Day 27 - Harvard Kennedy School - John F. Kennedy School of Government

Today was a late start. I headed to Harvard University around midday as I had a meeting at the John F. Kennedy School of Government with Zackary Tumin. This was the proverbial contact of a contact. Before I headed of for my meeting I thought as the weather was improving from when I first arrived I would try to attend a tour of Harvard.

Statue of John Harvard of Charlestown. The statue was one John Harvard as all record of his image was burnt  in a fire that destroyed all records and images and books that he donated to the University. The 1668 was the year he died and left his library and half of his estate to the University.

The Buildings at Harvard or as the local say (HAHVAD) are build in the architectural style of the time. They have a policy of not building to make things look old. These building are the dorms of 1st year students. The guide indicated that one year at Harvard is worth $57,000, most stay for 4-6 years.

Our guide in the hat

 This is Massachusetts house, the bottom two floors are the presidents offices and accommodation and the top two are 1st year students.

One of the University Club Houses

Veritas Latin for Truth many schools use this term

After the tour I then headed off to get something to eat and drink before heading over to see Zachary Tumin. The school is at 75 JFK Street, in Cambridge and on one of the pillars was JFK's famous quote " And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man" signed John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address January 20, 1961. 


Still very important words and sentiments we should never for get. My meeting with Zackary was reasonably short as but quite informative. He informed me of a number of programmes and people associated with those programs that I should consider within my research. We discussed his new book of which he felt a number of chapters within the book would have some relevance. The book being Collaborate or Perish, I indicated I would love to obtain a copy on the Amazon site but they only had hard cover which is a little impractical while travelling. A digital version was available but due to copyright laws not in Australia. ?? I could though by the hard cover??  I read the first chapter which was free on-line and will wait until my return. Looks to be an interesting book and some lessons worth considering for my work at DCP (Department for Child Protection - Western Australia).


As I recorded the session there are more details to be found after reviewing that recording. 


Tomorrow I have a day with the Microsoft Team that build SharePoint. I am looking forward to see what they have in store for wave15.


Signing off 7:06pm