:  www.palomar5.org
GAFFTA: 
http://www.gaffta.org

Links to Palomar5 projects:
http://www.ahumanright.org
http://www.showmelovelab.com

Upcoming events:
February 14h 2010: Valentine’s Day Event hosted by the Palomar5 “Show me Love Lab” @ GAFFTA
Press contact:
Palomar5
Jonathan Imme
ji ( AT) palomar5.org
+49 171 7780547
GAFFTA
Joe Brilliant
joe(AT)
gaffta.org
415.843.1423

 

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22
Jan 2010

LifeTags

A new year brings resolutions. A new to do list. Another set of things to accomplish. As @JoanneSpain and I were discussing, it is funny that such an arbitrary thing as a number on a calendar becomes the catalyst, the permission that is needed, to start making changes in your life. When, in theory, you can start anytime you feel like it. Whenever the hell you are ready. Your don't need a date to make a resolution. So I am going to start now, today - 22nd January 2010. And, it is on this new beginning, I want to take a holistic, flowing, and open-end ed approach to things. I don't disagree with goal-setting and resolutions. It is important to have goals and direction. But I feel the intuitive need to take a different approach this upcoming season. So, without any further ranting, let me introduce to you to my lifetags.

Lifetags are hashtags (#) for your life. For a direction you want to follow. They are themes and ideals that you want to pursue - concrete and simple in that they give you focus, but broad in that they give you room for exploration and learning.  They are less about the need to complete things, to achieve tasks, to knock off stringent goals, but a lighter approach to getting things done. I suppose it is similar to a mission statement, but maybe slightly different. My life is too charodic at the moment - and, you know what,  I like it that way. It makes life a bit of adventure and a mystery. I don't want my life to be mapped out - I want to explore the roads on the map. I want life to guide me. I want the process to shape me. Life is not a factory, where you insert input and receive output. We are much richer than that. 

I have organised my lifetags into two categories:

Build - that is, themes I want to build upon and develop. My strengths.

Nurture - that is, themes that I need to look after. My weaknesses, so to speak. Things I need to improve - no no, correction, look after. 

I have six  for each. I am keeping it K.I.S.S. I've put it in future tense, in a kinda-of assertive, proactive language.

Build
          

#Passion

I will keep following my passions.  I will not settle for anything other than initiatives, people, experiences that I genuinely care and am curious about.
I will share my passion openly and honestly others, in hope that I can inspire them to follow their passions as well.

#Give
I will keep giving - to my family and friends, to my communities, to the world. Being selfless is better for you. Every spiritual tradition advocates the important of giving - I will keep helping people, doing good when I can. As I give, I give to myself as well - the two are intertwined.

#Listen
I will listen to my instinct, to my gut.
I will listen to others.
I will listen to nature and the signs "the universe" presents. There is wisdom right in front of us if we take the time to look.

#Adventure

I will be keep exploring. Living a life of adventure. 
I will travel and learn.
I will embrace the good and bad times, knowing that those moments make you feel alive. 
I will embrace "being", not just doing. Living in the now. Not in the past and future all the time.

#Learn
I will keep learning from my experience,
I will reflect.
I will take the lessons as they happen.
I will use life as perpetual beta

#Flow
I will strive to find meaning.
I will take the time to go slow and allow myself to get into the flow state.
I will be happy.


Nurture

          

#Standards

I will develop my 'standards'. Standards was a project developed by Vimeo CEO, Jake Lodwick, who ,like me as a tendency to mental instability. He maintains a strict set of 'standards'  to perform at his peak. I will emulate learning from this.
I will work on my 'small steps' because it is the little things that keep me grounded. 
I will not allow my bipolar tendencies ( doctors diagnosed as this) to hinder me. Instead I will take responsibility for it and understand that, if I choose, it can be a great source of wisdom.
I will meditate, eat well and exercise more.
I will look after my gears to keep my car running.

#Quality
I will focus on quality relationships with family and friends, not quantity. I will give time to people that matter to me.
I will develop quality ideas.
I will develop quality richness in my life.
I will do less, to achieve more.
I will live a quality life, not one full of "stuff". We are not our "stuff", nor are we are achievements.

#Action

I will focus on action. Ideas are nothing without execution.
I will focus on small actions, not just big actions. Small actions, ironically, led to big things. Small actions are vital.
I will talk less and do more.
I will make more decisions. I will be more decisive and assertive in what I want and who I am.
I will not be afraid. 
I will never give up. I will keep trying.

#Trust

I will trust myself. In my gut. I will listen to my inner voice.
I will trust the process. As Steve Jobs advocates, I will allow the dots to connect
I will trust uncertainty. I will embrace it. 

#Accept
I will let go.
I will be
I will accept life as it is now.
I will love whatever moment is presented.
I will grateful.

#Focus
I will focus on things that matter to me.
I will take time out to understand who I am and what my purpose is.
I will prioritise and do first things first.
I will be the driver of life.

As per everything I do, this is a beta. A work in progress. Might change. Might not. It is a start. Let's see what happens.

What are your lifetags this upcoming season?

Photos Sources: here, here and here.

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21
Jan 2010

Why #Slow Matters ( Carl Honore)

 

"Slow Thinking is intuitive, woolly and creative. It is what we do when the pressure is off, and there is time to let ideas simmer on the back burner. It yields rich, nuanced insights and sometimes surprising breakthroughs.esearch has shown that time pressure leads to tunnel vision and that people think more creatively when they are calm, unhurried and free from stress and distractions. We all know this from experience.

Your best ideas, those eureka moments that turn the world upside down, seldom come when you're juggling emails, rushing to meet the 5pm deadline or straining to make your voice heard in a high-stress meeting. They come when you're walking the dog, soaking in the bath or swinging in a hammock. The greatest thinkers in history certainly knew the value of shifting into a lower gear. Milan Kundera talked about "the wisdom of slowness." Albert Einstein spent hours just staring into space in his office at Princeton University. Charles Darwin described himself as a "slow thinker."Google belongs to a long and noble tradition of letting the mind wander.

Of course, Slow Thinking can be pointless without the rigors of Fast Thinking. You have to grasp, analyze and harness the ideas that bubble up from the subconscious -- and often you must do so quickly. Einstein appreciated the need to marry the two modes of thought: "Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination."    This balancing of fast and slow fits into a wider cultural shift. Everywhere, pe that slowing down at the right moment can help us work, play and live better.

Carl Honore's Full article here 

 

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20
Jan 2010

Suffering

When we get sick, our suffering can put us in touch with the pain of others. When things go well, however, our mind easily accepts this. Like oil absorbing into our skin, attachment to favorable circumstances blends smoothly and invisibly into our thoughts and feelings. Without realizing what's happening, we can become infatuated with our achievements, fame, and wealth. It's difficult to extricate ourselves from positive obstacles. If we could have everything we wish for—wealth, a comfortable house, nice clothing—he advises us to view this good fortune as illusory, like a beautiful dream, and not let it seduce us into complacency.

- Pema Chödrön, from "Cutting Ties: The Fruits of Solitude" (Winter, 2005)

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19
Jan 2010

The Changemaker's Creed

Photo via Rubicon

You don’t think we can change the world. I know we can.

You will tell me that I can’t help everywhere. I will show you that I can help somewhere.

You will question, criticize, judge, and hate me because that’s what you do. I will take principled, calculated, and small steps forward because that’s what I do.

You will show me the statistics, charts, and numbers that show I’m not changing anything. I will take the genuine smile and relief of others as a sign that I am.

You will make individual people doubt their gifts and you will tear at the seams of commonality that bind us. I will rally, inspire, and lead others by building on the common bonds of our humanity.

You will focus on what I can’t do or should’ve done. I will focus on what I can do and what I am doing.

You will condemn me when I rest and scold me when I gain. I will take care of my needs and graciously take the gifts I receive along the way.

You will continue thinking that to share is to lose. I will find that to share is to gain.

You will wait for the right moment, opportunity, or permission to act. I will open the door and see serendipity waiting for me.

You will remember and catalog my mistakes. I will remember the lessons I’ve learned from experience.

You will let your fear and worry keep you safe and secure on the sidelines of history. I will carry them with me, knowing that there is more to life than sitting comfortably by the fire.

You will reach your final days and see that your inaction and dissuasion was a series of choices you wish you could change. I will be spent but proud of the flourishing life I lived making this journey better for others.

am changing the world. Lead, follow, help, or get the hell out of the way.

This is a wake-up call; I will ring again. Take your first step toward doing epic shit and be the change you want to see.

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12
Jan 2010

The Awesomeness Mainfesto by Umair Haque (My fav as of late)

 

Innovation: it's the ultimate source of advantage, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the economic ring. Innovation is what every organization should be ruthlessly pursuing, right? Wrong.
I'd like to advance a hypothesis: awesomeness is the new innovation.

Let's face it. "Innovation" feels like a relic of the industrial era. And it just might be the case that instead of chasing innovation, we should be innovating innovation — that innovation needs innovation. Why? When we examine the economics of innovation, three reasons emerge.

Innovation relies on obsolescence. Innovation was a concept pioneered by the great Joseph Schumpeter. And to subscribe to it requires us to accept his theory of creative destruction. Gales of innovation make yesterday's goods and services obsolete. Yet, that, in turn, means that the price of innovation is recession and depression. The business cycle might never be vanquished — but it is getting more vicious with every decade. In an interdependent world, obsolescence is what's obsolete.

Innovation dries up our seedcorn. Innovation in its purest Schumpeterian sense is undertaken by entrepreneurs. And so today, we've got an economy where everything's for sale. Yet, little fundamentally new is being created. Businesses focus obsessively on the entrepreneurial aspects of commerce: we are focused still on selling the same old toxic, industrial era junk in slightly better ways. Yet, the challenge of the 21st century isn't entrepreneurial as much as it is creative: learning to create fundamentally better stuff in the first place.

Innovation often isn't. Innovation means, naively, what is commercially novel. Yet, as the financial crisis proves, what is "innovative" is often value destructive and socially harmful. Financial "innovation" turned out to be unnovative: it has destroyed trillions in value - here are some staggering estimates from the IMF. 
It's time to ask: have the costs of innovation exceeded the benefits?

A better concept, one built for a radically interdependent 21st century, is awesomeness. Here are the four pillars of awesomeness:

Ethical production. Innovation turns a blind eye to ethics — or, worse, actively denies ethics. That's a natural result of putting entrepreneurship above all. Buy low, sell high, create value. That's so 20th century. Awesome stuff is produced ethically — in fact, without an ethical component, awesomeness isn't possible. Starbucks is shifting to Fair Trade coffee beans, for example. Why? Starbucks isn't just trying to innovate yet another flavour of sugar-water: it's trying to gain awesomeness.

Insanely great stuff.What is innovative often fails to delight, inspire, and enlighten — because, as we've discussed, innovation is less concerned with raw creativity. Awesomeness puts creativity front and center. Awesome stuff evokes an emotive reaction because it's fundamentally new, unexpected, and 1000x better. Just ask Steve Jobs. The iPhone and iPod were pooh-poohed by analysts, who questioned how innovative they really were — but the Steve has turned multiple industries upside down through the power of awesomeness.

Love. You know what's funny about walking into an Apple Store? The people working there care. They don't just "work at the Apple store" — they love Apple. Contrast that with the alienating, soul-crushing experience of trying to buy something at Best Buy — where salespeople attack you out of greed. (Or, as editor extraordinaire Sarah Green put it, "where you wander around for a full half-hour unable to find anyone to help you before you finally get the attention of some blue-shirted 12-year old who turns out to know nothing about the products she sells and ultimately end up committing hara-kiri with a Wii controller"). Their goal is to sell; the goal of Apple Store employees is simply to show off their awesomeness, and let you share it. Love for what we do is the basis of all real value creation.

Thick value It's the most hackneyed phrase in the corporate lexicon: adding value. Let's face it: most value is an illusion. Nokia, Motorola, and Sony tried for a decade to "add value" to their phones — yet not a single feature did. Food producers and pharmaceutical companies claim they're "adding value," but mostly they're just mega-marketing.
The vast majority of companies — in my research, greater than 95% — can only create what I have termed thin value. Thick value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles that your boss might like, but that cause customers to roll their eyes.

Let's summarize. What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That's a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.

I've talked to many boardrooms about awesomeness. Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by it, because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it's anything but. Gen M knows "awesomeness" when we see it — that's why its part of our vernacular. It's a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance.

What makes some stuff awesome and other stuff merely (yawn) innovative? I've outlined my answers, but they're far from the best, or even the only ones — so add your own thoughts in the comments.
You might be innovative — but are you awesome? For most, the answer is: no. Game over: in the 21st century, if you're merely innovative, prepare to be disrupted by awesomeness.

 

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