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Challenge issued at Camden conference: Adapt, America

JUSTIN ELLIS

— By

Staff Writer

CAMDEN — With unemployment rising, the housing market shaky and time running out on the country's sources of energy, is there any better time to push the reset button on America?

Entrepreneurs, artists, researchers and other thinkers have descended on this seaside town to explore that question at Pop!Tech this weekend.

For years, people have gathered at the annual three-day conference dedicated to exploring ways to use innovation, technology and collaboration to tackle society's big problems.

What bigger topic to examine than the current state of America, as this year's Pop!Tech theme, ''America Re-imagined,'' looks at changing the country from business and politics to arts and the environment.

''As dominant old growth trees fall -- I'm thinking Detroit, much of the old media -- doesn't it give room to the seedlings and saplings to have a clearer field and more sky to grow?'' author Kurt Andersen told the audience.

Speaking on the ebbs and flows of the economy during the 20th century, Andersen said America has suffered and survived crises for a long time.

''For all the bad habits and craziness of the last 20 years, one of the happy byproducts has been the renaissance of the American spirit,'' he said.

Be it the Founding Fathers or Steve Jobs tinkering on a computer in a garage, that spirit is one of creativity and invention, often born of tough times, Andersen said.

Dan Ariely, a researcher who studies the connections between economics and behavior, said one way to re-imagine America and its economy is to evaluate how people work.

''We study the irrationality of people and markets,'' Ariely said of his work. ''2008 was a good year for us.''

Ariely said his research shows that incentives such as pay increases and bonuses don't always improve performance, and can have the opposite effect. If money is guaranteed, there isn't always an incentive to work, Ariely asked.

''People have the tendency to villainize Wall Street,'' he said. ''But the real enemy is human nature.''

Thursday's sessions at Pop!Tech focused on people and programs changing the status quo in America, including discovering new forms of renewable energy, rebuilding impoverished communities and new routes for civic engagement.

Erica Williams, deputy director of Campus Progress, said politics already are being redefined.

Williams said her goal was to convince the audience ''that my generation is not only re-imagining America but rebranding it, re-creating it and reforming it right now.''

Instead of getting involved in town hall meetings or traditional lobbying, the millennial generation takes action locally and online by collaborating and rallying others, using social media and starting from the ground up, she said.

There's a reason why young people supported the election of President Obama, she said, and it wasn't because he's young or seen as cool. It was his means of campaigning and the message, she said.

''We did not adopt Barack Obama's frame, he adopted ours,'' she said.

It has been more than a decade since Pop!Tech started in Camden as a small gathering of technologists and new media thinkers. Over time, the event has broadened in scope and reach, said Andrew Zolli, curator of Pop!Tech.

For instance, Pop!Tech has been the launching pad for programs far outside Maine, like Project Masiluleke, an initiative to use cell phones to spread information and aid in South Africa.

Still, Camden is a special part of Pop!Tech, he said. ''People have come thousands of miles to be in this room.''

Others traveled just up the coast.

Nat May, executive director of the Space Gallery in Portland, said he had been curious about Pop!Tech for some time and figured it was time to see for himself.

''It's a collection of fascinating minds who have brought new ideas to their respective fields,'' he said.

May said it's a good way to step outside day-to-day life and think about issues affecting the world as a whole. The conference has a kind of serendipity, letting participants find out about projects or companies they have never heard of, and networking with people they wouldn't otherwise meet.

''If you knew what you were going to get out of it, you wouldn't come,'' he said.

Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380. See his blog at:

www.pressherald.com