Babble Session - Be that Anthropologist from the first day...

Before I got sick, I got a chance to do a little exploring. Nothing spectacular or new, but what I really enjoy is talking to the people who live here and work here. Chatting with the some of the stall owners at Albert Cuyp Market was a lot of fun, and they would often give me directions to places most of the tourists wouldn’t know about. Found a lovely little restaurant for dinner because of a fellow selling Miffy dolls (I’ve tried twice to find his stall again to say thank you, but haven’t managed it) and later as I was walking about playing Pokemon Go, I met some really nice kids who were interested to find that I had Pokemon they wouldn’t be able to catch in Europe. They also showed me now to throw a curve ball in the game. I didn’t know about that. Also met some adults playing the same game from not just here, but from all over the world. Meeting people through the game wasn’t something I had expected, but it sure was fun to find a shared interest in it with people from ... well everywhere. 

Listening to fellow Americans at the hotel I stayed at before I got to the Bicycle Hotel, like always, makes me cringe. Perhaps I am overly sensitive, but I have always found it rude to criticize a country they’re visiting because it does not work in a familiar way, or in a way that they think it should. Things said without knowing the whole story. I listen to this familiar dialogue, for it is almost always the same in its tone of superiority, and watch the staff cast glances with varying degrees of humor or annoyance. Worse, they hear it so much that, “It is okay, I am used to it,” which means it happens more frequently than just what I am hearing. I said that maybe I am being overly sensitive because when I ask, they say they hear it from many nationalities, not just mine. Being a critical and ignorant voice in a sea of many is still rude for me. I’ve never had the guts to tell my fellow Americans to have a care with their critical words, so in fact that may make me an accessory depending on your view. 

Ask, if you don’t understand something, or something seems wrong to you. Clarify the situation or do a little research. Answers or innovations to problems come in many shapes and forms and they do not always look like what you think they’ll look like. I can’t remember who said it, but one of my brilliant classmates on this trip said something only the lines of “giving an answer/solution before asking any questions,” and I hear many answers without questions being asked or the local culture by many people. Not just in our group but also among visitors to the Netherlands. Speculation, but no questions of the native population. It always surprises me how many times that happens. There are ways to ask questions that are uncomfortable without creating a confrontation. I have found that starting with “I’m curious about. ——. May I ask you about that?” Sometimes the answer is no, sometimes yes, but I come away with a deeper understanding of the culture than if I had just observed, asked nothing and made assumptions. 

This has been on my mind because we are here to see a different view on how things are done, rather than be critical of the way things are done, when all we are looking at is a window... and not the house as a whole. Tread lightly.

Innovation with an Illness Hangover - Bear with Me...

Saturday finds me somewhat recovered from a nasty upper respiratory infection that arrived with haste Tuesday afternoon while I was taking a nap. Honestly, napping usually makes me feel better, but not this time. I’ve never had an infection set in that fast, nor during what was supposed to be a restful nap. Speculation at breakfast every morning concerning what caused my viral infestation ranged from overheating myself, to an allergic reaction to something at the garden we visited on Tuesday afternoon. I honestly don’t know what happened, but I know I am glad that it is slowly leaving my system. Maybe I won’t be sleeping nearly 23 hours a day anymore and actually get to enjoy some of the places my classmates have been telling me about in the mornings. 

All is not completely lost though. During my necessary confinement (which resulted in MUCH needed rest, sleep and the intake of copious amounts of water... I think I might be somewhat aquatic in nature now) I was able to keep up on most of the readings, although I did have trouble getting to some of them. Strangely today I am having no trouble reaching the elusive links of earlier this week. 

The first group of articles talked about innovation, what it is, and what it is not. Star example was the Thailand Cave rescue of a school kids, and then Elon Musk taking a very serious situation and using it to grandstand. What was his actual intention? I don’t know. But it certainly came off as rude idiocy on his part in having something built without understanding the situation or having any respect for an expert rescue fully in progress. For most people innovation denotes something which is created that is beneficial to the populace, rather than to whoever created it. In situations where someone in power offers help, offer the resources to those in charge, because as an outsider, you lack knowledge of the situation and all the inherent myriad complications. Bow that ego to those who know, instead of flexing corporate muscles. It’s the difference between innovation and profit/image building which is what the private sector is trying to do. 

It could be said that innovation is more closely tied to community, rather than the private sector which deals with image, profit and reputation building. These things can masquerade as innovation, but in the end equates to “how much money can we make off this new product?” Innovation is beneficial to community as the primary focus, not a company looking in a our pocket books with greedy eyes. While one could point to Steve Jobs and his touch screen, when the iPod was first released, it was highly affordable. This was something that was in everyone’s hands by Christmas and it changed the very nature of owning a cell phone. The sky high prices (and the disturbing trend to ‘lending’ options) for the iPhone took off after his death, and has ceased to move forward in any real way worth mentioning. Affordable hand held computers, with touch screens, was innovative. The ‘innovations’ that have happened since the death of Steve Jobs has been a misuse of the word. If anything, it has gone entirely in the opposite direction. 

Outside of the private sector, innovation happens when something new is needed to bridge some sort of a gap, and it tends to happen naturally from what I have seen. The community does not always look to local government to fix something, but sometimes does it on it’s own. Just speaking from my own time as a library manager in a rural area, many programs already exist to be the legs for the elderly who can’t get out to the grocery store or get their mail from the post office. It might start as one person helping out a neighbor and turn into something bigger. For my library, it started as one person doing library runs for shut-ins who had trouble getting to places they needed to go. The library was one such place. The young man would come in and pick up a stack of books for people he did delivery runs for. Eventually the library became a support leg for this program, and other volunteers stepped up to spread out the area that could be reached. I personally didn’t start this program, but I did help boost it with the library’s support. It was started to fill a need in the community, and was innovative simply because someone took existing beneficial resources and tied them together. It wasn’t just one person, but a group of collaborative work that resulted in a new program. One that multiple people and communities found very helpful.

I suspect that every person asked is going to have a different variation of a definition for what innovation is. Business sectors will look at it as essential for industry growth. Community looks at it as something necessary and beneficial for them on a personal level. Libraries tend to look at it as something that happens every day to fill an unexpected need, often a quick roughshod program that comes into existence spur of the moment. A lot of my best programs happened that way because of a need of just one person. Public librarians don’t always have the time prototype and work with an idea, but a lot of times they do stick things together with creative duct tape and revisit to shore it up with what they have on hand. Using what they have in new ways to fill a gap. For me that’s innovation. 

First Time in Amsterdam

The first time I left the U.S., I went big and flew to Australia, which is about as far away as you can get from the U.S. and not be standing on a frozen continent. I lived in Australia for 2 1/2 years, and loved every minute of it. People would ask me if I’d even been to Europe, and were surprised the answer was no. Europe just does not have a lot of draws for me, but the Netherlands was one of the exceptions. If I ever got the chance to go, I would go. 

Fast forward several years to 2019 and low and behold, while working my way through an MLIS program, there is a study abroad options to the Netherlands. I signed up and was lucky enough to be accepted into the summer study program. June finds me seated in a small room in Amsterdam preparing for the classes and the many excursions my course mates and I will be taking around the city. Two weeks will be spent in Amsterdam, and another two in Delft. The topic of the course? Innovation and Design having to do with Museums, Libraries and other entities here in the Netherlands. I took a design course in the winter quarter and very much enjoyed it, so this sounded absolutely fascinating to me. I am looking forward to this experience.

I got to Amsterdam a few days early so I could adjust to the time change and rest up from a lengthy 10 hours of flight time. Definitely not as bad as the 18 hours from LAX to Sydney Airport though. I walked around my hotel’s neighborhood, found good places to eat and got trapped briefly in a Albert Heijn Market. On Saturday I went to the Albert Cuyp Street Market, and became part of the masses as tourists and locals searched for items and souvenirs. I found a stand selling licorice, and I got my favorite, salted licorice, which earned me some strange looks from the American tourists and delighted surprise from the woman selling the licorice. Two Miffy plush toys were added to my bag for friends, and Mom now has some fabric from the Netherlands. And my phone got a brand new charging cord, because for unknown reasons it’s charging cord broke on the flight here. Which was quite a feat, considering it was carefully packed in a soft cloth bag. 

My first few days have been lovely with all the exploring and the sunny warm weather. Hopefully that will continue, but I am told there is always the possibility of rain... which honestly isn’t all the different from Seattle. In fact, it was drizzling when I left for Amsterdam. 

Today, the study abroad group finally meets up for a mini orientation. So, off we go for what I am hoping will be a wonderful four weeks!!