Aug

19

MKE Angelbeat Conference

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Milwaukee, Network, Technology, WiscNet | Leave a Comment

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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

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

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

15

Whats new is now old

Filed Under Design, Education, HighRes, Media Players, Network, TED, Technology, Virtual Reality, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLzV5qeKyk

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

Aug

6

Yahoo Music closing

Filed Under Audio, Education, Globalization, Network, Rich media, Streaming, Technology | Leave a Comment

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

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

Jul

22

My latest read - microtrends

Filed Under Education, Globalization, Reading, Technology | Leave a Comment

A pollster meets The Tipping Point.

That is how I would describe Mark Penn’s Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes.  I believe his 75 microtrend stories are interesting enough, but could not help but think back to Gladwell’s book when reading each microtrend that lasts only two or three pages.

I do believe he is accurate in identifying societal atoms, small trends that are reflecting the changing habit and choices in our consumer marketplace and access to the internet. This work also reminds me of Freakonomics.  This book will make you think about the microtrends but you may feel overwhelmed by the number and come up short on analysis.

Book Website: with downloadable chapter

Tags: microtrends, Mark Penn, change, trends, reading

Jul

5

ESNet on steroids

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Internet2, Network, Technology | Leave a Comment

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

Jun

27

My latest read - China, Inc.

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Milwaukee, Network, Reading, Technology | Leave a Comment

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

Jun

26

50 million viewers cannot be wrong

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Network, Streaming, TED, Technology | Leave a Comment

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

Jun

20

Internet2 on Fox News … well kinda

Filed Under Education, Globalization, HighRes, Internet2, Milwaukee, Network, Technology | Leave a Comment

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puaYLiUuXT8

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

Jun

18

Astronomy without borders

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, HighRes, Interactive, Internet2, Network, Streaming, Technology | Leave a Comment

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

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

17

You are what you tag

Filed Under Design, Education, Interactive, Network, Technology, Web2.0 | Leave a Comment

My del.icio.us feed via Wordle:

wordle2

Tags: wordle, tag, visualization, community, trends

Jun

16

Internet2: 200 Gigabit backbone by 2014

Filed Under Design, Education, Globalization, Internet2, Network, Technology | Leave a Comment

Internet2The demand for bandwidth usage has been a funny issue of late. Comcast, TimeWarner and AT&T have announced new bandwidth taxing to consumers while on the research side Internet2 and the Department of Energy’s ESnet are planning to upgrade their network to support 200GB/s by 2014. That’s Big Science applications from around the globe taking hold and researchers & scientists to gather gigabytes and terabytes of information. Boy talk about going from one extreme to the other.

This will be an important issue for R&E Networks while consumers are fighting for bandwidth usage taxes. Internet2 seems to be moving forward without reservation to new advanced network backbones linking ESnet and I2’s services to really enhance bandwidth to Internet2 members via Level 3 with plenty of headroom to grow even further:

Internet2’s backbone can easily scale to 400Gigabits/second
–Randy Brogle, Level 3

Why is consumer bandwidth handled differently? Telcos do not have the resources to make fast bandwidth available to all consumers, they are pinching torrent sites and would love to do the same for Skype users. At some point I’m wondering if its a new revenue model.  Comcast has already stating bandwidth tax will go national by end of 2008. I take a full breath of air while sitting and breath differently running, but air is available to me nevertheless.

Bandwidth is the same to me: I need it to breath without restriction.

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

Jun

11

BMW’s Gina

Filed Under BMW, Design, Education, Technology | Leave a Comment

This is BMW’s latest concept car made of high tech fabric, called GINA. But I’m not sure how my wife would take my statement “I’m taking Gina for a ride”

BMW Gina

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