Sky's Blog

In the newsletter of The Dalai Lama Foundation for March, 2009, we announced that the second stage of a process leading to the founding of a U.S. National Peace Academy had been concluded at Case Western Reserve University. At this 3-day event, in a process called appreciative inquiry, a group of over 170 people explored the dimensions of the potential academy, and formed working groups that will bring this dream into reality.

Dot Maver and Mike Abkin visited the Foundation shortly thereafter, and they described, on camera, the Academy and some of the aspects of its founding. We have integrated these interviews into our Many Paths to Peace learning modules at The Dalai Lama Foundation’s online Learning Zone. [View the interviews online. If you’re not registered for the Learning Zone, you can click guest when asked to log in.] (continue reading…)

WiserEarth is an online community space connecting the people, nonprofits and businesses working toward a just and sustainable world.

WiserEarth is another example of online technology being used to support the greater good. WiserEarth was inspired by Paul Hawken, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Institute, which sponsors the project. In their words:

What has been missing is a map and directory of our network that includes the resources for communication and cooperation; in essence, an infrastructure through which to coordinate our efforts. WiserEarth…provides a way for us to become better connected and more effective at working together.

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They have to be the words I say more often than any other phrase in any language… “I don’t know.”

What does it mean to say “I don’t know?” My first thought is “it means nothing at all.” Because it just means I don’t know the answer to the question. One is constantly moving from a state of ignorance to a state of knowing. From the first day of life, first day of school, last day of university life, first day of professional life, and every day after that. S

I don’t know – means I have a gap in my knowledge.

I don’t know – means there is something new to explore.

I don’t know – means there’s an opportunity to ask someone else. Maybe you can teach me.

I don’t know – means there’s an opportunity to learn.

The old phrase “killing two birds with one stone” – yeah it sounds impossible when you think about it realistically – ka-bing, ka-bing, there they go. But Oracle may succeed in killing off both Java and MySQL after its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Or at least sidelining both into stagnation in favor of big-ticket licensed Oracle products.

In 1999 to 2001 I was responsible for purchasing Oracle licenses for a large organization with large plans. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (US) for initial and continuing licenses on Oracle database software. The stuff was industrial-strength. But since then I’ve used (the free) MySQL dozens of times for small-to-medium size sites. And several systems I’ve used or designed have been Java-based as well. The availability of these free tools is critical to the existence of millions of web sites around the world. (continue reading…)