Bytemarks

Several days have gone by since spending the Solstice day at Nualolo on Kauai. Being back in the urban life of Honolulu it’s easy to see the contrast of place. As obvious as it is, I am still processing what it all means. We live in the city but the brief moment we spend in the wilderness is full of sustainence. When going to a place like Nualolo, you will feel a connection with the land all around you and in you face. The photo to the right is of a fresh water spring in Nualolo. It typifies the life bestowing jewel of the valley.

My friend Kelvin describes these experiences as gateways. These gateways could be physical, like swimming from one point to another, or hiking or entering a waterfall and then emerging from it. Gateways could also be spiritual, going from one level of consciousness to another. I’ll give you an example. I am not a water person and don’t take to the ocean as some of my friends. I have a lot of respect for the ocean and know how foreign it is to me. It could be characterized by fear but over the years I think I’ve dealt with it head on. Right now, it is more apprehension. There were sections of this trek that took us into some open waters. As I launched into the deep I could feel my body tensing up, my legs were getting tired and my breath became short. As I felt this fear welling up in me I realized there was nothing to be fearful of. I could see the spotters and the early morning swells were small. I let go and relaxed. My legs relaxed, my breath became steady and I enjoyed the moment. The beach landing was challenging as the waves crashed onto the boulders but I had already given into the moment and road the waves in as best as I could. The less I fought the easier it got.

The swim back was 6 hours later and after a long day of hiking. The afternoon trades were blowing and waves were bigger than in the morning. Again I could feel the apprehension welling up in me. When it was my turn to time the wave, I let go and slid out into the surf, like a monk seal as Kat would say. It was rougher in the afternoon, in all honestly the waters were very accommodating. When I landed I felt a sense of accomplishment. I had made it through another gate.

The final gate was the zodiac ride from Nualolo to Port Allen. It was a solid hour on the open ocean with the zodiac going full throttle. I had one hand on the rail, one on the rope and sat on the zodiac side. It was like riding a bronco but there were times I felt like I was in 2001 - A Space Odyssey going through a votex in space. It was the wind, water and up & down ride that was so immersive. If that wasn’t a gateway I don’t know what is. As you can see there were many moments of transformation. An experience like this has helped me to understand myself, my connection to the land and to my fellow companions. I will be processing this for many days to come. More importantly, I will seek the linkages between the grounding I felt in Nualolo and daily life. It’s all a state of mind.

June 21, 2009 marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It is the tilt of the earth’s axis that causes this long day and as soon as it happens we pass into a period of shortening days. It is the transition from one period into the next. For seven years, my friend Kelvin Ho made it a personal commitment to celebrate the solstice by taking a group of friends into a valley along the Na Pali coast of Kauai called Nualolo. Through this commitment, he and his wife Kat recognize and honor our Hawaiian ancestors who lived and drew sustanance from this land. This was the fifth year in the seven year commitment and the first opportunity for me to experience it. The trip would essentially take one day, to access Nualolo, trek into the valley, give a ho`okupu (offering) to the land and leave by night fall. It was appropriate to take full advantage of the longest day to embark on this epic journey. The day started with a 4am zodiac ride from Port Allen to Nualolo Kai State Park. By 5:30am we were dropped of in the ocean to swim about 50 yards to shore. That was the first gate. The next gate was a much longer swim across a point to access a boulder strune beach. Accessing a sandy beach with a shore break is one thing, but a shore break onto boulders is quite another. This view from the cliff above shows the boulders in the water but all sense of size is lost in the photo.

Once on land we follow the stream deep into the valley. I was quite taken by the fresh water pools and waterfalls. Following the stream into the valley was like tracing a lifeline. Nualolo `aina was lush in vegetation. Much of it was non-native but was the occasional native plant, like alahe`e, naio, naupaka, and the Hawaiian poppy. I was quite amazing to see fresh water springs that tasted sweeter than any bottled water that I have ever had. We took a break at a kukui nut grove with six inches of kukui nuts on the ground. In ancient times, the kukui nut symbolized enlightenment. As I laid there I could feel a heightened level of energy even though outwardly it was very serene. We hiked all the way to the back of the valley that stopped at a sheer wall of rock. It was an awesome feeling to bare witness to the nature of the place.

Back on the Sept. 3, 2008 episode of Bytemarks Cafe, Ryan and I had a chance to talk to Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal about the Junk Kraft and their voyage into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This Pacific Gyre or Vortex is an area northeast of Hawaii where the currents swirl and collect the plastic garbage dumped into the ocean by the US and Asia. One year has passed and although we are a little more aware of the situation, not much has been done to clean it up, until now. Project Kaisei recently came onto our radar and is working toward a solution. We had Mary Crowley from Project Kaisei on Bytemarks Cafe this past week to get the update. The plan is to send a vessel into the Pacific Vortex and collect plastic garbage. The goal is to look at ways to convert the plastic into energy and fuel the disposal of the junk. According to the Project Kaisei website:

The Project Kaisei team will embark on a 70 day expedition to the “Plastic Vortex”, on a return voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii in order to

• Study and document the mass of plastic in the ocean
• Test catch methods for removing the plastic particles
• Understand the needs required to undertake an eventual large scale clean-up of the waste material
• Test technology for conversion into an economically viable by-product: diesel fuel.

If the Mission proves successful, and large volumes of plastic can be captured and processed, then a full clean-up operational plan will be initiated within 18 months.

Based on an article on Reuters this past May, the Honolulu Derelict Net Recycling Program is familiar with what it takes to dispose of recovered nets. It’s a lengthy process to cut and shred the nets, remove metal and then converted to energy at the HPower plant. Their insights are helping Project Kaisei devise their strategy for the ocean waste disposal. It’s quite a monumental task and one that will involve international cooperation.

Project Kaisei is aiming to raise $2M and based on their Facebook Causes page has a ways to go, at least from FB contributors. You can also join the Project Kaisei group on Facebook and follow Doug Woodring on Twitter.

Finally, an update on Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummings. They are on a Junk Ride from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico, part of the education program of Algalita Marine Reseach Foundation. And while Marcus and Anna are riding their bike down the west coast, Joel Paschal is on the reseach vessel Algalita heading, as we speak to the Pacific Gyre. I don’t know if here is a rendevous in the making but obviously the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is generating a lot of needed attention.

While at SXSW 09 this past March, I sat through an inspiring keynote by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. As interesting as his talk was, I found myself drawn to what was happening on the left side of the stage. A graphic recorder was taking notes while Tony was speaking. She paced herself throughout the 50 minute talk highlighting Tony’s key messages. This was new to me and I had not seen this before.

I later found out that graphic recorder was a woman named Sunni Brown and this style of visual note taking and information design is a technique that dates back more than 30+ years. Obviously, not at any of the conferences or companies I have previously been to over that period. The notes were augmented with simple graphic drawings that captured my continued attention. I found myself studying the image and rereading the notes captured there. It seemed like a great way to preserve a talk for future and continued reference.

Wanting to learn more, I contacted Sunni to find out more about what I had just experienced. She talked about graphic recording but the broader topic of visual thinking. It was an idea that is rather simple. Design information so it is more compelling to the audience. We’ve gotten so used to the standard bulleted text presentations created on PowerPoint that our idea of knowledge retention is simply getting a copy of the PowerPoint preso and stashing it in a file folder somewhere. With a graphic recording the information is presented in a way that engages the viewer. I got so excited about this method of presentation I invited Sunni to help me at my workplace (HMSA) present concepts our execs were promoting. This is an example of what see created:
I couldn’t stop there and invited her to be on Bytemarks Cafe on 6/3/09 to talk about Visual Thinking and info design. Chris Gargiulo from KCC also joined us to offer tips on this applies to web design. You can catch the entire show on our MP3 download or on iTunes. Enjoy and let me know what you think. It’s such a refreshing and enjoyable way to encourage knowledge retention more organizations should use it.

I had the fortune of meeting this wonderful woman last year as she entered into the Waikiki Yacht Club on her ocean voyage from California to Hawaii. For Roz Savage, this was just the first leg of a trans-Pacific quest to solo-row from California to Australia.

Her mission, which she takes seriously is to bring awareness to the condition of our planet and to motivate people to do something about it. On her initial leg of her voyage it was about the pollution we were dumping into the ocean, particularly plastics. On this segment of her voyage as she continues her journey to Australia is to focus on global warming. Her midway stopover is the island nation of Tuvalu (.tv). That is if she can find it. Tuvalu is disappearing as a result of the raising oceans.

What I find amazing is the commitment and focus in a woman like Roz. At each of the events that I attended she was the focus of attention where everyone wanted some time with her. And for all those people she gave them her time. Even at her launching, where frenetic activity is the norm, she took the time to turn her attention away from last minute packing and take a photo with an adoring fan. It was like she was already on the ocean, taking each wave and swell as it came, not fighting it but riding it. She was literally going with the flow.

For the next 70 or so days, Roz will be alone on the ocean. Taking her 10,000 rows, one stroke at a time. We can all support her by staying in touch with her on her website and her blog. She also has this very cool Roz Tracker developed by local tech company Archinoetics. With the tracker, you not only see where Roz is but it also informs you via Twitter and announces updates to her blog. It’s not often that you meet people like Roz Savage so when you do you should relish the moment. If we could all do just .1 percent of what she is doing, the world would be such a better place for all.

We recently had Larry Reifurth on Bytemarks Cafe and the topic of Hawaii’s Communications Commission came up. I had been following the Broadband Task Force and was quite interested in the introduction of HB1077 into this Legislative session. Seeing Larry triggered the question, “What happen to HB1077?” I thought all the stars were aligned to create the Commission under the DCCA that combine the oversight of cable and telecom services into one. This would have brought a focus to Hawaii’s broadband services and to coordinate efforts to best use the Federal infrastructure stimulus dollars. So now with the legislative session done, I must bemoan the death of HB1077. Based on the status of the bill, it seemed to be deferred. To when, I do not know. Larry mentioned that there were never any conferees assigned to the committee so the bill never got heard. Others say that legislators during this session had other things to consider (which I don’t deny) and that the bill did not have the priority needed to get the attention. Maybe it will surface in next year’s session. Hopefully next session, we won’t be short sighted and look to the long term need. I suppose we will just have to wait and see.

The semi-annual pledge drive is an interesting phenomenon. It’s Hawaii Public Radio’s major money making effort and occurs in April and October of each year. On one hand it is viewed as a necessary evil, something that needs to be done but not everyone likes it. Listeners want regular programming and staff feels apprehension going on air to ask for money. On the other hand it is a remarkable community event that exemplifies the community in community radio. This was my second pledge drive and although I do not commit anywhere as much time as the staff do, I try to pitch in. In addition to our show on Wed, I usually help as a guest on Pledge Central and also bring in a Bytemarks crew to work the phones on Saturday from 12-5pm. It’s a good excuse to call my friends and ask them to pitch in. That act alone helps to build community. People hanging around a table, talking story, eating food and answering the occasion phone pledge. The flow of people in and out of the station indicates the broad community base that HPR relies on. I see familiar faces that I would otherwise rarely see if not for HPR.

Given the state of the economy, I was concern the drive would take longer than the 10 day period. In the previous Oct 2008 drive it extended one day and I could see the stress in people’s faces and their voices. To my surprise, this drive ended one day early, on Thursday, 5/30. The drive started on Wed. 4/22. To me this showed how committed the community at large is to supporting HPR. The drive ended right around 4:30pm on Thursday during the popular All Things Considered show. As soon as the pledge came in that put us over the top, the drive ended. No more calls were taken, no more soliciting and back to normal programming. Whatever normal was at that point! The energy as very high and people were elated. It felt like running a race and finishing first. I put this 30 sec video together with some shots I took but it does not compare to the excitement in the air. There were lots of hugs, handshakes and champagne to go around. Again this was a great show of a community coming together and accomplishing a goal. It was a bonding event. It almost felt like it shouldn’t end. But it needed to so we could go back to regular programming. All in all, the pledge drive was all about community and the event itself is a community building one. Call me strange but I’m actually looking forward to the next one in October.

The 2nd Annual Geek Meet was this past weekend at Ala Moana Park on Magic Island. Although several days have passed, I could not let this event go without a blog post. Of all the tech/geek related events that take place over the course of the year, like Unconferenz, Manoa Geeks, Flickr meetups, Bytemarks Lunches, tweetups, HSTC Breakfasts, Dual Use Breakfasts, etc. the Geek Meet picnic is the most family (and pet) friendly. It’s a great time getting out in the sun, sharing a pot luck lunch and gabbing about tech toys. It was the most concentrated assortment of tech at the beach I have ever seen. The Emergency Amateur Radio Club brought out radio gear, Paul Lawler had his solar telescope, Tony Barnhill set up an assembly line for his Altoid USB Solar power rechargers, Andy Bumatai had his laptop on hand to demonstrate Mogulus, even the 501st Pacific Outpost light saber crew struck a pose. It was almost like a science fair on the beach. I was quite impressed that even Michael Okuda of Star Trek fame and Roz Savage solo Pacific Ocean rower show up. It was relaxing, exhausting and stimulating all at once. You can get a sense of the group fun from these photos. Too bad we have to wait a whole year for the next one.

We recently had Dean Sadamune and Jim Sink from Avatar-Reality on Bytemarks Cafe. Unfortunately the radio show does not lend itself well to images. The images, as you can see amplify the story about Blue Mars, the virtual reality platform being build by Avatar-Reality. I got a chance to spend some time in the AR offices getting the nickel tour from Dean. He showed me landscapes, underwater worlds, waterfalls, beautiful model avatars and game environments. it was quite impressive. My initial thought was to compare Blue Mars with Second Life but as soon as you see the detail in the rendered worlds the differences became obvious. The environments were rich, complex and easily captivating. This next generation virtual world runs on the CryEngine 2 game engine created by Crytek from Frankfurt, Germany. It’s also the same game engine that runs Far Cry on the XBox.

Based on what the guys were telling me, this is a platform for others to create on. Avatar-Reality will create some worlds but they are looking for others to create their own alternative realities. Another big difference from Second Life is rather then develop your 3D world with SL tools, Blue Mars is an environment that allows your to bring in models developed with your own favorite 3D modeling tools, like 3D Studio Max, Maya and Softimage. Besides the obvious entertainment value, there are countless applications in education, healthcare and commercial spaces. It struck me that if successful, Blue Mars could help boost the computer modeling and animation industry in Hawaii. Granted you could be anywhere to develop 3D models, but the Hawaii community would be right next door to the folks at AR. Question is will Blue Mars attract a sizable audience. The Second Life community has plateaued, but one could argue that is because the environment in SL hasn’t changed. Will they shift over to Blue Mars? I’m excited because Blue Mars will have linkages into my favorite social media tools. I’m disappointed though because Blue Mars will only run on Windows machines and not the Mac with the planned release this summer. The guys tell me Macs will be supported by the end of the year. On the other hand they also tell me that Blue Mars can be experienced on a $500 Windows machine. I’ve got some ideas. I just need to convince my friends in education and healthcare to start building their Blue Mars worlds so I can explore on my work machine!

The vibrance and excitement of SXSW was intoxicating. When I got back last week Wed (3/18). I hit the road running going into the office, sharing cool finds from SXSW, doing the Bytemarks Cafe radio show that evening. Then on Thursday it was the Andy Bumatai show and on Friday it was working on getting Sunni Brown over to Hawaii for a management team presentation. By Friday afternoon, I was feeling the wheels starting to wobble. It started as a headache and a fever. I thought maybe a weekend of rest would do it. But no sooner did the weekend start, it ended. Monday (3/23) was staring me in the face. Sunni Brown was sick (like I was) and made a good decision to fly from Austin to Hawaii on Monday. We talked about it over the weekend and I totally understood. If it was me I would have done the same thing. Suffice it to say it added to my stress level. We found a substitute graphic recorder and had her flown in from the Big Island. Tuesday was back to back meetings going over the executive presentations with our team and the new graphic recorder Suzanne London. Lots of prep work went into capturing the 2-thirty minute presentations. On Wed morning I (with the help of my fellow teammates) schlep over two cameras and tripods. The presentations go without a hitch although the graphic recording wasn’t up to the standard set by Sunni. But that’s life. Wed afternoon is another Bytemarks Cafe with Alex Ho and Briana Acosta in the studio talking about FRIST Robotics. Thursday (3/26 ) is an all day Health2.0 Conference held at the Kahala Hotel. Very interesting day of presentations, panels and break out sessions on the topic of telemedicine, present and future. Thursday night culminated in the quasi-monthly Manoa Geeks which had 70+ people converge on the Honolulu Advertiser building to geek out on tech talk and pizza.

That brings me to today, Friday 3/27, my day to make a presentation to coworkers entitled: Digital You: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. By this time my throat is killing me and I am drinking cough medicine every 12 hours. I am told that I will have at least 70 people in attendance and a bunch of last minute show ups. My voice has lost all its projection but the subject matter is my passion and I am hoping that comes through. @Lavagal is in the audience giving me support. I wanted to spend most of my time talking about Twitter but when I looked at the clock it was already 12:45 when I ended the section on FB. I should have timed it better. I start going over the basics of Twitter, microblogging and the 140 character limitation. I then talk about personal branding and about some of the popular Twitter celebrities that have changed their handle to better suit their “brand”. As I talk about Neenz, who went from @infinitypro to @neenz, low and behold I get a tweet from Neenz. I am totally humbled and tell everybody that is the power of Twitter. It even facilitates  psychic connections!

Cold or no cold, that made my day and week. Life is like that. It deals out a set of cards and it is up to you to make something out of it. If you look back and feel you have lived every moment to its fullest, with no regrets, you then turn around and go forward with the same conviction. Ichi-go ichi-e, each moment is “one chance in a lifetime.” Makes life such a fun path to be on.