heathervescent

Structured Writing

The phases in writing a story, pulling from reality, but molding it to the demand of readers. There is so much raw material, possibilities in the beginning. The story is a delight in one's mind. But then you start to put it down on paper, and what were broad visuals, strong emotions become a sparse draft outline.

Then to do research. And unleash possibilities. The reality happened to many people, and they experienced it in their own ways, with the diverse experience that humanity has. You, as the writer, start to detail your draft. You set the structure up for maximum audience satisfaction without being formulaic. You blend characters, the conflicts reveal themselves to you. And you start to move on at a clip, filling in the pieces of the draft, writing scenes. And then, damn it, you pull back camera, and it all seems so damn cliche.

Somehow in the crafting, the edgy emotional feeling has gotten left out, or rather, the emotion left feels rather trite and cliched. This will not do! Maybe it's just good enough to use this writing as an excuse for practice, and keep slogging a bit. I think, stories like this might have to sit on the shelf for a bit. It took me two years of the idea rattling around in my head to even get this far.

But then, this morning, exactly when I was thinking of the cliched current state, I open a key text resource (received over the weekend) and open the autobiography to the chapter that covers what my story attempts to cover and three pages in feel revitalized, the conflicts fresh, the ruthlessness, simply, cleanly there on the page. The acknowledgement of devastation and moral outrage triggered. There is a fresh perspective for me to mine here. An unapologetic villain is exactly what I need.

Aeon Flux Bionics

Decades ago, I would channel Aeon Flux. If cosplaying was a thing 20-30 years ago, I would have done it. As it was, Aeon Flux was one of my inspirations, muses, and role models. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a double agent dominatrix assassin? Before the Hollywood film came out, this lil ole blog was the top hit for "Aeon Flux" searches. I was proud of that.

I haven't thought of Aeon Flux in a while. I've gotten older. I indulge my introversion. I've done most everything I set out to do... over and over. I could only barely pull off my Aeon Flux costume 20-30 years ago. I dare not even try now (even though I still have my custom made velvet costume and 6 inch thigh high stiletto heels - and I'm back in the gym and pilates studio.) A few days ago, a friend tagged me on a FB post with Aeon Flux pics and something caught my eye.

Her knee cap braces. 

Now, admittedly that was one thing I couldn't figure out how to fabricate in the late 90s/early 00s, so I left those off. In fact, I had kind of forgotten the accessory. But, in my mind, even though these were clearly external to her body, I somehow thought they were extensions of her actual knees - like an embedded implant or something. Fast forward to today.

Where I now have two bionic knees.

Seeing Aeon's knee cap braces caused a rush of emotion in me. Like, how could I have forgotten that, especially when I was going bionic myself!! It was as if, I have become a part of my role model of 20 years ago.

Out of my comfort zone

I'm squirming in my seat. I turned the sound off for the clips. I'm taking copious notes. I'm completely out of my comfort zone in this Horror film screenwriting workshop. 

Horror is my least favorite genre. It's not a film style I search out and I have a lot of difficulty watching gore films. So why did I sign up for it? Well, it's part of a month long series of workshop on specific storytelling genres and I thought what the hell - I'll take Horror. 

Horror films are not life and death conflicts, they are life and fate worse than death. One of my stories (of the 5 I am currently working on) has the potential to utilize some aspects of the horror genre. How far do I want to do? Just use aspects of horror or go straight down to extreme and make my characters face a fate worse than death? (The real world inspiration story has a bit of horror in it. I imagine the victim, one of whom is still alive and living in Europe, considers her fate a fate worse than death. So I thought, let's just see how this horror genre works and see how far I want to go.)

It's reminded me how fun it is to really get out of your comfort zone. I honestly don't remember the last time I felt out of my comfort zone, because part of my comfort zone is doing/being uncomfortable. But today was beyond that. It was beyond the comfortable uncomfortablenss of my comfort zone. 

Sitting there squirming in my chair, watching clips of movies I would never, ever watch (except for Cronenberg, I love Cronenberg) it dawned on me. I was learning something completely new. What was cool, is that it this new knowledge layers perfectly on top of what I already know. So it's a double whammy of supporting my talents and expertise while also being new skills, knowledge and pushing me outside a zone of comfort. It's been a long time since I felt that. It's very invigorating. 

Total Knee Replacement AMA

In 2023, I had two total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries. I had bone on bone in both my knees since 2017. Cortisone shots turned me into the Incredible Hulk, so angry, with minimal relief. I'm on the younger side for TKR but younger folks get TKRs. The main concern with getting them before 65 is the life of the implant - supposedly they last from 10-15-20 years. So that means I might have to go through another set of surgeries in 20ish years. 

Everyone has their own experience. Our bodies are similar but different. You don't even have the same knees on both sides, my left and right knees were different experiences. (The doc said, there is always an "easier" and "harder" knee - but you don't know which one it is until the second one.) My parents had knee replacements and their experience was different. Even Judi Dench had a knee replacement. It's becoming a totally normal thing.

The First One

My first TKR was really hard. It was my first surgery in 30 years, I had a stressful job (part time ED during difficult economic times), I knew there was going to be pain and recovery, but didn't really look into the details (because I did not want to). Part of what made the first one difficult was not understanding how my body might respond and how to address it. You're told to elevate and ice - and this is critical. But everyone has a different experience. I didn't realize what kind of impact the surgery would have on my calf and ankle until the day after when I saw the swelling and bruising. During my first TKR, my calf and ankle got very swollen and the swelling did not go down for six weeks, despite icing and elevating. I was later told by one of the PAs that the younger you are, the more possible swelling/pain you can have. (I guess you lose pain receptors as you get older.)

To help reduce the swelling the second time around, I elevated my leg for 85% of the day for the first week using a specific pillow to help elevate it. I kept my foot above my head/heart to make sure fluid did not get pooled in my leg and it worked. (TKR #1, I just elevated about 30% of the time.) Voila - very little swelling!

The second TKR was easier, but still not easy. The PT for my first recovery helped prep me for the second one. My legs were stronger so I walked sooner, but still struggled with bending my knee. I found the most bend gain after 6-10 weeks, once my soft tissue was healing. My first TKR barely got 120 degrees at 4 months post op, but 12 months later, I've got a good 130 degrees. I expect the same slow progress on bending the knee for #2. You do really need to give your body time to heal, reduce the swelling and inflammation and gently, consistently stretch.

Tips
(This is what worked for me, check with your doctor before trying these.)

1. Do PT/exercise/Pilates BEFORE surgery. I believe my second knee felt "easier" because that leg was stronger (it was also my less bad knee). I did a lot of pilates, swimming and as much walking as I could tolerate to build the strength in my quad, and the muscles around my knee pre-TKR.
2. Meal prep: Make 6+ weeks of healthy protein rich food. First knee, I hired a chef to batch cook healing food after 2 weeks and realizing recovery was going to take much longer than 2 weeks. For the second knee, I made 4 huge batches of bone broth veggie chicken soup, bone broth carrot soup, bison quinoa meatballs, a couple batches of prepared baked ziti and chicken enchiladas that I froze and could be easily baked. The goal was to have 6+ weeks of food (1 main meal a day) for myself and my husband (since he was taking care of me). This made is easy to have healthy food.
3. Menu: Part of my meal prep, was creating a fancy menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options. I also included things to do when I was bored and when I had pain.
4. TAKE THE PAINKILLERS! First knee I was like, I'll take them when I need them. My nerve block wore off and I had the most gut wrenching nausea inducing deep bone pain that completely reset my pain scale. 
5. Elevate: Just go out and buy the leg elevation pillow, you'll thank you. 
6. Ice: I got the DonJoy Ice Machine (universal XL pad and extended hose) and that worked great. The problem with the  During my second TKR, I hooked the electric plug up to a Apple Home Siri enabled plug, which enabled me to voice start and turn off the machine (after 20-30 minutes). In some cases, I would start the ice machine and then tell Siri to turn off the plug in 20 minutes and not worry about falling asleep.
7. Hot Showers & Hot Pads: While, the doc kept telling me to ice (something I had never done before), he also oked hot showers. I personally love a hot shower, so these really helped me relax. I also practiced bending my knee in the shower on a bench and often this was easier than outside of the shower. A few weeks after the surgery, I started using a heating pad on my thigh and calf to help to relax those muscles.
8. Sensation & eStim: I had a lot of physical sensation, even feeling the fluid go up and down my calf when I used compression socks. At times, the sensation was overwhelming, but it was not pain. I used an eStim TENS machine and that helped. I also had a lot of sensation return as my "nerves" turned back on and when I took a supplement to assist with nerve re-growth. I don't categorize nerve sensation over stimulation as pain per say, and painkillers worked inconsistently on it. The eStim TENS machine and icing did help calm the overstimulation.
9. Physical Therapy is Critical! Get home health PT post-op, and then go to your PT sessions. I appreciated the physical manipulation of my leg and massaging the tight muscles, but you also need to do the exercises at home too.
10. Take the time off. For my second knee surgery, I took off several months. I know it's a luxury to take the time off, but it has enabled me to recover at my own rate, sleep, do PT, and not push things. 
11. Sleep routine: When the pain was bad at the beginning, I took the pain meds and those usually knocked me out. But as the pain waned from OMFG to this F-hurts to not so bad during the day, but at night still waking me up - I came up with a relaxing sleep routing including a hot relaxing shower, calming music (ambient sleep playlist), Tylenol PM, aroma therapy, cozy fun PJs, tea, sleep meditations. Together these helped get through the gap between "all the painkillers" and none of the painkillers.
12. Massage: I'm a huge fan of massage. My calves, hamstrings and quads were so angry post-surgery and it felt like nothing could release them. Then I found a myofascia release massage/PT person and wow - this really helped. You can find one too via this online listing.
13. Hot Springs: I'm a hot springs fan, so as soon as I got the OK to submerge my leg in hot water, I went. The minerals in the hot springs really help my muscles relax, which helps my ability to bend the knee. One of my favorite hot springs is Tecopa Hot Springs, just south of Death Valley, CA. 

OK, that's it for now. Here's a link to my Amazon Shopping list if you want a quick list of what worked for my recover. 

Stay positive. I hope your surgery is uneventful, and you have a smooth recovery. Remember, the pain will fade with time and then you will be able to be more active and do the things you love. Get through the slog! And follow the doc's orders!

Rain/Pain

I'm coming up on 10 weeks post-op, and there is still pain. It is mild, but constant, growing through the day or with activity. My body fatigues, my mind, frustrated at the limit, refuses to find anything worthwhile to do. 

This is an annoying place to be in. I'm still dealing with the pain and recovery, I've made progress, but I'm unable to do even as much as I could before surgery. My default is to be active and do things. I gave myself permission to do nothing and just recover, but this is harder than I expected. 

Because I also feel like I'm revisiting what I want to do with my life. Conscious Life Design. Create the who, I want to be. And that changes. That's the thing with living your dream life. There is an initial striving and the work to "get it" and then there is the living practice and changes that happen once you "have it." 

I think so many people are starting from a place of not being happy with their life, that this initial journey to "find themselves" or "figure out what they want to do" or "achieve some dream" is a very straightforward (although often difficult) task. My book, How to Get Your Heart's Desire is a process I discovered for this. But I've gotten caught up a few times with, what to do after you have achieved what you want. Do you want to just keep achieving things - growth mindset - that is not necessarily sustainable. Is there a gratitude practice where you acknowledge and appreciate everything you have done? But you're not dead yet, so what is there to do?

For me, this is where I have become open to things I previously would not have considered. Like working for other people, when I got tired of entrepreneurship. In all things in life, it's about the people you are around. In a workplace, you don't necessarily have as much control over that. It's where you have to deal with the coin-operated self serving sales person. Or the on the rise career tech person who still believes in the promise of corporate ladder climbing. There's more insulation from those kinds of people when you have a entrepreneurial relationship and of course, the power balance is different.

In other news, the Oriels are back in the desert. Their yellow bodies and black heads flit around the palo verde trees, and they hang off the hummingbird feeders. We've also got a desert woodpecker sipping the sweet nectar along with our pack of hummingbirds. It's nice to have some warmer weather in the Mojave. Spring comes early here. 

The Slog of Recovery

It's week 3 after surgery. Week one was just about getting through it better than surgery #1. Success. Week 2 began and the realization that, yes, this is easier than last time, but that doesn't mean it's easy. At all. And the realization that I'd be living with pain for some time was ... realized.  Week 3, and I'm tired of all the food I cooked, I'm tired of the dull pain, even though it is not as painful as week 1, but not gone, and sure to stay for another couple week. And now, we begin the long slog of physical therapy for the next weeks and months. Slow, steady progress. Ebb and flow of pain, sometimes gone, sometimes back. And the charcuterie board of pain flavors, from stabbing, to lightning to electric storm, to bone deep, to tight band, to fatigue and exhaustion. So that's where I'm at. 

A year of 2s

It's the time of year that I reflect on the previous year, and select my goals for the coming year. This is a ritual I have done every year for almost 2 decades - and I used to share them here on the ole blog. 

Reviewing 2023, it was a year of 2s.

• Ron and I bought a house in Colorado. This was the result of a multiple year search. When we first started talking, we liked the idea of a "second" house someplace other than the dome in California. (I'm still keeping the Dome - never gonna sell this respite.) As much as we/I love the dome, it's just not suited for two professionals who work from home with dogs and people visiting. We looked in Maine, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, California, New Mexico and eventually landed on Colorado and found a perfect place in a Ponderosa forest, 15 minutes from my parents.
• Pebbles and Joey. After Shoogs, we had a year break with no dog, not even a foster! After having 2 older medical rescue dogs (Archibald and Shoogs) I was ready for a break, but I did miss the doggy energy. And we didn't do as much traveling as I would have hoped (maybe due to my knee situation). So in Spring, I started looking for our next dog, another Boston Terrier rescue. My regular rescue had gone offline, and I wasn't finding any boston terriers anywhere! Then out of the blue someone messaged me in instagram and asked if I was interested in her Boston she was rehoming. That's how Pebbles entered our life. She was/is a perfect little sleek, friendly, silly, flirty boston terrier, with massive fireworks/loud noise issues. (That's why she was being rehomed.) We all met, and fell in love and she came home with us just before July 4. 
  Once we had the new house in Colorado, I was like, time for a second one! Since it had taken us so long to find Pebbles, I started looking right away. Colorado has a different Boston Terrier rescue organization that supports something like 5 states. In a week, I found Joey from Iowa, and after the required paperwork, he caught a ride to Colorado and came into our lives. 
• New Knees! For the first time in 30 years, I went under the knife - twice! I was genetically blessed with bad knees. Back in 2017 I learned I was bone on bone in my knees. Medical professionals couldn't understand how - did I have an accident? did I have a sports injury? The answer was no. Just bad genetics in this case. After a lot of back and forth, I finally got approval for knee replacement surgery in November 2022, and had my first one done in January 2023, and my second one in December 2023. Not gonna lie, it was/is the most pain I have ever experienced. But the ability to walk without pain, to hike, to swim, do pilates and pull my luggage around Heathrow Airport is very appealing.

A few other things happened this year, I finished 3 more modules in this Buddhist course, I dealt with a water leak/insurance issue at the dome, and the Colorado house was not without it's issues. And then there was healing from being stabbed in the back, ruining my achievements at IDPro for exceeding our membership goals in terms of #s and $$s. 

I drafted outlines/book proposals for several books and started working on them (before being sidetracked on all these home issues). It's not a bad year, despite a lot of challenges overcome.  

I am looking forward to locking all this pain and drama into 2023, and start 2024 with renewed energy, positivity, creativity, and tenacity. I look forward to calm, relaxing days, at home with the dogs and my beloved Ron. No idea what the future will bring, but I am curious and relaxed to find out. 

Tenkan & Irimi

It's been many years since I bowed onto the aikido mat, but I practiced it several time a week for several years and there are many things I have integrated into my thinking off the mat. Of these things is the dual concept of Irimi and Tenkan.

Tenkan, one of the first things I learned, is the art of turning. Of deflecting, of blending, connecting with blending with something, and turning to face the same direction. A simple example is, you're standing face to face with a partner, holding their wrist with the hand of the same side of the body (e.g. left wrist, right hand). Tenkan is beautifully stepping forward turning to the side of your "opponent" so that you are now facing the direction they are facing. Rather than face the "attack" directly, you turn away-toward it. This works with a punch or strike, catching and blending with the force of the movement, you can even join in the force of the movement adding your own force to it. Like catching a strike, blending to join it, adding your own force (to often times pull your attacker off balance).

Tenkan is a graceful, non confrontational way of dealing with an attack. 

Irimi is the art of entering. It's energetically stepping into the space. To be successful with Irimi, one must have the energetic embodiment needed for a successful Irimi. You must have already cultivated some personal power for your Irimi to have strength. Irimi is direct, confrontational, anticipating and potentially pre-empting an attack. You can combine Irimi with a Ki-ai sound, and it can be terrifying. Of course, your opponent can utilize a tenkan on an irimi, so it's important to be able to be grounded in your entering.

I love Irimi. I love the directness of it. The cutting through of bullshit. (Here I am talking about using Irimi off the mat.) Certainly not everyone appreciates a direct approach. And if one is not strong enough for the direct approach, they might have inconsistent results. 

These two concepts are useful off the mat. While I tend to appreciate the direct approach, much of the world prefers a the turning approach. Both are useful in different situations, and one should practice them both. 

 

Let's Keep Blogging

I am writing to you from my bed, back completely flat, as I recover from my second knee replacement this year. Too bad I was not blogging when I recovered from #1, earlier this year. I had so many interesting physical sensations. A few years ago, I discovered I am highly sensitive. It was no surprise, people have been telling me I was too sensitive my entire life. (And my reply that people are too selfish and barbaric.) This lead to a time in my life of untraining my sensitivity, and training myself to be ruthlessly selfish and think only about myself. 

Anyway, I digress, but I can do that on my blog. Let's get back to the nerve sensations in my knee. Pain is such an interesting thing. For me, I always thought of pain as this torn muscle pain, or cut finger bleeding pain. Or stub your toe or crush your finger pain. But then there is nerve pain. I've always struggled categorizing nerve pain as pain. It's not nothing, but it not like stubbing your toe, hot and red and a flash. Nerve pain is a sensation, and for someone who is highly sensitivity, too much sensation can be overwhelming, but it's not necessarily pain.

I had all these great names for the nerve pain last time, let's see if I can remember them. There was the lightening bolt flashes, like electricity scattering across the sky, a metaphor for my knee/leg area. There was this rolling, dull pain, that I compared to the rollingness of a rolling style earthquake. That rollingness like nausea, with the pain just present, maybe increasing in intensity, but a dull, soft cottony rolling pain. 

Let's see, right now, I have a deep pain in my right leg coming from a particularily tight part of my side knee area. There are subtle soft sharp threads now and then. Yesterday there was this deep hot spicy pain, coming deep inside my knee. Almost like I couldn't feel it, or I felt it far away behind a red curtain, but yet, that hot spicy deeply red pain was there. (That's when I was doing PT!)

Earlier today I forgot for a split second I had had knee surgery and my body/legs tried to grab my pillow together and bring it up to myself, only to whack myself awake with a sharpe hot green-gray pain that reminded me that, yes, less than a week ago you had that leg opened up, hacked a bit off and jammed in some augmented pieces.

Yup, this leg's recovery is easier than the previous one, but that doesn't make it easy by any means.

You know what else is not easy. Trust. I keep seeing posts from my identity colleagues lamenting the loss of trust. And that's why they do all these identity solutions that are trust less. I think they are all on the wrong path. And I want to write some things around this, so I'm collecting my thoughts, but first off, trust can not be solved by technology. Lack of trust (and believe me, I have lot of trust issues) has to do with people. There are things you can do to regain that trust, but also, there's a blog post on here from the Heather/Gloria days, a walk with Moki on Mt Washington, that talks about trust is a choice.

You chose to trust someone. They stab you in the back and you get hurt, and you get angry. You don't trust those people or the system that created them. It's like this piece I've wanted to write for years, how the private sector has a lot to learn from government. Fucking selfish private sector.

I've got so many ideas to write, but who cares? The nihilistic and pointless point of view. Then let's bring in the contradictory view, The Chicken John quote, about living in the world you want to live in. What is the world I want to live in? And what can I do now to create a delusion of that reality now?

Backburner Projects

The second snow of the season is coming down, I made a big pot of chicken barley veggie soup and I'm listening to Sheila Chandra's excellent drone album while I work on some projects. Over the past month or so, I've returned to several projects that went on the back burner in Q1 2020. 

I had reminded myself of my 2020 plan -- I had a war chest and some new entrepreneurial offers. But after a few months of the pandemic, and all those dreams (along with the lack of return phone calls) were shuttered. Two years of pandemic later and the entrepreneurial spirit in me was squeezed out. I wanted more structure, stability and to get paid for all the hidden things I do that is part of the job of being your own boss. So I got some clients. And my entrepreneurial projects ended went on the back burner.

You know what is interesting? These projects are coming off the back burner. It helps to have the space on the front burners too.

It's like I might be recovering from the pandemic interrupt. When I revisit these projects, they are still so fresh and relevant. And look at all this work I previously did on them. This gives me fresh energy for new projects too. For example, I banged out a first draft of a book proposal over the course of a few days. I don't know where these will go. For now, I am keeping myself busy, trying things out and paying it forward sharing what I know. 

Cool Morning

It's a cool morning and I sneak a peek at the tall ponderosa pines in the backyard between instagram posts. Finally, the trees catch my attention and I put my phone down to give them my full attention. The pines are bright and green in the morning light. The snow from a few weekends ago has all but melted.

It was beautiful, the snow on the pines, reverse outlining the thick bark, catching in clumps in the clusters of pine needles. It looked like something out of a photo or piece of art, but there I was naturally surrounded. Then the wind blew, and the needles and snow shimmered in the golden light. I remembered an observation of similar pines at a rest stop near June Lake off 395. The glimmering snow blown by the wind described something profound, difficult to communicate in words. 

The mornings here are crisp, with the underlying dryness. Not that warm cool of Los Angeles with the hint of moisture. Not the cool mornings of the Mojave, with dryness, yes a delicate moistness that will evaporate in the next 20 minutes. This is a coolness, that you know will get cooler as the winter season progresses. The warmth comes from midday sun, that if I am lucky will warm the trees enough for their scent - their vanilla, cedar, spice aroma - to release. 

On those first hot days in Fox Run, when I took Pebbles for walks, deep in the forest I would smell it. I presses my face against the bark to try to get a stronger whiff of the intoxicating smell, but it was no stronger. Elusive, yet surrounded.

Cool mornings here mean, fleece lined sweat shirts, flannel pants and slippers. Coffee - a latte - which I have learned to froth at 7000 feet. It's no small feat to get perfectly foamed foam here. Cool mornings mean letting the dogs out. Cool mornings mean the herd of deer relaxing in the back yard. Cool mornings are a moment for reflection before starting the day.

Different dogs

It's strange to think that this blog so far has only included the adventures of one of my dogs. Mr Dog was around for most of this blog, and even still kicking around strong when I paused my writing in 2018. But in the subsequent time between that last 2018 post and my restarting in 2023, I have had so much adventures with new dogs. 

Mr Dog helped transition me to living full time at the dome in fall is 2018. While I sold it to myself as a temporary writing sabbatical between paid contracts, I found the quietude and solitude helpful for my writing. For the first few months, I co-wrote with a well known name in the crypto space. It fizzled out, when I got tired of keeping us accountable. The work we did write together is pretty fantastic - if out of date. Maybe I will find a way to publish some of it.

Anyway Mr. Dog kept me company during this Los Angeles exit, and almost immediately fell ill and went on his definitive journey off into infinity or emptiness. There were some pretty magical moment there with the Golden Goddess and a red dog with white paws. That would have been classic writing material for this blog, maybe I'll revisit those stories, those desert roads, that golden light.

Life was interesting with no dog to ground me. I barely lasted a few months before I took on fostering for the same rescue org that Mr Dog came from. Fostering was a practice in detachment, care, compassion. I had three fosters - the last one failed. These fosters were so raw when they came to me. Shell shocked and traumatized. Often from the streets or a shelter or a bad situation. I took these fragile pups in, gave them love and structure before taking them to their forever homes. My last foster, Archibald, a blind dog with a real sob story, became a failure when I fell in love with him one night snuggling down while watching Game of Thrones over the holidays.

A year later, I wanted a friend for Archibald, so Shoogs came into our life, a month just after the pandemic lockdown happened. Pandemic lockdown was me, and these dogs on my small acreage on the Mojave-Colorado desert borders. It was great, being a hermit lady with two dogs, my best friends the planets that rose in the night sky. I had a war chest I had planned to use to launch my latest entrepreneurial endeavor, which ended up keeping me safe and secure through 2+ years of the pandemic. My pups barely lasted through the pandemic as well. They were both well in their prime when they came into my care, and Arch left me suddenly one morning.

Shoogs stayed on for another year or so, traveling cross country to the East Coast, and then up and down the West Coast, eventually succumbing to her ills in the desert. Like all three my dogs. Mr. Dog. Archibald. Shoogs. Their collars, their ashes, photos, drawings and paintings by my dear friend Liz, who even put the golden light around Mr. Dog. 

Fast forward to today. Two more dogs! Pebbles came into our lives in June, after a break of a year or so. And right before all the puzzle pieces fell into place for our Colorado place. And I found Joey in the first week were were in our new home. He was being fostered in the weird, small, obscure town where I went to college. Believe me, you've never heard of it. It's not the first time I've had two dogs, but it's the first time I've had two younger, energetic dogs.

One thing about all these dogs, they are Boston Terriers. Mr. Dog was my first Boston Terrier. I didn't know the breed prior. It was a requirement of my partner at the time. Turns out, he wasn't wrong. The Boston Terrier is a perfect dog for me. I love their formal wear of a black and white tuxedo. They can be extremely intelligent. (I think Pebbles is the most intelligent one I've had), silly, loyal, energetic, snuggly, and chompy in the right ways IMO. They are strong, have strong jaws, have such personality, and a distinctive face. I've enjoyed the 7 bostons that I've fostered and rescued. 

So now, I'm writing on the ole blog again. With different dogs.

 

Sabotaging Tier 2 Leadership

I want the world to know what happened. Not that it would care. I want their reputations tarnished. I want people to know what kind of small minded, egotistical people they are. Their fake concern for the benefit of a larger group, when it was about their own bruised egos, their lack of experience. And to not let those people hold roles in well known companies, or leadership roles, or board positions or even x-board positions. 

You see, I was stabbed in the back. Betrayed. It wasn't the first time. And it won't take me 10 years to get over it this time. 

For some reason, I was thinking of a European colleague who confused me when ignoring the fresh California artichokes, that I knew were her favorite, that I had just brought across the Atlantic for her. I didn't recognize her hate then. Her older sidekick, who couldn't be fired due to European law, so they parked her in this division I had just joined, when she point blank said to my face, "I didn't set out to sabotage you." 10 years later I recognize their jealousy, masked as hate. Things were stacked against me from the start, even more when I was taken to meet the CEO. No one else had been asked to meet him. It's not like I asked to meet him, either. I was being shown off. I would have preferred to be at Burning Man like I had planned to be, but I wanted to make an impact and I thought I might have a better chance if the CEO knew my name and face. It ended up not mattering. I should have declined and gone to Burning Man.

I know life isn't fair. But damn, do I wish the world knew what these people are really like. That they can't be trusted to do anything that won't benefit themselves. And they do not have the capacity to think outside their own self centered desires. And why do these self centered people, rise to such levels of leadership and power? I know, I know - capitalism. Luck being misinterpreted as having skills. As much as I love the power of capitalism, too much of it destroys the world. Because Adam Smith was wrong with his aspirational invisible hand.

(My bodhichitta course, hits me over and over the head from this perspective. The self cherishing, self centered, person, who is unable to think about others, consider others, or even see that they are connected and exist due to others. I am so over it. I was so over it years ago when I moved to my Mojave lair. But when I came back out into the world, it is it's exact same shitty self - worse in some ways.) 

Recently, someone said to me, to IDK, guide me in understanding my latest back stabbing, that I had to expect that all my actions would be interpreted as self-serving, egotistical. This really disturbs me. Because it's not the way I work, or my motivation - at least not these past 10-15 years. I would rather not live than not live authentically. When you are willing to put your life in the line in that way, the world shifts. The motivation of everyday people falls away. 

I am reminded of a strange question in a board call, asking how something I wanted to do impacted my bonus. I was so taken aback. It impacted my bonus 0%. In fact, by focusing on it, I took effort/time away from actions I would need to do to achieve my bonus. I should have realized then, that was the way that person saw the world. And she was incredulous that my actions had 0% - until others chimed in and we showed her evidence. What a poor pitiful person to be limited to such a small worldview. But I was focused on improving our bottom line, and solving problems I had inherited.

Yet, I resent being crammed into such a limited and incorrect world view. 

But what can I do? Something like 99% of humanity has this worldview, so maybe my friend was correct in advising me to make these undeveloped, immature assumptions, assumptions. Does that mean I now have to think through how every action or word will be interpreted through these selfish colored glasses? Assuming that I will be judged incorrectly? Should I change to adapt to the incorrect judgement?

But that would be a step back. A shrinking of who I am. Of all the work I have done to become the person I am today. A key thing I learned from Cacophony, was to do what you wanted to do, create the world you wanted to experience, because that is the world you wanted to live in. Not because it would be successful. Not because anyone else wants to live in that world. Not because it is the world the last board I worked for wanted to live in. (No, they live in the world of corporate handcuffs, lacking real world leadership and whole lotta imposter syndrome, not to mention a lack of experience - which results in not knowing how to solve their problems and not listening/empowering anyone to solve them either.) Oh well, whatever, they will probably fail up, like those people always do.

I look for soothing in my systems thinking books and spiral dynamics tiers. It was my exposure to these concepts that facilitated my transcendence to Tier 2 thinking. Tier 2 being the second tier of spiral dynamics, of which systems thinking, integral thinking, tolerance and acceptance become the baseline for operating. I remember the feeling of coming home I had when I learned about these concepts. There were words, explanations of things that were so inherent, core to me, that I had never been able to express -- and everyone looked at me funny when I would try. According various numbers (which I think would be hard to actually calculate) there is like 1% of the population in Tier 2. I consider myself as being in that tier for at least some of the time.

So what's a Tier 2 leader like me, doing in Tier 1 organizations? Being fucking frustrated, I'll tell you.

Can a tier 2 leader even be successful with tier 1 bosses? (It's a struggle. And at some point, some Tier 1 leader with power will ax it.)

As I figure out what I want to do next, I wonder, what is even possible. I want to lead people out of Tier 1 thinking and into Tier 2 leadership. Ideally, practically applied. Maybe I just need to invoke Vaclav Havel again and dream of impossibilities.

 

 

What is next?

I'm sitting here, this morning, looking at the sun dawn across the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The air is crisp, and outside my window is a ponderosa forest, which will be fragrant in warming afternoon. I have been all consumed with houses, construction, handy people, dogs, furniture, moving and packing boxes since spring. 

Priorities feel they are shifting. My desire to be at tech conferences is fizzling. Part of this is the string of backstabbers I've held leadership roles with the past couple years. Who can I trust? After almost 30 years in the business, it finally dawned on me that I suck at politics. That is my fatal work flaw. But why do people accept such toxic behavior? Just last week I was talking to someone about a situation where a company bought another company and as soon as it legally went through fired the CEO who lead the org up to that point. No notice. Out the same day. Elon Musk style. I mean, what is it that makes someone think this kind of ruthless inhuman behavior is acceptable. That's not the world I want to live in. I'm definitely happy to not have to deal with some of the people in my previous situations - but what disappoints me, is there was so much more I could have done to help those orgs. And the people who stayed - let's just say they are not (IMO) delivering. 

Which is the rub. People, companies, don't want excellence. They don't want to be efficient, or think things through or make the best decision for them to get what they want. They want to make their own decision, others perspective be damned. Toxic individualism. It's a thing I've been watching for some time now. This is one concept Asia has the benefit over the US - a collective world view. 

So what is next? What do I want to do next?

I want to work with nice people, who have some level of self-awareness, want to make a positive impact, can consider and are not threatened by other potentially conflicting viewpoints, who are not full of themselves, whose motivation includes curiosity, openness, hard work, transparency, emotional maturity. It probably doesn't exist, but maybe I can dream it into.  

This is just to say

It has been a long dry spell of no blog posts on the old blog. How the internet has changed since 2018. Maybe I will dusty off my morning coffee-writing ritual and write about whatever I feel like it. It did feel a bit constraining to turn this blog into my professional expression. 

I've done a lot in cybersecurity the past 5 years. Written some books. Writing some more. Done some good work. Worked with some nice (and not so nice) people. You know, the older I get, the more I want to work with nice people, who are self-aware. I know it's a hard ask. Most everyone is figuring out how to get all the things they want in life - and many have no qualms about stepping on whomever they need to to get those things.

To make money with integrity and ethics is just adding another level of difficulty to surviving - because it seems near impossible to make a living in a way that doesn't impoverish others. So what to do? I tried the hermit life for a few years, but you know what, the "real world" with all its very human problems was exactly the same when I re-visited it. 

Anyway, where do I go from here? The net is vast and infinite. 

Cybersecurity obsession

Well, it's official, I am obsessed with Cybersecurity. 

It all started when I was asked to write a chapter for the Cyber Attack Survival Manual. This snowballed into becoming a co-author. 

The Cyber Attack Survival Manual is a step-by-step guide to cyber defense. This book is mainly for everyday people, but security professions might learn one or two new things. My hacker genius colleague, Chris Rock (of DEF CON, How to overthrow a government fame) kindly says, “A must read for everyone from n00bs to experts, parents to pros.”

Around the time I was wrapping up that writing, a military project took a decidedly cybersecurity turn. The project focused on the military learning environment, but I needed context to show the new training technologies. Voila - the cybersecurity war game. And then, because I am a perfectionist when it comes to the details of my future scenarios, I thought about future OSs, SIEMs, vulnerabilities, attacks, and counterattacks. My obsession grew.

U.S. Army cyber security war game set in 2021. I created this video for the U.S. Army showing military training for a cybersecurity war game set in 2021. This project is what ignited my cybersecurity obsession...

A few months later, I was asked to submit a paper on "Security in 2038." I used this excuse to kick off research on The Future of Cybersecurity. 

Co-authored (with Bob Blakley) of, Shifting Paradigms: Using Strategic Foresight to Plan for Security Evolution, for the New Security Paradigms Workshop. Our paper details over 20 new security paradigms and future scenarios. 

I don't plan on stopping this obsession anytime soon. Want my cybersecurity research updates? Sign up for my non-spammy email list. 

 

90 Days of Facebook Lives

I agreed to do 90 days of Facebook lives. It's an interesting exploration of the video medium within a siloed platform. I'll update this post from time to time with the topics and a link to each video. 

• Till Death Do Us Part Relationships (Feb 14)

Third 10

• Comparing Blockchain to Nuclear technology (Feb 10)
• The Golden Goddess of Death (Feb 8)
• The Mojave Desert (Feb 7)
• Grief is an Emotion (Feb 6)
• Instagram, Night before Mr. D's definitive journey - no link (Feb 4)
• Tit for Tat: A way of Cooperating (or not cooperating) (Feb 3)
• Politics: How I went from Libertarian to Socialist (Feb 2)
• Memories of Mom (Feb 1)
• Planning or No-Planning? (Jan 31)
• What is the Upper Limit? (Jan 30)

Second 10

• Driving at Speed: Roadtrip tips from Heathervescent (Jan 29)
• Update from San Francisco (Jan 26)
• It's hard being an Entrepreneur (Jan 22)
• Let's talk about the goals you aren't doing (Jan 21)
• Birth Control is the most transformative technology since fire. (Jan 20)
• Weaponized Dating (Jan 19)
• Calm and Drama Free Lifestyle (Jan 18)
• Doors closing, The Crows of Pearblossom & Mojave reflections (Jan 17)
• Let's talk Cybersecurity: Swatting & Bitcoin price manipulation (Jan 16)
• Fantastic Planet, Ants, and the Happy Hocky Family (Jan 15)

First 10

• Self-care: A reply to Jean Russell's post (Jan 14)
• Men, I don't understand you (Jan 13) 
• Where the name Heather Vescent came from (Jan 12)
• Breaking the Glass Ceiling at the C level (Jan 11)
• Let's talk politics: conspiracy, pwnage and information war (Jan 10)
• The Collective Unconscious (Jan 9)
• The Future of Military Learning (Jan 8)
• Some Travel Tips (Jan 5)
• Let's Talk Cybersecurity: About all these Hacks (Jan 4)
• Predictions are for Amateurs (Jan 3)

Announcing: Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win

I'm excited to share my latest transmedia scenario looking at the future of military learning. This work was done for the Advanced Distributed Learning CoLab (ADL). 

Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win

Out-Learn, Out-Think, Win—tells a story about how Defense personnel may learn in the future, using complex interconnected network-based technologies. One of the main characters in the film isn’t even human—it’s the distributed learning network. The filmmakers, from Purple Tornado, created a graphic user interface (GUI) to help show how the human characters interact with that system. In the story, Army Staff Sergeant Martina Reynolds uses various distributed learning tools to practice and assess her cyber-defense skills. The video opens with SSG Reynolds reading an ebook and then progresses through her conducting VR-based pre-training, and it finally culminates with an instructor-guided group training exercise. As the story unfolds, you can see how SSG Reynolds’ learning and development seamlessly blends across different systems, which are enabled by different instructional technologies and data-driven learning capabilities.

This video is a deliverable from a larger project, called Transmedia Narrative Use Cases of Future Learning Systems That was completed for the Advanced Distributed Learning CoLab.

 

Weaponized Dating

Earlier today I came up with a new term, Weaponized Dating. It's an interesting concept I've been thinking about since moving to the Mojave. I'm making this post on the ole sad non-updated blog, so I don't forget this term.

Weaponized Dating: is exactly what you imagine it to be, you weaponize dating... this is an emotional tactic for social change. 

I should probably write more about it, and maybe I will. 

A Bitcoin Rant: Why I liquidated my BTC last year

I did this rant as a Facebook live. Check it out. 

Surviving the Cyber Apocalypse

"World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation" -  Marshall McLuhan

I've got an audacious panel proposal for SxSW 2018. Please check it out and VOTE if you think surviving the Cyber Apocalypse is important.

McLuhan's quote sums up our current situation - we are all participants in the current information war - but I suspect we're not completely aware of our roles/power or what skills we need/have to protect ourselves, our companies and our interests. I've put together an all-star panel of deep experts to explore the landscape of information war and cyber attacks including:

1. Nick Selby, my co-author of the Cyber Attack Survival Manual, cyber detective, cop and author. He wrote several chapters on wikileaks and nation state hacking in our book;
2. Chris Rock, from his Defcon fame, gave talks about digitally "killing" you, creating "shelf babies" for future hacking use and his most popular talk on How to Overthrow a Government (yes, for reals!). He's also a 20 year security expert and pentester;
3. Elaine Raybourn, is a social scientist who applies transmedia methodologies for use in the largest educator in the world - the US Military. Elaine and I have been collaborating on a foresight project since early 2016 that we will show on the panel, that is directly relevant to the topic;
4. and there's me, Heather Vescent, the futurist. I'm completing a year of deep research in Cyber security, resulting in co-authoring the Cyber Attack Survival Manual with panelist, Nick Selby; and collaborating with Elaine Raybourn on this sekret project we can't talk about yet. I thrive in the area beyond the edge of the possible - making connections between seemingly disparate research areas - cybersecurity, transactions, economies, cryptocurrencies, relationships, intimacy, augmented intelligence, humanity and more. I do scifi for real.

I believe in the power of the human race to not just solve our problems, but create new ones. I'm dedicated to sharing a positive alternative view of addressing wicked problems, inspired by this Richard Feynman quote:

"We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on."

I promise this panel will blow your mind intellectually as well as give you practice advice for participating in the future global information war. I appreciate your vote. Thank you!

Announcing my new short film

Announcing my my latest film: Not Just Who They Say We Are: Claiming our Identity on the Internet,” is a short film introducing a stealth community of “Identirati” as they define and refine digital identity at their bi-annual Internet Identity Workshop (IIW).  

“We’ve had 10,000 years to work out identity in the physical world,” said Doc Searls, an IIW co-founder and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. “But online, we’ve had a generation or less to work it out.”  

Not Just Who They Say We Are from Phil Windley on Vimeo.

I’ve been part of the IIW community since 2007 so I’ve seen first hand how this group works together - beyond corporate borders to improve internet identity for everyone. IIW has been the incubator for multiple identity protocols like OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 and Facebook single sign on was inspired by what they learned at IIW. 

 

I’ve worked to make this film since 2012, and both the film and the event are a labor of love in a world full of businesses trying to make a buck off identity.

 

With the near constant hacks and the Internet of Things data security issues, secure online identity is important now more than ever. (I also co-wrote a book on CyberSecurity, so I know first hand how important this topic is today.)

 

Read the press release for more details.

Introducing a series of short films on Internet Identity

This year, I completed a series of films documenting over 10 years of work on open Internet Identity standards and protocols, through the Internet Identity Workshop. I produced eight short films overall (not all were for public consumption). While, I'm still putting on the final touches of the IIW Documentary, here are the ones that are currently available. 

IIW Documentaries, 2016

• What is IIW?
  An introduction to the Internet Identity Workshop - the most important technical conference for identity experts.
  
  
• The Backbone of Open Internet Identity - OpenID Foundation 
  
  
• The Importance of User Managed Access (UMA)
  
  
• Covisint and the Internet of Things

See others at my Vimeo profile.

How to Review on AirBnB

Recently, a couple friends, who are also AirBnB hosts, have asked me about leaving negative reviews for their guests. 

It's a difficult conundrum. You want to expect the best from people. You expected the best from them (otherwise you wouldn't have accepted their reservation). Even when they are far from the best, you still don't want to harsh on them. But you have a responsibility.

$1k Damage

I'd like to tell a little story about one of my guests. I had had a cancelation over NYE for health reasons, so my place was unexpectedly open (had been booked a month prior). I got this request that sounded good, and as I always do, I checked out his reviews. They were ... ok. Nothing horrible, but nothing stellar. If anything, I thought he might be a high maintenance guest, so I made sure to communicate extra clearly about house rules, set expectations properly, etc.

Another thing, the booking came on Christmas Day. Needless to say, I was not so focused on AirBnB and had had several glasses of wine. But AirBnB gives you 24 hours to accept or reject a reservation. Even though something about him didn't seem ideal, there were no major red flags and I was keen to book NYE. Plus, AirBnB has the host guarantee. If a guest does damage, the host guarantee will kick in. I had never used this, or asked a guest to pay for damages (with the exception of my very first AirBnB guest, which a film production company booked, and I never again allowed anyone to book my place for someone not actually staying there.) I treated this guest the way I treat all other guests, giving them information, checking in with them, etc. They were very responsive before they checked in, and afterwards, they went radio silence and did not reply to my infrequent query to make sure they got in, were settled, etc. I didn't stress, because not all guests reply. 

However, because I had a strange vibe about the guest, I made sure to get out to my place to personally check it the day they checked out - in case of problems... and yes, there were a lot of problems. Problems that ended up with $1000 in damage to furnishings - which the guest denied and refused to pay.

Thanks to AirBnB's host guarantee, my stuff was replaced. But only after at least a month, documentation, attempting to clean chairs that were ruined, etc. I had to turn down at least 3 AirBnB reservations due to the place not being ready and having ruined items. Oh, and it took another month to order the new stuff and get it out in the dome. (To add insult to injury, this guest added my email address to his business email list - talk about a spammer on top of it all.)

The Emotional Toll

Going through this process took a lot of emotional toll. It took time and energy that I was not compensated. These guests broke my trust, which caused me to distrust ALL other AirBnB guests. (It took a couple months of good guests again to rebuild my trust. And I told all my subsequent guests about the bad guests and my currently on shaky ground with trust. All were awesome and compassionate about this.) I'm really grateful to those great subsequent guests that helped rebuild my trust.

Warning & Reviews

As I went through the AirBnB dispute process, time was running out to write a review for this guest. (You have 14 days to write a review, which you can not see until 1) they write one for you or 2) the 14 days runs out.) I was really worried they would write a bad review and rate me low because they destroyed $1000 of my stuff. A low rating would remove my Superhost status. 

Then there was the conundrum of writing them a review. Even though they did $1000 damage to my property, and broke my trust, I was hesitant to give them a bad review. Sure, I was emotionally angry, but there were also the facts (and photographs). I thought long and hard about what to write. I decided to be honest and stick to the facts. I needed to warn other hosts, and give honest feedback to the guest.

This is the advice I gave my friends when reviewing bad guests:

Be honest, stick to the facts. Be as dispassionate as possible and try not to make people read between the lines.

There are other things that need to be considered when writing and reading reviews

• Emotional Aspects: People have different levels of emotional engagement, intelligence and expectations. 
• Implicit vs Explicit expectations: In the early days of AirBnB you could be more relaxed about rules set because the community was comprised by people who shared the same values. As AirBnB became more successful, the community grew, and more people who did not implicitly share the AirBnB value set became part of the community. To allow for this, I had to become more explicit about things I could previously gloss over.
• Comparisons: Guests and hosts are not easily compared to each other - and that is a feature, not a bug. Not all places are appropriate for all audiences, and this is a feature, not a bug. 
• State the Facts: I am honest about my experience. I add emotional flourishes when I was especially delighted or happy. I am dispassionate and clear when things did not go well. I state my experience and let others learn (or not) from it.
• It's a Learning Process: Everyone: Hosts, Guests and event AirBnB itself is learning from this process. There is no "right way" set in stone. Everyone (including AirBnB) is making it up as they go.

The Bottom Line

You have a responsibility to warn hosts about bad guests. Be clear, honest and to the point. Avoid emotional language and instead state the facts. Allow those reading the review to make their own decision. For example, in the review of my example guest, my review included, "this guest did $1000 worth of damage to my furniture, but refused to take responsibility for it."

Don't dilute your five star guests by giving guests higher ratings than they deserve. In addition, it should not be a bad thing to receive less than 5 stars, if the experience is not 5 star. This whole idea that anything other than a 5 star rating is cause for concern needs to be eliminated. (more on this in another post.)

Allow for Change

The final thing I want to mention is that people change, and this can be a good thing. Reputation and reviews change over time. The FICO score is based on current relevant data. My AirBnB superhost is based on the past 4 months of activity. We need to allow mental space that bad guests learn from their experiences and become better guests. And it would be great to reward good guests for good behavior.

A Commons

Reputation is based on the context in which it is created. Reputation should be somewhat portable - I would like to use my AirBnB reputation to seed my reputation in other communities. But not all aspects of my AirBnB reputation may be relevant or useful, and that's ok. 

Finally, AirBnB doesn't create reputation. People do. AirBnB has created the platform that people use to connect with each other, but reputation data is an abundance byproduct of the financial transaction. That non-financial byproduct is owned by the "commons" and should be freely available for all to use. 

A Rant on AirBnB Ratings & Pricing

Cross-posted from medium... (you can recommend and comment over there...)

 

I’m an AirBnB host. A “Superhost.” I am also a social scientist that studies and is paid to speak on reputation and the Sharing Economy.

Recently, AirBnB increased the number of questions they ask in their reviews. Especially review of hosts. When you review a host, you go through 4 or 5 screens, asking you about your experience with them, the listing and the neighborhood.

This is a big change.

What is Value?

One of the questions they ask is about the value of the listing. Who decides on the value? Is it based on money? The experience? There is no black and white on value. What I value, someone else might not. Someone might value price, and not consider detailed personalized local information as valuable.

I’m a Superhost. This means I go above and beyond to make my guests feel comfortable and at home in my home — a really special geodesic dome in the Mojave Desert. Not all guests are a good fit for my house. And I am very selective, only accepting reservations from people I think will enjoy, respect and “vibe” with the location.

I’m not AirBnBing for the money. Well, sure, I like the money, because it enables me to make improvements — like plant trees, get better sheets and new pillows, etc. But the point of allowing people to stay in the dome is forthem to share the experience of my house.

So I’m absolutely livid, that AirBnB notifies me, as if it’s a problem, that my last 3 ratings for “Value” have been only 4 stars. Like 4 stars is a problem? Like what the fuck do they mean by “value?”

Apples to what?

I have a premium listing. You want a cheap place to stay? Stay at the Motel 6, or the Hampton Inn and spend $50–80 a night. You want to stay in a Geodesic Dome? Well, there are 4 within a 20 mile area. Sure, camp in one, that’s about $85, no running water. But the other two? They are more than my current summer rate of $150, and my regular rate is right in line with those.

My listing is priced equally or cheaper to all those for the number of people at those other locations, for the amenities, and the design. Additionally, I provide detailed personalized location guidance & recommendations.

Do not dare, compare my property to other listings. Isn’t that the point of AirBnB. Unique listings? Not cookie-cutter hotel rooms? How many of them give 5 pages of local listings, telling them which coffee sucks, and where the best food is?

Unless something is dramatically underpriced, ALL guests are going to ask to pay less and want more. I had BAD experiences with guests when I priced my place too low in the early days. It attracted people who did not take care of my place, and I had damage (that I did not report because you didn’t have damage reporting functionality at the time). I raised my prices in response to these ungrateful, inconsiderate “guests” and the damage the inflicted on my unique property.

Let’s talk about REGULATION

I worked for 15 months to change the local laws and enact regulation to allow AirBnBing LEGALLY in my community while many listings in the Joshua Tree area are ILLEGAL and unpermitted. Still they remain on AirBnB and AirBnB doesn’t check this. I went through the local permitting process to become LEGAL. And I pay local taxes as well.

AirBnB provided no support, no help, no nothing during this process.

Let me state that again.

AirBnB did NOTHING, to help me, and a few other hosts, convince my local City Council to ALLOW — by accepting a new city ordinance permitting short term vacation home rentals. Me and the other locals CHANGED OUR LOCAL LAW by OURSELVES.

AirBnB takes their fee, enabling a global platform, but what do they do to support the local community? How much of their platform is a commons?

Is it valuable that I am legal, that I pay my quarterly TOT tax, back into the community? Would it be more valuable if I had listed illegally with a lower price — what AirBnB might be considering a market price, if they didn’t take into consider the additional community costs like regulation and taxation and the emotional costs like being a good neighbor and showing the city that allowing AirBnB is not going to put the local hotels out of business or there will be an increase in underage drinking at parties hosted at AirBnBs? Or damage that the city has to pay for because some AirBnB guest does… oh, I have no idea what, but that the city would have to pay for, so more insurance to ensure the city won’t have to pay any costs for some possible thing that might go wrong by an AirBnB guest. You’re not paying that cost AirBnB — I am.

Back to value

Who decides what value is? Is it the dollar value? How is the emotional/human experience valued? The value to society? The value to the future? The value to planet earth?

It’s no secret the AirBnB wants to get into the reputation management business. AirBnB collected lots of data about us — user generated reviews.

How will they use their review data?

Will they monetize this data? Selling an AirBnB FICO like reputation score? Who will decide what these FICO like AirBnB ratings mean or how they are puzzled together? Will it be a transparent process? Will there be oversight and regulation?

Both the users and hosts pay a fee to use their service already? How greedy will AirBnB get?

I’m concerned that these additional questions, and this pressure on hosts (like me) to drop my price because of … 3, 4 star value ratings... will have a negative impact on my AirBnB host experience? And ruin or at least minimally dilute my ability to provide the best, most unique experience I can — at the cost of their homogeneity.

How do they come up with their “recommended price?” Are they comparing my listing to other comparable listings — like other unique Geodesic domes with star projectors in the loft, great stereo systems, two fire pits and 5 pages of personalized local directions, restaurant and hike recommendations? I doubt so. I have worked hard to create my listing incomparable. The dollar value is but one small aspect of the entire experience.

—

Finally, I will say, I have hesitated to bring up these criticisms. Who is to say, AirBnB won’t bury my listing, or hasn’t already? I mean, that’s kind of Silicon Valley’s reputation these days. And my trust with AirBnB is eroding.

pps. I would also like to rate AirBnB’s features, and their “releases,” which are frankly too frequent. Can I also rate the product manager who came up with the shitty pricing idea? What about the engineer who introduced a bug that caused me to have a communication error with my host in Melbourne? Where are these ratings AirBnB?

It’s a slippery slope isn’t it?

Rethinking Payments in the Sharing Economy

Rethinking Payments in the Sharing Economy was presented on May 11, 2016 at the Total Payments and Retail event in Melbourne, Australia.

In this talk, I explain how the sharing economy combines traditional financial transactions and also includes emotional experiences. It goes on to explain how technology facilitates trust through a payment platform, with local regulations and global reputation systems. (Blockchain comment at the 10 minute mark.)

Heather Schlegel researches and reports on the global changes occurring in payments and transactions. Looking for a provocative future focused speaker? I'm available for keynotes, panels and corporate events. Get in touch.

Thanks to Brad Court, Melissa Ching and the team at Total Payments and Retail. Very special thanks to Dave Birch, Ian Danksin for audio production and Sarafina Rodrigeuz.

 

Payments in the Sharing Economy, Total Payments, Melbourne, Australia from Heather Vescent Schlegel

Cyber Security and the Future

National Fintech Cyber Security Summit, Sydney on May 3, 2016

A recap of my remarks from the Future scaping panel, which I was honored to share with Lynwen Connick (far left, First Assistant Secretary Cyber Policy and Intelligence, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) and Dr Carolyn Patteson (middle, Executive Manager, CERT Australia)

 

Last week I was at the Internet Identity Workshop, interviewing people for a documentary I am making on Internet Identity. Kim Cameron, who does Digital Identity from Microsoft was there. He reminisced about the early days of the internet, and revisited the 12 laws of identity. In reviewing the early days of the internet, Cameron observed the best business models, were fraud. Criminal activity was the best business model with 1000% growth rates. You could say criminal activities and fraud are currently the best business models, despite improved security technology.

We will have new technology & it will still get hacked

Fraud prevention technology will continue to get better. And criminals will also get better at finding ways to exploit new technologies. So we must plan that our best new technologies will be subverted. Some technologies have flaws built into the security method – for example biometrics. Biometrics are promising, but if we follow the above thinking, we must prepare for the inevitable biometric hack. How useful are biometrics if your finger print, iris or face recognition database is hacked and sold on the black market? You can reset a password, but how can you rest your fingerprints or change your face without an expensive trip to the plastic surgeon. It is near impossible to “reset” a biometric.

If you expect this inevitable hacking of your security systems, you will be able to monitor and understand when the new technology stops being powerful.

Technology will blend and extend

We will have a more intimate relationship with our devices - wearing them on - and in - our bodies. This technology may also make decisions on our behalf.

In these kinds of discussion, most of our focus is about the technology – and less about the human. Technology is an extension of humanity, and it needs to work with the human form and within human mental constructs. Kim Cameron says, “People have protocols too.” Relationships, of any kind, are about emotions.

For example, I can set up automatic payments through my bank. Once set up, I forget about them. I can set up alerts before the payment goes out or when it clears. For all purposes it is a piece of dumb technology that works once set up. And I, as the human identity, have authorized it to execute the transactions. I think of this kind of technology as a proto-agent that completes transactions on my behalf.

As we develop smart agents that blend artificial intelligence, data analysis and personal preferences, it’s not so far fetched that I might have an automous financial identity (agent) making transactions on my behalf. That agent might even be connected to a smart object – a solar set up, and authorized to sell energy back into the grid and deposit the sales in an account.

And it won’t be just single objects, there will be combined identities, made up with a combination people and objects.

Identity is at the core

Our understanding of identity is changing - especially as we have agents acting on our behalf and as we surround ourselves with smart objects.

We will begin to use a combination of verified pieces of identity. No one company, government or organization can own 100% of someone’s identity. Identities are contextual with some aspects self asserted and verified, and others based on contextual behavior and reputation.

This as a huge space for opportunity because people are looking to have their financial resources secured. Companies have the resources and initiative to develop systems, products and services that protect people from criminals.

In conclusion

“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.” ― Richard P. Feynman

Humans and technology need to work together. Consider a strategy that uses technology to do what technology is best at, while enabling humans do what we are best at. Understand limitations – both the human and technical limitations. Your new systems will get hacked. Technology will become outdated. People will act irrationally. But know you will come up with new technology and new solutions. Our work will never be done – and that’s a good thing for business.

AirBnB's Invisible Payments

AirBnB's payment platform helps hosts focus on the travel experience. In this excerpt from a talk I gave in Toronto, at Tomorrow's Transactions, I show their invisible back end and how it enables the sharing economy with solutions for payments, currency exchange and tax management.

 

Thanks to Dave Birch & Consult Hyperion for the invitation to speak at the conference.

Eva Galperin on Privacy

Eva Galperin is the Global Policy Analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In today's episode, recorded on June 26, 2015, we discuss consent and control of your data and privacy. Privacy is not dead! Follow Eva on Twitter @evacide.

A lifelong geek, Eva misspent her youth working as a Systems Administrator all over Silicon Valley. Since then, she has seen the error of her ways and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. She comes to EFF from the US-China Policy Institute, where she researched Chinese energy policy, helped to organize conferences, and attempted to make use of her rudimentary Mandarin skills. Her interests include aerials, rock climbing, opera, and not being paged at 3 o'clock in the morning because the mail server is down.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Brett King on the augmented experience

Brett King is the author of Augmented and Breaking Banks. In today's episode, recorded on June 24, 2015, we discuss contextual experiences with wearables. Follow Brett on Twitter @brettking.

Brett King is the founder of Moven, the world's first downloadable bank account, a four-times Amazon Bestselling Author, American Banker Innovator of the Year (2012), named as "King of the Disruptors" by BankingExchange and voted as one of the Top 10 coolest brands in banking. He has spoken to more than half a million people in 40 countries on the future of technology, banking and consumer behavior. His latest book is Augmented.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Sean White on 20 years of Wearable Technology

Sean White is the CEO & Founder of Bright Sky and has researched wearable technology since the mid-90s. In today's conversation, recorded on June 23, 2015, we reflect on 20 years of wearable technology. Follow Sean on Twitter @seanwhite.

Over the last 20 years, Sean White has been leading and collaborating on creative explorations of the technologies, systems, and experiences that connect us to each other, our environment, and our information through entrepreneurial, executive, advisory, management, and maker roles.

His work and expertise ranges from building successful start-ups to research and products around wearable devices and sensors, augmented reality visualization and interfaces on handhelds and glasses, HCI, AR games, environmental sensing, botanical species identification, large scale information architecture and networks, online communities and growing carbon nanotubes for fuel cells and solar cells.

He is on the Steering Committee for IEEE ISMAR. 30+ peer reviewed publications and 20+ patents granted or filed and was a 2009 Tech Award Laureate for his work on a system for botanical species identification on mobile devices. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Ramez Naam on the Freedom of Wearables

photo by Christopher Michel

Ramez Naam is a technologist and science fiction author of the riveting SciFi trilogy – Nexus, Crux, Apex. In today's episode, recorded on June 23, 2015, we discuss the freedom wearables can give you. 

Ramez Naam was born in Cairo, Egypt, and came to the US at the age of 3. He's a computer scientist who spent 13 years at Microsoft, leading teams working on email, web browsing, search, and artificial intelligence. He holds almost 20 patents in those areas.

Ramez is the winner of the 2005 H.G. Wells Award for his non-fiction book More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. He's worked as a life guard, has climbed mountains, backpacked through remote corners of China, and ridden his bicycle down hundreds of miles of the Vietnam coast. He lives in Seattle, where he writes and speaks full time.

• Follow Ramez on Twitter @ramez.
• Be sure to check out his books, Nexus, Crux, Apex!
• Ingress, is the game Heather mentions (& obsesses about) 
• Ringly, the well designed wearable for women

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

The Future of Cars and the Open Road

I’m not ready to give up the feeling of being behind a wheel, wind blowing my hair, driving at speed on the open road.

I contacted Alex Roy to talk with me about the future of cars. I learned about Alex years ago when he broke the Gumball 3000 record – driving from NY to LA in about 31 hours. I have to admit I was a little jealous of that road trip. I wanted to know Alex’s opinion about augmented driving technology. Was he willing to give up the wheel to a robot? Because I wasn’t.

Here's our podcast talking about the Future of Cars. We had so much fun discussing the future, this podcast inspired a SxSW panel submission which we provocatively titled: The Automotive Singularity is Not Near. If you want to hear more - vote for it! 

Our panel will discuss what we lose – and gain – when we switch to autonomous driving cars. What the transition might be like, and new problems and unintended consequences this technology might bring. 

Fatemeh Khatibloo on Data Ownership

Fatemeh Khatibloo is a Principle Analyst at Forrester Research. Our conversation, June 18, 2015, explores device interoperability, including the god box problem, data ownership and our deep emotional connection to our devices. Follow Fatemeh on Twitter @fatemehx2. 

Fatemeh is an analyst at Forrester Research where she leads research about personal data, privacy and identity. Her focus is on the emerging systems and processes that will put us -- individuals -- in charge of how we manage and share our personal data.

Her seminal research on personal identity management (PIDM) describes how consumers will soon manage the sharing of their personal data with each other and with businesses. Her report "Adaptive Intelligence" further defines a framework for privacy-compliant data sharing between organizations to gain insight, reduce risk, and increase profitability.

Fatemeh's research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, AllThingsD, CNBC, and AdAge. She has contributed to the Harvard Business Review and Financial Times, provided commentary on NPR and the BBC, and been credited in the World Economic Forum's "Rethinking Personal Data" report. She is a frequent speaker at industry and client events, including SxSW, DataWeek, and PrivacyIdentityInnovation.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Liza Kindred on Textiles and Wearable Tech

Liza Kindred is the founder of Thirdwave Fashion. In today's episode, recorded on June 9, 2015, we discuss textiles and wearable technology. Follow Liza on Twitter @lizaK.

Liza Kindred, the founder of Third Wave Fashion, has been writing and speaking globally for many years. She is considered a top expert on fashion tech – and she’s literally writing the book about designing for wearables and connected devices. Audiences love to hear her speak; she’s been called “inspiring” and “courageous”, as well as “fabulous and informative”. She has keynoted, spoken at, and moderated panels for dozens of conferences and events. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE. 

Ben Waber on Wearables in the Corporation

Host Heather Schlegel talks with Ben Waber, President and CEO of Humanyze.

In today's interview, recorded on May 18th, 2015, we discuss wearable technology and behavioral analytics to improve work environments.

Ben Waber is a senior researcher at Harvard Business School and a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is also the president and CEO of Humanyze, a management consulting firm that uses social-sensing technology to understand and improve organizations. He received his Ph.D. from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland in the Human Dynamics group at the Media Lab. Waber’s work has been featured in major media outlets such as Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. Follow Ben on Twitter @bwaber.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Self-Driving Cars

Me and my dream car on Mt Wilson

I've watched the autonomous vehicles space for some time. I love my cars. I love driving. I love going fast over the speed limit, while considering the other drivers on the road. There is an emotional connection I feel when driving. I don't see this emotional aspect addressed in autonomous driving.

Cars were the first piece of technology that was an extension of my self. My hand on the stickshift, I feel the subtle vibrations of the road, the rpms, the engine. My fingers become the tires on the road. Sticky to the pavement. Don't even get me started on the diversity of road - concrete, blacktop, asphalt, gravel, sand and variety or gratings - metal or grooved, if you're lucky a railroad tie covered bridge in Iowa.

I drive a manual. I like having the control to place the car in a specific gear. Downshift for more power. Upshift to give the engine a break or for long roadtrips. My manual turbo has been good to me. I could take better care of her.

Recently, I focused my interest. As happened with money, relationships, intimacy and wearable technology, I am consuming everything on autonomous cars. Crystalizing my thoughts by talking with people. A few weeks ago, I interviewed Alex Roy for an upcoming podcast. I first heard about Alex from his notoriety blasting the Coast to Coast record. NY to LA in 31 hours.

(Sidenote: I deeply longed for those late nights on the unofficial Malibu track - Piuma, Stunt, Mulholland. Although I have not (and would not) attempt a cross-country record, I have a few speed stories of my own. Sidenote to the sidenote: speed with safety.)

If you're an early reader of this blog - you know I've written many words on my love of driving and roadtrips.

It will be no surprise, that I am skeptical about autonomous vehicles. Where is the passion? Why so much the focus on safety? The use case is, people want to get from A to B as safely as possible. I get that. But this whole paradigm forgets the passion, the identity, the experience of driving. It's part of America.

Will a self driving car give the same feeling I have when driving out the 62, 10pm, Milky Way overhead, a cool 78 degree wind whipping my hair? My hand on the stick, I feel the power engage as I downshift, and express itself as my foot presses the accelerator. Not to mention the sweet pause of disengagement when I engage the clutch and placing the gear softly in place, like falling into my temperpedic bed after a long day.

I concede that autonomous vehicles will be safer; but I'm afraid they'll kill the passion - the emotional experience I so deeply love.

How can we balance the benefits of technology to extend these emotional experiences?

 

Brenda Laurel and Rob Tow on Virtual Environments

Pioneer power couple Brenda Laurel and Rob Tow recount their work in Virtual Environments, Emotions and Robotics at Interval Research in the 90s. Today's interview, was recorded at their home, Locus Voci, in the Santa Cruz mountains on March 27, 2015. Their ideas and prototypes are relevant now more than ever. I hope you enjoy listening.

• The Placeholder Project, video (Interval Research). 
• More about Brenda, Brenda on Twitter @blaurel.
• More about Rob, Rob on Twitter @robtow.
• Visit Interval Research's original website via the Wayback Machine.

About Brenda 

Brenda Laurel has pioneered interactive media as a game designer, researcher, writer and teacher. In 2006, she was a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems Labs.

For more than 20 years, Brenda has worked as a programmer, game designer, software producer and researcher for companies including Atari and Atari Labs, Activision and Apple. Based on her research in gender and technology at Interval Research, she co-founded Purple Moon in to create interactive media for girls.

She pioneered Virtual Reality as co-founder and President of Telepresence Research (1989-91) and as co-designer and producer of the VR project “Placeholder” at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Brenda served as a professor and founding chair of the Graduate Program in Design at California College of Arts, the Graduate Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and professor in Computer Science at U.C. Santa Cruz focusing on games, interaction design and design research.

Her books include The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design (1990), Computers as Theatre (1991), Utopian Entrepreneur (2001), Design Research: Methods and Perspectives (2004), and Computers as Theatre: Second Edition (2013). She is currently launching Neogaian, a new consulting service specializing in interactive media that incorporates progressive values. 

About Rob 

Rob Tow is an ex-Xerox-PARC computer scientist and part-time abalone diver. He has worked at small start-ups (Skully Helmets, Compression Labs, ParcPlace Systems) and major research labs (Northrop Aviation Advanced Systems, Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, Xerox PARC, Interval Research, AT&T Labs, NASA Ames Research Center) over the course of a career that spans 38 years.

He has thirteen U.S. patents that cover amorphous silicon, image processing, robotics, wireless sensor networks, and UI. He likes to invent and build things, and is currently part of a team prototyping an embedded Android device that sees for the visually impaired. He lives with his wife Brenda Laurel at their home Locus Voci in the forested Santa Cruz mountains, high above Silicon Valley. 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Rachel Kalmar on Data and Wearable Technology

Rachel Kalmar is a Data Scientist, previously at Misfit, is known for wearing the largest collection data tracking devices. In today's interview, recorded on May 7th, 2015, we discuss data standards, data ownership and passively collected biodata. You can follow Rachel on Twitter @grapealope. 

Rachel is a data scientist, previously at at Misfit Wearables, where she wrangled noisy data and quantifed anything and everything she can. A Stanford neuroscience PhD, she's spent over a decade using data to explain, predict and influence behavior. She is active in the Bay Area hardware community and runs Sensored, a 1000+ person meetup group for people working on sensor devices and applications (meetup.com/Sensored). Rachel is an alum of the d.school, Singularity University, and Rock Health, and her favorite hashtag is #geekparadise.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Expanding Emotional Capacity

I began studying emotions in earnest after my mom died in October of 2012. Up to that point, I thought emotions were messy, illogical and got in the way. I pushed mine down as much as I could. I remember explicitly shutting them off one night when I was 16. I couldn't continue with the intense emotional pain in my life. I could not let myself be hurt anymore. Since I couldn't change much in my life then, I changed myself, eliminating my emotions.

It didn't work. My emotions would come back up anyway - usually in a volcano of expression. Most of the time I managed this privately, but not always.

I have always been criticized for being "too emotional." I hated that criticism. I hated being emotional. I hated myself. Having these problematic emotions. I learned - especially in business - emotions were bad. Except for positive emotions - like passion for the product - that was desired. But don't you dare show a negative emotion.

But, Emotion is Human.

Bruce Schneier said, at his 2015 SxSW talk, "When we interact with machines, data is created." I'd go so far as to say, when anything interacts with a machine, including other machines, data is created. But what happens when you interact with humans?

"When you interact with humans, emotions are created." -moi

It in the year after my mom's death, decades of fermented emotions uncorked. Like a slow hiss of escaping carbonated liquid, they foamed to the top and coagulated in the air of 2013 and 2014. Facing these decades of rawness, I, dove deep into the fetid effervescence. 

It's hard to believe it's 2015 sometimes. Those months from October 2012 till March 2013 burn darkly - fresher than reality.

Earlier this year I interviewed Brenda Laurel. At the end of our two hour conversation she said something I can't stop thinking about. I'll paraphrase. You can listen to her words directly in a few weeks on our upcoming podcast.

"People think technology is the other. But technology is people!" -Brenda Laurel

She goes on to explain that technology is not separate from ourselves, but another aspect. To distinguish it as "the other" is to deny it is part of us.

I was reminded of this the other day, when I was on the phone to change my phone plan. Being frustrated by the robotic voice phone chain. I took a deep breath. This was not a robot. This was a human aspect - the technology so limited, it required me to modify myself.

How much more pleasant it was to interact with the human man through the technology. If I pulled back perspective, I was talking to myself, helping myself - with technology and other humans. It was kind of amazing!

Technology today lacks emotional touch points. That will change. It is already changing. It's this change that drives my interest in wearable technology - some of the most intimate technology we have available to us today. And it's why I did an interview series on the Future of Wearables. 

As technology becomes better at emotional interactions, we humans will expand our emotional capacity. We've already augmented our logical intelligence. Emotions are next.

John C. Havens on Ethics and Wearable Tech

John C. Havens, author of of Hacking Happiness. In today's interview, recorded on April 29, 2015, we discuss ethical robots, nonhuman companions and the wearable experience.

Follow John on Twitter @johnchavens.

John C. Havens is a contributing writer for Mashable and The Guardian and is author of, Hacking Happiness - Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World (Tarcher/Penguin, 2014). His new book, Genuinely Human - Making Peace with Artificial Intelligence in the Age of the Algorithm comes out from Tarcher/Penguin in February, 2016. John is a consultant, global keynote speaker, and former EVP at a Top Ten Global PR firm where he worked with clients like Gillette, HP, Merck, and Monster.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

 

Jay Iorio on Mixed Reality and Wearables

Today's interview recorded on May 6, 2015 is with Jay Iorio, Director of Innovation at IEEE. In it, we discuss mixed reality, the Internet of Things and wearables as the bridge between computing of today and the future. You can follow Jay on Twitter @jayiorio.

Check out Ingress - the mixed reality game mentioned. 

Jay Iorio is the Director of Innovation for the IEEE Standards Association and a 28 year veteran in emerging technology. His focus centers on virtual worlds, augmented reality, and serious gaming. Iorio built and currently manages IEEE Island in Second Life and has worked extensively with advanced publishing technologies, multimedia, and 3D user interfaces. He is also a composer, machinimatographer, Occulus Rift developer and creator of the Etherfilm studio complex in Second Life. He is currently working on a future cities project that promises to demonstrate how the convergence of technology will impact the city of the future, through a real-life, comprehensive prototype design in cooperation with a major city in the US. Iorio is based in Los Angeles.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Anthony Stevens on Machine Learning

Today's interview recorded on April 30, 2015 is with Anthony Stevens, Solutions Architect on the IBM Watson Team. In it, we discuss fitness trackers, transhumanism and machine learning. You can follow Anthony on Twitter @biosopher. 

Anthony Stevens is a Solution Architect for the Watson Ecosystem where he works with partners to create solutions built on Watson’s cognitive computing services. Anthony is an expert in transforming complex problems and datasets into elegant mobile and web solutions. He has done this for life science, health, consumer, and multimedia companies by bringing deep expertise in both software development and product management. He has led the process to design, architect, build, and launch products for startups and Fortune 500 corporations. As a top 20 winner of the first Android Developer Challenge, Google awarded him $125,000 for building an innovative product that showcased Android. In short, you can consider him a Master Builder.  

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Silona Bonewald on mesh networks and private data ownership

Today's interview recorded on April 27, 2015 is with Silona Bonewald, OpenBio Advocate. In it, we discuss mesh networks, private data ownership and social contracts. On the spicier side, we discuss a few sticky situations when data trackers collect sexual activity. Follow Silona on Twitter @silona.

A badass transcending definitions, Silona has worked at the edge of tech and decentralized systems. She recently completed work at Emotiv Lifesciences. She is now involved in the OpenBio movement. Among her accomplishments, she coined the phrases Citability and Codeathon that are widely recognized throughout various dictionaries and Wikipedia. A social media early adopter who organized the best parties ever thrown at SxSW. 

• Check out Jott Messenger: A Mesh Network
• Sweden's Condom Positive campaign video

 

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Kyle Mathewson on Flexible Electronics

Today's interview recorded on April 29, 2015 is with Kyle Mathewson, Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta. In it, we discuss flexible (and edible) electronics, new interfaces and machine learning. He blew my mind talking about Scifi like applications that are being built in labs today!

Kyle Mathewson is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Science’s Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. His field of research is the cognitive neuroscience of visual awareness, attention, learning and memory. He is currently directing the Name to be Announced (NTBA) lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta (Departmental Page). 

The lab uses human behavioural studies, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological recording to gain understanding of the visual attention system. They are also developing new technologies to non-invasively monitor physiology and brain activity. 

• Is it a duck or a bunny?
• What might an immersive VR experience feel like?

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Eliza Strickland on practical health applications

Today's interview recorded on May 4, 2015 is with Eliza Strickland, Associate Editor of IEEE Spectrum. In it, we discuss Health, Wellness and the hardware collecting our data. 

Be sure to explore IEEE Spectrum special issues on The Human OS, mentioned in the podcast.

Eliza Strickland is an associate editor for IEEE Spectrum, the magazine and website for technology insiders. She currently covers the biomedical engineering beat.  Strickland writes about the new technologies enabling personalized medicine, such as mobile health tools, machines that sequence genomes on the cheap, and the implantable devices that may eventually turn us all into happy cyborgs. Her current passion is reporting on neural modulation techniques that researchers are using to tweak patients’ movements, moods, and memories. This year at SXSW Interactive she moderated a panel discussion on “DIY brain hacking.” 

Strickland has reported on science and technology for 15 years, writing for such publications as Nautilus, Discover, Wired, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Salon, Mother Jones, and The New Republic. She also contributes radio stories to NPR’s midday talk show, Here & Now. She tweets from @newsbeagle.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Boisy Pitre on the Emotional Side of Technology

Today's Future of Wearables interview recorded on April 28, 2015 is with Boisy Pitre, Mobile Visionary at Affectiva. In it, we discuss the emotional side of technology and intelligent mobile apps.

Check out the Emotion Tower mentioned in the podcast.

Boisy G. Pitre is Affectiva’s Mobile Visionary and lead iOS developer. His work has led to the creation of the first mobile SDK for delivering emotions to mobile devices for the leading emotion technology company and spin-off of the MIT Media Lab. He is a speaker at various technical conferences focused on Mac and iOS development, and authors the monthly Developer to Developer column in MacTech Magazine. Boisy holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and resides in the quiet countryside of Prairie Ronde, Louisiana.

The Future of Wearables series is made possible by Sourcebits and The Heterotopian Design Group with a special thank you to IEEE.

Eve Maler on Trust Frameworks

I'm very excited to introduce a new series on the Future of Wearables. 

Today's interview recorded on April 17, 2015 is with Eve Maler, VP of Innovation and Emerging Technology at Forgerock.

In it, we discuss trust frameworks, redefining consent and the architecture of data ownership.

Eve Maler is a renowned strategist, innovator, and communicator on digital identity, access, security, and privacy, with particular focus on creating successful wide-scale ecosystems and fostering individual empowerment. Eve drives Identity Relationship Management innovation for the ForgeRock Open Identity Stack; she also directs ForgeRock’s involvement in related industry standards, particularly for access control and privacy and their impact on the Web and the Internet of Things, to which end she leads the User-Managed Access (UMA) and Health Relationship Trust (HEART) standards efforts.

• Learn more about Eve on her blog.
• Follow her on twitter as Xmlgrrl. 
• Find out more about Forgerock's OpenUMA project 
• Check out Eve's involvement in the IEEE Workshop on Privacy Engineering.

This interview is possible thanks to the support of Sourcebits, Human Factors International and IEEE.

Payments and the Sharing Economy

Last week I was honored to give the keynote at Tomorrow's Transactions on Payments and the Sharing Economy. 

I spoke about my experiences as a Los Angeles AirBnB host, focusing on the emotional experience of the transaction and back end payment features. I shared my experience creating regulations allowing AirBnB style rentals in my Mojave Desert Community of 29 Palms. For 8 months, a team of 15 active citizens and members of the 29 Palms Planning Commission discussed and debated community concerns and crafted a set of regulations. ** Audio available on request (use contact email on contact page)

• How do payments and the Sharing economy interact?
• What is the difference between the sharing and utilization economy?
• Case Study: AirBnB Host Experience (payments, records, taxes)
• Case Study: Regulations for the Sharing Economy in 29 Palms, California 
• What can we expect in the future of the Sharing Economy?
• What are business opportunities?
• What can we expect for the future?

Thanks to Dave Birch and Gloria Benson for inviting me to keynote at Tomorrow's Transactions last week in London. 

Interested in more? I can help you

• Learn about the future, based on what's happening today.
• Bring your teams together to discover unusual solutions.
• Create your custom forecast with strategies to create your future.
• Build prototypes of your future ideas - and share the visions with the world (or keep them secret if you prefer)

Payments and the Sharing Economy from Heather Schlegel (aka heathervescent)

Biometrics & Identity: Beyond Wearables

If you missed my SxSW talk on what to expect beyond wearables, slides are below. Contact me directly to get audio of the talk (via email on contact page).

Note: this was a joint panel with Dr. Leslie Saxon of USC and John C. Havens of the H(app)iness Project; however these slides are only of my portion. 

Thank you IEEE for a fantastic speaker series and promoting technology for the benefit of humanity! 

Interested in more? I can help you

• Learn about the future, based on what's happening today.
• Bring your teams together to discover unusual solutions.
• Create your custom forecast with strategies to create your future.
• Build prototypes of your future ideas - and share the visions with the world (or keep them secret if you prefer)

Biometric & Identity: Beyond Wearables - Sxsw 2015 from heathervescent