Here’s a pretty exciting report from last week’s Consumer Electronics Show. I’ve been talkin’ ’bout this…writin’ ’bout this…waitin’ for this…And now here it comes: 2010. Take a look here.
Get ready to launch your boat and head for the New World. Think: Columbus taking off from Spain across the Atlantic.
If you haven’t yet updated your idea of yourself from “watcher” to “full participant” in two-way conversations that happen from home – as well as from work – using something that looks like that thing we used to call the “TV Set,” it’s time to get started this year. Whether for conversations with your distant relatives and friends, your coworkers – or your doctor – pretty soon you’re going to be talking outloud to a TV screen in your home. And then someone you know is going to be talking back at you.
From my perspective, the best thing about this is that we’ll be able to use video technology to be present with the people who matter most to us and free ourselves, from the passive consumption of broadcast media – including corporate-financed advertising of all kinds! WooHoo!
Think about all the people you’d enjoy being able to meet with from your living room:
- People you want to learn from
- People you want to play with
- People you can receive healthcare from
- People you work with
- People you want to serve
- People in your family you can’t travel to be with face-to-face
- People across the globe doing things you care about
- People…people…people…
The list can be as long as your curiosity and desire for engagement!
What do you think? Damn exciting, if you ask me… I was born before there were any one-way broadcast reception devices (called TVs) in our homes.
Who’s used one of these new telepresence systems in your living room already? Please share your experience with us here…
I don’t know about you, but when I tuned in to watch the ball drop at Times Square and I saw “2010″ show up and start flashing, I had a feeling I’ve never had before.
It was really something to see “2010″ because it’s a whole new kind of number than 1980 or 1999 or even 2000 or 2009. I don’t know how to describe the difference for me except to say that I hadn’t imagined living in a time when the date looked like that. Maybe you know what I mean…
So, we’re really not in Kansas anymore. We’ve actually entered the SECOND decade of the 21st Century. And, by the looks of things right now, it’s going to be a challenging time for all of us. We’re going to need new ideas, new strategies, new blood, and new tools to move ahead with grace in this undeniably “globalized” information economy.
As you contemplate the road ahead, it’s OK not to be a maestro of virtual meetings. It’s totally OK not to even feel very comfortable participating in them! It’s even OK not to put some attention on uncovering ways you could use virtual meetings to help your clients’, your customers’, and your suppliers’ lives easier using virtual meeting technologies.
Oh, what’s that? You’d like to? Well, go right ahead, that’s OK, too.
And, while you’re at it, if you’re local (meaning within a 50 mile radius of Ashland, Oregon), you might want to take advantage of a live, hands-on workshop I’m offering that will take you from zero to 100 using your netbook or laptop to work from anywhere with ease, confidence, and competence – even if you’ve never used a mobile computer. Yes, you, too, can be working from coffee shops (and using WIFI to meet with your clients around the globe in virtual meeting rooms) in just 4 weeks. Yes, you read that right – in 4 weeks.
In just 4 weeks, you can change your experience of computing from feeling isolated, frustrated, confused – and much more expen$ive than you would like – to using a cheap netbook or laptop to work quickly and easily, and have a lot more fun working MOBILY than you ever imagined. What’s more, making that 4 week investment, you will be equipping yourself to work independently and cheaply for many years to come.
I’ve got just 5 seats left in “Up, Up and Away,” and I would love to have you in one of them. You can read more about the workshop in the brochure below. The next session begins January 18th, here in Ashland, and runs 4 consecutive weeks from 3-5pm upstairs at the Rogue Metaphysical Library.
It’s OK not to enjoy computing and it’s also OK to take time this month to pick up the essential skills and attitudes you need to use an inexpensive netbook or laptop and FREE online software to make your way forward in this brave new world of 2010…and beyond.
If you want more information than the brochure provides – or you want to discuss a “partial cash” offer with me – feel free to phone me at 541-488-7942 this week. I mean it: there are only 5 seats left. Want me to put your name on one of them today?
Standing in line at the market this morning, waiting to pay for my milk and muffins, I couldn’t help laughing out loud at the tabloid and magazine headlines promising fifty ways I could lose the body I’ve created with my choices over the last 6 weeks of holiday parties.
* 10 Best Weight-Loss Pills
* Strip Off 25 Lbs in Just 20 Days
* Drop 4 Dress Sizes Before Valentines!
* Revitalize Yourself for the New Year – in 1 Short Week
* 5 Exercises, 10 Minutes, 15 Days to Washboard Abs
You know this stuff! Maybe you still believe one of these will work…I don’t.
I’m old enough – and 2009 was tough enough – for me to skip pretending that one more quick recovery scheme will deliver anything but disappointment when it comes to my health. Or health care reform ;-(.
A Trustable Resource For Your 2010 Care-For-My-Health Plan
On the other hand, I am so excited about a live, online telehealth resource called EMindful that I want to open 2010 with the interview I did recently with the visionary founder and CEO of Emindful.com, Kelley McCabe, and her web class producer, David Lessak.
The interview runs about 35 minutes and it explores Kelley’s invention of Emindful and some of the ways she and David are using virtual meeting technologies to deliver a variety of telehealth services – including mindfulness training and live yoga classes.
(A MILLION THANKS! shout-out to my friend and partner-in-virtual-meeting-adventure-games, Tom Carroll, of EvolutionaryLearning.com, for his help recording this conversation with Kelly and David and helping me get it posted!)
WHAT A DELIGHTFUL IDEA! USING YOUR COMPUTER TO DO YOGA!
Among the handful of high-quality telehealth resources offered at EMindful, the one that impresses me most is the live online yoga classes with Kirpalu-trained yoga instructors.
Here’s a little screencast that shows briefly what an Emindful yoga class looks like.
While you may never have considered using your computer to do yoga, having the opportunity to work with a live, online instructor offers many benefits – distinct from using VHS or DVD recordings of yoga routines. Just off the top of my head, here are five:
1. You can develop a relationship with a live instructor who varies your daily practice – instead of leaving you repeating the same few postures over and over on a tape.
2. Both before and after class, your live instructor is available to answer individual questions about specific challenges you’re facing in your practice.
3. You can practice anywhere you can get online, using a desktop or laptop computer.
4. If you can’t attend a live session, you can access the class archive at a later time in the day to do the class when it’s most convenient for you.
5. If you don’t live within walking distance of a high-quality yoga studio, you can walk-your-talk about lowering your carbon footprint by not driving all over town for a one-hour daily class.
Access and Convenience
Despite the phenomenal growth of yoga and other Eastern health practices across the US, substantial chunks of the population still lack access to well-trained instructors. Not just in rural areas. Access issues abound in traffic-jammed urban areas, too. Some groups that could benefit from Emindful’s yoga workshops and classes include:
1. People whose jobs require them to travel so much that they can’t attend local classes at regular times and build up a steady relationship with a knowledgeable teacher.
2. Mothers who are temporarily home-bound caring for young children.
3. Aging Baby Boomers – or other caregivers – who are providing care for seniors and can’t leave them unattended for long.
4. People with transportation issues that prevent them from getting to regular local classes.
If you’re in one of these groups – or you know people who are – and you’d like for yoga to play a bigger role in your 2010 Care-For-My-Health Plan, I hope you’ll check out Emindful this week and take Kelly and David up on one of their special offers.
Emindful is certainly stretching the limits (sic) of what can be accomplished with virtual meeting technology – and that’s exciting! I’m wishing Kelley and David great luck in 2010 will be keeping an eye out for new offerings from them in the fast-moving connected health and telehealth markets.
What else can people do in virtual meeting rooms? We’re only beginning to scratch the surface, aren’t we? What a decade this is going to be!
