When in doubt check your e-mail. The time has come to write a new column and with the well of ideas temporarily dry I turn to the batch of electronic mail delivered this week to my computer.
Let’s see… Here’s one giving me highlights from the second session of something called the Aspen Ideas Festival apparently an annual gathering of great minds who come together to think about the world’s problems. Of course if they really wanted to focus laser-like on bettering society they’d have gathered in a Holiday Inn in Piscataway New Jersey rather than high society’s Aspen playground. But me they didn’t ask.
I get a flavor of the Festival from the fact that its second session was opened by “acclaimed pianist Malek Jandali… with an original score written to commemorate the Syrian refugee crisis.” The session continued with Bryan Stevenson founder of the Equal Justice Initiative presenting “four keys to effecting change in disadvantaged communities” the first of which is “Get proximate — you cannot see what will help if standing at a distance.” If however you’re stuck in a place like Aspen America’s most expensive city do the next best thing — write a song and play it for everyone.
But what makes the whole e-mail worthwhile is the news of yet another presentation this one by MIT Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte who is “working to create a telecommunications program at the United Nations that will advocate for connectivity as a human right.” Mr. Negroponte emphasized that the real value of connectivity isn’t economic: “All you need is to have the Wi-Fi go out in your house to understand the impact on quality of life.”
