I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech and Community Matters and we have Andrew Morgan with us today. He's the executive director of the Hawai'i Opera Theater. It's very important that we check around the community, see how people are doing in the world of the coronavirus and sometimes it's really surprising. We didn't see and understand how our institutions are doing until now. Now when we look at it under duress this way, we find out so much more we never knew before. Hi, Andrew. It's so nice to have you on the show. Really, really great to have the opera represented here. Find out what's going on with you. Thanks so much, Jay. I'm really pleased to be here. So, you're executive director. You're at the eye of the storm, so to speak. And here this comes sweeping down on you in March, February when, you know, I guess you got through the Figaro production alright. But then you have another one coming up and you canceled that. Can you talk about it? Sure. Yeah, actually coming up on my one year anniversary. So I've gotten through a couple of productions since I started. But yeah, you know, we started hearing rumblings about the COVID-19 pandemic and, you know, knew something was going to have to happen. We were about to make that decision on our own when we learned the news of the Blaisdell Concert Hall closing, that actually the whole complex closing. And so that kind of took the decision out of our hands, but it was the one we had to make anyways for the good of our company, for the good of our patrons, and the artists that would be coming to Hawaii. So we were fortunate that our production was far enough off that we were able to alert the artists before they were coming. Of course, airfares had been purchased and plans were made and contracts and everything. So it was a difficult decision, a difficult situation for everyone involved.  Yeah, I mean, you know, it's fragile anywhere to be in the performing arts when you have a following and, you know, you're sort of thin skinned on the financial side and all of a sudden surprises are really no good for you.  You know, should we or shouldn't, shouldn't we cancel and then that kind of decision gets delayed and then, you know, the damage gets worse if you delay we know that. So actually, yeah, I will say that the day that the Blaisdell announced was the same day that the board and voted to to cancel production. Perfect. We would have made the announcement on that day anyways. But yeah, it definitely it provided us some backup with the decision that it was the right. Yeah. So, you know, I don't know if people realize that you go around the world, auditioning people and finding stars or making contracts with them, arranging for them to come out here, arranging, for example, hotels or sometimes people offer them rooms in their homes, which is very nice. I know few people who do that. And I'm setting it all up and one thing about operators, it's multi multi arts, which means you have so much detail to attend to. You know, you have you have the singing at the stars. You have the orchestra you have the dancers and you have the costumes you have the wigs and it goes on and on how many things you got to attend to and when somebody pulls the plug. It's, it's must be very it must be nerve wracking. There are definitely a lot of balls in the air with any opera production. And yeah, you're right, it takes months and months of planning, if not years.  And obviously the singers have been working on their parts for months and months. You know, the conductor, the stage director, all those people have put in a lot of time and effort into making sure that this production of Salome would have been fantastic. In some ways we are we were fortunate in the decision that I'd made last spring to convert the production to a semi staged version, rather than a full on production was set some costumes. That was done for budgetary reasons, but it was the right thing to do and I think still would have presented the. I was still very excited about the production happening we were doing some innovative things, planning some innovative things within the context of a semi staged version. What is the stage. What is the semi stage, semi stage people would be singing off book they would be walking the parts like they were acting you know the acting the roles. The orchestra would be on stage. We were planning on a platform that went behind behind the orchestra then kind of forward on the stage. So there was some playing space for the for the singers, but they were they would not be wearing costumes they would not be there would not be a set for them to work off of we would probably have a chair and a table or a throne for Herod, that sort of thing. But, but minimalist production. And so that meant that we had no costumes in route we had no, no sets being shipped to us or being built here. No wings to deal with, but still it's it, it, you know, it still hurts to have to cancel something anything. Oh, sure. We save money by doing a semi staged.  So, I guess, you know, the question is, can you, we can't go, we're not going to have the chance to see Salome, we're not going to, we can't see it. So that's why I wanted to ask you, tell us about the opera. What happens what distinguishes this opera, give us a praise to you like three minutes okay. Well, so it is based on the biblical story but more closely based on the play by Oscar Wilde about Salome and she is a beautiful woman. She is the stepdaughter of Herod the King, who has married her mother Herodias. And John the Baptist is in this and, and he has been crying out against Herod and Herodias as an incestuous relationship. Because it is his brother's wife that he's married. And so it's quite, it's quite a scandalous tale even now with the idea that Salome lost after John the Baptist and decides she must have him. He of course declines because of his faith and his dedication to the coming Messiah. And so she takes upon herself the, the Herod asked her to dance the dance of the seven veils. And she agrees to do that on the con with the caveat that he will grant her anything she desires. And so at the end of the dance she says what she wants is the head of John the Baptist on a silver plate. She's, he brings it to her or a guard brings it to her.   Does that make it a tragedy? A happy story. Happy story. So what, now what about your stars? Did you have world class stars here who would have come in trouble? We did. Yeah. Our Salome was Elizabeth Blanca Biggs who has sung the role before. She did it at Mexico City. And our Herod, I'm going to blank on the names now. I'm sorry. You put me on the spot. I didn't know you wanted the cast. But anyways, yes, we had lined up a really fantastic cast. Our Herodist is an old friend of mine that was an Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera. I was a David Caranas. And it was just going to be fantastic. And of course, Emmanuel Plassant was to conduct. And we had a stage director, Shana Lucy, who's worked at Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera The Met, just a really dynamite team that was going to put this together for us. Regrettably going to lose a lot of money for, you know, the fact that it can't be performed. And I know you went out to your viewers, your audience, your followers, people like me. And you suggested the possibility that we not ask for a refund and leave that for support of the opera. What kind of response have you had to that suggestion? So far overwhelmingly positive. We've got about half the people responding back to us and overwhelmingly they're donating their tickets back. And because I feel it's important for our industry and for our company and the aloha spirit that this company brings to the opera world. We're establishing an artist support fund through those donated tickets. And so once we have a better sense of what that total fund will be, we'll be able to parse out some percentage of compensation for all the artists who have their contracts cancelled because of the production being eliminated. So I'm really, I'm really hopeful. I'm really hopeful we'll be able to provide some meaningful compensation to those artists. Even even with the. The bill that was passed that to trillion dollar bill that was passed by Congress that extended unemployment benefits to contractors like professional opera singers are, you know, they're gig workers, they go from opera company to opera company. I'm hearing from my colleagues that are full time singers that the states, it's varying their responses from state to state on whether they're actually being accepted or denied in those unemployment claims. So there's a lot of people really hurting at this time, because thousands and thousands of contracts were canceled. And that alone had thousands of contracts canceled by by cancelling their entire season through the end of the some June right through May.  I mean, it's, it's really bad time to be to be a classical musician or any musician really because pop gigs are canceled too. Boy, and the performing arts in general, really in the same situation between, you know, the orchestra, the ballet chamber music, what have you. Yeah, there's plenty of pain to go around from this pandemic, unfortunately, I'm sad to say. But you know, I think, I think there are, there are a lot of there's a lot of good will out there and I think that we will, we will come back, you know, roaring but you know it's going to be a change landscape. I'm already hearing rumblings of artists that are are concerned about what's called a force majeure clause and most contracts about canceling for war or famine or pandemic. And I get the sentiment, you know, I understand. But it's not, it's not like companies like us want to cancel things, you know, we want to be presenting what we were not for company we present operas. So if we can't present operas we're not making the income that then provides income to those artists. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, the problem is that this is an event an opera is an event and it means people are close to each other and they're breathing on each other. But you don't have to call for sneeze you just breathe on the guy next door. What are you going to do have every third seat filled. Are you going to tell the players to stand at great distance, not going to work the orchestra that can't sit close to you know, not going to work. No, I mean the orchestra was barely going to fit on the stage anyways a solid is a big orchestra. I mean we were doing a reduced version, as it was, and it's still 67 players on stage. Yeah, that's big. Yeah. Yeah. So do you think there's a you know you talk about the changes. Do you think that, you know, the opera and other performing artists as well will come out differently in terms of the way they present you know think about the changes. It's very, it's pure. You know, no microphones. You got to built it out there you got to make everybody in the house, hear you. And to use electronic means, such as we're using now is really not. That's not opera. On the other hand, it does suggest that that maybe music will come together electronically. I know that's offensive in some way. But what do you think I, you know, I think it's been. It's gone back and forth over the last decade or so about what actually longer than that. Benjamin Britton wrote an opera for television. You know so it's not a new concept, particularly, but I think this is you know necessities the mother right. So I think we're seeing a lot of experimentation happening through zoom or other type of conferencing mediums. And I do think you'll see more experimentation with that even once we're able to thankfully hopefully rejoin our audiences live in our performing venues. But I think you won't see this stop now I think you'll you will see. I wouldn't be surprised if you see chamber offers written for zoom or Skype. I think that just kind of gonna be happening. And you do have that microphones for such a thing. You won't be able to help it out. You do although it's not technically it's not for amplifying though it's just for generating the sound period. It'll be kind of like watching a well the Met broadcast at the movie theaters. It's the same sort of thing there. They are singing without mics in the theaters but they are getting picked up on Mike so you can hear them in Hawaii. I really like the Met broadcast and I always say to myself gee Hawaii opera theater, you know get a few videographers I can connect you up with some guys, you know and do something that looks like that. And then put it on, you know cable or television and people would watch that with the same relish really that they would watch the Metropolitan. And so maybe you can have a season that expands into this kind of problem. It could be it's all a matter of resources. You know cameras are expensive camera operators that do well are expensive and obviously you'd have to compensate and should compensate the musicians and the singers differently for that sort of capture. But yeah, I mean, I don't see why not. I will say though that the Met kind of has a lock on that. There's an aspect of there. They're kind of hogging out the territory and I don't blame them. But San Francisco opera attempted while I was working at San Francisco opera they were attempting to do a cinema series as well and just could not get the traction because they couldn't be in theaters that they need to be interesting. So one of the things that one of the things I wanted to ask you about is the orchestra because the orchestra as you said it was like 69 and and 70 is a benchmark when you're around 70 you're you're really filling the pit. Yes, they had a walk away from this and their union they had a walk away from this and they didn't earn any money I mean did you have a contract issue with them. Did they have a you know a gig problem I don't know how it works with the orchestra. They must have been hurt by this. Yeah, I'm sure they are you I mean you should talk to them directly about that particular aspect of it but but yes I mean we are all being impacted significantly negatively financially by this. They had they we contract through Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for our concerts I reinstated that when I got here so this entire season has been through them that organization and we were working on we we've actually been working on a multi year contract with agreement with them but I've been doing show to show this season. And so I had a single you know a contract specifically for Salome. It also had a force measure clause so technically you know we don't owe them anything and certainly the collective bargaining agreement they had with the musicians also had that force measure clause but but again I know the symphonies working on continuing paying their musicians and we are dedicated to including them in the artist support fund so it'll be some percentage again of what the total fee would have been but I think they deserve it you know they worked hard and we we love we love our players I mean they're amazing orchestra we want to have a good relationship with them we want them to know that they're valued and so I believe strongly in that so we will do what we can you know I can't I can't damage the long term health of the company and I don't think anyone would want me to do that but what we can do we will do good you know the players are an important part of the production for sure they are definitely so you have a very rich and robust program of opera education you must have half a dozen separate educational programs going on with the schools with with kids all over the islands. We have people who within the company who spend all their time educating the community and especially the kids in the schools about this but you must have been seriously wounded because you can't do that anymore tell me how it happened to me what you were doing and how they these programs were impacting. Well it's it's really tragic that we weren't able to successfully complete all our programs for this spring semester so yes we do have multiple education programs. We have the opera express which is a touring show of a 45 minute version of an opera this year it was Rossini's La Cenerente or Cinderella which we had done successfully all fall and we're continuing through the spring. It was supposed to tour to the big island in May so all of and finalize finish up touring in on a while who but obviously all of that had to be cancelled because of the pandemic and school closures and we also have opera for everyone which is the final dress rehearsal for each production where we invite students and their families and teachers to come see a live dress rehearsal for the production obviously the Salomé cancelled that had the for this spring we have our young opera young artist program the Orvis studio and the Orvis high school studio those both had master classes that there was a wonderful coach and conductor Mark Morash who was coming into town who actually came into town to do a week of residency with our young artists and he had to leave in the middle of that to get back to San Francisco and get into his own shelter from home with his family. So that didn't come to completion we had several recitals in the spring that were supposed to happen with these young artists those aren't taking place. The biggest heartache for me what was the residency programs which we do in schools mostly elementary school where we have a teaching artist that goes into the school and composes an opera based on a topic that the students select. They write the lyrics together then one of our staff sets it to music so like I'm from Carmen or Bohem or Aida and then they come together and actually produce a performance of it with sets and costumes that the kids make themselves and it's then performed for the school and their families and there was several of those queuing up for their final performances in April and May and that's the real crushing blow of all the work these kids put into those performances with their teachers and those performances just won't happen. We certainly have offered to the schools the ability to extend it to the fall so they can see the completion of the production but the schools were hesitant to commit because there's so much pressure on teachers time. Well maybe they can listen on their favorite music app on their phones and get familiar with opera that way I'll tell you one thing I mean it's just personal but you know here we are in locked in locked down fashion and we have to find constructive ways to spend our time. I mean for me I can talk to guys like you I'm very lucky but I also have to you know I have to find ways to fill my time with you know productive things and pleasurable things and one of the things I do is I listen to opera I'm not kidding. I walk around the neighborhood with my phone and I click into Amazon music and I go one opera after another I haven't listened to so much opera ever before. That's great. But in terms of the season that you've had. Let me see if I can remember. Tosca was the first one back back in October was it. How did that go? What sort of response did you get from the community? That's one of my favorites actually. It is one of my favorites too. It's kind of the perfect opera right it's got everything. Surprisingly everyone dies at the end not just the soprano or the tenor. The soprano and the villain die so some sort of sense of closure I suppose. You know there can't be a sequel because everyone's dead. It was very well received you know ticket sales were good not great. But that's you know kind of the way of most performing arts organizations it's we're struggling to get audiences. But it did well certainly critically acclaimed and the people that saw it thought it was and I would agree with this that it's as good as any other company could possibly do with the opera. Then in February we did Mozart's Marriage of Figaro which was a kind of a Valentine's Day offering and that one. So really Valentine's Day I think helped that propel that over our goal on ticket sales had really great enthusiastic crowds and just a fantastic cast. Really perfect production for me of another one of my what I call Desert Island operas. You know if you're spending a Desert Island project I want to have with you. It's Mozart's Marriage of Figaro up there. Yeah Figaro's really fun. So I guess when it comes to mind it's what are you going to do for the next season. I don't know if it's too early to talk about that maybe not.  So the question is what do you have in mind for next year. So we actually have just announced our season our subscription renewals are coming in. Thank you subscribers we love you. But we're we start off the fall with Madame a butterfly which is one of those ABC is not really ABC but it's it's in there of the top hits. That'll be October 9 11 and 13 at the Blaisdell. We've got a fantastic cast lined up including wonderful Taiwanese soprano Karen Chelling Ho as our butterfly. It'll be her hot debut and also her role debut and just it's just a great cast all around. Then we have in February we're doing a production of an often box operetta called Orpheus in the Underworld. It's a it's a hilarious spoof on the Orpheus myth where you're to see is whisked away by Pluto the God of the Underworld. And Orpheus really couldn't care less because they didn't get along. But he is shamed into going to retrieve her by a character called public opinion in our case we're calling it social media. So the hilarity ensues at the end of it it's it ends with an often box most famous can can number if you've ever heard a can can you've heard that one. So a lot of fun. We're setting it Underworld because in this operetta the Underworld is the place to be it's the party place. So we thought what better place to do that than a tropical paradise. So it'll be in a Hawaiian like setting and sung in English. Wonderful English adaptation from a company that I've worked with many years pocket opera in San Francisco. And then we finished the season in April. Jamie often box going to be in the often back opera. We still wanted him to be but he's he was already engaged to do a production of Mary Widow in Cincinnati. So unless he could not and he is he is distantly related to Jacques often box a double blow for all of us. But he is he's wonderful. And he'll be in several things in the in the season. Then in April we finished with a production of a new work by J. Kegge and Gene Shear called If I Were You. And it's a Faustian story. In this case the devil character is a woman named Brita Mara and she will be played by our own Blythe Kelsey. Amazing Mesa Soprano sister to Quinn Kelsey the baritone. Yeah Quinn Kelsey sister. She is forced to be rocking with in wonderful ways. She's a great performer and a great voice and she's going to really take that role to the next level. But it's yeah it deals with kind of a soul swapping where it's kind of sci-fi in that the person's soul transfers to the next level. The next person with some sort of incantation and trouble ensues as you might imagine. But it's ultimately it's ultimately a love story and really beautifully told with some gorgeous gorgeous music very tonal. Don't be afraid. And should be a lot of fun.  Oh sure I remember Karen. She's been in and around HOT for a long time. Yeah. I want to keep it. She's good she's good director for sure. So you know you know the big issue is making sure that you cover the generational bases you know. The problem is why is the performing arts you find that demographic gets older and older. The bell curve extends into you know art engineering and not a lot of 20 year olds there. And that's why it's so important to the educational programs. But how are you doing. To five you've got to have young people. Yeah definitely. And you know it's we have a wonderful board member Andreas Zanoni who has been helping us with a program re instituting something called Jen HOT which is a young professionals group that is attracting people to our performances with special events and meetups because you know that that that age set kind of the 20 to 40s. They're they're they're really interested in socializing with their friends.  And so finding finding ways for them to connect around opera. And we had a really successful first outing with them in around the Tosca where we had 100 tickets sold and they did a meetup at a restaurant nearby and then came to see the opera and did the intermission reception and things. So it's a lot of fun for them. They did a good job with Figaro as well. So we're hoping to build on that. Get them engaged with opera ball and just keep building on that. I think it's also important for us to offer. I think the diversity of programming helps. I think doing more out in the community is vital for us. So we've been developing relationships with places like Salt and Akaka Akko where we did a performance of our opera express Cinderella that had 300 people come to it. We're working with connections at the International Marketplace just being out in the community. The other thing that we're working on for next season is a chamber opera that would be done at UH Manoa at the Orvis Auditorium called Hometown to the World which is about immigration and customs enforcement raid on a meatpacking plant in Iowa. That's very relevant, isn't it? Yeah, that really brought that community together. Just three people, three singers, six instrumentalists should be a lot of fun. And I think it's a way to make opera seem more relevant. I personally think TOSCA is relevant to society, the Me Too movement, but it's maybe a little more stretched with something like the immigration raids that are happening now. But we have to do a diversity of programming and be out of our house being where people are. Don't forget, you've got to do TOSCA once in a while, you've got to do Bohem once in a while, and Trabia is essential once in a while. It is. I will say that studies have shown that most people's first time ticket buying is to one of the traditional operas. You get them to come to a TOSCA or a Naida or a Bohem, but then the trick is how do you get them to go to that second one? And I think the second one is going to have to be by something that topics can intrigue them. And you have to make sure that your experience that you're providing even at that TOSCA is as engaging as it is with a super modern topic like hometown to the world. So here we are and you've been kind of a victim of the coronavirus. It's hurt you and with federal support or not, you've been wounded in your season and maybe longer. You can talk about additional performances. That means people got to get together. They cannot sing through masks. They cannot do that. Although I went to your masks in Trabiata. I don't remember. There was one opera with masks. Maybe it was eye masks, not mouth masks. In any event, what message would you leave to your viewers? Both the older types like me, but also the younger types who would be the objects of your educational programs. What would you tell them now in this crisis of the community and crisis of the arts? What message would you leave with the manager? Well, I would say that if nothing else, this isolation of shelter from home has shown us how much we miss connecting as human beings. We need to be in the presence of other people. We are social beings, not everyone, but the majority on the whole. We are social beings that like to be with each other. I think the performing arts pride provides a vehicle for that like no other and it doesn't have to be classical arts. I'm talking about all performing arts.  I think I'm hoping that when we get through this and we're able to once again venture out into public as a society and feel comfortable doing that, that we will value even more those opportunities where we can share collective experiences, where we can be a part of the community and not just a facile viewer. I think it's important to participate. It's important to get engaged and feel like you're investing in something beyond your cell phone or your computer or your television. Performing arts is community and it is the best part of humanity altogether. Thank you, Andrew Morgan, Executive Director. I'm sorry, are you going to say? No, I just said it is our humanity, you're right. Andrew Morgan, Executive Director of the Hawaii Opera Theater, bringing us art that helps us even in very hard times, especially at hard times. Thank you so much, Andrew. It's my pleasure, Jay. I really appreciate it. Aloha.


Hello everybody, this is the hyper ledger healthcare special interest group general meeting for September 28th It's been a few weeks since our last meeting. So there's a lot of items on the agenda today. So thank you for joining me, everybody I just want to remind everybody that this will be recorded and will be posted on YouTube So if you're interested in the Linux foundation anti-trust policy All right, please review that in the agenda page here I don't think there's anybody new on the call today. So I'm gonna go ahead and continue on with community announcements We do have one announcement here This is related to a person that was very active in the blockchain and healthcare community Kevin Clausen He recently passed away. He was a professor at Lipscomb and Lipscomb University and I just wanted to give a few minutes for anyone here who'd like to share any memories They've had with Kevin. I remember he was one of the first people I initially spoke with About blockchain and healthcare so he was very excited and invigorated about the the prospect of how this can change the industry But if there's anybody else I'd like them to share too Yeah, I just wanted to say I met Kevin back in 2017 in Nashville at a blockchain and healthcare conference and He was really one of the first people that I met too and I actually met a bunch of his students as well And I could just see how excited they were about learning about blockchain and new technology So he was really like embedding all this stuff into these younger students and it was really awesome to see that And he really got me excited about the space. I don't even know if I would have I would have kept going without his networking He was like such a connector and just connected so many people And you know, he's written he's written several things that have been published and his last thing that he wrote right before he died It was a segment in Wendy Charles book, which I think we're gonna talk about So it's just really cool to see that he got that he got that in before he passed away And he was very private and he never shared that this was happening. So it was quite a shock to the community and Yeah, I just wanted to say he'll be he'll be missed Thank You Erica appreciate that Anybody else wants to say something? Feel free to do so. Otherwise May Kevin rest in peace and we are very appreciative for the work he's done. Okay Moving on to some of the upcoming events that are happening related to blockchain and health care There's an event on October 10th through the 14th in Dubai It's called a block health summit and this is I Think sponsored in part or in whole by patient or association. You could buy tickets. I believe it's a Both in person, you know and online. So feel free to check that out Yeah, so that's one thing. Yes in Dubai and then we also have The World Health Summit in Berlin and online as well Then there's the medtech conference in Boston October 24th through the 26th and then health 2022 in Las Vegas on November 13th through the 16th as well So if there are any other Events that you are aware of related to health care and blockchain Pete please feel free to make a comment or let us know Alright moving on to some industry news articles and interesting projects there's a lot Sorry, go ahead. There was someone Actually, I was it wasn't me But I was gonna ask how on V2X was last was it last week or yes So I actually that thanks for bringing that up Erica. So I attended the convict 2x Meeting I was symposium. There were a few people there That I've known for a while as well in the space Like Kyle Clover Who's the leader of those synaptic health Alliance? There were a few others as well, and I could show you the agenda here I was actually in a Conversation on stage as well with Daniel Uruguay from Geno Bank, and it was a good event. I think Avenir Health was the sponsor of the event. So we heard Some talks from them and their leadership was very interesting Jim Nasser You guys are probably aware of his work as well with Hadera and Ochre Acre Yeah, I think it was a really good time Mark Trashock was there Chris Moose Robert Chu Lots of familiar people all from the past. It's cool. Yeah And not too many new people I would say but I think there were a couple interesting talks that were I Didn't know much about there was a talk on quantum technology and how that is gonna impact blockchain Healthcare blockchain quantum computing threats and opportunities. This was a very eye-opening And yeah Metaverse NFTs I was in this panel Yeah, they didn't change the name, but it was a good I thought good event very focused not huge But it was good for the community to get together in person and discuss some of the updates that they have so it was nice And Austin is a beautiful city. So a lot of fun And the other events Everybody go to the The Linux thing and Dublin Yes, that's true. So the the Linux foundation hosted their global forum. I did not attend but heard it was Great time as well, I think yeah, there was a huge number of events not just related to healthcare, but I Haven't gotten a Direct update from someone who was actually there, but if anyone here Has any updates feel free to share huge list of speakers. It was like a multi-day thing Yeah, it's Annual big deal for hyper ledger and surprise none of us could have made it but Actually, I attended the sessions virtually mostly hyper ledger fabric and It's related applications So some of the companies came with the presentations and even they gave the demos also You were there a mesh I'd not go to the Dublin, but I attended a virtual Excellent. Awesome One of the Brazil company has given the demos on the healthcare section actually The recordings are already there in this all events calm Required, you know, I can share the details you guys can go through the Events which are hosted in the building. Yes, that would be amazing remesh if you can share that I see that there are some updated videos here in their Some basic videos they uploaded but not all the you know events which are hosted I'll share the username and password so you guys can log into that and check the Thanks for much, okay. Yeah, we'll be sure to check that out, too Okay, I'm gonna jump into some of the articles I thought that were interesting worth mentioning today first one is from HealthTech magazine so basically the FBI and the CISA which is the cyber security infrastructure security agency released a Warning of a ransomware called Zeppelin for healthcare organizations. So Threat actors using Zeppelin have requested ransom payment in Bitcoin with initial amounts ranging from several thousand dollars to more than a million dollars. So this has been a issue for hospitals for a number of years now, but You know, this is a specific warning from the FBI and CISA about Zeppelin specifically I'm not gonna get in too much detail here. I just wanted to mention that and if anyone has any Comments feedback feel free to just jump in. All right. So the world economic forum posted this article on September 16th saying is blockchain the solution for failing global health care and it talks about some of the You know reports on global health Including like Deloitte's 2022 report on how the industry is at a breaking point after COVID They talk about how blockchain based solutions for health documentation offer secure encryption techniques That safeguard the integrity of individuals information when communicating with different parties So this is just good to see that the world economic forum, which is you know global player here is Sharing these ideas that blockchain can be a force for good for the health care space Yeah, with so much at stake it's impossible to think that the inefficient Overly bureaucratic and failing health care industry that we are experience that we are experiencing today can continue for patients Practitioners executives. It's time to accept the technology and systems based advancements at our disposal So that's you know a call to action in the way from the World economic forum after hearing about quantum computing at this article showed up in my feed somehow Bitcoin versus quantum computers US government says post quantum world is getting closer and Cisa warrants contemporary encryption could break This is becoming more and more of a concern there are arguments to say that Blockchain can become quantum resistant as well. So here Researchers say bitcoins public key technology leverages multiple quantum resistant one-way hash functions some blockchain projects prepare for a post quantum world so I think this is pretty interesting to at least consider and When you're especially when you're choosing a blockchain protocol for any development work Yeah, the debate has ridged on for I'm just quoting here again The debate has raged on for years and many people think the government's warnings and the recent quantum-based technological achievements by Honeywell Google Microsoft and others are the incentives people need to embrace post quantum cryptography so This is going to become more and more of a topic I think in the years to come So we'll we'll keep following it Anyone have here have experience with quantum hardware or computing Quantum visit from Constance's Not not say again. Sorry Quantum is the framework from conscious company. Oh, no, so the quantum computing refers to the the general advancement of Classical computing to quantum computing where bits are no longer zeros and ones, but you can hold States in qubits which are zero one or something in between so it's a different Different Totally different structure for how we can do computing in the future and different hardware Yeah, yeah, not there is I think a protocol called quantum Which is different a blockchain protocol quantum, which is different than this Yeah, so I I don't understand it that much either way but like the theory is that with the quantum computing that you can break into and Get to different blockchain protocols depending and then they're trying to be resistant now and are they not already? I mean, I'm just still trying to figure out It's a tough. So it's not really clear to me either. My understanding is that With companies starting to work on quantum computers if one of these companies or groups are successful in Being able to break some of the existing encryption standards we have now They would be able to basically essentially you know Reveal all our passwords in a way. So I think that's the fear There are ways to mitigate around it again. I'm not an expert in this. It's just I know that people are working on You know creating blockchain that is quantum resistant. So here I'm just pointing out meanwhile, the theorem developers have been researching quantum resistance alongside the hyper ledger foundations distributed ledger project Ursa so I think this is relevant and cryptographers preparing for a post quantum world believe encryption techniques like AES 128 in RSA 2048 will not provide adequate security against quantum attacks so Yeah, that's kind of hope that answers part of your question, Erica. Yeah, it's Concerning it is. Yeah, I think a lot of people are Worried concerned about it and even the government now is Suggesting that we need to look at this ASAP especially when you have a nation states also Investing in their quantum computing research and development. So Yeah, it could be and very interesting time if that happens Okay, this article is from extreme tech White House bans paywalls on taxpayer funded research I thought this was a positive piece of news saying that if there is Research that is done and it's funded by taxpayers. Those journals or articles should be free should be available And I think that's a step in the right direction Just wanted to point that out So publicly funded research will now be public and you won't have to pay a journal like nature or whatever You know tens hundreds of dollars to access those articles So good job White House Okay Next up here from coin desk we have the Treasury wants public comments on illicit crypto activity So this is interesting because what we're seeing here is that the Department of the Treasury is actually asking the public about how? Crypto is being used illicitly. I find that pretty interesting I'm sure I mean I imagine the people that are using it illicitly are not going to be telling the Treasury Department how they are doing it But I'm sure that there are some people that are aware of Activities going on. You know, they might not be participating in the illicit activities themselves, but if they do have some Awareness about it. They can report it or at least they can discuss it. So this is more of like an open public forum and Frankly, I think it's good that the government is asking the public for Input on how they should proceed forward because crypto is going to be a very complicated thing to regulate And some I argue if you can regulate it at all But we're seeing that you could you know, especially with centralized technologies and systems that still do have to report to Existing institutions. So That's this I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on it's ongoing work just to clarify here They do say that it's unclear whether the US will actually issue a digital dollar because I think that's the reasoning behind why They're trying to get more information about crypto Or what it might take to produce one the Department of Justice is looking at the question of what legal authorities the Federal Reserve Might need to issue a central bank digital currency though. It is not though. It has not submitted this analysis to the president yet Relatively early I suppose Okay Next is another coin desk List of best universities. So they listed and ranked the 50 top schools that teach blockchain to their students This screen from a sample of 240 institutions worldwide and Based it on their scholarly industrial and pedagogical pedagogical called impact on blockchain can't say that so They have the list here thought it was interesting Hong Kong Polytechnic University was number one University of Singapore as well Number two and University of Zurich number three and you can see a list of other schools some in the US. I'm in Asia Europe kind of mixed here and You know Cornell UC Berkeley Stanford University are some of the ones in the US New York University, so I thought this is pretty interesting because in the past there have been members of the of this special interest group asking about Courses related to blockchain specifically healthcare and blockchain And I suspect there must be some of these universities teaching that subject at their schools Haven't dug into that specifically, but this is a cool list to get you started. Okay Next year We have a here it is an opinion piece about What post-row America tells us about the need for privacy and web 3 this is written September 9th. I thought it was interesting because We've talked about this topic in the past before in this meeting So it was cool to see or interesting to see some of the Examples that people have actually faced like for example here in Nebraska a 17 year old girl and her mother are being prosecuted and We'll be tried the girl As an adult for allegedly using a morning after pill to induce him miscarriage a Child and her mother face lengthy prison terms for newly invented crimes And it is only possible because Facebook handed over their private messages to Nebraska investigators I mean, I'm sure this is something that a lot of people are upset about and I don't know what the future would look like But I think this is something that web 3 can help to mitigate and I think a lot of us here believe that too so Yeah, I just wanted to bring this up as another example of how women's health and especially reproductive health has Has been has taken that hit this year and Being able to keep that data private might be a good solution for those individuals We just need the tools to be able to do that in the software Any thoughts on this Yeah, I totally agree and I think that I still don't understand enough about why And how what the regulations are and why these messages are able to be released I've heard that it's sort of case-by-case basis on On why they are releasing these books releasing information like this, I guess I don't know I guess I don't understand enough about That but yeah, it's obviously happening and very disturbing Agreed. Yeah There are a few people actually I know who are doing some work in the women's reproductive health space in web 3 Athena Dow comes to mind actually interviewed them Recently so and publishing in a couple days. I hope so might be a good idea to get Them on here to talk to us. I feel like this is a topic that is it's quite important and The solution I don't know what the solutions are. It's quite quite difficult to navigate. So Yeah, sure All right, next up here is from the healthcare IT news Group I Thought this was a important announcement for the Mayo Clinic to start using blockchain for hypertension clinical trials, so they will be using a software platform called trial TR I a L L Who I actually interviewed on my podcast as well, but they'll be doing a two-year Multicenter pulmonary arterial hypertension trial and it includes 10 research sites. So they already secured 10 sites and more than 500 patients, which is quite impressive They'll be using trials veritable proof API They'll be doing They'll be testing end-to-end clinical data integrity. So ensuring that the data is True and accurate from the beginning of From the startup to the post study evaluations. So This is something I'll definitely be following as well The trial company does have a token as well. So the platform I Token is called TRL. So it's being used to compensate the participants Meaning it is used by third parties to access the platform interesting So this is not the first time Mayo Clinic has been like experimenting with blockchain. They actually had a In 2018 they had some project with medical chain for storing electronic Medical data and healthcare records, but that didn't work out for some reason Says the use cases this does not or did not resonate for the long term But again, you know, I know Dr. John Holomka is pro blockchain or Our least distributed ledger technology. So it'll be interesting to see what the Mayo Clinic continues to do in that space and and Yeah, also Mayo Clinic was recently announced as I think one of the smartest hospitals in the world, too so It's quite impressive. I hope they're Successful. Oh, right. This article from had a pixel. I Thought this was interesting because when you think about blockchain and data is real Providence of data is accurate you know, you think about things like deep fakes and forgery for photos as well because We're seeing a lot of deep fakes online and that's causing a lot of problems, especially geopolitically and What you know, Sony is trying to do here is create an in-camera forgery proof photo technology using cryptography To ensure that at the point of the capture there's a signature that is forged in that image basically a digital signature and at any point in the future if you want to Ensure or confirm whether or not a photo is real you can look at that signature and and verify the authenticity of the image so Sony joined the coalition for content provenance and authenticity earlier this year And there's a few other companies that are part of that. I'm just gonna click into here to show you Can't seem to find oh here it is so The C2 PA Which is this content authenticity initiative Which includes founding members from adobe arm BBC Intel Microsoft and true pic and Twitter it says So Actually didn't notice Twitter was on here the first time I reviewed this page So it's good that Twitter's on there because there's a lot of fake things on Twitter as we all know too So that's good. I Don't know if they're actually using blockchain specifically But in any case I think this will be a good Way to verify pictures are real all right another Announcement that I saw from Pfizer is that they are Interested in investing in Vita Dow Vita Dow is a decentralized autonomous organization that allows researchers primarily focused on longevity and human life extension they allow so Vita Dow is Community governed and Pfizer has proposed an investment Into Vita Dow and in return Pfizer would be getting some of the Vita tokens governance tokens as well as Being able to be part of the deal flow that happens in R&D, so it's a Really interesting because it sort of validates that Vita Dow and this model is has potential to work and Pfizer knowing that you know, it's difficult for a large pharmaceutical company to Be as nimble as some of these smaller researchers It allows them to you know engage with researchers, but also not have to put up their own Costs in order to do the research themselves. So a very interesting model If you haven't heard of Vita Dow, you should check them out I Was recently at a conference in Boston DCI Boston and Vita Dow There was discussion about them and they're doing some Really difficult challenging work, but I think it's important work for The future of research and funding all right next year for articles another article about whether blockchain and health care is a fad or it's here to stay so What I found interesting this article was that they do mention some of the names we are familiar with for example here They talked to Her deep goal, he's the CEO of soft care And then he says when you talk to when you talk with people in health care about blockchain The first reaction you often get is I don't want Bitcoin or any of this crypto crap so Soft care is a company creating customer relationship management platform using blockchain They've been doing a lot of work internationally as well and Yeah, it's just interesting to see How these mainstream health care Journals and magazines are talking about blockchain more and more They also mentioned The synaptic health alliance and they talked to Kyle Culver as well So Yeah, here it says in four years what started as a pilot project has expanded from a Initial rollout in Texas to full operation in Colorado, Florida, Michigan and New York And he's referring to the synaptic health alliance which has been Very specifically focused on how they can improve The accuracy of provider directories, so Yeah, I'll stop there They also talk about John Bass The CEO and founder of hashed health, which is a venture studio focused on launching Blockchain-specific health care companies and has been in on blockchain and health care longer than most which is like six years so Very cool. Yeah any feedback Okay All right, so those are some articles and projects. I thought they were interesting in the last month or so I'm sure there's others and if you know more you could feel free to add a comment Here in the Hyperledic Foundation workspace or even in the YouTube comments, too We'll be sure to try to answer them as fast as we can So I will move on to Educational nuggets so the first on the list here is a new book that was published recently by Wendy Charles Wendy is a member You know active member here in the group. She joins these meetings from time to time Unfortunately, she's not here to take it. She's not here today to talk about the book but this is it it's called blockchain and life sciences and Yeah, and I think Erica you mentioned that Kevin Clausen was a Was an editor or he helped write part of the book as well Yeah, he has his own chapter in the book and yeah, it's a good read. I just it's really well done. I read it, so Yeah awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that and You guys should check it out next in this section I found a pretty interesting article on how to token gate and what that means is Requiring that an individual or group owns a specific token or NFT in order to access certain Features or certain Content or things like that and there's different ways to do this There are at least 30 ways and there are examples of those 30 ways here in this article. I'm not going to go through all of them But I just wanted to make you aware of this because you know, it's it's pretty interesting to Think about the new business models and blockchain We're all still experimenting. I don't think there's been like a perfect way to do things and here you have 30 different examples of using NFTs to To do like a token gate. So I'll just read a few examples Here if I own the NFT then I could also own the intellectual property rights embedded within the NFT Depending on the IP language or overlay. This may mean I have rights to create posters t-shirts or show the NFT in metaverses That's one way Maybe something more familiar people here is Like here if if I have an adidas Into the metaverse NFT I get special I get access to a special edition Merge drop and can trade my NFT in for a new one So to want to point that out, you have different membership NFTs to an investment now Yeah, so I think this could be useful if you're interested in Developing a a new way to token gate Okay, so Next here I have I just wanted to mention that there were Three health on chain podcast episodes published since we last met I'm not gonna go Through them all in detail, but Kyle clover from snap the cuff Alliance John Hatchell from tie-dye health and Moro Frota from from bout which is doing something quite interesting They've developed a patented brand new sort of kickboxing bag that has sensors and cameras and Rewards users for for activity So play to earn I guess sort of thing. That's creative Yeah, no, I think they have a lot of potential and You know, they're already in a few gyms. I think and Yeah, listen to the episode if you're interested in that Next here IP watchdog Talking about advocating for ethics driven regulation for blockchain technologies So I think the ethics behind how we use blockchain is gonna increasingly be more and more important Because there's a lot of risk that we take when we start to use blockchain for securing data and information so being able to create or design a way to Ensure that we're building ethically and we're not leaving behind a large group of people. I think is really important and Yeah, so this is just something I Want to bring up You know be wary the given given the complexity of technologies emerging on blockchain one should carefully consider the moral issues That have or could emerge when determining use cases Yeah, the more gullible among us should be wary of the real potential for harm You know, not everybody is a technologist or healthcare professional so being able to design for everyone is Rather really important There should be I'm just quoting here again There should be regulating agencies and institutions Insulated from conflict that provides some degree of supervision in order to prevent deter and penalize misuse Easier said than done. I think doing this in a way that makes sense sustainably For the long term is quite challenging But if we don't start thinking about it and talking about it, I think, you know, we're not doing anybody a service. So I just want to read this last sentence here While such oversight is arguably directly in breach of the libertarian freedom aimed Aimed for by this technology Functionality indisputably requires facilitation of function with rules and regulations Not only based in ethics, but also the idealized principles of fluid transactions enabled by this platform technology Something to think about for sure All right, this was a Vitalik blog posted last week or September 20th, and it just talks about dows and how Dows are not really corporations and we shouldn't try to fit them into the corporate structure and it goes into some examples of You know, I think Vita Dow was mentioned in here Yeah, should Vita Dow and Ukraine Dow be dows. So Vitalik talks about this and Vita Dow here it says isn't as a Dow funding early stage longevity research Ukraine Dow is a Dow organizing funding efforts related to helping Ukrainian victims of war Supporting the Ukrainian defense effort and then asked does it make sense for these to be dows? nuance question and kind of goes into detail about What a Dow is what's the purpose how things can be expected to happen or get how work is expected to happen in dows Which is still a tough problem. I mean you have these community members But when you have work that needs to be done, how do you do that or motivate them in a way that's? Professional enough to be useful and also You know is in line with the goals of the Dow as well so There's a lot in here, definitely a large educational nugget. I think it's worthwhile if you wanted to check it out and it does talk about The algorithmic stable coins Achilles heel, which is the Oracle Yeah, all right The next thing I have listed For educational nuggets is this blockchain digital identity kind of small article And they give four different models of what kind of identities you can do online. So siloed identity Is one model federated identity being a second model blockchain based identity And then finally you have self sovereign identity so we've heard these Names before I think I'm sure you guys have at some point But here there's some good information on what that really means and it'll help Help you explain to someone who's more new to this place. So Yeah, thank you for sharing this really helpful. Sure. Thank you And finally I do have this last Announcement from the FDA regarding digital health software Pre-certification for pilot programs. This was just released in September as well and I didn't look through the whole thing, but it is very much targeted towards You know digital health startups or companies that are That want to use their product In a pilot program and there's some recommendations and useful guides for doing so Let's see if there's any high level points worth worth digging into In any case it is the FDA. So it would certainly be a wise move to understand what's going on here And how it impacts potentially your project or your business Yeah, um, that's all I really wanted to share from my end today Happy to go into any discussion If there's anyone that wants to Share anything. Also, that's that's fine too. Okay Thank you so much for hosting Ray Super informative Sure. Thank you guys for attending and listening On participating as well. I appreciate it all the time. I think it's important for us to keep this going because Things are developing so quickly and the best way to Stay informed is you know have these sorts of events and meetings. So Thank you all for joining again Yeah, just one thing I think in the Dublin workshop One of the employee from the pilot She discussed about you know investing in the public based Crypto coins actually that session is also there in the Dublin workshop you guys can go through that All right, will you be able to sit over? I just texted in the chat. You guys are able to see that Oh, let me take a look. Oh, yeah, I do see some chats Yes, okay. Thanks for sharing that Um, okay, let me share the one Appreciate it Thanks for mesh All right, buddy. You guys have a good day and a good week and talk to you in two weeks Take care All right, thank you