A couple of weeks ago, Chris Anderson (from TED fame) made a great speech in Paris about the Web, its dangers and its promises. Chris described the Web as a "giant brain", which had a "global IQ". The video is now available to the public.
In his conclusion – while showing a picture of kids in Pakistan (where Chris was raised), kids getting little access to education – Chris explained that the mobile Web could give access to the knowledge and education in ten years from today.
Chris' final sentence was:
If you are working on something who's going to boost global IQ, I salute you, because what you're doing is a gift of love to these children and to all of us.
This sentence did resonate a lot for me. While we, at Mozilla, do not solve World hunger not cure cancer, we're part of this wonderful thing we call the Web, and we are actually "boosting the global IQ", by enabling people to participate the way they can, where they are. We're helping people use the Web, but also build the Web. In this regard, I think we, at Mozilla, do boost the global IQ, even if it's at a tiny level. We should be proud of this.
7 réactions
1 De Sly - 23/12/2008, 16:53
> World hanger
Do you mean world hunger ?
2 De Ishido - 23/12/2008, 18:16
Traduction maladroite, par moi-même.
-Il y a deux semaines, Chris Anderson (??) a fait un grand discours a Paris sur le web , ses dangers/écueils et ses promesses. Il a décrit le web comme un "grand cerveau" ayant un "QI mondial". La vidéo est maintenant disponible pour le public.
Dans sa conclusion, alors qu'apparaissait une image d'enfants du Pakistan (ou il a été élevé) ayant accès a l'éducation, il a expliqué que d'ici la prochaine décade, le web mobile pourrait donner accès a la connaissance et à l'éducation.
Sa dernière phrase:
"Si vous travaillez sur quelque chose qui peut augmenter le QI mondial, je vous salue, car votre travail est un cadeau/don merveilleux pour eux et pour nous tous."
Cette phrase a eu beaucoup d'impact sur moi. Tandis que nous, a Mozilla, ne nous occupons pas de la faim dans le monde ni du cancer, nous faisons parti de cette chose merveilleuse que nous appelons le "web" et (en fait) nous "augmentons ce QI mondial" en permettant aux gens de participer où qu'ils se trouvent, quelles que soient leur capacités. Nous aidons les gens a utiliser le web mais aussi à le _construire_. Dans cette perspective, je crois que nous, à Mozilla augmentons le QI global, a notre petit niveau.
Nous devrions en être fiers.
3 De quodlibetor - 24/12/2008, 00:04
"tiny level" my butt. mozilla is huge.
4 De al - 31/12/2008, 11:08
Errr......
Internet is an invaluable source of information and sharing, but is not the solution to every educational problem. Wouldn't it be more efficient, long-term wise, to push/help the government of Pakistan (and lots of other countries) to improve their educational systems ? For instance, hire more teachers, provide them with safe/secure schools buildings, elaborate some transport system to help children from remote villages going to school...
A caring and competent teacher is far more important to a child than an internet access. As for Pakistan, peace and security are a must, also.
5 De al - 31/12/2008, 11:43
As a complement, you might be interested in the following :
http://www.ime.usp.br/~vwsetzer/OLP...
An article by Valdemar Setzer, teacher (of database systems) at the university of Sao Paulo, describing the state of the brasilian educational system... The article was written in answer to the OLPC project, but can be interesting here.
(As a side note, I haven't watched the video yet. Will do soon, however)
6 De Tristan - 31/12/2008, 11:59
@Al: I think one should put Chris Anderson's quote in context. Chris is producing TEDTalks, which are short videos of smart and interesting people. It's educational content. But educational content is nothing without the infrastructure needed to deliver it. This includes classrooms, of course, but also passionate teachers (we know how boring teachers can do a disservice to what they teach and to their pupils).
What's cool with TEDTalks is that super smart and very excited people come into the room thanks to the Internet (there is the language barrier, which is not to be ignored, though).
7 De Al - 31/12/2008, 14:39
Just watched the video... Quite a charismatic speaker ! His speak is a great food for thoughts. Even if I find his notions of "global brain" and "global IQ" a bit too vague to be useful (but maybe he wrote/spoke about it in a more thorough manner elsewhere ?), he is really to the point (and a dynamic man... I've had great teachers, still I wish the others were like him
Although he is very clear about his fears about misuses/defects of the web (fears that I share), he manages to be more than optimistic in the future... Maybe a bit more than I am.
So my first post was a bit off-topic (though I guess Chirs Anderson would agree that a good education needs a good teacher physically present near the child/student, and not *only* through internet). Next time, I will click on the links and get more context before I comment a two-line quote...