4 10/14/2008 10/14/2008 177 In 2006 I started singing with a Barbershop Chorus of men, many of whom are old enough to be my father... or grandfather. The lessons I have learned from these men, singing, sharing, and growing as a collaborative artist, have forever changed my life. Rare are the places where generations of people gather to create together. In my presentation I will share some of the lessons I have learned from intergenerational musical journey. Matthew Douglass is an internet nerd who grew up in Oregon. He is not a trained or professional musician. Matthew Douglass 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://smelloftheday.wordpress.com/ 10/14/2008 176 How to assist family or friends during illness. Will cover in hospital, being an advocate, what not to do, and how to make things easier for them and you. to come later. Samantha soma 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://oakhazelnut.com/ 10/14/2008 175 Humans have always developed technologies to help them survive and thrive, but in recent decades the rapid escalation and intensification of the human-technology interface have exceeded anything ever known. How we interact with machines and technology in many ways defines who we are. Cyborg Anthropology is a lens with which to understand what's happening to us in a world mediated by dynamic objects, processes, and change. This speech will cover three things: First, a definition of Cyborg Anthropology (what's a cyborg, and what's not?). Second, what a Cyborg Anthropologist does (and what it's like to work in the field). And third, how you too can be a Cyborg Anthropologist (insta-cyborg!). Amber received her degree in Sociology/Anthropology from Lewis & Clark College in this Spring with a thesis on “The Cell Phone and Its Technosocial sites of Engagement". She blogs about technology at Oakhazelnut.com and co-hosts a podcast called Hazelnut Tech Talk. You can find her technosocially interacting with humans and computers at most Portland tech events and conferences. Amber Case @caseorganic 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://twitter.com/znmeb 10/14/2008 174 Have you been itching to break free of Windows? Do you secretly worry that there might be something better than your Macintosh? Have you been wondering why some people have a penguin tattooed on their foreheads? I've been using Linux for eight years now, and, though the penguin tattoo is a temporary one that appears only on April 1st, I can't conceive of life without Linux. But is it for you? I'll take an irreverent look at the operating system I love, and give you ten good reasons why it probably isn't. M. Edward (Ed) Borasky is, in order of appearance, a boy genius, computer programmer, applied mathematician, folk singer, actor, professional graduate student, armchair astronaut, supercomputer programmer, performance engineer, Meta-NLP and Neuro-Semantics Master Practitioner and Trainer, Sales Coach, Linux geek and Wise Old Man. His hobby is collecting hobbies. M. Edward (Ed) Borasky 88 Computer Measurement Group, ACM, Honourary Canadian 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://strangelovelive.com/ 10/14/2008 173 What exactly is a fugue? I’ll explain the form and how you can write your own fugue with music, or apply it to the medium of your choice. http://twitter.com/drnormal doc normal 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 10/14/2008 172 Credit is somewhere between difficult and non-existent. The stock market is erratic (and way down). Unemployment is increasing. Layoffs are even touching the Portland tech market. The only thing economists disagree about is how deep the recession will be - not whether there will be one. The Bush administration is aggressively intervening (perhaps the scariest factor of all). Internationally we've seen runs on banks, and even runs on grocery stores (Iceland). Angel investors are watching their investment portfolios shrink in value. Venture capitalists are taking a "batten the hatches" view (when they tell their portfolio companies "don't panic", you know it's time to panic). We could be looking at a global financial meltdown. And it could be a very good time to start a company. I'd like to spend 5 minutes arguing why. Serial entrepreneur. Startup coach. Executive Director at OTBC. Side project addict (including OregonStartups.com and TymFinder.com). Eternal (somewhat realistic) optimist. Reedie. Former DJ. W7HA (ham, not bacon). And one of those rare native Oregonians from the East (it is a semi-arid state you know - Let 'r buck.) Steve Morris 98 OTBC; OregonStartups.com 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://rabbidavidkominsky.wordpress.com/ 10/14/2008 171 Spirituality is a fundamental part of everything we, as humans, do. Given how much of ourselves we invest in our work lives, it's no surprise that we derive great spiritual satisfaction and disappointment from our work and the relationships in our workplace. Yet this is an area that we rarely think about consciously when choosing a job or work situation. In five minutes, I'll point out ways of thinking about spiritual satisfaction that will allow us to apply them to our work lives, and how to maximize the spiritual satisfaction we derive in the course of our workdays. This includes such things as finding meaning in our work, finding meaning in the relationships in the workplace, and appreciating the challenges which face us both as part of the job and as barriers to getting our jobs done. David Kominsky is a rabbi and entrepreneur. He is half of the team behind CubeSpace, as well as having spent time as a congregational rabbi and working with individuals and couples on a more freelance basis. David Kominsky 97 CubeSpace 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://blog.unclenate.com/ 10/14/2008 170 You've all been there; your partner just doesn't "get" your obsession with the web, technology, geek culture... whatever, none of it! Further, any time and/or attention paid to your passion is a colossal "waste of time" in their eyes, and an affront to your family unit. Unless you're shacking-up with member of the opposite sex (or same sex for that matter, this is Oregon after all!) who is down with their inner-geek, you've probably felt the seemingly insurmountable pressure (and lack of intimate activity) associated with balancing the geeky lifestyle with the demands of the home front. Fortunately, I've taken the tumult and guesswork out of facing that challenge. Learn how to keep up that schedule of un-conferences and "excuses-for-drinking-with-other-geeks" called "events" or "professional development". Follow me as I explore the myriad strategies, solution and stories that will keep you happily on track in both your home and you life as a nascent social media maven. Blah Blah Blah... I'm a nerd and proud of it. Always have been, always will be. I while away the hours at Earth Class Mail, trying my best to keep my sanity. Nate DiNiro 55 UncleNate 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.unsettler.com/ 10/14/2008 169 When I was a young teaching assistant struggling to wrangle a roomful of Composition 101 college freshmen, another TA confided a precious secret: "Students love that Greek shit." What he meant was that having theories about writing, rhetoric, or anything else that contained the wisdom of ancient Greece would give me automatic gravitas, and students would right it down and remember it. I've since learned to apply the "Greek shit" theory to the business world and to weave in simple theories, borrowed wholesale and with sketchy attribution, from science, philosophy, sociology, beekeeping, etc to make presentations more memorable. Now these secrets can be yours! In 5 minutes you'll have all-encompassing theories that are compelling and unassailable in any setting: dinner with the in-laws, snooty cocktail parties, and yes, business presentations. Eric currently heads up the emerging media practice for the digital agency White Horse, where he has hung his hat for the last 9 years. Prior to that, he had a long sojourn in academics, where he honed his skills in making himself appear smarter than he is through elaborate, borrowed theories delivered in an earnest Midwestern manner. When not perpetrating this fraud, he collects postmodern literature, fly-fishes, and drinks bourbon. Eric Anderson dabbler, unsettler, postmodernist, bourbon-drinker, cynic 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.polymerstudios.com/ 10/14/2008 168 A stream of consciousness presentation. I help organizations leverage Web-based technology (corporate sites, SaaS, social media, etc) to develop and maintain valuable relationships with their customers and employees. mark dunst 95 Polymer Studios 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=516771973 10/14/2008 167 As a self-confessed shoe addict and bargain hunter, Amy is an expert in the ways of eBay. You may not share her affinity for Fluevogs, but her techniques apply across all categories. Electronics, apparel, collectibles and more can all be had for a song if you know the secrets. Learn how to search, stalk and snipe your way to winning the items you covet. As a User Experience Designer for Pinpoint Logic, Amy Matteson uses her neurons to make the web a friendlier place. She’s left breadcrumb trails throughout Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, New York, and even scattered a few in Germany and Brazil. Dressed in complementary yet often contrary pattern combinations, Amy spends time with local Burning Man denizens, maxes her holds on library books, hikes the Northwest with a Digital SLR, wins Fluevog shoes on eBay, and travels anywhere that might give her a new perspective. Amy Matteson 84 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.twitter.com/hundreddollar 10/14/2008 166 Are the borders of Portland safe from the threat of infiltrating non-residents? My friends, it is not. I will show you that with only a few extra days a month, you can make an entire city-- hell, state-- think you actually live within its borders, when in fact, you live in another state entirely. (Just to be clear, I'm not talking about commuting from Vancouver, WA.) Find out how nonresidents infiltrate the city of Portland. Then tell all your cool out-of-state friends, so they can experience the awesomeness that is PDX. I first stepped foot in Portland in April 2008... before that, life had little or no meaning. ;) Carolynn Duncan 94 CoffeeWithAnExpert/HundredDollarBusiness 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://twitter.com/abrahamhyatt 10/14/2008 165 The argument that our fractured and politicized media harms our democracy is wrong. Newspapers are failing and hyper-partisan media sources are on the rise. But as much as Fox News, to name one example, distorts facts and turns misinformation into theater, it's playing a positive roll in the reinvention of American media. There are five reasons — ranging from how the partisan media has created a market for objectivity, to the benefits of politics as entertainment — why Fox News is a good thing. Saying "Fox is good" is a heretical argument in Portland. But in five minutes, I'm going to explain why the rise of Fox and its friends was historically destined, and why that cable network is turning you into a better citizen. I'm a guy who like media and politics, and if I was ever caught in a compromising position with both of them at the same time, well, I'd probably ask for copies of the photos. I work as the managing editor at Oregon Business magazine. My background before moving to Portland in 2006 was at daily and alt-weekly newspapers, and before that at every profession from bartender to road construction worker. Abraham Hyatt 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.brewedgirl.com/ 10/14/2008 164 There’s a lot going on in the world that sucks. Global financial crisis. Climate change. Water and energy shortages. Rising beer prices. What single thing can you do to address all of these problems? Brew beer! By homebrewing you can enjoy extremely local, affordable, and sustainable beer that requires less energy, water, and money than your favorite local microbrew. You may be intimidated by the complexity of brewing, but rest assured, it really isn’t that tough to make great homebrew that will save you some money and make your tastebuds happy. With some basic supplies, inexpensive equipment, and a bunch of leftover bottles you’ll be on your way to saving the world and impressing your friends and family with your awesome new hobby – homebrewing! Stacy is an interactive designer and principal at a small design agency in Portland, but most importantly she's a big fan of beer. She's been homebrewing for seven years and has made everything from Irish stouts to ales to mead to cider. Stacy started the BrewedGirl blog in the spring of 2008 to share her beer adventures, mishaps, and ideas with anyone who cares to read about it. She recently served five kinds of homebrew at her wedding and nobody died! Stacy Westbrook interactive designer, soccer player, homebrewer, nerd 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 10/14/2008 163 Five lighting fast minutes of thoughts, ideas and photos. Dented cans, how to concoct a tasty mystery meal out of the close out bin. Can I eat that weed? Free Christmas presents out of the recycling. Blast from the past, saving things because you might need them, like feathers. If all else fails offer to trade someone else your troubles, problems. You will be amazed at the results. Currently I am a freelance writer and caregiver. Mary Anne Thygesen 91 10/14/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://www.linkedin.com/in/senelson 10/13/2008 162 We've all had the experience at some point in our career... working for or with someone that clearly didn't leave ADHD behind them in grade school. Whether it's saving everything to the last minute, stoking the fires of chaos just to keep things "exciting", or generally having issues with their mouth filter not working correctly... it can be challenging to work with someone who gets distracted from a conversation when you scratch your ear. But ADHD is really a creative force that can be harnessed to work for the powers of good! In five minutes we'll cover 5 observational diagnostic methods for identifying ADD peers, 5 ways to coach ADD types to channel their energy productively, and 5 good one-liners for reminding the ADD types in your life that structure can aid creativity rather than stifle it. At five minutes, even the ADDers themselves may learn something! Sarah Nelson is a web technology geek specializing in marketing, information architecture, and content strategy. By her estimate, the internet industry attracts more ADD folks than the average industry, due to its entrepreneurial bend and high rate of change. In her career she's encountered many bosses, more of them with ADHD than not. As such, her management and coping skills in this area exceed the norm. Sarah Nelson 90 information designer, content strategist, technical translator (geek to layman and vice versa) 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 http://dirttodish.blogspot.com/ 10/13/2008 161 With all the talk of late about urban farming, preserving the bounty and living off the grid, the average American eater--dependent on the boxed, the (industrial) canned and the microwavable--can be intimidated by the prospect of cooking with fresh, local ingredients. When you can easily get imported tomatoes in February and apples in June, who knows what's fresh and in season when? And who's got time to figure it out? The beauty of eating seasonally is that most of the confusion about what-goes-with-what-and-when vanishes and you find that healthful, delicious dishes--whole meals!--are just as easy to put together as mac-n-cheese and frozen burritos. Well, almost as easy. ;) Katherine Gray is a web content strategist and mama to two little girls who, up until about 2 years ago, was afraid to grow actual food in her garden because she thought she'd feel too guilty if it all died when she forgot to water it (a veritable certainty). Encouraged by some brave little tomatoes, some very slutty arugula and (probably undeserved) praise from her husband, Katherine occasionally posts about local food and families at her blog, Dirt to Dish. Then she feels really guilty when people stop her in New Seasons and ask her when she's going to update it again. Katherine Gray 89 web user advocate, content strategist, coworker, jam-maker and well-intentioned food blogger 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 http://linkenfuego.wordpress.com/ 10/13/2008 160 Last week, both my bike and bag (with a laptop inside) were stolen two days apart from each other. About eight hours after it happened, John Metta and Amber Case secretly established a bike fund, impromptu and organized entirely via DM by Amber—after which many Portland Tweeple contributed a lot over the period of 4 days. Of course I had no idea about this. What I knew was that Twitter flooded with kind words, and I already felt lucky to have supportive folks behind my back—until they all surprised me last Friday with an actual fund to purchase a new bike. I want to pay them back—by telling my (usually typical theft) story to demonstrate the real power of social media. What I’ve found is that Portland’s twitter community is not only intelligent and dynamic, but also supportive and caring. And you can be a part of it. I’ll show you things around town that you can do to contribute, projects that you can help at, meetups you can join, coworking sessions you can attend, and conversations you can participate in. If you’re from out of town, maybe I can even inspire you to find and pioneer a community like this. Join me for the ride, won’t you? Up until about 2 years ago, Bram Pitoyo had not considered ‘riding roller coasters’ to make a living too great of an idea. This all changed when Wild Alchemy, an account planning agency, inspired him to play in increasingly challenging ponds with likeminded, inspiring people. Now he seeks new adventures. Bram Pitoyo 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 http://camikaos.com/ 10/13/2008 159 We can't always walk into every situation knowing exactly how to get out, in my five minute presentation I hope to impart the skills necessary to get through life (or a 5 minute presentation) without really knowing your what you're doing. After all, if the President can do it, so can I. I’m a woman, a mother, a wife, a writer, a blogger, a podcast host, a volunteer, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a tattooed girl, a lover of gadgets and I nearly always wear black… I’m Cami Kaos Cami Kaos 87 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 10/13/2008 158 From the Smithsonian's skeletal collections and from actual recently dead zoo animals brought into the LA County Museum, I examined and dissected out the heads of a whole bunch of tigers (and other big cats) from various zoos. I identified a small new muscle bundle as well as an odd feature in the base of the skull and explained them together as adaptations showing that the bodies of some zoo animals are slowly evolving to conform to life in captivity. Boring old wild tigers are out - the cool new caged models are in and they are hot, hot, hot! Geordie heads The Animal Law Practice, a well-known unique private law practice in Portland, Oregon. The Practice’s clients are companion, domestic, commercial, and exotic animal owners and keepers, and its main focus is on the resolution, litigation, and trial of animal-related disputes and harms in cases at the state and federal levels. With over 600 animal law cases behind him to date, Geordie prosecutes as well as defends innumerable cases each year in areas ranging from relatively minor county code violations to quite significant veterinary malpractice suits and livestock injury cases. His practice is the only one of its kind on the West Coast and one of a small handful in the entire nation. Geordie received his M.S. from University of Oregon in 1984, his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1987, and his Ph.D. in Biology from UCLA in 1997. As an active research scientist at UCLA, he studied, lectured, and published extensively on animal anatomy and the role of disease within ancient and modern animal populations. He taught human and animal anatomy/physiology at academic institutions in both California and Oregon, and over the last 20 plus years has practiced law in both states as well. Geordie Duckler 86 The Animal Law Practice 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 http://www.myficklemind.com/ 10/13/2008 157 Everyone sees the world in their own way. Some see a world of black and white, some see a rose tinted world. I see the world with a rainbow tint. What does that mean? It's similar to viewing the world with rose colored glasses except that everything isn't happy, it's gay. I see gay couples everywhere - even when they don't exist. I've always believed that someone being gay or transgender or lesbian or bisexual or pansexual is just another difference to be celebrated and embraced. However, in the last several years, I've fully embraced all things gay. I spend hours reading slash (gay) fan fiction, and watching gay TV & gay movies. Now I see gay subtext everywhere. I have a special place in my heart for gay people and it makes me want everyone to be gay. My world is happy and gay and full of love. Let me show it to you. Sarah is a fickle chick. She is a late blooming rebel. She's a little bohemian. She's a little rock in roll. She's a wife, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a woman. She's a gay man trapped in a woman's body. She's a fag hag. She's a beader, a crafter, an artist. She's addicted to the internet. She loves reality TV. She loves bacon. She embraces the odd and the different - it's all beautiful to her. She believes in true love and soul mates. She is ever changing. She is still finding herself. Sarah Allison 83 10/13/2008 4 10/13/2008 http://xolotl.org/ 10/13/2008 156 Think you have to wait for the Borg or orthopedic surgeons to become a cyborg? I've got news for you, my friend: you are *already* a cyborg. Even worse, you aren't really even "you" at all. That self you walk around in pretending to be you is little more than a necessary byproduct of cyborg machines. You are packed in a black valise riding around on the cyborg baggage carousel, while real parts of your body and your mind are plugged in to other circuits. Following us along the maps of the known cyborg territories as we take apart that little "you" you call yourself, and along the way, put a very different "you" together again. Raised by wolves, accidental open-source evangelist. And if that doesn't explain everything, see http://www.portlandonfire.com/nateangell/. Nate Angell 81 rSmart 10/13/2008 4 10/14/2008 http://ragingdad.net/ 10/13/2008 155 In our hyper-branded society, every business in America is missing out on a tremendous opportunity to build brand awareness and create a culture around their product and/or service. The answer is: the novelty urinal cake. Every gay-bar in this nation should have a pink triangle urinal cake, or perhaps a phallus. Every biker bar: a Harley logo. Every organization that supports progressive issues should be peeing on Sarah Palin. Just imagine: relieving yourself on Karl Rove. What an opportunity. I will discuss how to overcome the initial fear of a limited target market (it's not just men and men's rooms anymore!), and show how this uncharted market is the best missed-opportunity out there. Josh is, among other things: a communications professional; a parent of three kids (twins and singleton); a daddy blogger; a graduate student; an aficionado of film, music, books and comics; and an advocate of public transit. He and his family moved from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest in 2006. He is on twitter at http://twitter.com/portlandjosh Josh Collins 82 10/13/2008 4 10/12/2008 10/12/2008 154 What, SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS! – $700 Billion – Seven Hundred Thousand Million Dollars? I didn’t know we had $700 Billion. Now you tell me. Well if I knew we had $700 Billion, I would have come up with something really really good to do with it. This humorous talk will look at: How big is $700B Bills reaching 350 times from the earth to the moon, around earth 6300 times Wrap every meal on the planet in Bacon for a year How we pay for it $5,600 each now 30 years of 20% inflation (same as Europe after WWII) What we could have done with it like: 70 thousand miles of light rail Solar panels on every roof Buy every drinking age person in the US a MacTarnahans every day for life A Lap Dance a week for life Free college for every current high schooler Or many other very cool and useful things I am a Portland resident, a high tech executive, a father of two high school students. I am starting a company while making my own compost, growing my own tomatoes and skiing as many days as possible. Like most Portlanders, I am not sure how I can fit in the equivalent of 5 extra weeks of work to pay my share of the bailout. Christopher Logan 27 10/12/2008 4 10/10/2008 http://www.kleinman.com/geoff/ 10/10/2008 153 Increasingly our society mandates that everything be 'Family Friendly', but families are made through the very acts people no longer can or are willing to talk about. Why is it the top search terms online are always about sex but people have a very difficult time actually talking to each other about it? Why is people get banned from social networks or get their words sensored on places like Ustream for talking about sex? With all the communication going on, why aren't people talking to each other about Sex? Is there a universe beyond Dr. Ruth? And would someone really stand up in front of a crowd full of people and talk for five minutes about this without offending everyone? After connecting to the Internet for the first time in 1988, Geoff Kleinman has lived his life in, around and on the net. From launch one of the Internet's early online newsletters (The Kleinman Report) to Publishing a major online movie magazine (DVD Talk), Geoff has watched the net go from boom to bust to boom again. Geoff currently contributes to Our PDX, Portland Metblogs and Neighborhood Notes. Geoff Kleinman 79 10/10/2008 4 10/09/2008 http://pet-theory.com/blog/2008/10/10/interface-populism-is-peeps-power/ 10/09/2008 152 We now have two ways of voting: voting individuals into office, and voting initiatives into law. Both have their advantages, but they are extremes. Representation is very convenient. We can just pick our guy or gal and leave the details to them. Conversely, initiatives and referendums give voters very granular control over a law. But what if there were other forms of voting that combined the convenience of representation with the control of direct voting? The idea that there could be not just new issues or movements but entirely new forms of voting might seem abstract at first, but once we start working through the details, many possibilities become evident. For example, voters could determine budget priorities by choosing budget ratios--one-fifth to the military, one-third to social security, one-tenth to education, etc. They could likewise vote on the tax schedule using an dynamic interface that would give us a good idea how much each quintile of the population contributes in taxes, their average tax rate, etc. Such an interface would also allow us to create new schedules or see how different schedules raised or lowered total tax revenue. Once we start singling out conveniently "voteable" decisions, we might identify some unlikely opportunities--the decision to make war, for one. Since war-making is relatively infrequent and quite dramatic, what kind of process would best engage our emotions and intelligence? It's worth thinking about. Hundreds of millions of people can hang on the twists and turns of a show like "Lost," but our current political decision-making processes too often leave us emotionally and intellectually stunted. New populist forms of voting that don't require every citizen to become a wonk or activist could increase voter smarts and engagement, as well as more perfectly express the ideal of one person, one vote. I'm an Actionscript-platform entrepenuer. Currently I'm finishing a site dedicated to role-based chat. Chat leaders play roles like match-maker, interviewer, rapper, comic, pundit. Other chatterers can vote for them or whoever can keep the conversation rolling. It's a mutant offspring of Oprah and Survivor. I'm also two things Portlanders adore...a recent L.A. transplant and a long-ago Reed College grad. (Both facts I hid when I went rental hunting with my family here.) Matt Garland 10/09/2008 4 10/09/2008 http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/ 10/09/2008 151 I wasn't eager to give up on the youthful naivete of my 20s, but at some point, man, you sure grow out of it. This 5 minute talk is the sum total of what I now know about dating, learned through a wisdom born from consistently questionable decision-making skills. Rule One: There Are No Rules. All hail moral relativism.* *A caveat: I am unable to promise that these rules work, but I will honestly share them anyway. I moved to Portland this spring, after 14 years in New York City, where I trained in the theater, and eventually worked as a writer. Now, am the web editor at Portland Monthly Magazine. In my employer's defense, this talk has absolutely nothing to do with them. In my spare time, I date, and then come home and write down all the funny bits. Alexis Rehrmann Portland Monthly Magazine 10/09/2008 4 10/09/2008 10/09/2008 150 Urban planning students around the world study Portland for its mix of density, public transportation, green buildings and more. Several years ago, Jeff Hardison was excited to learn that leaders from Kentucky once visited Portland to learn how to apply Portland's urban planning principles to cities in Jeff's home state. Being the backward person he is, Jeff has often pondered: If the tables were turned, what could Portland learn from Kentucky? Jeff's talk, Five Things Portland Can Learn From Kentucky in Five Minutes, will unveil Jeff's key findings (if he can manage to count that high). You can bet that at least Jeff will think he's funny. After all, he can just say "Kentucky" and people laugh. Jeff Hardison is one of the best known Kentuckians living in Portland, Oregon (there are five of us). Jeff lived his late teens in the Midwest -- Kentucky is only four or so hours from Chicago, people -- preparing for a career in the music industry. He has schlepped gear for 90s techno bands no one remembers, received daily hateful voicemails from record label PR people, and has suppressed other unmentionable acts that are illegal in some red states. In 1998, when it was clear that the Internet would turn the music industry upside down, Jeff moved to Portland. There, he was hired by a marketing agency advising the recording industry on digital music issues (also known as "problems"). Immediately hooked on what he'd previously thought spiders crawled around on in his barn, Jeff has since worked with everyone from Amazon.com and HP to Morpheus and, uh, Tillamook Creamery. (Ask him about the cow costume incident in East L.A.) Jeff Hardison 78 10/09/2008 4 10/08/2008 http://www.cascadiacommons.org/ 10/08/2008 149 Cascadia Commons is a membership-owned community dedicated to the development of a trust that protects the "commons" of the pacific northwest. Our intent is to establish an integral and participatory forum that will display technology as a necessary means towards advancing bioregional sustainability. Cascadia Commons will offers a social networking website that is membership-owned, progressing web 3.0 cultural connectivity throughout the Cascadian community. Collin Ferguson, an urban planner by trade, is a native Oregonian raised in Estacada, Oregon. He earned his BA in Urban Studies at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Rutgers University, New Jersey. He is currently working towards his Master's in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State University. Collin, an ardent Portland Timbers fan, is an active member of the Timbers Army. One of his great friends is a dog named Maarty. Collin Ferguson 77 Cascadia Commons 10/08/2008 4 10/07/2008 http://www.cafemama.com/ 10/07/2008 148 hungry? aren't we all? americans are starving, and it's certainly not for the lack of food. no, it's for the lack of knowledge, simplicity, and love in our food. we're at once the most overweight and nutrition-deprived people, ever, and i'm not the only one who's narrowed down the cause to our habit of letting others (most especially corporations, who *may* not have our best interests at heart) feed us. take back your dinner! and your breakfast, and your lunch, your midnight snacks, your peach pie, your buttermilk biscuits. take back your tomato relish, your mushroom frittata, your eggplant garlic dip. take back cranberry sauce. take it back, discover taste again, regain your connection with what you put in your body. it's not as hard as you think. and it just might make you cry, laugh, dance, fall in love. cook your food. sarah is a woman cursed with many passions, ranging from the highly geeky (she has a thing for spreadsheets) to the downright zany (keeping chickens of course!). she doesn't drive, instead biking and busing around portland, often with her three very dirty but nonetheless adorable little boys in tow. she prefers shopping for greens and cheeses at the farmer's market to a trip to costco. she recently left her job, which required far too much time away from the kitchen and the garden, and she is in the process of teaching her boys to harvest flower seeds, knit, and enjoy a good minute or two of occasional silence. if it's late at night, chances are she's futzing around on twitter or writing something entirely too revealing. sarah gilbert 6 writer of things, locavore, chicken keeper, and mama of boys 10/07/2008 4 10/07/2008 http://www.spiritof77.com/ 10/07/2008 147 Portland is a wonderful city, full of fabulous restaurants, a park every so blocks, and people who do acrobatics on stilts on Alberta. You can say we don't lack for much. And with a failing economy, who would dare utter a complaint about the lack of a Major League baseball team in their fine city? But before you answer that question, become a voyeur on 7 one-night stands with a baseball fan. Understand what it means to have victory snatched from your grasp by an over-eager fan or to watch conventional wisdom challenged by a team that wasn't supposed to win or to get to know your dad better because of the game. Maybe Portland needs more things than a Major League baseball team and maybe this fan's love for baseball is stronger because we don't have one. Regardless, there's just nothing like sitting in Wrigley or Fenway or even Safeco. Don't believe me? Let me take you out to the ballgame. Nova Newcomer is a native Portlander who has suffered through the anemic life of a baseball fan in her beloved hometown. When she's not dreaming of a World Series for her favorite team(s), she is gobbling up as much political news as she can get her hands on. A new mom and a communication consultant, Nova juggles speaking at conferences with wonderful non-sensical conversations with her infant son. She is also married to Peat Bakke...yes, that Peat. Nova Newcomer 76 10/07/2008 4 10/07/2008 http://daddytude.com/ 10/07/2008 146 This presentation is a real-life autobiography. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you want to eat more popcorn. It isn't a funny story, but you will laugh. It isn't a sad story, but you will cry. It is a touching story, but there will be no physical contact with the audience. It is my story, but most likely others share the experience. "Some of us have scars on our faces, and some of us have scars on our souls," my mother told me over and over. However, it's much easier to hide our soul than it is to hide our face. In fact, most of us spend way too much energy comparing our insides to other people's outsides. Like any great story, the enemy must be defeated. This is my real-life story of facing the dragon and facing reality. Check out: http://portlandonfire.com/garywalter Gary Walter 75 10/07/2008 4 10/07/2008 http://voilleque.blogspot.com/ 10/07/2008 145 Network effects and the mythopoetics of self, huh? Sounds like another sure-to-be-rejected concept! Maybe I'll couch it in terms of an old narrative from Arthurian literature, casting the "self" in the role of Sir Gawain, whose bargain with the Green Knight inevitably risks his own demise. That could have legs, maybe also articulate the positioning of self within a networked narrative that guides and defines the development of thought around this whole social media thing? And what if the Green Knight was actually Louis Gray?! What a twist! J-P Voilleque (@lawduck) is a guy who's interested in the life cycle of buzzwords, the effect of language on human behavior, and chocolate. J-P Voillequé 74 Extreme Arts & Sciences 10/07/2008 4 10/07/2008 http://kveton.com/ 10/07/2008 144 Over the last few months we've seen the biggest meltdown in banking and finance. Deregulation, lack of oversight, corporate greed and hippies (or commies?!) all could be the cause of this but who cares? How could we do it better? What if we applied some of the social successes from the Web 2.0 world to banking? Could we do it better? This talk will be a discussion of the current banking mess (complete with numbers! big, big numbers!) as well as a collation of Twitter discussions on the matter. Power to the people!! Let's start Oregon First National bank! :-) Scott Kveton is a digital identity promoter and open source advocate. Scott has worked at Amazon, RuleSpace.com and JanRain as well as founded the Open Source Lab at Oregon State University. Working closely with projects like Mozilla, Linux, Drupal and Apache led Scott down the identity path and to JanRain in mid-2006 and currently works at Vidoop in sunny Portland!. Scott was named to Red Herring’s list of ‘25 Titans in waiting’ in early 2007. Scott speaks publicly about identity and open source, is an avid gardener and is also Internet-ordained performing weddings for family and friends. Scott Kveton 9 10/07/2008 4 10/07/2008 10/07/2008 143 Have you walked off the Karaoke stage dejected, wondering why your performance failed to energize the audience? Is fear of rejection holding you back from enjoying this American pastime? Don't fear, Karaoke success is just 15 slides away. Alex will provide you with the 10 commandments of Karaoke. These commandments have been battle-tested and are guaranteed to give you high-fives on your way back to your seat. Alex is an accomplished Karaoke Master known for getting the party started and getting the ladies on the dance floor. Becoming a master was not easy, and there were a lot of mistakes made along the way. During this journey he has created a fool proof road map for Cheers and High-Fives at your next Karaoke outing. Alex Williams 61 10/07/2008 4 10/06/2008 http://www.melissalion.com/ 10/06/2008 142 Story surrounds us, from the daily blog post to the sum of our Tweets. We must be mindful of narrative and embrace the power to manipulate loved ones and strangers with our plight or the plight of the fictional people whose voices we hear in the night. Stories must be engaging (read: make the reader feel like his or her life is much better or much worse than the protagonist's) if they are to be picked out from the slush pile of the Internet. Sure a story has a beginning, middle and end, or at least in these post-modern times we can dare to dream that it will. But what goes between those points? Page by page, word by word, character by character -- how is narrative crafted? A story begins when something changes and it ends with a win, loss or draw. The middle isn't the middle, and the rising action is, rather, a series of hooks, uppercuts and jabs both given and received by the protagonist. The elements of fiction (character, point of view, setting, dialogue and exposition) work together to beat up the reader and the writer and fully abuse all of the characters involved, leaving everyone battered and bruised and ready for a post-climax cigarette. Put on your boxing gloves, and grab a cold compress, the bell has rung and the craft of narrative is on. Melissa Lion is an award-winning young adult novelist. Her two novels, Swollen and Upstream, have been published by Random House. Upstream is currently under option for a motion picture. She has taught English Composition and Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California and Pepperdine University. She is also a professional book critic and blogger and is a co-producer of Back Fence PDX, a live storytelling series. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Melissa Lion 10/06/2008 4 10/06/2008 http://mywhimislaw.com/ 10/06/2008 141 ...without drama, meltdown, coercion, bribery or tactics better reserved for Gitmo detainees. Betsy has been a bossy type all her life - whether ordering around siblings, playing the role of teacher's pet, making her own kids' lives miserable, gently nudging her superiors in the right direction, or - hey! - leading teams of up to 80. Sometimes, it bites her (how many volunteer obligations does one person need, anyway?) But she likes using her powers for (supposed) good... Betsy Richter 72 10/06/2008 4 10/04/2008 http://adriennefritze.com/ 10/04/2008 140 2008 is a time of ridiculous extremes - it seems we operate in a world of ever-widening gaps: between the have's and have-not's; the religious and the "spiritual"; the optimists and the pessimists; the left and the right; the arts-mongers and the technologists. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by people from every category of life who energize and sustain themselves by using tools from a wide variety of seemingly opposing interests. Recently I partnered my company, Working Artists LLC, with two leading edge organizations in disparate fields: Yelp.com, a consumer review site (Real People, Real Reviews); and the Software Association of Oregon. We three produced two exhibitions drawing from these 3 different cultures to explore as a united team our evolutionary role in ensuring interspecies survival. We learned a lot. About each other, and about ourselves. The story I present is told in 5 part-harmony – each part presenting a unique takeaway from all that we learned in producing rdEVOLUTION [http://workingartistsonline.com/rdEVO] – the project that encompassed it all – and the challenges we set before 4 instantaneously created teams made up of artists, business owners, technologists, thinkers and doers, bakers and candlestick makers. In Part 5 of the tale I’ll tell, one last challenge will be made to the Ignite Portland audience. Adrienne Fritze is a self-made woman – that is, self-made inside the context of a community that consistently contributes to the process. She carries different titles at different times, with the following the most consistent and meaningful to her: Mom to two amazing people, Mentor to other amazing folks, Artist and Entrepreneur. You can find out more about her at: http://adriennefritze.com And about her work at: http://workingartistsonline.com Adrienne Fritze 70 Working Artists Network and Adrienne Fritze, Artist/Social-Entrepreneur 10/04/2008 4 10/04/2008 10/04/2008 139 Do a google search for "number one fear in america" and the title of the first item it brings up is "DEALING WITH THE FEAR OF SPEAKING." I've spent the majority of my life hearing this idea repeated ad nauseam, and I'd like to do my part to help turn it into a myth. Most Americans will be called upon to present in front of a group at some point in their lives, from something as simple as directing a staff meeting to something as complex as giving a five minute speech in front of over six hundred strangers with only 20 slides to back you up. The prevalence of this fear even plays out in the recurring jest and television trope of the nightmare where a character is standing in front of your class in only your underwear, overwhelmed by the magnificent terror of such public vulnerability. The reality is that being comfortable addressing a group will is an inevitability, and having the capability to do so effectively will inevitably prove useful. I want to take five minutes to present some basic tips and mental tricks to allow anyone to step onstage and take the mic with enough confidence to make a lasting impression on their audience. And to really drive the point home, for the first time in ten years, I'm going to give this presentation wearing underwear. And nothing else. My name is Brandon. I was born in Idaho. I went to school in Florida. I like to talk. I talk alot. I don't do the "reader's digest" version of a story. I love performance. I've done choir. I've done debate. I've won poetry slams. I've emceed bachelor auctions, wet underwear contests, and more parties than I can recall. I've dabbled in theater and interpretive dance. I've officiated weddings. In high school they called me The Reverend. In college they called me The Voice of Narrative Authority. I never really wanted to be famous. I just like a captive audience. At this point in my life I can admit that I don't know much, but I do know a thing or two about public speaking. Oh, and I'm a decade-long dedicated free-baller. Brandon L. Keene 69 10/04/2008 4 10/03/2008 http://www.gibberish.com/ 10/03/2008 138 No, we're not talking about BitTorrent, or anything else you watch on a screen. How did we take story - a fundamental right of human beings - and outsource it to people hundreds or thousands of miles away, people who only value us for our value to advertisers? Why do we risk watching the few great TV shows, when we know they could get adulterated or just yanked out from under us if their distributors don't like the numbers? What if we applied to the stories we give space in our lives the same principles of DIY, local sourcing, and pride in personal craft we use in so many bits of our Portland-ish experience? If we're gonna take things apart to see how they work, not just for fun but for a better life, why not do it to our stories? Because great stories are hard, right? Well, yeah, but you're awesome and creative, remember? And they're not that hard, if you can tolerate some messiness here and there, and a distinct lack of visual effects. They get even easier when you learn a few basic precepts of improv theater (and no, you won't have to get up and perform for anyone, either). And lastly, with a simple game-like technique you can (and will) learn to use in 90 seconds, you can start spending a few hours once a week with your friends, making up a great story that you own and control. Mike is a web programmer, writer and Certified Slacker-Futurist who can't seem to curb his nasty habit of publishing and co-editing one of the nation's leading tabletop-gaming weblogs, OgreCave.com. Mike Sugarbaker 12 10/03/2008 4 10/03/2008 10/03/2008 137 There's a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about the death of email, referencing the communication channel as a relic that suffers at the hands of everything from Facebook to Twitter. Unfortunately, professionally speaking, this just isn't true. Email is still a vehicle that logs a lot of miles for things of a formal nature. It's still a fast, effective way to communicate important data. And, more importantly, it's still the vehicle of choice for the majority of digital communicators -- only a small fraction (relatively speaking) of whom are truly comfortable with faster, more agile methods of Web 2.0 communication. Besides that, it's difficult to find a shiny new Web application that doesn't ask for an email address as part of its sign up process. None of this is to say that email hasn't had a couple of buck shots fired into its hind end. Truthfuly, it's a bit of a mess -- a rat race that claims valuable hours of the workday and adds two years of life-sucking stress for every year it's suffered through. But dead? Nah. For the past 5 years I've been co-authoring bad hip-hop songs with Himylayan Sherpas. Seriously, we created more hits than Sylvester Stallone's Rocky 6 body double. Actually, I've been working as a marketer and start up junkie for the past few years. I'm currently a Product Marketing Manager at Palo Alto Software in Eugene. I have an 8-week old son and I put my feet up on the desk at work -- a lot. jason gallic 65 10/03/2008 4 10/03/2008 http://www.leopoldketel.com/ 10/03/2008 136 Just 5 minutes on how to be creative. I expect the presentation to be a little bit thought provoking. There are many myths about creativity and I plan to exploit them all. This will be a humorous romp through the right brain thought process. Grew up in Portland. Went to the PNCA. Worked all over town. Opened up my own shop. Now I occasionally have something to say. Jerry Ketel 68 Leopold Ketel & Partners 10/03/2008 4 10/03/2008 http://tylersticka.com/ 10/03/2008 135 An objective, apolitical analysis of why piracy exists and why, surprisingly, punishing legal purchasers doesn’t curtail the problem. We’ll be speaking in simple, human terms that even an RIAA representative should be able to understand. Tyler Sticka is a designer, artist, speaker and educator specializing in identity-driven new media for clients large and small since 2002. His prior speaking engagements include WebVisions, DevGroup NW and Refresh Portland. Tyler Sticka 67 10/03/2008 4 10/02/2008 10/02/2008 134 How to Survive Working Your Ass Off and Getting an MBA at the Same Time (wife hating you because you spend no time with her, learning to exercise as a way to manage stress, not getting much sleep, and dealing with way too many Intel people all at once.) Currently a Babson College MBA Student and Sales Manager at a local email archiving service provider, Paul is a former hip-hop record label owner and ex-public relations professional. He is a recent PDX transplant from South Philly, home of cheesesteaks and our Declaration of Independence. Paul Reiter 66 10/02/2008 4 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 132 In 1958, Ray set a new world's record in water skiing. He skied 1,000 miles on the Columbia River in 33 hours and 27 minutes non-stop. His method of covering this great distance over a small section of the river was to go round and round over an oval-shaped course 12 1/2 miles long. He made the entire trip on one ski. Nathan is a thirty year old student artist. He is a Portland, Oregon native who has a deep passion and connection to the history and culture of his home town. Nathan Childs down with everyone 10/01/2008 4 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 131 What do almonds, power tools, and the fable of "The Fox and the Scorpion" have to do with the modern banking industry? Excellent question. Everyone complains about Overdraft Fees, and the myriad other pitfalls of the modern commercial banking system. Or at least everyone complains when they get one on their own account. As fired up as a person may get directly after losing a considerable amount of money to corporate fine print, that anger often dissipates in short order as they face countless other trials and tribulations in their day-to-day life. The Center for Responsible Lending reports that financial institutions collected more than $17.5 billion in Overdraft Fees last year. A disproportionate amount of this revenue was collected from social security recipients, minorities, the young, and families below the poverty line. Payday loans, aggressive credit sales and "trap fees" of all shapes and color are staples of the modern financial marketplace. Why are these shady practices on the rise despite public outcry? And, more importantly, what can we do about it? I personally once sat through a work seminar in which my fellow employees and I were told, verbatim, that "Fear and Greed are the key to selling investments." It was probably around then that I decided that people deserve better banks. Having been a "Fraud Specialist" for one of the Top 10 Largest Banks In America for over two years (over two years longer than I would have preferred) I have had quite a lot of time to realize firsthand that most people simply have no idea how the marketplace actually works or how their dollar directly effects the way we all live our lives. If the banking industry is the heart of a capitalist system, a pacemaker is a respectable option, but a clean, healthy, well functioning heart is still preferable. If a bank is a financial tool, it's time we as a society learned how to use it correctly. I hope through metaphor, simile, allegory and flat-out sayin' stuff to first identify a structural pattern underpinning the financial marketplace which causes these symptoms to persist, second sow into all of our fertile mindfields the dream that enhanced system functionality is within our grasps, and third identify specific courses of action that any person can follow to help steer the industry towards increased utility for all us soon-to-be-happy consumers. Social theorist and small business owner by day, corporate Fraud Specialist by night, Devon wears the Cap of Liberation as jauntily as the Fedora of Oppression. Studied in political and social theory, practiced in grim reality, stewed in a hodgepodge of eastern and western philosophy, Devon has been cultivating an interesting perspective on the eternal questions which he is thinking about naming "Enlightened Functionalism", if he can't think of anything less pretentious. Devon Barrett 64 10/01/2008 4 09/30/2008 http://www.fromtherooftops.us/ 09/30/2008 130 I'd love to share my formula for sound sleep in these trying times...two kids, a start-up business, economic catastrophe, failure of checks and balances, etc, etc. Sound sleep in three simple steps: comics, whiskey, hot tea. With some guidance re: how to (and how not to) select each of these from the field of great comics, whiskeys and teas on the market. see www.portlandonfire.com/scottdavis Scott Davis 62 09/30/2008 4 09/29/2008 http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/author/madacterste/ 09/29/2008 128 Managing a community is like hosting a great party. Every day I plan, promote, set things up, greet guests, make introductions, serve meaningful tidbits, address guest questions and make sure that everyone is comfortable and engaged. Just like getting ready for a great party I do my research, pick a theme, make a guest list and send out invitations. Some people think that a great party is all about location, decoration, food and music, but that is just some of the ingredients that go into setting the scene (infrastructure). All of my great party memories are about the people I met, the conversations I had, things that I've learned and the connections that I've made. Great people make a good party amazing. All of these things are true about building a great online community. My focus is teach people how to parallel program on multi-core chips, but in order to make it work they need to engage and excited about the whole experience. Constant learner, enthusiastic teacher...skier, cyclist, chef, fly caster, volunteer, Orangeman, investor, media junkie and beer drinking party guy. Drop me a line at: aaron.c.tersteeg at the domain intel.com. I launched the mobile software development community in the summer of 2006 and am now the community manager for Threading for Multi-Core. In my current role my focus is software development evangelist and geek blogger. Started as a mechanical engineer (oil pump design didn't do it for me), moved on to Information Resource Management, worked as a Business Process Consultant, Fortune 500 Webmaster, Web Application Development VP of Sales and Marketing, Data Center Product Management and now Software Development. My wife likes to tell people at parties that I blog for a living. It is much more than that but it lets me share my ideas and hear what developers have to say. Aaron Tersteeg 60 Community Manager at Intel Software Network - Multi-Core Community 09/29/2008 4 09/29/2008 http://omaried.wordpress.com/ 09/29/2008 127 As an avid gardener, several years ago I planted several kinds of amaranths in my front yard. They cross-pollinated and created a brand new kind of plant the world has never seen before. The flowers are bright purple stalks that look exactly like ginormous erect penises. With attached testicles. I am not making this up. People make pilgrimages to our parking strip every summer to observe this miracle of nature. Gay men show up with landscape cameras and spend hours taking portraits. I have documented this phenomenon, and it's about time to release it into the wild. One more thing: I will bring seeds audience members can take away to make their own parking strip x-rated. Director of Communication & Learning at a private philanthropic foundation by day. Lots of other stuff in off hours, including volunteering for Free Geek, documentary filmmaking, writing, and Gardening with a capital G. Marie Deatherage 09/29/2008 4 09/29/2008 http://www.petsaretalking.typepad.com/ 09/29/2008 126 Every dog, no matter how saintly or adorable, has a bad habit. Whether they have a penchant for chewing expensive stuff or an insatiable desire to poop inside, you can use your intuition to get them to stop. In 20 slides and 5 minutes, I'll show you how to tune into your intuition, and get your dog to stop doing that. It also works for cats, horses, pretty much any animal (even sometimes humans). A few years ago, Bridget Pilloud adopted a horse. Then she realized that she could understand what it was thinking. Then she tried using her intuitive skills on some other animals. Now, hundreds of animals later, Bridget works with animals and their owners to improve communication, resolve issues, and generally just make things better. She also teaches people how to talk with their pets. When not talking with pets, Bridget is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer. She blogs at http://www.petsaretalking.typepad.com. Bridget Pilloud 09/29/2008 4 10/15/2008 http://www.rebeccashapiroart.com/ 09/29/2008 125 I've always been an artist. My passion to create is insatiable. I frequently move between different mediums: painting, textiles, photography, illustration, jewelry. I also explore the realms of nature and the way it finds form in the world. Sustainable fine art is my latest passion. The only time I didn't feel the drive to make something with my hands was when I was pregnant with my children. All my creative juices were going into making those two gorgeous art projects. Sometimes I yearn to be in my studio but the small people in my life yearn for me more. Many times I have to switch gears and give up studio time. At first it was really frustrating. But, the artist took over the grouch. I realized I'm an alchemist and an innovator. Surely, I can do something that satisfies my need as an artist and their need as my child. This past summer was particularly challenging as Anie wasn't happy to just toddle at my side. I was engaged in exploring sustainable fine art and wanted time and space to experiment. Interestingly, when I allowed her to join me, we made amazing art together like: The Plant People Come To Tea - http://rebeccashapiroart.com/2008/09/01/plant-people/ Blackberry Paint - http://rebeccashapiroart.com/2008/08/23/blackberry-paint/ Setting a Fairy Table - http://rebeccashapiroart.com/2008/07/03/setting-a-fairy-table/ I'll present our summer projects, exploring sustainable art during the winter months and how our explorations have inspired me to develop a food grade, artist quality paint from the verdant flora that grows in Portland. Rebecca Shapiro is an artist and entrepreneur. She is currently President & CEO of Pig and Panda, Inc. a corporation specializing in the creative arts. She is the founder of gallery verno, an online sustainable fine art gallery. She is also the mother of two exuberant and precocious children, Tobiahs and Natania. Rebecca Shapiro 57 09/29/2008 4 09/29/2008 http://peat.org/ 09/29/2008 124 Imagine that every village in Africa had a little box. Each day, the people in the village would tell the box what they had to sell, and what they needed: food, tools, livestock, and services. Some days, the box would travel with one of the village children to the local school. Other days, it would travel with an adult to the local market. When the little boxes come close to each other at the school, or in the market, they exchange information. While the children are learning, and while the adults are working, the boxes are finding opportunities — discovering who has corn to sell, who can service a tractor, who wants to buy a chicken. In the blink of an eye, in the casual passing of strangers on the road, the boxes are silently comparing and discovering the inventory of entire villages. A match is found, and the boxes chime. The strangers greet each other and negotiate the exchange. Ten times over, and a family is strengthened. A thousand times over, a community is empowered. A million times over, and a nation is transformed. That little box doesn't exist today, but it could, and it should. What would it take to make it a reality, and why is now the perfect time to start? Peat Bakke is a nerd about town with odd ideas on how to change the world. Peat Bakke 56 09/29/2008