LAB on MEDIA and Human Experience, May 2007

Club of Amsterdam

An immersed experience of a Do-Tank

pdf version

Moderated by Humberto Schwab, Director, Club of Amsterdam, Innovation Philosopher

With the Thought Leaders

Laurence Desarzens, urban communicator, beatmap.com
Paul F.M.J. Verschure, ICREA research professor, Technology Department, University Pompeu Fabra
Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Director, Yahoo! Research
Rudy de Waele, Founder, M-trends.org

LAB on MEDIA and Human Experience

Old and new media are designing our world externally and internally. It is an immense challenge to draw the new role and position of digital and cross media in our economies and societies. Can the media consumer & producer be more active in designing their own worlds? Can we innovate creative cultures with and in media landscapes? Can we on a global scale foresee business opportunities that synergize with sustainable goals of the coming generations?

Not only media players are important in this dialog, we need all stakeholders to redefine and design the concrete impact of media on society. What can be the positive power of media in our world shifting towards a real transparent focus on needs of citizens? Let’s start design.

Moderated by Humberto Schwab, Director, Club of Amsterdam, Innovation Philosopher

and the Thought Leaders
Laurence Desarzens, urban communicator, beatmap.com
Media & communication specialist for lifestyle companies
… Youth tribes fluidly use all means of new technologies to surf what can be of their very specific interests NOW. They double-check validity, relevance and credibility with their friends faster than the speed of light. They copy, they fake, because the tools are theirs to do so, and why not. They use what is the most convenient for them to communicate … internet, gsm, whatever.

You will see website about specific cultures interests: skate, sneaker culture, music, who can bloom in a very short time. You see trends come, go and come back, and mutate. If you take people in hip hop music, you have young producers doing beats, exchanging and working cross borders. Influenced by anything. So they use all these tools whatever they are … AIM, Skype you name it. …

Paul F.M.J. Verschure, ICREA research professor, Technology Department, University Pompeu Fabra
Psychologist. Specialist for wheeled and flying robots, interactive spaces and avatars.

Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Director, Yahoo! Research
Specialist for content and structure organization of a website and for blogs, vlogs and social networks.
“New forms of media are appearing on a daily basis, and it is next to impossible to track all the new developments in this area. It is however sure that the online presence of users will increase and that the role of media in this perspective is significant. It will allow for direct interactive communication through rich media channels in a fast changing world.”

Rudy de Waele, Founder, M-trends.org
Wireless communication expert
… What is the influence of all this media to our children, society in general? What can be done to improve this? How can we improve our learning systems using media and technology to make sure our children can rapidly change/adapt to deal with the future changes? Who will control global digital access in the future? What about universal access? Multilingualism? Mobile learning systems? Media conglomerations? Is this really we media or their media? How to organize the overflow of information coming to us? Wikipedia example? Who owns what kind of information and who can manipulate what? ..

The underlying question is:
“What is the meaning of media innovation on the quality of the human experience?” If we talk about human experience we mean the inner- and outer experience. So cognitive technology knowledge, related fields of neuroscience and anthropology are essential in these matters.

We start from the knowledge we have about brain and computer games, television and our psychological state, Internet and communications, identity and images. We use the experience we have with the relation between media and mobility, learning, politics, power etc.

Given the ubiquity of media, the change to read and write media, the nano-technology revolution and the open source movement: we have to determine the burning questions. With different brainstorm tools we will innovate all these concepts so we can integrate these new hybrids and innovations in strong human oriented meanings and human values.

Using the following tools:

Value and appreciative inquiry
To establish the basic personal values, those are tangible in this matter? To discover and share our best experiences in deconstructing this theme.

Socratic discourse
To establish the basic questions and analysis: Is the way we have put this theme till now the right one?

Brainstorm methods
Work on new concepts, frameworks and hybrid approaches. With Future Scenario methods and other reflective tools.

Who should attend
Anyone with qualified experience and knowledge in fields related to media like IT industry, learning, gaming, mobiles, film and video, old media who is a creative explorer interested in new frontiers..

Why
All participants have specialized knowledge. There is a need for cross over discourses on fundamental levels about basic human values perspectives.

Benefits
You get strong practical based knowledge back on the avant-garde of media and human experience. You get a frame of discourse to communicate this exciting matter with other branch experts.