Too Big to Know?

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

I have to admit it’s been a while since we videotaped this conversation between Peter Kruse and David Weinberger on “data”. It was last year, late September at Petersberg. A very warm and sunny day. Actually 4 month before David’s book Too Big to Know was published.

For me, as an observer more or less, it was very interesting to see the different approaches both of them took when they were talking about data. Peter, who spent great parts of his life in the field of brain research, always in search for a higher order (pattern recognition, understanding) within all these networks; David, embracing the messiness of the web and open data, was arguing from the side that knowledge (data) itself is becoming the network.

So let me start with the very end. After a two hour converstaion we asked both of them to “squeeze” the most essential about data in a tweet – here is what they came up with:

In this first part of the conversation Peter and David are “warming up” and trying to find out what the other one is meaning when he talks about data, knowledge and understanding:

Please stay tuned, more to come!

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Help to write the code for tomorrow!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

For many countries in the so-called developing world (I don’t like this expression at all, but don’t know which other one to use) western Europe and the USA are role models. I just heard it again last week during a 2 hour workshop with 130 teachers in Pakistan and at a conference in the Arab World. They think – because we are “wealthy” – it is a good idea to copy us. Especially our education systems. If they do have money – like Saudi Arabia and the Emirates – they build private schools, spent an awful lot of money to bring in the “best” profs from allover the world, focus strictly on management and economic growth – and repeat the same mistakes we’ve been making. If they have less money, new technologies are a great hope, but they are widely seen as tools and not as a new culture – an issue which we, in the west, are in the middle of experiencing it.

If you tell them – as I did last week – that the western education system isn’t build to suit 21st century needs, the look rather surprised.

They don’t know that there is a 30% drop out rate in public schools in the US.
They don’t know that many of us are working to revolutionize education.
They don’t know that we fail in focussing only on economic growth.
They don’t know that parts of our population become poorer and poorer.
They don’t know about the success story in Finnland.
They don’t know that private schools aren’t necessarily the best.
They don’t understand why the major goal of education is NOT to make the most money, but to live a happy and fullfilling life.
They understand technology as a tool.
…

When you look how they set up their educational systems, you immediately see the mistakes we’ve made for many years in the western world. They copy them!

We, in the western world are pretty much aware, that we have this role model.
I think we should help them (and us) to write the code for tomorrow!
We only win when everybody wins!
BTW: this is true for many other areas as well: environment, climate change …
It means to tell them that we are struggling as well.
So, give them the chance to catch up with us by NOT repeating our mistakes, but by building something better for all of us together!

In the field of education I see many examples and initiatives. I’ve listed a few here:

 

Please feel free to add!

We should copy them and spread the word.

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Hacker Culture is close to Brazilian Culture

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

Daniela Silva and Pedro Markun work together in the House of Digital Culture in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s a co-working space – lovely set-up – where many young people meet and work in the fields of transparency, open innovation, digital culture and and the culture of hacking.

I like this interview a lot, because

  • it shows so much that these 2 young people really love the work they do
  • they are deeply convinced that the topics they are working on will have an impact on Brazlian society
  • they are really good in what they do and
  • they understood that they have to start with themselves first (“be the change you want to see” ;-)
  • they don’t live in a bubble
  • it gives pretty cool insights into the Brazilian Internet and hacker scene
  • as well as into Brazilian society

 

One of my favourite projects Daniela and Pedro are involved in, is the “Ônibus Hacker” – the Hacker Bus. The project was born from the Brazilian online community Transparência Hacker, ‘Hacker Transparency’. It was created in 2009 around a HackDay in São Paulo, and the group’s discussion list now counts over 700 members. As its name says, its focus is (h)activism in favor of public transparency and open data. Previous and ongoing projects include Otoridades, a portal where Brazilians can denunciate abuses of power, and Mapas Livres, which focuses on open mapping.

They participated in Rio de Janeiro’s Digital Culture Festival, Sao Paulo’s Campus Party was also on the agenda, as well as ConSocial. This government initiative was Brazil’s first National Conference on Transparency and Social Control. The most important part of the project will be its interaction with the general public. Hacker Transparency calls it ‘Hacker Invasions’: the group’s plan is to visit small towns, where they can have a stronger impact on local realities. It doesn’t mean they will come up with ready-made solutions; it will be a work in progress, in partnership with the local population. During one weekend, they listened to the inhabitants’ needs and helped them to develop answers with the help of to technology, from blogs to apps. In other terms, it was a local version of their HackDays.

Although these actions are local, Hacker Bus hopes to have a larger impact: thanks to webcams and 3G, anyone interested should be able to watch their progress in real time. Hacker Bus might even physically go beyond Brazil’s borders as the group has received an invitation to visit Uruguay. Quite impressive for a project which only started fundraising less than a year ago.

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In the time “inbetween” a lot of things become visible

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

Some great thoughts by Slavoj Žižek

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From ME to WE and the other way round – TEDxBG

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

TEDxBG in Sofia was a very strange experience for me. Maybe because I just flew in the night before from Brazil and I only got 3 hours sleep. When I arrived at the venue, I didn’t had any schedule, I didn’t know what time my talk was – I didn’t know anything about the others topics and speakers. There was nothing available in English and the 3 organizers were too busy to give any translation. So I wasn’t able to get anything out of all these talks, except some questions I asked some people after the event. For this I really felt sorry. It was somehow a waste of time.

Except one thing – I’d really like to pick out: There was a young girl, Daniela, 11 years old, she sang on stage beautifully to Samba rythmns. I invited her spontaneously to come with us next time to Brazil and to join the volunteer team in the favelas. Besides theatre we will now add music to the program we are going to do there! Daniela seemed to be very happy …

And I was pleased to back up with Georgi Kamov, a young Bulgarian entrepreneur, who just launched his own company Nextdoor. I met him at a Transformation Thinker event a year ago. We enjoyed Bulgarian food and red wine with his wife and her 2 sisters. Lovely! Thanks for that!

The TEDxBG event was followed by a so called “volunteer-day”. Alek, one of the TEDx organizers described it as: “We are dividing the TEDX-audience in groups and sending them to different places where they can volunteer. It’s important, since Bulgaria is dead last in volunteering per capita. We’ll have a dog shelter; an urban transformation group, which will refurbish an underpass; a visit to a couple of children shelters; an annual bird count at a nearby lake and many other things …” A good initiative.

Other things I liked to mention:

  • the Betahaus, Bulgarian’s first co-working space just opened its doors, and yes, it is related with the Betahaus in Berlin
  • Air Bulgaria – not all a recommendation to fly with
  • the mountains surrounding Sofia looked really inviting for a ski tour
  • very good food and wine
  • smell of corruption is in many place
  • besides some shopping malls, IMAX cinemas and “western” company buildings, Sofia still has this “socialism” look and feel
  • taxi, food, drinks are really, really cheap
  • the young people at the TEDx event are excited as all the other young people I’ve met around the world. One of the participants said, that there aren’t too many people willing to drive change in BUlgaria. It’s only a small grope. I have no idea if this is true or not.

I definitely will be back!

For those who are interested in, here is my talk.

I started with our trailer for we-the-movie …..

.. followed by these slides:

TEDxBG

And here is a transcript of the text:

Continue reading →

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Where Joi Ito and Ken Robinson meet

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

When Ken Robinson talks about “being in your element” for me he is talking exactly about the same thing as Joi Ito does when he refers to his friends, the people volunteering in  networks such as Global Voices, Mozilla, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Ubuntu, people involved in the revolutions all over the world to build something new and sustainable from the bottom-up. I would say these people are in their element. They love what they do, they do it well and their work ignites their passions. Since I do know quite a few of them, I know that this sense of commitment gives their lives direction and purpose. They have indeed found their element, the sweet spot in their life where the things they love to do and the things they are good at come together.

In other words they proof the “element-theory” in practice. This might not be rocket science, but it’s something completely human and – as a matter of fact – something very natural. And what it also proves is that when many people in their element come together they create an environment, a culture, in which new things can flourish and emerge. In such cases we are NOT talking about re-inventing an old system or reforming it – these cases represent totally new structures ready to face the challenges of the 21st century. They also show that growth doesn’t only mean growth calibrated in economic terms, by numbers, by ROI. Growth in these cases has a much broader basis – and that broader basis is society. Their endeavors help society to grow as a whole and help improve all our lives: in education, in government, in media, in politics, in enterprise.

I think it’s important that we connect these things and that Ken Robinson and Joi Ito connect and set new, concrete examples. Examples which others can follow. They do indeed have the capacity to do so … It’s about bringing two worlds together – the traditional teacher crowd and politicians (Ken Robinson’s crowd) and what I call the true believers (Joi’s crowd).  Tie these connections and create something even better …

Update:
Actually the Mozilla book: Learning, Freedom and the Web could be a very nice project to bridge the gap between teachers and netizzens …

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Heal the world. But start with yourself!

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

I’ve met a wonderful woman in Rio de Janeiro: Samia El Mannani. Samia was born in the suburbs of Paris, France, her roots are Moroccan. She arrived 2 years ago in Rio, 80 Euros in her pockets and broken hearted. Ready to start a new life. And from what I see today – she succeeded.

This is what Samia is writing about herself:

One day a woman in the favela said to me “You rich people are very lucky!”

This phrase changed my life completely. For the first time I share with the people who I am. I replied to her that I was very rich. Rich of love. I told them that I was born into a Morrocan family the suburbs of Paris. I was the second of 3 kids.

My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old. At that time it started that I was raped by many men. The first one was the husband of my nanny, the second my uncle, the third my mother’s boyfriend. All my life – until today – I have to learn that sex is NO obligation, it should be a desire. So it’s very hard for me to have a normal sexuality.

One of my mother’s uncle used to beat me a lot. For no reason.

I fled home and find refuge in the library. I read books or just watch images. I’ve got lost in my dreams waiting for my prince on the white horse … Not so long ago I realised that it was just a fairytale.

I left home I was 12 years old. I left because of lack of love. Too much abuse. I passed first for few months in a children home, then i want to live with father and his wife and my brother but a year after they kick me out of their home.
When I was 14 years old I lost my dearest brother.
Back at children’s home until the age of 20 years – where I at least had some kind of order in my life – I was raped for years there as well.

Drug addiction followed.
Noone had confidence in me.
Nobody thought I would ever achieve anything.

To free herself from this incredible burden, Samia decided to work as a volunteer in the favelas. She is working with kids and adults. At least one day per week. Sometimes she stays at their houses over night. I went with her for a day and met a few of the families she is working with. They love her. They accept her. And the gangs controlling the favela (young men carrying machine guns around in the middle of the day) leave her alone.

When she first came the favelados thought she was rich. And that she was here to give presents. But she answered them she was here because she loves them. Love is all she has to offer. And time. And she was telling them her story … She opened her heart and let everything go. And the favelados got her message. They understood. It helped them to become more reliable while she is working with them, they feel responsible for what they do and they understood, that EVERYBODY has a chance.

Samia realized through her work, that she doesn’t has to be perfect, that she doesn’t has to control everything, that she can be open about her past and still b eloved. She realized that the world is not so much about HER, but about the WE … that she needs a strong “me” to start a better “we” – she healed herself while she was helping others …

I think a wonderful story!

The Internet, her photography and video work helped her to find a better understanding of what she is doing, who she is, it helped her to spread the word of what she is doing and connect her with the world back home. Now Samia is actively starting to reach out to the world, telling her story and so hopefully helping others to overcome their burdens as well.

What an invitation …!

She loves “her” children and “her” families in the favela. Their next project is to make something “BIG” out of her new office and the huge yard in front of it:


office, yard, kids doing favela painting

My idea was to create an open air theatre where the favelados feel free to tell their stories and where other theatre groups can come and perform …

Posted in thoughts, travels | 14 Comments

My 2 years with Bertelsmann Stiftung and futurechallenges.org

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

Many people asked me why I’ve stopped working for Bertelsmann Stiftung. After repeating it several times, I now decided to write a blogpost, then I can easily link and don’t have to repeat myself.

First of all I have to thank Ole Wintermann, project manager of futurechallenges, and his boss Andreas Esche. They have always been very fair. They supported many of my ideas and have been very open – and to be very honest, sometimes I really wondererd WHY they didn’t kicked me off;-)

Besides their program “Zukunft global denken” I’ve also worked with Stefan Empter and Martin Spilker on magazines – but this was only short term.

December 2009 I’ve got my first contract for futurechallenges: to recruit a team of international bloggers for their platform futurechallenges.org. It ought to be a hub for policymakers, communities and citizens to better understand how some of today’s most significant issues are likely to interact and to encourage them to act on this information. It wasn’t launched by then.

Until this moment I never thought that much about Bertelsmann Stiftung. There was simply no reason for it. And indeed I was surprised how many people asked me why I would work for such lobbyist. I did some research for myself, talked to several people in- and outside the institution and decided to continue. From what I’ve seen inside the foundation, yes I would call them partially lobbyist – but in many ways they aren’t. During our time we only once had a tough discussion regarding a Chinese blogger … which was handled at the end absolutely correct by the German team.

So what did I do for them:

  • various magazines (we-magazine 03 on FutureChallenges and THRIVE)
  • optimizing internal workflow
  • introduction into social media tools
  • connect them to the web community and explained the idea of an open social ecosystem
  • fighted their first technical contractor (denkwerk) and introduced headshift, London
  • introduced new formats in storytelling
  • connected them with The Church of London, who are now responsible for the monthly lead articles
  • various events/workshops for the international bloggerteam
  • various strategy papers for the platform
  • connecting them with international networks and organizations (Sunlight Foundation, Ben Gurion University, MIT Media Lab, Ars Electronica, British Council, AMP Australia, United Nations, NATO, global voices … just to name a few)
  • reportages from Chile, Norway, Egypt, OWS and Shanghai
  • …

I’ve learnt a lot during these 2 years. Here a a few things I would like to mention:

  • never underestimate the importance of hierarchies
  • the dominance of staff functions such as IT and communications
  • the freedom to spent money and experiment
  • the straints between openness and control
  • tricky things about how to “lead” a very heterogeneous group of employees, some of them willing to support the project, others simply rejecting
  • existing borders between existing departments
  • …

Why did I quit the job?

Despite the good money, I felt it was time for a change. I think you always should leave when it’s running good;-) We’ve certainly reached a point where the course was set: the new platform was running, the new content strategy established and the international team was somehow running. Some other reasons were:

  • different speed of operation
  • different understanding of what progress means
  • lack of top-down commmitment and vision and maybe the
  • the most important of all: I never felt the same passion within the institution for this project than I myself brought into it. And for me passion is essential. Without passion you just do a job. You work. And I prefer not to work;-)

Nevertheless it was a great time. I’ve learnt a lot.

Thank you for this!

Of course I will have an eye on the project. I am interested how it evolves and where it’s heading to – but from a distance.

Off to other challenges. Now;-)

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Cinema Jenin – Is this the end?

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

I am shocked while I am reading these lines …

And I am not sure what shocked me more: the lousy kind of journalism – obviously DEUTSCHLANDRADIO didn’t do any qualified research on the subject – or the fact that Marcus Vetter should have said, that the situation in Jenin is too insecure to bring volunteers.

But first things first.

Right from the beginning I was a big supporter of Cinema Jenin – you can follow up here and here on various articles I’ve written and interviews I’ve done. After the opening event I’ve been 3 times to Jenin in various missions and I know some of the people there quite well.

Marcus Vetter, a German documentary film maker did this heart breaking movie “Heart of Jenin“. During the shooting the idea was born to re-build a cinema in Jenin which was closed during the intifada in 1987 (I think). He founded a “Verein”, raised a lot of money and in August 2010 there was a grand opening of Cinema Jenin screening Marcus’ film: Heart of Jenin. A very emotional moment for each and everybody who was involved. This opening should have marked a beginning. The beginning of the project Cinema Jenin – a cinema which helps the people in Jenin and which provides a space where creativity can emerge. The cinema was re-built for the local people.

So what happened?

Unfortunately here the DEUTSCHLANDRADIO article ends by saying that Fahkri, the ex-manager of Cinema Jenin is now in Germany, the situation in Jenin is too dangerous for volunteers to stay there and the cinema program is no longer running. Full stop!

Here are a few points, which a journalist should at least take into consideration when publishing such an article – very easy to do the research on …  – and believe me, I am not very happy to write the following:

  • I think Fahkri currently can’t go back to Jenin … –  according to what local people are telling me, there are still unpaid bills  from the opening. Many people mentioned that he’d used his position for his personal advantage …
  • Cinema Jenin unfortunately NEVER had a sustainable plan (I remember the discussion at the opening event how it should go on) nor funding to create something like a continuous cinema program or to establish local staff who translate Marcus’ ideas into action.
  • Most of the money which came and is still coming from our ministry of foreign affairs is needed to reduce outstanding debts – unfortunately it can’t be used to build something new! And the budget was huge – 1 million Euros according to many media sources reported.
  • I remember staying at the guest house when one room was flooded by the rain and there wasn`t any money to repair it (March 2010). Volunteers were sleeping in there … they got sick! Maybe that is one of the reasons why they left.
  • The team unfortunately failed in involving the local people – asking them what THEY wanted, supporting THEM with THEIR ideas for the theatre and building something for THEM.
  • The way it was done -  when I look back today – was very much to create a PR-story for the movie Heart of Jenin.
  • I liked very much the idea Marcus once told me to “export” the idea of Cinema Jenin in various parts of the world – but not for the purpose of writing another PR story for the next movie (Africa), but to build something for the people`s need.

I am writing this because I am NOT willing to accept that Cinema Jenin failed because of the insecure situation in Jenin. I agree, it is NOT a tea party there – but I and many of my friends never had any trouble there. People were always friendly and welcoming. I think Cinema Jenin failed because of its insuffcient – I am tempted to say selfish – management.

But there is still hope … even though it’s little.

It hasn’t closed its doors yet!

And believe me – I will be among the first to support the project again when the locals are involved and when their needs become part of it – or even better, when THEY THEMSELF run the cinema.

Posted in 2stars4peace, Activism | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Corcovado

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Ulrike Reinhard

Today we walked the Corcovado, starting at Santa Teresa. Wonderful walk.

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