Michael Hawley has been publicly talking about his work with the MIT Media Lab and the country of Bhutan for awhile. He now has a book out, a 5 by 7 foot 133 pound book. Hawley's team at MIT together with Friendly Planet took over 40,000 photographs on four expeditions. His new project claims to be the largest published book in the world. The cost? $10,000 from Amazon, so perhaps not on your Christmas shopping list.

A young teenage girl approached Hawley during one of those trips, asked him about 9/11 and whether he lost any friends. Given that Hawley did, she asked him if he needed a new friend, a new friend in Bhutan. Hawley ended up taking this young girl from the village of Trongsa and Gyelsey Loday, son of the head lama in Phongmey, and brought them back to America. [Renee Blodgett]

Facilitation graphics by Peter Durand of Alphachimp Studio
Renee Blodgett's blog
David Weinberger's blog

This presentation is the second of three in the session on Happiness. The other two presentations are:
Alex Steffen
Ze Frank (includes Q&A for all three)

This presentation is one of many from the IT Conversations archives of Pop!Tech 2004 held in Camden, Maine, October 21-23, 2004. ]