Thor Muller CTO & Co-founder of Get Satisfaction answers this question with: Yes! Serendipity is not blind luck. It’s a skill-set common to the world’s most admired businesses, and it produces quantifiable results.

Thor will unveil a new framework—the eight elements of planned serendipity—that organizations and individuals can use to make a habit of serendipity at the upcoming Unfinished Business Lecture on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 5:45 PM at OCAD university’s AUDITORIUM, Main floor, 100 McCaul Street.

The event is free but you need to register here.

An interesting line-up of plenary speakers is framing the various sessions and panels of the conference. It includes among others Ann Balsamo from the Annenberg School of Communications, whose work focuses on the relationship between culture and technology; Suzanne de Castell from the Faculty of Education at the Simon Fraser University, whose work spans literacy, technology, gender, educational game theory, research, design and development; Natalie Jeremijenko of New York University, whose award winning work explores the opportunity presented by new technologies for non-violent social change; and Steven Mann, a proliferate inventor from the Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, whose wok includes wearable computing, hydraulophone and the concept of “sousveillance” (“the effects a surveillance device has on others”).

The conference is sold out. However, you can still register for the public opening event titled “Supporting the DIY Citizen: social and legal challenges of online participatory politics and culture”, a dialogue with Henry Jenkins and Corynne McSherry taking place on Thursday, November 11, 5:30PM, Tanz Neuroscience Building, 6 Queen’s Park Crescent, West.

Manara will be presenting a paper on “Sustainability for Critical Thinking & Making Collectives” in the afternoon session of Saturday November 13.

Regardless how familiar you are with Jeremijenko’s work, you are guaranteed to discover something new and fascinating every time she speaks about her research. This well attended Explorations event was no exception and the ensuing discussion was the perfect preamble to xCAMP that immediately followed.

As organizers of xCAMP we were overwhelmed by and grateful for the interest and support extended to us. Participants brought an amazing scope of knowledge and experience to bear on the issues discussed at xCAMP. The agenda consisted of 3 main segments. In the first segment Natalie presented the xCLINIC concept and showed examples of her related activities. Then Carla Gould from the core organizing group presented a storyboard illustrating the “impatient’s” experience. She was followed by Nabil Harfoush, who took participants through xCLINIC’s foundational elements, their strengths and weaknesses, and proposed a framework for xCLINIC 2.0 aiming at establishing a movement around many xCLINICs.

Open Circle

The second segment consisted of an open circle discussion of the proposed concept followed by 5 break-out sessions that handled:

• The Starter Kit
• Creative Engagement
• Collaboration & Communications
• Alliances & Central Resources
• Benchmarks & Impact Measurements

The break-out sessions were facilitated by a wonderful team: Pam Purves, Greg Judelman, Ryan Coleman, Dan Rose, and Magda Wesolkowska, all of whom are colleagues and friends from the Design with Dialogue collective. We are grateful for their assistance and dedication.

The final segment (called Harvest) consisted of a “market place” type of exchange, where participants circulated among the displayed findings of the 5 break-out groups and added their thoughts and comments, a brief presentations by each group, and a general discussion about findings.

xCAMP generated a significant volume of ideas, solutions and activities road map, which were captured in a variety of ways including flip charts, sticky-note collections, photos and video recording.We have started the arduous task of processing all these outcomes and will be reporting on progress regularly.

Our plans call for establishing 5 permanent working groups to continue working on this project. If you are interested in participating send an email to xclinic@manara.ca with a description of your interest areas and degree of availability for participating in any one of these groups.

The premise of Davos is that changing the world requires global cooperation, which in turn needs engaging stakeholders from business, government, the media, science, religion, the arts and civil society.

The rethink component is driven by the work of over 70 Global Agenda Councils involving over 1000 experts that meet on a regional or sectoral basis to advance ideas and solutions to the most critical challenges facing the world.

The redesign components builds upon the ongoing work of the Forum’s Global Redesign Initiative (GRI), an unprecedented multi-stakeholder dialogue with the ambitious goal of adapting structures and systems of international cooperation to meet present and future challenges challenges that the world is facing.

In order to support a continuing dialogue before and after Davos, WEF has been building a Web 2.0 collaboration platform called WELCOME. Our own Rahaf Harfoush is a key member of that initiative. You can follow the Davos events and discussions on WEF’s web site, or on aggregator sites such as the Eqentia WEF portal. You can also follow them on Twitter (@davos or the tag #WEF). You can also watch on YouTube Lee Howell, Managing Director, Head of Programming & Global Agenda Councils discuss the themes of Davos 2010 here.

The hard work of the past two decades was recognized earlier this year when the Intelligent Community Forum in New York named Moncton one of the 2009 Top Seven Intelligent Communities in the world. In fact, the Canadian Province of New Brunswick has been identified by the Intelligent Community Forum as a best practice model. This year, two New Brunswick cities, Moncton and Fredericton, are among the 2009 Top Seven Intelligent Communities.

Now Moncton is host to the First Intelligent Communities Summit, where participants will share best practices and brainstorm on the next steps in leveraging technology for community development. These next steps will be designed to help businesses and communities weather economic storms, prosper and improve quality of life.

Rahaf will be the keynote speaker at the Economic Club of Canada luncheon on October 7th. The presentation will be followed by a book signing event for Rahaf’s book Yes We Did.

The conference is part of the Cycle Fundación Telefónica: “Ten concepts that are changing the future”, which covers a range of topics ranging from economy to education adjustment in adapting to technological change. This initiative complements the  publishing of the collection  Fundación Telefónica including books and studies on topics ranging from technology, to society and strategic foresight.

Questions to the keynote address can be submitted in person as well as through Twitter, and simultaneous translation is provided.

Helix CEO, Cindy Gordon, provided an interesting overview about Canada’s latest ranking in innovation among OECD countries (we ranked 13 out of 17, which is a D!) and some thoughts on how to support a revival of innovation leadership in North America. Then Kathryn Gibson presented a live demo of the newly launched Helix Innovation Center in Second Life (SL) with a brief guided tour to a number of business properties as well as a sophisticated jazz club in that virtual world. Kathryn is the virtual world Ninja at Helix and has designed an impressive space for the Helix Innovation Center. You can read her blog or follow her on Twitter or better by seeking her outstanding avatar in SL.

Kaline Hax Avatar

In the discussion we learned of several technology initiatives underway, most of them at the pilot stage and exploring various social media applications for building communities including virtual world presence. Major Canadian corporations involved included Rogers, a couple of Canadian banks, and investment firms.

Not many people think of virtual worlds when speaking of social media. Judging by the serious investments being made by a number of technology heavy weights (IBM, Intel etc.) it is safe to predict that this space will witness increasing importance and growth in the near future.

Stay tuned for more as we delve deeper into this aspect of social networks.

Yes We Did!

Rahaf’s new book “YES WE DID: An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand” will be released on June 4th . The launch event in the Fleck Atrium of University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, is already sold out. The book is available online from Amazon here.