Flying Finn

To say I was impressed was an understatement. What a speaker - I have just come from the first series of keynote speeches that featured Michael G. Moore and Erik Duval. But it's not these two I want to eulogise over. If either has spoken first, they would have been deemed 'good'. But they had the misfortune to follow a prodigy. EDEN 2007's first keynote speaker, a 24 year old Finn named Teemu Arina, (Pictured Right) completely blew away the entire conference. Serendipic Learning (you know - what goes on in the third space) was one of Teemu's themes, and parasitic learning was another.

Teemu also traced the 'evolution' of man's learning development to our point in history with Homo Contextus. Never heard of any of these? Pity you wern't there then (so follow the links). I know it's not helpful, but how can I do justice to what Mr Arina said in a short blog like this. I think it's fair to say, having talked to quite a few delegates during the coffee break, that he left us all reeling with new ideas, thoughts and questions, and expertly set the scene for the whole conference. His speech was also McLuhan heavy, which is not a bad thing when repurposed in this context. Although the location of EDEN this year is pretty naff, the content, if it echoes on from this keynote, is going to be astounding....

Quote of the day: 'The future cannot be predicted, but it can be invented' (Denis Gabor).