Category: Education

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Education Reading

Latest read: Koba the dread

Did you think I forgot all my interest in Russian and Soviet studies? Martin Amis’ 2002 work Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million is another post-USSR look at Stalin’s brutal rule in Russia. “It loves blood, the Russian earth.”

Koba the dread

I received a wonderful birthday gift from my brother Chris. Three books about Stalin, war with Germany and ultimately about sadness.

It is very difficult (again) to acknowledge the use of famine as a method of control. Both executed by Lenin and Stalin was so inhuman, yet effective for Soviet control of the non-Russian regions of the USSR. Was it not horrific enough that Stalin bled Ukraine, the fertile lands that kept his Bolsheviks temporarily alive?

Again, like Solzhenitsyn‘s The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Amis reveals the true horror of Stalin’s rule. How many people were shot on Stalin’s orders?

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Education Globalization

Copywrong … again

wkrpAs you may know the well known television series WKRP in Cincinnati has been butchered due to copyright. And yes I am old enough to have watched this show growing up in Ohio…which made me feel good about the fact that every television show in America did not have to be about life in New York or LA.  I also remember the 11 kids killed at The Who concert in Cincinnati back in December 1979…and the WKRP episode regarding the tragedy.

All the music played in the background of the show has been replaced by Muzak. Wired ran a story about the individual responsible for making all the changes.

Really shows how copyright limits our culture. This bothers me on many levels. If I did watch an episode and heard a song that struck a cord…I’d buy the damn thing on iTunes.

Technorati Tags: , copyright, music business

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Education Globalization Reading Technology

Latest read: Naked Conversations

With a lot of anticipation I read Robert Scoble’s Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

naked conversations

For some time I had been skimming his blog Scoblizer since he became Microsoft’s first official blogger and rose to instant superstar.

As if that ‘permission’ by Microsoft made blogging okay for Corporate America. While his feed is loaded in my NetNewsWire this book is really really entry level…or if you have not read any book about blogging.

While many on Amazon rave about it (maybe my expectations are too high) it really is a rehash of plain – common – sense approaches to having honest communication or “chats” via a blog.

Maybe for the mid-size corporation looking to communicate to their customers…but don’t good companies talk to their customers already?

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Education Globalization Internet2 Technology WiscNet

Boreas comes to Wisconsin

Wisconsin is moving in the right digital direction, literally at the speed of light. Announced yesterday the UW System is connected to a new network named Boreas.

Boreas was the name of the Greek God of the North Wind, but today it is knows as the Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network. This enhances UW-Madison’s connection to the high speed Internet2 network about 20,000 times faster.

Yes a leap in network speed x 20,000. Its part of a larger Regional Optical Network or RON, connecting the UW system to Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota.

This serious bandwidth increase cements Wisconsin (and the Midwest) as a base for future economic development, federal research and education. Quite simply to be “in the arena” of computing power and research collaboration the jump was necessary to remain at the top in today’s globalized world. Update posted at The Chronicle

Tags: , Boreas, Internet2, network, Madison

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Design Education Globalization Internet2

Visual plagiarism

While searching for Masters hilights I found AT&T’s Blue room media directory. Their visual identity jumped right out as a copy of Terena, Europe’s version of Internet2, a high speed academic research network.

 

terena at&t blueroom

Terena’s brand identity was redesigned in late 2006 and incorporates their identity into their website layout. AT&T’s blue room favors music, sports and gaming media….but no idea on when it was introduced.

So who is hurting who’s brand?

 

Technorati Tags: , branding, Terena, at&t, creative, graphic design, logo