I should be focusing on a proposal I have to submit today and designing an innovative ethnographic approach to researching latent and future needs and expectations from automotive service, but I find myself distracted and lacking inspiration.  And I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of another kind.  I was in Bangalore on work and met up with a cousin who has young kids in school. We were talking about how they are being taught and how they learn. Although both parents are heavy users of the internet, she said to me she wants to keep her kids away from it for as long as possible because she’s rather have them learn, synthesize and remember, than just provide them with the access to gain the knowledge. I’m a firm believer in the ‘magic’ of the web in it’s natural ability in providing us new avenues to learn and serendipitous discovery. And in the power of communities like Twitter that really help us grow as we share and learn together.

 And yet, my cousin’s comment bothered me as I found myself telling a friend just last night that there are several mashups around Twitter.  His immediate question to me was, name 10 – and I found myself at a loss. But in a few seconds I could provide him with a full list from the Twitter Fan Wiki.  I felt a little embarrassed about the fact that I had not bothered to remember even a few!!!  Similarly with a recent statistic on the future of mobile social networking – I knew I had read it but I had not remembered the exact statistic. It took a little Googling to find it.  Searched. Found. Forgot. This bothers me.

 As this happened, I put the question up at Twitter last night: “what’s better – access to knowledge or having the knowledge? i find often i have access & don’t bother to remember stuff. Not good!”

Here are some responses (read bottom-up):

I love the rap on knowledge, synthesis, wisdom and learning! What bothers me most is while the web is hugely useful in helping us in “learning to learn”, how much of this, as Gautam and @weaverluke suggest is being synthesized and allowed to transform into wisdom?

I have a group of 13 clients coming in from the US, Mexico and France, early-Jan, on a Learning Journey .  Naturally, they have concerns after yesterday’s events, with a lot of the western media talking of Al Qaeda and unrest and potential violence in the entire region.  I hope Pakistan stays calm and looks to a better tomorrow, once the grieving is over.

Sharing my perspective, from India … it’s what I sent them:

“Benazir Bhutto’s assassination has been a real shock to us.  It’s really sad because democracy will have to wait again, and Pakistan will take a while to get back on the road to democracy. In India, the response has been one of shock and disappointment that the democratic process which is also seen as a way to get peace in the region, has been set back. India is a strong and resilient country and we don’t expect a backlash here in any way.  This is being seen as purely an internal affair for Pakistan, with no role of India in the assassination. The only alert we have on here today is at the Indo-Pak border  – which is far away from where the group is going. Indian media is strongly suggesting that it was Musharraf’s govt and the Military that did this, based on interviews with Human Rights Groups, Supreme Court Lawyers and other folks from Pakistan, and not really the extremists (although the military in Pakistan is seen as fundamentalist and extremist) or Al Qaida, as the Western media and Mr. Musharraf’s government have been projecting.  In fact, as I write this note, on the morning after the assassination, Indian TV is back to regular programming and we are now running some retrospectives on Ms. Bhutto. It’s off the ‘breaking news’ charts, and there have been absolutely no reports of any tension or violence in India, as a result of this tragic event.

For more news from the region, check these links:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/default.aspx
http://timesnow.tv/

Am laughing so much!  I was just speaking with my little niece and wishing her a happy birthday.  I asked her what she would like as a gift – and she asked for a lot of lollipops and candy and gum  – stuff I had bought her when I was in the US in August.  You don’t really get such colourful and varied candy here!  So I told her, I’d have to go to America for that – her response to me – ask America to send it home!  Hehe .. we are so spoilt in India, getting everything delivered to our doorstep.

What can India send home to you ?

Fun for today! Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? I could only see her turning right (clockwise), much as I stared hard and tried to reverse it. So I’m right-brained. Hmmm. Better get the logic and reasoning going! More tests here. [link via Bala's Gtalk Update]

Was welcomed by a lovely young girl from the organizers (I couldn’t quite get her name) and by Pascale Duvignau the pretty petite lady in the picture, from the Rallye des Gazelles on my arrival in Paris. Pascale drove Rena Golden, head of CNN International and me to Deauville, and although I nodded off during the two hours, and I speak no French and understand un petit peu, I learned that she’s quite the feminist, and is also working with women who are facing domestic violence – according to her, a lot of them, and many just keep silent from shame about it. No different in the Western world as in ours!

Had a good conversation with Rena too, about CNN’s online efforts, about their tie-up with Joost, and some of her plans to bring in more user-generated content into their web efforts. In an interview with indiantelevision earlier this year, she shares more on their plans. Met some of her colleagues when we got to the hotel, and they were talking of strategies for YouTube and mobile interventions too. It was nice talking to a bunch of journalists who seemed to acknowledge new media, and the need to go where the readers/viewers are. I shared with them some of what we are doing at Mosoci too.

They also told me that they had a booth at the Womens-Forum, where you could get the handbook and updates on the forum and CNN news, weather etc. via bluetooth on your mobile phone.

Reached Deauville and we realised our hotel wasn’t the Royal Barriere but Normandy Barriere – which is much nicer really. Its quite a plush hotel, and I feel really spoiled here – champagne and chocolate treats to welcome me, and today when I got back to the room, I got hampers of pink champagne and Helena Rubinstein products – sent to the womens-forum delegates! This is a big mainstream sort of conference – haven’t attended one of those for ages

Deauville is a lovely town, quite touristy and full of expensive boutiques – am told its the Parisians weekend getaway – it is nice to stand by the sea during our breaks although you wouldn’t dream of going for a swim in it.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within.”

A reminder to reflect more on ‘Who I Am’ rather than on ‘What I Do’. What I do brings me success and recognition, both hugely motivating, but is it significant to who I am? Doing often makes me wear masks, which put me in my comfort zone – being rarely does.

Who I am is often defined by others, who I am is how others see me. What I do is what people see and how they put it all together is to them who I am. But to be…. just be… is just being true to yourself.

We often do what we think is expected because of who we think we are. Which is again perhaps in line with Cooley’s Looking – Glass Self phenomenon which suggests that “a person views himself or herself through others’ perceptions in society and in turn gains identity. Identity, or self, is the result of the concept in which we learn to see ourselves as others do (Yeung, et al. 2003)”

And when we let ourselves ‘be’, it really can be so easy and is fun too. I want to learn to feel this difference and not just view myself through reflections in others’ mirrors. Really listen, understand the balance between the two, and learn to navigate the streams that let us flow from one to the other.

[Image sent to me last year by a friend - its titled 'Thought']

[Afterthought - I think I need a holiday :):)]