A new word to me this year. The first time I heard it used was by the CEO of openyear.com as his company is called Volition Partners. But what does it mean?
Well, I am starting to find out. I received the book, Sic Itur Ad Astra by Galambos, Andrew J as a thoughtful Christmas present. It is basically the theory of volition. I am just at the introductory pages but already I have had a few moments of reading that have matched my own pre thought-thinking. (I want to convey a physical emotion but can not find the words to represent them at present).
It boils down to a quotation used by Galambos in his introductory. It is quoting a person about my age that believes in the theory of volition but finds the 'real world' not conforming. The gist of it is that my own personal experience matches the anecdote to the T. That is an uplifting experience.
A bit like the introductory style chosen by Galambos, I hope the significance of how I feel about this book will come out with time as I further read the book. A couple of posting ago, I took a stab at what the Scottish enlightenment school of the 1700 might be saying today, (here if you want to read it). In short, Volition Science, is/maybe/will/all ready is the new intellectual framework set out to take society forward. Back to the reading.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
jumping off the .. ....
I have often heard the phrase, 'you have to push yourself to the edge of the abyss and then have the courage to jump off'. Being an organically driven person, I thought this was just some sort of macho statement. Maybe it is? However, I have never heard too many people talking about the sentence after.
So, what does happen when you through yourself of the abyss? You find the biggest mountain of opportunity. Just climb to realise your vision.
So, what does happen when you through yourself of the abyss? You find the biggest mountain of opportunity. Just climb to realise your vision.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Festive Frost
Christmas Eve in Aboyne and the village is looking very festive in its thick velvety covering of frost.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
comedy tuesday palo alto
Looking for a laugh on a Tuesday evening in the bay area, check out comedian Erikka Innes at Rudy's bar, University Avenue, Palo Alto, from 10pm, .
Introducing the comedians.
1. Richard Kiss
A great night of laughter, a more detailed review soon. Got a bit of time travel ahead of me.
Back on GMT, Christopher welcomed the audience, and I cordially returned the greeting but that invited a focus on me, nothing beats audience participation (it is the era of user generated content?) these days! It was fun and laughter filled the room.
The first act was a bit on the nervous side and that dampened their energy. You could see where the stories were going and with more confidence, we would reach the punch lines in more anticipation.
Bob, up from LA, a great use of his 'Father', making fun of himself/family but in a positive. The tale I liked best was about his father's interventions in helping (not) with his dating.
Nato , An endearing and instantly funny (unique) voice, he uses it well. Once he got into his flow, he ditch the notes, he introduced a series of sexual humour jokes and then there was no stopping him. Very funny.
Erikka, co-host of the evening took to the stage with confident strides. She went easy on us initially and then upped the intensity as the topic of relationships took her fancy. Then she upped the intellectual standard as she magically brought great philosophy observations to us. If only Uni. lectures were so entertaining and funny. Wanting more of this humour, the red light called time. I am looking forward to listening to more of this type of humour.
Julie, on stage for the first time, a bold introductory statement. A well thought out routine, required a bit of thinking but I liked that. I am sure with practice she will take more of the audience along with her.
Al, co-host of the evening. The first and only sit down performance of the evening. But that did not translate to a lack of energy although I did worry about some of his stretches for his pint. Audience participation was fantastic in this set. Stanford students providing good fodder and yours truly helping out again. Luckily Erikka was sitting next to me by this time. A classy turn by Al.
Jeanette performed a short and well thought out set with plenty of energy. I was left wanting more and I am sure she will fill out her material with time.
Veronic was counting down the minutes to her birthday. Full of gusto and volume she told tales. She has an infectious laugh, you can not help but join in.
Last up was Xavier, a nice use of red wine as a prop to suggest how drunk he was but he later he showed how switched on his mind was when we brought home the set to much laughter. A great finish to an evening of original humour.
Introducing the comedians.
1. Richard Kiss
2. Pamela Borhk
3. Bob Johnston
4. Nato Green
5. Erikka Innes (co-host)
6. Michael Magin
7. Julie Myers
8. Al Gonzales (co-host)
9. Jeanette Castanon
10. Veronica P.
11. Xavier Marin
A great night of laughter, a more detailed review soon. Got a bit of time travel ahead of me.
Back on GMT, Christopher welcomed the audience, and I cordially returned the greeting but that invited a focus on me, nothing beats audience participation (it is the era of user generated content?) these days! It was fun and laughter filled the room.
The first act was a bit on the nervous side and that dampened their energy. You could see where the stories were going and with more confidence, we would reach the punch lines in more anticipation.
Bob, up from LA, a great use of his 'Father', making fun of himself/family but in a positive. The tale I liked best was about his father's interventions in helping (not) with his dating.
Nato , An endearing and instantly funny (unique) voice, he uses it well. Once he got into his flow, he ditch the notes, he introduced a series of sexual humour jokes and then there was no stopping him. Very funny.
Erikka, co-host of the evening took to the stage with confident strides. She went easy on us initially and then upped the intensity as the topic of relationships took her fancy. Then she upped the intellectual standard as she magically brought great philosophy observations to us. If only Uni. lectures were so entertaining and funny. Wanting more of this humour, the red light called time. I am looking forward to listening to more of this type of humour.
Julie, on stage for the first time, a bold introductory statement. A well thought out routine, required a bit of thinking but I liked that. I am sure with practice she will take more of the audience along with her.
Al, co-host of the evening. The first and only sit down performance of the evening. But that did not translate to a lack of energy although I did worry about some of his stretches for his pint. Audience participation was fantastic in this set. Stanford students providing good fodder and yours truly helping out again. Luckily Erikka was sitting next to me by this time. A classy turn by Al.
Jeanette performed a short and well thought out set with plenty of energy. I was left wanting more and I am sure she will fill out her material with time.
Veronic was counting down the minutes to her birthday. Full of gusto and volume she told tales. She has an infectious laugh, you can not help but join in.
Last up was Xavier, a nice use of red wine as a prop to suggest how drunk he was but he later he showed how switched on his mind was when we brought home the set to much laughter. A great finish to an evening of original humour.
Monday, December 18, 2006
last MV week for now
A beautiful blue sky day to start off my last week in Mountain View for 2006. I describe Aboyne as a magical place to live and I have been lucky to find its twin in Silicon Valley.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
uncle james times two
The best news in the world this morning, a new member of the clan arrived into the world.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Mountain View Winter Picture makes home page
A sunny day in Mountain View makes the home page of www.aboynejames.co.uk . The first none Aboyne photo.
Monday, December 04, 2006
healthcamp giving health the barcamp treatment
The worlds first healthcamp was held on Saturday 2 December in San Francisco. A day of great discussions with great thinkers. Cheers to all the participants who came along to openly share their ideas, knowledge, expertise and passion. This
A large part of my motivation to be a co-planner of healthcamp was to bring the unconference format of event to a new group of people. How to start organising an unconference? Well, the advice contained on the guide to running an unconference provides a great start. No.1 share your idea with the world and from there you will find your co-planners. We quickly formed a committed group of co-planners. Next was the hunt for a venue, one was found and the date was set.
Then the first feedback on healthcamp came in. This turned out to be the number one learning experience. That feedback was saying, what will be the agenda for the day?, key speakers lined up? and what tracks will be discussed? I explained the big idea behind an unconference event was that the topics were decided on the day with discussions on the wiki free for all to contribute to on the run up to the event. This ensures, that for those that turn up the topics are the most relevant. For many this still left a lot of uncertainty on what value they would gain from attending. Too such a degree, they were happier to review the feedback from healthcamp to decide on their future participation.
On the day the grass roots healthcamp participants turned up. Most unknown to me and the level of female participation was high. I was greeted by a participant saying, 'I don't normally come to tech events but this is focused on health and that motivated me up to turn up.' The range of participants ranged from physicians, retailers and technologist etc.
Lessons learnt on the day. We could have spent longer introducing the basic rules of an unconference, e.g. the law of two feet, being a bumble bee etc. Giving the session leaders a clear time to broadcast their session ideas to the group. Being more robust on time keeping, building 15mins change over time may have helped.
For all those imperfectalities the event flourished. The topics of prevention, from food to the use of online information, blogging to medical research and to the role self monitoring medical devices. All in the context of putting the consumer at the center of health. With lots of entrepreneurial spirit to create a world of health2.0.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
behavioural change afternoon session
Interaction designer
prevention of obesiety.
1. lack exercise
2. poor diet.
Foucus on food. Freshstart.com
two friends, cook together. Voice conferencing between homes when cooking.
End result,
half recipey each.
Interest was. Education, prevention theme.
Factors. Accountability, peer support, Statement of values,
Focus on science today. Need to focus on doing. How to cook rather than, science of nutrition.
Compliance the issue? Co operation to bring into compliance.
How do frineds find the partners. Find friends phyical world or online.
Use mentor model? Grandma to grand child.
Focus on
Which meal.
How practicalities.
Focus women, try new things, aware of issues.
Integrate into myspace.com
Good demo and idea
Need to start earlier
Children, education.
But in a loner society, tuff to implement.
Start at basic level.
Buy apple or Cliff bar?
Cost of fresh food are same as processed? Economy scale.
What are cost of time? Fresh, processed time quicker?
Time barrier of freshstart too hight for the masses? View.
Time, tv vieiwng 2800 hours a year. 10 year of expereince in TV.
Which age group do you start? Educate elders, parents and pass down to children.
Behaviour change??
Emotional impact,
Food has become a form of entertainment.
MacDonalds popular, low cost, soical mixter
Could be real time video via skype.com msn messenger etc.
Boredom, but think of commute time.
Even repetitive expert job, because addictive. Just like drugs.
Build in rooms, to stop trip to vending machine.
Bottom up and small. change focus.
prevention of obesiety.
1. lack exercise
2. poor diet.
Foucus on food. Freshstart.com
two friends, cook together. Voice conferencing between homes when cooking.
End result,
half recipey each.
Interest was. Education, prevention theme.
Factors. Accountability, peer support, Statement of values,
Focus on science today. Need to focus on doing. How to cook rather than, science of nutrition.
Compliance the issue? Co operation to bring into compliance.
How do frineds find the partners. Find friends phyical world or online.
Use mentor model? Grandma to grand child.
Focus on
Which meal.
How practicalities.
Focus women, try new things, aware of issues.
Integrate into myspace.com
Good demo and idea
Need to start earlier
Children, education.
But in a loner society, tuff to implement.
Start at basic level.
Buy apple or Cliff bar?
Cost of fresh food are same as processed? Economy scale.
What are cost of time? Fresh, processed time quicker?
Time barrier of freshstart too hight for the masses? View.
Time, tv vieiwng 2800 hours a year. 10 year of expereince in TV.
Which age group do you start? Educate elders, parents and pass down to children.
Behaviour change??
Emotional impact,
Food has become a form of entertainment.
MacDonalds popular, low cost, soical mixter
Could be real time video via skype.com msn messenger etc.
Boredom, but think of commute time.
Even repetitive expert job, because addictive. Just like drugs.
Build in rooms, to stop trip to vending machine.
Bottom up and small. change focus.
wide thinkers driving
in the past, US at least, driven by Merchants.
Distruptions.
Cancer, heart attack, stroke.
Book, andy kessler review.
If we spend too much time focus on. Go around.
Distruptions.
Cancer, heart attack, stroke.
Book, andy kessler review.
If we spend too much time focus on. Go around.
Ethics
Better data mining.
Better , better data, better corrleations. We will know what will happen in the future. Preventive, or patient outcome.
Uneven distribution of people
5% for 40% of healthcare cost.
Will insurance exlude this group in the future.
Some people do cost more. Healthy subsidise ill. Young v old.
Old insurance modeling no longer.
Need not a binary thing, huge grey area,
Self forming communities of help, e.g. neighbours.
Context so broken. For community. Single houses. Co. getting paid for nure to go the home.
Merchant, driven from creation of US states.
Problems with self help neighbours, liabilities.
Used to work for extend families.
Painful to change.
Insurance. Ethics. 23andme.com genome company, informatics. Consumer tool kit. 24 random home, can correlate to whole universe to all human kind.
Insurance. Today works, rate statitic s events, The system works.
In new age, this thinking is broken.
Self insurance plans, within the corporation building the statistics. So, they can say, our employees are healthier than average so give us better deal.
Corporate insurance, do much work to get real statistics. Standard form fill is so basic.
Forget govt and insurance. Focus on self. Info. genetics, food etc. etc.
Let self forming peers. Thus society chooses the pooling.
Insurance just costs alot.
Why does insuarance cost too much. System broken.
Open source healthcare.
80% could be gained from bahaviourial change.
Stanford hopital are starting personlisation.
Better , better data, better corrleations. We will know what will happen in the future. Preventive, or patient outcome.
Uneven distribution of people
5% for 40% of healthcare cost.
Will insurance exlude this group in the future.
Some people do cost more. Healthy subsidise ill. Young v old.
Old insurance modeling no longer.
Need not a binary thing, huge grey area,
Self forming communities of help, e.g. neighbours.
Context so broken. For community. Single houses. Co. getting paid for nure to go the home.
Merchant, driven from creation of US states.
Problems with self help neighbours, liabilities.
Used to work for extend families.
Painful to change.
Insurance. Ethics. 23andme.com genome company, informatics. Consumer tool kit. 24 random home, can correlate to whole universe to all human kind.
Insurance. Today works, rate statitic s events, The system works.
In new age, this thinking is broken.
Self insurance plans, within the corporation building the statistics. So, they can say, our employees are healthier than average so give us better deal.
Corporate insurance, do much work to get real statistics. Standard form fill is so basic.
Forget govt and insurance. Focus on self. Info. genetics, food etc. etc.
Let self forming peers. Thus society chooses the pooling.
Insurance just costs alot.
Why does insuarance cost too much. System broken.
Open source healthcare.
80% could be gained from bahaviourial change.
Stanford hopital are starting personlisation.
healthcamp 1.0 Session 11am Room C
Prevention
Real world today,
Focus on helping people already but problem already.
75% of diagnoisis treatment, etc. does not work. Does not want to find an answer.
Personal example, breast cancer. Go back at look a basics biochemistry. food nutrients.
We are all different on the inside like the out side.
We are just find out what the gene, e.g. need to eat XXX
Bacreatia billions, antibioteics wipe them out, how do
Depression, more linked to gut to
Modern thinking. Set mind sets are not looking at right.
Base of medicine of medicine not right.
Education
Need facilities to get educated.
Social availabilty of food. Food purchased on the good.
School, starting. Oakland examples.
Carbohydrates. 25 years ago, fat seen as bad. So, carbohydres increased, refined. but quickly converted to sugar thus, Spikes.
Role for government? Vested interests. Not with indivdual, but for big pharma, etc.
Food industry, bought by tabacco industry.
Social movement,
Media blitz.
Emotional impact on over all wellbeing. Linked to when eat, Works both ways food intake.
What is breakfast? Oats and fruit. Or omellete protien. Brain development. Protein plus complex carbohydrate.
Real world today,
Focus on helping people already but problem already.
75% of diagnoisis treatment, etc. does not work. Does not want to find an answer.
Personal example, breast cancer. Go back at look a basics biochemistry. food nutrients.
We are all different on the inside like the out side.
We are just find out what the gene, e.g. need to eat XXX
Bacreatia billions, antibioteics wipe them out, how do
Depression, more linked to gut to
Modern thinking. Set mind sets are not looking at right.
Base of medicine of medicine not right.
Education
Need facilities to get educated.
Social availabilty of food. Food purchased on the good.
School, starting. Oakland examples.
Carbohydrates. 25 years ago, fat seen as bad. So, carbohydres increased, refined. but quickly converted to sugar thus, Spikes.
Role for government? Vested interests. Not with indivdual, but for big pharma, etc.
Food industry, bought by tabacco industry.
Social movement,
Media blitz.
Emotional impact on over all wellbeing. Linked to when eat, Works both ways food intake.
What is breakfast? Oats and fruit. Or omellete protien. Brain development. Protein plus complex carbohydrate.
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