The WELL: Topics in the inkwell.vue Conference

inkwell.vue.376: Ellen Sandbeck, Green Barbarians

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

We are happy to welcome Ellen Sandbeck, author of "Green Barbarians" to the Inkwell.vue.

Ellen Sandbeck is an organic landscaper, worm wrangler, writer, and graphic artist who lives with (and experiments on) her husband and an assortment of younger creatures including two mostly grown children, a couple of dogs, a small flock of laying hens, and many thousands of composting worms in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the author of "Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles," "Eat More Dirt," "Organic Housekeeping," and "Green Barbarians."

Leading our discussion is CJ Phillips.

CJ has been a denizen of the Well for over 15 years and is presently one of the cohosts of the Gardening conference. She lives in the Bay Area and usually spends her days working on a book about Chinese food... that is, when she's not posting about her rabbits and guinea pigs and endless appetite for good food and gopher-proof plants.

Thank you both for joining us. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.375: Health Panel, 2010

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

Healthcare as an industry and a practice has been approaching crisis related in no small part to escalating costs and increasing load - more and more people needing care, especially with healthcare reform increasing the number of people with some form of health insurance. Healthcare is also overdue to feel the full impact of digital convergence - there's pressure to move from written/analog to electronic/digital health records, and there's the potential to develop revolutionary personal healthcare and wellness systems. Add to this the fact that patients are empowered by access to information via Internet technology, and a new participatory system of healthcare is evolving.

Participatory Medicine is defined as "a model of medical care in which the active role of the patient is emphasized. The term participatory medicine has been used at least as early as 2000 to mean one or more of four interrelated ideas:

* A group of people who suffer from a chronic disease form a community (often an online community, a support group) to share information and mutually support each other. * Members of a patient community (or members of a community disproportionately affected by a disease) play important roles in community health decision-making. * Patients play a role as part of collaborative "treatment teams" addressing their diseases. * A patient is "mindfully" involved in treatment, by making behavioral changes, meditating, or similar acts.

Joining us to discuss the future of healthcare and participatory medicine are Healthcare Futurist Joe Flower and members of the Society for Participatory Medicine: Alan and Cheryl Greene, "ePatient Dave" deBronkart, Danny Sands, Dan Hoch, and Jon Lebkowsky, who will facilitate the discussion.

With nearly 30 years* experience, Joe Flower has emerged as a premier observer and thought leader on the deep forces changing healthcare in the United States and around the world. As a healthcare speaker, writer, and consultant, he has explored the future of healthcare with clients ranging from the World Health Organization, the Global Business Network, and the U.K. National Health Service, to the majority of state hospital associations in the U.S. as well as many of the provincial associations and ministries in Canada, and an extraordinary variety of other players across healthcare - professional associations, pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, health plans, physician groups, and numerous hospitals. He has been a consultant on change and the future with the U.S. Department of Defense, Airbus and ArianeSpace, and a number of governments in China. The rest of his bio is here: http://www.imaginewhatif.com/bio.html

Alan Greene is a Clinical Professor at Stanford University*s Lucile Packard Hospital, Chief of Future Health at A.D.A.M. Inc., co-founder of DrGreene.com, and author of several books, including Raising Baby Green. Dr. Greene has been recognized by Intel*s Internet Health Initiative as one of four pioneering Online Health Heroes *who are developing innovative and compelling new ways to use the Internet to advance public health.*

Cheryl Greene is co-founder and the executive producer of DrGreene.com. The AMA has called DrGreene.com *the pioneer physician web site on the Internet.* Together Alan and Cheryl have been providing health information and community for parents around the world since 1995.

When e-Patient Dave deBronkart was diagnosed in 2007 with advanced kidney cancer, he read that his median survival 24 weeks. A longtime online community member, he rapidly learned to use every aspect of empowerment, technology, and participatory medicine to beat the odds. A high-tech marketer for TimeTrade Appointment Systems, he*s now an outspoken blogger and co-chair of the Society for Participatory Medicine. He recently wrote a proposal advocating for strong patient representation in Washington, titled "The Invisible Stakeholder: Why America Needs a Patient-In-Chief."

Danny Sands is an internationally recognized lecturer, consultant, and thought leader in the area of clinical computing and patient and clinician empowerment through the use of computer technology. In addition to working at Cisco, Dr. Sands is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and he maintains a primary care practice in which he makes extensive use of health information technology.

Dan Hoch is a neurologist based at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. An early developer of online resources for patients, Dan helped found Braintalk and is active in the American Academy of Neurology, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Medical Informatics Association.

Jon Lebkowsky is a business strategist and thought leader focused on social uses of web technologies. An early online community moderator on The Well, and pioneer blogger, Jon has participated in and written about digital cultu re, media, and sustainability. He now consults on the social web, online communities, web development, wireless broadband, and e-democracy.

Thank you all for being here. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.373: Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2010

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

For the eleventh time, Inkwell rings in the New Year with a visit from Well member Bruce Sterling, to address the State of the World and Things Various and Sundry. Bruce used to write novels when there were bookstores, and used to write for magazines and newspapers when magazines and newspapers existed. Nowadays he travels a lot when trains are running and when airports aren't clogged by security theater.

Once again, Bruce's interlocutory partner is Jon Lebkowsky. Jon writes about culture, society, technology. He is an Internet pioneer and thought leader immersed in contemporary social technologies, with expertise in digital communication and collaboration. An early online community moderator on The Well, and a founder of Fringeware, Inc., Jon has been a direct participant in the formative conversations that generated our contemporary global digital society. He's worked with bOING bOING, HotWired, The Whole Earth Catalog, Electric Minds, Whole Foods Market, and many other web and cyberculture projects and endeavors during the World Wide Web***s first decade. With Mitch Ratcliffe, Jon co-edited the book Extreme Democracy, and he was one of the web***s first bloggers, having blogged regularly since 2000.

Gentlemen, the turning of the calendar finds me vacationing in Times Square. Where are you, and what's on your minds? Is it me, or is there a lot to talk about this time around? [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.372: Emily Gertz, From the Climate Talks in Copenhagen

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

We are so very fortunate to have our own Emily Gertz as our guest in the Inkwell.vue for the next two weeks. Emily is a freelance writer and just now (early Monday morning) back from the Climate talks in Copenhagen. She is here to share with us her unique perspective on this historical event. Here on The WELL, Emily is the host of the Science Fiction Television conference. Emily also can also be found around www.worldchanging.com. Who, when, what, wha?, at: www.secretmuseum.com on the Internet.

Leading our discussion is Jacques Leslie.

Jacques Leslie started his journalism career as a foreign correspondent, covering the Vietnam War for the Los Angeles Times. For the last decade he has written narrative nonfiction on environmental issues, focusing on water. His 2004 book, Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, won the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and was named one of the top science books of the year by Discover Magazine. His last major magazine piece, a Mother Jones cover story on the international environmental impacts of China's economic growth, won three awards. He has attended one Kyoto Protocol climate change conference, in Buenos Aires in 2004.

Thank you both for being here. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.371: Charlie Haas, The Enthusiast

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

Charlie Haas, author of "The Enthusiast," is our next guest in Inkwell.vue.

Charlie Haas was born in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives in Oakland, California. He's written for a few dozen magazines, including New West, Esquire, Outside, Mother Jones, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing. His screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His novel "The Enthusiast" was published by Harper Perennial in May of 2009.

Leading our discussion will be Ed Ward.

Ed Ward has been reading since he can remember and writing professionally since he was 16, largely for magazines and newspapers, most of which are now out of business. He's also been "rock and roll historian" for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross since the show's inception. He lives in Montpellier, France and is working on a memoir of his 15 years in Berlin.

Thank you both for being here. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.370: Constance Rosenblum, Boulevard of Dreams

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

I'm pleased to introduce our next guest author to Inkwell.vue.

Constance Rosenblum, a longtime editor at The New York Times, is the author of the new book "Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope Along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx," published by NYU Press. She is the former editor of the newspaper's City section and the Arts and Leisure section, and currently writes the weekly Habitats column in the paper's Sunday Real Estate section.

And leading our discussion is our own David Wilson.

Raised in Paterson, NJ at the height of the bebop era. But had no effect until about 13 years later. Studied cultural anthropology but fell into government job building subsidized housing in Minneapolis. Large family in Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, and Philly. Watched the Cross-Bronx Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway being built.

Visited a friend on weekends in the early 60's who lived on the Grand Concourse. Also visited my great aunt's dairy farm in Middle Village, Queens.

Thank you both for being here. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.369: Brian Dear, on PLATO, Eventful and further adventures

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

Brian Dear steps into the spotlight at Inkwell to talk about his adventures with people who built a community using one of the prototypes for all social computing, PLATO, plus his fascinating collaborations that have followed that experience! Leading the conversation is Ari Davidow, one of the community-building pioneers at The WELL as well as on sites he has created.

Brian and Ari, welcome! Please say a little more about yourselves as we get going, since my introduction lacks some of the juicy details. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.368: Christian Crumlish, Designing Social Interfaces

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

For our next open Inkwell conversation, let's welcome Christian Crumlish and his recent work, "Designing Social Interfaces," written with Erin Malone, and inspired by the groundbreaking work Christian has been doing at Yahoo's design pattern library. This is a great topic because so many of us here have been using interactive tools together for decades, and are sometimes all too aware of the social implications of tool design.

Christian Crumlish has been participating in, analyzing, designing, and drawing social interactive spaces online since 1994. These days he is the curator of Yahoo!*s pattern library, a design evangelist with the Yahoo! Developer Network, and a member of Yahoo!*s Design Council. He is the author of the bestselling "The Internet for Busy People," and "The Power of Many." He has spoken about social patterns at BarCamp Block, BayCHI, South by Southwest, the IA Summit, Ignite, and Web 2.0 Expo... and he's been a guest at Inkwell.vue previously. As <xian> he is a host of the <blog.> conference here at The WELL. (You'll find his blog at http://xianlandia.com/ ) Christian has a bachelor*s degree in philosophy from Princeton. He lives in Oakland with his wife Briggs, his cat Fraidy, and his electric ukulele, Evangeline.

Leading the discussion is Jon Lebkowsky.

A Social Web Strategies Founding Partner, Jon Lebkowsky is a culture and business strategist and thought leader focused on the Internet, the World Wide Web, and the social uses of digital technologies. An early host on The WELL, and a founder of Fringeware - one of the first Internet businesses - Jon has been a direct participant in the formative conversations that have generated our contemporary global digital society. Writing on digital culture, technology, media, and global sustainability, he was one of the web*s first bloggers, and has blogged regularly since 2000. He is an acknowledged authority on the social web, online communities, web development, public wireless broadband, and e-democracy. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lebkowsky)

Thank you both for joining us, and taking us into such interesting territory! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.367: Tom Vanderbilt, "Traffic"

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

Please join me in welcoming Tom Vanderbilt for a conversation about his latest book, TRAFFIC, Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says About Us)

Tom has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Wilson Quarteerly, The London Review of Books, Nest, The Baffler, and The Nation, and is contributing editor at Artforum, I.D., and Print. He is the author of SURVIVAL CITY: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America, and has contributed essays to many other books. We're looking forward to learning about his bestselling, critically acclaimed book, TRAFFIC: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says About Us), described in the NYTimes Book Review as "surprising, enlightening look at the psychology of human beings behind the steering wheels... Required reading for anyone applying for a driver's license..." and in the Sunday Telegraph as "Fascinating...an incident-packed journey for which it is a pleasure to accept the role of passenger".

Guiding our community discussion of TRAFFIC is Sharon Fisher, a long time participant and a host of a remarkable variety of conferences and conversations over the past two decades here at The WELL. Sharon has written about technology for many years. She also writes about politics, city planning, kids and sustainable agriculture, and probably much more that I'm not aware of just yet. Most recently here in the Inkwell project, Sharon led the discussion on the urban chicken raising book. I'll refrain from any musing on fowl street crossing behaviors and just say welcome, Sharon.

Glad you're hear, Sharon and Tom. I'm looking forward to learning about TRAFFIC and how it works, or doesn't. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.366: Bruce Pollock, By The Time We Got to Woodstock

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:29:00 PST

1969 was an historic year for so many reasons. Woodstock symbolizes so much of it, yet there was so much more. We are fortunate to have Bruce Pollock, author of "By The Time We Got To Woodstock:The Great Rock-n-Roll Revolution of 1969" with us.

Veteran journalist, lyricist, novelist, humorist, essayist, columnist,editor, music historian, and record producer Bruce Pollock is the author of ten books on music, including By the Time We Got to Woodstock, Working Musicians, The Rock Song Index, Hipper Than Our Kids, When Rock Was Young, When the Music Mattered, and In Their Own Words, as well as three novels. He is the founding co-Editor in Chief of GUITAR: For The Practicing Musician, produced over 100 record compilations for BMG and Sony/BMG Music and was the editor of 17 Volumes of Popular Music: An Annotated Index of American Popular Songs (1983-1999). He is currently writing a mystery, a young adult novel, a celebrity bio, and massive history of 100 years of music.

Leading our discussion is David Julian Gray.

David Julian Gray, aka <djg> is a musician, musicologist, media technologist and long time host of the WELL music conference. In 1975, djg helped found The Klezmorim, the band universally recognized as in fountainhead of modern klezmer music. His research for The Klezmorim led to pioneering work in computer aided musicology and audio restoration. He.s restored and remastered recordings for Folk Lyric, Trikont records and the San Francisco Opera and consulted on audio production around the world. David joined National Public Radio (NPR) in 1996 to architect all digital production work-flows and speaks frequently at broadcast and media conferences. David became a beta-tester for the Whole Earth .Lectronic Link in 1985 and was the original co-host of the music conference (with Jim Stockford), a role he.s served again since 2001. Never abandoning his clarinet, djg leads the group Klezcentricity and (occasionally) performs as a guest soloist with klezmer and blues groups internationally.

Thank you both for joining us. [Read entire topic]