SCoPE Seminar: Intellectual Property January 9 -29

SCoPEThe good folks over at SCoPE, a really fantastic learning community, are kicking off their first seminar series of the year, Intellectual Property: January 9 -29, 2008. If you work online in education or probably any other field and wonder about intellectual property, copyright, licensing and such, go over and register yourself on SCoPE’s Moodle site and get conversing!

This 3-week discussion is facilitated by Dan McGuire, Digital Licensing Specialist at Simon Fraser University in Canada. We’re hoping for international participation on this topic because we have a lot of notes to compare! Please join us to share your stories and ask those mind-bending questions about what is acceptable practice.

As always, SCoPE seminars are facilitated by volunteers and participation is free and open to the public.
http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca

Speaking of F2F events…

Leif over at SparkNW and company are offering a workshop in Seattle about balancing tech and our lives. Check it out at Spark Northwest & Soul Tech Seattle on January 26th. Leif, are ya making it green?

Technology can be fun and effective, and yet it can also be stressful, addictive and even soul-deadening at times.
* How do we deepen awareness of when we are too consumed by technology?
* When we become aware, how do we consciously choose new behavior that deepens our happiness and connection with others?
* As we work to establish a balance between technical and soulful aspects of living, how do we stick with it?

The Soul Tech workshop will address these challenges. Using a fun and inspiring group process, you will develop a clear understanding of where you are at and where you want to go with technology, from a soulful living perspective, and you will layout a concrete plan for getting there. We’ll use a mix of facilitation, games and activities that are at once fun, insightful and respectful. You will end up with specific ways to bring balance and happiness to what can be a fast-paced technologically absorbing world.

Seattle, WA. Capitol Hill, Velocity Studio.
1:30p to 6:00p on Saturday, January 26th, 2008.

Making Events Green

Photo by Matthew Fang on FlickrIn one of my communities, KM4Dev, there was a conversational thread on Making Events Green which has been summarized into our community wiki. (That in itself is an interesting practice to talk about. But later!)

There is a tension between our desires to reduce our carbon footprint and our desires to be together in the same place at the same time. The wiki offers us some steps for when we are face to face.

In the mean time, the better we get at productive and meaningful interaction online, the easier it will be to save our precious carbon expenditures for when it is REALLY important to be face to face, and reduce a lot of the “information dissemination” meetings which tend to plague many sectors. Yes, the conversations in the halls and over coffee are important, but why are we spending money on conference facilities. Let’s just go to a dang big coffee shop! Let’s leave behind the high production flyers and brochures, conference bags and gew-gaws. Bring your own coffee mug.

We can make not only events green, but consider how our interaction choices can reduce our carbon footprint. (And yes, sometimes that means turning off the computer as well!)

Photo by Matthew Fang