It was Paco Xander Nathan (blog), mad genius of Fringeware, who back in the early 90s first told me about Vernor Vinge and The Singularity. For the next decade, I heard it referred to only rarely. Then in 2005, about the time Ray Kurzweil released his book: The Singularity is Coming, I began to hear the term used with some frequency. That same year, Vernor Vinge gave the keynote to an all-star crowd at the Accelerating Change 2005 conference. A year later, in 2006, the first Singularity Summit was held at Stanford, Ray Kurzweil being one of the organizers.
Whether it is the result of the general hoo haa regarding the Semantic Web or some other factor, in the last few months, I’ve been hearing the term ’singularity’ pop up quite a bit in local conversations. Thankfully, the word has five syllables.
Since no one has time to read any more, I decided to assemble a collection of mp3s on The Singularity for Mopac University. Right click, burn them, and listen to them on your way to the office.
Accelerating Change 2005
Vernor Vinge Keynote Presentation recorded 2005-09-17 (listen to the mp3)
“The singularity is not a given, nor is it necessarily a positive event. Many factors could arise that prevent the singularity from occurring and there is a potential for it to be a catastrophic event rather than a positive revolution.”
Ray Kurzweil When Humans Transcend Biology recorded 2005-09-17 (listen to the mp3)
(an abbreviated version appeared on Tech Nation with Moira Gunn - listen to the mp3)
John Smart How to be a Tech Futurist -recorded 2005-09-17 (listen to the mp3)
An extended list of presentations from Accelerating Change can be found at ITConversations.
The Singularity Summit 2007
Barney Pell - Powerset Co-Founder & CEO - Singularity Summit 2007 - Pathways to Advanced General Intelligence - recorded 2007-09-08 (listen to the mp3)
Ben Goertzel - Nine Years to a Positive Singularity - recorded 2007-09-08 (listen to the mp3)
An extended list of presentations from the Singularity Summit 2007 can be found at ITConversations.
The Singularity Institute, which organizes the Singularity Summit, has a series of interviews. Some of them are quite good. They also have videos of the 2006 presentations and 2007 presentations. Please don’t watch the videos while driving.
See you on Mopac. Remember, no need to rush. We’re already in Austin.
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whurley, Chief Architect of Open Source Strategy, BMC Software, Inc. discusses The Collaborator’s Paradox followed by an interview with Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus of CIO Magazine 3:30 PM, October 16th at Innotech Austin. Registration required. Use WHURLEY88 code for free admission. |
I’ve been waiting nearly a year now to hear whurley speak about this.
Collaboration is easy, right?
Wikinomics. Crowdsourcing. Groundswells, Innovation Networks. Around the world more and more visionary leaders are bestowing the benefits of working hand in hand with customers, partners, and even competitors. You can’t start a conversation about technology without ‘open source’, ‘community’, or ‘user driven innovation’ quickly becoming the focal point. Customers are back and in unprecedented numbers, they are using previously unavailable technology to dramatically change the technology landscape. Many are taking a ‘just open it and they will come’ approach to what is arguably the greatest shift in business since the dawn of the industrial age. However, the truth is that collaboration is hard.
In this presentation and interview with Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus of CIO Magazine, whurley explores the challenges of opening your business to collaborate with the world — the realities of collaboration, the metrics with which to measure success, and the factors that inevitably doom almost every collaborative project.
For the last year or so, as whurley advised me on various projects, I’ve been exposed to various melodies and motifs of the Collaborator’s Paradox. I am eager to hear the complete work. Please join me at Innotech Austin for The Collaborator’s Paradox. If you use the following code: WHURLEY88, you can attend Innotech, and this session, for free. You can register for InnoTech here.
-An accidental series of discoveries-
I have found that one of the biggest hurdles in hosting an event is to find the right venue — one that people feel comfortable at, one that is suitable for the type of event you are hosting, and one that doesn’t require me to break the budget. Any decent venue up in North Austin — like Cool River, NXNW, etc — already does a booming business during the week. They don’t need the 200+ people I’ll bring. In fact, they’ll most likely want me to sign a contract guaranteeing that a certain amount of money will be spent. After 8 years of GeekAustin events, I have a pretty good idea of how much folks drink at an event — and it’s generally it’s 3-7 dollars less per person than what I’ll need to guarantee for x amount of space up North.
Contrast this with downtown. I can walk into pretty much any club downtown on a weeknight, saying : “Can I bring 200 of my friends here next Tuesday?”, and immediately I’ve got a new friend. No contracts. No guarantees. Just “thanks.” There are clubs of all sizes downtown. One can find multiple venues for groups of 20 to 600. Bear in mind, I am not talking about getting a venue during a club’s bread and butter nights — Friday and Saturday. I am talking about Monday through Wednesday, and for some venues, Thursday as well. This is why GeekAustin events are almost always downtown. I try to never displace a club’s regular customers. I simply bring them additional business they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
This is the same reason why so many of the BarCamp and BarCamp type events are held downtown. During the week, and during the day, there are a multitude of spaces available for little or no cost.
-From BarCamp to BarCollege-
When Daniel and I announced that we would be offering free SQL classes to individuals, an interesting but not unexpected thing happened. In addition to 100+ folks who asked to be included in the SQL classes, we had folks sending queries like “Will you be teaching JavaScript classes?“, “Do you know where I can get Python classes?“, etc. The following idea hit us over the head like a two by four:
With all the the available space during the day and during the week, we could easily turn 6th street and the warehouse district into a campus, where the tuition is a two drink minimum!
Imagine what a cool thing this will be for Austin. Instead of following the valley, here’s something we can take the lead on. I don’t know a city that has done this. Do you? Imagine downtown clubs filled during weeknights with people learning JavaScript, CSS, Linux, system administration, shell scripting, Cisco IOS, SharePoint, Java — whatever someone is willing to teach and share.
This whole idea is too big for Daniel and I alone. We decided to offer the classes because we like meeting new people, sharing our skills, and love talking about SQL. We don’t want to become coordinators for some massive enterprise. Fortunately, this does not need to be a massive enterprise. It does not need to have a organization to make it happen. For all the folks who use every opportunity to make themselves the hub of all things high tech Austin, your Grand Marshall services will not be required at this time. All that is needed are folks who are willing to share their skills.
There are already examples in Austin of similar skill sharing going on. Damon Clinkscales has done a tremendous amount to educate folks about Rails and build a strong Rails community in Austin. Scott Killen, Boris Portman, and all the folks at Agile Austin are doing the same to build a community focused on good programming practice. RefreshAustin does a great job of keeping members abreast of best practices in design and usability. I’m am merely suggesting that we take this a step further. In addition to presenting topics for those who have already acquired sufficient skills to be included in a particular tech community, let’s offer basic instruction so that new folks can hop on board.
You might be asking yourself: “What will I get out of it?”. Here are a few thoughts. Most computer book authors wrote their first book not because they hoped to make money off it, but rather because the recognition would allow them to increase their hourly rate. Similarly, as soon as Daniel and I announced the free SQL classes, we gained several new corporate clients. Everyone wins. You help strengthen the downtown economy, you help folks acquire new skills, and you expand and grow your community.
Thinking of stealing this idea? Please do. I want you to steal this idea. If you have a skill that everyone wants, share it. With LinkedIn, Facebook, and all the other tools at your disposal, you won’t have any problem finding takers. Want to teach in Austin but don’t know how to go about finding a venue? I’ll be posting more about that soon. Until then, feel free to send me an email at linearb@gmail.com.
For those don’t live in Austin, go ahead. Copy us. Steal this idea.
-Linear
As many of you know, because we have some new things coming up, the 8th Anniversary Bash was to be our last party for a while. I want to give a special thanks to RefreshAustin and the Austin Electronic Music Grid for co-hosting the party. Extra special thanks to Michelle Greer for introducing me to Union Park. This club keeps getting better and better.
Tech Diva Kimberlie Dykeman and Paul Walhus were doing interviews on the roof in between musical acts. Among the folks interviewed were Michael Witbrock of Cycorp (interview), Chris Lamprecht, Lead Architect of Indeed.com (interview), and Mauricio Piña of tseg.com (interview)
Watch GeekAustin 07 - Michael Witbrock - Cycorp in News Online
De facto chronicler of Austin tech events, Eugene Hsu, dropped by to photograph the party. You can see his photo sets on facebook (photo set 1, photo set 2). I have been hosting parties for about 17 years now, and I have to tell you Eugene is one of the best. The Austin tech scene is fortunate to have this guy shooting the parties. When you see him, buy him a drink.
Kristen Sobieray, April Kyle, Eugene Hsu
Erica O’Grady, Michelle Greer, and Sara Dornsife are here. Now the party can get started!
One of my favorite parts of the party was the music provided by the artists of the Austin Electronic Music Grid. At several points later in the evening, we had 3 different artists in three different rooms. (I hope you knew that the party was going on in 4 spaces.) Dubnautica started at 7:30 in the BoomBoom Room Refresh Lounge.
At 8:30, Carbon Theory played in the main room.
At 10:00, Happy Panjoma did a great set on the roof, followed by Rage Ranger.
I hope to do more things with the Grid in the future. These are really a great bunch of folks.
How many of you new about the new bed on the back upstairs patio? What a perfect place to cap off the evening!
After a few last glances at the skyline from the Union Park patio, it’s time to go home. Thanks to everyone for a great party.
