the past eleven days have blown my mind! from austin and SXSW to austria and salzburg seminar on The New Information Networks: Challenges and Opportunities for Business, Governments, and Media. through the panels, conversations and the people, i am invigorated to change the world.

as of today, we have reached $1220.54 and this could not have been possible without your generous donations! thank you club 777 and i'd like to welcome some new members!

• Stephen Poleskey
• Howard Greenstein
• Douglas & Frankie Wheeler thanks again bro!
• Justin Abbott
• Vassilis Kottas
• Charles O'Donnell
• Nathaniel Westheimer
• Edward Costello
• Niki Scevak
• Meredith Petrin
• Thomas Biebl

while i gather some notes for a big announcement, i leave you with an inspiring video from Matt Harding, a fellow world traveler.

ps - you should also check out user's responses to this great video.

Technorati Tags: luck of seven, matt harding, salzburg seminar, whereinthehellismatt.com

Click To Play

hey look it's march 7th! just four more months... do i feel a bit of pressure, hellsyeah!

this past sunday, i depart wicked early to attend Harvard Business School's annual Social Entrepreneur Conference. hungover from being out too late with a bunch of political bloggers, i ferried my self into the lovely arms of jetblue and pondered an action plan... as a huge fan of the number seven, i decided to meet seven new people and ask them to tag themselves with seven words. VOLA!

yes, at times i'm quite timid. i didn't even get to the first person unitll after lunch. in need of a cigarage, i found one, ankill chopra, a fellow new yorker who was more than willing to bare the freezing tempature to wattle through my bumbling attempt to describe my project. gracefully, he indulged my request and we chatted about nyc's technical community. as we went into the grand hall to hear dan doctorf, ankill introduced me to his lovely partner and soon tobe HBS student, camille. also from new york, she quickly agreed and with in 5 minutes i had scored two interview.

as doctorf's statements turned into a self masturbatory harvard/make money first/nyc & rapid development good speech, i moaned and groaned... locked in by three people to my left, i decided to listen and fill my mind with disgust. then at the end, i was awarded by the introduction to theresa chinte, a fellow brooklynite who lives in the Atlantic Yards area. after we chided the Atlantic Yards project; she granted a interview.

then in the hallway, i ran into ajit. his statements in an earlier session, made me wanna say thank you... in the "arts as social change session" he noted definitive metrics for all programs, and then gave me the best line ever! "be still, bliss will come to you." in the afternoon session, i came across meridith who happens to know charlie o'donnell. it's weird how being hyper-connected can make the world feel much smaller. then afterward, we walked to the career fair where i stubbled upon my last two subjects jana and misha.

what can i say? GREAT SUCCESS!!! below is a transcript of what people are saying.

music by Dimitri Artemenko, thank you for using creative commons!

ankill chopra, aserno; "my family, camille, smashing pumpkins, guitar, figuring it all out, happiness"

camillie, lehman brothers; "akill, delane family, columbia (university and Missouri), democratic party"

theresa chinte, grad student at NYU Wagner & works part time at Be Cause Global Consulting; "innovation, motivation, entrepreneurship, change, energy, passion, fun"

ajit jhangiani, HBS MBA '70 ; "be still, bliss will come to you"

meridith petrin, second year harvard law student; "india, idea, web, simultaneous, question, sunrise, intensity"

jana reed - common good carers; "happy, loquacious, sad, (i need four more)... sorry, what??"

misha simmonds - education; "all students can achieve at high levels"

armed with my seven tools (macbook, moleskin, montblanc, ipod, tea, camelpak, and red pants), i'm heading back to harvard. after last week's social entrepreneur seminar at nyu, i was made aware of an annual gathering of harvard business school's social entrepreneur club. this will be the third time that cheryl dorsey, president of echoing green, and i will cross paths. also in attendance will be victoria hale, founder and ceo of institute for one world health, and daniel doctoff, deputy mayor of "my fair city" of new york.

to be honest, the only reason why i submitted my $40 dollars was in an attempt to win $2000 in their pitch for change, one of the club's lustrous prizes. now in the wind that fast company killed their profile on Lo7, i go in earnest not to win (since harvard also rejected me), but to see other social entrepreneurs and find fellow projects that will change the world.

while i might not have the opportunity to live blog the event, i've made the goal of documenting the trip and making the best of the number seven. from my seven items, i will hand out seven business cards asking people to tag them self with seven words...

as i sit here waiting for my plane, i do wonder about the adventure in front of me... it's been several years since i last visited boston. back then, i was foolishly in love with a girl. now, some may say that i'm foolishly in love with a project, that just like that relationship, has a purpose but no end goal... oh, wait may be i shouldn't say that. while this project may not have end goal other than elevating the conversation. in the grand scheme of things this is an nevering quest to change people's perception on the tiny planet we call home.

Technorati Tags: around the world, boston, economy 2.0, harvard, luck of seven, cheryl dorsey, social entrepreneur club, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, travel

alexandra sonsino, friend, fellow lift 06 attendant and canadian citizen, has found her way to delhi for doors of perception 9. over at tasty thinking, food for thought and thoughts about food, alex and Dave Chiu are live blogging and have captured some interesting notes...

Hannu Niemien, Nokia - "The one planet economy will one day look like the internet. We will be able to have personal windmills and be able to sell the excess back to the network, its an internet-like energy architecture. Music delivery allows a direct link between the consumer and the producer of music and micro-networks get organized and bypass structures that exist now."

However nothing can replace face 2 face comms and even if we have the greatest communications, we still travel more and more instead of less. The perception hasn't been changing and we don’t see any good reason why we should not travel. Are the environment challenges enough to change this? "

Debra Solomon, artist, who's talking about "editable" architecture projects.

Sanjeez Shankar & John Vijay Abraham - Udipi, family run restaurants, where for 15 rupess you get all the rice and locally grown vegetables you can eat. Not to mention, the wait staff are all "freelancers" who get housing and food as part of their agreement to work.

André Viljoen, architect, researching urban farms in Cuba.

Naresh Narasimhan, the future of sewage?

Jimmy Wales, "Participatory: we should bring together W with other partnerships with trust networks to the problem of serach. Any propritary system limits the debate and we need to find new ways to find ways to search on the internet."

Alex Shaffen, "Everything needs to change. We inherited a broken future. We are living in the middle of an ecological nightmare. It’s affecting our everyday life. We’re stetching nature to the limit. We are now on global overshoot."

Technorati Tags: coworking, digital ecology, economy 2.0, foodie, freedom, future of cities, global change, global warming, peer to peer banking, doors of perception, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, sustaninability

the notion of a green war or a green army is foreign from today's depleted uranium tipped armaments and HUMMVEE's trolling the land scape, but the notion shouldn't be to far than the general nature of napoleon's art of war. granted we are still talking about the art of death, but as "developed nations" (quotes of irony) move to make force deployments nibbler, there should be investment in technologies that save resources. when you save deployment resources you save lives.

just think of all the money that's been used to develop new war capabilities. from tang, the space program to the internet, these are all residuals of a modern war machine. if the general premise is peace, and war is an actual last resort. then, eventually we should develop technologies to decrease casualties... i really don't think you can argue with the concepts of green jet fuel; lighter yet more durable materials to withstand impact, and hybrid heavy trucks. it is time we think different and start to reinvent every element of our society to be more green.

once we start, then i think we just might be living up to the title of a "developed nation."

articles of note...

• british aerospace goes green - bbc or grist
• us army's sustainability project
• new yorker article profile on amory lovins (sadly, i can only seem to dig up daily green's blog post.)
• amory lovins & rocky mountain institute

Technorati Tags: amory lovins, sustaninability, us army

if you are happy and you know it clap your hands....
if you are unhappy and you know it read a book...

i have been a long time proponent of self-educaiton. well after high school, i just kept on reading... and some how stumbled upon this link http://readingforradicals.com

the list of books is great, but questionable... frankly there's not technological books, nor books on decentralized empowerment and networks... so, if you have the time, please leave a comment on what would be your reading list for radicals.

mine, you've heard them before and you'll hear them again...

• The Wealth of Networks - Benkler - Law Professor at Yale
• The Starfish and the Spider - Ori Brafman & Rod Beckstrom - entrepreneurs
• Code 2.0 - Lawrence Lessig - lawyer; author of Free Culture
• Capitalism 3.0 - Peter Barnes - entrepreneur; founder of Working Assets

20 Feb 2007, at 1.01pm EST, Peter Deitz, a fellow couchsurfer, activist and new yorker (albeit now in montreal), placed me over the US$1,000 mark!

What's quite interesting is that Peter and I met on the notion that I could build a few Drupal sites for a client of his. What it is also interesting is that Peter Deitz is embarking on a "full time preoccupation" with peer to peer banking/micro-financeing/micro philantrhopy. After spending a few years working with the World Federalist Movement, Peter was stuck by the lack of sites that aggregate data on micro-philanthropy. So what does any good person do? Start up their own site...

In February 2007, Peter founded First-of-its-kind, aka foik. Check out Lo7's foik entry!

I'd also like to thank Dinah Sanders for her donation!

Technorati Tags: couchsurfing, drupal, economy 2.0, fundraising, luck of seven, peer to peer banking, micro philanthropy

what's more absurd than having the President demand the placement of political appointees behind every door in Washington?

how about allowing the police department decide what constitutes free speech? how about making a ruling so vague that they can "enforce" the law, while yelling out "let's decide it in court?"

absurd, yes... reality, YES! believe it or not the NYPD does not like your freedom to assemble. to the NYPD's brass, your impediment of cars is not just troublesome, but you threaten the lives of everyone. yes, your ability to congregate and speak freely constitutes a threat!

Tomorrow, we rally! On the steps of One Police Plaza, we will gather and demand our freedom. Join us at noon??

CIVIL LIBERTIES ADVOCATES SPEAK OUT AGAINST NEW ASSEMBLY RULES, CITY COUNCILMEMBER MENDEZ VOWS TO REVERSE NYPD RULE CHANGE

Contact: Mark Taylor, Assemble for Rights Campaign (646) 338-5643 info(a/t)a4rnyc.org

What: Rally to Resist NYPD's New Public Gathering Rules

Who: Civil liberties organizations, City Councilmembers, bicycling advocates

Where: One Police Plaza

When: Wednesday, Jan. 31, 12:00 noon

LOWER MANHATTAN - Community groups including Transportation Alternatives, civil liberties advocates including Norman Siegel, and members of New York City Council including Rosie Mendez will rally on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 12:00 noon outside One Police Plaza to protest New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly's most recent attempt to chill the exercise of free speech and gatherings in public places. On Friday Jan. 26, the NYPD promulgated new rules dictating when and by whom parade permits must be obtained.

City Councilmember Rosie Mendez promises to overturn these rules in City Council. Ms. Mendez stated: "I believe that the NYPD 's continued attempt to regulate our free speech is unnecessary and continues to infringe on our First Amendment rights…. permits should not be conditioned on an unreasonable and arbitrary number and they should definitely not be required by groups who stay within the limits of the law." Ms. Mendez continued: "I vow to work with my council colleagues to protect First Amendment assembly rights and reverse the NYPD's amendment."

Citizens and civil rights advocates from across New York City call on the City Council to exercise oversight of the NYPD. Police Commissioner Kelly should not be the arbiter of when and where people can gather on streets to voice their grievance, particularly considering that, at times, those grievance concern NYPD. Assemble For Rights coalition asserts that only New York City Council, as the elected representatives of the people, possess the authority to make laws affecting our civil rights. NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman echoed this position: "changes to our city's permit laws should be made by the City Council, not the police department."

These new NYPD rules, modifications of rules NYPD sought in August but met with fierce opposition, require that any public gathering by a group of 50 or more obtain a permit. Furthermore, groups of pedestrians and cyclists must apply for permits even if the group is in full compliance with all traffic laws. Anyone without a permit is now subject to arrest. Publishing the new rules means NYPD can begin enforcing them as of Feb. 25.

Section 1 a. of the newly published rules says: "A 'parade is any procession or race which consists of a recognizable group of 50 or more pedestrians, vehicles, bicycles, or other devices move by human power, or ridden or herded animals proceeding together upon any public street or roadway."

##

Technorati Tags: assemble for rights, first amendment, freedom, freedom of speach, new york city, NYPD, online advocacy

right at the end of last last year, i was randomly introduced to an unbelievable personality - Bre Pettis. as a former teacher, Bre is known for his delightful humor, ability to build things, and wacky antics. sure enough, Bre arrived here in nyc refusing to deal with another seattle winter, yet only experience new york city for a month. as is the story with many who come to "visit" new york, once Bre started exploring... well, needless to say he's coming back in three weeks!

over the weekend, Bre and Brooklyn Hillary did a bit of culture hacking. check out Charles' blip clip. using the rastorbator software, they blew up self portraits and took them around town. if you're in the area of 11 spring street, check out their work! in the meantime, Brooklyn Hillary is raising money to purchase a new camera. Check out her chipin campaign, and help a fellow brooklynite purchase a new camera.

photo in post used with permission by bre pettis

Technorati Tags: bre pettis, brooklyn, brooklyn hillary, brooklyn record, curbed, fundraising, gothamist, rastorbator, SXSW, technology

yesterday, while my friend assisted in editing my first post, she kept asking me why are people going to care? from her point of view, everyone travels and writes about their journey. why would anyone care about this trip? after thinking about it, she is right i need to detail my rational for topics i will be covering...

the seven topics of freedom

• free culture - originally a book by lawrence lessig. free culture is now a movement to break through the walled gardens of our minds and share information. if you scroll down to the footer, you'll see that this site is under creative commons. what does that mean? just like you have shared information with me, you can take this content and share it. as long as you don't make a profit; you are free to use this work. wikipedia on free culture.
• free and open-source software (F/OSS) - there are many examples F/OSS, firefox, open office, wordpress, and drupal, just to name a few. (more on wikipedia) sadly there are only a handful of profiles and conversations of their products outside of their respective communities. as we will see, the agents of open-source software are diverse, eclectic, and highly lovable.
• couchsurfers and bloggers - imagine opening up your house and letting a complete stranger sleep on your couch? believe it or not, there is a social network dedicated to couchsurfing. as an avid supporter of couchsurfing and people who share their life online, i am looking forward to the network of connections and a wealth of stories.
• agents of progressive social change - if global agents of change are as unusual as my friends, their stories will be pure insanity. here's to the crazy ones!
• barcamp & coworking - are two mimes espouse physical conversations organized through the internet. barcamp is a grassroots technology unconference where attendants are presenters and presenters are attendants. ironically, there is a workplace equivalent, coworking. coworking is a grassroots organized office with café culture. both mimes have demonstrated unbelievable levels of free thinking.
• happenstance - happenstance is the art of random interaction. i bet you are thinking it is not possible to focus on happenstance. if you do not believe it, i will free your mind.
• our environment - nature's beauty is quickly being consumed. i will spotlight locations and the people who are protecting them. my focus will be on the destruction we don't see on the evening news.

as you can see this project is about many things. many of these things i can no tolerate languishing on the back burner. if life is a fickle flame, i must let it burn brightly. last year at this time, i was stuck in a serious rutt. frequently, on my journeys, i quoted former fellow gemini henry kissinger, "there comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure."

for the past few months, i've been hung up on the fact we are losing every element of our freedom. the world i knew as a child is not the same; the world i knew ten years a go is not the same. as the years move on and information becomes entertainment, we are enveloping ourselves in a world devoid of freedom. from nature and property, to rights and intellectual property, i see our lives slipping into an abyss devoid of alternatives.

chip in and help support the dig.

I've been sitting on my inaugural post for too long. It's been over a year since I first conceived of this, and despite all of my work on paper, I still can't think of an opening. Time and time again, I mention the same words over and over... seven, seven, seven...

On 07 July 2007, I departed for a journey around the world to learn from you.

For seven months, I stood on six continents, and dove into seven topics.

For this project to be a success, I needed 700 people to contribute US$11.11 for a total of $7,777. instead, i got the following list of amazing people!!! if i've been a doof and somehow misplaced your name, please contact me.

contact me or join the google group.

Organizations

• Transitions Online
• Mobile Active
• Michael David Vineyard
• Network Redux
• EastMedia

Individuals

• Noel & Marlyna Hidalgo (Mom & Dad)
• Joel Hidalgo (little bro)
• Marilya Rodriguez Hernandez (Godmother)
• Tony (Godfather) and Jeffery
• Scott Trudeau
• Adam Quirk
• Jacob Redding
• Naveen Selvadurai
• Eric Skiff
• Sander Raaymakers
• Lucas Peterson
• Sid Sowder
• Christopher Erin
• Elana Shneyer
• Michael Nutt
• Will James
• Eric Klotz
• Joshua Schultz
• Josh Koenig
• Robert Dahlquist
• Doug Wheeler
• Frankie Wheeler
• Kristen O'Connell
• Sabrina Wells
• Enrique Montalvo
• Michael Meyers
• Andrew Hoppin
• Bre Pettis
• Noel Hidalgo <- Thanks dad!
• Olaf Bertram-Nothnagel
• Veronica Dougherty
• Hilary McHone
• Lauren Stolzar
• Laurent Haug
• Lou Klepner
• John Bachir
• Jennifer Wagnon
• Kristofor Swanson
• Michelle Krimmel
• Heath Row
• Tom Purves
• Scott Smith
• Glenn Neil
• Dinah Sanders
• Peter Deitz
• Erica Olsen
• Larry Smith
• Stephen Poleskey
• Howard Greenstein
• Douglas & Frankie Wheeler thanks again bro!
• Justin Abbott
• Vassilis Kottas
• Charles O'Donnell
• Nate Westheimer
• Edward Costello
• Niki Scevak
• Meredith Petrin
• Thomas Biebl
• Eric Nehrlich
• Oliver Hoerold
• Josh Guttman
• Rachel Clark
• Kara Masi
• Julia Kolm
• Victor Szilagyi
• jonathan berger
• Aaron Winborn
• david greenberg & the civicrm team
• Matt Turck
• John Keegan
• Joshua Kauffman
• Andrew Lawrence (Donation dedicated to his father)
• Aandre Saraceni
• Matt Cheney
• Patricia Perkins
• Joe Carrol
• michelle perras
• Christina Ray
• Tiffiany Tate
• Ricardo Bernardo
• Charles Marshall
• brian kampel
• Sarah Wright Aaron Pava
• Gil Hildebrand
• mike rosenthal
• Rob Pierson
• Matthew Browner-Hamlin
• Bob Fertik (aka Democrats.com)
• Jonah Keegan
• Noah Kalina
• Sanford Dickert
• Justin Krebs
• Pedro Custodio
• Iddo Dror
• Amit Gupta
• Ruby Sinreich
• Quinn Heraty
• Stephanie Supan
• Douglas & Frankie Wheeler AGAIN!
• Sean Johnson
• Tony Katz
• Joshua Levy
• Mark Wubben
• Dave Herman
• Mary Martin
• action girl
• Alexandra Deschamps
• Edward Costello thanks for the second donation!
• Jacob Sayles (member of office nomads, aka coworking seattle)
• David Crow
• andrew sudbury
• Darci Bryan
• Constanta Hogea
• Karin Klein
• Dawn Stevenson
• Gregory Whitescarver
• Rosalyn Lemieux
• Zack Exley
• Pete Prodoehl, on behalf of Z2 Marketing + Design
• Jeffrey Ng
• Nathan Freitas
• John McGann from 116 West Houston
• Cynthia Myers and Family
• joe negri
• adam riff
• Jeff Henigson
• Bob Fertik (aka Democrats.com) <- thanks again!!!
• Jeffrey Henigson
• Joe Negri
• Joshua Schultz <- thanks again!!!
• Samantha Orme
• sylvie reinhard
• heather parker
• Doug Wheeler, Sr
• Laura Allen
• Andrew Krucoff
• Ben Rattray
• Tracy Knapp from Michael David Winery
• Nicole Shore
• Minic Rivera
• Val Szcze
• Greg Knaddison
• adam carter
• Abhay Kumar
• Eric Skiff
• whurley
• James C. Nasby
• Glenn Copeland
• Eric-Olivier Larney
• Shaine Mata
• Shawn Liu
• Jesse Teeters
• David Alpert
• Anthony Russomano
• John Henry Thompson
• Steve Purkiss
• carnet williams
• Gaston Phillips
• Thomas Holaday
• Marcus MacNealy
• eric porter
• Scott Harrington
• Andy Sudbury
• Erwin Frankel & Family
• Andres Pang
• raven zachery
• michael silberman
• amy hanaughan
• howard greenstein
• bethany bristow
• David Clayman
• jb rote
• nate aune from jazkarta
• cc chapman
• ellen moore
• Colin Meeks
• julien smith
• mehmet irdel
• michael galpert
• Marc-Olivier Bergeron
• Michael Lopez
• nicole wheeler
• Peter Schreck
• Jeffrey Sass
• Simon Roberts
• frerieke van bree
• Dana Vantrease
• drayton hiers
• Tijs Teulings
• Erica Ashkenazi
• Dirk Slater
• beth kanter
• David Cohn
• Allan Bilsky
• Olajumoke Ajayi
• ryan price
• james rickards
• Khalid Baheyeldin
• Francesco Levorato
• the Network Redux, LLC team of five
• Yoke Pool Hor
• Daksh Sharma
• Erica O'Grady
• Justin Stockton
• Eric Skiff
• Heath Row
• Larry Halff
• Abhay Kumar
• jonathan berger
• nick bollweg
• Jeff Ledoux
• Richard Weait
• Jeffrey Sass
• Samuel Gluskin
• Oliver Hoerold
• Alexandra Deschamps
• Ellen Moore
• Joe Cronin
• Gavin Heaton
• Jeffrey Taylor
• Troy Rutter
• Whitney Hoffman
• Chris Breshears
• Michael Cerda
• Emily Reed
• Steve Woolf
• Melissa Clarke
• michelle perras
• Mark Kuznicki
• Ryan Coleman
• Rohan Jayasekera
• Erica Olsen
• Peter Dowling
• Steve Purkiss
• Douglas & Frankie Wheeler thanks again bro!
• freeman murray
• patrick dinnen
• brian noe
• Prashanth HN
• Brian O'Hara
• Li-Kuo Rau
• lux nightmare
• Patiapt Susumpow
• omar from Madruga Solutions
• Tiffiany Tate
• Pamela Yeaw
• Mathias Wiberg
• Stephanie Agresta
• James Delorey
• mike murphy
• Marcelo Pinheiro
• Amy Stephen
• Adam Smoyer
• matthew danzico
• Bryan Person
• Philippe Gervaise
• Jim Stanger
• ivan jimenez
• pia waugh
• Christian Kreutz
• pillar kim
• Charlotte Ingham
• katrin verclas
• pavel sepeliov
• billy laser
• István Heiner
• Halcyon Styn from hug nation
• sheree hill
• daniele rossi
• Scott Schablow
• michael lewkowitz
• rosh sillars
• michael mcallen
• lindsay evans
• lisa jacobs
• james williams
• Travis Smith
• Joshua Schultz <- thanks again!!
• melanie fecteau
• heather driscoll
• brian conley
• Lion Kimbro
• David Kimbro
• travis smith
• Stan Brinkerhoff
• John S James
• Colin Meeks
• Justin Kownacki
• Suzy Pierce
• keith instone
• michael wesch
• Scott Meyer
• Julian Bleecker
• Wendy Paddison
• Maxime Gagon
• josh schultz
• mark austin
• doug wheeler and frankie
• bergen moore
• nathan king
• charles wettergreen
• monica danna
• trond bremens
• tracy sheridan
• nicolas pin
• david herman
• andrea lewis
• darren kendall
• michelle calabretta
• susan street
• paul kurti
• david barger
• len edgerly
• monika rotzler
• kiernan holland
• colin meeks
• Frankie, Doug and Moe (Frankie's Fish)
• frank jackowiak
• amee nelson
• allison sievers
• jonathan berger
• gregory whitescarver
• stephanie booth
• susana hunter
• jim thompson
• megumi nishikura
• Nicholas Schroeder
• Jessie Gauthier
• Joe Vieira
• kushtrim xhakli
• michael mccoll
• Josh Tabin
• Michael Nutt
• Chuck Olsen
• Erica Douglass
• marla trevino
• OJ & Adam Wallen
• Tara Douce
• Laura Nolden
• rashunda tramble
• David Roessli
• nicolas durand
• a lady who gave me 100 Swiss, but i lost her email address.
• katy suutari
• yann mauchamp