Techophilia and Social Progress

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Originally uploaded by PhillipDjwa.

I really rocked on hearing Dallas sing at the evening event at the youth conference this year. He had an awesome message about keeping clean and real. The conference was a lot of fun. Over 850 youth came and what a great load of energy and good will. I love getting a sense of what youth are up to – how they dress, think and feel – and we organized a video seminar on sexual health that was really well received.

The end of March is a crazy time for me. It is by far my busiest month, as the work I do is geared very closely to the government fiscal year that ends on March 31. This year has been no different, and while I enjoy the opportunity to work on a bunch of new projects, I look forward to the break in April, when typically I try to take a bit of a holiday.

At busy times like this, it’s good to consider the work I do and to realize the impact. I see and hear every day the impact of the work I do, which is really rewarding.

But one aspect of being busy is that sometimes you can’t help but multitask all the time. It’s a fact of life. And yet it sometimes is a difficult way to be. A friend sent me this article about “doing less” and it really resonates with me. The idea that having a focus on specific tasks is really attractive to me. Having a chance to relax and contemplate often leads me to new ideas. I sometimes find this time scary as it leads me to big changes in my life as I often come up with ways to “improve” my life and that of my family. And yet, we all know that without that time to contemplate, and put pieces together, we really risk continuing bad habits.

Anyway, this article is worth a read.

Robert Scales of Raincity Studios did a quick Podcast with me at Massive 2006. I reallya appreciate how these guys get things together and just do it. A good lesson for me as I still have a bunch of podcasts I still haven’t posted!

Anyway, one thing – here’s a link to the virtual PBX company. I haven’t tried them, but I’ll probably give them a call. What they do is make a version of the Asterisk@home and are backing it up with some support. They seem a little like too virtual as a company, but it might be worth trying. There hasn’t been a good way to get a pbx with all the features I want for the cost they offer, which is $1200 plus install and phone cards. You also need to buy IP based phones, which are about $200 each.

Update: I decided to actually use a friend’s offer to build me my VOIP PBX using Asterisk. I’ll update once it’s built and installed.

Here’s a great article about financing the revolution.

People that know me understand my political and progessive stripes. I believe strongly in a world that treats everyone as equals and as worthy of respect and concern. I am the classic social entrepreneur. Business with a social conscience.

Yet it’s been a struggle over the years to balance my ethics along with my business needs, which is driven by the bottom line. But today I feel more than ever that the balance is working. My clients are 99% not-for-profit and I am able to support my family and employees. More importantly, I feel really strongly about the work I do and feel like I am contributing to a better world.

I met up with Andre Charland of eBusiness Applications last nite and he is one business owner that is doing this in spades. I really admire the way he has been able to balance his passion for helping others, through BALLE BC (Business alliance for local living economies) and his passion for skiing – he’s off to Argentina for 4 weeks for a skiing trip. Plus he runs what appears to be a very succesful web 2.0 business. A great combination and another version of the perfect social entrepreneur!!