The past few days have been partially insane. I have come to accept that being in SYINC requires a level of commitment that I have never anticpated, and part of me screams out , 'I never signed up for this'. Meanwhile, Shaun is relishing in all of these, and I'm glad for him in that way. At the same time, there are forces both internal and external that are driving all of us apart. But those things are more personal things and not meant to be shown here.
What I want to talk about are the crazy things that have gone on. Like, having to work on an executive summary in like 8 hours before the deadline. So we came up with something, which was rather... draining and amazing and exhilirating at the same time. So its fun in a way.
I want to talk about Interesthink, and it was a truly marvelous event. It was like being at TED, except its in a Singapore context. And it was truly amazing, for all the people there, and I had a sense of all the passion and excitement that is going on. The speakers were great, and the people were excellent. I kind of sort of need to learn to talk to people with greying hair. Otherwise it was all cool. Picked up a lot of contacts especially a namecard designer, so - hah!
I guess at the Interesthink it was a Shaun-show. Shaun was there making his usual pitches about the webmonster and Pangea Day. So it was all great. And it was inescapable to talk about SYINC, so inevitably, Bernise would come into the picture and everything would be just.. jamming.
So meanwhile, I was covering ground, seeding ideas for TED and for cradle-to-cradle design, get people excited about TED and to talk about how the ideas could be made relevant to Singapore, get people excited and thinking.
The other more memorable things was a filmmaker sharing his life story, and being stuck for 10mins with Leong Sze Hian, who said some rather powerful statements about the situation of Singapore, that eventually, something's gotta give, and then, that the young people will eventually have to do something about it all. So that kinda left an impression on me. And not to forget Grant Pereira and his hippy-antics and for all the things that he has done, about his friends who lost their passion and got 'bought' over by the government, who went on to settle down leaving him alone. So yeah.
And there were people out there who think they can't do anything because they don't know anything. I think its just plain laziness not to go out there and look at life out there in Singapore - which is what I'm trying to do right now. Issues are all over the place actually, and its not just a matter of even looking at the right places, no, its just BOTHERING TO LOOK WITH 2 EYES WIDE OPEN and LOOKING AT THE LIVES OTHERS ARE LIVING. Its just that simple. It takes a different kind of heart, a different pair of eyes and all. And a different pair of hands.
And cheers to Leong Sze Hian, who writes for all the Singaporeans who will be disenfranchised, who will have their future robbed of. Thanks! And keep on writing. And hope others will stand up in his place. I could always try. Haha.
The future. That's what I'm fighting for too.
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Interesthink and more!
Thursday, 14 February 2008
integrating technology into everyday life
I know this might sound as a crazy idea, but I imagine this is how technology might be integrated with our HDB life, for now. Of course ideas like these could always be broken down into smaller and smaller elements all the way to the individual, but hey, just try to stay with me for a while.
Technology thinking has mostly been centred around the individual, like how the individual can be empowered using devices, or how technology can be integrated into shirts and accessories and all. These are exciting no doubt, but I would like to think of something else.
I want to imagine the connected HDB flat and the connected HDB estate, or a connected residential estate, for that matter.
Its rather simple, actually. Its simply social networking brought down to a more physical reality. It means linking every homes to every other home, into a network. This network would allow people to communicate with each other like how they would for a normal networking website, instead now, you are communicating with people just next to you.
This is at the same time, breathtakingly stupid and breathtakingly smart. Its breathtaking stupid, because since all of us are together, why would we need these tools to stay connected? Well, the thing is, I think urban people stay online with distant people more than they stay in touch with the people next to them. So what my idea does, is simply putting people closer to each other in the digital sense. People say that living in HDB flats took away the whatever-kampung spirit. Well, here's my stupid solution. Wire up all the houses together, have a user interface simple enough that people will commit to using it to tell their neighbour what they are doing. Live IM in the HDB flats. Allow people to communicate to each other easily!
And still better. Connect all the flats to each other so people in adjacent blocks can be connected to each other. Wouldn't all these nurture better ties to each other?
And the thing is, it has to be simple, intuitive, and accessible. I'm sure this idea will be implemented sooner or later....
Its fun, isn't it?
Of course there are problems, the main one being, whether people are keen to do this or not? Will people be willing to IM each other? If people are willing to Twitter in the public, I don't see why not. This is going to cater to young people to share with each other their lives' experiences, this is going to cater to parents who want to discuss with each other about parenting and education, this is going to cater to suppliers of household stuff - so this is where money might come from. It could all work! theorectically.
hah.
motivations...
The basis for social change is HOPE and HOPE alone. That God gave us hope to believe, hoping in HIM, and similarly, in the hope that things can happen if we HOPE in it enough to do something about. The reason I'm doing what I'm doing is not really about enabling Singapore to move on to the next phase of the future or whatever. My deep desire is to give people the hope that they can do things for themselves, and they can do it to the best of themselves, that they should always be striving for that. And through this process, coming to know Christ - at least for me...
Social change is not just change for the sake of change. Social change, is again, the hope that there is something better out there, that we can work towards a better place to live in. This is the main driving force behind the people that do these, that we may not be Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, but with enough dedication and a community, we might be able to achieve something that improves the lives of many. Another possible theme might even be: People Deserve Better! Or something like that.
We want to live in a place where people believe that they can do something more, something greater than themselves, something great in itself. But we aren't. And this gap between expectation and reality is really one of the core reasons why people find life in Singapore unsatisfying, always having half a mind to emigrate if not for the costs involve. So what if our friends and family are here? There's always Skype and Facebook to keep track. If not just fly back every now and then and spend some time together. Lots of people do that already. Or maybe it could be just the lack of guts. But whatever it is, I'm beginning to see myself not just as part of another social change project that promises nothing in terms of action, but just another dude trying to make living more bearable in Singapore...
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Morning thoughts
It just dawned upon me that good design is the product of aesthetics, with considerations to the human and social aspects, and that a good design product will also be ultimately linked to good science. aiyah. this is really just common sense.
Anyhow, was wondering if it'll be possible to adopt some of Google's office practises into the civil service. Would that be possible? Dreaming of slightly random things..
Mainly I keep thinking about ideas and concepts and how to make them real.
And more ideas. Imagine carrying a giant piece of a writng medium of any material - paper, canvas, whatever it might be, bring it to the street, give people markers and other writing materials, and just ask them to express themselves, their ideas, of if you want a theme, 'What do you think of Singapore?' have it at places of heavy pedestrian traffic, like Orchard Road or any other place, and then... just let people freely themselves! Especially schools! woohoo! So on that surface, people could write about their complains, their gripes, their thoughts, fears, or even what they think about the government and things like that...
Bet that'll beat the heck out of the Feedback Unit!
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
education, inspiration and innovation
One of the things that has bothered me a lot in Singapore is our education. But before I go any further, I would like to say that even though our education is far from perfect, it actually is pretty good, having brought us to where we are today. Come to think of it, the criticisms that I'm making are actually applicable to the education system of many countries.
This is obvious, but for a start, there is a tension in most education system between the needs of the individual and the community. Its a resource allocation problem, I guess, that the education systems of all countries are such that resources are utilized to maximize the benefits to most kids - to use what the country has to improve the whole population of children rather than focus on a few bright sparks who might be einsteins. That's one the major tensions in most education systems.
In Singapore it's the same. The education system is such that it affords most people with the basic knowledge of the workings of the modern world. Unfortunately, Singapore now faces a potential 'Innovation Gap' with other countries. The strategic challenge that Singapore faces today is regarding innovation. It's about whether Singaporeans can innovate fast enough in the future, competing with people in the region, in Asia, in the world, as a whole.
The key to that question lies ultimately in our education system. Its about whether our education system can provide our future leaders with the skillsets required for the innovation race in the future and even today.
The recent changes made to our education system I hope, will be only a start. The changes in syllabus and curriculum are such that young people are educated of the various fields and since it is compulsory to study both the science and humanities, it will better equip our future leaders to deal with the complexities of the present and future.
I hope there will be more changes - changes that will better equip teachers as well for this innovation challenge. Without innovative teachers, all these talk about education inculcating innovation among our future leaders will be just that - talk. For the whole education system to work, it is obvious that we need innovative teachers as well.
In this post, I don't want to talk about just the syllabus, curriculum, teachers and students. The whole theme of this entry has been about innovation in education, about the 4 things mentioned above. But lately, I've realised that the education of innovation is not the school's responsibility alone. Ultimately, for innovation to thrive, you need people to begin the process of integrating innovation in their lives by themselves. The future leaders that I'm talking about - the kids still schooling today, they are going to come out of school and realise all of these things that they've missed about, about the world out there and all the synthesis that have been going on between different areas of knowledge, the connections that are being made, and the silent ongoing revolutions in technology, entertainment and design. And when they've realise just how much they've been missing out, they will ask themselves the same question, 'why didn't my education prepare me with all these?'
On the Internet, there are already amazing resources that can equip students with knowledge of all the latest happenings, about the going-ons at the forefront of innovation. An when they do find out about it, they will want to share with their friends, with their families. All we have here in Singapore are just pockets of people who are in the know about all these, and it's simply not enough. It has to begin somewhere, and I believe that it should happen in the schools. It should begin in the schools to tell kids about the existence of these things, and it should begin in the schools where they can share and discuss these things with their friends, and t should begin in the schools where they can explore some of these ideas... But for all these to happen, some tenets of our education here in Singapore will have to change.
Our education system is efficient. It is good at producing people who are prepared for the world of manufacturing and service industries. But as we are slowly finding out, it won't be enough in the present and future environment that will be innovation-centred. This is why ITEs are reinventing themselves, not just producing technically competent people, but people who are able to move up on the value ladder and begin to seriously innovate and produce new products or methodologies. And even our polys are rebranding themselves too, as potential hubs of innovation, and the same goes for our universities.
I think there is a need now to revise the way we look at our schools. Our schools are no longer factories producing cogs and gears for the giant machinery of our economy. We need to know look at our schools as Hubs of Innovation, not just as places where we teach thing and inculcate values and all.
Monday, 11 February 2008
the chicken and egg question in singapore social change
The thing about Singaporeans is that they aren''t actually politically apathetic. There are a lot of people actually who are genuinely concerned about the state of the politics in Singapore, and they talk about it among themselves in their own private circles, half the time they celebrate the fact that CSJ exists, half the time they laugh at him for his antics, or shake their heads. Maybe its because of the legal actions, but people know that here in Singapore you can't challenge the PAP head on a la the revolutions of decades past. People think that for social change to seriously happen in SIngapore, there must be changes in the external environemnt before anything can happen. They mean that the PAP should relax the rules for political and social debate, even to the extent of degrading the ISA, they mean that some sort of change must happen in the attitude of the Singaporeans on this island, they mean that change must come from the outside - that the trigger for social change would not be from the people...
Well, but the fact is, social change IS for people, BY PEOPLE. Without people to to even begin to think about social change, there would be just, nothing. The fact is, for there to be substantial social change, for Singapore to have a participatory democracy or even a civil society, then Singaporeans themselves must step up to the fore and encourage others to do likewise. We live in an age where we have all become connectors - to people, to things, to causes. What we need now are initiators, people who can and will transform all our connectivity - all our FaceBooks, our gmails, into social causes. We already know, and already some have begun acting.
If we want to have genuine participatory democratic civil society, then I think we should start actling like we are one. Rules can always be changed.
No one, especially not the government, will tell us, 'eh, we can have a participatory society now, go talk politics leh'.
Start now...
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Innovate, Innovate!
Statements like the following one have been made so many times that it seems cliched: that innovation is going to be the key to success in this century.
Innovation has to become part of the DNA of any society or country in order for that particular society or country to be economically successful in the long run. In order words, innovation has to be part of the education curriculum, so that every generation of children that has gone through schooling will be ready to innovate solutions...
I don't know how else to put it - innovation is something that can never be overemphasized, and the same regarding the urgency, right here in Singapore. Are we adapting fast enough? Are we nurturing innovation?
Which brings us to the entire issue of the patterns of innovation, the factors that nurture innovation and things like that. Are we adapting our society for innovation? I think these are some of the questions that are keeping policy-makers up at night. Well, at least I hope they bother to think of these things. Because I think that the challenge to innovate is one of the most important and urgent problems, and a long term one at that, that Singapore will have to face in order to become successful as a global city.
And innovation will be closely tied to our education, society and culture... how we adapt them for this century...
maybe we could adapt more Montessori philosophies into primary school education for a start...