The other Chomsky: Fighting for free markets

The wallstreet journal has published a very interesting article that takes a more objective view on MIT linguistic prof. Noam Chomsky's work and position, than most observers do. It is true, it is Chomsky's own (sometimes a bit populistic) behaviour that puts him into the role as figurehead for the left, but he has written much more profound and balanced texts on linguistics and politics, it is just that his 'anti-american', anti-capitalist pieces catch most attention. This at least claims the following article which also tries to proof the point by presenting some of his 'other ideas'. I felt it was really interesting stuff Chomsky deals with http://www.e-rooster.gr/11/2005/194

UN World Summit on the Information Society and the Values & Ethics Caucus

I just spent a very very interesting week at the United Nations World Sumit on the Information Society in Tunis. There was so much going on that it is absolutly impossible to warp it up in a couple of sentence, but i am sure that i will refer to some people and initiatiatives in future posts.

My own contribution to the event was a presentation about Cosmopolitan Citizenship in the 21st Century which I held at the event organised by the Civil Society Values and Ethics Caucus (Click here to download the presentation). It was a very good experience and it looks like i will help to facilitate the work of the caucus. If you are interested please subscribe to the mailing-list under http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/values-ethics

Appreciative Inquiry

while preparing for my contribution to the WSIS civil society caucus on values & ethics, I came across an interesting organisation called The TAOS Institute. Acording to their website, they are "a community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value." I quite liked what they do and especially the concept of Appreciative Inquiry was new and very attractive to me:

Appreciative Inquiry is about the co-evolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. In AI, the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point moments, lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions of wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul, and visions of valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt, AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.

you can find the paper and more docs on http://www.taosinstitute.net/manuscripts/manuscripts.html