Category: Globalization

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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

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Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: The Long Tail

I read about Chris Anderson’s Long Tail in Wired Magazine back in the day (2004 – wow how time really flies) and immediately recognized the Amazon story. Chris turned that article into a book: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. Pretty compelling for the opening chapters…but then it just rehashes itself over the last four or five chapters. His website provides the surface overview that fits the needs of the book. NYTimes book review

How many books can you tap into at a local reseller? Two or three thousand? Try competing against Amazon’s millions of titles. Overwhelming only to their competition. Anyone in Toledo remember Thackery’s bookstore? I do — and still miss that store every time I visit. It was a hangout when I was off campus.

Once able to purchase your own unique tastes in music, movies, television shows and books (for example) the idea of a retail store just turns into a sink hole.

Retail locations justify selling only the top 100 popular titles in music, movies, TV and books to pay for electricity, staff and rental space. Clearly this model is broken. Your given few selections, and the limited selection is forced to mass audiences — but not your own niche interests.

Today on in the internet you can find any niche, regardless of age and download it to your computer. Sadly the only thing standing in the way of a massive long tail is copyright.

While Walmart can outsell at fixed locations based upon pricing for the top 100 DVDs, Netflix will fill your niche filled with thousands of opportunities that Walmart cannot cost justify.

Continue reading “Latest read: The Long Tail”
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Education Globalization Technology

Google’s new “My Maps”

Google continues to revolutionize the way social networks can thrive in a web2.0 world. The only problem with this is the amount of time it will take to render VR imaging for My Maps.

Now the challenge for Google Earth will be to permit users to embed rich media (Flash, QuickTime VR) into these elements…then the interactive element would really fly if they can sync rotation of the VR object and Google Earth. I’m ready for the next release of Google Earth to support that feature!

A beautiful view of Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu. Click here to enjoy this in real-time.

nuuana pali

Technorati Tags: Google, My maps, photography, Nuuau Pali, trends