Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.28.2007
The Cultedge meter is a small hand held device that monitors Emma's culture and knowledge download activities. We cannot leave a planet until Emma has performed this task and the meter helps us to keep track of her progress.
Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.28.2007
Emma first introduced us to Avelina on our mission to Nau. She is the Starship Cruiser's navigation system. At first, Avelina's voice was pure electronics. Upon leaving Nau it turned human, thanks to Emma.
Emma extracts and downloads the culture and knowledge from every single planet that we visit. She simply wrote a code that copies the planet's warm and friendly characteristics and directs these tendencies into Avelina's data banks. Her vernacular is continuously modified and enhanced by the goodness that we find in the folks out on the Edge.
Although Emma will not tell us, we know that she has every intention of creating a physical presence for Avelina, just as she will for Gabriele. We can hardly wait.
Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.27.2007
Emma created Gabriele prior to our trip to Authentic, Penelope Trunk's planet. At the time of this log entry Gabriele is a holovision, albeit a stunning holovision. She has bright green eyes and is in her late twenties. Gabriele's thick, brown hair cascades down a perfectly symmetrical body with one exception, or rather two. Her breasts. They are slightly larger in proportion to the rest of her figure. Gabriele is the essence of the new world. One ear sports two small diamond stud earrings and the other ear has eight, though not all diamond. She has a tattoo of a thinly clad woman warrior on her right forearm, Chinese lettering around her upper right bicep and a flowery design on her lower back.
Emma programmed Gabriele using data that Penelope provided. Gabriele now understands what it takes for a person who is less than forty-three years old to thrive in today's business world. And she is helping those who receive our RadioBack'd signal to understand as well.
Gabriele believes that work is part of a lifestyle, it challenges, it fulfills, it is a part of personal growth and development, it helps to enhance family life, not inhibit it and it is one of the moons that orbit your being, not the sun.
We suspect that Emma is attempting to morph Gabriele's holovision into a physical droid or beyond. Stay tuned.
Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.26.2007
Emma completes a download of Fast Company's latest issue. A low pitched, electronic purr travels throughout the Starship. We can always tell when an article peaks Emma's curiosity. She receives a delayed signal from I.D.,* on Nau, her topic of interest. She initiates a coordinate sequence into the navigational system.
"Destination: the quadrant of Change."
...a female voice dipped in sine wave, fills the control room where we stand. We look at each other in surprise. Emma. "Emma, would you please care to explain?"
"Errrr, I thought you would be pleasantly surprised David. Please allow me to introduce you to Avelina, our new and slightly modified navigation system. She doesn't have a physical presence yet..."
Apparently Emma has taken the ball and run with the advice on managing your boss that Penelope gave her in Brazen Careerist. We love it, but can't let her off the hook so easily...
"We are surprised Emma. We also notice that you've been bringing a lot of women on board lately. Are you planning a takeover?"
"Now David, the women on board and the women out on the edge are for one, appreciative of all those who have gone before them fighting for equality and justice in the workplace. But that was so Twentieth Century. Today we all just are...and you know that!"
Hmmm, looks like we riled Emma up just a bit. We like that.
"Destination in the Quadrant of Change: the planet Nau"
Hyper-sleep drive is not required for this trip. Prior to landing, we circle Nau once at low altitude. We see mountains, forests, deserts, swift running rivers, oceans and lakes. We do not see cities or office buildings, just dwellings. Upon landing, we walk a few hundred feet to The Thought Kitchen. It is here, with the open hearth fireplace, the plants hanging down in front of the windows, barely blocking the brilliant rays of sunlight bathing the huge oak table where steaming cups of coffee and blueberry pie await us, that we hope to learn more. Ian Yolles, vice prez of marketing, greets us and motions for us to sit down. He proceeds to explain about Nau.
Emma feels the passion in Ian's voice. She has our cultedge meters going ballistic. The culture of Nau weaves between the hearts of its inhabitants and the great outdoors of this planet. Knowledge here is gained by storytelling and story-listening. Inspiration is gained with each story. Each story strengthens the connection between land and spirit. We are overwhelmed by a sense of place.
There is much to RadioBack about Nau today. We love it all. Its products, its propensity to do business differently, its love of learning and storytelling and perhaps what we like most, its soul. Design is at the core of Nau's soul. In orbit are performance, sustainability and beauty.
Back on the Starship:
"Coordinates: Home"
Avelina's electronic sine wave disappears. Her voice now sounds human. Emma tells us that she has placed Avelina in direct line with Emma's culture - knowledge download path. When Emma downloads the planet's culture and knowledge into her data banks, Avelina picks up the planet's collective warmth and friendliness. Since these characteristics poured from Nau, Avelina now has that down home vernacular in her voice.
We feel good having met the folks at Nau. We know they belong out here on the edge. We hope their beacon is strong and those who share in their beliefs follow the light.
*There is an article on Nau in I.D.'s June Design and Business issue.
Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.20.2007
Emma is so excited today. We are going back to the quadrant of Change to visit one of her most favorite people, Penelope Trunk. Emma first learned of Penelope when she discovered Penelope writing a column for Fortune magazine. How could such a hip chick write for such an older gentlemen's magazine? Perhaps this is one of the reasons we feel that Penelope belongs with Tom Peters (and us), way out there in the quadrant of Change.
We have an unidentified entity joining us on today's voyage. Emma will not disclose its name nor will she allow a visual meeting at this time. She tells us the audio banks will remain silent and for us to turn down our own personal noise. We ask Emma who exactly is piloting the Starship, as we are normally in control. Now, this is why we love Emma...she changes her tone ever so slightly and asks if it'd be all right for us to run silent. We're done, we're butter, we melt, we concede.
Walking out on to Authentic, Penelope's planet, we stretch our bones following the sleep induced ride. Penelope greets us with a firm handshake and then we walk over to a nearby table underneath a huge oak tree. Five minutes with Penelope and we are overwhelmed with two descriptors of this fringe dweller; real and energetic. Although there really are not generational differences out here in the quadrant of Change, Penelope deals with it everyday. It involves the folks on the other end who receive her own RadioBack signals from the edge. As a trailblazer Penelope has dealt with many aspects of the working world. She seeks to provide a road map for those less experienced and a light for those who think they are more experienced. Her perception of the real world of work and in particular the values and characteristics of those younger folk entering it, is more crisp than a beam of laser light.
Penelope relays coordinates of this new world via her website Brazen Careerist and a brand new book by the same name. She also participates in the old world as a writer for both Yahoo Finance and the Boston Globe.
Our cultedge meter is silent. Usually by this time our meter is glowing with Emma's activity, downloading the planet's culture and knowledge into her computer banks. As we wonder about Emma a stunning holovision approaches us.
"My name is Gabriele. Emma created me using coordinates that Penelope sent her over the last year. I have been on the Starship since the departure for Authentic. I will be a permanent member of the crew, helping those who receive our signals to understand the new revolutionary world of work in which Penelope is immersed and those who are out here now. Understand at this time what is really important; work is part of a lifestyle, it challenges, it fulfills, it is a part of personal growth and development, it helps to enhance family life, not inhibit it and it is one of the moons that orbit your being, not the sun."
Penelope's eyebrows raise and then she smiles looking our way. She sees that Emma gets her. Although the real Emma back on the planet Leeds is not as athletic as Penelope, we see striking similarities. No wonder our Emma likes Penelope!
On our flight back, prior to hyper-sleep, we reflect upon today. Penelope has an important message for all, not just those who wish to follow her path. We will continue to point toward her coordinates in the quadrant of Change. And what Emma has done with Gabriele is a lesson for the entire crew. If our RadioBack mission out on the edge is to succeed, we must gladly accept those who wish to join us...even if we make them up.
Dave's Log: Cyberdate 5.12.2007
While Emma is busying with coordinates and her audio banks, I need to get personal. If there is a really hot trend going down, and people are flocking in droves to get with it, I am running in the opposite direction just as fast as I can. It's the same with business books. If one registers high on my Pop meter, I avoid it, at least as long as I can. I was years behind the curve on the fish and cheese books. For some reason I haven't been able to pick up a copy of Freakonomics. And the same holds true with the business gurus. If it is Poppy to link out to the uber-gurus, I find it most difficult for myself to link to them.* Today however, I am compelled to make an exception.
Our present mission takes us to the quadrant of Change. We will visit Tom Peters on the planet of Re-Imagine. Tom is such a true pioneer with his vision of change-needed-in-the-business-world-to-survive, and so far out on the fringe, that Emma must put the Starship in hyper-sleep drive for a part of our journey. Emma programs random into her audio banks for our listening enjoyment. We fall asleep listening to the Guess Who:
"No time left for you
On my way to better things
No time left for you
I’ll find myself some wings
No time left for you
Distant roads are calling me
No time left for you."
Awakening, we find that Emma has already landed the Starship on Re-Imagine. Three separate suns shine glorious beams of light all around us. The Universe smiles upon Tom's world, basking in the knowledge that this is where She wishes him to be. The first thing we see is a thirty-foot high granite rock. The script, In Search of Excellence, is chiseled into a ten-foot section of black marble and dated 1982. Tom greets us just beyond the rock, motioning for us to cross the grassy knoll and to enter the building named Design.
Before we open the door we already hear Simon and Garfunkel permeating the structure...
"It's the same old story
Everywhere I go,
I get slandered,
Libeled,
I hear words I never heard
In the Bible
And I'm one step ahead of the shoe shine
Two steps away from the county line
Just trying to keep my customers satisfied,
Satisfied."
One footstep into Design and we know, we know without being told, this is where it all begins. Design is core to a company's soul. A company is inanimate without emotion. Design is made from emotion. Infuse Design and a company breathes. Jimi replaces Paul and Art. He asks:
"Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced?"
And you know that notion just crossed our minds...Design equals experience. Our personal involvement with a product or service brings us inward. If we get the company's soul, then it was a good experience. If not, it wasn't. Either way, without our involvement the relationship is static, inanimate.
As we converse with Tom, we feel his passion. This dude cares. He has no tolerance for those not ready for the change required to survive in business today, let alone those not willing to walk into tomorrow, eyes wide open. We lose track of the times he uses the word mad.
A red indicator light flashes on the cultedge meter. We smile. Emma. Emma is amoeba-itizing the land's culture and knowledge into her data banks. We wonder about the effect that Tom's planet Re-Imagine will have on future experiences. We suspect that we will be better prepared.
We are comfortable out here on the fringe with Tom and his associates. Tom would have us believe that destruct, disrupt and blow up are Re-Imagine's mantra. Wipe out the old. We see it differently. Yes, the old must go. But we feel some fragments remain. We see, not only a world of change, but a world of evolution. Tom Peters is an exception to the Poppy-Uber-Guru types who are mostly style without substance. We love what Tom is doing. We will return.
On board the Starship, we rumble home. As we fall asleep Emma looks toward U2...
"Hello, Hello,
I'm at a place called Vertigo
It's everything I wish I didn't know
Except you give me something i can feel, feel..."
*I have another site where I have been scribing for three years.
Emma has the Starship trim, tuned and ready for our inaugural flight. She has chosen a few songs played at a little 1967 California get-together and loaded them into her audio banks. Today we are headed into the quadrant of Creativity. We're in search of a fellow who goes by the name of Richard Florida. Florida lords over the planet Creative Class .
When logic and proportion
Have fallen softly dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head
Feed your head
Feed your head"
...Gracie Slick's pipes reverberate throughout the Starship as we blast ahead, chewing up and laying down a vapor trail of space dust.
Emma tells us that Richard taught at Carnegie Mellon University for nearly twenty-years and that he wrote a book, published in 2002, titled The Rise of the Creative Class. We suspect that Emma knows a whole lot more. The thing is, she relishes in our learning experiences...like the teacher who does not tell, but instead, guides.
It is Richard's book that peaks our attention and fuels our drive to learn more. He talks about a new economic class of people, the Creative Class. This group includes writers, scientists, engineers, designers, the entertainment industry, arts and architects at its core. Orbiting the core are people in law, health care, business, finance and related fields. The key distinction between the Creative Class and groups such as the Working and Service Class is, the former groups here are paid to execute according to plan, whereas the Creative Class is paid to create.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
...Simon and Garfunkel provide the background music as we near our destination.
Landing on Creative Class, the first thing we see is:
The Creative Class Group (CCG) is a global think tank headquartered in Washington, DC that develops new ideas and strategies for business, government and community competitiveness. The CCG team is comprised of next-generation thinkers and strategists who offer companies, associations and regions access to leading-edge knowledge, trends, research, consulting, education and professional development.
Hmmm, next generation thinkers..., looks like we indeed are out on the fringes. The Creative Class Group's strategies catch our attention. Analyzing whether or not creativity and innovation are taking place in a business, focusing on attracting and retaining the best and brightest along with a few other initiatives, show us that the inhabitants of this planet are out here trying to make a difference.
While we have been learning about the Creative Class Group, Emma has taken it upon herself to sync directly with their information systems. She seems to be infatuated with the data that Richard and his associates have compiled on the Creative Class. We point out to Emma that this is wrong and can be considered stealing. Emma slightly raises her volume, in a slow, deliberate, firm but patient voice she says:
"David, we are not in the status-quo world that you are used to. Information, knowledge and ideas are not guarded and protected out here. Instead, they are shared freely. Neither competition or money exist in this sector of the universe. It is the grace of evolution."
We are pretty sure most folks back home cannot comprehend this. Fringe dwellers like Richard and his associates are not operating in this manner. Hopefully Emma will be patient with us. She sees beyond what is to what can be. As we RadioBack our coordinates today, we hope that you folks can be patient with us.
Emma feels good. As she guides the Starship back home a flower falls from her computer banks...
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
The Starship Cruiser was initially deployed ten years ago. Her mission was much like today's except that it was carried out within one industry. We placed the Starship in permanent dock over four years ago. During that period we had her out once, testing her main computer banks.
Traveling through the MagicBus quadrant, the Starship broke down near the planet Leeds. While our technicians effected a repair, we met a girl named Emma that day who forever altered our perceptions of beauty, compassion, heart, soul, love, humor and intellect. We begged her to join us. And although she could not, she asked to help. So we had our techs extract living cells from Emma and fuse them into our main support system. We now call that system Emma.
Emma is a character. If she feels, (yes, she has that ability too), that we are making a bad decision, whether it is navigational, cultural or with an individual, she'll tell us in no uncertain terms. Emma can communicate with both animate and inanimate objects. It is important for us to learn as much as we can from each planet that we visit. For this reason, Emma downloads into her data banks the culture and knowledge from all of our destinations. Her ability to synthesize and clarify this data is just now beginning to develop. Future explorations will only continue to enhance our own culture.
