> Hei Bronac --
>
>> Roger Malina has generated a process to gather views and opinions on how
>> best
>> to encourage art and science, engineering and design collaborations
>> internationally. I'm figuring out if I can write something and how to
>> write
>> it currently. But he is generally concerned that overall most of the
>> views
>> expressed will relate mostly to the so called 'academy' and wants a
>> broader
>> mix. I wondered if this call may be of interest to Bricos. It seems you
>> can
>
> I had seen the call on the SEAD list
> (http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/about/about.html)
> but decided not to contribute an abstract as it had too much the sheen of
> academic 'papering' -- this despite being very interested. With Roger
> saying
> that they are looking for a broader mix, that's encouraging, but now I'm
> not
> sure I have the time -- I wish they would have included a non-academic
> spin with
> the original 'white (or 'position') paper' call.
> http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/projects/white_papers.html (which also, related
> to its
> NSF funding source, seemed US-centric). To be sure, what they were asking
> for is
> interesting!
>
> Look, if you do write something, let me know -- I would be happy to look
> it over
> and give feedback in the next couple weeks (I'm house-sitting for friends
> in far
> western Colorado for two weeks -- a beautiful location -- before getting
> back
> into teaching after some years of the PhD slog... ;-)
>
> cheers,
> John
>
> --

Good stuff, and I agree with John.

Immo, academia is, as a rule, no longer the place where knowledge
'happens' - and where it feels happy. We should square to that fact and
resolutely embrace the new DIY, DIFO (Do It For Ourselves :-) approach.
Academic and para-academic institutions can of course be of invaluable
support - if our relation to them is that of a parasite to a host.

Cheers patrizio & Diiiinooos!
(long time academics, mind you)

PS My pal Rolf Pixley called the Uni of Amsterdam once a 'KFZ', a
Knowledge Free Zone. And regarding relationships, Jeremy Paxman (BBC
Newsnight) famously stated that "the proper relation between a journalist
and a politician is that of a dog to a lamppost" ... You get the flavor.