Yesterday, I had lunch in Bells Corners at a Vietnamese "Pho" restaurant with one of my good colleagues.  I had asked him if he had ever seen "that homeless guy" who writes poetry on the corner of Sussex Drive and George Street.  A majority of the time I get the same reply, "Yes, I've seen that guy before".   

 

A fixture on the same corner for more than two years, Dave Dessler or Crazzy Dave as he prefers to be called, may be homeless, but he isn't faceless. With his messianic hair and quick, caustic wit, he has been "busking poetry" that tends to focus on what he senses at street level to survive.

During my morning routine, somewhere in between my endless TwitterFox TechCrunch messages and RSS feeds, I discovered a real commonality in the way PR firms are transforming their traditional "behind the curtains" outreach.  It seems that PR, now more than ever, is much more capable and influential than simply writing drivel press releases to contacts generated by media databases. 

 

No, it can't be true can it? Are PR firms putting the "public" back into public relations?  Well, sort of.  On the web, you are what you publish!

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." - Leonardo da Vinci Italian engineer, painter, & sculptor (1452 - 1519)

I, of all people, usually never watch Oprah, but my girlfriend kindly insisted that I watch yesterday's episode (I think it was a repeat). The topic was about two people that have incurable life threatening illnesses and how they now look at life from a different perspective. These two incredibly inspiring people will never take no for an answer. This article in its profoundest sense is about realizing that life is a terminal condition, we are all going to die eventually -- but how many of us are truly going to live?

For all intensive intents and purposes the general theme of my blog is to inspire collaborative creativity. To help people realize the vital importance of working together to not only achieve business success but also social betterment. This article focuses on the "exceptional people" that have created the infrastructure necessary to inspire change, make a difference and improve a life besides their own! These individuals are the silent champions that are not credited in mainstream media, yet their efforts are far more glamorous, courageous and valuable than a majority of Hollywood's finest faux social advocates.

I came across this pretty cool product while trudging through several Cisco newsletter emails in my spam hotmail account. Not since the Jetson's or StarTrek have I seen a videoconferencing system as cool as this one.

 

Click here to watch this cool holographic technology at work. John Chambers (left) is in Bangalore. The other two guys (Martin De Beer and Chuck Stucki) are in San Jose.

Sitting in the board room I gaze up and find our favorite Blackberry groundhogs with their heads buried deep waiting anxiously for that next email to hit their inbox. However, today isn't the typical Thursday afternoon - something different, actually, something quite interesting is taking place (almost transcendent if you will).

By no means is this list fully complete. It merely scrapes the surface of literary masterpieces that will open your eyes and inspire you to not only become a better person, but also, give you a perspective of human enlightenment and hope. Our society needs to continue utilizing common interests and passions to inspire collaborative creativity to help empower change in what I call the three pillars of societal discontent - social injustice, poverty and inequality.