I ended up with an unexpected quite night. Gabe is at a school thingy and Diane is at the laundromat.. We’re still having to was our clothes there until the new septic system goes in .. We have our first meeting with our friend the excavator tomorrow.. so we’re getting closer to being able to do laundry at home again !
   Anyway.. I had the house and time to myself.. My mind is still so empty that nothing jumped in to fill the time. I decided to look at a few of the lectures on TED (http://TED.Com ) Ted stands for technology, entertainment and design. It’s a set of wonderful lectures on any topic imaginable. They’re all about 15 minutes.. and they’re all free. There are some great pieces in there on science, inventions, human behavior, future ideas.. really.. something for everyone. I’ve watched these things on and off over the past year.. but I rarely make the time to go and check out what’s new. Yesterday my buddy Sue turned me on to a talk she’d seen by Seth Godin  on the concept of ‘tribes’   Godin is  a blogger and the founder of yoyodyne.. a marketing firm (named after a fictitious company in two of my favorite books by thomas pynchon) 

Anyway..  Godin explains the evolutions of the leadership model he calls ‘tribes;. His point is that ideas spread very differently now than they did even 5 years ago. The internet has give us such a capacity to share ideas and gather around them.. that anyone can lead.. from any position.. as long as he/she can speak to folks who are already of like mind. It’s a simple idea.. but one that I think about often now..

I was really thinking of this when I did my ISSCC talk in early feb. I realized that despite the work I’d put in.. I wasn’t telling folks much that they already didn’t know.. what appealed to many folks about the talk is that it reinforced to them what they

already knew or at least suspected… and i was on a topic that many of them were already passionate about..   I was starting to build a tribe around the idea of connecting green jobs and engineering careers.  to helping address some of the worlds most pressing problems. . It wasn’t that I was the only one saying that.. it’s just that  got the pulpit form which to speak to a bunch of folks who already knew what I was about to say.. and wanted to hear me (or anyone) say it..

So.. I think now, more than ever, we need to build that tribe.  how do we do that ? Not sure.. but on a related topic.. i just heard that Obama’s green job czar, Van Jones is going to be in Burlington next week to speak.. He’s got a major tribe going on the idea of putting jobless folks to work doing gree energy projects like insulating houses, etc.. I want to talk to him about extending this message to one that encourages inner city kids to consider engineering and technology jobs that can help us address energy and environmental issues.

I know that Jones will be speaking at the VT Expo during lunch.. does anyone know where else he’ll be during his stay in VT ?

OK.. I gotta go do some homework… hope everyone is well.. Note folks.. Love you Sam
-me