2007 WSA Grand Jury Croatia (11)

I woke up this morning very early and the first thoughts went to our jury member from Brazil who is still in intensive care and has overnight been moved from Pula to Zagreb. Peter Bruck, the honorary chairman of the WSA, visited him before the transfer, talked to him and the doctors, and to his wife. The next three days are going to be critical for him and the rest of his life.

Life is cruel though. The weather this morning is beautiful, so I had breakfast outside near the quay, overlooking the harbour. Outside the harbour there is a large yacht (see photograph), on which George Cluny is; at least rumour has it.

This will be the last day on Brijuni island. The conference is still on for half a day. Sometimes a speaker is able to draw a laugh on the face of the participants like Felix T. Hong, originally from Korea, but now Professor of Physiology at Wayne State University. He was speaking about creativity and went on about rule based programming. To make clear that in creativity there is a verbal rule based programming as well as a visual rile based programming, he used the example of George Bush during the Katrina hurricane. When he was shown pictures about the situation and the people, nothing happened. But when he was read a memo saying that people were in distress and dying, he shot into action.

After the conference we are breaking up the WSA Grand Jury activities here, pack and go with the rest of the jury members to Zagreb for the closing dinner.

We take along from the island many things: a new list of winners and a lot of ideas such as students’ book on content as well as a virtual academy. We also received a request for Content Institute in the Middle East. Most of all we take along the fact that we, the jurors, the moderation team, staff and tutors have been a week together and have worked together on the results of the WSA edition 2007 on this paradise island. However after the accident it feels like we lost some of the paradise.

After the conference we are breaking up the WSA Grand Jury activities here, pack and go with the rest of the jury members and some mebers of the press corps to Zagreb. This will be a four hour ride, during which I most likely fall asleep, unless people keep talking to me. We will have a closing dinner. Tomorrow I fly back to Amsterdam

Our juror from Luxembourg Lafit Ladit summed it all up in his observation with a historical reference to the association of non-allied countries in the presence of the State secretary: Brijuni has its history, but now WSA is definitely part of it.

BTW There is an official WSA blogand there will be daily photographs.

Blog Posting Number: 862

Tags:World Summit Award, World Summit on the Information Society