Australian anthropologist
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In this episode of This Anthro Life, we'll dive into how anthropology is reshaping tech investment by examining human culture and its influence on innovation. You'll discover how the deep study of culture helps forecast market trends, understand AI (artificial intelligence) and its cultural implications, and inform smarter investment decisions. We'll explore why private equity firms are hiring anthropologists and why venture capital should follow suit. With insights into consumer behavior, organizational dynamics, and cultural change, this episode delves into how ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies are influenced by anthropological intelligence. We also cover the role of business strategy in navigating today's technological landscape, exploring how cultural anthropology can reveal the symbolic value and market intelligence that form a company's cultural moat. Featuring renowned anthropologists Genevieve Bell and Gillian Tett, we uncover why cultural intelligence is essential in our fast-evolving world.I'm Adam Gamwell as a cultural anthropologist and award-winning media creator, I specialize in storytelling. My diverse background spans startups, nonprofits, cultural organizations, and Fortune 1000 companies, focusing on applied strategy, experience design, and human insights. My approach blends experiential research, like engaging with Peruvian quinoa farmers for climate change initiatives, with cutting-edge tools like AI and trends foresight. By leveraging big data alongside traditional ethnography, I align human needs with business goals, ensuring projects resonate profoundly.About This Anthro LifeThis Anthro Life is a thought-provoking podcast that explores the human side of technology, culture, and business. We unravel fascinating narratives and connect them to the wider context of our lives. Tune in to https://thisanthrolife.org and subscribe to our Substack at https://thisanthrolife.substack.com for more captivating episodes and engaging content.Follow This Anthro Life:https://www.linkedin.com/company/this-anthro-life/ https://www.thisanthrolife.org/ https://thisanthrolife.substack.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thisanthrolife https://www.instagram.com/thisanthrolife/ Culture Capitalisthttps://culturecapitalist.substack.com/
Why is the resilience of Australia's democracy critical to our freedom and privilege? What challenges does social media pose to the functioning of our democracy? How do tears in our social fabric exacerbate anti-democratic behaviour? In this episode, Tom Rogers and Clare O'Neil discuss the importance of, and challenges facing, elections and democracy. With framing introductions from Rory Medcalf and Genevieve Bell. Note: This episode was recorded from a public session, ‘The Future of Elections,' part of a two-day conference hosted by the ANU National Security College in partnership with the Australian Electoral Commission and International IDEA. Tom Rogers is the Australian Electoral Commissioner The Hon Claire O'Neil MP is the Minster for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Professor Genevieve Bell is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the Australian National University Professor Rory Medcalf AM is Head of NSC. His professional experience spans more than three decades across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, journalism, and academia. Show notes ANU National Security College academic programs: find out more Full version with panel and Q&A - The future of elections and Australian democracy We'd love to hear from you! Send in your questions, comments, and suggestions to NatSecPod@anu.edu.au. You can tweet us @NSC_ANU and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. The National Security Podcast is available on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On today's episode of Higher Ed Spotlight, we travel down under in a fascinating conversation with Australian National University's newly appointed Vice Chancellor, Genevieve Bell. We delve into her childhood experiences in Australia's Aboriginal communities, which shaped her journey to a PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford and then her groundbreaking work at Intel in user experience. Genevieve explains how cybernetics evolved into AI. She highlights its quest to replicate human intelligence and the ethical questions that it raises for higher ed and our broader society. Genevieve ties these themes seamlessly to her leadership vision for ANU's core research mission and the pivotal role that mission plays in social progress.
ANU Vice-Chancellor, Distinguished Professor Genevive Bell joins us to discuss the power of stories, knowledge and a vision for our future. Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell is the 13th Vice-Chancellor of ANU. She is also the University's first female Vice-Chancellor. She holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist, having spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley helping guide Intel's product development and social science and design research capabilities.Sharon Bessell is a Professor of Public Policy and Director of both the Children's Policy Centre and the Poverty and Inequality Research Centre at ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. Arnagretta Hunter is the Human Futures Fellow at ANU College of Health and Medicine, a cardiologist, a physician, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at ANU Medical School. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The post Genevieve Bell on the history and relevance of Cybernetics, frameworks for the past, present and future, and decolonizing AI (AC Ep10) appeared first on amplifyingcognition.
We find ourselves living in a time of great complexity and flux, where the very fabric of our societies is being rewoven by the rise of artificial intelligence and the interplay of complex systems. How do we make sense of a world that is undeniably interconnected, with increasingly porous boundaries between nature and culture, human and machine, science and art? Paul Wong is reshaping that conversation, drawing on science, philosophy, and art. Origins Podcast WebsiteFlourishing Commons NewsletterShow Notes:Buckminster Fuller (07:40)Principia Mathematica by Russell and Whitehead (09:00)Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin (11:00)Commonwealth Grants Commission (13:10)Range by David Epstein (15:00)David Krakauer (15:20)Claude Shannon and information theory (17:10)Chaos by James Gleick (20:00)Duncan Watts, Barabási Albert-László , and network analysis (24:20)Networks the lingua franca of complex systems (25:20)Stephen Wolfram (25:30)Open Science (28:20)Australian National University School of Cybernetics (28:50)Australian Research Data Commons (29:50)Genevieve Bell (31:20)Ross Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety (32:30)Sara Hendren on Origins and Sketch Model (36:30)What he tells his students (38:00)Alex McDowell on Origins (41:00)The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent and Fritjof Capra (47:30)Tao Te Ching (48:20)Morning routine (49:30)Lightning round (53:40)Book: Special relativity and Dr. SeussPassion: MusicHeart sing: Stitching together cybernetics, complexity, and improvisation Screwed up: Many thingsFind Paul online: https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/people/paul-wong/'Five-Cut Fridays' five-song music playlist series Paul's playlistLogo artwork by Cristina GonzalezMusic by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media
Hear how anthropology helps you see your business through a fresh lens It was truly a privilege and a pleasure to interview Dr. John Curran on our podcast. We met by way of LinkedIn, and I knew I had to share his story. Dr. Curran is one of the pioneers of organizational anthropology. Now remember, I branded myself when I launched my business as a corporate anthropologist who helps companies change. At the time, I didn't realize there weren't any corporate anthropologists. I also quickly learned that people engaged me because they really needed to change, but they didn't know what I did, or why anthropology could be of value to their organization's strategy or business model or culture. Along the way, they learned, and then they began to see their business through fresh eyes. You will too. There is so much to learn from this brilliant anthropologist and thought leader. Enjoy, and please share. Watch and listen to our conversation here What is organizational anthropology? And how does it apply to organizations? Well, today you will learn. My guest Dr. John Curran combines his expertise in the social sciences and group dynamics with process consulting and executive and team coaching. We both share the same deep belief that anthropology can open doors for people to “see, feel and think” in new ways, in his case—as this relates to products and customer experiences. You will enjoy listening to us compare notes on our experiences, and how hard it is for people to actually see the same thing, even when they are standing next to each other. Anthropology's theory, method and tools are designed to help us step back and realize that there is no reality, only an illusion that we call our reality. It is through the stories we share, like the ones Dr. Curran discusses, that we can capture the minds and lives of others and help them change, hopefully for the better. To connect with Dr. Curran, you can find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, his website, JC & Associates, or send him an email at john@jcassociateslondon.com. To learn more about the power of anthropology in business Blog: Will You Adapt Or Die? How Cultural Anthropology Can Transform Your Business Strategy Podcast: Gillian Tett—Why Can A Little Anthropology Help You And Your Business Grow? Podcast: Rita Denny—Maybe You Need Anthropology To See Yourself In New Ways Additional resources for you My two award-winning books: Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business and On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants Read the transcript of our podcast here Andi Simon: Welcome to On the Brink With Andi Simon. Hi, I'm Andi Simon. And as you know, when you come to listen to us, I'm your host and your guide. My job is to get you off the brink. What I want you to do is see things through a fresh lens. I want you to see, feel and think about it in new ways so that you can soar again. Often people come to us, our clients, or the clients in my book, On the Brink, come to us stuck or stalled. They couldn't see what was all around them. Individuals do the same as we coach them. The challenge is how can a little anthropology help you see yourself and your business through a fresh lens. I'm so honored today to have with us for an interview that I just think is so remarkable is Dr. John Curran. Let me tell you a little bit about why I'm so excited and then you will be as well. Listen carefully. Dr. Curran is one of the pioneers of organizational anthropology. Now remember, I named myself when I launched my business as a corporate anthropologist who helps companies change. At the time, I didn't realize that there weren't any corporate anthropologists, much less that people bought me because they really needed to change. What I did, they had no idea. So what I want you to listen to us talk about today is, what is anthropology and how does it apply to organizations. Dr. Curran combines his expertise in the social sciences and group dynamics, with process consulting, systemic executive and team coaching. See, we both sort of share the same kind of thing, and we research and work with senior leaders and their teams to develop dynamic collaboration for organizational cultures that connect their values with those of their employees and wider stakeholders. In short, John and I share a common world where we want to bring them the methods and tools of anthropology and that theory into organizations to help you do things better. And humans are complicated critters. They hire me to help them change and then put me in the closet, lock the door, please don't come out, “I hate change.” So it's really interesting. So a little bit more. Dr. Curran holds a PhD in social anthropology, formal training in organizational process consulting, executive coaching, systemic team coaching, a whole lot of stuff. He's an associate consultant at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, which I hope you will talk a little bit about. He's the owner of JC and Associates and a visiting scholar at the Royal College of Art in design anthropology. Now that we have so much good stuff to talk about today, it's going to be such fun. His clients have included Coca Cola, Hallmark, Novo Nordisk, now J&J. Oh, a lot of the top companies and everybody else who wants to come and hear him talk. John, thank you for joining me. It's been a pleasure to meet you. John Curran: Oh, it's absolutely wonderful to be on your podcast. And it's one of my go-to podcasts. I learn from it all the time as well. Andi Simon: Wonderful, then I will make sure that as I'm recording and bringing my guests that I'm your audience, it is interesting. John had a great article on how meetings are held. And I'll get to that toward the end. We all are frustrated within ineffectual, dysfunctional meetings. And he said, just look at the roles people are playing and how they're doing it. But let's talk about you. What has your journey been? Share with us? John Curran: Okay, it's actually a privilege to share because you don't really think about your journey much. And I knew you were going to ask me that question. So I did a little bit of thinking. And I guess I came into anthropology from a kind of indirect way. I think I became interested in culture, unknowingly. And my first ever real job was when I was playing, when I was 17, or 18. But my real job was probably when I was 20 years old. I failed all my exams at school, I was an undiagnosed dyslexic. So this idea of failing, it was, in that sense, you learned actually that you have to look in between the lines to survive. You have to hustle in a way, right? So what I did was, I got a job as a keynote or domestic staff at a data center for the homeless in central London in Victoria. And it was run by Catholic Irish nuns. I was actually working with a homeless guy. And it was kind of fun. Then I started really taking on board the dynamics of what's actually going on in France. It was a great kind of experience and journey. And in my early 20s, I started going to night school again and kind of got a diagnosis of dyslexia and got confidence back in me. And it was then that I kind of realized, well, I'm not going to be able to do statistics, I need something that I can use my brain and my creativity, and this thing called anthropology emerged. And I remember reading quickly an introduction, you know, first few pages and shutting it, going, Right, that's me, I've got it going. So I was very lucky. I went from Glasgow to the London School of Economics, which was the kind of founder of traditional British anthropology. And learned about Malinovski and all those great names. And it was while doing my undergrad that I started working to make a little bit of money as a care assistant on psychiatric wards in hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. And it was then I realized that there's my PhD, I'm going to do a PhD, I'm going to do it on the culture of psychiatric hospitals. And that's it. So I spent two years being a member of staff and actually working the shifts as the ultimate participant observation for two years, and understanding power dynamics between the different sections, all the way from the domestic staff, all the way up to the consultant psychiatrists and the policymakers, and how that was played out and fluid and unpredictable on a daily basis. So it was very much looking at the microcosms or the micro aspects of everyday culture, but making bigger theories around how policy and ideology and values and mission statements and actually how they actually do work out. So that was my kind of journey. I got my PhD and, and then it kind of developed from there. While I was writing my PhD, I got approached by Microsoft. This was completely outside my area. If I wanted to understand how people use mobile phones. That kind of led me for a few years into the world of innovation and the world of design and market research and advertising and branding. But I was always more interested in the aspects of organizational culture and group dynamics. And that's where I sit now. Andi Simon: Don't you love it? I'm going to share just a smidgen of my own background. And you'll know why, John, and I feel like we're part of the same tribe, because I discovered anthropology as an undergraduate. And I went, Oh that's me, just like you did. It was like an epiphany. And then I went to Columbia to get my last 18 credits in anthropology. I didn't have to transfer. I went to Penn State, and it was just the depths of Conrad Arensberg and Marvin Magadh. And still, I mean, Ernestine Friedl became my mentor. And it was like, how could you be the best in the world in a field that I just sort of became a religious believer in? I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with it. But it sort of was who I was, as opposed to what I was going to do. When I met my husband 56 years ago, he said, What do you want to be now that you've grown up? I said, Well, I can either be an attorney or an anthropologist. He said, be an anthropologist. He also said, I'll be here for you, which he is, but it was one of those supports. And I had no idea what it was going to be. But it's served us well, hasn't it? Wow. John Curran: Yeah. I really like what you said there about how it kind of becomes part of you. So you don't do anthropology for a specific career, right? You know, that's a no-no. And it made me think about when I was doing my PhD at Goldsmiths University, which is part of London University. I had to do some seminar teaching for young undergrads. And what I would do, I'd get them to spend a week, and they would have to go and travel on London buses, you know, the red double decker bus, but they would have to spend half the week only going on the top deck. And then the second half will be going on the bottom deck. Look at the cultural differences of the two, so you could go into symbolism of gender or masculinity upstairs. And looking at binary oppositions and I remember the feedback that they gave me was, We can't go anywhere now without looking at something logically. That's right. Andi Simon: And it only took that moment that you couldn't bring them to Samoa, but you could put them on a bus, normal, comfortable, and give them a job to look at it through a fresh lens to see what was actually going on. And that's when you say to people: humans are meaning makers, nothing exists out of context. And so the upstairs and the downstairs are two different contexts, same thing going on in a whole different fashion. You have had so many great experiences. Talk a little bit about how you got your PhD. John Curran: Both fed each other. When I was working mainly in innovation, I would be wanting to add agencies to help the planners design and think in a certain way, anthropologically. The planners in advertising were very much anthropologists to a certain extent. But also when you think about innovation around medicine, or, you know, diabetes, the anthropologist can go and read it, understand how people live, are living out their experiences, how they might take, for example, a medical device that they use in their everyday lives, but how in their everyday lives, it has a different symbolic meaning. It isn't just, it doesn't just have the use value of say, administering insulin, it isn't functional, it's also part of the body. And when you bring in these anthropological theories and observations, you were able to work that back into the organization, like a medical device company, or pharmaceutical company, and challenge how they perceive the products that they they use as a means of being able to design for the person, designing for culture, designing for emotions, and not designing just for function. Andi Simon: You know, it's interesting, I was at an EPA conference a number of years ago, and one of the panelists said: “Why can't we get our clients, the CEOs or the C-suite, to believe the research that we have done for them? They immediately deleted me. And I spent 10 years as an academic and then 20 years as an executive, helping banks and health care.” And what went through my mind, and I said it gently, was: They don't trust what you brought back because you haven't ever run the business. You're helping them see something from the outside. You saw it, but they don't trust that you really know what you're saying. And if they had taken them with you, maybe they would understand what your experiences are to people? Do they really understand what you brought back to them? Do they apply it? How do we communicate? Because this is all about transformation. John Curran: Exactly. Well, I think actually, Novo Nordisk, are a unique example, because they're the ones who have got fantastic anthropologists internally. They've done some great work around ethnography, it's very much part of their DNA. So probably a lot of their leaders will be going into the field as well or do go into the field. But if you think that by and large around companies, yes, this idea of when you do take execs into the field, it's life changing. They all of a sudden realize that their products or the services that they're offering customers, there's a whole different world. People appropriate brands, products, to fit into their lives, not the other way around. So then you've got another level, and then you start working well. If you're looking at the values of your company, how do they align with the values of your employees, but also your customers, and then all of a sudden, you've got these kinds of concentric circles moving out and out, and then all of a sudden, you've got the holistic picture, and you can start thinking holistically with execs. There's also another problem, which has been around for many years, but this idea of risk. And when you're coming back with just stories and insights based on theory, it's not an Excel spreadsheet, it hasn't got statistics, especially in a digitalized age with the world coming together. I think that's probably less of a stigma nowadays. But, it definitely was a massive barrier. How do we quantify this? You know, we could do a survey of 10,000 people globally, but you're going to only visit 20 people. I mean, that doesn't weigh up, right? So you have to, there has to be a lot of education, a lot of even training for execs. And the final area, which now does very much still exist, where this is what really put me back into the world of food dynamics and organizational culture, was silence. So if you're thinking that you're doing the best, most amazing piece of anthropological research around consumers, and you run the best workshop, and you've got whatever it is, everything's on, it's perfect. You're not taking into account that the people who you are serving are coming potentially from cultures, organizational cultures, that are siloed. So if you have engineers in the room, and you have marketeers in the room, and you have sales in the room, they are three different tribes. Different ways of thinking about what they need. They also need to protect their expertise, their identity, their subcultures, right? So if you enter this anthropology and we're going to revolutionize it, we're going to shock you, they will look at you and they will say, Oh, we can project back on to you, we're not playing ball. So then you have to work in a different way with them. And you have to respect the silo, to a certain extent. Andi Simon: The silo is there, and it's not going away. And if you've hired people because they're good engineers and good marketers and finance. You know, I was a bank executive. As you step back and you look, having conversations, even lunches with people, it was like, one was speaking Roman Latin, and the other was talking Greek and the words didn't have any meaning for the other, and you needed a dialectician who could move from one to the other and make it real. And as you try and make them now include the customer, who is a customer? And is it the buyer, or is it the user? And it's a complicated world. And having said that, though, corporate anthropologists, anthropologists in general, have had a far better time of it recently, over the last I'll say, five years or so, then earlier because we were academic misfits. I tried to hire someone from a university for a client and they said, no, we're just training them to be academicians. I said, wouldn't it be nice if they could help a business do better with their academic expertise? It was most interesting. But I do think that business, the fact that Intel had anthropologist Genevieve Bell there, Microsoft has them, the government uses them. I think there's a growing awareness that we don't know what we don't know. And design thinking has made ethnographic work extremely important, but it goes out and starts by observing. And you're doing design work as well. What kind of work are you doing with the design anthropology? John Curran: But the sort of design anthropology came about, again, out of the innovation, where I would be looking, and I'd be always very interested in. We could look at products and how people actually use products, as I've mentioned previously, but what I was, and I'm still very interested in, is the workplace. Some people say, anthropologists are designers by default. To some extent maybe. I think there was a lovely crossover there. Traditional anthropologists aren't really coming to a conclusion. They're leaving things hanging, where the designer needs to finish something. But what I will be doing is talking to the world of design and architecture as well, around what does a workplace actually mean and now the unknown, that we've got differences with hybrid work and post COVID. But you know, what's the symbolic goodness of space? And a wonderful example, actually, was when I wasn't a part of this. But when Lego started up their new headquarters in London, they used to have signs, which were little cardboard cutouts of VW camper vans, saying, Don't park here. Meaning, you must be on the move, don't make a place permanent in the workplace. Don't eat your food there. And people started rebelling against that. That kind of thinking. Well, actually, if I want to eat my granola at my desk, I should be allowed. I should be allowed to do it. And that's a really brilliant sign that you can think that you can design, affection that's going to enhance collaboration and well being and all these things. But if you've got a management system that is dysfunctional, it doesn't matter what type of sofa, how many table tennis tables you've got, or how much free beer is on Fridays, it doesn't work. So you have to actually think about what you're designing for the unconscious as much as the actual function as well. So that's what I try and put in the times. That's what I do. I think that's a key thing of anthropology: to take what is given as a norm…I use kind of a brutal thing…you get a sledgehammer and you dismantle that normality. And that's what the anthropologist does. You don't take anything for granted. And you're looking in between the lines. It's a classic thing if you read Shakespeare, or Hemingway, or you read, you know, Alice Walker, you're not reading the words, you're not reading the sentences, you are feeling an emotion and you're interpreting what's going on. So that's why the two of us could read the same novel and have a different interpretation. And that's anthropology as a kind of ethnographic text, ethnographic writing. It's interpretive. It's extremely powerful. Andi Simon: It is and it's also the secret of our success, isn't it. And so this is so interesting. So I made a note as I was thinking about this because Lego had an idea that really, maybe never they asked their folks about it, I'll make it up. And it didn't work the way they had anticipated. It always is interesting to me how a group of people, call it the senior folks, have an idea. And they forget that the folks who they are giving it to have no idea what they're telling them, what the story is, what the expectations are. They're not engaged in the design, and somehow they think it is going to percolate down. It doesn't work that way. And humans have stories in their minds. And we've learned from the neurosciences and cognitive sciences that you live your story. And you're usually the hero in it. So I noticed that you also have a background in the brain stuff. How do you weave together the neurosciences with the anthropology, because I tell people, you live your life with the heart, and the eyes, and then your brain gets in it. And you have a story here. It's trying to figure out what this is all seeing. What are your thoughts? John Curran: Well, that's a good point. And I think probably, I'm probably more with the brain around the kind of psychoanalysis, so that the neuroscience, of course, comes into that also, comes into culture. But I've always had an interest in the unconscious. You know, this is leaning on the likes of Freud, Klein, Jung, but then much more into groups, as well. So Winnicott and Dion as well, who I'm very, very influenced by and what I find really powerful. And this is especially around group dynamics as well, but not just with dynamics in organizations, but in life, is that coming together of the anthropology, with the psychoanalysis or what's been called systems psychodynamics, which is how the individual becomes part of a group, and how these kind of games and interactions that are largely based on the unconscious. Okay, so this is a really powerful thing. And mentally, Klein was very influenced, or influenced a lot by that way of thinking. So we've heard these terms: projection, transference, countertransference. And if you bring that into also the world of anthropology and vice versa, you can be looking at team dynamics in an organization. And I'm looking at the unconscious structuring of rituals of events, rituals of change, which was of power and authority. Those are the three ones I claim or the big metal ones, the other ones going on. Now, within those rituals can be things around gender, around misogyny, all these everyday issues are being played out as well. What we wear, the clothes where people sit around the table, all these types of things are unconscious, often unconscious, but they are forming cultural stories. The anthropologist Michael Jackson always talked about stories being the blood vessels of culture. We can't have culture unless we have stories. Those stories are communicated often unconsciously. And that's why I mean, I've trained, I've done the training, not the seven years training, but in group psychoanalysis. So that's also rarely the group itself becoming part of the culture. Andi Simon: Don't lose that thought. Let's emphasize it a little bit. Because this functional group is at war with itself because each of the people in the group haven't come to terms with a shared story. Each is carrying their own agendas. We hear those words, but there's something deeper than tactical practical stuff going on here. They really see themselves in a different fashion and that is very powerful. Now, how do we build there for better groups? Thoughts? John Curran: Yeah, well, I think that's a really good question. I like, in a way, starting with this idea that a group or let's say, a team, and we're talking about organizations, can always have an element of this functionality to it. Because that's kind of what I'm entering into, and that's what I expect. And that's kind of okay to a certain extent, but a group needs to focus on what we call the primary task. That's actually what we are trying to deliver. And then, if you've got silos within the group or between teams, that becomes harder, and then there might be defense mechanisms being played out or anxiety then creeps up beyond the psychoanalyst who kind of invented this spoke about the basic assumptions in groups. And that's often when things run on dependency, in other words, we'll do whatever the leader says, or we all admire that. Or, we're not gonna really have collaboration, or you have the things of fight or flight. We've heard this, but you know, I don't want that change to happen, it's going to threaten me and affect my professional identity. So, along the journey, you can have all these kinds of stakes in the ground of this functionality. And the way that I work with them and I'm passionate about this is, I'm kind of trying to sell it. It sounds like I'm selling myself here as the external consultant. But it's trying to empower teams to have this element of being reflective of themselves. And when I talk about empathy, I don't talk about empathy as a nice kind of word, how it's being played out. I don't even talk about empathy, walking in the shoes of other people. I think the first real thing about empathy is being empathetic to yourself, which means having the ability to challenge yourself and be honest about yourself. So if we were in a meeting, and I felt that you were being defensive or trying to derail my idea, I might not tell you that, but I walk away feeling something in my stomach. And the next meeting, I'm sure I'll bring that back into the meeting. So how are we about coaching? It's about the term psychological safety. How do you create psychological safety where challenges can happen? And there's one of my colleagues at the Tavistock Institute. Camilla, she talks about creating an environment that is psychologically safe enough, so not psychological safety, but psychological safe enough. What's beautiful about that concept is it's allowing for this functionality. It's allowing the people in a team to have different levels of what safety is. If you're a woman, if you're from a different race, if you're white, male, heterosexual, these different personas, or cultural toolkits you're bringing into that space. So psychologically safe enough. Think about creating a culture of reflection. Andi Simon: And the challenge is really important. Not easy. Do you have a case study where this has worked? Or you're working on one that you can share? John Curran: Yeah, I think that's great. I'm doing a lot of work with executive teams and they are highly pressured. They are highly pressured, they're all coming out of post COVID up there, and not just the exec teams, but the middle management and below are all feeling exhausted. Yet they need to think about the primary tasks. They all need to be facing the same way. A lot of the exec teams and senior management are having to create what this idea of hybrid working means. No one knows what it means, no one knows what the future will be right now, either. So what I will be experiencing is that there are tensions, but those tensions will not be exposed through team coaching or facilitation. There's a process that I use: we do qualitative, kind of semi structured ethnographic interviews with all the key people individually, and I'll bring that into the space. And then I reflect back what people have told me in confidential, but what people have told me, and then everyone feels uncomfortable, because they're experiencing uncomfortableness, or what they're experiencing is what they realize deep down is the truth. And then I've kind of got them, I've got them contained, and I could say, if this is you what you told me, now how are we going to work with it? And I can be the object of projection, so they can go, You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. And this is great, carry on, you know, it's no problem here. But I'm also in that space, I'm being the anthropologist. I'm seeing the workshop setting as an ethnographic space. So I'm also decoding what rituals are happening, the fences and all that, even the uses of cultural artifacts, the flip chart, the who's gonna get up and do these…it's all data. Andi Simon: But it's also very challenging, isn't it? John Curran: It's not easy to do and you are dealing with human beings. And this is where it's very different from being an anthropologist in the world of say, innovation, where you go in and you're experiencing sensitive stuff, but you go out. I'm containing a group. And it can fly off the handle at any moment. And you could say something wrong that could spark. So it's challenging. And it's also draining. And you need the supervision structure below you. And that's how I use a lot of supervision, as though it's the therapeutic space. Andi Simon: I can keep going because I'm fascinated. Before we do wrap up, though, share a little bit about that newsletter with the article about meetings. I think it's practical, but very insightful about that. I'll give you the context. When I got into health care, 1520 people would come together routinely for a meeting. I was an ex-banker and an anthropologist, and I was sitting there trying to figure out, what we are doing here? There was no agenda, there was no takeaway. I didn't have any idea of my purpose, and nobody bothered to tell me either. But we met and when I dug into it, they said, Oh, that's what we do. Okay, we come together, it doesn't really tell me about meetings. John Curran: But I gave a talk and it's online. Actually, I'll send you the link as well, at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and the Tavistock invented, what we know is organizational development. In 1947, I think so. And it creates this idea at the time that was being born out of the Second World War, about having to understand how teams work in the military. But coming out of the war, it was looking at issues around the coming together of the social sciences with psychoanalysis to understand how organizations work. So anthropology was there pretty much from day one. This is something that we need to really write about in the history of anthropology. But it's looking at the meetings. I gave the talk, and I hear so much about having too many meetings. And this was the name of the title in lots of the business journals, and the newspapers, the financials, lots of things about meetings as destroying everything, especially online and zoom. And I came, I flipped it as all anthropologists should do, is flip something and say, maybe this term “we have too many meetings here” is a defense mechanism. And what I started to do is look at the ethnography of meetings, and meetings that I sat in to realize, actually, they are communicating lots of other things beyond the primary tasks. So meetings should be there to make a decision or sharing information or resolving conflict. These are meetings traditionally before, but actually, I saw that actually, people would use meetings as a means of checking each other out. What are you wearing? But meetings are also there as a means of trying to drive change, but there is conflict that isn't being dealt with that exists within the meeting. So therefore, it's too fearful, we won't come to a decision. Okay, so we'll have another meeting. And we'll have another meeting. So meeting becomes an avoidance of conflict. So I was trying to show actually that meetings have so many different dynamics to them. And what I introduced was a model that I've created or tool called the Culture Empathy Map. And it's a step process that people, either consultants or anthropologists, can use, or it's something I train leaders to use. And that's how you decode the rituals by being the anthropologist in the meeting. What's actually going on? And how do I know to prepare for that? But also, how do I know to reflect afterwards, based on that? So it's called the Culture Empathy Map. And it's a tool not just for meetings, but also for workshops and group dynamics within organizations. Andi Simon: You're almost trying to make them see the world of this as an anthropologist might. And you need to step out and look in as if you weren't part of the meeting if you're going to really understand what's going on there. If not, you're going to be a participant in that game, as opposed to an observer of that game. As I said, good leaders sit and listen and watch for a while before they participate. Because you really don't know what's coming at you until you watch. But if you're ready to respond to everything, and get involved in it, then you really are going to be part of the problem, not necessarily a leader to take you out of it. It's an interesting thing. John Curran: That's so good about the idea of listening as well. Leaders need to listen to learn, not listen to respond. Once you've done the learning and you've done the reflection, then he will respond. That's a really good point. Andi Simon: Well, even as I'm listening to you and myself, the tendency on my part is to try and take what we're talking about and put it in the context of things that I've experienced. I'm trying to make it relevant in some fashion, reflecting, perhaps, but I'm going to urge our listeners to listen carefully to John telling you whether it's in a meeting or in your business or in your family life. Before you jump in and answer, wait, listen, because what you think you heard isn't really what they said nor what they meant. And so consequently, you have a lot of interesting things going on here in terms of the dynamics. So on that note, I do have to wrap us up, because as much as I love talking to you, it's such a pleasure. It's truly an honor, I'm having such fun. Thank you for joining me today. John Curran: Thank you so much. It's wonderful. It's an honor to be on your podcast. Andi Simon: John, if they want to reach you, where will they do that? John Curran: I'm on Twitter, at Dr. J. Curran, LinkedIn, I'm quite active on LinkedIn as well. My website is JC and Associates. And I've got a podcast called The Decoding Culture podcast. And there's also a newsletter called Decoding Culture. So those are the places you can find me, I'm out there somewhere. Andi Simon: I'll make sure that's all on the blogs, and people can find you even on the video at the back of it. Thank you for joining me today. For our listeners. I know you enjoy our conversations. Keep sending us great people to talk to. I found John on LinkedIn or a post of some kind. I went, Ah, let's do it. And he was so kind to come and join us. So now remember, my books are available at Amazon. Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business. And it's about 11 women who did just that talk about change. And On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights with a little anthropology to help you see, feel and think in new ways is why On the Brink with Andi Simon emerged as a podcast. And I love doing this. So send me your thoughts at info@Andisimon.com and we'll get back to you right away. My new book comes out on September 26 and is called Women Mean Business. And it's the wisdom of 101 trailblazing women who are sharing with you their insights. They very much want to help elevate other women. And I must tell you as you read their wisdom, you go, “This is like a bible of all my best stuff.” None of them were profit driven. They want to help others. They build networks. Very interesting, culturally, listening to women from different industries talk about the lessons learned and how to share it. So I'll send you a copy as soon as it comes out. Take care now. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Stay well, stay safe. Remember, turn your observations into innovations.
Recorded May 18, 2023 An in-person 'in conversation' event featuring Prof Genevieve Bell (Australian National University), Andrew Meares (Australian National University), and Prof Chris Morash (TCD), organised by the School of English. When we look forward to possible technological futures, we often do so from the perspective of a very foreshortened present. But what does it mean to think about the future of large technological systems in a much deeper timescale? In their work at the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU), Genevieve Bell and her colleagues became fascinated with an early technological project – the Australian Overland Telegraph of 1872 – which in turn is embedded within a landscape that challenges any sense of measurable historical time. Over the past few years, Genevieve and her colleague, photographer Andrew Meares, have put together a remarkable photographic record of their engagement with this unique site from which it is possible to re-imagine our understanding of the relations of technology, humans and the environment. In “Technology's Deep Time”, Genevieve and Andrew discuss their project with Chris Morash, who accompanied them into the Outback in 2022. Genevieve Bell is the Director of the School of Cybernetics, Florence Violet McKenzie Chair, and a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) as well as a Vice President and Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation. She is a cultural anthropologist, technologist and futurist best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development. Andrew Meares is the Cybernetic Futures Lead at the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU). Andrew began work as a press photographer in 1991, and was made chief photographer of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1998. He has covered politics, protests and portraits to bushfires, coups and war zones, won a Walkey Award for Best Online Journalism in 2010 and curated the Australian Cybernetic 2022 exhibition. Chris Morash is the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at TCD. He has published widely on Irish literature and culture, and recent books include Yeats on Theatre (2021) and Dublin: A Writer's City (2023). He has also published on media history in Ireland and contributed an article on the transatlantic telegraph to Entanglement, Ireland's entry in the Venice Biennale.
Genevieve Bell (“superstar” Silicon Valley futurist, cybernetician) is possibly the world's best-placed human to tell us what the future of AI holds for us. She is a Stanford cultural anthropologist, the Vice President of Intel, has been dubbed “technology's foremost fortune teller” and has been inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame. Oh, and she has been South Australia's thinker in residence. And holds a lazy 13 patents!Genevieve is now based at Australia's ANU where she's the head of the School of Cybernetics and in this episode, we wrangle with the idea of whether AI will kill us, do we need a global “pause” and how indigenous systems thinking could save us.Catch up on the Wild episode with David Whyte that I mention here.If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageFor more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it's where I interact the most!Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious LifeLet's connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Genevieve Bell AO, Director of the School of Cybernetics, Founding Director of 3A Institute and non-executive director on the three elements of leadership, daring to call out the bold truth and befriending our inner critic. Key Insights (01:46) How did Genevieve start her leadership journey? It's been a varied and meandering path for Genevieve, she's found herself ironically back where she finished high school, in Canberra as the Director of the first new school at the Australian National University. Genevieve recalls her unexpected childhood where moved around a lot and found herself in a lot of conflict. However, one day her mother sat her down told her she needs to actively be a part of building a better future that's different than the present. This has been her North Star ever since. (17:59) What is the importance of knowing yourself for Genevieve? For Genevieve, leadership is not only about knowing the theory and practice behind it, but it is also about knowing who you are and what pushes your buttons. It's learning how to manage those things about yourself a little more effectively in order to get to know how you respond or wouldn't respond in face of a crisis. (22:58) What tool can Genevieve share to the audience to add to their Leadership Toolbox? Genevieve makes sure that she ‘catches up with herself' regularly. At least once a year she gives herself a moment to reflect on what she's achieved retrospectively and in their totality. This provides clarity and the ability to size them up so she can accumulate them and acknowledge she's the person that did those great things and to feel proud about them. Practically, it's also a good exercise to perform before updating your LinkedIn, resume or curriculum vitae. Important Resources and Links If you'd like to learn more about how CommBank is supporting the growth of women in business visit https://www.commbank.com.au/women-in-focus.html Host of the Leading Women podcast, Shivani Gopal is a serial entrepreneur, speaker and advocate on a mission to create a more equal world. She's recognised as a leading business thought leader helping professional women navigate their careers, businesses and financial success. As the Founder and CEO of Elladex and Co-Founder of Upstreet, Shivani was recently awarded the 2022 NSW Excellence in Women's Leadership Award and the Top 50 Small Business Leaders award, As a dedicated advocate for gender equality and for closing the wealth gap for everyday Australians, Shivani launched “Equality 2050”; a campaign to achieve gender equality within our lifetimes. If you're interested in learning more about Shivani visit her website: https://elladex.com/ The Leading Women podcast is proudly brought to you by Commonwealth Bank. The series is produced by Nicole Hatherly, recorded at RadioHub Studios with post production by Cooper Silk and Iain Wilson. Things you should know: Guests featured in the podcast are speaking from their personal experiences only. As this podcast has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs, you should, before acting on the content consider its appropriateness to your circumstances. CommBank does not necessarily endorse the views of a particular individual or guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.
Genevieve Bell, PhD obtained her associate's & bachelor's in Psychology and her Masters & PhD in biology and Neuroscience respectively. Throughout her educational journey, Dr.Bell clearly outlined her priorities and used them to construct her plans for the future. While obtaining her Master's, she researched metabolic hormones in a molecular biophysics lab which acted as a stepping stone for her to secure a new role at the Monell Chemical Science Center, the leader in taste & smell research facilities. Dr.Bell's research revolved around taste bud organoids and how they impact the experience of taste. Shortly before the end of her research grant, Dr.Bell took a bite at a visiting professor role at the Center College in Kentucky where she now teaches undergraduate behavioral neuroscience classes. Tune in as Dr.Bell discusses the sweet and salty decisions she had to make in order to achieve her current success.
This week: our 300th episode. We're joined by Professor Genevieve Bell to settle once and for all – if data is not the new oil, then what is it? Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Futures Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can find transcripts, links for the curious and more episodes on our website: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/data-is-not-the-new-oil-with-genevieve-bell/ Subscribe to our new podcast, The Unlearn Project. You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights on Flipboard, LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat. Send us your news ideas to sbi@sydney.edu.au. We read your emails. Music by Cinephonix. Image: generated by DALL-E 2See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: our 300th episode. We're joined by Professor Genevieve Bell to settle once and for all – if data is not the new oil, then what is it? Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Futures Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can find transcripts, links for the curious and more episodes on our website: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/data-is-not-the-new-oil-with-genevieve-bell/ Subscribe to our new podcast, The Unlearn Project. You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights on Flipboard, LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat. Send us your news ideas to sbi@sydney.edu.au. We read your emails. Music by Cinephonix. Image: generated by DALL-E 2See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
2B Bolder Podcast : Career Insights for the Next Generation of Women in Business & Tech
In Episode #66, Genevieve Bell joins the 2B Bolder Podcast. She is an inspiration to all businesswomen and women in tech who want to carve out their paths and be a well respected leaders in the industry. She's a true trailblazer in leveraging her talents and passions to define success on her terms. She's a Distinguished Professor, Director of the School of Cybernetics and 3A Institute (3Ai) at the Australian National University, and a Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation. Recently nominated Top 100 Women in Technology. Bell holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist, having spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley. She shares what she does each year that helps keep track of her accomplishments, and talks about her childhood and what helped shape who she is today. She's brilliant and passionate. She discusses AI, cybernetics, and complex systems, her background in anthropology, and provides tips on future-proofing your career skills. Connect with Genevieve Bell on LinkedInThe 2B Bolder Podcast provides first-hand access to some amazing women. Guests will include women from leading enterprise companies to startups, women execs, coders, account execs, engineers, doctors, and innovators.Listen to 2B Bolder for more career insights from women in tech and business. Support the show
These words need to count, so don't waste them. Discover my favourite DON'T and your show notes will be better right from the get go. These few simple tips will help you avoid the obvious pitfalls and make the most of the critical text in your podcast show notes. These are the hooks which contribute to wooing listeners to your podcast episodes, so making them count is important. This episode is an audio companion to the blog article "Writing Effective Podcast Show Notes" (https://eastcoaststudio.com.au/how-to-write-podcast-show-notes/). Episode Transcription 0:24 This episode is the first of a short series we'll be doing, which are audio companion pieces to run alongside some blog articles that I've been writing about the world of podcasting. So in this episode, we'll be looking at the topic of how to write effective shownotes. For your podcast, I've got a few simple tips to help you avoid the obvious pitfalls, and make the most of this critical text in your show notes. This text provides the hook which will contribute to wooing listeners to your podcast episode and then hopefully, subscribing and following you for the journey. First of all, let's have a look at the context in which your text will appear. The browsing environment is absolutely critical to understand the user experience is the canvas and also the constraints that we have to work within. So most likely, this canvas will be an app or a mobile phone screen, maybe the desktop app on Mac. The limited space that's available for your text means only a small part of the description that you write is actually visible at all when people are casually scrolling by. These words need to count. 1:36 I'm looking at the Apple Podcasts, desktop app here to illustrate some of the points. But in the article, we've got some good screen grabs from the iOS app that probably is the most useful gauge of the environment that your text will appear in. 1:56 But regardless of that, these same principles apply to any other podcast app, because none of them were showing through your description text in its entirety. Good Example Show Notes 2:06 So first of all, I just started to sort of pick out a few things to use as current illustrations of what I think is really good. And in the article, I've got, like, a little list of importance for each of the items here. So the way I break it down is your title. The title of the episode is really important because that has to communicate to the listener, the what and the why, for that episode, what are they going to get out of it, the first line of your descriptive text will always be there, at least the first, whatever it is, I can't, I'm gonna have to count the number of characters to be able to to tell you accurately. But to me, it's something like first time words is guaranteed, maybe first 20 words, if you're lucky. So that is very important that the following paragraph, I would say is important. But in order to read that subsequent paragraph, your your your reader or your your browser, the person has to actually act, they actually have to sort of click into it in order to be able to access the further information. So really, I think we can sort of discount anything. Beyond that we're looking at good title, really good first line. And that's that's the best shot that we've got. Ted Tech So a couple of examples which I didn't produce. Just just browsing here is the TED Talks always seem to sort of smash every kind of media which they put out there. So savvy, their latest episode of the TED Tech Talk is "Six big ethical questions about the future of AI". Slash Genevieve Bell says everything that you need need to know it's got the topic. It's got the the author who will be presumably guiding you through that topic, and gives you that sort of orientation and motivation... Well yeah, I want to know what the ethical questions are because I want to know what I need to look out for. There's another good one here, let me see was this Q Podcast these are based on my subscription so far, and Apple's just put this in the More To Discover category. Q Podcast So I've got one here, "How Elon Musk can promote free speech without turning Twitter into one big dumpster fire". I really liked that because it's got a little bit of personality in there. The line that follows it, of this is Quillette. Okay. The line that follows it is "veteran technology expert, Jim Ron tells Quillette podcast..." something something so that that first line is failing a little bit really because veteran technology expert, Jim right, okay is establishing the credentials of the guest I guess in this case, he tells Quillette podcast, whatever. Presumably he tells Quillette podcast how Elon Musk can promote free speech without turning Twitter into one big dumpster fire. But but we don't know because the remains of that sentence are under the under the fold. I can't see that unless I click click into it. So, as I'm talking about first line, let me just go back to that first episode, the TED Tech podcast "Six big ethical questions about the future of AI", Genevieve Bell. Firstline "artificial intelligence is all around us. And the future will only" dot dot dot. I'm kind of intrigued I sort of am aware that artificial intelligence is growing around me. But I like things that it's that sort of like future gazing look. So that word future that personally that appeals to me. Let me see if I got any other picks for you. And there's another one. Just in my search subscriptions. I subscribed to a lot of music, podcasts as well as talk but so they don't always have Reno titles which work in the same way. Ted Talks 6:17 Ted Talks Daily, new show out today, "The crime fighting power of cross border investigative journalism, Bakhtawar Iskender", first line: "organised crime operates across national borders". Brilliant, that tells me a whole lot in a very short space of time. So I think all of these things are, the sort of guidance that I'm that I'm getting is that title has to give the reader as much information as possible about what is the subjects of, of the podcast, in this case, there are Talk Talk podcast. And ideally, if you can inject a bit of personality and a bit of motivation in there as well, then we're looking at something which has a bit of a compelling effect on the reader. How We Write Show Notes 7:12 So my examples, which I've put in the blog article, writing effective podcast show notes, are some notes that we wrote for a show, which launched at the beginning of 2022. Called parents in tech. It's a series of interviews with mainly female tech, business people who also have kids. So that's the whole sort of thrust of off the show is exploring how to parent and also build a build a career, particularly in the tech sector. So my example, from one of the early episodes, is baby tech quality time and asking for help with Dr. Petty. First line. As a working parent, life becomes easier when you know and make use of the resources available to you. 8:07 So let's say that's all the reader will see what we've actually done. Beyond that, the second paragraph talks about the guest, Dr. Betty, who she is what what's her professional credentials. And then the third paragraph goes into a little bit more detail about the content of the show, followed by paragraph of links for getting in touch and further further follow up. So we're kind of using that same sort of ambition that the headline says, who is the speaker? And what are they speaking about with a bit of insight into the actual detail of the conversation? Favourite DON'T 8:54 So this brings me on to my favourite don't when writing these, these podcasts, China's I see this quite literally all the time. Which is exactly why it comes in mind number one, for don't do this. 9:14 So here's the sentence of your description, which I would love you not to write. "In this podcast episode, the host, talks to the guest...." Blah, blah, blah. So the reason I am not advocating that sort of obvious approach is I guess it's another example of that sort of linear thinking where you're trying to sort of set out everything and give the reader a full orientation and background or something. But we we can take for granted the fact that the reader will know this is a podcast episode because they're looking at it in their podcast app, presumably looking for new do podcasts sign up to subscribe to or making that decision about whether they actually want to listen to this show in your podcast. So they know it's a podcast episode. And that's your first four words, just wasted hostname. Again, very, very popular. Yes, hosts are very important. But your name as the host will most likely be present in a few other levels of the podcast, you might be on the artwork, you might have your picture on the artwork, the name of the show might include the hostname. So we know the host net, the host is named. So we don't need to do that in the show notes. 10:45 Similarly, although perhaps not quite sort of pushing it, to that degree, the guest name in that first line is sort of it's sort of good, I tend to take that approach, if it's a guest that people may know of, or it may have some sort of search value, let's get them in that title. Because if you are aware of web structures, we have a body text of pages, but we have a heading text. And the headings have a rating from one to six, in terms of their importance to the hierarchy of the document, it says with a web page being in the being the document, but the h1 rating is still there for podcast episodes. And that being the title is the overall little piece of text, which describes everything that follows after it. So it's, it's important. And it's given that importance in search. 11:48 So if your guest is someone who may well be searched or have have a bit of value in that respect, let's get them in the in the title of the show. 11:58 Otherwise, if they're not, obviously they need to be acknowledged and referenced in in the notes. But they're not necessarily bringing any extra value, if the reader doesn't know who they are so better to you to be a bit more descriptive earlier on, and then have a full biography of the guests in paragraph two or two or three, so that we're sort of ticking that box. And there's that extra bit of information there that might be useful later. 12:29 This is basically it. So it's a one shot choice that that you've got here. In this sort of hierarchy of information. We've got podcast artwork, title, first line. And those are the chances that we have to grab people's attention. 12:48 So don't kind of waste it just by waffle. Take Away 12:55 So in essence, what I'm suggesting is that we just reconsider the use of text for our episode titles and descriptions and make sure that they are motivating pieces of text, we want to encourage an action from the reader. If we don't encourage an action, our efforts are wasted, we might as well not have anything at all. So in summary, podcast episode title should contain some kind of topic hook, which makes the listener click through to hear more. And my suggestion, also the name of the guest, or maybe the organisation that's being talked about for extra kind of search value. 13:35 Following that, let's just focus on that first line of the description text. To give a little bit of extra depth to the topic. Don't worry about telling people, it's a podcast, don't worry about telling people who the host is. And possibly don't bother telling people who the guest is. If people are hooked by the theme that you're talking about, I think it's okay to push the push the guest down a little bit. But if there's a bit of value in name checking them or maybe you want to sort of give them a bit of credit and support them by putting their name in your title, then obviously, you can do that. Beyond this, you're absolutely free to elaborate on any of the details in the podcast. Add links to further information, because you can use HTML in podcast description so you can then link to people's LinkedIn, you can link to the articles that you reference or any other kind of resources that are involved in the podcast. And that's about it really. So good luck with writing your podcast, stay focused, make sure you get that motivation in there. And everything will be betterSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
For the last 30 years, the real world has been catching up to Neal Stephenson's vision of the future in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, which influenced the creators of Google Earth, Second Life, Oculus Rift and more. Now the centerpiece of the novel, a virtual world called The Metaverse, may become a daily part of our lives thanks to Facebook (renamed Meta) and other big tech companies. I talk with Meta's director of A.I. policy Kevin Bankston, Silicon Valley engineer Stephen Pimentel, Australian National University School of Cybernetics director Genevieve Bell, Yale professor Lisa Messeri, and Grace Ng of the DAO Crash Punks about whether it's a good idea to use a satirical cyberpunk novel as a blueprint for the future. Plus, actor Varick Boyd reads from Snow Crash. Our 200th Episode is coming up! We'd love to hear from you, especially if you have listened to Imaginary Worlds in a place that's evocative of imaginary worlds, or if a particular episode spoke to you and maybe inspired a creative work. Leave us a voice mail at 732-743-8255, and we might use your audio in the 200th episode. You can also send a voice memo to the show's Facebook or Instagram accounts. This episode is sponsored by Backblaze, VAST Horizon, and Squarespace. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you're interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
My guest Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, AO FAHA FTSE is an Australian anthropologist best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technological development. She taught Anthropology at Stanford before being recruited to Intel in 1998 to build out their social-science research program in their advanced R&D labs. There, Bell and colleagues helped orient Intel to a more market-inspired and experience-driven approach, establishing Intel's UX competency and, indeed, introducing the viability of UX research within high technology. Together with Paul Dourish, she wrote the book 'Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing', an exploration of the social and cultural components of ubiquitous computing. In 2017 she returned to Australia, appointed as Entrepreneurial Fellow and distinguished professor at Australian National University's College of Engineering and Computer Science where she directs the School of Cybernetics and the Autonomy, Agency & Assurance Institute. In our conversation I refer to her recent paper in the MIT Technology Review, 'The metaverse is a new word for an old idea' I mention this short documentary “You've Never Been Completely Honest” by Joey Izzo. (Trigger warnings apply — read the interview with Izzo before watching to figure out if you really want to watch it.) Genevieve mentions an audio recording of Gregory Bateson called "Versailles to Cybernetics" and a recording Stewart Brand made with Bateson and Margaret Meade that is in a kind of annotated transcript here: "For God's Sake Margaret!" "Cybernetic Serendipity" is the exhibition she mentions curated by Jasia Reichardt. Please consider supporting this podcast! You can do so over here at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. You can also buy me a "coffee" over at ko-fi.com/bleeckerj Thank you for your support! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/julian-bleecker/support
Artificial intelligence is all around us ... and the future will only bring more of it. How can we ensure the AI systems we build are responsible, safe and sustainable? Ethical AI expert Genevieve Bell shares six framing questions to broaden our understanding of future technology -- and create the next generation of critical thinkers and doers.
In this episode of Cyber Security Inside What That Means, Camille jumps into the conversation on cybernetics with Genevieve Bell. For International Women's Day, the podcast is honored to have Genevieve as a guest, who is accomplished, thoughtful, and influential. Genevieve Bell is Director of 3A Institute, Sr. Fellow at Intel, Director of School of Cybernetics, and Distinguished Professor at Australian National University. The conversation covers: - What cybernetic technology is, the history of it, and what is happening with it and artificial intelligence today. - How computer science is meeting climate change, privacy, and social sciences in the field of cybernetics. - How cybernetic technology is intricately connected with history and changing perceptions of privacy and control. - What sustainability looks like in cybernetics and cyber security. ...and more. Don't miss it! The views and opinions expressed are those of the guests and author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Intel Corporation. Here are some key takeaways: - Cybernetics has been around for decades - over 80 years. It may sound familiar because of science fiction. However, it began as science fact around World War II. It was created to help manage the problem of control and communication in machines and humans. - The group of people who make decisions and study humanity were worried about what technology could do in a destructive way. Cybernetics was supposed to be a framework for how we would manage technology and would create a critical infrastructure. - As we have moved into the 21st century, the way we think about control has changed. Cybernetics is about understanding how things flow and ensuring an ability to stop it from unfolding if it looks like we need to. - Technology is already in our bodies - vaccines are a good example of this. Again, the key thing in cybernetics is control and the ability to have control over your own body and decisions. Because of how history has unfolded and prejudice has played a role, there are people who have less control - we need to ensure that consent is a part of the process, but also asking questions about who is benefitting from the technology. - Each time we develop technology and computer systems to make things more efficient or convenient or to better do specific tasks, we have to look at every angle. How do self-driving cars impact pedestrian safety? And how does that impact people with physical disabilities trying to cross the street more slowly? - Surveillance and data collection are a huge part of both AI and cybernetics. Often, surveillance can be good, such as when we surveil wildlife populations to ensure they are healthy, or our water systems to ensure everything is working properly. A different approach needs to be taken with humans. Many large companies have made decisions about what technology they should or shouldn't be using because they are waiting on policy or legislation or settings. - Because how people think about and manage privacy has changed over time and will continue to change, designing technology and AI systems for privacy is very difficult. People don't just worry about their personal data and cyber threats, they also worry about what judgements will be made about them with that data. - Data is always based on what you have done in the past, which worries some researchers. This means that it is less likely for you to see something outside of the frame of reference you already have, which might limit your ability to grow and change and connect with others. - Sustainability plays a large role in cybernetics in a few ways. The first is knowledge, and making sure that many people have that knowledge and a role in the development of the technology in the community it is being used in. Then it is sustainable over time in a healthy way. - But it is also about climate change and environmental impacts. We have to ensure that technology is not contributing to the environmental problem. Some interesting quotes from today's episode: “It's a term that kind of noodled around in science fiction for a long time. The reason we got it in science fiction, however, is it started in science fact.” - Genevieve Bell “And coming out of World War II, it was really clear that computers weren't just going to be big machines that crunch numbers to aim guns. They were going to be objects that could sit inside of decision-making frameworks and industry and scientific discovery, and potentially even inside people's homes.” - Genevieve Bell “It lets you think about systems. It's a systems level approach that argues pretty persuasively that you can't think about technology without thinking about humans and the environment.” - Genevieve Bell “Think about the ways in which certain bodies have had work done to them without their consent. And you start to realize that the notion about the most recent nanotechnologies over various forms of computational technologies in our bodies are actually part of a much longer legacy where those questions are already highly charged.” - Genevieve Bell “What information is being collected? Who has access to it? What sense is being made of it? How is that sense-making being used for further determinations?” - Genevieve Bell “Whether that's the lightweight things that sit inside Netflix, or inside dating apps, or inside Amazon, which is really about determining who you are and what you'd like in order to work out what you might like next. So think about that, and use the word ‘desire…' How do we help satisfy your desires for things or people or stuff.” - Genevieve Bell “Privacy is a relatively new term, and our notions about what is private and what isn't are incredibly fungible and have changed remarkably, even over the arc of our lifetimes. And I imagine it will continue to do so.” - Genevieve Bell “One of the problems with the way data is often mobilized is that what it does is that the choices you are given at any kind of moment in a recommendation engine, for example, are based on what you've already done. So it's always based on the past. And one of the things that happens there is that you can then get locked into who you've been and limit your possibility of growing, changing, being something different.” - Genevieve Bell
My mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. This podcast is a small part of what I do. Drop by https://constantine.name for my weekly email, podcasts, writing and more.
Cybernetics meets anthropology - Professor Genevieve Bell loves blended disciplines. She is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist. She spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley. Her passion - making tech work better with humans and social systems. Too often technologists forget human needs or exploit weaknesses. Both can lead to disaster. Dr Karl in conversation with a progressive Australian futurist. htttps:drkarl.com @feraldata
Ep. 58 Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO FTSE FAHAThis was one of the most interesting conversations I've had. And that's saying something. Genevieve's background is technical and almost overwhelming....but don't do what I did and shake your head and go, 'I'm not going to understand a single word of this,' because we break things down and build them back up again. And it's fascinating.Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, AO FAHA FTSE is the Director of the School of Cybernetics and 3A institute (3Ai) at the Australian National University, and a Vice President and a Senior Fellow in the advance research and development labs at Intel Corporation.Genevieve holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist, having spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley helping guide Intel's product development and social science and design research capabilities. She is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development and for being an important voice in the global debates around artificial intelligence and human society.In 2017, Genevieve returned to Australia and established the 3A Institute at the Australian National University in collaboration with CSIRO's Data61, with the mission of building a new branch of engineering to safely, sustainably and responsibly scale AI-enabled cyber-physical systems. In 2021, she was appointed Director of the new School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University.So....just to reiterate, amongst other things she BUILT A NEW BRANCH OF ENGINEERING!!!But we also talk about trivia, cricket, we get a tip on the best sci fi book if you had to read only one, and we spoke of her obsession with lifts. It's an AI thing. Have a listen.====================================GB refers to the sci fi author Ursula K. Le Guin#Reallyinterestingwomen #RIW #genevievebell #ANU #intel #siliconvalley #3ainstitute #artificialintelligence #AI #cybernetics #criticalthinking #womensagenda #futurewomen #profoundwomen #womenofinfluence #womenofimpact #womenintheworld #unwomen #extraordinarywomen #womensequality #generationwomen #womensleadership #wlasocial #huffpostwomen #richardinstagraham
Accidental influencer – that might be one way to think about Genevieve Bell a one-time professor of Anthropology at Stanford University turned futurist and technology soothsayer for Intel Corporation. While still a “blue badge” employee at Intel, Genevive is now back in her native Australia and back in academia. She operates from a simple and very powerful place – that we all have a deep responsibility to leave the world better than we found it; and she believes that is not about legacy when we're gone, but a mandate for how we live in the world while we're here. Now tackling the ever-so-small future of Artificial Intelligence, Genevieve is exploring how to build the foundation today so that a bold future can exist. In this episode, she shares the lessons she learned that formed her beliefs and four requirements for the kind of leadership our world needs. What motivates people? Why do they do what they do? What does leadership actually mean in today's world? Good questions, right? That's what Cathy Brooks, thought. And it's why she created Talk, Unleashed – a new podcast of entirely candid conversations with fascinating people doing remarkable things. This weekly podcast will feature guests from arts and entertainment to business to technology to food to activism to politics (well, we'll see on that last one). Talk Unleashed invites these influencers to consider the things that have led to them to where they are, the lessons they've learned and how all those things can come together to create a better world. #UnleashedLeadership #TalkUnleashed #GenevieveBell #IntelCorporation #ArtificalIntelligence #AI #Leadership #TheHydrantClub #DogTraining #CommunicationsCoaching #LeadershipCoaching #Stanford University #Intel
Kurt Andersen speaks with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and founding director of The School of Cybernetics, about how people adapt to changes in artificial intelligence and the way these technologies impact the way we live. GENEVIEVE BELL is an Australian anthropologist and the founding director of The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Advance research and development labs at Intel. A transcript of this episode is available at Aventine.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode I interview Genevieve Bell, PhD. It's ideal for anyone who's interested in how to make AI responsible, sustainable and safe. Also, it's thought provoking for those interested in learning about the intersection between cultural practice and technology. To learn more about Genevieve's work you can watch her TED and read the articles below. https://3ainstitute.org/genevieve-bell * TED talk (I know you are across this one) * Griffith Review article written by Genevieve * https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/2017-boyer-lectures/8869370 (transcripts are available and explain why she decided to come back to Australia) * Her interview with ABC's Richard Fidler (a popular radio program on Australia's national broadcasting network): https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-genevieve-bell/9173822 * Why we need a cybernetic future * The ANU's Genevieve Bell decided not to sit on the sidelines * Another useful link re 3Ai: https://3ainstitute.org/portfolio/how-do-you-teach-new-branch-engineering-existence-prototype-test-iterate * Also her Wikipedia page is accurate, so a good source of info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevieve_Bell * Plus this NYTimes article from a while ago gives you an idea of the work she did at Intel: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/technology/intels-sharp-eyed-social-scientist.html
Creating a New Moral Political EconomyArun MajumdarEric BeinhockerGenevieve BellKim Stanley RobinsonSuggested Readings“I am a carbon abolitionist”“Making the Fed’s Money Printer Go Brrrr for the Planet”“The 4th Industrial Revolution: Responsible & Secure AI”“Touching the future: Stories of systems, serendipity and grace”CASBS@CASBSStanford
My guests today are Lorenn Ruster and Thea Snow. Lorenn has recently completed her Masters at the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University and Thea is the Director at the Centre for Public Impact for Australia and New Zealand.Lorenn and Thea are speaking at the 2021 Response-ability Summit on May 20-21. Their talk is titled, "Dignity-centred technology — moving beyond protecting harms to enabling human flourishing". Thea and Lorenn explain how they came to work together, and their respective backgrounds.Lorenn shares her experience as a Masters student at the 3A Institute, which was established by anthropologist, Genevieve Bell, and the aims of the Institute, which is to "build the skills and knowledge needed to help shape the future safely, sustainably and responsibly".Thea describes the Centre for Public Impact's work, which is to re-imagine government, and together Lorenn and Thea share their dignity ecosystem model, which is a different way into a conversation about ethics in artificial intelligence. We discuss how their model might be used by technology companies as well as governments, given their model focuses on proactively enabling human flourishing rather than simply harm minimisation. You can download their report, Exploring the role of dignity in government AI ethics instruments, from the CPI website.Find Lorenn on Twitter at @LorennRuster and on Medium. Find Thea on Twitter at @theasnow and on Medium. Follow the CPI at @CPI_foundation.
La inteligencia artificial está a nuestro alrededor... y el futuro solo traerá más. ¿Cómo podemos garantizar que los sistemas de IA que construimos sean responsables, seguros y sostenibles? La experta en inteligencia artificial ética Genevieve Bell comparte seis preguntas marco para ampliar nuestra comprensión de la tecnología futura y crear la próxima generación de pensadores críticos y hacedores.
L'intelligence artificielle est omniprésente et elle le deviendra encore davantage à l'avenir. Comment nous assurer que nous développons des systèmes d'IA responsables, sûrs et durables ? Genevieve Bell est spécialisée en éthique. Elle nous présente six questions pour guider et élargir notre cadre de référence dans notre compréhension des technologies du futur, et préparer la pensée critique de la prochaine génération.
Artificial intelligence is all around us ... and the future will only bring more of it. How can we ensure the AI systems we build are responsible, safe and sustainable? Ethical AI expert Genevieve Bell shares six framing questions to broaden our understanding of future technology -- and create the next generation of critical thinkers and doers.
Artificial intelligence is all around us ... and the future will only bring more of it. How can we ensure the AI systems we build are responsible, safe and sustainable? Ethical AI expert Genevieve Bell shares six framing questions to broaden our understanding of future technology -- and create the next generation of critical thinkers and doers.
Artificial intelligence is all around us ... and the future will only bring more of it. How can we ensure the AI systems we build are responsible, safe and sustainable? Ethical AI expert Genevieve Bell shares six framing questions to broaden our understanding of future technology -- and create the next generation of critical thinkers and doers.
Artificial intelligence is all around us ... and the future will only bring more of it. How can we ensure the AI systems we build are responsible, safe and sustainable? Ethical AI expert Genevieve Bell shares six framing questions to broaden our understanding of future technology -- and create the next generation of critical thinkers and doers.
Today's guest in the End of Spring Series 2020 is Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, a cultural anthropologist who's trying to create a whole new field of engineering. She's a geek.We talk about many, many things at very high speed including robots, American culture, artificial intelligence, conspiracies, wombat warrens, telegraphs, rugged individualism, science fiction, coffee, elevators, and Isaac Asimov.And of course the coronavirus, because that's the thing that's dominated 2020.Full podcast details and credits at:https://the9pmedict.com/edict/00125/Support this podcast at:https://the9pmedict.com/tip/https://skank.com.au/subscribe/
How will your design be used in 10,000 years? When we produce designs and create technical systems we rarely think in such time-frames, yet many of today’s technology includes ideas decades old, even hundreds. Anthropologist Genevieve Bell joins us to talk about digital anthropology, cyber physical systems, and the new educational needs that have arisen.... The post #249 Digital anthropology with Genevieve Bell appeared first on UX Podcast.
My guest in this episode is Molly Wright Steenson, a designer, author, professor, and international speaker whose work focuses on the intersection of design, architecture, and artificial intelligence. In this wide-ranging discussion, Molly explains how the history of computational technologies, architecture, pattern language and AI combined to define the fields of Agile, interaction design, UX, AI and pretty much the rest of today's digital world. Show Notes This episode's archive and transcript (https://pln.me/p10) Molly at Girlwonder.com (http://www.girlwonder.com/) Molly on Twitter (https://twitter.com/maximolly) Molly on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollysteenson/) Molly at CMU (https://design.cmu.edu/people/faculty/molly-steenson#profile-main) Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape (https://amzn.to/32ZApiF) Bauhaus Futures (https://amzn.to/361wHGP) Molly talking pneumatic tubes (https://soundcloud.com/roman-mars/61-a-series-of-tubes) Mark Pesce and Dr. Genevieve Bell’s podcast on the Mother of All Demos (https://nextbillionseconds.com/2018/12/07/1968-when-the-world-began-the-mother-of-all-demos/) Doug Engelbart’s Mother of All Demos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY) Doctor’s Note newsletter (https://pln.me/nws) Andy on Twitter (https://twitter.com/apolaine) Andy on LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/in/andypolaine) Polaine.com (https://www.polaine.com/) Get in touch! (https://www.polaine.com/contact) And if you like Power of Ten, please consider giving it a rating or review on iTunes.
Timestamps:6:00 Genevieve’s CV8:00 Introducing the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute (3Ai)10:00 What it’s like running a startup in a University16:00 What is the vision behind 3Ai20:00 Technical fetishism26:00 The importance of history and place in how things get built31:00 Avoiding getting bogged down in mimicry - of other places, or the past.36:00 What is the ontology/building blocks of 3Ai?38:00 Getting out of normative notions with feminist/queer theory - how do you encourage playfullness in a system?40:00 Is credentialism changing?
Tune in at 5:00pm PT on 8/12/20 to watch the public live stream of this talk on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Long Now Live. "I have always felt I have an obligation to build the future I want to see. We know that AI-powered cyber-physical systems (CPS) will scale in society. The challenge we face now is how we do that responsibly and sustainably? If we act proactively, we can avoid some of the negative impacts we have seen during other technological leaps. We need to start creating now for that future 30 years hence, when we are completely embedded in both a digital and physical environment, and are experiencing a climate unrecognisable from the climate of today [...] for a future characterised by economic prosperity, social equality and wellbeing, and environmental sustainability." -----Genevieve Bell Genevieve Bell is an Australian anthropologist best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development. Bell established the 3A Institute (at the Australian National University College of Engineering and Computer Science) to focus on exploring how to bring together data science, design thinking and ethnography to drive new approaches in engineering; and to question of what it means to be human in a data-driven economy and world.
As Australia reels from the catastrophic bushfires and deals with COVID-19, these moments have revealed the fragility of our infrastructure including supply chains and telecommunications. This episode of the Seriously Social podcast explores Artificial Intelligence and what it means for humanity. Join host Ginger Gorman with cultural anthropologist, technologist and futurist Professor Genevieve Bell as they dissect the fears and realities of technology.
As Australia reels from the catastrophic bushfires and deals with COVID-19, these moments have revealed the fragility of our infrastructure including supply chains and telecommunications. This episode of the Seriously Social podcast explores Artificial Intelligence and what it means for humanity. Join host Ginger Gorman with cultural anthropologist, technologist and futurist Professor Genevieve Bell as they dissect the fears and realities of technology.
Today we are joined by Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, Director of the 3A Institute at ANU in Canberra, a collaboration with CSIRO's Data61, with the mission of building a new applied science around the management of artificial intelligence, data, technology and their impact on humanity.Genevieve is also Senior Fellow, New Technology Group at Intel, since joining Intel as a researcher to conduct ethnographic research in 1998.This is a most fascinating discussion about the world in chaos, how we are adjusting and what might come. We discuss key themes such as contact tracing and mass surveillance, and how critical it is that our communities embrace to fight COVID-19.We explore how the devastating Australian bushfires and now COVID-19 have shone the light on our vulnerabilities and segments of the community that were already falling through the cracks dealing with inequality, personal dangers and complexities, and the role of the government in supporting this.Genevieve shares her perspective on how Australia has dealt with COVID-19 compared with other parts of the world, and how it is near impossible to understand the situation without more data and stable models.Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player.Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave.Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeopleConnect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=enSend Jason an email - jason@squareholes.com Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/
Today Seamus speaks with Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO. She's a cultural anthropologist who spent two decades at Intel and is known as one of the most important thinkers on technology and culture. She returned to Australia in recent years to create an entirely new school of research at ANU, named 3Ai.We explore the aims of the new school, why it matters, and what the big issues are for technology in society today. And like any conversation with Professor Bell we get anecdotes from the past to help us understand that where we're going next isn't all that new... if only we can learn from the history lessons that can help pave the way...Find out more about 3Ai: https://3ainstitute.cecs.anu.edu.au/[This episode originally aired on Byteside's Uplink podcast] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Understanding how people use technology across cultures around the world gives us valuable insights. Genevieve Bell, Anthropologist and Distinguished professor at The Australian National University, talked about her work in anthropology and technology. Genevieve has been working in technology since the 1990s. We talked about her time working in silicon valley, particularly at Intel, where she was studying how different groups of people were using technology. Later on, we talked about how technology and mass surveillance are being used to fight COVID-19. Genevieve explained solutions we're seeing in around the world and the trade-offs. In 2013 Genevieve was the recipient of the Women of Vision Abie Award for Leadership. Abie Awards are presented by AnitaB.org, a global nonprofit with a goal of reaching 50/50 gender equity in tech by 2025. Abie awards honor and celebrate women who have led technical innovations and made a notable impact on business or society through technology. This episode is part of a series of show that highlight the work of previous Abie Award Winners.
This week, we've got all the latest details on the big announcements from the world of video calling. That includes Zoom's new software update, Google Meet turning into a free service, and how others are trying to keep in the game.Stuart also talks to anthropologist Genevieve Bell, a distinguished professor at the Australian National University and vice president of Intel, about how we're changing the way we interact with tech. She also explains what coming out of lockdown means and how we could use contact tracing to make that a reality.And finally, our associate editor of Pocket-lint, Cam, reviews the DJI Mavic Air 2 drone. It's just been announced, so we've been going through the steps to get it into the air and find out whether it's worth your cash. 00:50 - Chris and Stuart talk Google Meet06:10 - Genevieve Bell interview25:30 - Cam reviews the DJI Mavic Air 2 drone Visit us at pocket-lint.com, check out our latest videos at youtube.com/pocketlintcom and sign up to our daily newsletter at pocket-lint.com/info/newsletter. *** Please also take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks! ***Hosted by Stuart MilesProduction and editing by Stuart MilesGuests: Chris Hall, Cam Bunton, and Genevieve BellMusic by Lee Rosevere - Let's Start at the Beginning and Southside See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In these unprecedented times of a global pandemic many people are working or studying from home, doctors are facing new challenges, so medical equipment is in short supply – how do deal with this? Perhaps check the coronavirus tech as a shared open source online document where anyone can post their experiences or advice. Open source tech for COVID-19 A 3d printed ventilator that could be used for COVID-19 patients could be ready by the end of the week. An open source project has led to a collaboration of IT professionals and engineers to work on the project. Developing responsible AI Cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell joins us on the programme to talk about developing AI safely and responsibly. She’s cofounded an innovation institute - the 3Ai Institute at the Australian National University and is looking for new students from around the world to apply. (Image: Coronavirus tech handbook. Credit: Newspeak House) Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
Genevieve Bell is a distinguished professor at the Australian National University and the Director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance (3A) Institute. She is also a Vice President and Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation. After completing her PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford University, she joined Intel in 1998 and went on to establish Intel’s first User Experience R&D Lab, and co-founded its first Strategy Office, where she ‘spent her life in the future, returning to the present on the weekends’. In 2017 she returned to her home country of Australia to establish the 3A institute examining the human impact of AI at scale. She continues to support the Intel senior leadership group whilst creating a new branch of engineering at the ANU. Genevieve on Twitter Genevieve on LinkedIn We are hosting our first conference in Dublin - June 2020. Stay up to date by joining our newsletter Learn more: https://www.thisishcd.com/conference/this-is-hcd-conference-dublin-ireland-june-16-17-2020/ Support our podcasts Buy This is HCD Merch Connect with This is HCD Follow This is HCD us on Twitter Follow This is HCD on Instagram Sign up for our newsletter (we have lots of design giveaways!) Join the practitioner community on This is HCD Slack Channel Read articles on our This is HCD Network on Medium Other podcasts on This is HCD Network Power of Ten with Andy Polaine EthnoPod with Jay Hasbrouck Bringing Design Closer with Gerry Scullion ProdPod with Adrienne Tan Getting Started in Design with Gerry Scullion Talking Shop with Andy Polaine and Gerry Scullion Decoding Culture with Dr. John Curran Support the show.
EthnoPod - Understanding People and Culture with Dr John Curran
Genevieve Bell is a distinguished professor at the Australian National University and the Director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance (3A) Institute. She is also a Vice President and Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation. After completing her PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford University, she joined Intel in 1998 and went on to establish Intel’s first User Experience R&D Lab, and co-founded its first Strategy Office, where she ‘spent her life in the future, returning to the present on the weekends’. In 2017 she returned to her home country of Australia to establish the 3A institute examining the human impact of AI at scale. She continues to support the Intel senior leadership group whilst creating a new branch of engineering at the ANU. Genevieve on Twitter Genevieve on LinkedIn We are hosting our first conference in Dublin - June 2020. Stay up to date by joining our newsletter Learn more: https://www.thisishcd.com/conference/this-is-hcd-conference-dublin-ireland-june-16-17-2020/ Support our podcasts Buy This is HCD Merch Connect with This is HCD Follow This is HCD us on Twitter Follow This is HCD on Instagram Sign up for our newsletter (we have lots of design giveaways!) Join the practitioner community on This is HCD Slack Channel Read articles on our This is HCD Network on Medium Other podcasts on This is HCD Network Power of Ten with Andy Polaine EthnoPod with Jay Hasbrouck Bringing Design Closer with Gerry Scullion ProdPod with Adrienne Tan Getting Started in Design with Gerry Scullion Talking Shop with Andy Polaine and Gerry Scullion Decoding Culture with Dr. John Curran Support the show.
ANU Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell joins the Every Student Podcast to discuss emerging artificial intelligence and its impact on society.
"We were bringing the voices of people that didn't get inside the building, inside the building and making them count. And I took that as an incredible responsibility, that you should give those voices weight and dignity and power." We are excited to announce that this is the FIRST EPISODE OF OUR STS SERIES! The goal of the STS (science and technology studies, or science, technology and society - your pick!) Series is to explore the ways that humans, science and technology interact. While we have released some STS episodes in 2018, we still had some left in the bag from the 4S Conference PLUS many new ones as well. Let's go! Genevieve Bell, Director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance (also known as the 3A) Insitute and Florence McKenzie Chair (which promotes the inclusive use of technology in society) at the Australian National University, Vice President and Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation, and ABC's 2017 Boyer Lecturer, talks to our own Jodie-Lee Trembath about building the future and a question at the heart of STS inquiry: "what is important to humans and how we can make sense of that to unpack the world that we live in?". They begin by reflecting on the Acknowledgement of Country that we begin every podcast episode with and the power that comes from realising our positions, then discuss being an anthropologist in Silicon Valley, learning how to 'translate' anthropology to different audiences, predicting the world in 10 years time and the importance of rituals (especially when finishing your PhD!). For more about 3AI, check out their website: https://3ainstitute.cecs.anu.edu.au Or check out their LinkedIn page: https://au.linkedin.com/company/anu-3a-institute QUOTATIONS (full list on website) "For me, the notion of always being acutely aware of where you are located in time and space is a powerful way of being and to me the ability to do that in Australia is a big thing. Part of why that is an important one to me is the, I've spent the last 30 years living in the United States. And that's a place that also has history with Indigenous people and colonial forces. It also has existing Indigenous communities throughout the nation. And people don't acknowledge that. And there's never a notion of a Welcome to Country or an Acknowledgement of Country." "Mum was really clear that you should always be working to make the world a better place. That you actually had a moral obligation to make the world better than the one you found it. And not for yourself but for others." LINKS For more on Brewarrina, the town with the fish weirs: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/10/fish-traps-brewarrina-extraordinary-ancient-structures-protection If you'd like to read a bit about Genevieve's mother, who is also an anthropologist, see this biography of Diane: http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0596b.htm Genevieve mentions doing fieldwork and 'deep hanging out' at Intel, for a quick definition of what this is, give this a read: http://cyborganthropology.com/Deep_Hanging_Out To become more versed in the English "Yeah, nah"/"Nah, yeah" Life Hacker has got you covered: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/06/the-difference-between-yeah-nah-and-nah-yeah/ To read more about the Cybernetics Conferences: C. Pias (2016) 'Cybernetics: The Macy Conferences 1946-1953: The Complete Transactions', University of Chicago Press. The article Genevieve mentions called 'For God's Sake, Margaret' is available to read here: http://www.alice.id.tue.nl/references/bateson-mead-1976.pdf
“This is a power we’ve never seen before in the world … someone with an algorithm that reaches into 2 billion people’s brains at the same time and is the platform for most political discussion for most people, makes the Carnegies and the Rockefellers look impotent by comparison.” Anand Giridharades, author, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World The Internet has changed the lives of four billion people on the planet in profound ways; but not as we may have hoped. Power and wealth are becoming more concentrated at the very top; traditional jobs are being decimated; people’s online and offline privacy has been invaded and abused; and elite global and business leaders seem tone deaf to the growing concerns about the future of work and civil society. In this podcast, LittleFish presenter, Sandy Plunkett and global experts in computing, social science; economics and venture capital explore the implications of a system gone wrong and ask, what’s next for the Internet; for the handful of giants that control it; and for we LittleFish who can’t seem to live with or without it. Featured Experts in this podcast: Genevieve Bell; Futurist, Anthropologist and Intel Corporation Fellow “Part of the reason I came back from Silicon Valley to Australia is that I was really interested in the notion of how do you build different kinds of futures.” Anand Giridharades, author, Winners take All: The elite charade of changing the world “I think the the answer to a winners take all world is for winners to take less and the only way to do that, is not by asking Mark Zuckerberg to be a nicer guy. It’s politics.” Jaron Lanier, Internet pioneer, computer scientist and author, Who Owns the Future? “The problem with the way we are creating success, is that we create it by pretending all the people who do the work don’t exist and we concentrate the benefits around who has the most central computer.” Duncan Davidson; Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur “The corrupting part is they cheat... a lot of the clicks on Facebook or Google are fake clicks attributed as a real click …and so they are overcharging the advertiser maybe by 2X in order to make their business model work.” References and Credits: LittleFish would like to specially acknowledge and thank: Anand Giridharades, author Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World Christiane Amanpour, CNN: Interview “It’s Time to Cancel Davos” with Anand Giridharades; January 21, 2019 https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/01/21/anand-giridharadas-amanpour.cnn Rutger Bregman, Economic historian and author; World Economic Forum 2019 panel on Inequality hosted by Time Magazine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG0w2rTKE2w Jaron Lanier, computer scientist and author: Who Owns the Future? Steve Paikin, The Agenda on Canada’s TVO; interview with Jaron Lanier; July 12, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEuII9cv-U Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Boyer Lecture Series Oct 2017; Fast, Smart & Connected – What it means to be human and Australian in a digital world with Boyer Lecturer Genevieve Bell - Futurist and Anthropologist https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/series/2017-boyer-lectures/8869370
Genevieve Bell on AI, anthropology & the obligation to make things better.
Speakers: Genevieve Bell, Kristin Alford and Toby Walsh Host: Bernie Hobbs Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Machines represent the most significant social and organizational challenges since human civilisation emerged 5000 years ago. How humanity engages with these technologies today is the key to ensuring that the future development of these tools benefit both society and the environment. Joining Bernie Hobbs for a live discussion exploring the ramifications of technologies set to disrupt our sustainable relationship with the planet will be three of Australia's brightest minds - cultural anthropologist and former Adelaide thinker in residence Genevieve Bell, futurist and Director of .MOD, Kristin Alford and one of the world’s leading scientists researching Artificial Intelligence, Toby Walsh.
:'-) Ever wonder why emoticons exist? They popped up in the 1980s to make online connections feel a little less digital and a little more personal :D. In this episode of IRL, host Veronica Belmont and special guest Peter Rojas explore how the Internet is both building and also confusing our relationships every day. Chloe Stuart-Ulin gives a first-hand account of her life as a “closer” for an online-dating service; we hear a dramatic, real-life story about a woman who finds her biological parent online; and Emma Brockes talks about how we can all maintain humanity while interacting with others on the internet. IRL is an original podcast from Mozilla. For more on the series go to irlpodcast.org. Read more about Chloe Rose's experience as a "closer" for hire on online dating apps here. Emma Brockes writes a column for the Guardian called How to be Human Online. She's just written a book too called, An Excellent Choice: Panic and Joy on My Solo Path to Motherhood. To read Ingrid Burrington's essay mentioned in the podcast about CorrLinks, the email service providing connection for inmates at U.S. prisons, go here. Check out this article about how the internet has changed dating forever. Online dating coach Laurie Davis Edward shares her thoughts on the good, bad and ugly that comes with finding love on the web. And, for more about human connection, and what our innate desire for it means for us as we — more and more — love, do business, and find our tribes online, read this piece by cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell. Finally, for some bonus audio on how technology interfered with a marriage proposal — and commentary on new relationship norms — head over to Mozilla's blog. Leave a rating or review in Apple Podcasts so we know what you think.
Should we be worried about the coming world of artificial intelligence? Some people (ie Will) worry about Skynet and doombots like Roko's Basilisk, but Professor Genevieve Bell from the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute reckons there's far more concrete things here in the now that we should be paying attention to... The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly supported by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!
This week we bring you a special episode of InTransition, a one-on-one discussion with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and leading expert in artificial intelligence. Following her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 1998, Genevieve was offered a job at Intel through a chance meeting with a man in a bar at Palo Alto in 1998. This man in question had contacts at Intel who were busy setting up a social science research lab at the time and Genevieve was introduced to the world of anthropology in the high-tech industry. While Genevieve initially turned down this offer, as she was on track for tenure at Stanford, she later accepted. With a career spanning 20 years, Genevieve is now back in Canberra as a professor at the Australian National University. She has founded the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute (3Ai), seeking to advance Australia’s knowledge of artificial intelligence and its role in the future. Discussed in this episode: Genevieve’s humble beginnings on anthropology sites around Australia and the world Her curiosity for change Her life growing up and the influence it had on her field of study “Accidentally” liking anthropology and later pursuing her PhD in that field Looking at her transition from working towards tenure at Stanford to corporate life at Intel A look at Silicon Valley in the late 1990s The importance of cultural anthropology in technology The role empathy plays in leadership and innovation People always come first, “if it isn’t meaningful, it doesn’t matter” “Why” is more powerful than “what” The future of AI Find contentgroup on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Read more about best industry practices from our blog and weekly newsletter.
This week we bring you a special episode of InTransition, a one-on-one discussion with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and leading expert in artificial intelligence. Following her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 1998, Genevieve was offered a job at Intel through a chance meeting with a man in a bar at Palo Alto in 1998. This man in question had contacts at Intel who were busy setting up a social science research lab at the time and Genevieve was introduced to the world of anthropology in the high-tech industry. While Genevieve initially turned down this offer, as she was on track for tenure at Stanford, she later accepted. With a career spanning 20 years, Genevieve is now back in Canberra as a professor at the Australian National University. She has founded the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute (3Ai), seeking to advance Australia's knowledge of artificial intelligence and its role in the future. Discussed in this episode: Genevieve's humble beginnings on anthropology sites around Australia and the world Her curiosity for change Her life growing up and the influence it had on her field of study “Accidentally” liking anthropology and later pursuing her PhD in that field Looking at her transition from working towards tenure at Stanford to corporate life at Intel A look at Silicon Valley in the late 1990s The importance of cultural anthropology in technology The role empathy plays in leadership and innovation People always come first, “if it isn't meaningful, it doesn't matter” “Why” is more powerful than “what” The future of AI Find contentgroup on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Read more about best industry practices from our blog and weekly newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
G'day folks, today Mike is joined by Matthew Magain from Melbourne Australia. You might recognize his name from the Sketchnote Handbook. Matthew Shares his journey into sketchnoting and then on to 3D sketchnoting. Find out about how adding a third dimension can add (both in quality and challenges) to your sketchnoting. SPONSORED BY The Sketchnote Army Clothing Collection! A variety of t-shirts and sweatshirts available for sale at Teespring that support Sketchnote Army and look fashionable at the same time! http://sketchnotearmy.com/t-shirts SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES: You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sketchnote-army-podcast/id1111996778 RUNNING ORDER Matt's Origin Story from Website design, to graphic facilitation to videos Sketch Group's origins and growth “Good enough for the moment Graphic recording and facilitation as a performance Experimenting on the edges 3D sketchnotes Excitement with some resistance Sharing 3D sketchnotes in different ways The importance of walls and lighting An experience of information Tools 3 Tips Outro TOOLS Neuland Markers - https://us.neuland.com Graphic Facilitators guide by Brandy Agerbeck - http://www.loosetooth.com/gfg/ Cintiq - http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-displays Procreate App - https://procreate.art HTC Vive - https://www.vive.com/ Google Tilt brush - https://www.tiltbrush.com LINKS Matt on Twitter - https://twitter.com/sketchgrp Matt's blog post about VR Sketching - https://www.sketchgroup.com.au/blog/vr-sketchnoting-bringing-conversations-to-virtual-life Cognitive media's Animated Sketchnote of Dan Pink's TED talk, Drive - https://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc Sketch Group website: http://sketchgroup.com Web Directions - https://www.webdirections.org Links on Google Poly to Matt's VR sketchnotes from the Web Directions Summit conference: Chris Messina - https://poly.google.com/u/3/view/41qBWkQ8tKH Amélie Lamont - https://poly.google.com/u/3/view/9da-r8ULRgM Genevieve Bell - https://poly.google.com/view/aGHfuxtdW0J Dan Rubin - https://poly.google.com/view/aGHfuxtdW0J 3D Sketchnote videos: Genevieve Bell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcKf3D9PJE- Amélie Lamont: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byRP0RcyedE Graphic Gear website (launching early 2018!) - http://graphicgear.com.au MATTHEW'S 3 TIPS Share your sketchnotes Sketch a podcast practice large scale sketches (not just small scale) PAST PODCAST SEASON LINKS Season 1 - https://soundcloud.com/sketchnote-army-podcast/sets/sketchnote-army-podcast-season Season 2 - https://soundcloud.com/sketchnote-army-podcast/sets/sketchnote-army-podcast Season 3 - https://soundcloud.com/sketchnote-army-podcast/sets/sketchnote-army-podcast-1 Special thanks to Christopher Wilson for the show notes - @mrchrisjwilson https://twitter.com/mrchrisjwilson
What stories should we tell ourselves (and our kids) to prepare them for the next billion seconds? We end Series One with this extended episode bringing contributors from this season, Genevieve Bell, Andy Polaine and John Allsopp together in a conversation about how we might think about and plan for a future that's looking both playful - and terrifying. Find Mark Pesce at: https://twitter.com/mpesce Follow The Show at: https://twitter.com/nextbillionsecs Find PodcastOne Australia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastoneau
What does it mean to be human in the digital era? And to be Australian? We spoke to the 2017 Boyer Lecturer, Professor Genevieve Bell, about how we live in world ruled by data and algorithms. We asked if there are any technological solutions to fake news (there are!) and if being Australian in this globalised, online world even matters. Bell is one of the world's top technologists and the head of the Australian National University's Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute.
What does it mean to be human, and Australian, in a digital world?
Technology now gives cows the ability to milk themselves on their own schedule. However, what we learnt about the cows once they had this choice goes far beyond just their ability to yield milk. Doctor Genevieve Bell, a former VP of Intel and currently a professor in anthropology at ANU joins Mark in a conversation about tracking. From house cats leading secret lives to robot vacuum cleaners that spy on us, and a whole world where we are not the only ones calling the shots. Find Mark Pesce at: https://twitter.com/mpesce Follow The Show at: https://twitter.com/nextbillionsecs Find PodcastOne Australia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcastoneau/ Follow PodcastOne Australia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastoneau
Aleks Krotoski tells the story of a film that doesn't exist and the online community convinced that it does. We hear from people who have come together on the online site Reddit to share their memories of the film, including a former video shop worker called Don. Many of them have very clear memories of watching Shazaam and are convinced it's disappearance is related to a strange phenomenon called The Mandela Effect, so named after the late South African activist Nelson Mandela. We follow Don on an epic journey as he tries to uncover proof. Along the way we'll encounter conspiracy theories, alternate worlds, computer simulations and a recently deceased Australian inventor called Henry Hoke. It's going to get weird. But what does this willingness to believe in something despite all evidence to the contrary tell us about the online world and the way communities form in the digital sphere? Aleks speaks with anthropologist Genevieve Bell about the stories we tell; cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman and Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University Nick Bostrom. Amelia Tait of the New Statesman explains how the story of Shazaam has evolved online. Producer: Caitlin Smith.
The O’Reilly Radar Podcast: AI on the hype curve, imagining nurturing technology, and gaps in the AI conversation.This week, I sit down with anthropologist, futurist, Intel Fellow, and director of interaction and experience research at Intel, Genevieve Bell. We talk about what she’s learning from current AI research, why the resurgence of AI is different this time, and five things that are missing from the AI conversation.Here are some highlights: AI’s place on the wow-ahh-hmm curve of human existence I think in some ways, for me, the reason of wanting to put AI into a lineage is many of the ways we respond to it as human beings are remarkably familiar. I'm sure you and many of your viewers and listeners know about the Gartner Hype Curve, the notion of, at first you don’t talk about it very much, then the arc of it's everywhere, and then it goes to the valley of it not being so spectacular until it stabilizes. I think most humans respond to technology not dissimilarly. There's this moment where you go, 'Wow. That’s amazing' promptly followed by the 'Uh-oh, is it going to kill us?' promptly followed by the, 'Huh, is that all it does?' It's sort of the wow-ahh-hmm curve of human existence. I think AI is in the middle of that. At the moment, if you read the tech press, the trade presses, and the broader news, AI's simultaneously the answer to everything. It's going to provide us with safer cars, safer roads, better weather predictions. It's going to be a way of managing complex data in simple manners. It's going to beat us at chess. On the one hand, it's all of that goodness. On the other hand, there are being raised both the traditional fears of technology: is it going to kill us? Will it be safe? What does it mean to have autonomous things? What are they going to do to us? Then the reasonable questions about what models are we using to build this technology out. When you look across the ways it's being talked about, there are those three different factors. One of excessive optimism, one of a deep dystopian fear, and then another starting to run a critique of the decisions that are being made around it. I think that’s, in some ways, a very familiar set of positions about a new technology. Looking beyond the app that finds your next cup of coffee I sometimes worry that we imagine that each generation of new technology will somehow mysteriously and magically fix all of our problems. The reality is 10, 20, 30 years from now, we will still be worrying about the safety of our families and our kids, worrying about the integrity of our communities, wanting a good story to keep us company, worrying about how we look and how we sound, and being concerned about the institutions in our existence. Those are human preoccupations that are thousands of years deep. I'm not sure they change this quickly. I do think there are harder questions about what that world will be like and what it means to have the possibility of machinery that is much more embedded in our lives and our world, and about what that feels like. In the fields that I come out of, we've talked a lot since about the same time as AI about human computer interactions, and they really sat inside the paradigm. One about what should we call a command-and-control infrastructure. You give a command to the technology, you get some sort of piece of answer back; whether that’s old command prompt lines or Google search boxes, it is effectively the same thing. We're starting to imagine a generation of technology that is a little more anticipatory and a little more proactive, that’s living with us—you can see the first generation of those, whether that's Amazon's Echo or some of the early voice personal assistants. There's a new class of intelligent agents that are coming, and I wonder sometimes if we move from a world of human-computer interactions to a world of human-computer relationships that we have to start thinking differently. What does it mean to imagine technology that is nurturing or that has a care or that wants you to be happy, not just efficient, or that wants you to be exposed to transformative ideas? It would be very different than the app that finds you your next cup of coffee. There’s a lot of room for good AI conversations What's missing from the AI conversation are the usual things I think are missing from many conversations about technology. One is an awareness of history. I think, like I said, AI doesn’t come out of nowhere. It came out of a very particular set of preoccupations and concerns in the 1950s and a very particular set of conversations. We have, in some ways, erased that history such that we forget how it came to be. For me, I think a sense of history is missing. As a result of that, I think more attention to a robust interdisciplinarity is missing, too. If we're talking about a technology that is as potentially pervasive as this one and as potentially close to us as human beings, I want more philosophers and psychologists and poets and artists and politicians and anthropologists and social scientists and critics of art—I want them all in that conversation because I think they're all part of it. I worry that this just becomes a conversation of technologists to each other about speeds and feeds and their latest instantiation, as opposed to saying, if we really are imagining a form of an object that will be in dialogue with us and supplemental and replacing us in some places, I want more people in that conversation. That's the second thing I think is missing. I also think it's emerging, and I hear in people like Julia Ng and my colleagues Kate Crawford and Meredith Whitacre an emerging critique of it. How do you critique an algorithm? How do you start to unpack a black-boxed algorithm to ask the questions about what pieces of data are they waging against what and why? How do we have the kind of dialogue that says, sure we can talk about the underlying machinery, but we also need to talk about what's going into those algorithms and what does it mean to train objects. For me, there's then the fourth thing, which is: where is theory in all of this? Not game theory. Not theories about machine learning and sequencing and logical decision-making, but theories about human beings, theories about how certain kinds of subjectivities are made. I was really struck in reading many of the histories of AI, but also of the contemporary work, of how much we make of normative examples in machine learning and in training, where you're trying to work out the repetition—what's the normal thing so we should just keep doing it? I realized that sitting inside those are always judgements about what is normal and what isn't. You and I are both women. We know that routinely women are not normal inside those engines. There's something about what would it mean to start asking a set of theoretical questions that come out of feminist theory, out of Marxist theory, out of queer theory, critical race theory about what does it mean to imagine normal here and what is and what isn't. Machine learning people would recognize this as the question of how do you deal with the outliers. I think my theory would be: what if we started with the outliers rather than the center, and where would that get you? I think the fifth thing that’s missing is: what are the other ways into this conversation that might change our thinking? As anthropologists, one of the things we're always really interested in is, can we give you that moment where we de-familiarize something. How do you take a thing you think you know and turn it on it's head so you go, 'I don’t recognize that anymore'? For me, that’s often about how do you give it a history. Increasingly, I realize in this space there's also a question to ask about what other things have we tried to machine learn on—so, what other things have we tried to use natural language processing, reasoning, induction on to make into supplemental humans or into things that do tasks for us? Of course, there's a whole category of animals we've trained that way—carrier pigeons, sheep dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, Coco the monkey who could sign. There's a whole category of those, and I wonder if there's a way of approaching that topic that gets us to think differently about learning because that’s sitting underneath all of this, too. All of those things are missing. When you've got that many things missing, that’s actually good. I means there's a lot of room for good conversations.
The O’Reilly Radar Podcast: AI on the hype curve, imagining nurturing technology, and gaps in the AI conversation.This week, I sit down with anthropologist, futurist, Intel Fellow, and director of interaction and experience research at Intel, Genevieve Bell. We talk about what she’s learning from current AI research, why the resurgence of AI is different this time, and five things that are missing from the AI conversation.Here are some highlights: AI’s place on the wow-ahh-hmm curve of human existence I think in some ways, for me, the reason of wanting to put AI into a lineage is many of the ways we respond to it as human beings are remarkably familiar. I'm sure you and many of your viewers and listeners know about the Gartner Hype Curve, the notion of, at first you don’t talk about it very much, then the arc of it's everywhere, and then it goes to the valley of it not being so spectacular until it stabilizes. I think most humans respond to technology not dissimilarly. There's this moment where you go, 'Wow. That’s amazing' promptly followed by the 'Uh-oh, is it going to kill us?' promptly followed by the, 'Huh, is that all it does?' It's sort of the wow-ahh-hmm curve of human existence. I think AI is in the middle of that. At the moment, if you read the tech press, the trade presses, and the broader news, AI's simultaneously the answer to everything. It's going to provide us with safer cars, safer roads, better weather predictions. It's going to be a way of managing complex data in simple manners. It's going to beat us at chess. On the one hand, it's all of that goodness. On the other hand, there are being raised both the traditional fears of technology: is it going to kill us? Will it be safe? What does it mean to have autonomous things? What are they going to do to us? Then the reasonable questions about what models are we using to build this technology out. When you look across the ways it's being talked about, there are those three different factors. One of excessive optimism, one of a deep dystopian fear, and then another starting to run a critique of the decisions that are being made around it. I think that’s, in some ways, a very familiar set of positions about a new technology. Looking beyond the app that finds your next cup of coffee I sometimes worry that we imagine that each generation of new technology will somehow mysteriously and magically fix all of our problems. The reality is 10, 20, 30 years from now, we will still be worrying about the safety of our families and our kids, worrying about the integrity of our communities, wanting a good story to keep us company, worrying about how we look and how we sound, and being concerned about the institutions in our existence. Those are human preoccupations that are thousands of years deep. I'm not sure they change this quickly. I do think there are harder questions about what that world will be like and what it means to have the possibility of machinery that is much more embedded in our lives and our world, and about what that feels like. In the fields that I come out of, we've talked a lot since about the same time as AI about human computer interactions, and they really sat inside the paradigm. One about what should we call a command-and-control infrastructure. You give a command to the technology, you get some sort of piece of answer back; whether that’s old command prompt lines or Google search boxes, it is effectively the same thing. We're starting to imagine a generation of technology that is a little more anticipatory and a little more proactive, that’s living with us—you can see the first generation of those, whether that's Amazon's Echo or some of the early voice personal assistants. There's a new class of intelligent agents that are coming, and I wonder sometimes if we move from a world of human-computer interactions to a world of human-computer relationships that we have to start thinking differently. What does it mean to imagine technology that is nurturing or that has a care or that wants you to be happy, not just efficient, or that wants you to be exposed to transformative ideas? It would be very different than the app that finds you your next cup of coffee. There’s a lot of room for good AI conversations What's missing from the AI conversation are the usual things I think are missing from many conversations about technology. One is an awareness of history. I think, like I said, AI doesn’t come out of nowhere. It came out of a very particular set of preoccupations and concerns in the 1950s and a very particular set of conversations. We have, in some ways, erased that history such that we forget how it came to be. For me, I think a sense of history is missing. As a result of that, I think more attention to a robust interdisciplinarity is missing, too. If we're talking about a technology that is as potentially pervasive as this one and as potentially close to us as human beings, I want more philosophers and psychologists and poets and artists and politicians and anthropologists and social scientists and critics of art—I want them all in that conversation because I think they're all part of it. I worry that this just becomes a conversation of technologists to each other about speeds and feeds and their latest instantiation, as opposed to saying, if we really are imagining a form of an object that will be in dialogue with us and supplemental and replacing us in some places, I want more people in that conversation. That's the second thing I think is missing. I also think it's emerging, and I hear in people like Julia Ng and my colleagues Kate Crawford and Meredith Whitacre an emerging critique of it. How do you critique an algorithm? How do you start to unpack a black-boxed algorithm to ask the questions about what pieces of data are they waging against what and why? How do we have the kind of dialogue that says, sure we can talk about the underlying machinery, but we also need to talk about what's going into those algorithms and what does it mean to train objects. For me, there's then the fourth thing, which is: where is theory in all of this? Not game theory. Not theories about machine learning and sequencing and logical decision-making, but theories about human beings, theories about how certain kinds of subjectivities are made. I was really struck in reading many of the histories of AI, but also of the contemporary work, of how much we make of normative examples in machine learning and in training, where you're trying to work out the repetition—what's the normal thing so we should just keep doing it? I realized that sitting inside those are always judgements about what is normal and what isn't. You and I are both women. We know that routinely women are not normal inside those engines. There's something about what would it mean to start asking a set of theoretical questions that come out of feminist theory, out of Marxist theory, out of queer theory, critical race theory about what does it mean to imagine normal here and what is and what isn't. Machine learning people would recognize this as the question of how do you deal with the outliers. I think my theory would be: what if we started with the outliers rather than the center, and where would that get you? I think the fifth thing that’s missing is: what are the other ways into this conversation that might change our thinking? As anthropologists, one of the things we're always really interested in is, can we give you that moment where we de-familiarize something. How do you take a thing you think you know and turn it on it's head so you go, 'I don’t recognize that anymore'? For me, that’s often about how do you give it a history. Increasingly, I realize in this space there's also a question to ask about what other things have we tried to machine learn on—so, what other things have we tried to use natural language processing, reasoning, induction on to make into supplemental humans or into things that do tasks for us? Of course, there's a whole category of animals we've trained that way—carrier pigeons, sheep dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, Coco the monkey who could sign. There's a whole category of those, and I wonder if there's a way of approaching that topic that gets us to think differently about learning because that’s sitting underneath all of this, too. All of those things are missing. When you've got that many things missing, that’s actually good. I means there's a lot of room for good conversations.
#51 Humanity, Technology & Wonder with Genevieve Bell by Digital Mindfulness
As a full-time anthropologist at Intel (recruited at a bar in Palo Alto off the faculty at Stanford), Genevieve Bell has a job that makes a lot of us go, “Wow…what’s that?” She sits at the intersection... The post Episode 09: Genevieve Bell, Intel’s Anthropologist appeared first on The Crush.
Here at Note to Self, we endorse using technology mindfully, thoughtfully, and not necessarily all the time. That said, we're more concerned with another sentiment you probably know all too well: the "yeah, putting down my phone is nice and all, but I have a life to live. A job to do. A conversation to hold. A cat video to send to my mother." With that in mind, today is the day we launch Infomagical, a collective FOMO course correction. This time it's not about your gadgets per se, it's about all the stuff on them, and all the stuff coming out of them. Our plan is to turn all of your information portals into overload-fighting machines. Starting with this introductory episode (listen above), we're going to make your devices more useful through a big follow-up to Bored and Brilliant – our 2015 project inviting people to rethink their relationships with their phone and become more creative in the process. Why? Because you've told us how much you need this. In a survey of nearly 2,000 Note to Self listeners: 60 percent said they feel like the amount of effort they must exert to stay up-to-date on a daily basis is "taxing." Another 15 percent said it's downright "impossible." 4 out of 5 said information overload affects their ability to learn. 1 out of 3 said information overload was affecting their close relationships. We've talked with neuroscientists, social psychologists, business professors, anthropologists, software designers, and many, many listeners as we've designed this project. We're going to give you the tools you'll need to do this right. Including custom emoji! (Right click to "save as image" on desktop; tap and hold on mobile). (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) (Kevin McCauley) Each emoji correlates with one of the five "goals" you can choose at sign up. Why? To cut to the root of information overload, scientists say it is important to set one priority (also called a “schema,” “theme,” or “filter”) that you use to gauge how much something really matters to you. For example, if your goal is to learn more about the upcoming election, does that panda video really help you achieve it? No, but if your goal is to be “more connected with friends and family,” perhaps it does. These goals are meant to remind you of what you really want for the week. You can put the emoji (or any other kind of note to self) up wherever you consume information. We've got bigger badge versions on Facebook, Flickr, and below. To get you as pumped for Infomagical as we are, we lay out all of the research behind what we're doing here in the episode above. Manoush even got her brain scanned in the process. In this episode: Daphna Shohamy, Professor and Principal Investigator, Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute Raphael Gerraty, PhD candidate, Columbia University Gloria Mark, Professor, the University of California-Irvine's Department of Informatics Dimitrios Tsivrikos, Consumer and Business Psychologist, the University College of London Genevieve Bell, Intel's in-house anthropologist Note to Self listeners Mark Malizia, Kristian Gendron, and Kelsey Lekowske (Emoji designed by Kevin McCauley.) Posted by Note to Self Radio on Sunday, January 24, 2016 Sign up to participate at wnyc.org/infomagical. Challenge week starts February 1 and runs through February 5. Want to tell us why you're taking part in Infomagical? Talk to us here. Got more questions? See if we've answered yours here. For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.
AnandTech Podcast #34 - In this special edition podcast, we spoke with Dr Genevieve Bell at Intel's Developer Forum. Dr Bell is Intel's Senior Anthropologist, as well as a futurist in Intel's Corporate Strategy Office. Dr Bell's main presentation at the event revolved around the maker community, and as a result our discussion we focused on that intersection of makers and the maker community, the altruistic intentions of the designers competing with corporate interests in this space and how the perception of the maker community is currently in a large state of flux from both the perspective of end-users and regulatory insights. Someone also had to bring up the recent cricket scoreline as well, in classic Aussie vs Brit style.
Wat doet een cultureel antropoloog bij microprocessor fabrikant Intel? Genevieve Bell probeert de toekomst te voorspellen. Net zoals Intel oprichter Gordon Moore 50 jaar geleden ook deed. Zijn wet van Moore gaat nog steeds op. Waardoor veranderingen steeds sneller gaan. Top Names over de toekomst.
Audio File: Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders: Hi, this is Lucy Sanders. I'm the CEO of NCWIT, The National Center for Women and Information Technology. This is another in a series of interviews that we're having with wonderful women entrepreneurs, people who have started innovative companies, doing great things. All the way from cars, to web services, to education, and lots of interesting entrepreneurs in this interview series. With me Larry Nelson, w3w3.com. Hi, Larry. Larry Nelson: Hi, I'm so happy to be here. This sounds like it's going to be a real interesting interview. Of course it'll be in a few different places, including on w3w3.com, where you can listen to it anytime you want. Lucy: That's awesome. Well today, we are interviewing an entrepreneur in the quote "gamification space." The combination of education and the gaming fields, and also, I'm very proud to say a NCWIT member company in our entrepreneurial alliance. Moira Hardek is the president and CEO of Galvanize Labs. Galvanize Labs is a hybrid education and gaming company focused on teaching critical technology skills. They have produced a number of educational video games and most recently, a game called "Taken Charge." That's a merge of players and very captivating learning stories while teaching them some of the fundamental building blocks of a quality technology education. Before that, Moira spent a number of years at Best Buy where she created and piloted a program I think many of our listeners will know well as part of the Geek Squad Summer Academy. This was a really great hands‑on technology education camp. It's still going on today. Very successful, and had a particular emphasis on young women. Before we start with the interview questions, Moira, why don't you give us a little bit about the latest at Galvanize Labs? This is a relatively recent startup, correct? Moira Hardek: Yes, we're just a little bit over a year old, and our big launch right now is Taken Charge. Taken Charge is all about teaching about the building blocks of technology education. To be able to get into things like coding and game design and more advanced technology topics, we are teaching the building blocks of technology to get more kids prepared to get into more advanced topics of tech education, and we're really excited about it. Lucy: This is a follow‑up question to that. You're in this hot space of computing education in the K‑12, K‑16 spaces. What are you seeing out there that's going on? Is there a shift, do you think, in the general public's interest of this area? Moira: I think so, definitely. Technology is everywhere. It's not just an industry and a field to work in, although it's a very, very exciting place to work in. Technology is part of any type of career that you want to be part of. We used to ask that of all of our students when we were taking other types of programs. We've challenged kids. They would say, "I don't know if I really need to have Tech Ed, because I don't know if I want to be a programmer, and I don't know if I want to be a game designer." We challenge them, we said, "Can you name a career or name a job where you're not going to interact with technology?" You can't anymore, so this is important across any type of career that you're going to have. We think this is just a key building block for anything you're going to do today. Lucy: We agree. We think too, at NCWIT, that we're seeing a key change here and it's good. It's about time. Galvanize Labs is going to play a huge role in that. Moira, why don't you tell our listeners how you first got interested in technology? You had a technology career at Best Buy, and Geek Squad Academy, and now at Galvanize. Tell us a bit about how you got there. Moira: First, it's that interest in technology, I think probably the way that you get interested in anything. It was just purely curiosity. Not to date myself, but there weren't computer or tech‑ed classes when I was in school. That stuff really wasn't available, and I think the first computers that I ever saw was Apple IIE's, and giant Gateway towers that were like three and a half feet tall. I was just curious. I just wanted to know what they were and I knew just enough to be dangerous. I think I'll never forget the first thing I ever did was, I'd deleted a file that was called "AutoExec.Batch" because I was like, "I've never seen that, or used that before, so I can just delete that [laughs] and get rid of it." Little did I know, you need that for Windows to start. I knew enough to be dangerous. Being dangerous means I did damage. Then I had to learn how to repair things. That's was how I got started... Lucy: [laughs] Moira: ...was I was just really self‑taught. Lucy: [laughs] Larry: Wow. Lucy: I guess that's how you learn how to repair things. I have to tell you a similar story that when Bell Labs first brought Unix from out of Murray Hill and West of the Mississippi, I was one of the first Unix Administrators on a little PDP server, and one of my colleagues dared me to erase a file that was a root file. To sit up at root and do an RM minus RF star and he goes, "Certainly it won't allow you to erase the whole file system." [laughter [ Lucy: Guess what? Certainly it did. [laughter] Moira: Yeah. Lucy: Everybody started complaining, "Where are my files? Where are my files?" I almost didn't want to come to work the next day. Larry: [laughs] Lucy: It was bad. Moira: It was the lure of gaming too. I never really had played computer games or anything like that. Someone had told me a story about this game, and it was like, "You can build civilizations." I really like history, and I was like, "Really? You can watch history evolve digitally?" They said, "Yeah, there's this game, it's called Civilization, and it's by this guy Sid Meier." I was like, "That sounds like the coolest thing." It was the original Civ, but you could really only play it on Linux. I was like, "What's that?" They said, "It's another operating system." I was like, "What do you mean? There's Windows, and what else is there?" I didn't know. I learned enough, and I remember I had to learn how to create partitions and a parallel boot on my first laptop I ever to at college. It was a disaster, and I totally blew it up, and I think it took me like three months. I finally figured out how to do it, all because I wanted to see Civilization. Lucy: That's amazing. Larry: Yes, wow. You certainly do have a very interesting website too, by the way. Lucy: Plus, I'm sending her all my broken tech. [laughter] Larry: Well, very good, excellent, excellent. Oh no, but with all of this in the field that you're in, why are you an entrepreneur, and what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Moira: For me, it was just about being able to solve problems. That is just my favorite thing to do, whether it's around the house...Actually, the first thing that I studied in college, and that I was interested in, and I got into it actually in high school, was animal behaviors. I thought that was so interesting because it was very pure and very simplistic. It was "Why do animals do things?" without the complexity of human emotion behind it, and the drama that we can create, and the circumstances of our situation. It was really just about narrowing it down to the simplest basic need. Problem‑solving became something that was really important to me, and so entrepreneurship became really very natural, because to me it's all about "see a need, fill a need." It became, "find a problem, solve a problem." That was my favorite part, and I love to do it, whether it's...I think that's probably why I initially started in tech support, and the same way from...I really wanted to see what the game Civilization looked like, and I spent months. I was, "Darn it," I was going to see that game. I wanted to solve for that. That was the biggest thing for me, and entrepreneurship to me is about solving problems, and I love to do it, and it's why I get up in the morning, is to solve a problem. Larry: I love it. Lucy: Along this career path, who has influenced you, what types of mentors or role models? Moira: Oh my God, I have tons. I think... Larry: [laughs] Moira: ...the funniest thing right now, the one that everybody gets a kick out of is I am probably some creepy, perfect hybrid of my parents. My mom spent 35 plus years in Chicago public schools as a teacher, and as a counselor, and special‑ed. My father worked in a lot of Silicon Valley start‑ups, back in the day. To be doing educational start‑ups now is just hilarious for my whole family. It's some perfect kind of...It was very natural to me, growing up around this type of environment. I had no idea what it was when I was a kid. It just seemed to make sense. I never really understood the barriers of big business. It was just always, "Yeah, if you want to do something, go out and do it." As far as mentors go, and role models, my parents were great role models. I have one sister, my older sister Kerry. I think she's probably got to be the greatest role model of strength I've ever had. I've spent most of my life looking to my sister and just drawing from her as an example of strength for my whole life. I've had great role models to look to in the industry. A big role model for me was Brad Anderson. He was the CEO of Best Buy for the majority of the time that I was there. People like Dr. Genevieve Bell from Intel, and Jane McGonigal, I think are other great role models. I have been lucky enough to have some amazing mentors. Probably the most impact was a gentleman named Michael Trebony, and he was my mentor for years while I was at Best Buy, and he's still very influential in my life today. Maybe one of the most important things that he taught me was...There are a lot of really charismatic people out there, there are a ton of leaders, there's a lot of people to listen to, there's a lot of influence. I think maybe the most important thing that he taught to me, "It's not so much about what people say, it's about who's saying it, and what are their intentions when they're speaking to you" I think that was probably one of the most powerful things he taught me. Larry: Wow. Who is saying it? Well, I'm going to ask you the question now. [laughter] Larry: What is the toughest thing that you've had to do in your career? Moira: Probably the hardest thing was making the original jump from working for a company, the original jump into starting my own. Working with me was my team, and we've been together for a while. I think that the scariest part, or the toughest thing for me, is the sense of responsibility that I feel for the team that is Galvanize Labs. There's seven of us that make up the company currently now, I'm incredibly close to all of them. The sense of responsibility [laughs] that I feel for their careers, and their futures, and their families, I think has to probably be the scariest thing I've ever done. I feel so responsible for them. That is the only thing that's ever given me a moment of pause. Usually, I'm pretty risk‑averse, and it really can roll off my back. I probably little bit live on the edge, but when it comes to risking others, that's always the hardest thing. Lucy: That is hard. Larry: Yeah, it is. Lucy: That is hard, and that sense of responsibility never goes away. Moira: Yeah, it's brutal. [laughs] Lucy: I know it is. [laughs] You can't just shut it off, and that's for sure. If you were sitting here right now, and giving a young person advice about entrepreneurship, and the things you've learned so far, what advice would you give them? Moira: I think probably the most important thing is, and I made this mistake early on too, is don't do it alone, and you're never alone. It's funny, for the mentors, and the role models that I had, and the things that you read online. Even to be sitting here doing this interview. I do this interview here as an individual. I don't want to send the message that I've never done it alone. I haven't. I've always had wonderful support of my family, and my spouse, and my team, and my mentors. I've never been alone. I think, when you look at those that are running companies, and those that you look up to, you're looking at an individual. You make this assumption, "Wow, look at what they did, and they did it alone, and they persevered." They're not, they're not doing it alone. They have support, and they have help, and there's a lot of people around them. Don't ever try to do it alone. Bring that support with you. It's OK to ask for help, and it's OK to make sure that you're surrounded. You really want to have that. Then I think the flip side of that is my favorite word, the one that got me through all this was, relentless. That's just what you have to be is just be relentless. Larry: I like that too. With all the different things that you've been through, and reflecting back, what characteristics do you have that give you the advantage of being an entrepreneur? Moira: I probably think I'd have to go back to my parents for that one again. In that when we were growing up, they instilled this great sense of personal responsibility. No matter what was happening. I remember getting in trouble as a little kid. We all did it. I'll admit it. You go to point the finger. Particularly at my sister, you have a sibling, it was like, "She did it." No matter what happened, they were like, "What did you do? How were you responsible for it, what could you have done to stop the situation from happening?" It was always about personal responsibility, and even if you saw a problem, and whether you chose to act, and it turned out well, or it didn't, or if you chose not to act, that was still your responsibility. I think the biggest piece about this is really the personal responsibility, so from the responsibility to Galvanize as a company, and the responsibility that I feel towards my team, the responsibility that I feel for the problem that I'm trying to solve. Part of the reason that Galvanize is here is I'm trying to solve a problem, and I feel personally responsible to do that, because I have a skill set that allows me to solve it. That's what brings me here. I think that particular characteristic is what I bring to the table as an entrepreneur, and makes a big difference. Lucy: It's interesting that you point out this area of personal responsibility when you choose not to act. Moira: That's a choice too. That's always a big one is choice, and not acting is also a choice. I think most people...I don't know if everybody sees it that way, and again I really felt I had to think how deeply that was instilled in me and ingrained in me is that not acting is also a choice, and you're responsible for that as well. Lucy: Wow. I think that's so tremendously important, and we don't hear that said very much. There was this one time when I took a leadership course when I was working at AT&T. They were trying to make a point with us, choosing not to act, and not to bring up problems when you see them, and they called it sabotage. [laughter] Lucy: I thought for a while "Whoa! That's a strong word!" Obviously, I never forgot it. There is an element of truth to that, when you choose not to act. Maybe not. Moira you have a spouse, and you have other friends and family, and other personal interests, and also a busy professional life. How do you bring balance to all the different things you do? Moira: You hear the conversations a lot about work‑life balance. I've sat in those seminars too, where we get sent to those when you work for a big company, about work‑life balance. I watched a lot of people struggle with it. I was really confused for a while. I didn't feel it, and I didn't see it. I watched people struggle with it, and I thought something was wrong with me. Lucy: [laughs] Moira: I remember talking to my spouse about it and I said, "Am I missing something?" What dawned on me is, and it almost had to be explained to me, was the greatest part about what I'm able to do, I know I'm so lucky and blessed to have this is, what I do for a living is also who I am for a living. I bring who I am in my personal life to work every single day. Sure, I don't know if I'd sit through as many conferences as I would, if it was a personal choice. There are some [laughs] professional lines you do draw. As far as my day‑to‑day, and I'll admit there are certainly some hundred‑hour work weeks, and there have been some overnighters. This is a start‑up it's going to happen. The greatest part about myself and my team is what we all do for our jobs is who we are. We have a ton of fun with that. I couldn't tell you where I laugh more. Do I laugh more in my home or at work? I really don't know, because I laugh a lot at both. There's joking, and there may be a little singing and dancing. You've got to dance it out. [laughs] We just have a lot of fun with it because it's just who we are. For me, I really haven't had to struggle with that. I know sometimes from the outside it can be tough, again having an incredibly supportive family. Particularly with my spouse, who puts up with my really crazy hours. I think a lot of the patience comes from...I may be on my laptop, and in virtual meetings at two o'clock in the morning sometimes. She can hear my laughter, and so it's OK. [laughter] Larry: That's excellent, wow. You've really shared some very excellent ideas, and I have to ask you this. You've already achieved a great deal. What's next for you? Moira: As far as what's next? It's simple. We like to solve problems, and there will always be more problems, which means more solutions. That's what's we're looking to do. At Galvanize we have four pillars that really define who we are. We think that combining these four pillars can very effectively solve any problem. The pillars for us are, the first one is data, so being able to collect data and information to properly analyze a problem. We believe very, very strongly in education. It's not just education as in school, although that's what Taken Charge is very focused the education of kids. Even whether it's educating someone on a product, or learning about your city in which you live, or learning about the smartphone that you have, knowledge is power, so education is big for us. Game theory, for us, is really what drives everything, and that's our third pillar. Game theory is all about creating internal motivation. It's not just gamification, it's not just having fun, but creating motivation for your user. Then the fourth pillar being a great user experience, and nobody's going to do anything if they have a lousy experience. We think those four things in combination can solve any problem, and we have a laundry list of problem that we'd love to solve. Once we solve this tech ed things, we've got that covered, we'll move on to the next problem. Lucy: See? Larry: Yes. Lucy: It gives me great hope, because we're going to have all of these young people learning these really critical 21st Century skills, and they need them. Larry: Thank you Galvanize. Lucy: Yeah, [laughs] thank you. Thank you, Moira. We really appreciate your time. Moira: Well, thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Lucy: I want to remind listeners that they can find these interviews at the ncwit.org website, as well as the wonderful w3w3.com. Larry: Yes. Lucy: All right, well thank you Moira. We really appreciate it. Moira: [laughs] Thanks a lot. Lucy: OK. Larry: Thanks a lot. Lucy: Have a great week. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Moira HardekInterview Summary: Moira Hardek is President and CEO of Galvanize Labs, Inc (http://galvanizelabs.com/) which she founded in early 2013. Galvanize Labs is a hybrid education and gaming company focusing on teaching technology as a subject, instead of merely a collection of topics. Galvanize Labs has produced the browser-based, technology education video game, Taken Charge (https://takenchargegame.com/), that submerges players in a captivating story while teaching them the building blocks need for quality technology education. " I have been lucky enough to have some amazing mentors. Probably the most impact was a gentleman named Michael Trebony, and he was my mentor for years while I was at Best Buy, and he's still very influential in my life today," said Hardek about who has helped her along the way. "Maybe one of the most important things that he taught me was that it's not so much about what people say, it's about who's saying it, and what are their intentions when they're speaking to you." Release Date: July 25, 2014
When Intel Labs established its Interactions and Experience Research Lab, known as IXR, this past summer, it was a sign that the making of technology has profoundly changed. It is one thing to invent a machine or a process, it is another to make one that people want to use. And to do that, one […]
When Intel Labs established its Interactions and Experience Research Lab, known as IXR, this past summer, it was a sign that the making of technology has profoundly changed. It is one thing to invent a machine or a process, it is another to make one that people want to use. And to do that, one […]
Genevieve Bell, an Intel Fellow that was recently named one of the top 50 most creative people in business by Fast Company, discusses market research and consumer ethnography designs. (November 9, 2009)
Genevieve Bell is Director of Intel's User Experience Group.In this interview, she talks about what it means to build technology with the home in mind, about cultural influences in the use of technology, about the connection between religion and technology, and about sheds. Genevieve says that part of what people want is for technology to be invisible."Computational power is important but what people see is the experience."