Aug

17

On my reading list

Filed Under Audio, Design, Education, Globalization, Media Players, Network, OpenSource, Reading, Streaming, TED, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

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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!

Aug

17

My latest read - Once You’re Lucky Twice You’re Good

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, OpenSource, Reading, Web2.0 | 1 Comment

There was something from Sarah Lacy’s book Once You’re Lucky, Twice your Good which really hit home.  Today kids look to FaceBook as their exclusive communication tool.  They don’t do email like our generation overdoes email.

That’s a key indicator of how different today’s Web2.0 kids are changing the rules.  Can the establishment keep up with them?  Well see in the very short term future.

This was a great read and I must thank Kate Olson who was able to get a copy for me to read and post my review.

Lacy’s book, IMHO starts with the best story first.  Max Levchin.  His inspiring story of fleeing Ukraine the night of the Chernobyl disaster was amazing.  He flees from a hospital in the middle of the night to later leave college to start PayPal.
Yes, that’s right a kid who flew the USSR makes his way to Silicon Valley and San Francisco to put his amazing mathematical skills to use and builds an amazing tool that would later be purchased by eBay.

Sarah also documents the story of Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com and proves again that Marc Andreessen really is a jerk. But from the outside many of us would not know the ins and outs of the Web2.0 world and all their financial venture “vulture capital” stories.  Pretty rough from the outside…but Sarah makes this work.  Interested to know more about the inner circle of the Web2.0 world?  Read Once You’re Lucky, Twice your Good!

Tags: Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, Web2.0, business, entrepreneur, globalization, trends

Aug

6

Google Docs in education

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Google, Network, OpenSource, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

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

Jun

17

FireFox 3: Download times will vary

Filed Under Education, Globalization, Milwaukee, Network, OpenSource, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

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!

Jun

7

Sugar Labs is cool

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Interactive, Media Players, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, Streaming, TED, Technology | Leave a Comment

sugar labs logoThe OLPC program is moving through a rough time right now with the announced departures of initial key members and the new Microsoft announcement to bring XP onto the XO Laptops.

Walter Bender, former President of OLPC has launched Sugar Labs to promote the use of Sugar on more devices. Sugar is open source and I’m running it on my Powerbook via VMware’s Fusion. Sugar Lab’s approach: children should not be forced to learning a legacy operating system designed for adult computer programmers.

Lets face facts. XP is not designed for the world’s children living in poverty. The design is simple and perfect for children:

Sugar on OS X

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May

29

Download Day coming soon!

Filed Under Education, Globalization, Network, OpenSource, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

 

Download Day

May

20

My latest read - Innovation Nation

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, HighRes, Interactive, Internet2, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, Reading, TED, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back from John Kao is a timely read. To say I enjoyed his lessons how America is losing it’s innovation lead was not pleasant experience, yet the book is highly engaging.

There are timely lessons in this book from the $100 laptop and more importantly the exodus of top American talent. No surprise that top talent from India is returning home after attending college in America as globalization brings new opportunities to India.

You may be surprised to learn how Kao documents the loss of top Americans heading overseas. That’s native-born Americans leaving our best institutions (and their home country) to work in new innovation centers with more creative, less political conditions.

The list includes Paul Saffo from Stanford, John Seely Brown from Xerox PARC, Peter Schwartz from Global Business Network and Rita Colwell, former head of the National Science Foundation and current professor of biological sciences at the University of Maryland.

Read more

May

20

OLPC: The remix

Filed Under Audio, Design, Education, Globalization, Milwaukee, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, TED, Technology | Leave a Comment

Max’s first laptop will be the new One Laptop Per Child prototype announced this morning by Nichoals Negroponte. No “keyboard” since both sides of this ebook reader will support a virtual keyboard.

olpc xo beta

But I’d like to buy a 1st Gen unit too. And I’ll config it to run Sugar.

Tags: OLPC, sugar, Negroponte, prototype, globalization, trends

May

16

OLPC running XP

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Interactive, Media Players, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, Technology | Leave a Comment

olpc xpWell the long wait is over. Microsoft Press Release has struck a deal with OLPC to offer XP on those little laptops. I’m not sure this is a good thing. Ask anyone who has Vista if they would like to downgrade back to XP (I did) and then you realize this is what will be introduced to millions of future Microsoft customers children around the world?

Lots of press here: Slashdot, NYTimes, CNET, Gizmodo,

I’m counting on the fact that behind the scenes Microsoft is helping fund OLPC. I’m not sure Sugar has what it takes to be the interface because OLPC clearly failed to market the story behind Sugar. And that’s a shame.

Tags: OLPC, sugar, Microsoft, XP, globalization, laptop, trends

May

15

Bandwidth for Schools

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, HighRes, Interactive, Internet2, Media Players, Milwaukee, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, Smartphone, Streaming, TED, Technology, Web2.0, WiscNet | Leave a Comment

A National Broadband Policy needs to be more than just a talking point. Schools in our country need to upgrade their internet bandwidth to 25 Megabytes per second. This is for every school — not just the K12 district who slices up the bandwidth based upon the total number of school buildings in the district. The technology and educational impact upon our schools: leaving them behind just when students from around the world are joining and benefiting from the broadband educational internet.

Playing catch-up
Today we find a majority of schools around the country in the educational slow lane. For some reason it does not matter if the school is remote or urban, many are connecting at just 5 Megabits/second. Its like teaching history with books that still recognize Russia as the old Soviet Union….oh how I miss Gorgachev.
Any college connecting at less than 10MB — shows a lack of understanding and vision for their students who enter higher education seeking not just a degree but an advantage to enter the global marketplace.

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May

15

FTC Update coming

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Google, Interactive, Internet2, Milwaukee, Network, OpenSource, Rich media, Technology, Web2.0, WiscNet | Leave a Comment

wiscnet logoAs WiscNet’s Future Technologies Conference wrapped up late yesterday followed by a staff outing in Madison. Will be posting a lot of content regarding our keynote speakers and Internet2 over the next couple of days and grabbing my flickr feed for FTC 2008.
Here is the link for FTC 2007.

May

9

Jumping into the cloud

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Google, Interactive, Internet2, Milwaukee, Network, OpenSource, Rich media, Streaming, Technology, Web2.0 | 1 Comment

internet cloudThe huge success of web apps have made me think about the continued use for Microsoft’s Office suite. Back in the day Office was the only game in town but today Google’s Apps lead the Web2.0 surge in online apps that provide great functionality and work group solutions for free. When Robert Scoble announced:

I’ve been watching my usage. In two months I’ve only used Outlook out of the entire Office Suite. Everything else? Moved onto online services.”
- 09:06 AM April 30, 2008 from web

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May

3

OLPC trouble signs ?

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Network, OLPC, OpenSource, Technology | Leave a Comment

olpcTo say the last couple of weeks have been a PR nightmare for OLPC is an understatement. Some talented members of the initial team have departed while hints of a Windows solution is in the air. This past week they announced a new COO Charles Kane who oversaw the production of Sugar, the Linux based OS for the laptop.

To many the idea of OLPC embracing Windows is a step backward. What we will not know for some time is any “behind the scenes” negotiations between Nicholas Negroponte and Microsoft.

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Apr

21

SlideRocket Beta

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Google, HighRes, Interactive, Media Players, Network, OpenSource, Rich media, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

I have been beta testing SlideRocket, a new online presentation tool. It has a very Keynote like approach to creating presentations, or should I say is also at the exact opposite end of the PowerPoint scale of slideware. Thanks be to God for Edward Tufte.

SlideRocket Beta

The beta period looks to be stable for the short term, but SlideRocket will give Google’s online slideware tool a bit of a hard look, but I just do not believe it will be enough to move the masses to SlideRocket.

SlideRocket is a Adobe AIR application supporting Flickr photos and the ability to directly import Google Spreadsheets. The beta tag sticks because I was not able to get accurate results on my Flickr search on three attempts. It also borrow’s from Adobe the deep grey design UI of the program. Read more

Apr

14

My latest read - The Starfish and the Spider

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Milwaukee, Network, OpenSource, Reading, TED, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

Rod Beckstrom provided a very insightful presentation at the 2007 The Next Web Conference about organizations. Two types will define or break you in a Web2.0 world.

An enjoyable, easy read that further suggests leaderless organizations can fuel dramatic change within organization large and small.

Beckstrom, who just spoke at the 2008 TED conference presents content supporting how organizations can flourish when tightly controlled groups embrace the starfish effect.

He notes how Al-qaeda has embraced this type of leaderless organization and it becomes very obvious to any reader the last five years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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