If you’re in Melbourne and you haven’t registered for MODM 3 yet, please do so! We had a great time at MODM 2 (or at least I did anyway) and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone again this week to talk about digital mobile content. So Pownce on me, Twitter me senseless and hit me in the Facebook if you want to, but make sure you register.
Professor Michael Georgeff is the Director of the e-Health research unit at Monash University. He has over 25 years experience in software innovation and bringing these technologies to market. In the 1980s, Georgeff was Program Director in the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute). He was also a member of Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information, a select group of researchers exploring the frontiers of human and machine cognition. During this period, he and his team created one of the first implementations of an intelligent software agent, using it to help control NASA´s space shuttle during space missions.
I chatted with him recently about the state of e-Health in Australia and about some of the challenges and opportunities in the area. For the last few years he has been working on “Health Web”, an online resource to bring healthcare providers, agencies and patients into one giant online research clinic.
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The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
If you aren’t on Twitter yet, you are probably wondering what it’s all about. It’s kind of like a steady feed of… stuff. Stream of consciousness from your friends. What they are doing, thinking about, reading, watching, etc. Here’s my last couple of days of twitters e.g. the things I’ve written. Inane? Or addictive? I guess that depends on your state of mind. In a way, it’s a kind of constant background conversation between your friends that all of you can see and participate in. Like most things internet, I guess it is what you make of it. If you and your friends write about what you had for lunch, so be it. Or you can write about the current news. Or ideas. It’s like that old quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
You can me to your Twitter friends list by going to my profile and clicking “add” in the sidebar.
My recent twittering:
I remember when the sweetest sound in the world was a modem actually connecting to my ISP and not giving me a busy signal less than 20 seconds ago from web
watching the “Mac or PC” Rap Music Video http://youtube.com/watch?v=… 1 minute ago from web
@Scobleizer Consider yourself lucky to be in a country that will actually see the iPhone before 2008! about 1 hour ago from web in reply to Scobleizer
MODM #3 is July 5. Hope to see Melburnites there. Register: http://tinyurl.com/23of3r about 2 hours ago from web
@mspecht you moved hosting providers? about 3 hours ago from web in reply to mspecht
discussing napoleon’s invasion of russia with j. david markham, my co-host on the napoleon podcast napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com about 4 hours ago from web
recording new episode of the Napoleon podcast – today we take 500,000 soldiers deep into Russia. Doh! about 5 hours ago from web
@leslienassar interesting article, i admire her views on iraq and US politics, but she’s a catholic, the very opposite of “progressive” about 5 hours ago from web in reply to leslienassar
@leslienassar can anyone who believes in a supernatural magic ghost being really be considered “progressive” ? about 5 hours ago from web in reply to leslienassar
@leslienassar all xns believe the same bronze age mythology as the nutjob. about 6 hours ago from web in reply to leslienassar
my thoughts – http://tinyurl.com/28xhjs about 9 hours ago from web
not enough – 4 out of 5 adults in an educated, intelligent society, still believe that mythological, supernatural beings govern the universe about 9 hours ago from web
Australian census data – the number of people having “no religion†jumped from 15.5% of the population (2001) to 18.7% (2006) about 9 hours ago from web
watching Christian pastor who wishes 33,000 were killed at Virginia Tech http://view.break.com/291886 about 9 hours ago from web
@bronwen – I always ask them – how does their economic model stand up against 100,000,000 new media choices? How can they stop the bleeding? about 16 hours ago from web in reply to bronwen
@delic8genius Billy Walsh is da man! Along with Michael Bay! about 17 hours ago from web in reply to delic8genius
G’DAY WORLD #257 – MY TRANSFORMERS REVIEW! http://tinyurl.com/2fccq7 about 17 hours ago from web
@cait dunno but I’m going again tomorrow! twice! about 18 hours ago from web in reply to cait
JUST SAW TRANSFORMERS!!!!! GREATEST MOVIE SINCE MATRIX 1!!!! 5 STARS!!!! about 19 hours ago from mobile web
G’DAY WORLD #256 – Brian Goldfarb, Silverlight http://tinyurl.com/2yyznt about 23 hours ago from web
just booked a photo shoot for Saturday arvo. This is for the Anthill story. about 23 hours ago from web
oooh my gdayworld custom laptop skin from http://www.tekskin.com.au/ is in the mail! about 23 hours ago from web
just picked up my kids from school. making them dinner. then going out to see TRANSFORMERS! Hope it doesn’t completely suck. Michael Bay. 🙁 about 23 hours ago from web
@mspecht forget about synching! just dump outlook’s sorry ass and join the gcal revolution compadre. 04:17 PM June 27, 2007 from web in reply to mspecht
@duncanriley I *am* on Twitter you goose! Where you been? 04:16 PM June 27, 2007 from web in reply to duncanriley
@mspecht using google calendar is the solution, not plaxo! 03:51 PM June 27, 2007 from web in reply to mspecht
recording interview with michael georgeff for gdayworld.com 03:22 PM June 27, 2007 from web
got free tickets to see TRANSFORMERS preview screening tonight! thanks to my friends at Paramount! 02:53 PM June 27, 2007 from web
@mollyfud christian – they only talk to you when they want something for free 02:51 PM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to mollyfud
@mollyfud the 10 mins comes from not having to edit down from wav files which I’ve been doing for the last few months 02:45 PM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to mollyfud
@mollyfud yes i do but only for TPN hosts. 02:45 PM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to mollyfud
@mollyfud stopped using skylook as callburner is the same product without requiring Outlook. 02:37 PM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to mollyfud
prepping for interview this afternoon with Michael Georgeff http://www.theage.com.au/ar… 02:12 PM June 27, 2007 from web
just got callburner working properly! thank darwin. that’ll cut 10 minutes off my post-production time per show! 02:10 PM June 27, 2007 from web
back at the office. Father Bob was in a shitty mood. 01:55 PM June 27, 2007 from im
about to catch up with australia’s oldest podcaster, father bob maguire 12:26 PM June 27, 2007 from mobile web
heading out to meetings for the next few hours 10:57 AM June 27, 2007 from im
listening to Hilltop Hoods “The Calling” 10:22 AM June 27, 2007 from im
@delic8genius – lets hug it out bitch 10:14 AM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to delic8genius
@cait – school holidays! 10:01 AM June 27, 2007 from im in reply to cait
You’ve all heard me talk on G’Day World and The Productivity Show about how much freakin’ email I get and how it is a MAJOR blow to my productivity (and let’s not even START talking about Facebook…). Well it’s good to know I’m not the only one.
I sent an email to Sean Bonner at Metrobloggingtoday and rofl’d when I got an auto-response pointing me to this page on this blog. I need one of those. I’ve had auto-responses saying “too much email” before and they took away the feeling that I was letting people down by not getting back to them in a reasonable amount of time.
He has another great post on the subject here. I think he’s completely correct. Let’s break our addiction to foreign oil (or, actually, ALL oil) and to email.
Sigh. Okay. I’m getting back on Twitter to see if it helps me get off email. Somehow I think it’s akin to using crack to get off coke but we’ll see….
How do you approach an interview with a man who has just been voted the world’s leading intellectual and who you have admired from a distance for a large part of your life?
Well, I decided to aim for an audio Chomsky primer. A Chomsky distiller. Rather than allow myself to ask him questions about current events, which will become dated and obscured by the mists of time a decade from now, I attempted to capture the over-arching themes of his political activism of the last 50 years and to explore the personal motivation behind his activism. I completely avoided his work in linguistics, which would have been completely over my head.
Of course – I failed. I’m not that good an interviewer and I didn’t have enough of his time to even begin to put 50 years of social activism into context. But you shoot for the stars, right?
So who is Noam Chomsky?
Here’s a mini-bio courtesy of Wikipedia:
Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph.D (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, often considered the most significant contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics of the 20th century. He also helped spark the cognitive revolution in psychology through his review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, which challenged the behaviorist approach to the study of mind and language dominant in the 1950s. His naturalistic approach to the study of language has also impacted the philosophy of language and mind (see Harman, Fodor). He is also credited with the establishment of the so-called Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power. Chomsky is also widely known for his political activism, and for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States and other governments. Chomsky describes himself as a libertarian socialist, a sympathizer of anarcho-syndicalism.
According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, between 1980 and 1992 Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any living scholar, and the eighth most cited source overall.
Bono of U2 called Chomsky a “rebel without a pause, the Elvis of academia.” Rage Against The Machine took copies of his books on tour with the band. Pearl Jam ran a small pirate radio on one of their tours, playing Chomsky talks mixed along with their music. R.E.M. asked Chomsky to go on tour with them and open their concerts with a lecture (he declined).
However, he is also one of the most reviled people in America. Google Chomsky and you will find plenty of articles and sites dedicated to besmirching his reputation. He’s called the “Ayatollah of Anti-American Hate” and “the most treacherous intellect in America”. Wikipedia has a whole section devoted to criticisms of his work and of him as an individual. The far right hate him for questioning American foreign policy and for suggesting that American imperialism is alive and well. The far left despise him for not being left enough. The mainstream media ignore him for reasons best understood by themselves (you wouldn’t want to get in the way of people watching Reality TV, right?). The intellectuals hate him for questioning their silence.
Outside of America he is considered one of the few voices who have had the bravery and stamina to publicly question his country’s behaviour, day after day, year after year, for 50 years.
Whether you agree with his positions or not, this is a man who has devoted a large part of his life to truth and justice and is considered by many to be the world’s leading thinker.
The G’Day World Theme Song is Save Me by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.