Narrative

(Stuff I'm interested in now, or was interested in before.)

Currently, I am Chairman of the Board of All Species Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. We'd like to give each organism its own web page. The genesis of this idea is described in this account.

A lot of my attention is focused on the exciting work at the Long Now Foundation, where I serve on the board. Long Now Foundation is a non-profit group dedicated to fostering long-term responsibility as an antidote to the extremely short-term horizon of most contemporary organizations. The most interesting project we have going is the 10,000-year clock that the Foundation is building, a clock conceived and designed by Danny Hillis. I have also been actively involved in the creation of a Rosetta Disk, an archival disk of 1,000 languages to put in or near the 10,000-year Clock. The Rosetta Disk has spun off a dynamic web site that serves as an all language archive, called the Rosetta Project.

I have been a long-time member of Global Business Network, a small think tank and consultancy based in Emeryville, California.

Since 1998 I have been a Fellow at the Center for Business Innovation, run by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. The role of Fellows is to conjure with developments on the fringes of business.

I also serve on a number of advisory boards for a few high tech companies or foundations.