Be humble

Who needs stress management?

Once again, over morning coffee, I read Rob’s article referred to previously.  It leaves me hopeful.  Hopeful yes, but nevertheless, realistic.  I leave matters of education and social change to those who actually understand what they are talking about - I am not one of those people.  I do however, have some growing understanding of the community in which we live, the building of community and the power of giving a voice to non-technical contributors to public opinion.

I leave the goal of making wide social change to those who have the energy and knowledge to make the attempt.  I am however, keenly interested in local change.  I have long held, that as Canada’s smallest province, we have a unique opportunity to be seen as leaders.  All one has to do, is research The Institute of Man and Resources (our recent history) to see that PEI can be a leader and make change.  Unfortunately, like so many aspects of our live, IMR had it’s soul sucked from it by small minded politics.

It is hard not to become cynical and discouraged.  In my 30 years in Paradise, I have seen that good people try to make small change and they never seem to make a dent on the self-serving self-perpetuating clique that makes the decisions; and the very same decision makers keep making the same mistakes time after time. Given a choice they will go for the facile and superficial every time - for instance, the prophet of our time Doug Hall.  The decision makers end up throwing money at trying to preserve the old model, trusting IslandTel and its successor Aliant, and “the never mind your problem, Oracle is the solution company” with our IT strategy (and ending up with an expensive attempt to preserve the 1950s computing model and the 1900 network model) and they build useless pyramids like the Atlantic Technology Centre. So we end up blocking the very innovation we crave - look at the Island’s succession of reps to the Atlantic Innovation Fund. No one seems concerned.  The bottom feeders (consultants) continue to consult, telling their masters exactly what they want to hear, and take credit for the good work of others.  Corruption and cronyism thrives.

I passionately believe change is possible - but small change - a nudge here and there, a gentle shove in the right direction, a word in the right ear.  I have seen it.  I heard (then) Finance Minster Paul Martin, speaking at the New York City Board of Trade, echo comments that I and my colleagues made to him sitting in our office in West Royalty.  My colleague and I had the privilege of meeting with the lead Sherpa of one of the early Federal Technology programs.  He listened, he understood and the result is that the Federal BRAND program is what is should be - mandating open access for all.  So I guess I do believe that change can be made, albeit slow change with a very large dose of local politics kicking and screaming in objection all of the way.  We need people with “fire in their belly” to initiate change and it is an emotionally expensive process.  It is so easy to become jaded and exhausted trying to push string up hill - and easy to just shrug and say the hell with it.  I applaud anyone with the fire and energy to keep pushing that string.

As to the power of the blog, this one is not real complicated folks.  Blogs have given a voice to people who have not otherwise had a platform to speak.  To my everlasting amazement, with a voice, comes an audience.  With an audience, comes the ability to stimulate ideas.  With an audience, comes those who wish to curry favour from that same audience.  This is not complicated.

As to community, I fear that few actually understand.  For those that were active in the on-line BBS days, community is a fond memory.  Communities must include, not exclude.  Self-identifying and self-selecting groups are no more bottom up than what we have now and the current technologies do drive bottom up processes.

Summerside Community Network is an example of a developing concept that understands community.  It is growing and continues to define itself.  Bringing high speed Internet access to Western PEI with an absolute open access mandate.  From the day the concept was born, it was based on the assumption of equal access to all - you may be an Eastlink or an Aliant, or you may be a home subscriber, or you may be a company.  Each is equal.  Each can provide their own service on the network.  Open and equal is the mantra.  You can watch the growth and evolution of SCN at their blog.

We need more people who are prepared to pay the cost of noting that ”the emperor has no clothes”.  Make no mistake, in the local community, the cost is great, and few will be prepared to pay the price.

This morning, like all mornings, I followed my RSS feeds over strong black coffee.  Noting that Rob Paterson has written something I wandered over and noted a very lengthy article.  A quick glance, and my first thought was that Rob had read something new, had another enthusiastic epiphany and was rehashing something he has just read.  I left without reading.  I was wrong.

A little later, my aggregator pinged again alerting me that
Nils has written something so off I went.  Quoting Nils, in reference to Rob’s latest comment:

I suspect Nils is as cynical as I am, so this got my attention and I went back to read Rob’s article.

I encourage you to do the same.  Regardless of your agreement with Rob’s hypothesis, I guarantee it will stimulate you to think. 

The briefcase came through the door before he did.  Big, square and leather.  You know the type - no doubt you have seen others carrying one.  Then the $1,000 suite followed, the sun-lamp tan and the perfectly styled hair.  The pin stripe shirt was perfect - button down, recently laundered and crisp with gold cuff links.  Just a subtle hit of expensive cologne waffed through the room.  Yup, he was from Toronto.  Jeeze he was sum pretty.  His less regal companion followed.

He wanted me to sell one of his products.  The product was good - and was clearly directed towards high income purchasers.  Four times in the conversation, he mentioned that this product was aimed at upscale people.  Each time he used that term, I bristled.  I politely listened until he was done.

At the end of his presentation, I politely said, “hey, briefcase, what is an upscale person, because I am not sure we have any of those way down here?” He missed the point completely, but his companion had the grace to blush.

(Snort) - damn square leather briefcases.

The Mozilla Foundation has released the latest version of its popular Firefox browser, along with a series of patches intended to prevent spoofing and phishing attacks that have caused the browser to crash.

Firefox 1.0.1, addresses numerous security vulnerabilities and approximately 40 other browser fixes, according to the not-for-profit software foundation.

The primary glitch, which the updated browser fixed, was a vulnerability found in the Internalized Domain Names (IDN) protocol, which allows the use of certain international characters that look like other commonly used characters. 

I keep coming across references to the Xandros Linux and figured a lot of smart people can’t be wrong, so I grabbed a copy of the community version today.  First I installed Micro Soft Virtual PC, so I could install another operating system without disturbing my existing Windows XP install.  For the record, I really like XP - I just don’t like the security issues that are wrecking havoc in so many directions.  Thus, my decision to have a look at Xandros, as it is described as very ‘XP like’ The install was beyond painless.  Grunt and click 6 times and it is installed.  Period. 

Firefox and Thunderbird are part of the distro.  It found my Windows network, shared printers, - everything in fact.  Amazing..  Windows users will feel very much at home I suspect.  Many menu and configuration items will appear very familiar to Windows users.

I was so impressed I am installing at home now to see if it might be a keeper.

..."Hello", the bouncy enthusiastic voice says on the other end of the telephone.  Oh crap, I tell he wants to sell me something.  Well, sort of.  It appears that he has been engaged as a consultant to do some work for the Province, and requests that I participate in their focus group. 

“Tell me a bit about it”, I say, Well it appears he as been engaged to prepare a report and is seeking the input from a focus group.  So, he is going to get paid $600 a day, suck the opinions of real experts, rehash their opinions in a template and submit it to his client.  The people who actually understand what they are talking about will be paid - er, a continental breakfast - early, so as not to interrupt the day of people who actual do things.

I should have made better decisions when I was a teenager.  ... and no, I will not be participating.

OK, I have a dead spot in the corner of the house, and it needs to be fixed.

This should fix the problem, but I really don’t understand why Locke keeps telling me I am being obsessive, I am a little concerned regarding the dead birds that are falling from the sky.

Some things just have to be done.

What do you think, CMax?

I note that UPEI now is offering a course on writing funding applications.  Have we really come this far?  Does anyone know if this is being taught by a University Professor or by an , er, consultant?