I’ve been in Portland Oregon this week working with Native community radio stations from across the United States on an exciting capacity development project. While here I’ve been enjoying the city. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver really are sister cities. We share the same climate, the same eco-systems and concerns, the same look and feel. The histories of the three cities are intertwined by the people that have lived on this coast since the cities were founded. The Columbia is the furthest south outlet of Canadian freshwater on the west coast, so in many ways, what …
Interesting stuff popping out today around the net on social tools and face to face. On the OSLIST, there was a little discussion on using twitter and facebook and the pros and cons. I posted these thoughts: I love the social tools because they allow me to connect with and get to know people in far flung areas who are closer to me in thought and spirit than those who are nearby. For me, twitter, facebook, skype and blogging are a means to an end, and that end os sharing open face to face conversations with folks …
Micheal Herman posted a cool cafe design to the OSLIST today. It marries the best of Cafe and Open Space: i just facilitated an afternoon program with 120 “high potential” high school seniors as part of a final selection process for full-ride scholarships to two excellent universities. it was a cafe format, but the first session was used to write questions that these young leaders thought they and other young people should be addressing. then we did three rounds in which table hosts picked the questions and raised them with whoever rotated to their table for one …
We’ve explored very interesting, extremely challenging conversations using amazing tools, related to climate change and what we are to do about it. But the most engaging and mind blowing of all conversations was in a small circle, with the right people, sharing in an intimate and trustful environment, our dreams and expectations of this journey, sharing stories (Oh! The power of stories); and preparing ourselves, yet once again, this time as a collective, on what awaits us, an experience which will significantly have an impact in all of us as individuals, in our collective consciousness. And while connecting with words …
I am not talking about the bailout here. I am talking about a serious rescue. Abousifian Abdelrazik is a Canadian who has found himself in a big pickle. He returned to his birthplace in Sudan in 2003 to visit is ailing mother. While there, the CSIS, our spy agency, apparently had him arrested. He was later allegedly interrogated by CSIS, the FBI and Sudanese intelligence officials about ties to Osama bin Laden. He was in and out of detention for years in Sudanese jails, where he alleges he was also tortured. In the meantime, …