What happens downstream?: Scott Mattoon's blog

Here are just a few of the highlights I've had the privilege to experience at TED in Monterey:

Phil Zimbardo prepared Tedsters to become everyday heros by informing us just how closely we dance with evil.  Evoking Solzhenitsyn, who said "The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every individual," Zimbardo's research reveals how susceptible we all are to falling in with Bad Apples.  But we're able to resist it best when we're not in a Bad Barrel, i.e., the situations and institutions we inhabit must foster cooperation not separatism, empathy not blame.  I.e., the opposite of the conditions in Abu Graib pre-scandal.

Irwin Redlener prepared us for survival in the wake of a nuclear attack by elucidating a few relatively unknown tips:  (1) post blast radioactivity within a mile or so of the blast is lethal on the ground, so get shelter below ground or on the 10th floor or above, (2) know the prevailing wind direction (and ideally the actual wind direction at time of blast) and head perpendicular or away from it,  (3) don't rely on the government or other government preparedness programs to protect yourself.  They're not ready to deal with it, and (4) keep your mouth open so your sinuses don't burst in the aftershock of the blast.

Samantha Power prepared us to recognize heros who embody the knowledge so precious to dealing with today's most difficult challenges by giving tribute to champions like Sérgio Vieira de Mello, and reminding us to seek them when working to avert social atrocities and humanitarian crises.  She put American pride on notice with a reminder that our "Never again" ethos was nowhere to be found during the Rwandan genocide.

A brief "trailer(?)" for Pangea Day debuted to the delight of Tedsters.

And then there were the Prize Winners:

Neil Turok, whose dream is that the next Einstein will be African.  He's building a model for higher science education in Africa with the AIMS school, delivering RICH (Relevant, Innovative, Cost Effective, High quality) education in major African countries.

Dave Eggers, founder of 826 Valencia and merchant to buccaneers.  His model for neighborhood driven afterschool tutoring in the back of a kids emporium is being imitated all over America, and has even sprung up in Dublin.

Karen Armstrong, author and scholar of comparative religions.  Her wish is perhaps the most audacious TED wish to date, which is has something to do with getting Jews, Muslims, and Christians together on matters of universal justice and respect, but I'm a little vague on the details.  I thinks she wants some help with that part. 

Anyway, Karen and the rest made a believer out of me.

Sitting in the Is Beauty Truth? session at TED2008 today, I am reminded of a phone conference with TED Curator Chris Anderson last fall to bring him up to date on the status of one of the previous year's TED wishes.

When Sun wrapped up its formal role in developing the Open Architecture Network (OAN) it handed over a sustaining challenge to the site's owner and community leader, Architecture for Humanity (AFH).   When TED Curator Chris Anderson asked Sun why the TED Prize winner was left in a lurch I gave a short answer, "It was primarily due to reasons of expediency".  In actual fact, Sun never walked away from AFH.  Sun was, and continues to be, committed to their success and continues to be involved.  As of today, we now we see a clear path to a sustaining model that leverages the Drupal community and frees AFH from the dependence cycle it was caught in with Sun.  I look forward to bringing that good news to Chris before the conference wraps up on Saturday.

The first step on this path is to refactor the site such that it runs on an unadulterated Drupal core.  To do that AFH and Sun have contracted with CivicActions to migrate the OAN from a hacked Drupal 4.7 to a clean Drupal 5.X.  (It was the hacking aspect that I explained away to Chris Anderson as "expediency".  Corners were cut, compromises were made, but AFH's and TED's primary goal, to launch the site at TED2007, was achieved.  Incidentally, of the three TED2006 prize winner, only AFH's wish was realized by TED2007.)  CivicActions won the bid to perform the migration by doing a professional and efficient assessment of the OAN's current state and the effort required to bring it up to the high standards of a showcase Drupal site.

My next few posts will describe the process of setting up this development environment as we open Chapter 2 in the OAN's odyssey.  I'll describe how we use OpenSolaris to enable efficient development, testing, and deployment for multiple contributors working on multiple tasks and timelines.

For more on why OpenSolaris was chosen as the development and deployment platform for the OAN, see this article on the Sun Developer Network, and this brief interview.