Sunday Open Thread – June 3, 2007

What I’m thinking about, and planning on writing (and podcasting) about soon:

The Problem with Technology & Innovation: Without technology and innovation, we as a species would have become extinct before civilization had even begun. The technology and innovation we’ve introduced since is now almost certain to make us extinct. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and why it’s so.

Vignettes: I’m going to try to pay attention while I’m in Denver this coming week, and come up with material for vignettes #3 and #4.

Improv: What makes us good or bad at improvising (‘acting in the moment’)? What kinds of things do we do impromptu (conversation, flirtation, artistic creation, collaboration, imagination)? When we practice bad improv habits does it actually makes us worse at it instead of better?

Good Working Models of Social Networking: Last week I hinted that social networking practices and tools only work when they’re simple and ubiquitously used, which may be why there are so few success stories of blogs, wikis etc. being introduced in organizations. I also hinted that it doesn’t meet a perceived urgent need in organizations, but does in our broader society, and that perhaps therefore (especially large) organizations will be the last, not the early, adopters of social networking. More thinking on this to come.

Blog-Hosted Conversations: Plan is for 30-minute conversations, once a week, on the subject of identifying and acquiring the essential skills and relationships we need to be models of a better way to live, and what those models might look like. The first few will be practice podcasts, and may not make it to the blog.

It seems as if the changes that were starting to manifest themselves globally last winter have ground to a halt. We’re not going backwards, but we’re not changing direction in a positive way either. It’s as if we’re just quietly, hands off the controls, driving off the edge of a cliff, andnobody’s saying anything. Even Al Gore‘s sounding kinda tired, as if his heart isn’t in it anymore. Anyone else noticed that?