This is the closing presentation of Frederick Turner at the Good Ancestors Principle Workshop in San Diego, Feb 4-5, 2007

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwwFQwOVu6M

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Fred is Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas and an Uplift Academy Fellow.

The workshop will be a small, conversational group of people with both a deep personal and professional interest in the complexities humanity faces in working through the decisions of the next few generations. While recognizing the importance of a diversity of opinions and belief systems, the workshop will focus on how science can inform this topic.

The workshop will explore some of the potential of new media for "narrowcasting" patterns of uplift. We will be using Savings-Led Microfinance, or NanaFinance, as an prototype pattern, as discussed by Marcia Odell of PACT and Jeffrey Ashe of Oxfam America. As this form of microfinance requires no external capital (women save their own money), the activity has the potential for rapid spread through electronic communication.

The workshop will explore ways of discoveriing patterns of uplift, and using emerging network technologies to amplify and replicate these patterns. We will be blending both a theoretical discussion of the roles of networks and their effects, with practical "on the ground" application of these ideas. The workshop is supported in part by a grant from the Omidyar Network for the NanoFinance Project proposal.

Our workshop April 27-28, 2006 in Paris will ask, "How can 6 billion people help each other to help themselves?" This question frames things from the perspective of massive abundance - a potential 6 billion people helping each other - in contrast to traditional approaches which begin with the notion that we have "too many problems and not enough money." We will be looking at what is happening "on the ground" in some of the poorest areas of the world, as well as what is happening in our network technologies and capabilities to connect people and ideas in new ways.

The question asked at this workshop is, "What would a network of uplift look like?" We will be pulling together a mixture of folks who know modern network technology, with others who understand the the worlds of philanthropy, humanitarian assistance, and micro finance. We will also be looking at notions of scale, imagining what we might do with massive communication of scalable small things for making the world a better place. We are using the word "uplift" to describe a broad range of activities, not just check-writing to charities.

Leading journalists, media professionals, bloggers and technologists will meet in Washington DC on November 10-11 2004 to help create innovative ways to bring people news that can change their world-views – and the world. This issue has never been more important. This meeting will focus on the intersection of the mainstream media and interactive communications supported by the Internet such as blogging.

This informal presentation will discuss omidyar.net, a newly-forming network created by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar: The goal of the network is: "So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen." Tom Munnecke will present some visions for possible future capabilities of the network, based on his work on the Uplift Academy started as a fellow with the Stanford Digital Vision Program.

How can we attract attention to what's working to make the world a better place through TV, radio, print, and Internet? Workshop participants will have a broad spectrum of media, public relations, advertising, and Internet backgrounds. How can we draw attention to positive, life-affirming stories and activities without hitting people over the head with virtue? Are there ways of using irony, humor, juxtaposition, layering, or editing to draw attention to the positive in such a way that it attracts viewer attention?

The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss and brainstorm innovative ways of using the associative technology of Google for humanitarian uplift. This might include the concept of Elevator Links, which might topically relate web information to uplift organizations.