+Silicon Valley - Introductory Quote and Excerpt from Prepared Stanford Speech (San Francisco 2008+)

"Silicon Valley is an area that is 'located on the San Francisco, California, peninsula, radiates outward from Stanford University. It is contained by the San Francisco Bay on the east, the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west, and the Coast Range to the southeast. At the turn of the century, when fruit orchards predominated, the area was known as the Valley of Heart's Delight"

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"Good evening students of Stanford University, the Association of Stanford Speakers, those who have practically been there, working tirelessly behind the scenes to make my coming here possible; Dawn a senior at Stanford, Carrie, and my wonderful and incredibly host Peter, it is with my utmost thanks and appreciation that I stand here with the opportunity you have granted me to inspire students of Stanford to make a difference by being proactive in the use of technology to promote human rights, peace building and development work around the world. Additionally, I believe that this galaxy of students here, who will take up the mantle of leadership, shall work shoulder to shoulder with me in realizing my future goals and dreams.

Finding out that I was right at the ‘Silicon Valley’ the melting pot of technology, much as America is the diffusion of a homogeneous society, you can imagine how transformational these moments have all been for me. I get a sense that this is truly the home of new and brave technological innovation that is changing lives around the world. This is clearly a fascinating moment for me. For someone who lives at the ebb of the World Economic Index, where technology is still a far cry, and where my experiences with using lower tech and lower 'specs tech', slower computers actually made some real difference. My head whirls at the magic of it all as I see the speed of it happening here. In fact just a few days ago at a family evening dinner, in which I was invited, I was privileged to meet one of the co-founders of the Voice Recognition software. It is all happening here. Yet, in my own humble way, I have used every ounce of my energy to demonstrate that technology can help in improving the quality of life. 'This is what has been finely put as the Dot-hope effect'!

I am here tonight not to only regale you with stories of my past involvement, but to traverse with you along the path to future goals, not to only showcase my inspirational stories of how I managed to use technology to heal lives, overleap challenging moments, but as a great vehicle and tool for upholding human rights tenets through sharing of knowledge."