Draft remarks of John Hibbs at the Opening of GLD Ten.

Welcome to Global Learn Day, Voyage Number Ten.

My name is John Hibbs and I’m your make-believe Captain on a make-believe ship that will make stops in dozens of very real places to meet hundreds of very real people.

Thank you very, very much for coming on board!

In just a moment I shall turn things over to the moderators of our Opening — Blaine Berger in Colorado and Tom Dretlor in Boston.

Blaine has sailed with us on every Voyage and was our “Chief Navigator” on Global Learn Day One. A First Rate, First Mate guy — in every sense of the world.

Tom is President and CEO of Eduventures, a world leader in education research and analysis. These two will moderate the conversation between two very real heavyweights who will help pull up the curtain to Global Learn Day Ten.

One of the heavyweights is Sir John Daniel who earned his knighthood by “changing the landscape of higher education in the United Kingdom”. The other one is Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, the 800 pound gorilla of our times.

But before we get to Blaine, Vint and Sir John, I’m going to exercise my rights as your make-believe Captain and take a little time to tell you a good story….one that is directly linked to this opening and our Voyage. I will try to be brief, but if not — please forgive me — it’s my birthday and I’m in a mood to celebrate.

My story is underpinned by the fact that I am a huge, huge fan of Muhammad Ali…and have been for a very long time. I loved him as a great fighter and I loved him even more for the courage to give up his heavyweight title and risk many years in the penitentiary because of strongly held religious beliefs.

Today, at the same age as Ali, my love for this remarkable man grows as a result of his ongoing efforts for a more peaceful world.

I saw Ali fight many times and was at the biggest and best fight in boxing history - The Thrilla in Manila. Here was lightning-fast Muhammad Ali vs. the indomitable Smokin’ Joe Frazier — 14 horrific rounds best described by the poet James Tokley as The War of the Gods.

And that is exactly what it was.

But my story is not about the fight, or even about the “sweet science” of boxing.

The story begins with a convicted felon named Don King, the greatest boxing promoter of all time. In the last 30 years Don King has put on over 500 world championship fights. About being successful, Don says this: “You have to be creative, innovative and have the guts to stand up. A man who has no wings cannot fly – and will remain permanently stuck in the same old place.”

Lesson One: Never give up. Never give in.

The fight that put Don King at boxing’s pinnacle was the Thrilla in Manila, an amazing — indeed, a mind-bending accomplishment. In a world dominated by white managers, white promoters, white owners and white king-makers, Don was outrageously black. He was also broke on his butt, had served six years for serious felony crimes, had very little formal education and had grown up dirt poor.

What Don King did best was convince people he could do what he promised. …that’s Lesson Number Two — and one that needs no further explanation.

King signed Ali and Frazier by promising both he could “guarantee each fighter a million bucks apiece”. The agreement had steep conditions and nobody of consequence believed that King could make it stick. How in the world could a penniless loudmouth — and a black one at that — guarantee a world-record amount?

Like all smart operators, King begain by asking the hard questions. By far, the most vexing one was this: Who can put up two million bucks and doesn’t give a damn if he ever gets a dime of it back?

King’s answer to that question was the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcus. Looking backwards, the solution of holding a big event in a distant land seems easy. At the time, it was anything but. As is often the case when the right question is pondered, and the solution sensible if viewed through the prism of the customer, selling Marcos the benefits of a very big spotlight was a cinch. Two million? For Marcos, this was chump-change…. his wife Imelda spent more on new shoes than the amounts promised to Ali and Frazier.

Thus the fight came to Manila.

Lesson Three — Ask hard questions and give them hard thought.

But there’s more to this story than how King connected with Mr. Marcos or how he brilliantly collaborated with the fighters, their managers, the big whigs and the scammers, the hangers-on and the wanna-be’s.

That’s Lesson Four — it’s all about collaboration — and skillful navigation. On this Voyage, I promise you we will hear more about that.

King’s next questions paved the way for sealing the deal: If we could televise Neil Armstrong from the moon, why couldn’t we televise a fight from Manila? And if Madison Square Garden could sell ringside seats for a thousand bucks each how many tickets could we sell if a ringside seat was in front of a television set?…and the price was under ten bucks?

Along came Ted Turner and his brand new CNN……and the rest is history.

Which brings me to Lesson Five and, yes, the point of this story.

Many on our Voyage are convinced that the best ringside seats in the world of education can come to your desktop — or iPod — or even by ordinary radio; that you don’t have to go to Harvard or Oxford or Stanford to get a great education.

And neither do you have to pay ringside prices because you don’t sleep in Boston or Cambridge or Palo Alto.

Here’s the last lesson of all, and no it’s not about gathering large audiences, at least not in real time.

Don King had it right for the world of sports where everything depends on watching the contest in real time at the exact moment of the event. But in our world of intellectual enquiry and thougtful collaboration the importance of real time vanishes.

In our world what’s most important is the quality of the content and the convenience offered to the viewer. Those who marry outstanding content with ubiquitous delivery at a time selected by the end user — such persons will attract very large audiences.

The magic of RSS, the explosion of podcasting, the collective broadcast power of thousands of community radio stations worldwide — and yes the star power of Sir John and Vint Cerf — combined with bright volunteers found everywhere — make it possible that many hundreds of thousands will hear a chorus of voices that come from a make-believe ship on very real Voyage.

Proof? Chris Anderson, in his brilliant new book calls all this The Long Tail - After you read the book, you will understand why this Voyage has a very long tail.

That’s my story and I hope you enjoyed it.

Allow me to conclude with mention that the best birthday present I ever got was confirmation that Vint and Sir John would be with us as we get ready to cast off. Gentlemen, thank you both, very, very much.

So, Blaine Berger, here is the tiller. This ship is now yours.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 9:24 am and is filed under Opening Ceremonies, Keynoters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.