Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the greatest advocates for civil rights, freedom, human rights, democracy, and peace. It is great that we honor him and the difference he made on this day.
In San Francisco there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial at Yerba Buena Gardens, which has several of his quotes translated into the languages of San Francisco’s 13 international sister cities, as well as African and Arabic dialects. You walk behind a waterfall to view the quotes; it is well worth a visit.
Perhaps King’s most famous event was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963. He delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech there. From the Wikipedia: “The march made specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public school; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum wage for all workers; and self-government for Washington, D.C., then governed by congressional committee. Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than a quarter million people of diverse ethnicities attended the event, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the National Mall and around the reflecting pool. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington’s history. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech electrified the crowd. It is regarded, along with Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Infamy Speech, as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was involved in many social and political movements during the 1960s that remain with us today; during the same time, there was also a movement in the computer industry that is now revolutionizing our way of life as radically as the 1960s did. Timesharing, which is sharing computing resources among many users, was in its infancy in 1963. Check out this video, filmed at MIT in 1963, which explains timesharing. The link that timesharing and the present time share is that timesharing is one of the essential characteristics of cloud computing.
Cloud computing and social media are providing a new freedom of expression that reminds me of the 1960s. Just like King inspired the dreams of many in his “I Have a Dream” speech, social media allows the voices and dreams of so many more than ever to be heard, as this video about the explosion of social media shows. Just like King stood for democracy and freedom, cloud computing and social media are democratizing computing power, information access, the ability to be heard, and the ability to learn and understand.
Cloud computing is even doing its own march on Washington. President Obama likes and advocates it, and so does his CIO, Vivek Kundra. They don’t just advocate it; they implement it as shown in this post. States such as Michigan are following suit as the cloud-computing movement reverberates from Washington D.C. to states across the nation.
Just as the 1960s impacted corporate culture with increased flexibility, informality, and casual dress, cloud computing is beginning to impact business with increased flexibility, pay-as-you-go service agreements, and easy provisioning. “More business intelligence for more users for more decision empowerment” is the rallying cry of many CIOs today; that’s what 2,500 CIOs told IBM in this survey.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped us imagine and create a future that improved our relationships and interactions. Cloud computing and social media enable his visions to live on and our future to improve in ways he may have never dreamed possible.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
- Was the image on Google’s homepage today
- Made the top 10 tweets on Twitter today
- Was viewed about 10 million times delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech on YouTube thus far
- Has more than 723,000 Facebook fans today
What are your dreams for empowering your company with accessible information and collaboration for 2010?
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