The WELL: Topics in the inkwell.vue Conference

inkwell.vue.343: Bruce Sterling: State of the World, 2009

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

As has become our custom, the new year in the Inkwell begins with a visit from longtime Well member, Bruce Sterling. This will be Bruce's tenth overview of Things in General, the State of the World, Where We Have Been and Where We are Tending.

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his nine science fiction novels, he also writes design criticism. He is a contributing editor of WIRED magazine and a columnist for MAKE magazine. He also writes a weblog.

During 2005, he was the "Visionary in Residence" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 2008 he was the Guest Curator for the Share Festival in Torino, Italy and also "Visionary in Residence" and the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam.

Jon Lebkowsky is Bruce's regular partner in these highly informed speculations.

Jon is a cultural strategist, social commentator, and web strategist. He writes about culture, technology, media, sustainability and other topics for various publications, and has been blogging regularly since 2000. He's an acknowledged authority on social media and online community. He is cofounder of Social Web Strategies, where he does strategic consulting and coordinates social media planning and web development.

In 1991 he cofounded the pioneering online company FringeWare, Inc., the first company to attempt e-commerce. The company published the influential magazine FringeWare Review, which had an international distribution. he was involved in online community and e-commerce projects throughout the 1990s, and worked with bOING bOING (as associate editor for the original paper zine), HotWired, The Whole Earth Catalog, Electric Minds, and many other web and cyberculture projects and endeavors during the World Wide Web's first decade. In the late 90s, he was actively involved in the creation of e- commerce and online community initiatives for Whole Foods Market. After leaving Whole Foods, he formed Polycot Consulting, one of Austin's lead web consulting and development companies through the 2000s. He was involved in the emergence of social technology in the early 2000s, and has been a leader in the use of social technology for political activism. With Mitch Ratcliffe, he co-edited the book Extreme Democracy.

Gentlemen: ring out the old, won't you, please? Pretty please? [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.342: Best of The WELL - 2008 Edition

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

Welcome to the Best of The WELL 2008. We will be revisiting some hot topics and end of year thoughts from some of our featured conferences.

The WELL is not a book, it's a tome. An ongoing story of our members lives and times and thoughts on all things.

So I have invited some of our authors (conference hosts and members) to participate in an end of year celebration of this year's musings.

Enjoy! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.341: Gary Greenberg, The Noble Lie

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're very pleased to welcome WELL member Gary Greenberg to Inkwell.

Gary Greenberg is a psychotherapist and freelance writer. His features and essays, most of them about science and medicine, and the way they make the world a weirder place, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Rolling Stone, among other magazines. He's a contributing writer for Mother Jones, and his work has been chosen for Best American Science and Nature Writing. The Noble Lie is his second book. His first was The Self on the Shelf: Recovery Books and the Good Life (SUNY Press, 1994), and his third will be Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of an American Disease, due out in early 2010 from Simon and Schuster.

Leading the conversation with Gary is our own Steve Silberman.

Steve Silberman is a senior writer for Wired magazine and a conference host on the WELL. Over the years, he has written about autism in Silicon Valley, antibiotic-resistant infections in Iraq war veterans, the neurologist Oliver Sacks, neuroplasticity and Buddhism, and the writers of the Beat Generation. His articles have appeared in Wired, the Shambhala Sun, GQ, Time, and many other national publications. He was also the co-author of "Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads" in 1993 with David Shenk. Steve's homepage is stevesilberman.com.

Welcome, Gary and Steve! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.340: Amy Trubek, The Taste of Place

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

For our next discussion, we're very pleased to welcome Amy Trubek to Inkwell.

Amy Trubek is a cultural anthropologist who also trained and worked as a professional cook. She is presently an assistant professor in the Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont where she teaches classes such as From Farm to Table: The Contemporary Food System and Food and Culture (including a cooking lab. She was previously the Executive Director of Vermont Fresh Network and also worked at New England Culinary Institute. She is the author of "The Taste of Place, A Cultural Journey into Terroir" and "Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession" (University of Pennsylvania Press). She is presently involved in an effort to document the taste of place in Vermont maple syrup and artisan cheese. Her other present research interest involved an ethnographic inquiry into contemporary domestic cooking practices in the United States.

Leading the discussion with Amy is our own Anne Boyd:

Anne Boyd is a project manager at a landscape architecture firm in Los Angeles, specializing in parks and public work. Her professional interests include the expression of narrative, history and the arts in landscape; memorial landscapes and cemeteries; urban wildlife habitats; and ecoregionally appropriate landscape design. She also has a long-standing personal interest in agricultural history and sustainable agriculture. She is currently part of the team developing interpretive gardens depicting the agricultural history of Los Angelesfor the new Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Welcome, Amy and Anne! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.339: Sara Laschever, Ask For It

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We are pleased to welcome to The Inkwell, Sara Laschever, co-author of "Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want."

Sara Laschever has worked as a writer and editor for over 25 years. Her work has been published by The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Vogue, WomensBiz, and many other publications. She has written widely about workplace issues, and her interest in women's life and career obstacles led her to work as a research associate and principal interviewer for Project Access, a landmark Harvard University study that explored impediments to women's careers in science. In 2003 she co-wrote "Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide" with Carnegie Mellon economist Linda Babcock. Fortune Magazine, in its 75th anniversary issue, listed "Women Don't Ask" as one of the "75 smartest books we know." This past March, she and Linda Babcock published "Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want." "Ask For It" was recently chosen as a finalist for the Thirteenth Annual Books For A Better Life Awards.

Welcome Sara. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.338: Daniel Levitin, The World In Six Songs

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're pleased to welcome to the Inkwell Daniel Levitin, author of "The World In Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature."

Daniel J. Levitin is a Professor of Psychology, Music and Computer Science at McGill University. He is the author of the international best-seller "This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession," which has been on the New York Times bestseller list for 12 months and has been translated into 11 languages. "The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature" was released in August 2008 and debuted at #4. Prior to entering academia, Levitin was a record producer and engineer with artists such as Blue Oyster Cult, Chris Isaak, and Stevie Wonder.

Leading the interview is our own Scott Underwood.

As a kid, Scott Underwood listened to his parents' Hank Williams, Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, and Jazz at the Philharmonic LPs, and heard the Beatles from his sister's room. His tastes now range from Bach to Reich, Beatles to Zappa, Basie to Frisell, and Nusrat to N'Dour. At 7, he learned guitar from the Alfred guitar course, bought an electric guitar at 13, and took up electric bass in his 20s. He dabbles as a musician with whomever asks him to play, and as a listener to whatever he's told he'll like. During the day, Scott works for a design company in Palo Alto, California, where he writes and speaks as a cultural advisor and company storyteller.

Welcome gentlemen. [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.337: Lowell Feld and Nate Wilcox, Netroots Rising

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're pleased to welcome to the Inkwell the authors of Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics, Lowell Feld and Nate Wilcox.

Lowell Feld is founder and editor of RK, the largest progressive blog in Virginia. In 2003, Feld was a leader in the Draft Wesley Clark movement. In early 2006, Feld co-founded the Draft James Webb movement, helping persuade Webb to enter the race against George Allen. In July 2006, Feld joined the Webb campaign as its netroots coordinator, helping to raise more than $4 million online. Currently, Feld consults for the South Dakota Democratic Party and Judy Feder for Congress campaigns. In addition, Feld worked for 17+ years as an international oil markets analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Nate Wilcox is a political consultant with over 10 years of experience at the nexus of traditional political communications and the internet. He has worked for Senator John Kerry, Virginia Governor Mark Warner and the late Texas Governor Ann Richards. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising and lives in Alexandria Virginia with his family.

Leading the conversation with Lowell and Nate is the Well's own Jon Lebkowsky, who writes about culture, technology, media, politics, and sustainability. Jon has been blogging since the late 1990s. An acknowledged authority on social media and online community, he also leads web development projects and consults with businesses and nonprofits on web strategy and social technology. He was involved in progressive social media initiatives in the 2004 and 2006 election campaigns, and is co-editor with Mitch Ratcliffe of _Extreme Democracy__, a collection of writings about technology and politics.

Welcome, gentlemen! This is certainly a timely topic, isn't it? [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.336: Gary Marcus, Kluge

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're very pleased to Welcome Gary Marcus to the Inkwell.

Gary Marcus is a scientist and a writer. As a scientist, he is director of the NYU Child Language Center, and a Professor of Psychology at New York University. As a writer, he is author of three books, including The Birth of the Mind, a book about genes and the origin of the brain, and Kluge, a book about evolution and the clumsiness of the human mind.

Leading the conversation with Gary is our own Bruce Umbaugh.

Bruce Umbaugh is a philosopher at Webster University, where he teaches in St. Louis, MO, and online. His work nowadays is mostly about the ethical and social consequences of technological choices, but he wrote a book about the British empiricist philosopher, George Berkeley, too. Back in the day, he wrote a dissertation about rationality that focused especially on the clumsiness of the human mind.

Welcome, Gary and Bruce! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.335: Hara Estroff Marano, A Nation of Wimps

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're pleased to welcome Hara Estroff Marano to the Inkwell.

Hara Estroff Marano is editor at large of Psychology Today magazine and author of three books, most recently A Nation of wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting. She is on the advisory board of the Bringing Theory to Practice Project, which aims to make higher education conducive to wellbeing by promoting intellectual and civic engagement. She is also a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Haifa (Israel). And yes, she is a parent herself.

Leading the conversation with Hara is our own Lisa Harris.

Lisa Harris is a small business owner and former educator. Lisa has two children, aged 10 and 7. She runs her business from home so she can also double as a stay-at-home mom. Lisa is an active volunteer at her children's school. She is also studying Tae Kwon Do and will earn a black belt within the next 6 months.

Welcome, Hara and Lisa! [Read entire topic]

inkwell.vue.334: Sam Gosling, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

We're very happy to welcome Sam Gosling to the Inkwell for a discussion of his book, "Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You".

Sam Gosling is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas. Born in London and raised in Gloucestershire, he now lives in Austin. He did his graduate work in Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, where he began his two core lines of research: Personality in non-human animals and the topic of Snoop, how personality is expressed and perceived in everyday environments. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and he is the recipient of the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution. Please visit him at http://snoopology.com/ .

Leading the conversation with Sam is the Well's own David Adam Edelstein.

David Adam Edelstein is a software designer and street photographer and spends most of his time trying to wrap his head around what's going on in other people's heads. He's delighted to find out there's a word for it, besides "that creepy guy looking at my shoes on the bus."

Welcome, Sam and David! [Read entire topic]