Category: Technology

OLPC: Green beyond belief

Mary Lou Jepsen, former CTO of the OLPC project (and current President of PixelQi) was a keynote at the 2008 Greener Gadgets conference in NYC. This short address will surprise you regarding the types of green, advanced technologies built for poor students. Major consumer tech companies should pay attention:

This remarkable laptop for the world’s poorest students has so many green technologies that Apple, Dell, HP and every other laptop manufacturer should be incorporated into ALL laptops:

And why can’t I replace my Powerbook’s LCD strip for $1.00 similar to the replacement cost built into the OLPC? Well those same manufacturers want you to purchase another laptop…even when I search eBay for a solution.

Tags: energy, conservation, OLPC, Mary Lou Jepsen, globalization, trends

Design Education Globalization Technology

Globalization benefits America

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 11, 2008
1 Comment on Globalization benefits America

bmw logo Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat addressed how Globalization flattens the world. By “Flat” he does not imply equal. Many would agree as American companies have moved jobs and production facilities overseas. But to show the true flattening effect, BMW has announced they are moving vehicle production from Germany to South Carolina. Yes, a major international company moving major production and jobs to the US.

This announcement includes BMW building a 1.2 million square foot facility to their existing production facility in Greenville while eliminating 5,000 jobs in Germany. Auto analysts contribute a weak US Dollar as a contributing factor to this commitment. NPR audio
UPDATE: Wired’s: Can Americans still build Cars?
Tags: BMW, Globalization, Greenville, South Carolina, trends

Design Education Globalization Internet2 Milwaukee Network Technology

Verizon moving to 100GBs

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 11, 2008

I2 Verizon Biz Verizon’s Business unit joined Internet2 last year and has been working on upgrading their network services unit by scaling their 40GB network to a full 100GB. Scheduled for 2009, their first hops will be in Chicago, New York and Washington DC. Verizon is also converting their rings to optical mesh technology.

Finally just in time for the Olympic games in China (149 days until the opening ceremonies) Verizon’s $500 million terabit cable to China should be fully operational.

Tags: Internet2, Verizon, optical network, olympics, globalization, network, China, trends

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Middleware grant award

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 9, 2008

Internet2’s EDIT consortium and Educause have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for the ongoing development work on middleware technologies. Today more and more organizations need to verify and manage user identity and access. Middleware solutions that automate changing access rights will become even more important.

The goal is to empower IT administrators, faculty and other campus leaders with the ability to make group membership and resource privilege changes using one consolidated tool, rather than updating each individual application. This improves security and reduces the time needed to manage project groups, both on and off campus.

Collaborators want tools such as shared calendaring, videoconferencing, and wikis that integrate their teaching and research lives and their institutional and inter-institutional worlds
Ken Klingenstein,
Internet2 Sr. Director of Middleware and Security

The grant will enable further development and research on both identity and access management. Internet2 has been developing Shibboleth Single Sign-on. Shibboleth is standards-based, open source middleware software which provides Web Single SignOn across or within organizational boundaries. It allows sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner.

Tags: Internet2, Educause, National Science Foundation, Middleware, network, trends

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Open Source in Education

Yesterday ComputerWorldUK posted Open source in schools could save the taxpayer billions about the growing impact of Open Source solutions for schools. The growing movement of free resources for education including software and opencourseware solutions continue to thrive. This movement is leading a revolution in education.

Google Apps for Education permits any school to tap free, industrial strength resources including: Gmail, GoogleTalk, Calendar, Docs, Sites & Start Page. This solution is standards based while integration is seemless.

Schools continue to face dwindling budgets, staff reductions and program cuts. Lets face facts, globalization also forces schools to implement technology refresh programs, turning over computer labs every 3 or 4 years via equipment leasing. The continued use of commercial software (inlight of Google’s offering to the education community) is a sign of simple fiscal mismanagement.
Looking for a success story to actually justify free software for schools? Click Here for the large number educational organizations (K-12 & Higher Education) that have already migrated to Google Apps for Education.