sky, Author at Sky's Blog

A big “thank you” to my international readers

12 January, 2008 by sky Leave a Comment

I don’t have a huge readership (although I’m happy with what I’m getting), but if you look at my ClustrMap you’ll see that this blog is broadly read around the world. And so this is just a short post to say “thank you” to those outside of the US and Europe who are my readers. (ClustrMaps provides a little map showing where our readers are (based on the IP addresses of their ISPs), and it’s a pretty neat service.)

I’ve been tracking readership this way for about a year now, and it’s really gratifying to see that international readership has broadened out. It used to be primarily the US, with a little bit in Europe and some in India. Now we’ve spread to South America and more broadly in Asia.

Thank you to everyone.

Now, I’d better get busy and write more blog entries…

Looking back at video and ICT4D

23 December, 2007 by sky Leave a Comment

Every once in a while I look back at resources that I’ve created and/or blogged, and suggest that you take a look at them.

The AirJaldi 2006 Summit, held in Dharamsala, India, was a several-day sequence of presentations, panels and then a week of workshops, dealing with Wireless infrastructure and how these can be used to further the development of the world into a place where veryone can live a healthy, happy life. The meeting was attended by social activists of many sorts, all of whom had an interest in using communications technologies.

Here’s your action item for today: The Video page for Airjaldi I would recommend that you take a look at what’s available there.Here are two of my favorites:

Dr. Rodger Downer, keynote speaker, and President Emeritus of the University of Limerick (Ireland), A Global Perspective on Sustainability {28 minutes running time}

Dr. Richard Stallman, keynote speaker, On free software, human rights, development and GNU. {52 minutes running time IMPORTANT NOTE: the camera was not rolling until shortly after the talk was underway}

Everything else on that page is worth viewing! Just a reminder.

You can find all of my articles on AirJaldi here in my blog. I tried to blog the conference in real-time, since we had wi-fi available in the hall, but it was really a challenge. It’s hard to estimate how much bandwidth, and how many routers, to provide for so many tech-literate participants. So I ended up writing blog entries each evening, and then posting them during the day. This set off an inquiry into offline blogging tools (like MarsEdit and Ecto) which I use to this day. And an overview of blogging tools. And it continued my series I’m a Turtle about how I carry my “home” (computer) on my back(pack) everywhere I go (cyber-nomadics).

The Global Oneness Project

10 November, 2007 by sky 1 Comment

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee of
the Global Oneness Project
(on the road in the Australian outback)

Here’s a two-for-one post. Not only have I run across a great project and cause, but it’s a media project!

The Global Oneness Project has chosen the approach of professionally recording video interviews with individuals who are contributing to our awakening. I recorded an interview with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, who directs the project. [12min:37sec QuickTime]


Click the arrow to hear the interview:

From GlobalOneness.org… “The idea of oneness is not new. For thousands of years it’s been a basic part of human consciousness, taking countless forms in the world’s spiritual, religious, artistic, and cultural traditions. Indigenous lifeways, myths showing the interconnectedness of all things, intricate philosophical systems, literature, and art are just a few of the ways we’ve sought to understand and express oneness. For the most part, however, these different expressions have been isolated from one another by geography, language, and time, or restricted to an intellectual or spiritual elite.

“In contrast, today we experience global interdependence with a unique level of clarity and urgency. In natural sciences like biology, physics, and mathematics; in technology, economics, and ecology; and in spiritual, cultural, and social movements across the planet new perspectives on oneness are emerging with breathtaking beauty and transformational power.”

Here are links to a few videos that address spirituality, community, and service:

Words From the (17th) Karmapa
Waking Up (Tenzin Palmo)
The Heart of Religion (Alberto Luna)
Seva Cafe: Love All, Serve All (Anjali Desai)
Living Service (Jayesh Patel)
Barrio de Paz (Nelsa Libertad Curbelo)
The Land Owns Us (Bob Randall)
An Invitation (Don Alverto Taxo)

Don’t forget to test on Windows (duh)

31 October, 2007 by sky Leave a Comment

Microsoft Windows It’s finally coming around to bite us. For so long I’ve had friends who would help test (maybe I should say “beat up”) my web sites before I’d launch them. And I needed help on Windows, using MS Internet Explorer and other Windows browsers, because I spend 98% of my time on a Macintosh. And recently I’ve noticed that so many of my friends are using Macintosh that actually I sometimes launch a site modification without adequate testing on Windows.

In fact, at a meeting the other day, someone said in all honesty “Is anyone here running Windows? I need to check something.” – there were 40 or so people in the room, and only a couple of them were running Windows.

Time to get Parallels, I guess, and an Intel Mac so I can have Windows running all the time “beside” Mac OSX to do adequate testing. Times are changing.