BrandToBeDetermined

Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity and Education

  Sir Ken Robinson 
  Originally uploaded by eschipul

I had the privilege of seeing Sir Ken Robinson talk at the UP Experience recently in Houston. I had never heard of him. Quickly it became apparent he was quite funny, and I don't think it was just the British accent. No, he has impeccable timing. But more importantly he highlights a few challenges we are facing in education.

One point he makes is that the kids entering school today are going to be retiring in 2065. And that NONE of us have any idea what the world will be like in 2065! So the education we are providing is intended to prepare people for a world that none of us have a clue what it will be like.

Another frame he makes is that education is a hierarchy and at the top are college professors. Yet professors are not what most of us would consider the height of human achievement. (yes this applies even if you have tenure.)

There is an option for us to return to educating humans for creativity. And from the video below Ken defines creativity as  "the process of having original ideas that have value".

If you have 20 minutes and are interested in creativity and education, please watch this talk by Ken at Ted.

Beatbox Flute - Finding New Ways to be Creative

This I have never seen before. BeatBoxing Flute. Great stuff! Great creativity!

Quote of the Day - Ninjas and New Media

"The major hollywood studios have taken to embracing pirates and their lifestyle. And we just saw that as such a negative lifestyle. Whereas the Ninja is such a positive lifestyle. Maybe that has lent itself to some of our success." - Douglas on Ask-A-Ninja on Forbes

I'd embed the video, but they have a cheesy "Embedding disabled by request" notice on the embed link. Way to go Forbes. But cool content nonetheless. So here is an embed of the real deal. Or at least "how do you kill a Ninja"

Pirates are Tougher than Ninjas - glad we have that settled

Via Techcrunch - as I write this it is proven that Pirates are tougher than Ninjas. Wow!

On a more serious note, I can't help but notice that there is no discussion of Sunni vs Shiite in the open debates section. Does this site have the potential to moderate real issues?

The New Schipul.com Site is LIVE!

Yea! The new schipul.com site is live! Great job y'all!

9 days, 06:29:45 until Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day

On a more pirate note, it is only 9 days, 06:29:45 until Talk-Like-A-Pirate day. September 19th will go down in infamy. Or get forgotten after a few years of a random meme.

eMuse Me - Can Web 2.0 Break Down the Walls of Museums?

The final votes are not in on the sxsw panels but one of them caught my eye. It directly relates to Houston because we don't exactly encourage citizen media in our museums. We don't even allow photography which of course is why Houston is known for art car parades more than the Menil collection. Anyway, back to the panel....

eMuse Me: Can Web 2.0 Break Down the Walls of Museums?

Is Web 2.0 welcome in museums? Should you be allowed encouraged to tag objects and share your opinions and discoveries? Or is online museum design best left to expert curators, art historians and museum educators? Can rich media, tagging and blogging deepen your connection, or does it cheapen and distract from the museum experience? Explore fascinating research into museum technology including tagging, (steve.museum) online interactives, blogging and delicious handheld content.
(link to Glenda's blog)

If you get a chance vote for it on the sxsw panel picker here. And of course please also vote for the one I might (if you vote!) get to moderate called: United We Stand, Divided We Fall: Alternatives to RSS Alerts During Crisis

Sometimes Creativity is from Mundane Objects

Sometimes creativity comes from mundate objects. Like treadmills. Who know?

Link to video of OK Go doing the Treadmill dance on ebaumsworld.

The Book in Full Post - an ENTIRE book Creative Commons?

I am biased, Rachel is my wife and I absolutely love her writing style. Always have. And she wrote a fiction book that was agreed to be published by several self publishing enterprises. That may still happen but in the meantime she is stirring up something a bit different.

A few weeks ago Rachel published the entire book, the whole Enchilada, by creative commons. Forty Two Blue in full! from Rachel's post.

And here it is. The book. In full.

I'm posting under a Creative Commons license that says basically -- you can read it, you can copy it, you can manipulate it, you can do anything to the creative you want as long as you 1. give me a little credit for getting the ball rolling 2. not sell anything you produce and 3. grant the same Creative Commons licensing to anything you create. In fact, I would love to see someone take this story and do something fun or creative with it!

Download fortytwo_blue_rachel_schipul.pdf

Enjoy. And thanks for reading...

If you read the book or enjoy it, please DO let me know!

Brookers, the Crazed NUMA FAN, Crosses Over to Mainstream. WHATEVER!

For those of you living under a rock, or perhaps those without a 15 year old in the house, you may not have heard of brookers. Not for long. This talented videographer gained fame through consistent creative video blogging on youTube. At the same time the youTube service is helping create a myspace type personality for directors (their term for top tier producers).

The big news is that brookers is the first person to cross over into mainstream. From the NPR article on brookers and youTube.

YouTube, the wildly popular video-sharing Web site, was an underground phenomenon just a few months ago. Now, with millions of viewers and millions in venture capital, YouTube is entering into a deal with NBC to promote the network's programming on the site.
....
Most of the videos are homemade by people largely under 30. Brooke Brodack (known as Brookers to her fans) got so popular -- one of her videos was viewed a million and a half times -- that she landed a Hollywood contract to produce television content.

Whatever you do, do NOT watch the NUMA fan video. Really. Don't do it. Stuck in your brain. For life. Yes, that much of an earbug.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a grass roots advocate for your brand, perhaps the youTube directors should be on your short list. Watch out RocketBoom! (just kidding - Amanda rocks too)