Don Kasprzak

Conversations regarding Globalization, Internet2 and Education

August 17, 2008
by donkasprzak
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My latest read – Once You’re Lucky Twice You’re Good

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

August 15, 2008
by donkasprzak
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Whats new is now old

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:

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

August 6, 2008
by donkasprzak
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Yahoo Music closing

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.

Continue Reading →

August 6, 2008
by donkasprzak
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Google Docs in education

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

July 22, 2008
by donkasprzak
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My latest read – Microtrends

A pollster meets The Tipping Point.  That is how I would describe Mark Penn’s Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes.

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

July 5, 2008
by donkasprzak
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What is Internet2 ?

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

July 5, 2008
by donkasprzak
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ESNet on steroids

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