Lera Auerbach on the meaning of music

The morning after I heard her in concert, I had a chance to do a video quizzing composer, pianist and poet Lera Auerbach about the meaning of music.

As a non-musical person, this quest for the meaning of music has become a bit of a crusade. I asked the same of the Chinese composer Chou Wen-Chung.

The video is much better value, but here is a compressed resume of our discussion. (Which concluded with my opening question unanswered!)

Music is wonder, magic, life, without the limitations of words.
Music expresses emotion without the brain betraying the heart.
Music does not have the limitations of language because it is free of words.
Music allows you to communicate through time, allowing a composer from hundreds of years ago to move us to tears.
Don’t expect anything from music, just let it take you to places in your soul that you didn’t know existed.
We sometimes cry while listening to music and we don’t even know why.
Sometimes music just touches a string of the soul that needed to be released or relaxed.
The more you know the work and the composer, the more powerful the impact of the music.
The beauty of performing is that your relationship with the work changes as you change.
At the same time, music is close to science and based on mathematical ratios.
Why is it that Mozart’s requiem has such a profound effect on its listeners?
I don’t think we can really know what music is.

Technorati Tags: Auerbach, Chou, Chou Wen-Chung, Lera Auerbach

Outblaze CEO and founder Yat Siu describes his Hong Kong-based (but global) Internet company

It is hard to fit the sprawling Outblaze empire into one sentence (or YouTube video), so here’s two videos and a few sentences to describe the company founded in Hong Kong by Yat Siu.

Starting life in 1998 as an email service provider for ISPs around the world (Currently 40 million users), Outblaze has branched out into everything from hosting the Sanriotown online community, the Hello Kitty MMORPG to redoing cartoons from Turner’s Cartoon network into 3D versions (see video on Dream Cortex below). In between that, they are involved in the FON wifi network, the Activ8 Worldwide online ad company and Typhoon games. (I am sure I have forgotten other key companies!)

Beyond their dayjob on the Internet, Outblaze and Yat have led advocacy on a number of online and offline causes, including the fight against Spam, Creative Commons, Open Source and generally supporting free expression on the Internet. More here.

Thanks for the tour of the company, Yat!

Technorati Tags: activ8worldwide.com, hellokittyonline.com, China, dream cortex, fon, Hello Kitty, Hong Kong, Outblaze, sanriotown, typhoon games, yat siu

Van Jones: Corn ethanol swindles the poor by increasing the price of food

Van Jones, a green economy activist and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, describes how US corn ethanol subsidies have created a dangerous perversion of the food prices.

The great ethanol swindle:
Ethanol is supposed to saves the environment by offering a renewable source of energy (corn and sugar), but the truth about ethanol’s impact is far more complex.

Corn ethanol is inefficient
Jones explains that due to the fertilizer inputs for growing corn, the energy consuming conversion to ethanol and low output of usable fuel from corn, corn-based ethanol is not an efficient means of producing fuel. Corn-based ethanol’s return is roughly on a one-to-one basis, meaning that you are only getting out the same amount of energy you are putting in. By contrast, sugar-based ethanol produces something like ten times as much energy as it takes to create. The US is not, however, a good zone for growing sugar cane.

Linking food and fuel hurts the poor
By offering American farmers another market for selling corn besides food, ethanol subsidies more tightly link food to the price of oil and other fuels. The result is that rising fuel prices create a direct demand for corn, thus increasing the price of a basic food material. Jones cited Mexico’s food riots last January as a precursor to what we will see in the future. Angered at the rising price of tortillas, tens of thousands of Mexican’s took to the streets in protest. To draw an extreme image from Jones’ thinking: The poor will starve while the rich drive cars fueled by food.

Sugar ethanol also has risks
While sugar ethanol offers a far greater energy output than corn-based ethanol, there are environmental risks: A rise in the price of sugar cane could inspire Brazilian farmers to cut down more rain forest to grow sugar cane.

Technorati Tags: ella baker, ellabakercenter, ethanol, food, food prices, poor, van jones, vanjones

Jennifer Corriero on how TakingITglobal.org encourages youth activists

Jennifer Corriero, co-founder of TakingITglobal.org, describes innovations to their

Online service that helps young activists
The site, claiming hundreds of thousands of visitors each month from countries around the world, aims to help students and young people improve the world through organized community action.

Activist toolkit
TakingITGlobal gives advice and offers online tools for organizing collective action. This includes discussion groups, tools for email campaigns, petitions, etc.

Knowledge and inspiration
Those who are not sure of what causes need their help can log on and find out more information about the problems facing the world and what they can do.

Two sections of the site Jennifer emphasizes people to check out are Commit to a better world and Guide to Action

More details in the video…

Technorati Tags: Jennifer Corriero, takingitglobal, TakingITglobal.org, wef, World Economic Forum, ygl, Young Global Leaders

YGL program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

In this video, Leslie Maasdorp and I speak about the program we just attended that Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government created for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

Entitled Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century, the program has been described by the World Economic Forum and written about by Harvard, so this takes the participant’s perspective.

Intended for those members of the YGL community considering the program, I invite other attendees to add comments that would help those considering the program this Spring.

Previous YGL postings can be seen here.

Thomas Crampton:

I found the program highly intense and extremely rewarding on several levels:

1- Knowledge: The Kennedy School gathered a range of A-team of faculty from across Harvard and MIT to present great overviews of issues ranging from global security and climate change to trade and demographics.

2- Skills: The Kennedy School brought in professors from at least three business schools (Harvard, Wharton and Stanford) to work on a variety of skills from negotiation and improved decision-making to the skills needed for creating and leading a team.

3- Participants: As in every YGL gathering, the participants themselves are a highlight. Really great group of people, each of whom has more than one amazing story.

Jennifer Corriero:

This program was incredible!

Through the many presentations and interactive sessions, we have been exposed to such a diverse range of perspectives on the problems facing our world today - with an underlying sense of hope in our capacity shape the future. The power of our individual and collective leadership is yet to be fully realized - and I know that coming together as a community has been an important step in a critical process of change.

Let’s continue to learn and grow together!

Technorati Tags: Davos, Harvard, ksg, Leslie Maasdorp, WEF, World Economic Forum, ygl, Young Global Leaders

James Sebenius: 4 key negotiation tips for a modern day Machiavelli

Disruptive ideas, by their very nature, are difficult execute. This is a problem for someone trying to push through innovations. Simultaneous agreement of conservative decision-making bodies such as governments, boards and city councils can be near impossible. Opposition can often only be overcome with strong sequential negotiation skills.

Citing coalition-building tactic from Gulf War I, the 1985 Plaza Accord that revalued the dollar, Clinton’s NAFTA negotations and others, James Sebenius presents four key tips in an essay taken from the book Wise Choices. (I read the essay in preparation for a conference organized next week at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government by the World Economic Forum.)

Negotiations that involve a coalition or group decision can either be:

I - Simultaneous - All parties sit in one room.
Open and collective decisions encourage buy-in from all stakeholders and generate new options through brainstorming in debate, but can make original and controversial initiatives impossible to undertake.

II - Sequential - Many bilateral negotiations.
A sequential approach allow an innovator to overcome blocks and hurdles that would arise in general discussion, but the methods can be sneaky, manipulative and even unethical.

In selecting the approach consider:

a - Failure potential within simultaneous negotiations.

b - The value (or detriment) of getting some players on board first.

c - Cost in time and resources to conduct bilateral negotiations.

When undertaking sequential negotiation be wary of folk maxims such as:

- Isolate opponents

- Get allies on board first

- Start with easy parties and then get hard ones

- Get an internal consensus before negotiating externally

Instead, Sebenius argues looking beyond individuals and coalitions to actually map out relationships of key players:

a - Exploit patterns of deference - Convince those who can convince others through deference, influence or antagonism.

b - Progressively worsen the no-deal alternative - Make non-supporters feel their standing worsens by not joining.

c - Build inevitability - Create momentum by getting a series of parties to agree. Momentum can even be built outside those whose support what you need: Foreign leaders’ support of a presidential policy can be used to persuade a reluctant Congress and US population.

d - Reveal information selectively - Basic negotiation skill for someone trying to buy out small landowners to create a large tract. Don’t reveal your final objective too soon.

Interesting points, but is he a modern day Machiavelli? (If you like his ideas, it appears that you can employ him for consultancy work here)

Any further thoughts?

Technorati Tags: James Sebenius, Sebenius Lax, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

The Forum of Young Global Leaders, explained by David Aikman

In a video featuring many photographs of Young Global Leaders, David Aikman of the World Economic Forum explains in this video how, why, who and for what reason the group was formed.

Operating under the umbrella of the World Economic Forum - the Geneva-based organization founded by Klaus Schwab that has a high profile annual meeting in Davos - the Young Global Leaders group is described as

a unique, multi-stakeholder community of the world’s most extraordinary leaders who are 40 years old or younger and who are ready to dedicate a part of their time and energy to jointly work towards a better future.

Each year we identify 200-300 exceptional individuals, drawn from every region in the world and from a myriad of disciplines and sectors. Together, they form a powerful international community which can dramatically impact the global future.

As I get to know them (Disclosure: I am a member of the group) I have begun compiling videos and postings about the group and their often extraordinary stories.

So far, I have put up the following postings/videos (or check this link for the latest updates.)

Angel Cabrera pushes a hippocratic oath for business
Is the price of Jack Ma’s Alibaba too high?
Matthew Bishop on the Danger of Billionaire Philanthropists
Salman Iqbal on Ary and TV in Pakistan
Niklas Zennstrom’s first interview after leaving Skype
Jack Hidary turns the big apples car fleets green
Penny Low on Singapore’s Social Innovation Park
Raju Narisetti on why newspapers still work in India
A lighter moment: Mabel van Oranje and Jimmy Wales
Cory Doctorow on how to be an Uber Blogger
Adam Bly’s Rolling Stone Magazine for Science
James Kondo on fighting obesity of the rich and malnutrition of the poor

Disclosure: I am a member of the YGL group.

Technorati Tags: Adam Bly, Alibaba, Angel Cabrera, Cory Doctorow, Davos, Jack Hidary, Jack Ma, James Kondo, Jimmy Wales, Matthew Bishop, Niklas Zennstrom, penny low, Raju Narisetti, Salman Iqbal, seed media, social innovation park, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

The Danger of Billionaire Philanthropists

A new breed of super-rich is now facing the decision of what to do with their money and Matthew Bishop, US business editor of The Economist has been looking at their philanthropic activities.

They certainly have the potential to do a great deal of good, but they could easily pervert the current aid and development system (not necessarily a bad thing!).

They are rich
The new uber rich - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the Google boys, among others - say they will give away their money in newly creative and effective ways. In the last 20 years there has been a period of unprecedented wealth creation, with a huge portion of it collected by a small coterie of individuals. According to Forbes magazine, there are now 950 billionaires.

Correction: They are really, really rich
The wealth accumulated by these individuals goes far beyond the fortunes of previous famed philanthropists. In real dollar terms, Bill Gates is wealthier than Carnegie, Rockefeller or any of the great philanthropists of the past. Based on this, these super rich believe they can change the rules of the game.

But are they really doing good?
While Bishop agrees that skepticism is healthy when faced with claims of new forms of philanthropy and people doing good, the approach and style of this new generation is measurably different.

- They aim for change from the bottom, up…
These new rich approach their giving in a much more rigorous and demanding manner than earlier generations, Bishop says. “This is not about building a library with your name, it is about trying to educate people about things that we all take for granted,” Bishop said.

- …and they have time
Many of these super-rich are relatively young and can devote a significant portion of their lives to the task.

But the we are entering uncharted territory
This confluence of wealth, time and a desire to change things puts the current development model on notice: Things can and will change. This certainly could be good thing, but does require oversight.

The frightening result:
We currently expect governments, development-related institutions (The World Bank, UNDP, etc) or relatively ordinary people (voters in a democracy) to make decisions about public policy and the way forward, but these super rich can afford to make decision that will affect millions of people with little accountability.

“These billionaires genuinely think they are trying to make the world a better place, but they challenge the set of assumptions we base our politics on,” Bishop says. “We need a really good public debate about the way these people act so that we can allow them to do the good they wish to do, but not so that they act without accountability.”

Matthew’s book will be published next year.

Technorati Tags: Dalian, Davos, Matthew Bishop, The Economist, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders

Salman Iqbal on ARY and TV in Pakistan

Salman Iqbal, President and CEO of the ARY Digital Television Network, speaks about the vast changes sweeping through Pakistan’s television and media market.

Some background:
When launched in 1997, ARY was the first private television network and has been a key force in modernizing Pakistan’s television. The network operates out of Dubai Media City.

The website Pakaffairs.com said about ARY:

This channel has truly brought and depicted the media democracy of Pakistani origin where “everything goes” is the name of the game. Face to face hearty debates, sharing views and opinions openly, exposing issues of political nature, cleverly created political parody and comedy are the crux of this channel. Give it two thumbs up!

Iqbal himself is unencumbered with a traditional media outlook to his business: Prior to running the television station, Iqbal was involved in other businesses within the ARY group, including treasury, gold and jewelry, asset management and property.

The Interview:

IPTV remains distant for Pakistan
Due to Internet penetration and cost of cable vs broadband:
$3.50: Cable, monthly subscription.
$600: Broadband, monthly subscription (for shared connection that only reaches broadband speed sometimes)

But TV has opened up
When the Dubai-based ARY launched Pakistan’s first private TV station there were no competitors. Now there are more than 50 stations run by about 20 companies. ARY itself has 13 channels, including domestic production and international stations, such as HBO, Nickelodeon and Fashion TV.

Thanks in part to China
Cheap TVs produced in China have increased the number of televisions from 9 million a few years ago to more than 22 million television sets today.

But making money is tough
Almost all of Pakistan’s TV is delivered by cable operators, but with just $3.50 per monthly from subscribers, the cable companies do not share their revenue with the television broadcasters. The 90 plus channels available over cable (some pirate) are delivered for free to major urban centers. Outside major urban centers subscribers can only get 10 stations.

ARY’s satellite solution
Creating a direct-to-home service along the lines of Sky or Malaysia’s Astra is the solution that Iqbal sees ahead. The dish (the size a a dinner plate) and will be free to the customer, subsidized by monthly subscription cards bought by customers.

The challenge: The Government Legislation
The biggest challenge to moving ahead is convincing the government to open up for the media, Iqbal said. “The government was built on the media’s back and now the government says it was destroyed because of the media. We are saying the solution government needs to be media friendly.”

Technorati Tags: ARY digital Network, Davos, Dalian, WEF, FashionTV, Dubai Media City, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders, Ary, Salman Iqbal

Park to Support Singapore’s Social Entrepreneurs

Penny Low, one of the youngest women ever elected to the Singapore Parliament, speaks in this video about the Social Innovation Park in Singapore that she heads.

The SIP, as it is called, aims to cultivate and nurture Singapore’s social entrepreneurs.

While the world has never been so affluent and never had so much technology, many of our institutions remain anchored in the industrial era that began at the turn of the last century, Penny said. The old-style institutions look to help people by making decisions in board rooms rather than by working in the field directly with those affected by problems.

SIP, on the other hand, is founded in the belief people can be empowered to find their own solutions rather than relying on importing outside ideas.

The hope is for the 2.6 hectare Social Innovation Park to create a space to nurture and support such projects.

The idea is to give education to the general public, empowerment to aspiring social entrepreneurs and enhancement of social entrepreneur projects so that they can become scalable and replicable. The park itself will also have a strong bent towards ecology, operating on renewable energy.

As of this filming - during which I was somewhat distracted by a temperamental video camera - Penny was confident the park will have great impact.

Technorati Tags: Dalian, Davos, penny low, sip, social innovation park, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders