5000 years in the making…
Continuous education without degrees?
Unique thinkers without specialization?
Vast awareness without memorization?
OMNINET is a charting of EDUCATION as humans have always known and needed it, beyond schools, beyond teachers, beyond grades and beyond books. The deep-bellied ship, the printing press, the Catholic Church, the typewriter, the Suez Canal, and Morse code are all education instruments and technologies – the very ones which resulted in our schools and universities of today, which we have only known for a comparatively brief time. Examining Earth’s schools alongside its mobile phones, its libraries with its naval trade routes, OMNINET deals with all of humanity’s information as one whole system, which we see is rapidly changing. We are now experiencing a change as significant as the advent of writing, as we transition to a new kind of record beyond the internet, a coalescing of technologies and social structures five thousand years in the making: the OMNINET. What changes will this new technology cause to information, in turn cause to work, and in turn cause to the very idea of ‘education’?
about the
author
Cole Webber, 20, is a comprehensivist and inventor. He believes that all human beings are born geniuses (as does NASA), and that we are reaching a critical point wherein it is possible and necessary for all individuals to use their great gifts to further humanity. Yet many are hesitant: we must break down barriers for the individual to contribute. In line with this philosophy, he works to solve problems he finds pressing.
To date, these include:
- co-designed 23 schools
- member of Scientific Advisory Board to International Academy for Education, Development and Technology (IATED)
- wrote first book, ‘Disneyland by Design’
- filed for patent, ‘Method and System for Organizing Events’
- advisor to 15+ government officials and agencies
- member of committee to write government policy
- author of Alberta Education professional development materials
- 30+ lectures in 4 countries, audiences ranging from pre-
Kindergarten children to summits of elected leaders to PhD
students
TEDx talk in the Netherlands - founded non-profit organization (now defunct). When active:
- achieved accreditation as educational institution from Google
- gathered over 40 mentors from 5 countries, including Romanian seismologist, Canadian MP, and VP of
world’s largest radio telescope - work relating to education, technology, design, architecture,
anthropology, film studies, and construction, as well as short
fiction, published in Design Quarterly, Learning Spaces, and The Weird Reader, among others. - Canadian delegate to numerous international summits and events
RESOURCES
Select diagrams from Omninet have been made available for use with the licenses noted on the images.