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angelbeat logoToday WiscNet is offsite at the 10th annual Angelbeat conference at the Milwaukee Hilton City Center.  The team is coming in from Madison and I was able to sleep in this morning until 5:30am and hang with Max for a bit before driving downtown. The agenda looks pretty good, should learn much today:

angelbeat agenda

Looking forward to Larry Lessig’s new bookRemix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. Larry has documented how the music and movie industries are turning students into criminals because they use cheap software, the internet and their creativity.  His presentation at TED hilights the core principals of his upcoming book.

The power and impact of the digital economy has placed copyright and the old guard clearly on the defensive.  Those aging companies still want the market to be “published” (in analog format) are unwilling to change to the new information economy.
Well okay what I’m really trying to say is they don’t want to give up their revenue streams.

Okay maybe they do understand how the game has changed, yet I’m not sure the impact of how young people are wired has fundamentally changed their business model.

Actually I’m hoping Remix may also hilight how the RIAA should be chasing down the millions of pirates in China rather than students in America.  Larry is proving what everyone under 30 already has accepted as a fact of life…They have never been forced to purchase a majority of their entertainment in analog format.  Should be a great read!


Source

Microsoft’s Photosynth was a hit at TED last year and looked to be really promising regardless of running only on XP SP2 and Vista (shame on you Microsoft) but the same team along with the University of Washington has moved forward with new photo, video and VR technologies:

This should be a very interesting mashup of multiple media formats.  Great work and a wonderful tool for education.

Tags: Photosynth, photo, virtual reality, panaoramic, globalization, trends

I continue to be amazed that consumers are being held hostage to failed business practices regarding digital products sold on the internet and requiring a connection to “use” your product.
If you buy a book, read it and then move to a new house, you take the book with you right.  Sure.  Simple and not even something to think about.

But if you purchased digital music from Yahoo and move that music to a new computer or external drive, you cannot take it with you.  Yahoo’s underperforming music store has announced they are closing their doors (and also taking down their DRM technology keys) stitched into your downloaded music.

This means the music you paid for will not play anymore.  If you purchased Yahoo music you are simply SOL. Actually Yahoo tells a better story:
After September 30, 2008, you will not be able to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or re-license these songs after changing operating systems. Please note that your purchased tracks will generally continue to play on your existing authorized computers unless there is a change to the computer’s operating system.

This should serve fair warning to all the music etailers to abandon DRM.  The customer is always right and today’s teenage market has a powerful voice and the tools (like Digg) to flex their collective financial muscles….so don’t piss them off.

Read more

Big thanks to my most excellent colleague John Pederson at WiscNet about this video.  Take a moment and listen to the testimonials all you administrative bean counters and computer directors. BTW: How many of you are facing budget cuts this year?

Remember Google makes this solution to schools  F O R  F R E E.

Tags: Google, education, network, teaching, globalization, trends

The World is Flat Audiobook

Tom Friedman’s bestseller is available FOR FREE to download until August 4th. Signup and download version 3.0 of his runaway best seller AND receive a preview of his upcoming book Hot Flat and Crowded

Tags: The World is Flat, Mark Penn, audiobook, globalization, free download

Internet2I met Dr. Brian Shepard, Assistant Professor of Pedagogical Technology at the USC Thornton School of Music at the 2007 Internet2 meeting in Chicago and thought his clip at YouTube really explains Internet2 more elegantly than Fox News.  But for some reason USC will not permit this YouTube video to be embedded into blogs.  So here is the link

Tags: Internet2, bandwidth, network, fiber, globalization, trends

I2 ecnet
There is an article about future capacity relating to the ESNet that is ramping up to support 400 Gigabits/second.  Although I’m glad the news is available, We’ll not access to Internet2 via a PDA as anything beyond Draft N for another 3 years when ESNet comes up to speed.

Tags: Internet2, bandwidth, network, fiber, globalization, trends

In today’s world it seems everything is about China. There are so many emerging topics of interest Americans need to understand about this giant economy and manufacturing base.

Ted Fishman’s China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World is a much needed read in the new era of globalization. So powerful in fact that it’s now on my recommended list for business and education. Actually I’ll move it next to Tom Friedman’s bestseller The World Is Flat and John Kao’s Innovation Nation as noteworthy companions.

So what? The next time your holding an empty coffee cup or your child’s toys, flip them over and discover the country of origin. Yes, China is changing the rules of business and society.

If you do not believe this impacts America’s school children — well … your in trouble. Consider China graduates more honors students than the total number of students in American schools. Think about that statistic and what it means for your children or your grand-children’s future job market in the coming decades. I’m even concerned about my own son’s future career choices, yet confident it will require him to speak a non-roman language.

Rapid changes in the business landscape via globalization means the global market will continue to get more competitive.  Americans will continue to be challenged to find secure, solid employment.  It will be just as challenging to find a company who does not outsource elements to China’s fast growing economic empire in order to stay competitive. Fishman delivers this message loud and clear.

china cement productionTake into consideration the production of cement. Do you see construction sites on your daily commute? Well think about the construction in China based upon this cement chart listed in Gigatons. Look how little America consumes next to China. What does that say about their growth?

Fishman also shares how the Chinese copy products (and processes) of successful companies around the world. In many cases buying a product and taking it back to China where its taken apart, examined, copied and produced at a fraction of the original vendor’s costs…regardless of copyright.

The Wisconsin connection:
Some of the more compelling chapters in Fishman’s books even cover the impact of Chinese manufacturing impacting local SE Wisconsin businesses.  Regardless of your geographic location in America, the story is the same. Read more

ted 50 million
TED is amazing don’t you think?

Well I’m not exactly sure either guy knows what Internet2 is today but clearly Jeremy Kaplan from PC Magazine does not convey the basics of Internet2…Yikes.

Tags: Internet2, bandwidth, network, fiber, globalization, trends

Internet2 has partnered to transfer real time data between China and New South Wales.  Crossing the globe merging multiple countries and processing huge amounts of data.  Very cool to see advanced research and education networks grabbing 512 megs per second (per telescope — seven total) and streaming it live to Shanghai.  More info here and here

Tags: Internet2, bandwidth, network, astronomy, China, trends

FireFox3 is staggering their 3.0 rollout — so the world does not all download at one time killing their servers. Not a bad idea:

firefox download time

Chicago - Milwaukee - Madison get downloading at 12:00 noon!

My del.icio.us feed via Wordle:

wordle2

Tags: wordle, tag, visualization, community, trends

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