Category: Technology

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Design Education Globalization Technology

Firefox: 400 million downloads

In less than three years Firefox has turned a movement into a crusade. A open source web browser written by a programmer in Australia and a undergrad at Stanford and distributed via the internet for all for free.  The staggering numbers clearly indicate the worldwide desire by many to use an alternative browser. And it looks like the ripples keep coming….

firefox download

Firefox is the best story demonstrating the power of the open source software movement. Just imagine if Dell, HP and others began shipping Firefox pre-installed on new systems … Wait a minute … wouldn’t Microsoft alter their software distribution arrangements with these companies? Think Netscape. Remember them?

Seems that times have changed.  Imagine that two people across the world (who never met one another before the launch) can collaborate and create such a powerful program.  Are you ready for our future?

Tags: Firefox, Open Source, web browser, download, trends

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Education Globalization Rich media Technology

NBC: slap the iTunes hand that feeds you?

nbcApple’s iTunes music store has been a benefit to NBC and other TV networks selling episodes and full seasons of their television programming worldwide. A number of NBC shows and special programming events have been online for $1.99/episode.

To prove money greed makes the world go round NBC has broken off relations with the iTunes music store over their demand to charge $5.00/episode … more than double the current episode download price point.

Shame on NBC for pulling such a greedy decision. Exactly who is going to provide that revenue (and successful download solution) tied to all those iPods?

Tags: NBC, iTunes, tv show, download

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Design Education Globalization Internet2 Rich media Technology

Our future … ready or not

You may need to buckle up first if you have not read Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Although its never too late to change…it is however, way too late to ignore. Implications for business, education and society? You decide!

Thanks Matt for launching this!
Tags: Did You Know 2.0, globalization, India, China, The World is Flat, learning, trends

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Education Globalization Internet2 Milwaukee Reading Rich media Technology Virtual Reality

Latest read: The Tipping Point

A long and exciting summer with Maxwell has taken me away from my daily reading. But I have just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and learned its just as great as reviews have suggested.
Chapter 3 (The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues and the Educational Virus) is a really great read and made a real impact in approaching a thread that is currently underway on Internet2‘s Teaching and Learning listserv.

The discussion is about the impact of SecondLife in K12 education. There are real questions about the validity of SecondLife.

After the initial hype of SecondLife (for higher education) peaked, colleges now find themselves in the same rut about really embracing SecondLife when virtual visits never really materialized. A lost leader? Probably.

Many including Wired‘s Chris Anderson are openly debating the ‘stickiness’ of SecondLife. Does it provide solid learning outside the classroom or studio?

Continue reading “Latest read: The Tipping Point”
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Education Globalization Network Smartphone Technology

Text Message your next pizza

dominos pizzaThe emerging and cool method to order pizza is via SMS by Domino’s. After a successful test run early this summer.

Sound interesting? Big pizza lover? You will need to register and establish a preferred menu…but just text message “gametime” will have your favorite pizza at your door within 30 minutes.

And by gametime I mean football….well actually I mean soccer. Domino’s is making this available only in the United Kingdom.

Tags: pizza, Domino’s, SMS, United Kingdom, trends