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Design Education Innovation Network Reading Rich media Tablet Technology Virtual Reality

The New “Magazine”

Apple’s iPad is already changing the landscape of print.  This example seems to show how interactive a magazine can should be in the digital age.

Tags: iPad, magazine, Tablet, design, media player, innovation, trends

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Design Education Google Network

A Google fail

Google’s much talked about community fiber project has been initially addressed at their Official blog.  Yet much to my surprise (Is it just me — think about it) they posted all the cities who applied in a static graphic — but not an interactive Google Map!
Please tell me that a data driven company like Google does not have an interactive map regarding all cities that applied for their fiber project!  James Kelly, Google Project Manager — are you listening?

Link to Google’s Official Blog post about the community fiber project:

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Design Education Globalization Google Innovation Network Technology

Is Google Wave a “failure” ?

I cannot help but share my thoughts about all those who are predicting the stillbirth of Google Wave. Since this topic frequently hits the popular list at del.icio.us more than I care to see, its worth reminding everyone that beta or “limited preview” as Google refers to Wave is just that – a preview of the technology product.

waveinvite2Their only “failure” is the current lack of a wider test audience. Wave has a lot of promise but during it’s current limited preview its simply not as widely available to the average Google user.

Google Maps was a different type of beta release.  Anyone could login and test their mapping features.  Wave is an initial different product and audience.

I know PLENTY of people who want to kick the tires and engage Wave but they do not have an account.

If your not a Google user (Gmail, Docs, Analytics) then you may feel like you must extend your “Yahoo life” in order to test Wave. The same can be said for those who want to test Wave within an organization or company.

Google has been more relaxed about giving away invites.  In early 2009 it was extremely difficult to find an invite.  I noticed that this process turned into a “power struggle” for some who where begging for Wave invites on twitter.

This also makes me wonder if all those tweets about Wave’s failure belong to people who really do not understand the limitations of beta software.

A simple query at amazon.com reveals a number of Wave books are not even shipping yet.  Another Wave book that I’m interested in is also not shipping yet.

Are there any Wave Wave torrents?  So to all those on the cutting bleeding edge: how well do you actually know Wave?  If you need a book to read check out The Complete Guide to Google Wave.

Tags: Google Wave, beta software, Collaboration, email, IM, test audience, limited preview, trends

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Design Education Globalization Innovation Rich media Tablet Technology

Penguin’s Upcoming Tablet books

Penguin Books shares a preview of their educational books on the Apple iPad:

Tags: Apple, Inc., design, iPad, Penguin, eBook, education, trends

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Design Education Globalization Google Innovation Reading Rich media Technology TED

Latest read: Remix

Regrettably the Vancouver Olympics interrupted my reading pattern and its been a slow recovery.  I blogged about this book as soon as I learned it was in production back in August.  Yikes!

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid EconomyI have been following Larry Lessig‘s work on copyright and our digital culture for some time, reading his positions online, previous books and keynote addresses at TED, Wired and last week to Italy’s Parliament among others.  His work on Creative Commons is a direct action from the creative limitations of copyright.

His latest book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy is a very easy read for anyone who has also known his work.  He tells an important story about how new technology is clashing with old money.

Lessig illustrates how copyright’s old money (the big media empires) are clashing with today’s society and technology.  Old money is winning financial amounts here and there, but ultimately they are cutting their own throat as they can no longer control content.  Their motto: since we cannot have it our way anymore (due to the easy distribution of digital content) we are going to sue as many people as we can and take outrageous amounts of money along the way.

Lessig simply points out the two different camps: Read-only versus Read-Write.  Look at popular consumer phones and computers.  Today anyone can create a short video and post it to YouTube.  And by today’s “standard” in social networking — your somewhat expected to post multimedia content on Facebook and YouTube for example.

But post a 29 second video of a baby dancing to Prince’s Lets Go Crazy and Universal Music (they own Prince and his music) files a lawsuit claiming copyright violations.  Its old money trying to control society and Lessig points out it clearly no longer works.