He said it is so rare for him to engage in dialogue, where somebody in the academy has a good tempure. Simon is a white, blues brother.

“What I bring to this dialogue is my baggage.” This is like a blues man in the life of the mind. Blues is catasrophe in the mind. Horrendous.

Wow, Cornel is engaging. The vocal changes. Preacher-esque. Very many references to literature. Kafka.

Little of philosophy of death in philosophy.

COurage to htink for oneself. We would rather evade this, and keep and domesticate the catastrophic. This is how we motivate ourselves in the light of our desires.  

I am having trouble typing, as he is melodioiusly carrying me through his message. But, his message is strong.

He comes from a history of African people who restle with social death, and the psychic death that comes from white fear and hatred, and the real jim Crow death, and spiritual death of nihilism. Blues and Jazz men and women use their craft

Think of the corpses of John Donne, as they wait for us.

He said that Simon is a metathinker, interested in metaphilosophy. What is philosophy. What is the role of philosophy. What is politics?

Failed transcendence. Obsessed with the german idealistic school. Wrestling with a pessimism. There is something positive about the quest, but there will never be closure.

“My brother, Simon.” Interesting refrain he keeps making.

Little about the enslavement of workers. Capitalism is so powerful that workers did not begin to organize until 100 years after Argentina, which is hardly known as being a steller example of social justice.

Cornel is like CHekhov, he does not have a Romantic trace, in him at all.

When dealing with the catastrophic in the everyday life, it is like a tragic comic, a steady ache of the tragic in our lives. Simon begins with a Romantic, and ends with disappointment. Cornel did not start as a ROmantic. From the very beginning, he does not have disappintment, as he never expected anything.

So, does philosophy begin with disappointment? It does if it begins with Romanticism. Think about the disappointment of Beckett, try again and fail again and try better.

Cornel is full of righteous indignation. He is here to help to promote Simon’s new book (which is why this is sponsored or at least has the presence of Verso books).

Get out of one’s narcissistic ego, and then move on. Self love is empowering and liberating. Marvin said Jesus is love. James Baldwin. Morrison and Beloved. None of them is an Americanized love, which is Holleywood, Romantic love. Thus, African American relate to the love of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. This love helps keep America alive, where American terrorism has 400 years of history for American blacks. 9/11 has a long history with Americans of African descent.

The role of what philosophy can contribute. He would join the army to fight the Nazis, but not sure about if he would join the early Americans at the time of the Revolution, as that would be hypocritical for African Americans. He hates imperialism.

He is a deep Democrat, which means he can pull from a number of traditions in order to understand it.

Really engaging, pulling references almost out of a hat, or rather a deep well of experience and education and reading and feeling. Not Romantic, of course. Can’t leave the two parties, as these are the only places to bring change. Find some nooks and crannies to find a home in them.

It is impossible to tell the story of white supremacy without getting crushed.

Keep fighting for deep Democarcy.

He finished. What a past 70 minutes between the two of them.

Time to turn off and stand up.

The lesson in and of philosophy after Kant, which is the painful process of accepting limitation.

It seems this event is for the publication of Simon’s new book by Verso.

Philosophy begins in the failed sense of transcendence. Religious and political disappointment intersect, and, if God is Dead, the issue of nihiliism, which is the breakdown of the order of meaning. This can be active or passive. Active is when the person finds things meaningless, and in turn try to detroy this world and bring a new one into being. Al Quaeda is the highest example of active nihilism. Passive nihilism is more like Nietchze, where there is the withdrawal.

Thus, what might justice be in an unjust world.

Wow, Simon speaks well. Polished. British English. Cultured, Modern. He wants to find more of a third way, one that is meta-ethical. The core of ethics, the existential matrix and core of ethics is a demand. One of good beyond being, the Resurrection, the moral law, etc. It depends on the thinker and the view.

There is a demand that cannot be fulfilled, and it makes me the me that I am by dividing me by myself; a dividual (the divided individual). Really interesting concept, I think. It fits with his concept that he is discussing, especially with the disappointment without dispair, there is a comic ridiculous. A bleak elevation to humor. We need satire more than ever, since we need the sense of the comic to cut through both the right and the left, politically, right now.

He is interested in the politics of resistance–military neoliberalism, neo leninism, neo anarchism.

Military neo-liberalism is a faith. This is similar to President bush right now, as well as British politics, and even current Democratic policies. This shows a melancholy with current politics. This form of politics causes a response of violence. This is politics of fear, like politics of policing, aka Guilianism. The best we can hope for globalized feeling of making the planet better. However, this is violent.

Neo-Leninism is practiced in Al Queda, and jihadist revolutionary Islam. He is very suspicious of this, more in the line of Stalin and Mao. Leninist and neo-Leninists like dictatorships and the political desire for the master. This is very violent. 

Neo-anarchism can be seen in the nature and tactics of resistance against the G8 Summit, for example. When diverse groups form and forge together for a common cause. This is like non-violent warfare, which is his emphasis. Badiou.

Anarchism as politics can be seen even in the US history, such as the writings of Payne and in some of the religious societies, such as Mount Lebanon.

a neoanarchist politics of religion can still allow for a resistance against the state. This is what Marx called true democracy when he referred to some of Hegel’s work.

What he is saying, about the state, immigration, and even the space where people live and have their lives, is very interesting, but as I am hot, sitting on the floor, and very uncomfortable, I am wondering  . . .

Ah, Gramsci and hegemony. Nothing like perking myself up. Makes me recall my classes with Brookfield. Interesting, I had not previous made the connection between Simon and Stephen (Brookfield).

Anarchism has to do with freedom

Ah, a Marcuse reference. And local and glocal.

War is the wrong response to the effects of 9/11. Perhaps the heteronomous other of Levinas is closer to what this is all about.

The three options, and he hopes the third is successful, but the first two will instead ravage the world.

The event started with the announcement of a student protest against Lockheed Martin and Monsanto tomorrow since they support the war and oppress developing nations.

So, here I am again, liveblogging another academic event. This event begins at 8:00, and I arrived at 7:35 to find not a single seat. Thus, I am sitting on the floor in the back of the Theresa Lang Community & Student Center at the New School in New York City. The fire sign above my head states that the room has a capacity of 200 people. Given the fact that there are people sitting in every seat and on the floor in all the aisles and in front of the emergency exits, let’s hope there will not be an emergency situation.

Clapping, so it must be them. Too bad I am in the back on the floor and cannot see them at all.

Cornel West (Princeton) and Simon Critchley (New School) will speak on Thursday night on the topic of  “The Meaning of Ethical Commitment and the Possibility of Political Resistance” at the New School for Social Research. According to their website:

The program will be held on Thursday, Sept 20, at 8:00 p.m. in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor. Admission is free, and no reservations required. Seating is first-come first-served. For more information call 212.807.9680

This promises to be an engaging evening, and I am really looking forward to it! I have heard Cornel West speak (though never in person), and I know Simon Critchley has a reputation as being an engaging speaker and professor as well.  I often do not make time to attend cultural events such as this one; always working or studying instead. However, this is one of the reasons I live in New York–the culture, educational opportunities, and energy that comes from so many things happening all the time that work to expand horizons. 

Technorati Tags: Cornel West, Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research

Read the rest of this entry »

I have completely revised and added to my initial list of LiveBlogging Best Practices that I initially published on 6/26/07. This comes from feedback I received and having reflected on my learning from the 3 separate conferences I liveblogged. [this post was revised later in the same day with another item (#15) added based on a comment from Robin Yap.]

Liveblogging Best Practices

1. Have an extension cord. You never know how far away the outlet is.
2. Plan on there NOT being any wireless Internet access. Regardless of what may be expected or promised you never know what may happen with it, who may be downloading every DVD ever made and clogging the network in the process, and how even the most stable technology fails when we may need it most (not to mention when the access is "free" after a daily credit card payment).
3. Use an offline blogging program. I am using Ecto for this here. I also tried ScribeFire for Firefox, but I could not get the image uploading FTP to work to save me, and their help pages were not too helpful. I do not mind paying developers for their work, and think those who created Ecto certainly deserve what I paid them for what they delivered. As I am about to migrate from XP to Vista, it is important to check compatibility (such as with Macs) and have a freely-available trial period.
4. Have a fully-charged battery. This goes without saying, but often the unstated is forgotten or assumed!
5. Create entry shells prior to the sessions. This way, you are assured to have the correct names of the sessions and the spelling of the participants for each entry.
6. Disclose what editing is done later. I consider myself a researcher-practitioner, and as such want full-disclosure of what I liveblog in real-time, as I conduct research with my entries as they are. These are real data, and as such it would be counter to the research process to go back and edit, spell-check, and otherwise clarify what happened at a previous time as the point of liveblogging is to capture the experiences in real-time. Of course, if I am able to spell-check and otherwise edit as I go, then that is another situation.
7. Distinguish between internal and external experiences. I am a constructivist qualitative researcher, and as such do not believe the researcher can separate himself or herself from the research experience. When I am liveblogging a conference, I find myself writing about what I see, hear, and experience, as well as the meaning-making that occurs in real-time. I cannot separate an objective happening from my perception of it, in that I do not believe there can be any objective meaning or experience apart from one who experiences it. In practical terms, I can record what I hear and what strikes me, but then I often begin to process the experience and add to the meaning-making event. This means that liveblogging makes me more than an active participant–the public-blogging and my ability to discuss my own thoughts and feelings of the event makes me in effect a co-presenter. [I think I will have to revisit this to try to develop it more]
8. Have a camera and its sync-cord. While picture taking while liveblogging may be icing on the cake, it does add a nice touch.
9. Have an international adapter/plug. Liveblogging in Canada, for example, uses the same plugs as in the US. The AHRD conference I am liveblogging in England means I have another device I have to carry with me if I want to plug in.
10. Adjust the computer time to the local time. I have blogged around the world, and prefer to capture the sessions in the real time where I am.
11. Consider a hyper-link policy. If I am liveblogging and there is wifi, then it is easy to add links to the presentations or papers or the people who present themselves, However, with the editing policy I listed above (see #7), determine how to find the links and add them, with full-disclosure, at some point in time. This allows the readers to try to see as much of what you experienced while it happens. If there is no wifi available, I consider it appropriate to add hyperlinks after the session when the Internet access is again available.
12. Plan for breaks. I blogged with a laptop, and had to decide what I was going to do with it when I went to the restroom and getting coffee. Without a personal contact whom I could trust it with when using the restroom or otherwise, it came with me. I had to close it and carry it as a notebook (I wonder if that is how the name originated?)
13. Get a comfortable seat. Liveblogging is tiring, so get comfortable because it will be a long session.
14. Consider keywords carefully. I have started to include Technorati keywords in all my posts, and use common keywords if they exist for the event, as well as names of participants and the primary topic. While I blog for many reasons, I want my experiences to be found by those in attendance or otherwise interested in the events I attend (if they so choose). 
15. Tag the posts with an agreed-upon tag. Technology-related conferences often announce a unique tag that they encourage people to use when uploading posts or photos so they can be found by searchers and other attendees later. However, not all conferences or events do this. If not, create a unique tag for the event that will be easy to locate and share it with anybody else liveblogging the event (for consistency). Finally, name it in a post so readers and potential searchers will see it.  

This list is a work in process, and I hope to add to it as new issues arise or as feedback and research dictates.

Technorati Tags: live blogging, liveblogging, live-blogging, liveblogging best practices, Technorati

Usha Raghavachari, Car and Crossover Communications Manager, Ford Motor

She makes no apology that this is a marketing presentation. She gave her background, where she was born in India and grew up in England. Her presentation will be in a few pieces. This includes an overview of the environment. From the EPA work, there is an increasing sense of environmental awareness, from the 2007 Cone Consumer Environmental Survey / EPA / AdAge. Al Gore has also made
an impact, with the book and movie.

What does green mean for the automotive industry. Bloomberg stated that the taxis in NY will increasingly be more energy efficient. Most presidential candicates now are driving around in a hybrid. People also think of green as being hybrid. But, for the auto industry, being green often means having smaller SUVs or smaller cars. Diesel in Europe is more efficient than current US hybrids. Efficiency and green also means making vehicles lighter. She stated that people are happy to pay more money for this investment.
However, when I shopped for a new car, I saw that the hyrbid was $10 K more in cost and 1/5 less in power (hp towing).

Quick education–component parts, hybrids have smaller and efficient and technologically advanced engine. There is an electric motor/generator acts as a motor and as a generator. Benefits of a hybrid is more efficiency with electric assist and better fuel economy and less emissions. When an Escape Hybrid runs on the electricity and has turned off the engine component, the tailpipe gives our clean air. All hybrids are not equal–some are partial and some are complete. Some need to use gas at all times, and some
can run completely (at times) on electricity.

The Ford Escape is the first hyrbid SUV and the first hybrid in the US. The emphasis is that people want hybrid and green, but they do not want to give anything up.

Looking up at the slides after typing all this without looking up, I see an enormous amount of text on the slides. Wow, too much for a communications perspective. Makes me long for Seth Godin’s PowerPoint recommendations.

Hybrid customers are the most affluent and well-educated consumer they have. This population takes action in their lives toward being green (organic food, compost, recycle). They want an outdoor life and do not want to compromise. This sounds wonderful and as part of a group I want to be a member of; what a good marketer she is.

She is clear she is a marketing person, and was focused on communications. Ironic that as she stated that, she opened a Background slide with 3 paragraphs with a total of 14 lines. I wish the slides would have been as engaging as her marketing and PR campaign. I am now so distracted by all of it, that her credibility is called into question in my mind since there is a disconnect between what she is saying and what she is showing. She talked about how brilliant Kermit is and how much fun and engaging
their ads (including the American Idol ad that she played) are. Is she showing us what they did as a professional engaged in this work, or trying to sell us this car? As a visual learner, I can’t watch since the slide text is so overwhelmingly full.

She then showed the Ford advertisement with Kermit the Frog, “Easy Being Green.” Kermit has cross-generational appeal and it was launched during the SuperBowl. Now the Ford Escape Hybrid faces luxury and non-luxury competition. Thus, saying “green” today is no longer enough. Thus, they are now focusing an environmentally friendly, off road and on. It is a true hybrid and a true SUV. She then stated that they buy carbon credits to offset the manufacture processes of the vehicle.

I still do not understand the concept of buying carbon credits.

The moderator has been unsuccessful in giving her the sign that her time is over (already 35 minutes, and still not entry for questions). Ahh, is this true to marketing form?

Technorati Tags: EPA, Ford Escape, hybrid, Cone Consumer Environmental Survey,, Usha Raghavachari

Linda Recupero, EVP Public affairs , HSBC USA - “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

HSBC has been involved in corporate stewardship for a long time, and has a lot of green initiatives for some time now. She joked about being green and banks having a lot of green (money), but there is a belief that they should be environmentally green and believe it from every aspect of them as an organization.

Their core beliefs and strategic initiatives include corporate responsibility. They want to be one of the world’s leading brands for corporate responsibility and thus reduce their environmental footprint.

They look at their stakeholders with an environmental stewardship lens. There are a lot of people to consider. Their business and communications perspective. They want to engage customers in an emotional relationship and then having a positive sustainable impact on the communities where they work. There tag line, “The World’s Local Bank” and the fact tha HSBC is the 3rd largest banking organization in the world, this message rings true for them as well. For HSBC, environmental stewardship is central to who they
are.

Great focus on engaging their clients and customers, but the slides were not terribly engaging. Rather dull, which is something she even stated when she considered her slides compared to the National Geographic ones that preceded here work.

Rather than write a big check, they are trying to have policies and initiatives that support their work and mission. They encourage their employees to be active and engaged in nature conservation programs.

They focus on partnering with other organizations, and partnered in the WWF and EarthWatch. They then wanted to fund organizations that were focused on climate changed. The HSBC Climate Partneship was with four credible organizations–The Climate Group, Earthwatch, WWF, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They funded this 5-year program with $100
M and want to encourage long-term work and involvement with people to be on expeditions and research projects.

They have the first Gold LEED certified bank branch in Greece, NY. Moving forward, they want every branch to have a component of being green and reducing their footprint.

Another of their tag lines for one of their campaigns is “there’s no small change” www.theresnosmallchange.com, which has incentives for making small changes in people’s banking and personal lives support these efforts.

It seems HSBC is very active in this area, and I am glad to hear it. I had no idea they were doing to much, so from a corporate communication perspective, they are quite active. As an organization with their people and customers and consumers and facilities, they are really making strides toward following their mission. Their chairman, Stephen K. Green, promotes this and believes and espouses promoting the green movement within HSBC.

The questions once again came from a global audience. The first question was about that most people are probably not aware of all the work HSBC is doing within this space. The question is about how HSBC can promote itself as a green-focused firm, and how they can use that within their marketing efforts. They are planning to actively begin marketing their work, especially as they are somewhat new at marketing and promoting their CR and Philanthropy and PR groups. They now realize how important this message and
the PR can be (compared to their marketing efforts). They have been humble and quiet in the past, and now are becoming more proactive in their approach. There was another question about how to filer this CR and green message to filer down, especially when the CEO is already in favor or and an evangelist of this message. A big piece of this is within employee education and e-learning and individual employee goals. They encourage people to be involved in conferences, and have a sustainability officer who then promotes
this and working with outside groups. Another question is if they have done a sustainability report, which they did. She believed this is critical, and they just released their report a month ago and offered to get it to the questioner (yet, oddly, did not share any of the results with those of us here).

Technorati Tags: Earthwatch, HSBC, Linda Recupero, Smithsonian Tropical Research Insitute, The Climate Group, WWF

Stephen P. Giannetti, VP and Group Publisher, National Geographic Magazine

He broke his presentation into 3 sections. At National Geographic, they are focused on where the consumers are going. Then, he wants to share about what the organization does with their employees. Finally, how they will communicate the message as a sustainable lifestyle.

1. Consumers want to feel better about what they have. They want to enjoy themselves and live their lives, while also knowing they are being good. 250 M people read the magazine and watch the cable channel. Really? Much greater reach than I expected or supposed. They are now referring to people today as a population that lives and has a “Valuable Life.”  This means living life to its fullest while also taking on personal responsibility. Thus, aware of impact on the environment and living with the consequences.
   There are also more opportunities for making a difference now. The slides he was using are very full with a tremendous amount of text. I have been typing by listening to him, but as I looked up at the slides, I am overwhelmed by the amount of text and columns and data and information. I think I will listen again, as I am distracted by looking at the slides. He stated they are focusing on the full-committed consumer or supportive consumer, which are now 41% of the population ( but not clear which population, the
   US or the world?).
2. National Geographic with their employees. Their new mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. I like this new mission, though it has been current for two years now. They want their employees to be brand ambassadors of trying to live this way around the world. This will help them to be more credible, as the employees will see this in their lives and not just in their message. Thus, they want attainable and sustainable goals. Their building is the first certified green building in the US, and they
   have a lot of internal initiatives (such as aggressive recycling in the cafeteria, Earth Day initiatives, and other ways to professionally and personal live greener lives, great use of wind power). National Geographic Magazine reaches 6.5 M readers each month, and they are looking to make a difference in how they create and print the magazine, as well as how their work and stories support their mission. They will then work with the World Wildlife Fund to do an
   internal audit of their green initiatives, as well as a new green section on their Intranet.
3. Communicating green and how they leverage their brand. Their global Mission “Inspiring People to Care about the Plant.” They are a non-profit and all their income supports their magazines and worldwide cable channels (communications vehicles) and they then also support people and projects who support their missions. They will bring these people together and then brainstorm how they can better support and spread what they have learned about the melting of the glaciers and the recession of the Redwoods (from projects
   of people who have walked across these areas to record this information). Climate Connections is a segment on NPR every morning, where they discuss articles and components from their work to further spread the word. They also licensed a cruise ship for a National Geographic expedition where passengers learn from their experts based on where they are traveling and what they hope to learn. He really encouraged
   and praised the work they do, and recommended people look at the practical and free resources on their website. They also purchased the Green Guide, a print and online publication for health and practical suggestions for living a greener life. Their article in the July 2007 issue, The Big Thaw. It was greatly read and the feedback is that people decided to take action after reading it,
   so from a financial perspective, it was somewhat lucrative for them. He also spoke about another magazine; National Geographic Traveler.

His content was very interesting, but toward the end it seemed almost too sales and marketing focused. There is a lot of great work they are doing. Being Green Is No Longer and Option was a focus. We then saw a preview of a new movie that National Geographic is about to release–Arctic Voice.

There were then questions. One asked about how to educate without just trying to make money. Everything they do goes through a group consensus filter. For them, ratings (on tv) and mission are not always synonymous, so that is why they partner with NPR and PBS and the like. Another question asked about how to address the green issues of perception vs. reality, and what is acceptable for them and for the consumer. At worst, things are left in the same condition, and at best they are left in better condition. The
people who asked questions came from all over the world (the Caribbean, London, etc.). Another question was about the brand — are more people coming to the brand and then looking at what their clients and advertising are doing. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising is doubling. Climate change as a problem and the solutions, and there is a lot of misinformation there. He thinks Europe is ahead of us, though this is not my experience in England, where I did not see any recycling whatsoever three
weeks ago. Another question asked about education for children, and he stated that they are actively involved in curriculum development and a kids’ magazine, which is now the most read children’s magazine in the world. The question about fully recycled paper, and how expensive this is, is a great challenge they are striving to do (they are committed to 100% recycled paper in the future). Hilton  in New York, has installed a fuel cell and encourages people to not wash their linens every day).

Technorati Tags: Green Guide, National Geographic Magazine, NPR, PBS, Stephen P. Giannetti, corporate social responsibility, WWF