Dear Friends of Noneck,

If you haven't heard, in two short months, I will depart from my beloved city of New York to explore this planet. On 7 July 2007, and traveling for seven months, my feet will wander the earth, while I contemplating seven topics of freedom. On the way, I'll be documenting the experience on the "Luck of Seven" travel site (Lo7). While on the way, I'll be blogging on seven topics of freedom: free culture, free and open-source software, couchsurfers and bloggers, agents of progressive social change, happenstance, and our environment.

Yesterday, I sent out a message to my beloved donors, facebook and flickr friends. Much to my surprise, several previous donors chipped in a few extra bucks, forwarded my email around the globe and blogged about the Lo7. Luck of Seven is now at 24% of the way to fundraising USD$ 7,777. THANK YOU!!!

With 07/07/07 quickly approaching and my first month planned out, I see a wealth of opportunities to explore, BUT I can't do it alone.

1. A small donation of USD $11.11.
Thank you donors!! In return, I promise you an autographed copy of the book. In the meantime, luckofseven.com will continue to tell the story though rich media. < http://luckofseven.com/donate >

2. Spread the word and connect me with your other friends.
There is nothing more important to me than my friends. Though my past years of traveling and countless workshops, I know that we can make this a better place. Regardless if it's just a smiling face, a pint of beer or a hard floor to sit on, I want to visit your friends and say hello. Forward this message to your friends! Then, if you have a blog or social networking site, spread the word. I really need the link love ;)

3. Organizational sponsors for equipment and travel.
In Prague, Transitions Online has asked me to teach on new media journalism to former Communist countries. While "on the way," I look forward to teaching, conversing and interviewing citizens of this earth. If you know of an organization that might be a good fit, please don't hesitate to forward this email or make a formal introduction. I'm quite keen on helping organizations adapt technological frameworks for their own uses, elevate the seven topics of freedom, and share my experiences as an organizer. Otherwise, I'm looking for sponsors to acquire equipment: an HD Camcorder, a GPS device, an GSM cell phone, etc... I have a list and would love to entertain any ideas. Have your people call my people!

... and with that, I hope you place your luck on seven and at least give a donation.

be seeing you...
noneck noel

it's abysmal that in the 21 century Americans still face police brutality. this past week, the LAPD got into the mix and demonstrated their lack of respect for freedom of speech and the press. regardless that this is a FOX news team, i hope you are equality enraged.

early this week, i reposted a gothamist video from a greenpeace street action against kleenex. today, the boys and girls have a more detailed video...

Technorati Tags: greenpeace, kleenex, kleercut, times square, vlog, youtube

i sometimes work out of the same offices as greenpeace's internet organizer, but that should not stop you from watching this video!!!

when you're in a culture that is bombarded by mundane commercial advertisement, how does one set yourself above the fold? if you're an activist organization, getting people to understand is hard. getting people to care, damn near impossible... UNLESS you are given the freedom to explore any marketing angle - for more info on how to convince Kimberly-Clark not to use virgin old growth forests - check out kleercut and my favorite Greenpeace campaign, Green My Apple.

just because one organization is a better organizer than another does not mean we are terrorists.

Technorati Tags: gothamist, green my apple, greenpeace, kleercut

this is just a bit of a cross promotion of my luck of seven vlog.

Technorati Tags: harvard, luck of seven, social entrepreneur club, social entrepreneurship, vlog

out of all the conversations at lift, i am still awe struck by one presentation.

when i first had lunch with Ben Cerveny, our casual conversation would have led to nothing more than a few high-fives and an occasional email. though, something struck me funny when he casually made reference to his presentation and it's generic topic of metaphors. once Ben started his presentation, everyone shifted in their seats. it was instantly clear that this was was not going to be a simple conversation. by ben's second paragraph, Michele Perras and i had stopped taking notes. by ben's third slide i just closed my eyes and let the words flow into my ears

to me that there was no way in hell i would ever understand the complete value of this presentation. so at the end, (yup that me mucking up the microphone)... i had to say thank you for blowing my mind and inquire about Ben's perception on intelligent life... after a 10 min break, i attempted to sit down and listing to another presentation and could not. so i ran out and quickly wrote school of fish. since that afternoon, i have been in awe wondering how to use this data. after a request to laurent, the awesomeness face of lift; he uploaded ben's presentation. one by one, all presentations will be up! snag them via itunes or your pirate "arr-Rss" reader.

there are several ways of interpreting ben's presination. one, is to accept it at face value and only consider that the terms we use in technology as analogous to science terminology. two, we should think more about the abstract and not attempt to catalog it as a new invention. though we should continue branding these things as hip, hot, sexy beasts. three, is to look at flow as representative of nature's biological ecosystem. instead of attempting to think we are breaking through new walls of enlightenment, we should harness these tools to augment the ways we communicate in person. just like we have open conversations we should ensuring that the data flows freely. if that is the latter, data stuck within our brains is in it's natural state, harmonious with nature. sadly, in the technological world, there are two impediments that prevent flow from being at harmonious state...
1. closed technology systems.
2. technical hardware that data sits on.

imaging a world where you don't have to have a million and one user names and passwords. imagine a world world, where you have an aggregate social networking site, and you no longer have to create a million profiles and go though the same meticulous process of adding friends. imagine a world were your business systems are easily integrated with your desktop calendar, address book, cell phone, etc... the distance of this world isn't too far off. through the work of Lawrence Lessing, EFF, Save the Internet, Open Source, OpenID, Microformats, The Internet Task Force, and the Integration Proclamation - just to name a few - they are working endlessly fighting closed systems. thought the fight never really ends. there are many still who think they can control the flow.

most troubling of ben's metaphors is the hardware that sits beneath all of our society. two additional presentations at lift highlight the problems industries faces - suren erkman and julian bleeker. while suren's presentation was dry and complex, it provided a thorough review of industry and how we should move forward looking at which models we should use for industry. space is not just the final frontier, but is a clear example of a closed ecosystem that needs complete sustainability. note - peter barns who's attempting to move markets (not just companies) to calculate the cost of the environment - capitalism 3.0.

julian bleecker, gave a succinct presentation (video here) on the second life cost in our first life. julian's not just talking about the game, but all of our online activity. nicholar carr's deduction that a Second Life avatar is equivalent to a Brazilian is not an absurd statement to make. second life is not alone, google is also facing power consumption issues. in january, i, cringly reported that google has gone to extraordinary lengths to purchase property next to power plants. just in this week's economist's article "going green" goes on to expand the power dilemma we face, by fundamentally taking a look how AC conversion into DC is inefficient and the most costly in power consumption.

the power that is consumed by our flow is just part of the iceberg. greenpeace's green my apple campaign is nother example of the unsustainability our flow faces. even the most trendy of computer manufactures has problems producing environmentally computers. computers, cell phones, tivos, batteries, etc, are all manufactured from harmful products. grist magazine does a great job speaking in practical realistic language of things we can do to be better. as we have decreased the barriers of publishing a linty of online publications have appeared - ecogeek, treehugger, and worldchanging just to name a few. at home, you always have sustainable power and terrapass...

as the flow we create exceeds the footprint of a human, and our hunger for it's company becomes as prevalent as our desire for shelter, warmth and love. we should take stock in the transformative nature of all elements of our interconnected society.

Technorati Tags: ben cerveny, global change, Julian Bleecker, lift conference, lift07, second life, sustainable development, sustainability, transparency, web 2.0