The occasional light expression

I live in Bangalore, India, thousands of miles from where the candidates are slugging it out for the 2008 US elections.

However, there is something about the spring-in-his-step, poetic, inspiring, post-partisan and savvy Barack Obama that has made me much more interested in the 2008 US elections than any US election I have followed in the past.

I’d been intrigued about the Obama campaign from the first time I heard him on TV in the Democratic debates in 2007 and read his famous Democratic convention speech. Subsequently, I ended up reading his book ‘The Audacity of Hope’ and was struck by the candidness and broad strokes across topics within the book. I sensed some new directions, some concerns for real issues, and a hope that those issues that impact the future (energy, space exploration, moderation over brinkmanship) might be addressed by this man who seems more open to collaboration and reaching out to the rest of the world than his peers.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on how the Democrats play out the next few months.

I just finished reading Douglas Rushkoff’s “Get Back in the Box” - a very relevant, pragmatic yet inspiring ride across the Innovation landscape. I highly recommend the book for anyone in the business of design or business innovation.

The world needs more renaissance folks like Douglas Rushkoff who describe a very possible alternate future of sharing, collaboration, meaningful work and workplaces, open source democracy and business, and the essence of the new renaissance we are in.