Blue Sky Points
Ideas, creativity, virtual teams, communication, projects, and other stuff.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Another approach to education from the US
This site, edu 2.0, brought to me by Emily Chang at the superb e-hub, brings another choice in my education debate.
Labels: e-hub, education, emily chang, home schooling
Thursday, August 30, 2007
To school or not to school
On the day our li'l lamb goes back to school, my ongoing debate with myself, and occasionally others, about whether she would be better off elsewhere has resurfaced. By elsewhere, I don't mean another school, well, perhaps. Steiner etc. alternatives exist within 3 hours of here, but don't really offer a choice for us. Home-schooling? Maybe. What about starting something locally that could support a home -school choice as a by-product. that's an idea trundling along in the background with a couple of inspiring people in the area. In the meantime, two recent posts have caught my attention. This one from Pat Kane of The Play Ethic about a radical plan for a school in New york. And this one from Ewan McIntosh of edublog which asks some fsacinating questions about higher education (keep reading, it's further down).
Labels: education home schooling, play, school
Marketing, The Web and the Public Sector
This is a bit of a short post after a title like that; it should be an essay of some sort. Lots of people working in this area; some that I follow, like Demos. My point is that in the entrepreneurial world there is marketing stuff of great interest to the public sector too. If you're browser and broadband is up to it, here's gapingvoid's full cartoon collection on one page. If in doubt, try them a few at a time here. I've just asked if I can use one of these (yes, that one up there) in a report and presentation I'm working on for one of the roughly twenty Hampshire Rural Pathfinder projects. (One of 8 regions involved in this DEFRA-sposnored innovative exercise.) I think there's a lot of interest to the expressed aim of developing public services that are more responsive to customers' needs.
Labels: gapingvoid, hampshire, hugh macleod
Another cracker from Evelyn
"You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!" - Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Thanks Evelyn
Labels: evelyn rodriguez, monty python
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Quotes via Evelyne Rodriguez
"When in doubt, share." - as seen on bumper sticker, car ahead (actually a Sun Microsystems ad, yet good counsel anyhow) - Evelyne's Twitter stream 8/23/07
"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." - Oscar Wilde
Labels: evelyne rodriguez, oscar wilde, quotes
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Wabi Sabi Work
Wabi Sabi words ...
Focused on nature, authentic, allowed to age, subtle, intuitive, personal, unique, now, whole, open, unresolved, appreciation, seasonal, flexible, ambiguous, tolerant, paradoxical, unrefined, elegant, fractal, organic, living, handmade, soft-edged, patina, stone, listening, seeing, receptive, slow, humble, plain, reflective, mindful, heart, warm.
What are these words?
Focused on technology, copied, eternal youth, bold, obvious, rational, impersonal, conformity, same, in the future, split into parts, closed, closure, depreciation, quarterly, intolerant, unambiguous, black and white, refined ornate, square and measured, geometric, artifact, mass-produced, hard=edged, plastic, steel, talk, show, arrogant, fast, proud, fancy unconscious, mindless, heartless, cold
In a balanced life, or in my balance for life, I am happier with the first list, but working life often brings me amongst the second lot. Can a philosophy or approach to working life based on the first collection survive and benefit those worlds of work dominated by the second? Or should I give up now and find a world of work that the first list describes?
What do you think?
Labels: language, philosophy, wabi-sabi, work