Here it is. In Norwegian only – the Interview I did on the program “TRUDE/”;
Thanks to AnonymousNorway for delivering this.
If you know Norwegian and are up for a challenge, then subtitles are very welcome 🙂
Category Politics
The next best thing after sliced bread
Is it a todo-list manager? Is it an outliner? A project management tool? A shopping list solution on steroids? A way of designing business processes? A way to describe… the human DNA or the solution to mankind’s problems or the whole freakin’ universe?
Yes, yes, yes. It’s all of the above. It’s WOIM! And it is out in version 1.4
With this version, I have added time repetition (thanks to Nilo de Roock) and checkboxes for items – with optional date stamps for items that are Done (thanks to Christopher Truett).
No, this is not a piece of software. It is a description for how you can describe anything. And I do mean anything.
If you want a software solution to go with it, learn VIM and add the accompanying VIM plugin. Then you have all you need to comfortably write neat WOIM lists and use it for anything from shopping lists to the description of Quantum Mechanics. It’s yours to take, and you are welcome.
The realist versus the optimistic idiot
From a discussion on the ITIL Alumni LinkedIn group:
Brendan Martin:
Geir and me have several ideas a week for possible projects. Some of these ideas are tested, some succeed but most fail. We don’t mind. If you don’t shoot, you will never score.
Our latest idea is different. It is so simple. I still however believe that maybe 1000 people around the world were thinking of the same idea at the same time we sang “Eureka!”.
But first, what makes simple ideas succeed. I wonder why Dropbox succeeded, why Twitter succeeded, why Facebook succeeded, why the ipod succeeded. All of these ideas had competition. Maybe they all had great business plans but few actually got the idea “in the zone”. Learning to put your ideas “in the zone” gives them energy. Along with perseverance, simple ideas may succeed.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” Mark Twain.
Geir Isene:
The nay-sayers are almost always right; “No, no that idea will never work”. Because most ideas fail in execution. This is also how they treat their own ideas before they even get spoken. And that is why they never try. And to prove their own rightness, they will try to convince everybody around them that their ideas will also fail.
But our creative fellow, the yeah-sayer, is a hopeless optimist, never giving up – even after a thousand ideas have been shot down, he still musters the stupidity to give it another shot. And once in a blue moon, a crazy idea does succeed – sometimes against all odds, sometimes because it slips by before anyone could see it to shoot it down.
And then you get real change. Real positive impact.
We are AT WAR!
The US is going ballistic after Wikileaks released classified governmental documents.
Some have cried “But we are AT WAR!” – to seemingly justify why the US government should be allowed to operate secretively and opaque and even against the interests of The People that elected them to power.
Such “AT WAR!” justifications have been used throughout history to oppress and suppress anything from free speech and political dissidents to whole groups or nations. Examples include the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Chile under Pinochet, Uganda under Idi Amin, present time North Korea and the Church of Scientology.
When one is “AT WAR!”, one can pretty much do as one wishes. Like go to war against a nation that did nothing to harm you in any way, censor free speech, demand extra taxes, send people to the Ethics department for daring to read the Internet, send staff to the Repair Project Force for not toeing the Party Line, etc.
It matters not whether a government or organization claims to be “AT WAR!” with another nation, terrorists, the psychiatric profession, the media or aliens. Because as long as one gets the group to believe it is “AT WAR!”, then the group will relinquish its basic human rights to those in power and entrust its future in those in command.
One should be very alert of such “AT WAR!” claims, as far too often it is misused in order to suppress opposing views and to keep the status quo for those in power.
I believe Thomas Jefferson was right when he said:
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
Right now there are governments in fear of its people.
I will leave you with some excellent questions by the US politician Ron Paul:
Wikileaks: Transparency vs. Privacy
One needs to answer to those one is appointed to serve.
By this, a politician and government official serving The People need to answer and be transparent to The People.
A business needs to answer and be transparent to its shareholders, employees and clients.
A family member needs to answer to the other family members. A family transparent to itself is a Good Thing.
I need to answer to me. Me being self-transparent is a matter of personal integrity.
This gives the gradients of transparency and privacy.
And of course, a politician is only a politician when he does politics.
When he is in the bathroom, he is private (and answers to himself).
On the control of information
Jeff’s latest blog post serves as a landmark. A quote from that post is relevant as an opening to mine: “Information control isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a confession of weakness“. It’s profound. It reaches well beyond the small world of Scientology. It captures all venues of human interrelations, politics, Wikileaks. It is also relevant to The Scientology Forum – the forum I erected a year ago and since some months has been run by Claire.
One of the premises when I put up the forum was to make it a place where Scientologist could feel safe when discussing Scientology – safe from exposure to Scientology’s confidential upper level material. Although there is plenty of evidence that exposure to such material is not dangerous, the belief that it may harm you could serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy, a reverse placebo. In any case, the forum was set up so that posts be moderated before they appeared. Very, very few posts have been deleted, but some have been modified to keep within the Rules of Conduct.
At times the forum has been an interesting place for real debates and where new ideas have emerged, giving birth even to a whole now branch of philosophy, the KHTK. But the control of information by what Hubbard calls “inspection before the fact”, i.e. screening has strangled the flow of information to a mere trickle. The moderation introduces a lag in the communication and that in itself is detrimental to lively exchange of ideas.
I asked the forum if it is time to reconsider the moderation policy.
Although I would want to see a civilized forum for discussion of Scientology (I see no reason to change the ROCs), the moderation takes the life out of a forum like that – and there are other examples that points to the same.
The current affairs with WikiLeaks has highlighted the need for openness even better. Because WikiLeaks is good – for transparency, for democracy. Just like Wikipedia is good and the Internet itself is good. Sure, both the Internet and Wikipedia had gotten its share of criticisms, but hell anything that is disruptive of the establishment, of the status quo will earn criticism. Because Man’s deepest fear is of the unknown – and because one thing that any change is bound to bring is a dose of the unknown.
I believe in open communication and the free flow of ideas. That is why I support the Internet, Wikipedia, free software, free culture, Transparency International, Amnesty International, the EFF and WikiLeaks. And this is why I oppose patents and Copyrights as control mechanisms.
Instead of shielding people from ideas and communication, one should seek to help people handle ideas and communication better. Ideas and communication are inherently difficult to control, and all to often abuse follow in the wake of such attempts.
“Information control isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a confession of weakness“. Intentions to strengthen oneself on behalf of others underlies such weakness. In a truly free society, there is no space for government secrecy, information manipulation or hiding of truths.
“Light itself is a great corrective. A thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown in darkness disappear, like owls and bats, before the light of day“. —James A. Garfield.
The war is over!
When I first encountered free software in 1999, I was amazed by it’s creative power. The power of collaboration coupled with the power of a truly free marked seemed the future to me.
Back then when Linux was a geek’s OS and rarely taken seriously except as web servers, and Wikipedia was nowhere, “proprietary” seemed to trump “free” in most any arena. The push for marked dominance by secrecy, copyrights and patents was mounting with companies like Microsoft and Oracle carrying the torch of Mammon. Gordon Gekko’s legendary words, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” carried the American dream powered by egoism forward. But could something work even better? Free Software sparked a belief in me that collaboration, sharing and caring could indeed turn the tables.
My sentiment is well captured by Dan Pink in his TED talk. The endless possibilities of the Ant Hill Innovation captured my heart, my motivation. I decided to pitch in.
I got into the Free Software business in 2000. In 2004, my wife and I started FreeCode Norway (English link) and FreeCode International to help in the fight for freedom and the fight against vendor lock-ins. Being an idealist, I wanted to help make the dent in history by forwarding the ideals of freedom, creativity and human potential through collaboration.
For ten years I have been at the forefront of a battle for freedom. I went from a protector of “intellectual property” to a “copyright abolitionist“. I even rebelled against my own religion. The Church of Scientology had long since positioned itself as the main copyright terrorist on the Internet with it’s harassment tactics against anyone daring to challenge its monopoly on freedom.
I followed my heart, did countless of talks, speeches, seminars and media appearances in an effort to forward the ideology of a culture based on sharing. We helped African countries to see the light and set up FreeCode in Tanzania and Kenya, had meetings with governmental officials and got the media’s attention in Africa as well as in Russia, Ukraine and Norway.
The ideological war was fought in the area of software and it’s success gave birth to phenomenas like Wikipedia and Wikileaks. The marks of freedom was left on many parts of our society. Hell, even Microsoft started to embrace free software. Free software conquered the Internet infrastructure, started moving up the stack and is now practically everywhere.
New vistas
The conflict loving media used to cherish the David against Goliath battle of Geeks against the Establishment. But as David won out, not by vanquishing the proprietary but by its ideology slowly being absorbed by the enemy, the media interest kept sliding.
To the point where I now feel that The War Is Over.
It’s kind of sad really, as I love to have something to truly fight for. Freedom, justice and the common good. I’m not motivated by the next buck. I am motivated by making a dent in history for the common good. Oh, well. Got to find another Hill to conquer.
While the war I engaged in a decade ago may be over, there is always another Hill, and FreeCode, me and the ideology of sharing and caring will morph into a new identity to make a jab at Mammon from another angle. Because there is no rest until… Well, forget “until” – as any goal toward a common good will do – as the pleasure lies not in attaining the goal but in the journey itself. One only needs to remember to enjoy the game. Immensely.
Geir Isene - uncut 