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Virtual Mentoring Communities
B"H
Hi, Folks.
I. With great jubilation, like the Phoenix, I'm back, renewed and raring to embark on our next Great Adventure together.
II. At some point in time since you and I first met, each one of you has indicated your commitment to (or interest in) the co-creation and actualization of global IN-SYNC Virtual Mentoring Communities (VMC; vide infra item III.C.1) that are based on the adage that "it takes a whole village to raise a child" [cf. "Entrepreneurial Education" (http://www.wcu3einstitute.org/Educator500/tabid/86/Default.aspx)].
III. As most of you know, I recently retired in order to devote all my energies full-time to the worldwide actualization of our IN-SYNC initiatives (vide infra items III.C.1-III.C.3):
A. PREMISE: In 2001, 110 Nobel Laureates (including 3 of you) signed a magnanimous statement (prepared prior to 9/11) that calls for a more equitable world ("...social justice that alone gives hope of peace.") and warns that the most profound danger to World Peace will stem from the legitimate demands of the world's poor and disenfranchised [http://www.utoronto.ca/jpolanyi/nobelstatement/statement.html]. Intrinsically central to the Nobel Laureates' thesis is the synergistically-catalyzed development of (and investment in) our One World's Human Capital [especially our One World's Children and our Children's Children (our most precious natural resource); cf. Gary Becker's Human Capital ideation in http://nobelprize.org/economics/laureates/1992/press.html (also precis in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human%5Fcapital)]. Such global Human Capital Development can probably best be accomplished by exploiting the power (and outstandingly low cost-to-benefit ratio) of the Internet to interconnect all the Actual and Virtual Mentors with all the Children of our One World (ages 3 to 103) via Internet-accessible Virtual Mentoring Communities (VMC). Thus our One World's Children might get to know, respect, help (and hopefully someday love) one another as fellow members of the One Human Family that we all are, as evinced by Human Genome researchers [http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/HumanFamilyTree10Adams18Eves.htm].
B. PREREQUISITES: 1. Worldwide cadre of Actual and Virtual Mentors for each protégé; 2. Ubiquitous Broadband e-Access (wireless and/or wired) for all members of our VMC; and 3. Appropriate implement for Internet access (e.g., laptop, PDA, smartphone, etc.) to be provided to each member of our VMC (viz., all Virtual Mentors and protégés).
C. ACTUALIZATION: Actualization of each of the 3 PREREQUISITES will necessitate, respectively, something akin to each of the following: 1. Virtual Mentoring Communities (VMC)§ that incorporate (a) Virtual Face-to-Face (VF2F) communications/collaborations and Peer Mentoring plus (b) Internet-accessible, haptic-interface-enabled Virtual Reality (VR) simulators and e-Learning laboratories for science, technology, and the arts. VMC can also be incorporated into Cyberlearning, Telehealth, and Virtual Telehealtheducation programs which can conceivably provide smaller, more personalized learning and health-related environments† that promote greater individual well-being and success. These will necessitate public/private alliances/partnerships (perhaps via contract/grant mechanisms akin to Share-in Savings concepts) to ensure that information technology becomes ubiquitous throughout our underserved communities worldwide. § One possible VMC model is posted at http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/VMC.doc (this document serves as a starting point for conversations among our collaborators) † Perhaps something akin to VITAL Centers (http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/VITAL.doc)
2. IN-SYNC initiatives [INnovations for Strategic Year-round Nationwide Connectivity] -- such as AmericansIN-SYNC (http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/AmericansIN-SYNC.doc) -- which provide Ubiquitous Broadband e-Access and are essential (perhaps even crucial) prerequisites for the co-creation of VMC vis-ŕ-vis the successful actualization of seamlessly-integrated, holistic strategic action plans to promote creativity (the process leading to ideas) and innovation (the process of turning ideas into results) commensurate with the requisite, but measured risk-taking.
3. Something akin to the "GrACE" Hybrid Business Model [http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/NCM.doc]. For example, the MIT Media Lab's business model that has been adopted by Dr. Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program (http://laptop.org/ ; http://laptop.org/faq.en_US.html; http://laptop.org/people.en_US.html) is a nation-specific variant of "GrACE" that will eventually provide one Internet-accessible laptop to each and every child worldwide. Moreover, by leveraging a variety of public/private alliances/partnerships across all K-20 communities, major corporations (e.g., Intel) have started to make major investments ($billions$) in global Human Capital Development [viz., via "Entrepreneurial Education" (e.g., http://www.intel.com/education/worldahead/aed.htm)] that will dovetail with Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC strategies for Human Capital Development.
IV. Consequently, I'm also currently seeking a new post-retirement career "home" that can provide the requisite infrastructure and is consonant with my post-retirement career goals apposite to VMC (and VITAL Centers) plus education- and health-related issues such as those discussed in my Personal Statement [http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/MySelf2006.doc (my raison d'ętre)]. I retired from our US Federal Government on January 3, 2006 after 30 years of service [16 years as a research scientist at NIST (www.nist.gov ) and, most recently, 14 years at NIH as a Health Scientist Administrator (HSA; http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/jobs/hsaguide.htm) in the Office of Scientific Review (OSR) at NIGMS (www.nigms.nih.gov), where I administered the reviews of grant applications for health-related biomedical education, research, and research training, primarily those submitted to NIGMS's MORE Division (http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Minority), which probed a variety of regions of K-20 space]. FYI -- my brief 2006 Who's Who in the World bio is posted at http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/RM63F/ while my CV is posted at http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/CV.doc and my Generic Skills are posted at http://www.geocities.com/rm63f/GENERIC_SKILLS.doc.
Thanks for your time and consideration, and feedback.
Richard
Richard I. Martínez, Ph.D. CEO/President, OmniSciHCD® Consultants, LLC (http://OmniSciHCD.org) Senior Fellow [http://www.excelgov.org/index.php?keyword=a432fa28da53ef], Council for Excellence in Government [http://www.excelgov.org]
"I dream what could be, and ask -- WHY NOT?"
Phone: 301-580-1850 (24x7) Email: Richard.Martinez@OmniSciHCD.org http://WWW.MARQUISWHOSWHO.NET/RM63F http://users.rcn.com/rm63f/VirtualMentoring.htm http://www.geocities.com/rm63f
"Leaders are called to stand in that lonely place between the no longer and the not yet, and intentionally make decisions that will bind, forge, move, and create history. We are not called to be popular. We are not called to be safe. We are not called to follow. We are the ones called to take risks. We are the ones called to change attitudes; to risk displeasures. We are the ones called to gamble our lives for a better world." -- Mary Lou Anderson, April 1970
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. |