eon

Marvin Hall, a brilliant young Jamaican who has devoted himself to teaching young Jamaicans robotics, sent me a link to video describing his project, which is up to #84 on YOUTUBE top favorites in category for today. As Marvin says, “giddyup!”

way to go marvin!

Marvin Hall, a brilliant young Jamaican who has devoted himself to teaching your Jamaicans robotics, sent me a link to video describing his project which is up to #84 on YOUTUBE. As Marvin says, “giddyup!”

hey berkman center, thanks for the singing telegram for Al the Alien

Kevin Wallen
to me

I feel as the though the creator is always talking to me. I woke up this morning feeling like I had to come into the office early and I did, as I turned on my computer I saw that Charley was online and I said hi, he said hay and I proceeded to tell him like I always do what was on my mind. He allowed me to pour my guts out and as usual I could feel the care in his words as they came back through the screen at me. Charley doesn’t believe in fixing a situation he believes in solving a problem and that is what I like about him his ability to come up with real solutions. After speaking about me he asked me if I could take some bad news from him I then replied that I was here to share with him the good and otherwise. It was then that he told me he was in the hospital and right away all my troubles seem so far away and all I can see now is my need to support him. He says his blood pressure is through the roof and also that he needs to run a series of test, ekg that kind of thing.

And as I am sitting here I feel a renewed sense of purpose, I feel as thought Charley and I are the only two who understands this thing we are trying to do. He sees me as his partner to make it happen and I see him as my partnere to make it happen.

Charley I want you to forget about all I said to you this morning and hear what I am sayin to you now. Destiny will remain as it is needed to strenghten and support SET. We have some projects on the table that will put us exactly where we want to be, the conference, the concert, and the tour in April are exactly what we need and we are going to make them happen. I will write a letter to richard requesting a larger sum of the money they have for me and that will loosen the noose a little. I want you to know that you need not worry about the Jamaica project we are going to make it happen. And come april 16, 17, 18 we will show the caribbean the power of SET. Think thoughts of seeing everything you have ever envisioned for the Jamaica project coming alive and know that it is going to happen.

You and I will take the massage of rehabilitation, restorative justice, and a country re constuting itself to the next level that’s our mission. Lets accomplish it.

I’ll be talking to you soon

i stood yesterday before the librarians of harvard, with kevin wallen and gile campbell looking on. my message was well received. postcards to pass the message on. destiny productions to deliver on a contract. roberto mighty, videographer. in my kitchen thursday morning listening to bob seger sing turn the page. out there in public expression space with microphone held low in my hand, talking to interested smiles and nods and understanding that we are building our environment. wonderful email back from michael maltese asking me for links to entrepreneurs in developing countries who are using technology to benefit their community in some fashion, with a closing ps that made me smile.

ps: As an attendee of the 1998 HLS Cyberlaw conference, I can attest to how far the Berkman Center has come so quickly, such that now it is internationally renowned as a center for excellence in the study of the internet and society.

smile

then this morning raw flow from kevin, who is in cambridge visiting with gile to plan our conference and concert in jamaica, kingston, at the terra nova, april 16-17 if the date clears on the commissioner’s calendar. notes from the meeting:

restorative justice
need for a paradigm shift in approach to crime
seeing the shift as the same as is needed in education
seeing opportunity for the correctional service to produce it completely consistent with its mission
seeing how doing so can elevate the status of the service and the officers in it
seeing the key as the formation of a self-perpetuating cohort of human beings at bottom who see that mutual support of each other in a spiritually centered learning community is key to standing tall instead of begging and complaining
make the system work and look good

keys are: no warder is asked to do “extra” work without extra pay
warders are security officers, security their primary mission; consistent with this mission provide a secure framework within which a learning community among those restrained can form and thrive

here’s kevin:

I pride myself in trying to do the right thing, but I know sometimes my desire to do the right thing gets the better of me. I want so badly to see a difference in the world that sometimes I put everything else a side and try to accomplish that and sometimes that is to my detriment.

I think we take lightly what we are up to but Charley, we are on to something and I really want to thank you. And I promise you whatever I have to do to keep Destiny going I will because it is an intregual part of all this. It is the production house that produces this story. I way all that to simply say thank you and lets do this. This trip has been most wonderful. Thank you and I can’t say that enough

i see a direction in which we are going.

Kevin Wallen (Destiny Productions) says:
hi
charley says:
hi
Kevin Wallen (Destiny Productions) says:
just got back from a meeting at dcs
charley says:
yes
Kevin Wallen (Destiny Productions) says:
we’ve got a radio station
Kevin Wallen (Destiny Productions) says:
88.5fm
charley says:
!!!!!!
Kevin Wallen (Destiny Productions) says:
the radio network is a go
charley says:
let’s not waste a minute

ANTENNA ALLIANCE

12.19.06.1

christina and chris and tim, a free culture team, came over to my house yesterday to talk with me about releasing my audio archive. i gave them my day’s journal on a cd as a sample, then joined in conversation with them together with rebecca, wayne and wayne’s friend dave about connecting music-makers in jamaica with music-makers here.

***
On 12/18/06, Ke Xu wrote:

This morning was really lovely. Such an engaging and yet peaceful
gathering at the beginning of the day really makes everything better
afterwards, so thank you thank you thank you.

I am very excited about the Jamaica project. It has such potential, and
even though it is in some ways completely different from what we are doing
at Antenna Alliance, in other ways it is very much fundamentally the same
mission–helping the creators and consumers of music connect and
facilitating the cycle of music reuse.

I was wondering: there is a scholarship for undergraduates that funds
interesting internships abroad. Do you think it would be helpful for me to
go down to Jamaica for some part of the summer and assist in any and
every way I can? If I can get it, the scholarship would pay for all of my
expenses, but I would have to get moving on an extended budget, proposal,
and all of that before February. I believe Tim and Christopher are also
uncommitted for the summer so far, and would be willing to go down if we
can get something done.

Happy holidays, happy New Years!
Christina

zittrain spoke directly to me this morning. i have my problem with authority. i am prone to see the reflection of what i want to see in the bubble that surrounds me; z shows me the understory; a room full of people who have berkman reasons for being there, whose issues are not necessarily mine. can i engage each one and make it all go somewhere; i cannot expect anyone to pick up the ball and do it for me; nothing will happen by magic.

i pray to the divinity in the net: help me solve my problem. the issues i espouse are fine but my manner at times conveys an attitude which few want for long to share. i’ve had this problem for a long time. it’s what beats me every time i’m beat. kevin now sees the mistake we have been making in jamaica. can he teach me. can i learn from you.

zuckerman leads me to clay shirkey who neatly describes the experience of the look one time virus. i can see i am subject to that. my first visit to second life would have been one time, if that, without my daughter to lead me and hold me in. whenever i’ve left berkman island to go forth and look around i’ve found the environment elaborately constructed but humanly forbidding. yet i am excited at the prospect of holding court in this virtual immersive domain. second life is a crappy way to do some things, maybe a fine way to do others.

my sense is that second life is an ideal environment for mock trials. compared to live mock trials which tend to be a rush of words in which evidentiary objections are difficult to focus, the pace of exchange in the text environment of second life is slower and more deliberate; a record is naturally generated; evidentiary objects are easily represented.

we’ve built a courtroom on berkman island that gives an immersive sense of a legal dispute-resolving environment. we will select a jury from those in second life who would like to participate as citizens of the space in which they live. we will have witnesses and student-lawyers speak in text under disciplines of civility and rules of evidence, subject to objection by opponents and ruling by the judge, who will be me.

i’m thinking we should try a hypothetical version of the case of the man who got his property taken for hacking the second life code. i could ask my students to frame a cause of action at common law as if no user agreement with linden labs had ever been signed, for trial before a common law jury.

i expect the experience of the mock trial in second life to be better in many ways than cognate live face-to-face events. i am going to see, and to see if the experience can scale. i’m looking forward to teaching students who are able to gather and practice in a virtual environment which immerses them in the reality of the questions of liberty, identity and governance presented by our investment of energy and assets in a virtual world owned by a for-profit corporation.

This is empathic argument. Kevin writes:

it is 9pm and i am sitting here talking to you, and as i do that i realize that i just got home from a trip and i must get home to latoya so need less to say this will not be a long one. but i feel the need to let you know the kind of trip i had. at first it seemed that nothing could go right and then it happened i realized that this trip was not about what i was looking at in the first place, i realized that this trip was the trip for me to take time out and really think if i want to continue on this journey or switch gears. and it was at that moment that my speaking engagements got better because i stopped worring about weather or not i would get the check at the end or weather or not i would have to wait. to be in financial need is not the place where i want to be however i must say it keeps me humble but the one thing that it does that is most amazing to me is that my eagerness to help others seem to remain strong even in the worst of times.

and then the answer came, it came to me like a left hook followed by a bouble right cross. its like this when i started doing this it was not the money that made it work it was the love and the drive, that thing, that wanting to see other people succeed. but i also thought that though it was not the money, i did not have to wonder where it was going to come from then either, but then again, the primary reason it worked is the fact that it was based on truth.

every thing about this is true, the reasons, the approach, the results, the intentions, all of it is true without a dowt. we went to the people and asked them how we could help them and then we helped them in exactly that manner, nothing was forced upon anyone. we mede mistakes along the way but not deliberately it was done out of a desire to do good.

here are the mistakes i think we made, i think we admitted to weakness when there was none. we told the administration that this was an inmate driven program without first showing them how and where they had and could maintain their control without leaving our path. we know what they are and the culture that they are a part of and just like we went to the inmates we should have gone to them and gave them exactly what they asked us for (which we can still do) put them in a position where they can take credit without taking anything from the inmates. we are smart enough to be able to do that.

this retreat we are talking about is most important, and this is the perfect oppertunity to announce a partnership. we should go to them with a doccument that outlines our partnership, a doccument that says we are going to make you superstars a doccument that says the now functioning body of DCS had done for jamaica and its crime problem what no one else in history has been able to do. this document should show that they have gone within their own walls and not only found the solution but that they have put it into practice. this doccument should speak of restorative justice, forgiveness, redemption, empathy, it should show DCS reaching out to communities which represents every single client in its care.

you asked me what was first on my list of things to do and this is it. first lets say that this retreat will happen. lets put a date to it. and a dollar amount. and find the funds to make it happen. then lets get working on this docment, as this document will be yours and my main presentation at this retreat.

this is just a touch of what came out of my trip. i can’t wait to talk to you. i am so ready …….lets do this. i’ll be in the office by 9am talk to you then

I’ll be talking to you soon

Harvard Law School
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Kevin D. Wallen
Fellow and Director of S=SET CyberSchool
Tel: 876 960 1715
cel: 876 371 4510
 kdw at kevinwallen.com

please. each of you who attended our i*s berkman session, face to face or web. what happened. what question peaked your interest. use our means to light consideration of these issues. please blog our lexis nexis evening. please, everyone.

community is like a ship at sea. whose hero is gibson. link together what is happening here into a human net of global voices. everyman to take the helm in a chorus of voices rising from the universities of the world in concert with overmundo.

kevin back in jamaica, cyberone coming to a close in second life, ethan ready to put us together with croquet to see if we can get the ball rolling toward a vibrant open source metaverse.