How does a paradigm change in society? It happens one funeral at a time ..
Finally had the opportunity to make it out to a RISE event this week. Albeit, it was the closing ceremony, I did have the pleasure of listening to John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods elaborate on his perspective of entrepreneurship and business strategy.
Back tracking a bit, for those who are not aware of Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs (RISE) Austin, no worries. Only in its third year, several have described this year’s conference to be the best yet. RISE co-founder, Roy Sosa, proclaimed that this year’s conference saw 133 sessions, over 1600 attendees and over 50 percent growth from last year in session attendance.
Not too shabby for a three-year old un-conference-conference.
Closing the conference out at the Bob Bullock History Museum, the crowd ranged in ages, experience and industries. It was great to see such a diverse crowd. Fittingly, tonight’s speech was a good reminder of that slight twinge of Austin “weirdness” that lends itself to all facets of this city’s culture.
After schmoozing and food, Mackey took the stage and presented his theory of Conscious Capitalism. In a nutshell, businesses of the 21st century will survive and succeed if they adopt the following:
The enterprise must have a deeper purpose beyond just maximizing profit
One must look to optimize for all stakeholders not just the shareholders
Leaders of these future businesses should practice service leadership; you should serve the enterprise not vice versa
Mackey poses the question: What is your purpose?
He defines the four great purposes of any successful business as the following:
Service to others (e.g. SW Airlines, Nordstroms, Container store)
Discovery and seeking truth (e.g. Google, Intel)
Excellence – quest for perfection world class (e.g. Apple, Warren Buffet)
Changing the world (e.g. The Gates Foundation)
Mackey brings up an excellent point that people now expect more from their jobs – not only to make money but to also feel good about what they do. It goes without saying that this economic situation has become a catalyst for this realization. Perhaps all the buzz of a recession sparking innovation is indeed truth.
So will entrepreneurs of the future really adopt this business practice? And, will Austin, as Sosa predicts, be the entreprenuer capitol of the world? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Looks like this weekend is shaping up to be a busy one for those in the start-up community. Two events are on the horizon for Friday and Saturday.
First up – the Corporate Social Responsibility Conference. Hosted at the Applied Materials offices, this conferences targets entrepreneurs and managers to discuss best practices, collaboratively advise, and elevate conversations regarding corporate social responsibility. Registration for members $25; non-member $65. For more info, check out the details here.
Second – Startup Camp is being held this Saturday from 1pm – 6pm in the ACTLab (Studio 4B) at the University. The session schedule includes an appearance from Josh Baer, who will be discussing how Capital Factory can give your startup money, mentorship, and services to get your startup off the ground
Sex-dub is fast approaching. Actually, it’s less than three weeks away and already, my email/facebook/upcoming etc has been inundated with party invites galore.
Not going to attempt to list everything I’ve already RSVPed for – but as soon as sched.org has it ready to go – you can rest assured I’ll have that posted.
For now, SXSW is hosting an Austin Party on Monday, February 23 at Shangri-La on the East Side. Starts at 7:00pm. There will be free drinks, food, music and a chance to win a SXSWi badge.
So it is time again for StartUpCamp Austin 2009. Brandon Wiley and myself (Joey), along with the help of many others will be putting it on in the ACTLab. We hope to have a great turn out like last time. So be sure to sign up. Unlike many other barcamps, this one is a half day event, that is right you get to sleep in
My mom once told me that I’d always be a tomboy and that my sister would probably have a boyfriend long before I ever did.
She’s 2 for 1.
There’s always a running joke between friends about the girl to guy ratio on our outings. And by this I mean – one Kristine to five guys. Trust me, this post isn’t meant to boast; but it is a reminder of how skewed this scene really is.
Since my first experience (during SXSWi last year) to the present, it’s been a struggle to connect with other ladies around town. To be frank, it’s just easier to get along with the guys.
After last night’s SXSW 2009 test run, I was left with a different perspective on this whole situation. Maybe it’s not that the girls aren’t out there or on the scene. There are plenty.
Maybe there’s a whole different reason. What that might be? I’m not 100 percent.
So, I pose this first question.
What does it take to be a girl geek in this scene?
Taking a non-scientific swath at the ladies who have been been deemed successful by their tech peers – male and other – (citation: Fast company Top Women in Tech): a couple of characteristics jump out at me:
Must be independent and headstrong; most are either CEOs and/or entrepreneurs in their own right
Knows her tech terminology; might not be an EE major, but she can spar with the best of them
Nimble and insightful with the ability to look beyond the next five years
Can sit back and enjoy a drink or two
Understands the value of personal brand – how they develop that brand is an entirely DIFFERENT post
Considered to be a connector
Likes cupcakes
In trying to avoid any arguments about gender equality, blah blah blah, just thought it would be an interesting question to ask.
If anything, I just admitted to the whole Internetz that my mom thinks i’m a tomboy.
The term “meme”, much like the words “grok” or “postmodern”, is something I drop regularly in conversation where I feel it might apply, but have no inkling as to its actual meaning.
That’s right. Meme? I’m clueless. The thing is, just as in the case of “grok” and “postmodern”, my usage has yet to be corrected. One possibility is that no one has the heart to tell me I’m sounding ridiculous–but when you account for the smartass (or genuine? both) company I keep, that seems unlikely. So really, is it just that nobody knows?
Earnest in my pursuit of sounding smart, I turned to Google. Wiktionary has the term listed as follows:
Noun
meme
(philosophy) Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity.
(philosophy) A self-propagating unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene (the unit of genetics).
(Did you know Richard Dawkins coined “meme” back in 1976, in his book The Selfish Gene? If that doesn’t make it a worthy read, I don’t know what does.)
I suppose that’s as good a way as any of conceptualizing meme: a cultural unit. It’s a bit vague to apply any unit to something as abstract as “culture”, so let’s boil it down. When viewed through the lens of chemical stoichiometry, these units could conceivably take any form, while representing a singular compound that can be described and experienced by whoever observes it. As we assign “mole” to one unit of a chemical compound, regardless of its relative size or abundance, we may assign “meme” to one unit of collective experience.
But since “collective experience” could refer to virtually anything, little is disambiguated about “meme”. So it’s back to chemistry: a meme is a meme is a meme–each may be composed of different elements and take different forms, and when we’re identifying discrete units of diverse media, that’s helpful. But what elements go into a meme? A qualitative analysis is in order: consider the links in the above sentence. Large, organized groups challenging people’s comfort zones in public? Let’s all get together and examine social norms. A link embedded in a Tweet? Let’s all click on it and discuss. Don’t like a meme? Counter-meme, and start a new dialogue. Blog, video, chain letter, link–it’s not so much what you’re calling a “meme” that matters, as the consistent trend between them all. Something becomes a meme when it creates a space for interaction–the opportunity for humans to relate to one another where they previously wouldn’t have. A meme is simply one unit of an experience we all have in common.
So the question is no longer “Is a blog a meme? Is a video a meme? Is a link a meme?” It’s “did this unit provide the space for a collective experience that could shape our culture?” Using this definition, one of the most significant memes of all might be SXSW. It is something that’s always present in the mind of the Austinite, as well as the minds of tech nerds, film nerds, and music nerds worldwide. We swap “South-by”s as a kind of cultural currency–it has meaning attached to it; an inherent worth that connects the speaker and the listener. How do you feel when you see “SXSW”, or hear the words? For me, it’s a swell of pride for a city I call “home”, mixed with eagerness to see people coming together to share knowledge and new ideas. Where there once was nothing, there is now a place for information sharing to happen on a grand scale, in a way that encourages enthusiasm and collaboration. The actual meme unit comes into existence as everyone in the music, film, and tech industry gets stoked, and prepares themselves for a showing-off, developing new projects to have “in the works”. The meme in action is my listening to you speak at a panel, or your discussion with a collegue over coffee.
From March 13-22, the SXSW meme is the center of its own solar system, with each of us revolving around it. Automatically, we all have something in common. It gets us moving, talking, creating–individually, together.
Vehemently disagree? Tell me why in the comments.
So, meme, consider yourself memed. This is me, dedicated to grokking you in all your postmodern glory. See you at SXi.
Just Because It Is On The Internet, Does Not Mean It Is New
There is a seemingly universal condition that afflicts people on the world wide web, a pervasive disorder that eventually affects everyone, even myself. This is the overwhelming compulsion to label anything and everything that appears on the web as “New!”. The problem with this, as you might imagine, is that just because something is on the internet does not mean its new.
One of the latest things to hit the internet is the recent phenomenon of Co-working. With the help of collaborative social mediums like Facebook and Twitter, groups of freelancers and telecommuters have been able to join together in loose confederations in coffee shops and some have even joined financial forces to acquire group-owned office space. We’ll talk more about that later, but the moral of the current story is: Co-working is not new, not by a long shot. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a scientist. I mean that in the most general sense, in that I find all the “-ologies” fascinating, important, and interconnected–I study humans and interaction, society and relationships. I study the math that provides a foundation for physics that provides a foundation for chemistry that provides a foundation for life, and the meta sciences that branch out from all sides.
The new puzzle piece in this web, the wild card, is social media. This new connectivity is a hub of all sciences, affecting so many parts of our lives that I never had acknowledged before I really took a closer look: our ability to connect with other people is revolutionizing the way we communicate, carry on relationships, perceive ourselves, and how we learn and teach information. You can analyze social media using a framework of philosophy, or anthropology, history, even the physics of space and time. In turn, a culture of social media will transform these disciplines.
That’s why I’ve become interested in the tech scene. While I am on a track to become a doctor and have studied writing, humanities and life sciences my whole life, I am coming to understand the direct relevance of media and technology to everything that I do, that we as a society do. And that’s why I’m here–learning about tech is the same as learning about culture, the same as learning about philosophy, the same as learning about relationships. Our generation is going to be the one that defines new social norms, a culture shaped by 24/7 access to knowledge. To be a good scientist, it’s a crucial (and exciting) area to study.
I’m Becca, and that’s my angle. I’m a big ol’ newb to this scene, but I’ll ask and discuss my questions from the perspective of someone looking to connect the things I’m learning to the things I already know–consider yourselves my new favorite -ology.
So for those of you who have been living under a rock, there’s a Twitter + Good Deed + Charity + Party mash-up on the horizon.
Here are the deets for your consumption:
To attend the event you need to get a ticket here: http://www.amiando.com/twestivalaustin.html. For those who can’t attend there are still a bunch of other ways to support the cause listed below.
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One in six people on the planet doesn’t have clean drinking water. This kills more people than all wars combined. The Austin community has decided to get together to do something about it, and you are invited. Austin Twestival features bands, sumo suit wrestling, and a lot of cool people joining together a great cause. 100% of all ticket sales go to charity:water and if we sell out we will have earned enough to build two wells in Africa.
Twestival is taking place in over 100 cities all over the globe on February 12, 2009. It was organized by people using the microblogging service Twitter and took off in places like Bangkok, Sao Paolo, Berlin and Rome in less than one week. Each city is seeking to make history by ensuring everyone on Earth has safe water to drink.
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Twestival sounds awesome, right? Join us at Ace’s Lounge in downtown Austin on Feb. 12th. Here’s the schedule of events:
8:00 Meet and mingle
8:50 A word from sponsors
9:00 Twestival Sumo Smackdown (see video below)
10:00 Presentation by Glimmer of Hope, a non-profit that drills wells in Africa
10:45 Performance by T-Bird and the Breaks, one of Austin’s most highly regarded up-and-coming bands. This 11 piece band won accolades from both ACL’s “Sound and the Jury” Awards as well as the Austin Music Awards. They’ve sold out their past two shows and just released a new album. See video below.
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A donation of just $10 can provide someone in Africa clean drinking water for 12 years. Collectively, we can initiate substantial change for developing nations. Here are are a variety of ways you can make this happen:
There’s always a running joke between friends about the girl to guy ratio on our outings. And by this I mean – one Kristine to five guys. Trust me, this post isn’t meant to boast; but it is a reminder of how skewed this scene really is.
art a new dialogue. Blog, video, chain letter, link–it’s not so much what you’re calling a “meme” that matters, as the consistent trend between them all. Something becomes a meme when it creates a space for interaction–the opportunity for humans to relate to one another where they previously wouldn’t have. A meme is simply one unit of an experience we all have in common.
