Image

Archive for Technology – Page 15

Connections

I was on Zaadz – an
interactive platform dedicated to fostering collective spiritual
conversation – last night and found myself wondering about the value of these forums… 

Zaadz is an innovative idea, the only public forum of its size and popularity (they’ve had a lot of media support from friends at What is Enlightenment magazine and their colleagues at Ken Wilbur’s Integral Institute). They are dedicated to ideological principles I share and have a spiritual (rather than religious) viewpoint. These alone make it worthy of my support.

If that isn’t enough, I found a wonderful new ‘design’ discussion group
there, where I was turned on to this inspiring video by industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. The video (taped at the 2006 TED conference – I’d LOVE to attend TED
one year, but haven’t yet managed to pony up the $4,400 it takes to do
so) is brilliant; absolutely inspiring and informative. Another Zaadz design post turned me on to a design blog I really liked, too, one that will excite me creatively and help inform my work in solid, practical ways.

Ideological solidarity and these kinds of creative ‘finds’ should be ample justification for my participation on forums like Zaadz, and there would be no question here if I had more ‘free’ time in my life, but as it is I’m afraid I often don’t give myself that time. This, even though I work alone and know that this kind interaction with others offers essential creative/intellectual stimulation. I clearly benefit from my engagement with these forums (including the wonderful array of relevant blogs) – why don’t I make more time for the unexpected discoveries and opportunities for conversation & connection available to me out here in cyberspace?

Perhaps because there are just SO MANY of them, and I tend to be so gluttonous in my absorbtion of information and ideas that I don’t have any sense of sobriety once I get started.

What about you? Do any of you reading this blog participate in one or more online conversations somewhere (this is a trick question since if
you respond, you are part of an online conversation! :-)? If do, how do you make the time and necessary distinctions, and what do you find truly valuable in the experience?

Simple Beauty in Reno

I spent part of this Labor Day weekend in Reno with good friends, sharing a lovely afternoon swimming in the Truckee River in downtown Reno (it’s true!) and hiking in the Sierra’s Lake Basin area.

I also managed a few minutes alone with their beautiful daughter who is off to college this year. She showed me a couple of short films she made from clips & stills she’d taken with her digital camera on trips to Paris and Ashland Oregon.

I was absolutely stunned by her creative ‘eye’, inspired by her
initiative and impressed by the wizards at Apple who had the vision to
package creative tools of this caliber along with their computers…
iMovie rocks!

I’m very excited by the creativity I see coming out of this new
generation, and just felt like expressing my gratitude to all that
nurtures their flowering. I pledge my assistance as a part of this
support network for all my young friends and family. For that matter, I pledge my support for the flowering of creativity in all of us! May it be so!

Internet as Conduit II

Cyberspace_data_2
I got this image on Flickr (click it for a full size view). Here is the description:

"A single bit of data speeding though cyberspace leaves streams of
internet entropic turbulence in its wake."

Internet as Conduit I

Driving home from the World Café Stewardship Dialogues yesterday, I had the honor of sharing a car and conversation with evolutionary dialogue pioneer George Por, who manages to find the time with everything else he is doing to write a fascinating blog on collective intelligence.

It was one of those conversations where one is almost swooning with the
pleasure of discussing out loud what one’s secret heart most desires.
In this case we were discussing the magic of aligned design – the
conscious use of line and form, light & color, to evoke and
catalyze awareness & a sense of connection between all beings – and
our mutual belief in the power of the internet to convey and awaken
consciousness of & for good.

I am still a bit overwhelmed with the internal resonance of this conversation and my delight in meeting such an aligned soul. For one of my deepest passions is using the internet as a conduit for thoughtful, consciously spirit-filled communication, a vehicle for awakening consciousness & illuminating Beauty in and around us.

This potential drives my desire to work towards evoking what I am calling ‘sacred space’ online. In less exalted terms, I’m motivated by the idea of creating an environment where there is the possibility of solace from the ‘noise’ of the everyday world, a quiet clear place to meet and work with others who share an intention to seed ‘good’ in the world, a place where collective wisdom can emerge and take conscious form.

This vision I have is very different from most of the chaotic information overload we’ve all seen online, although the experience of creating a transformative environment is familiar to many of us from our face-to-face work together.

My contention is that the way to invite sacred space online is not dissimilar to the way we seed it f2f… What’s needed is a clear intention and conscious invitation, a well-designed structure with beauty at the center always, a warm welcome and respect for each person that is drawn to respond to the invitation, and a knowing that each one is meant to be there and has something of value to share.

This whole sphere is something that is only just beginning to be imagined in this medium, and I see those of us who are investigating it as visionary pioneer guides, laying the paths and preparing to lead the way forward by applying what we have learned about all this (the online environment, creating sacred space, building community, etc.) so far.

There is a lot more to be said and done about this subject, and I hope I will be an active part of those conversations and actions, but I offer these musings as part of an ongoing collective conversation. I look forward to what is coming next for us all as Light continues to bounce around between us in cyberspace …