Category: Globalization

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Design Education Globalization Google Innovation Network Technology

A pundits rush on Google+ ?

 If you listen to all those social media wanna-bees who jumped on the Google+ bandwagon as the latest and greatest social media tool.  Seems as soon as they received their beta invite the avalanche began.

Proving that ‘tigers eat their young’ those same pundits are already calling Google+….the next GoogleWave.

Wave? Oh, how quickly did you forget about Google’s last B-L-U-N-D-E-R in social media?  Feels like yesterday Google was so slowly handing out Wave invites that it actually killed user adoption by the time they got around to “launching” the product.

Wave was so over-hyped by those same pundits who were also on twitter begging for a Wave invite.  I recall them wishing they could be part of the Wave hype….until the exact moment they logged into Wave they found out how complex the UI was presented. Boy did Google deserve one hard shot right to the groin for that social train wreck.

So those who consider themselves social media leaders (or innovators) are actually voicing their displeasure with Google+ after its been public for just 30 days?  Oh the irony.  I cannot help but relish that quote from earlier this year that puts all those social media so called leaders or innovators into context:

“99.5 Percent Of Social Media Experts Are Clowns”
-Gary Vayerchuk interview

Continue reading “A pundits rush on Google+ ?”
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Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: 13 Bankers

Reading 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown can be considered a good introduction to the country’s long relationship between Wall Street and Congress.  A new reference for how our country began its relationship with Wall Street and the massive changes during the Reagan, Clinton, W. Bush and Obama Administrations reveal how well the financial elite have directed legislation in Congress.
To read about how our republics leaders’ viewed banking was a refresher.  Of course it would be a great insight to hear their views of the 2007-2009 financial collapse and the new banking world we must struggle through.

Clearly Congress was pitched a bill of goods manipulated by Wall Street. That simply bit them in the ass.  I was amused to see how they were asking for the government to bail them out when their house of cards folded in on them.  And yet I’m amused to read and listen to “specialists” or “experts in the field” in the financial marketplace or even the vast field of TV “analysts” who say the government is socialist for ”buying” the banks.

TARP was issued under W. Bush?  If the Treasury did not step in and bail out Wall Street we would be in the middle of a global revolution.  Sure — ignore it all and watch our entire economy totally collapse.

I was impressed with the book’s level of detail surrounding the relationships between W. Bush and Obama’s senior leadership (who transitioned to the Democratic White House) and their twisted histories with the major banks on Wall Street.  Its clear the amount of money funneling through Congress today provides Wall Street with a clear avenue to set policy — and even give away free money.  Well its not exactly free…the money handed to Wall Street to protect their horrible investment decisions on terms they could bargain for collectively.  And of course they all took it.

As Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan Chase stated, somehow during the financial  collapse they managed to have the best year in the company’s history — and paid out billions in bonus compensation while most Americans who purchased their products lost everything:  jobs, mortgages and ultimately their future as a result of the recession that followed.

13 Bankers blog
13 Bankers - Simon Johnson

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Education Globalization Reading

2010 Favorite book: Too Big to Fail

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves is clearly my favorite (for all the wrong reasons — you know economy on the brink of collapse) book in 2010.

too big to fail

Six month later Sorkin’s story of the financial meltdown and shocking background stories that stunned the world still resonate – due to news that Wall Street again is on shaky ground, especially with municipal bonds

Clearly the lack of oversight and Washington’s hands-off approach to Wall Street contributed, yet as Sorkin documents the big investment banks were playing with loose money, morals and an ego the size of Canis Majoris.

Its no wonder the rich get richer and the poor get poorer when you can lose the largest trade in the history of Wall Street and actually keep your job.

With companies like Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and AIG its no wonder George W. Bush was forced to step in and save the country from a nuclear meltdown.  I believe Hank Paulson’s book On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System tells the tale of the Bush Administration and made it to my top five list too.

With HBO’s recent commitment to make a movie from Sorkin’s book it ensures many more will be reading this in 2011.

Author’s website

Tags: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, Bear Stearns, Wall Street, Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, recession, AIG, trends

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Design Education Globalization Innovation Reading Technology

Looking forward to reading

After reading Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die and Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything I have been following the Heath brothers and Don Tapscott’s work online and in the blogosphere.  Both have followup books to their initial bestsellers. Its going to be great reading.

reading

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Cyberinfrastructure Design Education Globalization Innovation Internet2 Network Rich media Technology

Internet2’s Artistic Collaborations Over High Bandwidth Networks

Held in Indianapolis in April 2010, The 2010 Intermedia Festival of Telematic Arts held in April was a unique series of events presenting futuristic modes of live telematic and media arts by artists throughout North America and Europe. Telematic art synthesizes performing arts with computers, media and telecommunications. Over 100 artists traveled to Indianapolis while others participated remotely via Internet2.
i2banner

A combination of art performances including dance, music, visual arts and videography with commentary and discussion were integrated to create a compelling set of experiences.  The session included an overview of the multi-institutional activity involving students, faculty, and administrators. Classes of students from Florida State University, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Butler University, University of Calgary, University of Cincinnati and Indiana University Bloomington met in the months prior to the festival in order to plan and rehearse their respective performances online.

This session examined the presentation of telematic art to the general public via Internet2 at the downtown Indianapolis Public Library. This effort involved strategies to intermingle both high and low bandwidth venues into a seamless, integrated performance environment.