We Will Change

"We are not as divided as our politics would suggest." - Barack Obama

RIM's Jim Balsillie announced recently a collaboration with Dipdive's Will.i.am to offer social networking and multimedia on the Blackberry.

Well, that's cool, to be sure. As an IT professional deeply involved in delivering "Software as a Service" (SaaS), I'm naturally an advocate of web services as one way to make our professional life better, more effective, more efficient. But I'm also a consumer who uses Facebook and Flickr, a boomer with both a Blackberry and Windows Mobile device on my belt, a regular blogger, a video iPod owner and weekly customer of iTunes, Amazon and other sites which enhance the quality of my personal education and entertainment.

I live in the Region of Waterloo, the home of the Perimeter Institute and the Institute for Quantum Computing. I am also a cancer survivor, having received my treatment at the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre's Balsillie Family Building. Obviously, I have benefited personally and seen my community benefit from the largesse of the pioneers of RIM...and I am truly grateful.

So when I hear about a venture like this, there are many reasons for me to pay attention, not the least of which is excitement about the actual content. I can't say that I've been to Dipdive before today. But when I paid my visit to see who Balsillie intended to collaborate with, I have to say that I was impressed with the YesICanSong.com's multimedia presentation. And I found myself inspired and identifying with someone whose music never really did anything for me. In fact, I couldn't even have told you that I knew much of anything about the Black Eyed Peas. But when I read Will.i.am's comments about Barack Obama's New Hampshire primary speech and reflected back on the inspiration of Martin Luther King, I realized just how much power and possibility there is in the multimedia site.

And I realized something...

Experience is important. But even more important is our vision of the future. We grasp, we hope, we dream, we change. Any technology, anyone, anything which contributes to making our dreams of a better world a reality deserves more of our energy and attention than the fears, the frustrations arising from our personal experiences.

After all, we will change.