Greetings (Namaste) and welcome to Johnnys' Digital Crib. Since this is a personal home page, I suppose I should say a few things about myself. I am a man of many diverse interests, all of which I am currently, or have been, extremely passionate about. In spite of all of my faults, I would like to believe that one of my greatest assets is this compulsion to absorb myself totally into everything I do. For some reason I can't seem to do half a job, at anything. This has led led to both great successes, and great failures in my life, with more of each still to come. Doing the best job possible, whatever the task, challenge, sport or hobby. I believe it's not important "what" you do, but how "well" you do it. I suppose some might consider this a a type of "work ethic". While others, like Ayn Rand, might call it "rational self-interest". Although I don't agree with all of Ayn Rand's philosophy, I do agree with the notion of a self-directed and purposeful life in the pursuit of moral well-being.
"It is the consciously chosen pursuit of a productive career, in any line of rational endeavor, great or modest, on any level of ability. It is not the degree of a man’s ability nor the scale of his work that is ethically relevant here, but the fullest and most purposeful use of his mind."
(Ayn rand)
For most of my life, I have been a student of psychology, philosophy and spirituality. A life-time of reading, self-exploration, along with a bit of formal schooling have now combined to create a desire to see if I can write something about these topics. For the most part I simply want to learn to write well, or at least better than I do presently. I also hope to expand and explore my own ideas, experiences and consciousness in order to try and get a better understanding of who I am. Part of this ongoing self-exploration is an attempt to see if I have anything that might resemble a "creative eye". I have always regretted not taking more pictures through the 80's and early 90's when I was a climber in Squamish, so photography is now a relatively new hobby of mine. I suppose one of my loosely defined goals is to find some way to combine writing about this inner exploration of self, with visual imagery of the world around me. At the very least I am starting to fill up some wall-space at home.
I am also very interested in technology, education and how these fields are not only evolving, but becoming intertwined and supplemental to each other. New forms of technology built around sharing ideas, collaborating and "openness" seem to be perfectly suited to new educational models and knowledge-access, for a global society. Therefore, I also hope to explore ways in which these evolving concepts of "openness" (open-source, open-access, open-learning, open-science etc) can be further extended towards a global and/or universal model of knowledge-access and education. I believe that the growing popularity of these concepts of openness, collaboration and knowledge-sharing may very-well shape our future for the next millennium, and not just in the field of education. I also believe we are truly ONE, both physically as a species and metaphysically in a spiritual or phenomenological sense. One way to (loosely) describe this personal philosophy is with the word "Ubuntu". Ubuntu is a South African ideology which means "humanity towards others" or "I am because we are." Another translation is "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity." If you beleive we are all connected in some way, then you must also beleive that by sharing, collaborating and helping others, we also help ourselves. An open, collaborative and compassionate world in which knowledge and creativity are freely shared, along with a genuine concern for the well-being of our fellow man, may be our best (or only) chance at ensuring long-term survival or the realization of our own individual well-being (self-actualization). These are my beliefs.
We are IT, we are all there IS, we are the gods, the devils, the good, the bad, the movers and the shakers, the Ultimate Reality, we are IT. Tat Tvam Asi.
Johnny Stork
