This short talk is about the thread that ties together open source software, web 2.0, and government: the power and importance of shared effort to solve hard problems. It is keyed off of a wonderful quote from the introduction Harlan Ellison wrote to his 1969 collection of short stories, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World. In it, Harlan talks about the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and ends with a stirring reminder that no one is going to come down off the hill to save us. We need to save ourselves.
2. “I’m an inventor.
I became interested in
long term trends
because an invention
has to make sense in the
world in which it is
finished, not the world in
which it is started.”
-Ray Kurzweil
3. “The future is here.
It’s just not evenly
distributed yet.”
- William Gibson
6. The Black Christ of Portobelo, Panama
(not the one Harlan Ellison saw in Rio, but you get the idea...)
7. “the bottom line of what I've rambled on about here...
[is] to tell you that as night approaches we are all
aliens, down here on this alien Earth. To tell you that
not Christ nor man nor governments of men will save
you. To tell you that writers about tomorrow must stop
living in yesterday and work from their hearts and their
guts and their courage to tell us about tomorrow,
before all the tomorrows are stolen away from us. To
tell you no one will come down from the mountain to
save your lily-white hide or your black ass. God is
within you. Save yourselves.
“Otherwise, why would you have traveled all this
way . . . just to be alone?”
--Harlan Ellison, Introduction
9. Open Source
Web 2.0
“Crowdsourcing”
“the Commons”
Gov 2.0
All about what happens when we work together
And about systems that make it easier for us to
work together
11. Photo by Jeff Kubina: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/47264499/in/set-1030659/
12. Not an investment bubble - a reality bubble!
Financial crises
Worst income inequality since the Gilded
Age
Oil price shock
Global warming
Decline in science literacy & education
Water scarcity
Exotic diseases
Aging populations and soaring health costs
Decline in economic competitiveness and
innovation
Dysfunctional political system