We are aiming with Mobilized to create a vibrant forum for ideas.  “Big deal”, you might say, there are already places for that.

Well, you’re not wrong.  There was, in the earliest days of the web, a loose and wild forum called The Well.  The great and powerful Google had as it’s mission the goal of “bringing all the knowledge of the world to every person”… before it pivoted to a new goal of just making money off of what it knows about us.  That change was a real pity.  There have been sites such as Wiser Earth, which aimed to be a global directory of people and non-profit organizations so that collaboration could happen on a larger scale than ever before.  It lasted about two years, sadly; not long enough to create a legacy.  Huffington Post had a good run in its’ early days, sharing ideas widely and helping to boost its’ contributors in the public’s mind.

What’s important to know, is that as of this writing, there is not really a widely recognized forum online or in ‘meat-space’.  There are print publications such as YES! magazine, Tikkun, The Sun Magazine, and The Utne Reader, all of which which reach a population of hundreds thousands.  Great, but their reach could be even more broad, in my humble opinion.  Within social media sites there are plenty of good ‘groups’ but they also don’t reach enough folks outside of their own memberships.

Probably the most popular comparable live events right now are the TED talks, which do serve a valuable purpose.  Sadly, they also tend toward the ‘Gee-Whiz‘ and the ‘Shiny New Buzzword‘ in their contents.  Mobilized really wants to focus on the proven, the existing, and the hidden.  There are already, all over, groups doing wonderful work, but too many of them are laboring in obscurity.

So, how do we do that?  Well to begin with, we’re not trying to be a technology startup.  There is no secret sauce, no fancy algorithm at work here.  Almost all the underlying code behind Mobilized is made with off-the-shelf parts, such as WordPress.  There is zero reason to re-invent the wheel, and frankly the notion that one must do so has tripped up several earlier attempts at building a successful progressive community.  We take the approach of using the tools at hand to build our house.

Secondly, we are going into the future with an eye firmly on the past.  And that leads us to the point of this essay, a look at how America became America.  We can take many lessons from the past.  One of our best ideas as a nation was the Chautauqua movement.   It had it’s heyday from the 1870’s right up until the beginning of World War II.  In part, it helped spawn a Lyceum movement, the Vaudeville traditions in the theater world; and had an effect on the earliest days of the motion-picture industry.  Here’s why it was so popular: the average person, anywhere in the land, could go to a Chautauqua when it came to their town, and engage in spirited discussion with the brightest minds of the day.  It was direct, person-to-person, and offered a mix of local and national ideas and people; presented on a rotating basis.  So ideas could be hashed out and spread rapidly.  And they did.  In no small part due to these two movements, the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age were defeated.  The Great Depression was tackled too, and along the way no less than Susan B. Anthony, Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain became huge fans.  No part of society could, or wanted to, ignore the notion that average people could teach other average people.

Mobilized aims to help bring that back into common understanding.  In the present era, there may well be a place for tents and lecturers setting up in farmer’s fields.  There certainly is a crying need for an educational platform that is accessible to the masses.  And now, there exist enough robust tools for us to re-create the ethos of a Chautauqua on the internet.

We, the people, when it really mattered and the stakes were high, collectively taught ourselves how to better ourselves.  Now, in every corner of the world, the stakes are once again pretty high.  It is time for a new Chautauqua movement, and this one will be truly global.  So step right up, come on inside our virtual tent.  Welcome to the show.

By Harish, Janani

The Vision for Better:
Online education significantly raises the educational attainment levels. Colleges with inadequate infrastructure and insufficient teachers cannot accommodate all those who seek education. Expansion of traditional educational facilities is slow and expensive. Online education using internet and communication technologies offers abundant opportunities to quantitatively and qualitatively expand access to education.

The Challenge
The challenge is great; people will want to realize that our existing problems are mostly the consequences of failed education and business models.

The Benefits
The benefits are tremendous. We would have a healthier world, less violence, we would understand the election process and therefore elect real leaders with real wisdom in solving problems while leading us forward, we would have a more sustainable world in balance with the natural world.

How
In looking to a new global paradigm to address global challenges, education should occupy a central place. It is a critical determinant of the employability and productivity of the workforce. It is an insurance against poverty. Unemployment rates worldwide are lowest for those with tertiary education. The highest rates of unemployment are recorded by those without a high school diploma. Education is the best known safeguard against extremism. Education is a principle factor determining the functioning of democratic forms of governance. Higher levels of public education are essential for addressing ecological and social issues and overcoming the frictions of globalization and cultural differences. It is the first vaccine against diseases.

A huge gap exists between the educational potential and existing levels of education in both developed and developing nations. In developed nations it is largely a qualitative gap between the education that is offered and what is required to equip student for the future, as witnessed by rising levels of unemployment. There needs to be a radical shift from preparing students to seek salaried jobs in major corporations to preparing them to create their own jobs through self-employment and entrepreneurship.

In developing countries the quantitative levels of education are far below levels in the West. Faculty positions remain vacant. There are not enough colleges and classrooms to accommodate all those who seek education. The cost of education is increasing. Those with special needs are left out of mainstream education. Education is affected in conflict areas.

A closer look at the Indian college scenario shows that more than half the permanent faculty positions are vacant. The current tertiary enrollment rate is 19%. In order to raise this to 95%, 95 million new students will have to be enrolled in college. 132,000 new colleges will need to be built to accommodate these new students, and 4.1 million new lecturers will need to be appointed to teach them. In 65 years of independence, India today has reached a position where it has 33,000 colleges and .82 million lecturers. The time, cost , effort and resources required to multiply these educational resources by 4-5 times in an immense challenge.

Such a situation exists not only in India but in many places in the world. If all those of college going age need to be enrolled in some form of tertiary education, then China will have to send 85 million youngsters to college, Pakistan will have to accommodate 17 million new students. The world over, more than 366 million youngsters need to be enrolled in college.

It is hard to imagine expanding the traditional college classroom to provide education for all these millions. A solution to this challenge is a virtual university. Imagine the best lecturers in each subject teaching over the internet, providing education to all those who seek it all over the world. Their lecturers could be recorded and made available on the internet. This would be democratization of education. Studies confirm that the quality of on-line education can equal or exceed that of traditional classroom learning.

The advantage of the internet is that multimedia technology makes so much more available than just videotaped lecturers. There exists a varied mix of media beyond the reach of most colleges – e books, video and audio lecturers, animations, movies. Imagine learning geography through a virtual visit to the place being studied, history through documentaries and dramatic presentations of historical events, great works of literature through the performances of famous actors, science through films of actual experiments and conversations with famous scientists. Study materials could be readily translated into all languages.

While expansion of traditional educational facilities is very slow and expense, online education can be rapidly expanded to raise the average level of education. A virtual class of 30 students can expanded to teach 300 students, even 300,000 students. Internet does not have many of the constraints that a brick and mortar classroom faces.

Syllabus updation can be done constantly. In many colleges, this is done at best once a few years. There are instances where students study technology has become outdated and is no longer in use. Virtual classrooms can revise the syllabus to keep up with the latest advances in each field, without having to reprint tens of thousands of textbooks. On line education can be paced to adapt to the speed and capacity of each individual student, so above average learners can proceed much more quickly and others can take more time.

Some colleges in the developed countries have educational resources for those with physical challenges and special needs. These could be made available to all such students, in places where such resources are not even conceived of yet. On line education lends itself to be customized and specialized to meet the varied interests and needs of students, far more than is possible in the bulk educational delivery system now prevalent for higher education. In a world where the cost of education is rising rapidly beyond the reach of many students even in Western countries, online learning represents a way to deliver education at a fraction of the cost of traditional classroom education.

These advantages provide compelling justification for major efforts to expand on-line education in both developed and developing countries. This is already happening. Over the past three years, on line higher education in the USA has finally taken off. Cite some data for USA and even for India if you have time to find any.

Online education has been around for years, but most of what colleges offer are an extension of what they offer in their classrooms. It is a bottom up approach to expand the reach of their existing facilities. There have been a lot of new initiatives, especially in the form of MOOCs now. This is still an evolving field, but it clearly holds great potential. What the world really needs is a global system designed from the beginning with the future needs of all humanity in mind and tailored to deliver world class education to as many students who seek it wherever they are in the world. We may refer to it as a World Virtual University.

While much of the instruction could be delivered on line, proven techniques are available which combine instruction with online seminars and discussions, networking between students, student counseling and job placement, project work and even personal assistance by guides either on line or through personal meetings in the students’ locale.

Education is directly or indirectly related to all the global challenges we face today. It is required to remove unemployment, poverty, extremism, child labor. It helps control population explosion, check the spread of diseases , safeguard the environment and so much more. Education holds the key to solving these problems. And in the future of education, online education holds a central place.

Creation of a World-class Global Virtual University open and affordable is one of the most potent and effective means for preparing youth for the future that is coming.
Source: WUNICON

Hello again.  I’m far behind on my book reviews, and yet everybody is sitting home presently due to this Virus problem.  Since my goal is to provide on Mobilized a full course curriculum on how to “save” the world**, I need to get faster in offering up information.  As a compromise between creating a full syllabus (and detailed reviews), and the present urgency,  please accept these tiny blurbs about some very powerful and relevant books.  As well, even though the libraries are closed, and even though we should all be avoiding the evil Amazon Corp. when possible, it’s still possible to get your hands on these easily.  Archive.org has many available to ‘borrow’ for free, and Alibris offers cheap used books (and supplies them to you via Mom and Pop bookstores, keeping your money in good hands).  

The first step in overcoming this crisis is understanding that we WILL get through this crisis. Beyond that, we can use this time to begin laying the foundation for a society that is more fair for the whole of humanity.

The following list is in fact read to be meant in the order in which they are listed.  Since I do not have detailed notes ready, please contact me directly with any questions.

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches; by Marvin Harris (Vintage).  Before learning about what to do, and how to do it, spend some time UN-learning some of the myths that you have been taught already.  Many are harmless, but this Social Anthropologist walks you through a bunch of ‘sacred cows’ and demolishes their status.  Even better, but far more dense, is his follow-up Cannibals and Kings.

Grunch of Giants, by Bucky Fuller (Critical Path Publishing).  When I talk of mythology, I mean it.  We are every day swimming in a sea of lies, most of them taught to us since the day we were born.  Almost all of them are well-intentioned, but are harmful none the less.  Some are meant to harm us.  But don’t take my word for it, let the genius scientist / architect / sailor explain it for you.  He laid out his philosophy in more than 20 books, this is the shortest and most accessible to read.

Even better, if you would rather an audio book, get yourself Only Integrity is Going to Count, by Bucky Fuller (Critical Path Publishing).  It is a series of long interviews with Bucky made a year before he passed away.  It is, in one concise spot, his entire life philosophy, in his own words.   One of my favorite bits of wisdom: his take on Sunsets and Sunrises, versus the actual reality in which the Earth is turning away (or towards) the Sun.  Relative to this planet, we know the Sun isn’t moving at all.  Yet we pretend otherwise for reasons that don’t actually help us, beyond some poetic notions.  He explains it all very well, and then goes on to make our new  understanding of this basic physics concept EVEN MORE POETIC than our current notions of watching a good sunset.  It’s just brilliant, and he lays it out in about 3 minutes flat.  This CD series is packed with insights like that.

All I need to know I learned from watching Star Trek, by Dave Marinaccio (Crown).  Before you step out to change the world, it will help immensely if you have full confidence in yourself.  This book might have a silly title, but it sure will help you to see yourself in a new way.

What do you care what other people think, by Richard Feynman (Norton).  Ditto.

The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken (Harper Business).  A grand-daddy of all the books on the Green and Sustainable Business movement.  Still timely almost 30 years later.  In 1993 he was a prophet; in 2020 we see his effects in every part of our society and economy.  If you are wondering how Solar caught on, and makes more money than the Oil industry nowadays, clues can be found here.  If you’re wondering how the current talk of a ‘Green New Deal’ got started, clues can be found here.  There are many books on the Green movement.  Start with the best of them.

The Green Collar Economy, by Van Jones (Harper One).  Speaking of Green economies, here is a far more recent book, written by that guy who you see on CNN every night.  He’s not just a talking head.  His ideas could very well save our GDP by rebuilding the nation in a better way; once this Pandemic lifts.  Millions of homes, retrofitted for clean energy and better efficiency.  Millions of jobs, real jobs, created for the long term.  This fellow has the plan all ready to go, immediately.  Read his book, then work to get him off the sidelines and back in the game.

Providence, by Daniel Quinn (Bantam).  The late Daniel Quinn was a quiet philosopher, not very famous, but immensely influential.  His effect was like the Velvet Underground’s on  popular music – they never caught on as the Rolling Stones had done, but everyone who ever heard their stuff went out and immediately formed their own bands.  Quinn’s novels and sociology books changed many people right down to their cores.  And, almost every one is still in print, not least his most famous novel Ishmael which was re-published in 2018.  Providence is nominally his autobiography, but he couldn’t help himself – it’s really a philosophy book and a handbook for life.  With the challenges we face ahead, this kind of learning will be utterly essential.

Ok – nine books, ten of you count loosely.  That’s easily a full Semester’s reading for most folk.  You can do this, and I promise you, you will be awfully glad that you did.  More reviews soon.

** It is worth noting that the world does not actually need to be ‘saved’.  Our societies need to rebuild themselves, into a more fair model for all.  If we don’t; we’ll make ourselves extinct in less than a century.  But the planet itself will rebound in good time, no matter if we are here or not.  So, if you want to Save The World, then please do be clear on just which parts you are trying to change.  It will save you time and increase your effectiveness.