“On March 23, I decided to go off consumption for a year to understand an increasingly important subculture whose members refuse to define their identity by buying things.”

Gaurav Mishra from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University submitted this gem.  To learn more go to http://www.gauravonomics.com/offconsumption

“A brief introduction to the fermented drink Kombucha along with a tutorial
on how to make it yourself.”

From Nick Parish at Creativity. http://www.nickparish.net/

Marc and Sara Schiller from the Wooster Collective submitted this Interesting entry:

“A slideshow celebrating unauthorized (and most often, illegal) creative
acts done by everyday citizens on the streets of New York since the 1940’s.
From culture jamming to “guerrilla knitting” to street theater - and more.”

http://www.woostercollective.com

That’s the title Grant McCracken has given to his speech at Interesting.  Here’s a description:

“My wife says I have it. I feel quite strongly you have it. So that makes
everyone. We all have asperger’s syndrome. Right?”

To find out more about what he means, or just more about Grant, go to http://www.cultureby.com. 

This is our official website.  Have a look around.  Share what you think is interesting on the Post page.  Sign up to speak, or buy tickets to the event on September 13.

A bunch of us got together yesterday morning to start planning Interesting New York.

We discussed the spirit of Interesting (mostly written by Emily):

* Interesting is a goal, not a claim
* It is an opportunity for people to share their passions and what they care about
* People talk because they’re fascinated by something, not because they’re good a public speaking
* Content is open source and sharable
* No agendas.  No marketing.
* Sponsors give tangible things that make the day better
* Collaborative organizing
* Affordable for the average Joe/Jane
* Not for profit.  Any extra money goes to charity

We talked about dates.  And whether we should do it this summer or in the fall.  August in New York is vacant, so that probably won’t work.  July seems ambitious, but possible.  And September seems reasonable, but far off.

The day of week the conference should be held started an interesting debate.  Saturday or weekday?  Interesting London and Amsterdam are on Saturday, and Sydney is on a weeknight.  Saturday sends a strong signal that the day is about leisure and not work.  And allows people to come who can’t get the day off work.  A weekday evening says the same thing, but I can’t stay awake past 9pm and hopefully we’ll too many speakers to get through in only a few hours.

http://www.interestingnewyork.com will be where people can find everything they want to know about the day - once we build it.