Volition

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.

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.

Christmas Frost Aboyne

Christmas Frost Aboyne, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

But now it's all gone today.

Festive Frost

Christmas Eve in Aboyne and the village is looking very festive in its thick velvety covering of frost.

Merry Christmas from Father Jamesmas

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

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.

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.

uncle james times two

The best news in the world this morning, a new member of the clan arrived into the world.

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.

MVM Certificate

Image019, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

healthcamp giving health the barcamp treatment

0612HealthCamp 019, originally uploaded by enochchoi.

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

This was my first time as a co-planner of an un-conference event. BarCampSF was my introduction to barcamp and from there BarCampStanford followed with MashupCamp, StartupCamp, PodCampWest and HealthCamp. Wearing the participants shoes, these all just seem to happen, you turn up, participate and share in the rewards of the experience and learning.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Frost and swimming autumn

Made my first weekday swimming session today and the frost also chose to make it's first appearance of the season. It's was a case of brass monkey's! The water was warm and as long as you keep moving the wind chill on your head was minimal.

How the Scot's .... book review

How the Scot's Invented the Modern World. Author Arthur Herman. I have just finished reading this book. A book that I would have probably never have purchased but given by chance, it was in the room I am renting in Mountain View, I decide to give it a read. And what a read. It may rate as one of my most important reads.

I have never been a fan of history. At school, Aboyne Academy, when we get the choice of subjects to take, History and Geography line up against each other and for me geography always wins. My predisposition is to vision, to looking forward, assuming each day represent a blank canvas to create the day and days ahead. Decades ago, about University days I recall reading or listening to the Winston Churchill quote, 'the further you can look back, the further into the future you can see.' Not an exact quote but words to those effects. This did seem to make some sense but I have invested very little time to history until recently.

Reading this book has allowed me to piece together a whole string of events, thoughts and some new enlightened conclusions from my free and independent thinking.

From my first trip to the United States of America, I have found that the average American I met turns out to be more Scottish than I, well they certainly know the clan or family tree trace back further than I do. Scottish history, battles, fighting with the English, Culloden, Battle of Bannock Burn, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and locally Roy and Gilder Roy. Economics, self interest, capitalism, Adam Smith and entrepreneurship, free trade to Andrew Carnegie. This book raps together all these worlds, with history the name of the story.

With the story being a lot richer than the parts I list. I enjoyed reading about (at least the authors view) to a greater depth the series of events and people that came together at time to be recorded as history. Here is a quick summary of what my mind has selected to stand out. Religion and war. One group of people fighting another. Education, from the Churches to the Scottish School, the Enlightenment Writers, Hume, Smith and Reid. More on them later. Pioneers to new lands opening up trade, tobacco to slaves. Government, taxes to tap into the wealth creation, naval military. The observation from the Enlightenment on both fighting and trade. Overwhelming question the school of philosophers was, What is the purpose of life? Must be a better way than all this death and constant political upheaval and poor living condition for the masses.

Clubs of intellectual discussions key to wider acceptance of the society and social change set out. Not won over night, some still argue the relevance even today, more fighting and environmental events, bad winters, drive Scots to North Ireland, 'fighting for every field', the Scotch-Irish are, ships to the colonies allow escape. At the same time Scotland's chooses Union with England and Scot's rise to take leading political positions and drive the formation of the British Empire. Twice. These forces collide in the American Colonies, Scotch-Irish and some highland Scot's fight against Scot's who side with the Union. The Colonies win and the winning Scot's drive on to reach the west coast. Defeated Scot's head for Canada, a top-down socialist model is formed. The United States, live by the self interest school of enlightenment. Freedom, independence of spirit creates a grass roots created society. 1800's see the industrialist come along and perfect the practices set out by the Scottish School, Andrew Carnegie sets a formula that looks like the Global Corporations we have today. Back in Scotland, devolution has happened, Union with England still the foundation, the start of a new era of change to drive a new enlightenment era?


Further thinking on entrepreneurship. Over the last decade there has been a strong push from Scottish entrepreneurs and politicians to create a strong entrepreneurial culture. I have contributed by giving school talks. Having read this book I have been led to consider that this may not be the best strategy.

The Scottish School, the Enlightenment generation set an intellectual frame work or culture for what being a human and society were/are. They were philosophers. A set of papers that were read by the Andrew Carnegie's, Alexander Bells etc. to guide their entrepreneurial instincts.

If you make this interpretation, then it is not the teaching of entrepreneurship that should be our focus but to create an new intellectual framework that will be consumed by the enterprising.

What should or does this new intellectual framework read like? There seemed to be three main attributes of the Scottish School, The Enlightenment generation that formed the most educated nation on earth at the time. Maybe that says it all?

Hume, brought together the religious thinking with the secular thinking on what life is.

Adam Smith, observations on commerce and how the self interest of the individual and society play out.

Thomas Reid, The mind that brought us, common sense.


I think. If there is still three schools of thought that need to be brought together again they maybe.

Life demands to be lived. The next generation has the right to live too.

Commerce, capitalism has fullfilled it goals, a new 'attention' economy rules to consider e.g. economies of scale being challenged by economies of networks.

Not so much common sense, but 'unique life' that connects all to one earth.


Free and independent thinking. A school we should all belong to.

Autumn Sunshine Sylvan Drive

Autum Sunshine Sylvan Drive, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Just one week left for November and its starting to feel like Autumn. Low single digit temperatures (celsius) but pleasantly warm 16 in the sunshine. The wind is back in the north so there is a general chill in the air. It feels like we are a season behind but the color of the leaves reminds you winter is next.

Scotch Abroad

Scotch Abroad, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The nights are getting colder and the Scottish Whisky barons have a suggestion to heat you up.

DIY should never mean doing it alone

Go to your Peers, Podcasting, videocasting etc.

All peers, listeners to content generators. All the same.

Mike Watt, look up or look down get a kink in the neck. Shoulder to shoulder better.


Group 2

Q should be help people share, grow comminity

Invest time other podcasting learn, is it important?




Sharing what worked, did not work. Try, things to try. Not to be afraid. Throw out crazyness.
All unique, not equal, different perspective.


Movement to force change.

Will equal radio, will that crowd out new people via intimation.

In the long run, better if you build your own brand.

Should we invest our time?
Yes, $10 class, 2 hours, here is what you do. Got exited, got something out.

Self service, learning,
Younger, tech savvie current adopters? Split, techie young v older traditional world consumer tradition media type with their thumbs.

Tech, de socialising email, voice and video now bring people back in, natural senese geared towards.

Idea of roadshow, that spreads the world.

Content producer centric what about listening, getting them to listen. Not everyone wants to share. Need to keep repeating the basics?

Talk to the non podcasters.

How much outreach did camp organisers.