350, awareness campaign & is it being heard?

Yesterday, I joined hundreds of people to do cycling ride around the mighty Angkor Wat. Yep, it is great that people turning up to join the call for climate action. Check out photos here.

It is a call for action for individuals as well as authorities to make climate friendly choices which would require giving up convenient choices.

Are you climate friendly?

I am not. But I will try.

new new news

I have been wondering much how new new news would be like.

I think it would still be founded upon traditional journalism ethics but presenting in digestible, relevant and social format. New York Times has forayed into presenting news in interactive way with relevant info and exposing news to semantic queries.

I really like recently launched http://tracked.com since its http://rakedin.com days. Its delivery concept has all 3 components I have hypothesized for new new news.

Another news delivery systems I like is Everyblock:

http://everyblock.com - hyper-relevant local news presented in digestible format (could it be social? what about mashing it up with http://fwix.com)

a letter from jerry yang

a leader i admire for his humbleness, passion and purple

below is an internal memo he sent out to all yahoos (note: no capital letter)

To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we've just announced. the
board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process
for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is
leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for
consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and
considering both internal and external candidates and has retained
heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.

i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will
continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is
named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue
to serve as a director on the board.

last june, i accepted the board's request that i assume the ceo role
to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more
effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners.
since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the
board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your
tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and
we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can
take the company to the next level.

despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo!
is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways
than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more
essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up
to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that
having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues,
we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the
next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.

all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i
will always do what I think is right for this great company. while
this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it's the right
one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the
board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i
can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.

thank you,
jerry

Mesh Network

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Though one could easily figure out what these two words mean, I happened to come in touch with the terminology only when I had a chance to really touch an XO laptop about 10 months ago.

There are a lot of magics at work in connecting these green nodes. It is very interactive to see those nodes visualized on the screen. And social exchanges happen through that visualization.

I have very keen interest in means of relaying information anonymously through mobile phones under heavy surveillance from restrictive regimes such as Iran and Burma. The best is to be able to setup spontaneous and fluid network within a trusted group.

Mesh network setup among XO laptops intrigued me to wonder if it would be applicable among mobile phones.

After a few googlings, I got a lead - bluetooth. I personally think bluetooth is a under-utilized feature because I have never used it from my mobile. And now it is even more impossible with my current very basic Nokia phone with no bling bling but a handy torchlight.

Bluetooth has limitation in range though; bluetooth in usual phones can communicate within 10 meters range only.

I have a few ideas on possible usages in for information centers in rural areas and among activists. To be continued.

2 escapes

Escapes from mishaps. In a month's time, I could have been seriously injured twice.

One time, I was on a mountain bike going at about 50 km/h to 60 km/h. I tripped in to potholes and got derailed. I fell off on the ground with my back. I got really lucky with just a very minor bruise.

Another time, just about four hours ago, a tri-cycle coming head-on almost got me squeezed between another tri-cycle going in the same direction as me. My bike got squeezed. I jumped off the bike not to be trapped. I had to take about 10 steps to counter the momentum. I didn't get any cut.

I am writing this not to boast about how lucky I have been. It is to remind myself to be extra-conscious while I am on the road.

Fixing flaw in capitalism

Perfection is almost unattainable. Capitalism has pros which other political systems such as communism and socialism might not have.

I have come to realize that outcomes of overhauling a system to fix some cons in it are dramatic. It is evident in devastation of Cambodia back to Year Zero when communism was implemented during Pol Pot regime to replace colonialism/capitalism. It doesn't necessarily mean communism is evil.

Change needs patience. Change needs insight of the existing system and the next system. Change happens at the time when tipping point is touched. It is very evident in how Mr Obama came out to be the US president.

Capitalism, as of now, won't change in few years to come. However, the poor who has fallen out of the system can be saved. Dr Yunus has proved his point - empowering credit to the poor who otherwise won't be able to participate in capitalism.

Rather than waiting for the change to happen (which might now come in near future), it is important to see how to fix existing problems within existing system.

(It is always exciting to work on new system. However, 80/20 rule applies. Now, change which Mr Obama offered to the voters might not be as exciting as before. Some are apparently getting fed up. However, the beauty is in seeing and working through the last 20%.)

So how to fix existing problems without overhaul?

Poverty
Educate people about financial system: not to be taken advantage of, not to be nakedly swindled. It would be interesting to do a survey on how many people with a bachelor degree know about naked short selling.

Democracy (in Cambodia)
Though there are a lot of complaints about how shady Cambodia political system is, it is evident that NGOs are operating quite freely within the country. There is relatively so much freedom in civil society space. Don't believe? Compare it with its neighbor, Burma. Through vibrant civil society, democracy will surely be attained. But, obviously, it will take a long time.

Look a problem with another perspective. There might be more pragmatic and meaningful solution. 

Starting with failure - another side of failure

Finally, I am starting my blog. I will be writing on various topics but with focus on failure, entrepreneurship and activism.

My first post will be about one of my favorite speeches. It is by JK Rowling who wrote top hit Harry Potter series.

I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

Full transcript here: http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

Failures are usually ridiculed instead of being embraced, especially in Asian society. As a result, consequences of a failure are exaggerated exacerbated.

As Ms Rowling has pointed out, there is silver lining in a failure, there is another perspective to a failure. Only through failures, lessons are learned, skin is thickened, excess is shed, and stamina is toughened.

Fear for failures would be counter-productive. As long as failure is not embraced, we would be just prisoners of this fear.

I have learnt it with a serious setback. Failure - here I come.