<nettime> The Elevator Pitch: Global Village enclaves (tm)

["cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>]

The Elevator Pitch: Global Village Enclave(tm)

A recent news item described the elation of some of the itinerant
anti-globalization activists who were assessing the logistics of a
forthcoming demonstration in Prague against the World Bank Group. The
conference site is on the Vlatava River, the hotels on the other, and
three bridges to move between meeting and lodging. They feel it will be
very easy to shut down. Since their success in disrupting the WTO
wrestling matches in Seattle, the goal of some activists has been to make
the meetings too expensive to hold by raising the cost of security and
crowd control for the host city and state.

Given the growing power of international and global bodies* that have been
formed to deal with the sticky and increasingly complex issues that
transcend national boundaries, slow-moving governments,
techno-illiterates, and the objections of quaint, place-based social,
religious, and community organizations that just don't "get it," it is
clear that a business opportunity exists to solve the security problem and
alleviate the apprehension of delegates and conference attendees who balk
at packing kevlar vests and helmets when they would rather take golf clubs
to the meetings.

In the industrialized world the rise in popularity of theme parks such as
Disneyland (Europe, USA, and Japan) and scale model resort hotels (Venice,
Paris, Egypt) contructed in Las Vegas, Nevada, indicates that the planning
assumptions and image marketed by the commercial supporters of these
destinations can be applied to the more serious goal of establishing a new
environment where global leaders can meet in peace.

Imagine a place (let's call it a Global Village Enclave(tm)) that is a
combination gated community, Club Med, strategic hamlet (1), Cheyenne
Mountain (2), Multimedia Super Corridor (3) all maintained by a group such
as Executive Outcomes (4). By isolating the enclaves in remote regions
such as the Pararaima Mountains in the Guiana Highlands (5); Peace Park
between Mozambique and South Africa; Lanai, Hawaii; or St. Barts in the
Caribbean the attendess may spend more to reach the destination, but they
know they can avoid the unpleasantness of confronting rag-tag
demonstrators on the way from the airport or outside the hotel or
conference site. They will have comfort, peace, a place to relax, top
notch telecommunications facilities, and easy movement between dining,
lodging, and meeting places, all free from outside interference. It will
not be practical for more than a few die-hard deep ecologists to make
their way through the Amazon jungles to reach the GVE in Venezuela, and
the threat of wild animals in South Africa/Mozambique will be a deterrent
to camping outside the GVE. Bill Gates has shown that even public islands
such as Lanai (the site of his wedding) can be secured against prying
media and still provide comfortable transportation and lodging for many
guests. Executive Outcomes not only provides security in harsh anarchic
environments, they are not saddled with the slightest worry about
litigation (as many American and European police departments are) from
people like Jose Bove, John Sellers, John Zerzan, or Lori Wallach or their
supporters.

The Challenge

The half-life of good business propositions is quite short. Consider this
open source problem solving. Most start-ups are very protective of their
ideas, but we cannot be. The team needed to plan a secure Global Village
will consist of architects, theme park directors, military and law
enforcement personnel, hotel and conference management experts, telecom
hackers and wireheads, airport managers, and geography experts who can
lend their expertise to site selection. Following that, a business plan
and presentation and relationship building with the Right People for
financial backing and public support.

Steve Cisler
cisler@pobox.com

Elevator Pitch: In Silicon Valley, people seeking venture capital support
for their business plans hone their presentations to the time it takes to
go a few floors in an elevator. There are few tall buildings here, but if
you are in the same elevator as someone with money to invest, you have a
short time to make your case or 'pitch', hence the term 'elevator pitch.'

* WIPO, ICANN, WARC, UN, WTO, WWF, IMF, WEF, Elders of Zion, and  even IWW.

(1) Strategic Hamlet:
http://www.vietnamwar-reference.com/samps/strat_hamlet.html
(2) Cheyenne Mountain: http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace/cmocfb.htm
(3) Multimedia Super Corridor: http://www.mdc.com.my/
(4) Executive Outcomes: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/executive_outcomes.htm
(5) Guiana Highlands http://www.bartleby.com/65/gu/GuianaHi.html



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