AI product demo: How Google’s NotebookLM helps manage complex information

Google calls NotebookLM an “AI-powered research and writing assistant”. It’s more than that. It “helps users understand complex information by instantly becoming an expert on uploaded sources.” You can upload various types of files to NotebookLM, give it an ask, and watch it “generate” … Focused on AI, I wanted NotebookLM to intersect the big […]

AI and Mediation: Working with the Fourth Party

AI is changing how professional mediators can do business. A pre-recorded presentation by Clare Fowler and Colin Rule (both with Mediate.com), for next week’s Association of Conflict Resolution conference gives a terrific snapshot of what’s possible for today’s dispute resolution professional; e.g. mediator. Click on the image below for the full presentation: The Fourth Party […]

Complement public hearings renovation with a mutual benefit approach

Uytae Lee, from About Here, in partnership with SFU’s Renovate the Public Hearing Initiative, last week dropped a nifty 15-minute video on Why public hearings are undemocratic (and mostly meaningless).   The video touches on public hearings, why they are problematic, and ways to fix the problems. The video provides good discussion fodder. I summarize […]

Gender through the eyes of a primatologist

Last spring, I retired from staff service with a local community organization, Quadra Village Community Centre. Although the advocacy service I provided over the years was focused on seniors, the Centre offered extensive programming for early childhood, youth, and families. Often, staff team conversations touched on gender. Gaining fluency in terminology that was natural to […]

3 Strategies to adapt from the world of animal communications

I’m a dog owner. Dogs are animals. Humans are animals. What can we learn from our animal friends, and their approach to communication? There is an indigenous saying, “dogs make us human”. Connected to my interests in human communications, I enjoy reading about people who have spent their lives working with animals. They were absorbed […]