allvoices -

Caltrain is jammed due to two fatalities. It is starting to becomea habit of taking a...

eriks — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:47:05 -0800

Caltrain is jammed due to two fatalities. It is starting to becomea habit of taking a cab back from San Francisco. :)

At the 140 character conference in Los Angeles. Some really cool concepts here.

eriks — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:31:11 -0700

At the 140 character conference. Some really cool concepts here.

Street Newspaper In Monrovia, Liberia

eriks — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:19:25 -0700

I was just scouring the web for something else and ran into this video. I was stunned at the creativity to find a solution to deliver news without any obvious communication channel. Imagine reading the newspapers on bilboards on your way to work, the market or just to the local cafe. I think this is an awesome way to build community around news and gather people to discuss it.

Creative. Fostering democracy. Entrepreneurial. Just really cool.

I Got This!

eriks — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:19:54 -0700

I just saw these guys holding this huge AC ventilation drum walking in San Francisco. Enjoy!

The Starry Nights

eriks — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:52:31 -0700

Last Saturday I was chatting with a long time friend online, who always brings in new perspectives and points towards pages or experiences widening your horizon. This time he immediately sent me a video file even before saying hello with the comment: "You gotta check this out, Erik."

The video was about Robbie Dingo's incredible "Watch The World(s)" which is a Second Life virtualization of the famous Vincent van Gogh painting "The Starry Night". The music in the video is incredibly well-matched - Don McLean's "Vincent".

It is truly incredibly and peaceful. It also brings into a very interesting aspect of virtualization and what they can provide is with experiences. Which painting, episode in history or similar do you want to experience? I think it is incredibly cool.

Enjoy!

True Inspiration

eriks — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:08:25 -0700

"It doesn't matter if you fail, but it matters if you finish strong." This is so true. It is very easy to focus on the obstacles you have ahead of you, rather than the possibilities. I guess the hardest thing really is to realize that failure so often is not failure, but an opportunity to learn and grow stronger.

A close person to me once said: "If you do not learn from your failures, you will fail." Not admitting our shortcomings as well as strengths are probably the root of so many issues we see around us. There is nothing dedication, focus and sincere will cannot defeat or overcome. We just need to start focusing on the right things, and stop finding excuses to finish strong.

Girl's Heart Self-Healed

eriks — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:07:27 -0700

This is really cool. From the article: "Hannah Clark is the British teen heart transplant survivor whose own heart recovery is being called “magic”. Hannah Clark’s heart failed as a baby. At age 2, doctors transplanted another heart to get Clark’s heart to start beating. Now over a decade later, age 16, Hannah Clark appeared with her doctors before press to announce the result."

I guess you never stop to be amazed what the human body is able to do and overcome.

Street Dance Team Bounce Honor Michael Jackson By Dancing The Streets Of Stockholm

eriks — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:24:02 -0700

300 dancers from the street dance group Bounce, decided to dance on the street of Stockholm. They learned the choreography together in 30 minutes and then made shows at random places in Stockholm. I have seen them live and they are insanely good. Enjoy!

Bright Side Of Life

eriks — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:21:00 -0700

I was thinking today about all that is going on around the world. A lot of anger. Hostility. Territorial minds. Environmental issues. Power struggles. Missile rains. Suicide bombers. Protests. Deaths of civilians. Yikes. The list never ends... It is truly a bit exhausting sometimes to think of all the issues we have around us and we need to address. Sigh.

Yet...

Today I ran into the Monty Pythons classic song from "The Life of Brian". Besides being extremely funny, there are a few points that are well-thought out.

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad,
Other things just make you swear and curse,
When you're chewing life's gristle,
Don't grumble,
Give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the light side of life.

]If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten,
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps.
Just purse your lips and whistle.
That's the thing.
And...

Always look on the bright side of life.
Always look on the right side of life,

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin.
Give the audience a grin.
Enjoy it. It's your last chance, anyhow.
So,...

Always look on the bright side of death,
Just before you draw your terminal breath.

Life's a piece of shit,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.
You'll see it's all a show.
Keep 'em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

I do think there is something in here. I did a short collage of images from the world a few weeks back, and a very close person of mine made only one comment. "It is well executed, but, Erik, there is so much good in the world. You have kind of forgotten that part. Don't forget that part!"

That is so true.

Maybe the solution is as easy to look on the bright side of life. Well at least it will bring a smile to our faces. Wouldn't that be a thrill in itself? It's a hard balance for sure. At least it is worth a thought.

The Good Story

eriks — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:36:57 -0700

Vietnam. This incredible place. It has also been the playground for the Cold War. Yet I think this video sent by a friend to me tells an incredible, very human and comforting story. It is one of those videos that creates hope for the future.

With all the events going on around the world now and maybe in particular Tehran, Iran, it is important to stay focused on the end goal. It is important to raise the vision and look beyond the immediate obstacles and issues.

To quote someone close to me: "What the world needs now is hope."

The Iran Election: The Power of The Social Web

eriks — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:01:18 -0700

The built to the election was colored by a very active social web with a lot of comments on the state of it. The activity of alternative media has been striking and truly remarkable. Still what I am yet to see is an fully effective linkage of the outside and inside media, to foster a discussion between the citizens of the world regardless where they are. The coverage of the Iranian Elections have come close, yet not very surprising considering the strength of the Persian blogosphere early on. They have had to adapt to technology early as well as being on the edge of it due to the massive filtering of the web.

Why this is so important? I was brought up and raised in a country - Sweden - where I have been able to read whatever I want to, and have (at least the right to) my own opinion. It is actually encouraged to question what is going (within limits here) and seek injustices. I have become who I am because I’ve lived in a country where that is possible, and more importantly, because I know I have (or the very least should have) the right to do so.

Consider some boy or girl in a developing country, emerging democracy, who might be living in state run by a dictator, corrupt regime or even just a troubled area. By troubled area I mainly refer to an occupied territory. What kinds of information will that boy or girl have access too? Who will provide this information? Will it be accurate? Will it be diverse? Will it be free and uncensored? What difference between that information and the information I can see, hear or read is there? Will they feel as entitled as I do to both access and to create that information? Who knows… What I know is that they should have the choice. At least in my opinion. That is their right. That really should be their right.

Unfortunately, alternative news sources in media are a rare occasion in the world. Too rare. However, via cellphones you will be able to share news, as the cellphones are ubiquitous, immediate and simple. By creating a tool for anyone in the entire world to share their stories at anytime from anywhere about anything you will start to bridge this media divide and create a more diverse media scene. We definitely need it.

It is something that is very important as everyone has the right to have an opinion and the right to express it. The freedom of expression. The freedom of speech. The freedom of the individual.

it is truly a very important part of our global shared information future that we start to resolve the digital divide. It is important to realize that we do not have the right for an intellectual and/or digital colonization where we postulate solutions. The solutions should be affordable, freely accessible, and compatible with the local social patterns.

It is therefore inspiring to see the coverage of the Iranian elections on the social web.

Kaki King: "Playing with Pink Noise"

eriks — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:22:22 -0700

I got a video fro TED2008 sent to me last night. I love TED in general, and you will always see something that rocks your boat. This time it was a video of Kaki King, the first female on Rolling Stone's "guitar god" list. As TED puts it: "Jaw-dropping virtuosity meets a guitar technique that truly stands out."

Enjoy!

The Constant Farce Around Same-Sex Marriages

eriks — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:14:56 -0700

Today New Hampshire signed the bill to allow same sex marriages. I have always been amazed by the resistance against these. What are people afraid of? Constant marriage proposals from their best guy or gal friends? In whatever way, you look at it, I do not get this resistance against them. The fear here is just puzzling. Maybe it is rooted in some deep cultural thing that all marriages should be between a man and woman, but why should a legal arrangement between two people be controlled by their respective gender. To me it sounds a bit weird to really force people into a norm that clearly is at least somewhat outdated. Usually people are threaten by that could harm them, but the harm here seems negligible. I think it is a bit ironic that people have such strong feelings about it. I do acknowledge their opinions about it, I just don't see the need for strong opinions here.

Maybe I am naive. Who knows. I do think we should the very least start admitting to ourselves what we are afraid of. Maybe then we will easier find a path forward around them.

I guess no one realizes the same sex marriages makes the competition smaller for all of us who prefer the opposite sex. We should welcome it only of that reason! :-) (Yep, that is some irony.)

The Blogger Paradox: Freedom of Speech Without Any Safety Net

eriks — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:05:57 -0700

Yesterday I spoke to a friend who told me the blogger and journalist Hossein "Hoder" Derakhshan had been arrested in Tehran, Iran, November 1st 2008. The charges against him still seem fairly unknown and spans from anything from spying for Israel to insulting religion. He has a very strong personality with very strong opinions about pretty much anything. He is not very diplomatic in his views, and has been described as "not 'sexy' enough for the center of a Human Rights Campaign". There is probably some truth to that statement. Yet considering the development, he is in a far worse situation than the US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi was in. There are very few people in the social media who haven't heard about him. He has played one of the central roles of the development of blogging and is by many consider as the father of Persian blogging. An excellent article and background on the issue you will find in the NYT Blog - Blogger and Aid Worker Still Held in Iran.

We need a discussion about what protection bloggers and citizen reporters have both legally, and policy wise. Clearly there will be an interesting challenge moving forward as the line between blogging, citizen journalism and traditional journalism further erodes and the media blends. Sadly enough these are not the only examples of issues for the ctizen journalists around the world. The recent arrest of the Guatemalan tweeter for one simple tweet in the wake of the assassination of the lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg. The tweet doesn't exist anymore on Twitter, but basically said: "The first action people should take is to remove cash from Banrural, and break the banks of corrupt people #escandalogt" This was the sole grounds for the arrest.

Again there is a need for a larger discussion about how we see on the security of bloggers and citizen reporters. I do believe this important for all players on this media arena. It will be a balance to make sure it does not create an issue legally where blogs can be used as a cover up for other activities. We have however started to see way too many vague arrests of citizen reporters that we as a global community needs to agree on what happens and find a path that is secure, reliable and protective of the rights of citizen reporters, or the very, very least find what defines their rights. The irony with blogs and other citizen media sites are the free form and ease of use, and still you might have a tremendous reach. A reach that sometimes reaches the same magnitude as traditional news sources. How do you balance those considerations and yet preserve the freedom of speech and find a reasonable protection? Interesting challenge right.

Nevertheless of the reasons, a discussion of this matter is highly important and in very many ways urgent.

I am at stanford in california at a conference in journalism.

eriks — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:19:02 -0700

I am at stanford in california at a conference in journalism.

Severe Clear - War Experienced on A Movie Screen

eriks — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:57:20 -0700

I saw Severe Clear down in Austin, Texas, during SXSW this year. It is a frightening, uncensored and raw film about the experiences of the Marines during the invasion of Iraq. It was created by footage taken by First Lieutenant Michael T. Scotti as well as Mini-DV video footage shot by him and other members of Charlie Company 1st Marines. Through their cameras we see the raw sounds of war, capturing their epic journey across the globe as they come face to face with death, destruction and what it means to be a US Marine.

I found myself having the chills when you saw the true version of the war and what it means to be part of the war - both as soldiers and as civilians. There are no winners. We all lose in wars. They are sometimes necessary, but I doubt we will ever have "a winner". One of the comments from the film that stayed with me. The biggest enemy on the battlefield is time. Time makes you think. You do not want to think.

I was fortunate to listen to Michael T. Scotti talk about the movie, and the probably the most striking moment was to see one of his fellow members of the Company burst in tears after the movie. He later came over and they hugged. They clearly have been through things most of us would rather not The experiences live on inside them. Always. I wonder if they will ever be the same again...

I read somewhere that many soldiers when they get back from the war chooses to back to the war. They claim it is easier to cope with their experiences by continuing to live in it. It prevents you from having the time to process them. When you have to face them, you have to face them. I am not sure anyone would like to face these images of a routine day of death constantly around you. Death of civilians. Death of friends. Just death. There are no winners.

Yet many forget that these experiences will always be the same, if not worse, for the civilians in the region. Children. Adults. Men. Women. They will have to deal with the same images. They did not choose to join the military. They lack any training. They are in it because they live there. Not by choice.

The movie is a true story about these experiences and ironically also a monument of what true citizen media could be. Uncensored, direct and almost overwhelming with emotions. I promise you will not walk out of the movie theatre the same as you walked in. I doubt anyone will look on war as a video game again after seeing this monument of the experiences in war.

It is uncensored. It is raw. It is just real.

A Shed of A Plant

eriks — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:59:43 -0700

I attended SXSW 2009 down in Austin, Texas a week back. I was thinking back to see a theme between all the panels. Anticipation. Faith. The opportunity. Being lost. I think most people there realized the times are tough and that we are experiencing one of the biggest crossroads of our time. We have a set of, in many ways intimidating, challenges ahead of us. Challenges as diverse as environmental, political and recently a seriously wounded and rotten financial market. These challenges will force us to start questioning where we are, why we came here and more importantly how we will overcome these.

It is a responsibility as a citizen of this world.

The panels really breathed, and yet not at all breathed, this change. They all tried to address the challenges in their little niche area, but sadly enough very little groundbreaking or innovative was really being put forward. I have to say I felt a bit disappointed. I caught myself fading out of the discussion when they did not really challenge previous conceptions and beliefs of the world (here mostly in the shape of the web and the media industry).

This is the time of change. That is a funny word. Change… We throw it around frequently. Do we really know what it means? What it really means to go through change?

What I do know it is intimidating to most people.

I guess this is something like growing up. Finding your identity. Meeting yourself. The world of today is in a serious identity crisis. We have lost our identity. Why? Who knows. But we have. We have to find it again. It will probably be a different identity than we knew. I think that would be awesome.

Personally change is a slight quest for me. I am born and raised in Sweden. A pretty calm, democratic neat wonderful little place in northern Europe. Some say it is even one of the few idylls on earth. Some say we have it too good there. Maybe we do. I have been informed about everything – wrongs, rights and everything else – ever since I made my stumbling steps in this world (and probably even before that). I have been taught since kindergarten how to behave towards my fellow human beings, what they expect from me, what is expected from me, and how to treat other people with respect regardless of skin, ethnicity, cultural background or religion. There is a big emphasis in Sweden on being able to have your own opinion and being able to express it. It is also a big emphasis on conformity - for the better, and for the worse.

Anyhow.

In addition the schools in Sweden, which are predominantly public, we are very keen on teaching in depth what has happened through history and how it has affected us without anything being censored. We also study a lot of the present issues around the world and the roots of the issues we see with the focus on looking on all sides.

Ever since I was around 12 years old I have had access to computers and played with them constantly. I wrote programs and then especially a text- based golf game. During my time in college, the IT-boom began and I got my own personal Internet connection and gained immediate access to information and could follow the growth of the Internet and the web from the “orchestra seats”. Astonished by the freedom online, I usually spent hours in front of the computer browsing the web for all sorts of information, and I quickly started to interact via various chat programs and instant messengers. I was amazed and intrigued by the technology.

I can, therefore, honestly say that I have been able to read whatever I want to, and have (at least the right to) my own opinion. Basically, I have spent 11 years of my time at a university level including PhD studies, a Stanford Reuters Digital Fellowship and working at Stanford with alliances between Stanford and Sweden, which has made me a highly educated guy. I have become who I am because I’ve lived in a country where that is possible, and more importantly, because I know I have (or the very least should have) the right to do so.

Now consider some boy or girl in a developing country, emerging democracy, who might be living in state run by a dictator, corrupt regime or even just a troubled area. By troubled area I mainly refer to an occupied territory. What kinds of information will that boy or girl have access too? Who will provide this information? Will it be accurate? Will it be diverse? Will it be free and uncensored? What difference between that information and the information I can see, hear or read is there? Will they feel as entitled as I do to both access and to create that information? Who knows… What I know is that they should have the choice. At least in my opinion. That is their right. That really should be their right.

It is something that is very important as everyone has the right to have an opinion and the right to express it. The freedom of expression. The freedom of speech. The freedom of the individual.

The freedom. The freedom.

This discussion might seem a bit far out, and a bit too philosophical, but a big issue for the areas I mentioned previously is that the sources of news coverage are very scarce and limited. There is a tremendous gap here between the media coverage, even though the media in the “developed” world has their deep issues in coverage as well. In a constrained landscape either by the number of news sources or narrow owner structure you will have an issue here. It becomes very easy to force an opinion on people, and not have an open discussion. Take for instance Iran, which spends billions of dollars on filtering the web for information that the regime does not feel should go online or opinions they have decided the people should not hear. If you are exposed to one news angle, that angle will become the truth even if it is far from the truth. It is the version you will hear. The only version. It is easier to believe something than not believe anything. You feel part of something, even though this something is artificial.

A few weeks back during the WeMedia conference, I recently spoke to a guy from Cuba when I was down in Miami drinking a Mojito. He told me that when his friends and family came to visit from Cuba, he was amazed how “inaccurate” their perception was. He has to spend time explaining that the stories about Cuba are biased to one viewpoint and "filtered" by more corporate interests. Or is it? I really do not know. Yet ironically who knows who and what is right here. He has his views. They have their views.

What is the truth? I don’t think anyone knows. I for one do not believe in the (expressed) absolute truth. The perceived truth will only be in the eyes of the beholder. Oh, there are so many analogies to quantum mechanics, but let us stay out of that one. Look up Schrödinger's cat as an example.

Back to the conference, during which I was listening to a panel at SXSW with amongst other Clay Shirky and Deborah Schultz talking about the future publishing model. Once again the discussion between the panel and the audience ended up being polarized. “We should have free publishing. No. We should keep the old model. We need to safe the publishers.”

Hmm. I both understand and don’t understand why we find comfort in the extremes. The world, the media industry is not black and white. It is painted in shades of gray. It will be shades of gray. Embrace it. Move on. Just accept it.

One of the comments from the audience on the publishing models were: "What purpose do you [publishers] serve in the future since you can't be a filter anymore? That's why you're disappearing.". I guess I see his point, but he is still wrong in my eyes. The “we-against-them” mentality will not work. It will never work. Maybe it is easier to think it would, but it is not. It is actually inhibiting to the process we need to carry out.

It was a bit symptomatic for the whole conference.

Ultimately I think and hope that we now start to think about the new identity of the media industry. How it will change and should change. Why it has to change. Find comfort in the change and see it as the shade of a plant.

I do believe SXSW is the right place for these paradigm shift thoughts and ideas. It would be embraced by the audience. The attitude of the conference participants were forward-thinking and open. They wanted to change. They wanted to innovate. They believed.

Let us find the shade of the plant that grows our future.

Ombra mai fù
di vegetabile,
cara ed amabile,
soave più.

Never has there been a shade
of a plant
more dear and lovely,
or more gentle.

Does Free Publishing Mean No Publisher?

eriks — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:39:28 -0700

Yesterday I was listening to a panel at SXSW 2009 with amongst other Clay Shirky talking about the future publishing model. I have listened to many similar panels discussing the future of the web, media or news. They ironically all usually end up with either throw out the old, or the new is terrible. Very few panels have had the guts of saying that the solution will be somewhat in between it all. It is a blended solution that will work, not the extremes. As usual. :-)

Content has a life cycle of it’s own and the value of content is pretty much built up by it’s freshness (how breaking is the content), how unique is it, and how emotional appealing (i.e. relatable) the content is. Breaking news content will always be in high demand. The life time and stickiness of the content improves with supporting relevant material such as context, facts and opinions, together with providing the audience with the capability of interacting with the content with ratings, comments and topical forums.

The media scene is continuously moving more towards the ultimate content mashup between traditional and user generated media on a topical basis. These are not opposing mashups, but symbiotic mashups between traditional media content and new media content. The articles are no longer essay like, but more a mosaic of different media types (images, videos, blogs and news articles), different angles, different presentations and such. Essentially, you will have three main components to the presentation (which by the way is the same model Allvoices is applying):

- The Report - The report is the foundation of the media experience. Anyone can report from anywhere via cellphone or PC, sharing news, images, videos and opinions.

- The Related Voices, Opinions and Facts - Around the report multiple perspectives are woven together that is have a collection: News stories, Blog posts, Images, Videos via contributors and aggregation.

- Discussion, Consume and Rate - For each of the presentations you will enable the community to emotionally connect with others around the world through discussion, rate the story and in the community spirit complete the human story.

Key in all of these components is the freedom of contribution, interaction and discussion. It is an absolutely necessity to have this free, and really a natural consequence of freedom of speech. It has to be free and open. To all people. By any means. Everywhere. Essentially, all these components build the human story and the provided context, facts and opinions built up by other user contributions and aggregation grounds the discussion. Ironically all these characteristics of the content actually provides you with the necessary components of the quality assurance system. It is the ultimate long-tail system.

I usually describe the new content media arena with the analogy of imagining a party. Which party would you like to go to: the party with all the detailed instructions what to wear, what to do, what to not say, what to say. Or would you prefer the laid back come as you are party. I would choose the rock n' roll party any day. Why? It is fun. It is free. But... Most importantly I can relate to it. I can relate to it. That is the key. Sure, you will need some logistics for the rock n' roll party too, but the script is not already set.

You have to be able to relate to the media you consume. It has to be human. You realize now that media is not about what you think others think. It is about bringing that human face to the story with all its warts, dirt and shit. But it is real. It is authentic. It is genuine. It is the real story. Not perfect, but relatable. Yiiiha!

One of the comments from the audience on the publishing models were "What purpose do you [publishers] serve in the future since you can't be a filter anymore? That's why you're disappearing." I guess I see his point, but he is still wrong.

The we against them mentality will not work. Maybe it is easier to think it would, but it is not. It is actually inhibiting to the process we need to carry out.

No. Free publishing does not mean no publisher. It just means that we open up for more distributions channels and create alternatives. You can look at it as some kind of marketing content economy.

The New(?) News Ecosystem. Hmm.

eriks — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:03:27 -0700

I was attending a session on the news ecosystem given by Steven Johnson at SXSW, and how it will be transformed. Most of what was said was not really something surprising, but he laid out the pieces pretty well. He identified four different steps: News creation, news commentary, news curation and news distribution.

Nothing new there really...

The future game of the media business is about content packaging, not creation and distribution. The creation has been taken cared of and will pre-dominantly be community-powered, yet supported by the traditional reporting investigative reporting style. The content distribution is really straightforward using the web, and with supporting paper editions and of course television (over time web-TV). The main disruptions here have been the open-source content management systems and blogging platforms. Putting up a website now is as simple as a few clicks. You are up and blogging in no-time and can start to share your opinions. Still you will have to maintain the site, which is time consuming. There are an enormous amount of sites providing possibilities for social bookmarking, multimedia upload and integration with your own site, which will help you in the promotional part yet it is yet spread out. In all honesty I would have to admit that learning content promotion is the toughest part and the biggest challenge for any blogger, photographer, video maker or any other content creator. It too many seems a bit like “black art”, and many layman content creators struggle here. Especially since it becomes too time consuming for average content contributor using their own platform.

There is definitely a crucial need on the media scene for a site such as Allvoices which takes on these tasks and package them into a destination site, where the time-consuming components of the news ecosystem are taken cared of.

The most common question and comment in the room focused on the need for compensation for the efforts of the content creator and community “editor”. Regardless how you construct the new news ecosystem, the essential question is really how to reward the contributors whether they are amateurs or professional journalists. The all need to be compensated in some way here. This is the main issue moving forward. How will the players and participants be rewarded?

The key to remember here is to under all circumstances avoid getting stuck in the “walled garden” mentality, which has predominantly been ruling on the media arena. The compensation of the model should be measured on the activity around the pieces not on the old nowadays out-dated per item pricing model for content. The new arena is open, constantly interacting and constantly evolving. The final printed story is not really here anymore. The article is live, evolving and always changing. Even though many older players on the market are trying to stop this evolution and I assure you it will not be very fruitful.

Let us adapt to the new arena and change the models – business and technology wise. That is why Allvoices is filling this need perfectly.

Former President Musharraf Gives A Talk At Stanford, California

eriks — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:12:05 -0800

Friday afternoon I got the opportunity to listen to former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, who had been invited to give a speech at Stanford titled "Terrorism and Extremism: The Need for a Holistic Approach". The title intrigued me and also raised a few interesting thoughts and questions. Would there be a lot of protests? What will he address? Will he be open enough to give some clear answers on the issues we are seeing in that part of the world?

I would say I was slightly surprised that he was as composed as he were, but also how little protest there were on campus around the speech. I remember when president George W. Bush came to campus 2007, and the huge protests against his visit. I had heard on before hand that there the decision of bringing former president Musharraf to Stanford was far from unanimous. Critical voices had been heard but besides a few remarks in the Q&A session I didn't see or hear any notable protests linked to the event.

The speech was as expected. He did not really get into depth into any of the real issues, but stayed on the comfortable level the whole time. He touched them to some extent, but didn't really address them at all. His key points were that the reasons for non-state terrorism were illiteracy, poverty and political frustration.

The speech was rhetorically well composed, as so was his answers in the Q&A session right after the speech. He managed to diffuse a few of the attacks from the audience. The general consensus after the speech was basically that - some nice rhetorics, but that the essential burning topics were left out. It seemed to me that all students in the very diverse group of students - politically, ethnically, religiously and so forth - all agreed upon that event such as these is the right step towards the future.

It meant a lot to all to whom I spoke to that they had been able to address him directly, and that they would welcome more of those types of events.