The Reboot conference in Copenhagen last week was a redefining experience for me. Even at the superficial level, the conference was hypnotically involving: the city is beautiful, the citizens helpful and attractive, and the conference setting was great. At a somewhat deeper level, the conference attendees and presentations were top-notch, as I detailed in that earlier post. But, although in general I think myself to be immune from such legerdemain, the premise that we, the attendees, had all come to Reboot to reboot ourselves, to gain some new sense of direction and purpose… well, it actually worked on me.
The theme of the conference was renaissance, both personal and cultural. So, I spent some of the time in Copenhagen, out in the variable sunshine at the Kettelhalle, the conference venue, reflecting on both aspects of the theme. And I have arrived at a small epiphany of sorts, regarding what it is that I am up to.
I had confirmation of my greater goals, when Hugh MacLeod was writing up some of his thoughts on the conference. Along with discussion of his time at the conference, he mentions that he had the chance to spend some time with me, and he writes “The guy wants to change the world!”
Well, I do. I confess.
In particular, I am rededicating myself to the advancement of Web culture and taking what we are learning there about the future of human interaction, and seeking to find ways to inject that into the greater world culture. This is the largest and greatest application of the principle behind /Message: the edge changing the center.
And we, those of us out here at the edge of Web culture, have a moral and social obligation to make sure that the opponents of that future don’t derail it, don’t sidetrack it, and don’t subvert it. This reaches into all sectors of life: economics, business, politics, education, religion, art, and all the other slices of human experience. A battle on all fronts, at all points.
Our first duty is to explore the dynamics of the Web to gain a better understanding of what it might all mean, and to help others do so, too. That reaches into my everyday job of looking at new technologies, new companies, and new approaches to innovation, trying to see where it all is headed, on a microcosmic and macrocosmic level. But I believe that I need to touch upon the big picture issues more than I have been in the past, especially examining the core principles of Web culture, and the tactics of its enemies.
As one aspect of this personal renaissance, I am hoping to spend more time outside the United States. I need to be in direct contact with more members of this global cultural phenomenon. I have recently spent some time in Canada, and although Americans may discount the foreignness of our close neighbor to the north, and while some of the differences are subtle, don’t be fooled: it is a profoundly different place. And of course, I just spent a week in Europe, in Hamburg and Copenhagen, and that was really mind-expanding.
At the close of the conference, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal was leading the conference in a closing exercise, asking us what we would be doing differently in the next year because of Reboot. As he walked the floor, the answers were all over the place: “To spend more time with my son”, “Learn Rails”, “Start the company I have been thinking about for years”, and so on. When my time came, I blurted, “To spend more time in Europe.” Yes, I am hoping to do that, as well as to make a trip to Asia, to find out what is happening there.
But perhaps more than the specifics, I reflected on the flight home and considered personal renaissance. Perhaps “renaissance” is a bit strong, since it suggests the entire European continent moving out of the Dark Ages. But, at the least, Reboot has tricked me into looking back at the thoughts that led me, so many years ago, to start type, type, typing about social technologies and their impacts on us, individually and collectively.
I left Reboot with a handful of email addresses, a half dozen blurry images from restaurants and train stations, and a few dozen new friends. And something more, something that has lodged beneath the skin, deeper than a glance at the program or even a thorough reading of the wiki would ever reveal.
So, I will stay at the edge, doing much the same things day-to-day: talking with start-ups, reviewing new tools, and thinking about their impact on how we do what we do. But, more and more, you will hear me talking about how this all means we can do new things, and that old ways and means can be put aside: that we can make changes for the better, and entice the world along with us, to where this is all headed.
Gandhi said “You have to be the change you want in the world,” and Reboot has brought me back to that simple defining insight. The secret to purpose in life (or happiness, or enlightenment, or meaning) is that there is no secret: its right here, in front of you, right now. And Reboot, for me at least, was in fact that kind of shining mirror, where I relearned that the key to finding my way in the world is to find myself, to rediscover what drives me to get up every morning and attack the empty white page, and to knit these observations into the skein of others’ thoughts, needs, and aspirations. By working on the small, I am made large. By focusing on here and now, I am working toward what lies beyond.
Don’t be concerned. I have not put aside the old Stowe for some prating, namby-pamby, new age fruitcake. It’s still the same old familiar raving lunatic, following the same ideas, the way I have for years, and especially since January, when I left the past behind and started this new blog. Still, at the same time, it’s great to clean out the carburetor, and to remember that it’s supposed to add up to more than a paycheck and a Technorati rank.
Expect things will be a bit different, even though my style won’t change much. So: new themes, new rants, but mostly the same old, same old.
I haven’t been converted to some new world view, after all: it’s only a Reboot!
