Zoom-In at the Bain Center

Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Maker Movement

Thursday, May 22, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We have seen how the new technology is eliminating traditional jobs. But the same technology has opened new possibilities in how goods are designed, finance and produced. This week we will examine the Makers Movement which is in essence Open Source for hardware. Here are some TED Talks for background:

Even the Obama administration is getting on the Maker bandwagon by announcing the first-ever White House Maker Faire.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Altruism in the New Economy

Thursday, May 15, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There is a lot of free stuff on the Internet. Although most of it is supported by advertising, there are some free and useful websites that are truly supported by altruism. Wikipedia is the primary example. In our next meeting we will discuss the role that altruism plays in the new economy. Is it profound or just hype? Will is create or destroy jobs? Here are some TED Talks that will provide some background and examples of altruism on the web.

-------------------- Update 5/15/14 and 5/16/14 -----------------

1) For those that want more detail on the Youtube vs, Pakistan incident can koi at this article, How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline.

2) From Dave Lenzo, link to Brief History of the Internet.

3) The three founders of the Internet who were high school classmates were Vinton Cerf, Jon Postel and Steve Crocker, and the school was Van Nuys High School. Zittrain did not mention other Internet founders, notably Bob Kahn.

4) Before making jokes about Al Gore inventing the Internet please read the facts. Here is what actually happened.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Automation

Thursday, May 8, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Continuing with the month's theme on the New Economy, we will look at how technology has led to a jobless recovery. In the eBook, Race against the Machine, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson see automation to be different from of the past. Now automation cause more jobs to be lost than gained. They see the trend to continue, but also see the crisis as a good thing.

Here are three TED talks by the two authors.

McAfee and Brynjolfsson have recently updated their eBook as a regular book, The Second Machine Age.

-------------- Update 5/9/14 -------------------

For those interested in a more comprehensive talk by McAfee and Brynjolfsson, here is a video of the authors presenting their idea of how the new automation is killing jobs to Google.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Beginning of a New Economy

Thursday, May 1, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Are we in a dying economy or in a transition to a new one? We will explore this theme in the month of May. We start with the rise of collaborative consumption made possible my social networking on the Internet. Here are two TED Talks by Rachel Botsman:

I just attended the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo, Hawaii. To find a room, I used AirBnB which was mentioned in the second talk above.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Religion in Politics

Thursday, Apr. 24, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Do you remember when candidate John F. Kennedy said that his religion would not compromise his duties his duties as president? Could Kennedy be elected today? Here are some videos of Kennedy's famous speech, Rick Santorum's reaction to the speech, and an explanation of what changed by Penn Jillette.

I will be on travel next week, so videos will not be shown during the meeting. But we should still have a great meeting since Lowell Sunderland has volunteered to lead the discussion.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Guns

Thursday, Apr. 17, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Continuing with our theme of Politics, our next topic will be Guns. Bill Ramsey has volunteered to lead the discussion. Is there some way to balance Second Amendment rights with public safety? Is the NRA too powerful? Was the new Maryland gun law proper? Our group should be able to answer these questions, and more, in just 90 minutes.

To get the conversation started here is a video of gun debate, which is actually civilized:

Sam Harris and Cory Booker Debate Gun Control on Real Time

------- Update 4/16/14 -------

In anticipation for the upcoming challenges to the new Maryland gun law, here are some relevant court cases:

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Maryland and Howard County Politics

Thursday, Apr. 10, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will turn our focus to Howard County and our local districts in the Maryland State legislator. The meeting will be led by Zoom-in member Ken Stevens, who has been active in local politics for many years.

Here a some web links which can provide background;

Find your election districts: http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/where.html

List of local races: http://elections.state.md.us/elections/2014/primary_candidates/index.html

Howard County Council: http://cc.howardcountymd.gov/displayprimary.aspx?ID=4294968693

Howard County Budget: http://www.co.ho.md.us/current_budget.htm and http://www.co.ho.md.us/Departments.aspx?Id=6442458740

Ken has also recommended these news articles:

ON NEWS ITEMS ABOUT CANDIDATES IN THE HOTTEST LOCAL PRIMARIES

LD12 Delegate candidate news in press:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/arbutus-lansdowne/ph-ca-at-candidate-forum-1120-20131114,0,7005243.story

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79280201/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/catonsville/ph-ca-at-district-12-forum-0312-20140307,0,832349.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/catonsville/ph-ca-at-district-12-charlestown-0319-20140312,0,331693,full.story