Russ Savage: CountriesOfOne

Cyberspace, end of

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:14:38 GMT

The End of Cyberspace
Goodbye, virtual world. Hello, new world.

About the end of cyberspace
Cyberspace is a "metaphor we live by," born two decades ago at the intersection of computers, networks, ideas, and experience. It has reflected our experiences with information technology, and also shaped the way we think about new technologies and the challenges they present. It had been a vivid and useful metaphor for decades; but in a rapidly-emerging world of mobile, always-on information devices (and eventually cybernetic implants, prosthetics, and swarm intelligence), the rules that define the relationship between information, places, and daily life are going to be rewritten. As the Internet becomes more pervasive-- as it moves off desktops and screen and becomes embedded in things, spaces, and minds-- cyberspace will disappear.

About this blog
This blog is about what happens next. It's about the end of cyberspace, but more important, about what new possibilities will emerge as new technologies, interfaces, use practices, games, legal theory, regulation, and culture adjust-- and eventually dissolve-- the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds.

Are we willing to do what's good for us?

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 14:01:05 GMT

20 Business Principles They Don't Teach in Business School
Miz Liz on Biz
biz.erati.com, January 27, 2006

Experience is a fabulous teacher. It gives depth to skills and substance to what we learn from books and from college professors. Life and business really are about two things -- showing up with your mind engaged and paying attention to what people actually do and how things actually work.

8. It's hard to have an unbiased world view, when you're in love with the information in your own head.

10. Never blindly buy into someone else's sense of urgency.

12. We use the same words, but don't be surprised when they mean different things.

15. When change is a new boss, new client, new owner, you have just started a new job.

17. Being good at what you do is important, but a strong personal brand includes both good and easy to work with.

18. If you do the work right, you won't have to do it over.

Those, of course, are just 20 out of what's probably 20 million. I mentioned I am good at mistakes. Didn't I? But I'm a quick study too. Failing isn't the problem. It's not failing and recovering fast enough. Neither is taking a well-considered risk. It's refusing to adjust course as you go that can get you in trouble. I learned that years ago from reading and listening to Tom Peters.

Know that you'll always be adjusting course.

Are Americans willing to pay for what's good for them?

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 13:11:28 GMT

Out with old media; in with... what?
The old gatekeepers are getting weaker by the day. Will anybody step up to take their place?
By Justin Fox, FORTUNE editor-at-large, January 19, 2006

...This is not an unprecedented state of affairs -- big American cities used to have lots of different newspapers, each with pronounced political leanings and articles explicitly shaded to reinforce those leanings. There is nothing natural or inherently superior about the monolithic media institutions of the mid-to-late 20th century.

But there is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping role that the best of the media gatekeepers can play. The question is, who's going to play it? And how are they going to make it work economically?...

For those who place classifieds or read them, the new era of Craiglist, Monster.com, and the like is undeniably better than the old newspaper-dominated one. But for decades, classified ads subsidized journalism. Now they won't.

This is the way of economic progress, and as a business journalist who has on occasion applauded creative destruction as it wreaked havoc upon other people's industries, I can't exactly complain about it.

But it does raise some subversive thoughts: Are Americans willing to pay for what's good for them? Are there great new fortunes to be made in telling us what to pay attention to, or is this business of media gatekeeping going to be chiefly a sideline (think Oprah Winfrey and her book club)? Is there a role for public broadcasting as the last uniting, subsidized medium?

System of record

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:28:39 GMT

Wikipedia has this description:

A system of record is an information storage system (likely to be a computer system) which is the data source, for a given data element or piece information. The need to identify the Systems of Record can become acute in large organisations, where Management Information (or MIS) systems have been built by taking copies of output data from multiple (source) systems, re-processing the data and then re-presenting it for their own business uses.

Where the Integrity of the data (element) is vital, it must either be extracted directly from its System of Record or be linked directly to its System of Record. Where there is no direct link with the System of Record, the integrity, and hence validity, of the data is open to question.
[System of Record, wikipedia]

I'd argue that the term is really about how the age old records (births, deaths, deeds, citizenship) are parts of systems of recording.
We rely on the paper document (the record) because we trust the system that created it and sustained it (the system of record).
Now, in digital form, we think we have something new, something transient that we need to lock down.
We do, but it's the system as much as the digital "record."
The record - digital or paper or parchment - has little value
unless we have a method to assure us and future participants
that this record, created this day, about this event, by this person or persons
is a reliable record
through time.

This need isn't new.

Even if the form is.

btw, this is about....

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:57:51 GMT

I've been posting "news" items without much comment. I ponder why, resolve to comment more. Then don't.

I can't really expect others to view this as a serious blog if all I do is re-headline what the prospective reader reads every where. So what do I add?

The reality is that we, all of us, have a tendency to think about a problem in isolation.
I'm trained to think about "systems" - but, still, systems in isolation.
But we live in a world where no system is truly isolated.
This winter's fresh fruit in the grocery store down the street comes from South America
& the fresh shitake mushrooms from China. That's how global the economy has become.

The health care system of the United States is not isolated from that of China, India or Europe.
A decade ago I knew a German fellow who'd worked in the US nearly all of his adult life.
He'd retired here. But once a year he went to Germany for a health checkup,
even for a hip replacement.

Now we expect Wal-Mart to be competitive but play by US rules,
not by International economic reality.
True, they helped create this economic reality,
but to expect US companies to adhere to U.S.A. 20th century business models
in a 21st century international market is to doom all of the USofA to 3rd class status in the coming decades.

That's the comment for today.

The Question: How do we adjust from being the "super power" to being a top tier competitor in an international market place?
What do we do to adapt to the digital world - the world where market changes are instant and constant?
What does environmentalism mean now?
Does the term "organic" food mean anything?
Does "universal" health care or "universal" social security have a place?

As noted earlier today, we are now an Agent Nation, not an Owner Nation.
So how do we have checks & balances on the agents for different systems?
Not just those with narrow interests but with those that interact in complex ways to alter our life.
It comes down to, I think, the intersections where we barely notice te interaction of systems.
Or the resulting unintended consequences.

Systems of record

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:27:19 GMT

Only work if there is a feedback loop.
No record is bad. No feedback (correction) loop is worse.

Most States Don't Keep Records on Foster Care Visits

Lacking proof from most of the states, federal officials are concerned that many foster children are not being visited regularly by caseworkers. [washingtonpost.com - A Section]

Choice, thoughtful choice

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:21:57 GMT

So many choices: What to do? What to do? (USATODAY.com)

USATODAY.com - Dozens of drug-prescription plans. More than 8,000 mutual funds. Fixed-rate, interest-only and option ARM mortgages. Regular 401(k) plans vs. Roth 401(k)s. Countless flavors of bank accounts.

Choice is a hallmark of capitalism, and most of us would agree that having too many choices is far better than having no choices. A growing body of research, though, shows Americans have become so besieged by choices that many feel paralyzed and confused.
[Yahoo! News: Business]

Magazine Preview: 10,000 Channels

"Startups Take on Google and Yahoo to Solve Video Search"
Red Herring, January 23, 2006 print issue

When computer science professor Avideh Zakhor and her graduate students set out to create a video search engine at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999, their web crawling ultimately resulted in a stockpile of some 45,000 clips. Fast-forward six years, to a point where Yahoo alone boasts 15 million clips in its video repository....
[Red Herring]

Lawrence Lessig's

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:54:23 GMT

Experiments in presentation technology

Experiments in distributing content

Google Book Search: The Argument

Unrelated bits of info

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:42:13 GMT

A map of the world, charted by stereotypes.

Blog: Do the French spoil their dogs? Do Mongolians have a wicked sense of humor? Is partying the national pastime of Brazil? ...
[CNET News.com]

Stanford, meet the lightnet. Apple, get a clue..

I'm continuing to enjoy the Stanford lectures I mentioned the other day, but the iTunes lock-in really bugs me. So today I liberated three of the feeds, in a modest effort to nudge Stanford in the direction of the lightnet. ...
[Jon's Radio]

Education in a global economy

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 14:53:57 GMT

'Virtual' software: The future for schools? - Robert Brumfield, eSchool News

As school administrators consider ways to make technology more accessible to more students--and as broadband networks continue to play a larger role in the delivery of everyday instruction--information technology (IT) experts contend a new "game-changing"

[Educational Technology]

Globalization 3.0 and ed tech

In the THE Journal, Geoffrey Fletcher, editor at large of THE Journal posed a couple of questions of the ed tech community relating to the book
The World is Flat. Here are my thoughts on two of them.

Q1 -- How do we deal with 'Globilization 3.0'?

Globalization 3.0 is a concept that suggests that, due to the current state of fiber optic connectivity and the wide availability of powerful hardware and software tools, individuals are now able to collaborate and compete globally.

We simply have to "deal with it." It's here. We can no longer deny the fact that a huge talent pool of highly educated and sorted young people can do the back office (and also highly specialized) work of most Fortune 500 companies for pennies on the dollar. We need to focus on what we do best, which is, innovating. (We also need to insist that our legislators demand that our innovations stop being blatantly stolen by some of these same countries.)

So maybe a better question is, "How do we produce a generation of innovators?" ...

Q2- What role does technology play as a part of the solution?

Once you have defined a quality educational experience that creates deep and innovative thinking, simply apply technology to it. For example, if collecting, drawing meaning from data is important, use technolgies related to this topic. Data loggers, lego robotics, data bases, spreadsheets and web browsers could be suited to the task. Let's not apply them, though, unless they encourage deep thinking. Producing another generation of "Powerpointlessness" (Jamie McKenszie's term) will not help! Not every deep and thoughful science or mathematical experience may require an educational technology but there are many times when it can help to enhance the lesson by engaging and empowering the student.

Although, this wasn't asked, I think another factor that gives the 2nd and 3rd world students an advantage is their desire. They want to better their lives and they know that the key to doing it is education. They get it. This is exactly the same ethic that waves of immigrants in our own country have embodied. Consider this. When a young worker gets a job at a call center (a job that would be relatively undesireable to many top U.S. sytudents) it could result in health care benefits for their entire family! That's a life changing incentive. I look at my own son (granted, a decent student) with his PSP, iPod, and the many other adornments of an upper middle class American teen life and I wonder, "Will be able to muster the "ganas" it will take to make it in a 'Globalization 3.0' world?"

What do you think? [edtechNOT.com Blog]

There is a large traffic jam coming to your health care system

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 14:28:16 GMT

"Today, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that depends on employers to finance the medical needs of most of its population."

Health care's foundation crumbling

The decline of job-based health insurance is changing almost every aspect of the U.S. health care system. Many predict those changes will soon end in a dramatic crisis for families, governments and business.

[azcentral.com | news]

Requiring Wal-Mart to fund health care for their employees will not solve this.

European generational divide

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 20:34:25 GMT

Digital Divide statistics

A Eurostat study says Europe has digital divide... and these are interesting but not all that surprising:"A gap remains between users and nonusers or between 'haves' and 'have-nots'," according to Eurostat, the European Uniion's statistics agency. The survey found that 85 percent of school or university students aged 16 to 24 used the Internet, while only 13 percent of people aged between 55 and 74 went online during the survey. The poll was conducted across the 25-nation EU between April and June 2004, questioning 204,029 people. No margin of error was given. Only 25 percent of those who had not completed high school used the Internet, with the figure rising to 52 percent for those who attained a secondary school diploma and to 77 percent for college or university graduates. Only 40 percent of unemployed people used the Internet, compared to 60 percent of those with a job, the survey said. In total, average Internet use across the EU stood at 47 percent. A similar U.S. survey found Internet use in the United States in 2003 stood at 55 percent. Eurostat said the low Internet use had several causes, including "missing infrastructure or access; missing incentives to use information and communications technologies; lack of the computer literacy or skills necessary to take part in the information society." The survey found that computer use and use of the Internet was highest in the Nordic countries of Denmark (76 percent), Finland (70 percent), and Sweden (82 percent), while the lowest rates were found in Greece (20 percent).The statistics on Greece were a surprise. Maybe the Greeks still talk to one another rather than going online...I'm thinking positive cultural influences a la My Big Fat Greek Wedding....

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

"Only 40 percent of unemployed people used the Internet,
compared to 60 percent of those with a job, the survey said."

"The survey found that 85 percent of school or university students aged 16 to 24 used the Internet,
while only 13 percent of people aged between 55 and 74 went online during the survey."

The other digital divide I worry about

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 20:28:31 GMT

Non-profits slip into technology gap

Allen Shore writing for happynews.com shares some less than happy news in his article, "Love'em and squeeze'em: Charitable thoughts from the helping sector". The technology gap also shows through in the Stanford review. Some 76 percent of nonprofits from the Bay Area have Web sites, compared to fewer than 27 percent nationally. A recent commentary by another nonprofit resource group, Npower, adds to this picture as well. It asserted that while conventional businesses have a technical support staff to operational staff ratio of 1:100 (down from 1:50 just a few years ago), nonprofit organizations have a ratio of about 1:30 - another squeeze on their resources, and an issue of concern as technology becomes increasingly important. If ever there was a place where students (and career changing professionals) interested in web design and maintenance could plug-in and make a difference, the non-profit sector is it. Sure, they can be demanding and difficult to work with... but so too wil be some future paying client, so get over it! Jump in there and help someone, you'd be amazed at how gratifying the experience can be. (IMHO)...

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

If the citizen doesn't have the resources to find appropriate digital services
and the local social service support providers don't have resources either....

If the services go online

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 20:20:51 GMT

but the "customer" does not...
in this case, the customer suffers.

Self-imposed digital divide

"After lagging the broader US population in online usage, African Americans are starting to catch up. A new report from eMarketer explains why. African-American Internet users make up 10.5% of the total online population, according to eMarketer. "But amid the good news, there is still frustration," says Ms. Debra Aho Williamson, Senior Analyst at eMarketer and author of the African Americans Online report. "Just 50% to 60% of African American households have computers, versus 70% of white households. Though African Americans are increasingly using the Internet at work, home access is a strong driver of frequency of use." A greater concern, however, is that the remaining lag in usage may also be self-imposed. "The most worrying factor," says Ms. Williamson, "is that a large percentage of African Americans don't appear to be interested in going online, even if they have the money and education to do it." "Some of the digital divide is self-imposed," Bruce Gordon, head of the NAACP, told Businessweek in October 2005. "A computer and a DSL line don't cost that much anymore. We need to convince more households to buy computers and go online." It still bothers me that so much digital divide publicity points to differences between blacks and whites. Asians and Hispanics, just to name a few, are generally included in national research but rarely included in publicised reports... I'm just sayin'...

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

I left the blogger's editorialising in - that does not mean I agree.
The key value of this entry is the description of a particular group.
I suspect various groups are all over the place on this.
My larger concern is the general lag of senior citizens
and the impact on their ability to get appropriate services and assistance.

32%

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 20:07:39 GMT

Ok, I misremembered

Is one third of a 'divide' still a 'divide'?

I am ready for real 'news' about the Digital Divide...the same studies from the Pew Internet and American Life Project keep popping up in newspapers (as filler, I suppose). One of the more recent comes from IndyStar.com: "Many hurt by digital divide want to be there, study says".
If we depend solely upon the Pew statistics, "32% of american adults remain unconnected from the Internet (narrowly defining what digital divide means)." Let's expand that 32% of americans to see who is missing out:
1. 15% of non-internet users live in a household with an internet connection
2. 78% of people 70 years old and older are not using the internet
3. Blacks and those without high school education seem to lag behind
4. There is a group that is simply not interested (too busy)
5. Approximately 30% of the non-connected simply do not have access available to them....

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

(above was reformatted for clarity)

If I'm not mistaken

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:51:46 GMT

the number of non-Internet surfers in the USofA is 22%

Seniors, the last of the digital immigrants

As a card carrying AARP member, it still feels strange to hear that "Seniors struggle to cross the digital divide". Oh, I understand the image. Blue hair-ed, bi-focal-ed, bald-ed, and wrinkl-ed people simply do not fit the image of today's...

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

nearly all of that 22% are over 60.

Just recognizing the generational gap helps - a case for the digitally naturalized

Every so often, my news feeds pull a community newspaper article about schools focusing on technology. If I had to generalize, most of these articles bemoan spending cuts, unfunded mandates, and challenges of making sense of technology in the classroom....

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

Everyone has their passion

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:24:08 GMT

Many in the "digital divide" biz are either focused on descrepancies caused by geography or economic standing.
But as described here, there are other, more subtle divides - educating the educator is one, educating the various professionals assisting the educator.
Or assisting the healthcare provider, or... well anyone in a position to bridge the divide.

Talk About Digital Divides

There are all kinds of divides in this country. When we talk about a digital divide there are many other factors that create the problems we have.

Academic Gulf

...There is no substitute for going to a good school. I hang out on the lists of some of the great schools. It keeps me humble....

Learning Divide

Do we want kids to really love learning?

There is the divide between book learning, and learning for the 21st century. We have to be idiots to think that we can lock up kids in a school and make them learn without the media. These children grew up in the media. We are the ones who have to make adjustments. I will admit that I was one of those smarties who read the book the first day. The reader. Remember those boring texts, and who also finished the science book early. If we had one. I think my imagination went a little wild with all the time I had....

A nine year old kid with an understanding of the use of a computer can access more than the knowledge that is presented to teachers in some schools of education. There is the problem of rich content and meaningful content. Think Astronomy, Earth Science, Geography, Physics. I really don't think people want the kids to learn these subjects. Reading won't get it. We did not get to Mars reading a book.
But the Hubble is having its eyes put out and will not be financed.
Too bad.

Technologists vs Teachers

Teacher are responsible for content, technologists only need to know that the machine works.

Technologist and teachers are still at different ends of the spectrum. Some people give us really good tools. But there are barriers. There is the fact that we are told how to teach and then measured for that. There is the barrier of the interruptions in the classroom for any and everything. Sometimes teachers feel like traffic cops, but maybe not, since they have no authority. There is the barrier of permission. The person in the school office, that administrator is the key to what you can do. Ask me about it, I learned to move when I found myself in danger. But there is nothing like being given tools that you don't have enough information to use well or programs that help create a learning environment in your paticular classroom. The expertise for content does not always reside in a technologists. They don't have to teach....

Bonnie Bracey [Chalk and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]

Digital Divide, The People Factor, Meeting Emily

I belong to the Digital Divide Network. I am what some would call a seasoned teacher, and I love the classroom action. I was surprised to see a recent college graduate create a space devoted to digital divide for the classrooms. I joined....

The digital divide, the mental divide, racism, and the omission of minority groups from technology, science, math and engineering is something I have been working with for many years, in person, from need, out of frustration and out of an attempt to explain to what I call the "suits" that the digital divide still exists in America. In many cases they send kids to the special classes during math and science. The integrity of the classroom and the use of time deserves its own special space.

The divide is not just colored by race. There are distant and rural components. The state has some input, and even the E-rate use is dependent on some skills of use, that is, to be able to apply there has to be some resident knowledge. I had a friend who was very ill, who was in charge of e-rate submission, who was insistent on dictating his work from a hospital bed, though he was deathly ill. It was because it can all be so complicated. The funding is also so needed that it has become a priority for the continuation of the use of technology in poor areas.Many poor schools had no knowledge of how to get funded for e-rate . It is more than a tad complicated.

I also was in a school in rural Kentucky where "Baby Turn me Over "was the technology application that the community had invested in. The rate of pregnancies make this technology application very desirable as a predictor for young mothers and fathers.

There are schools who have grant writers, and school systems who have these people who create grant funding opportunities. This is not the case for a lot of schools. Teachers, administrators, and community workers have a lot to do, and time to teach, and time to be more involved with technology is not a given. In fact, a teacher I know said to me, " It is four o'clock, and I am going home, I don't get paid for overtime, and I will get the same salary as you!" The point here is that there are some schools where if you want the grant you write it. If you get the permission.

In the beginning, technology is a time sink....

Beyond The Web Page

There was a time when we talked about knowing technology , if you could create a web page. So there were lots of classes that were given on creating web pages. That is a time sink, but ptobably a necessary understanding. So all the kids can make a web page.. then wha? I think you start with content.

Content

Content is , to me, the king. There is a lot of cost involved in being a person helping students to construct knowledge. Because of budgetary constraints, many books are bought on a ten year cycle. If we thought the book was the basis of knowledge.. and many people do, even over that time, the book should not stand alone as the basis of knowledge.

Getting Help

I happen to be of color, and have been burned in the crucible. I have been told no so often, for various and sundry reasons, that I could be portrayed as a yo-yo in animation. I am sure that to many people I am a nuisance. What I learned to do, was to change schools, or create a space for myself with national training, or to spend every summer, in some kind of a training.

Then were the Eisenhower Grants, and so there were also the courses that allowed me to learn.

At first, the training was for science and math. In the schools that I went to , we had these subjects for teachers and they were not robust. Even the pure sciences were amended and changed to be for teachers. That means, Physics for Teachers.. not physics. Those of us that did not go to "quality' schools have to run to catch up in many cases to just be on the academic levels of the schools of choice.

I worked in a very comfortable suburban community where we seemingly had most of everything. But I knew that it depended on the community and the local principal, as well as the school board permission. What often helped was to be able to demonstrate what it was that you were doing in ways that made it difficult to say no to a teacher embracing technology.

I say that because there were always the people who were in charge of us as teachers and who made choices in the way of tools, technology and curriculum. There was also a subgroup of "teachers" the favorites, who were on these little committees that make the choices sometimes of textbooks, and tools. How to get to be one of those teachers , if you wanted that was a matter of the leadership in the school, how old the current 'expert" in the school was, and

if you could wedge in something on your own. I chose grants as permission to do something different.

I liked looking at Emily's exercise in a class where they looked at software. I liked thinking that she had permission to think about software without the kiss of the local administration. Can you tell that

I don't think that the committees work?

So I am encouraged by the start of this community. Of course, there are only a few of us. I hope that we will have more community in this project. I intend to link it to the SITE conference in Phoenix as a different example of learning community.

Bonnie Bracey [Chalk and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]

From Chalk, Talk, And Book To Technology

In medieval times, the scripters, the careful monks who painstakingly copied books, held most of written knowledge in their hands. In those Dark Ages, very few were privileged to be a part of the sharing of knowledge. Even after the invention of the printing press, the movement of ideas was based on a person's ability to read and to have access to books. During the time it took for literacy to increase and books to become affordable, the town crier played a key role in disseminating information.

Many teachers without technology are not far removed from those primitive ways of communicating. Many of us are still using books for our basic teaching and our voices for delivering the instructional program. Moving from chalk, talk, and book to technology requires a transformation of our teaching. That will require ongoing support -- financial, technical, and human.

The results with our students more than justify these investments. No teacher involved in the exploration, evaluation, excitement, and individualization of technology as a tool in learning can fail to see the effects on students.

[Chalk and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]

What skill sets will be most important to the next generation of journalists?

Let's assume that the war between journalists and bloggers (citizen/volunteer journalists) will end some day. Electronic media delivery will evolve into something that we may not yet understand...but some students in higher education are preparing themselves for the work force every semester without a clue as to real world expectations. In terms of technology, what kinds of skills do you believe will be most important for the next generation of professional journalists? Should they know, understand, and actively engage the blogosphere? Will they be expected to capture and deliver digital images? Do they need experience in audio recording for podcasting purposes? Will video capture and editing become something that is needed in a journalist's tool box? Is there a need for understanding online discussion ( interviewing) whether that be synchronous or asynchronous? What role will the technologies of social networking systems play? This is not a quiz. Your answers will not affect your final grade. Your responses will not be held against you in journalism court. Relax, tell me what you think, please....

[Generational Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]

Locating hope

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 16:54:45 GMT

There are many groups working on "digital divide" issues.
These efforts can cross-pollinate what works.
Some examples:

20.01 Going Home

A new culture is arising.
A culture that challenges the Matrix in which we live.
A culture that will revive our sense of community and lead us home.

WEBSITE LINK: http://www.changethis.com/20.01.GoingHome

[ChangeThis Newsletter]

for those inclined to social action:

Welcome to the Digital Divide Network!

"The Digital Divide Network is the Internet's largest community for
educators, activists, policy makers and concerned citizens working to bridge the digital divide."

Note that these organizations provide guidance in the digital divide issues that can cross-pollinate to other focal groups.

Technology .. What we need to know?

"The lack of familiarity with technology has given rise to a number of misconceptions. For example, most people think that technology is little more than the application of science to solve practical problems. They are not aware that modern technology is the fruit of a complex interplay between science, engineering, politics, ethics, law, and other factors. People who operate under this misconception have a limited ability to think critically about technology[~]to guide the development and use of a technology to ensure that it provides the greatest benefit for the greatest number of citizens. Another common misconception is that technology is either all good or all bad rather than what people and society make it. They misunderstand that the purpose for which we use a technology may be good or bad, but not the technology itself. Realistically, every technology will be more advantageous for some people, animals, plants, generations, or purposes than for others"

Because few people today have direct, hands-on experience with technology, technological literacy depends largely on what people learn in the classroom, particularly in elementary and secondary school.

This information comes from a document from the National Academy of Sciences that few people probably have ever seen.

The whole book is on line for your perusal and learning.

http://www.nap.edu/execsumm/0309082625.html

Bonnie Bracey [Chalk and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]

CivicSpace

My DDN blog has been pulling feeds from my site, so some of you may have noticed that I've been writing a lot about content management systems recently, particularly CivicSpace and Drupal.

I thought I'd post here to provide a general introduction to the idea of a CMS, and to outline some of the reasons I think every nonprofit should be considering a move to Drupal for a website management system.

To begin with, CMS = "Content Management System". For more information on what a CMS is, visit my page on Nonprofit CMS.

A CMS like Drupal, or its big brother CivicSpace, is designed to do one thing (and to do it well)...seperate content from technology. This means that the content provider for a nonprofit no longer needs to send content to a technologist (normally a highly-paid website designer / developer) who then becomes responsible for that content appearing on the web...with a CMS, the technologist merely handles the initial installation, and not much more. The content creator has the ability to enter new content, edit existing pages, and even design new kinds of pages...all without requiring an education in website development. The system handles everything technological in the background....

[Dave Chakrabarti's Blog]

Creating the Possibilities, using Professional Development

The George Lucas Educational Foundation, has created some professional development modules, that are designed to help teachers explore teaching ideas.

These free teaching modules were developed by education faculty and professional developers. They can be used as extension units in existing courses, or can be used independently in workshops and meetings.

Each module includes articles, video footage, PowerPoint® presentations, and class activities. They draw from the wealth of GLEF's archives of best practices and correlate with ISTE/NCATE NETS standards.

These are the existing resources:

Innovative Classrooms

Project-Based Learning
Assessment
Technology Integration
Technology Integration: Language Arts & Social Studies
Technology Integration: Math & Science
Exploratory Learning with a Digital Microscope
Project-Based Learning, An Integral Approach: CSI
Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Educational Leadership

View of the Principal and the Job
Teacher Supervision & Development

http://www.glef.org/foundation/courseware.php

There are many other resources on the site that extend learning.

Bonnie Bracey [Chalk and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]

Knowledge: of the world & self.

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:30:26 GMT

And self expression and exploration.

If you don't trust the media, do it yourself

Blog: Two apparently unrelated topics that have ranked high on blog indexes in the last week may have a significant bearing on the...

[CNET News.com]

....Combined, the two developments speak to some fundamental changes in the way the public views news and other mass information: People have grown increasingly mistrustful of U.S. media organizations' historical claims of objectivity (long ridiculed by European journalists as impossible), and many citizens are willing to take on reporting responsibilities of their own through blogs, wikis, social networks or other online vehicles.

Many hope that the result will be a return to the country's journalistic roots, with news that actually reflects the concerns of ordinary people--a concept that, for whatever reason, seems to have gotten lost in the last couple hundred years.

[has some comments on the site]

Self portrait tuesday is about self expression and exploration. The idea is each tuesday you post a self portrait on your blog, give a brief explanation of the picture - you may include your state of mind, what you were trying to do, technical information about the image etc. Link back to the list of other SPT people - thus enabling everyone to share and explore each others self portrait experience.

from the site (has links in the following)

How it got started:
Self-portrait Tuesday (SPT) started a few months back when I posted a self-portrait on my personal/craft/art weblog. I wrote a little about why I take self-portraits and this seemed to spark something in some of my readers. A few of them started to post Self-portraits too ( bird in the hand, port2port, scrapalicious and Nikkishell were enthusiastic) So self-portrait Tuesday was started. After a few weeks it had started to become quite popular, so I put a list together for everyone to check out each other[base ']s SPT's. Soon a self-portrait Tuesday flickr group was created (by Joy at scrapalicious) and more people joined.

Power to the (online) people

In prehistoric times, i.e., before the Internet, getting a political movement off the ground meant getting your hands dirty. You had to go find your target audience and talk to them, find volunteers to go knocking on doors or cold-call people on the phone. There were letters to write and envelopes to stuff, and it was just a lot of work. Then along came the 'Net, where you could publish one web page and the whole world could find it. Easy-to-use e-mail lists, and later on, instant messaging and blogs, also helped simplifying the process of drumming up support from your friends, neighbors, and countrymen....

The Associated Press just released a story detailing the efforts of a few individual citizens who got tired of waiting for change, and took matters into their own hands. The causes run the gamut from the admirable and the game-changing to the offbeat and ridiculous; the article's examples range from a stay-at-home mom who felt disempowered when MoveOn.org lost momentum after John Kerry's loss in the 2004 elections, and decided to run her own political mailing list, to a woman who organized a group of pug owners (yeah, the ugly dog) to save a punk rock club on the edge of extinction....

Flickr, 2005 - Your Single Best Photo - pool

Flickr submitters retain ALL rights to photos they submit.
The restrictions on use vary - so see the photographer's site on flickr for what is allowed.
(The links only below are highly restricted, only viewable at Flickr,
while the shown pictures have some uses permitted.)

Two Hands

versailles

it's the biggest lightbulb

oaxaca, mexico

Ouarzazate

Tangier

Clouds - Tucson AZ

Where bricks go to die

Mesa Verde

Jaiphur, India

Napa Valley (from hot air balloon)

You might consider the photo-journalism here.
Not the headline journalism,
but the common joy and beauty found across the landscape.

This is a small sample of the submissions that I relate to
out ot the 1100+ photos submited.

Digital Publishing

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 17:28:18 GMT

Having seen the hype for "the net"
I'm cautious about what "Web 2.0"
or "Web 3.0" portends.
But there be a culture shift
beginning in the arts,
the creative sections of this digital age.

The Net Is a Boon for Indie Labels

Exploiting online message boards, music blogs and social networks, independent music companies are making big advances at the expense of the four global music conglomerates.

[NYT > Technology]

Yes, Virginia, There Is a New Economy

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 17:19:36 GMT

And an explosion of commentary on it
maybe it's the year-end navel scanning?
but... could it be true?

Yes, Virginia, There Is a New Economy

Daniel Gross writes:

What Makes a Nation More Productive? It's Not Just Technology - New York Times : Today, as bubble-era books like "Dow 36,000" collect dust on library shelves, evidence is mounting that there may be a new economy after all. In the late 1990's, growth in labor productivity - the amount of output per hour per worker - kicked into a higher gear. [snip]

...One mystery of recent years has been the enduring gap in productivity growth between the United States and Europe. In this case, another structural force - regulation - may be at work. "In economies with less regulation, companies can use information communications technology that link sectors to one another in ways that create joint productivity," said Gail Fosler, executive vice president and chief economist at the Conference Board. Because domestic retailers don't face the same sorts of restrictions on working hours and road use that European retailers do, for example, the Americans have been better able to use technology to manage trucking fleets, deliveries and inventory....

[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]

Technology isn't the only harbinger of higher productivity

As bubble-era books like "Dow 36,000" collect dust on library shelves, evidence is mounting that there may be a New Economy after all.

[Business - International Herald Tribune]

[Yes, this is a republished version by NYT. confusing huh?]

Yes, it could be true.

But there remains the question about the Luddites.
A clue may be in this link.

Maybe Telecommuting Just Isn't Meant To Be

For years and years, we've discussed various trends in telecommuting, noting earlier this year that high gas prices and public transit strikes might help push the trend even further. However, the problems of telecommuting continue to mean that it's just not for everyone. The NY Times notes that, even in the transit strike last week, many workers who could have telecommuted preferred to brave the cold and go into the office. There are a variety of reasons given -- from the traditional need for "face time" to the basic separation between home and work life. For many, it appears, the "commute" is more than just the function of getting from home to the office and back again, but a mental separator to keep work out of home life. That's one issue that's not so easy to break down with technology. Still, it will be interesting to see if that's more a generational issue. I would imagine that today's multi-tasking, instant-messaging, text-messaging, listening-to-music, watching-tv, surfing-the-web all at once kids might not have as much need to separate home life from work life.

[Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless News]

Two things stick out for me

well, we are primates after all - we need others around. In part to know what we feel.
"a mental separator to keep work out of home life" - this is linked to primates and feelings. But there is more here. We tend to think of home as "safe," we can let our guard down (well somewhat). Bringing work into it, brings the risks - the flight or fight urges from "that" place to "this" place.

With no separator, the worries of both might feed on each other.
Or one might bury the other.
Some love the mix, the variety of "always connected" but others resist.
That might be the defining issue in this culture shift to the "digital age".
And why there is a digital divide.

Well, there is also Kurzweil and his idea of Singularity.

"The Singularity" is a phrase borrowed from the astrophysics of black holes. The phrase has varied meanings; as used by Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil, it refers to the idea that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the year 2030. The results on the other side of the "event horizon," they say, are unpredictable. We'll try anyway.

THE SINGULARITY : A TALK WITH RAY KURZWEIL [3.25.01]

We are entering a new era. I call it "the Singularity." It's a merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence is going to create something bigger than itself. It's the cutting edge of evolution on our planet. One can make a strong case that it's actually the cutting edge of the evolution of intelligence in general, because there's no indication that it's occurred anywhere else. To me that is what human civilization is all about. It is part of our destiny and part of the destiny of evolution to continue to progress ever faster, and to grow the power of intelligence exponentially.To contemplate stopping that [~] to think human beings are fine the way they are [~] is a misplaced fond remembrance of what human beings used to be. What human beings are is a species that has undergone a cultural and technological evolution, and it's the nature of evolution that it accelerates, and that its powers grow exponentially, and that's what we're talking about. The next stage of this will be to amplify our own intellectual powers with the results of our technology.

The Intuitive Linear View versus the Historical Exponential View

Most long range forecasts of technical feasibility in future time periods dramatically underestimate the power of future technology because they are based on what I call the "intuitive linear" view of technological progress rather than the "historical exponential view." To express this another way, it is not the case that we will experience a hundred years of progress in the twenty-first century; rather we will witness on the order of twenty thousand years of progress (at today's rate of progress, that is).

Well, he is an optimist.

What I think we need to worry about is:

What if he's even half right?
What do we do as a significant number of our fellow tourists trekking into the future
do not want even 25 years of technological progress in the next 25 years.
They want every thing to be the same as now -
expect what they wish or need will change
(say treatment for my family's illnesses but let me pay for it doing the work I've always done).

The difficulty is less the resistance to change, its the resistance to adopting (changing) the financial, legal, medical, social environment for accommodating the prospective change. For even considering what is structurally needed for even the "every thing to be the same as now - expect what they wish or need will change."

The challenge has been getting people to realize

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 16:10:28 GMT

they can do more with voice applications then just dial a phone number

Wireless: Voice recognition enters new realm in cellphones
Speech recognition on cellphones is no longer about saying a name and then waiting and hoping that the right number is dialed, many experts say. [Business - International Herald Tribune]

From the article

...Most new cellphones have voice-recognition software already included; on some others the software can be downloaded. With the most advanced software, users can dictate a text or e-mail message, find a calendar item on the phone or jump directly to a ring tone and buy it with a simple command like "Madonna ring tone."

This last possibility is especially appealing for carriers, which have content on their mobile portals they are trying to sell clients, most of whom cannot be bothered to click through multiple menus to find what might interest them.

"The challenge has been getting people to realize they can do more with voice applications then just dial a phone number," said Collin Holmes, director of product marketing for V-Enable, a San Diego-based company that makes voice-recognition search software....

Do not try this at home

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:34:17 GMT

The internet. The great divider.

No internet connection cuts off a main artery of life. On a short holiday a variety of computers broke down, the internet connection blew up, or just, whatever. Suddenly there went the knowledge, the connectedness, the information of usual daily life.

We are in the world of the information haves and have nots. Cut yourself off from the net for three days and you realize how dramatic that divide is already and will become.

[Perceptric Forum]

actually... think about it
it speaks volumes
about the silence
the have nots hear
It's like living in the world of color
thinking black and white
is good enough.

Ok, 2nd Quote of the day

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:59:05 GMT

The world is too complex to be condensed into a list of rules.

David Kadavy

Eight Life Hacks for Health, Wealth, and Happiness

I've noticed in my short existence that I tend to do many things differently from most people. Some of those things probably work just as well, whereas others make me wonder "why doesn't everyone do this?" Here are eight things that may make you feel like you're cheating the system, too (in no particular order):...

8. Don't Make Lists of Rules - or Follow Them (They All End This Way) -
Such things are only made by bloggers hoping to get lots of del.icio.us bookmarks.
The world is too complex to be condensed into a list of rules.

How do you cheat the system? [kadavy.net]

Quote of the Day

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:44:47 GMT

Don't let fear of failure hold you back; if we are not failing we are not trying anything innovative.

James Torio

What Is A Blog? New Media Culture 101
James Torio has recently taken on the challenge to write about blogs and media phenomenon they represent: blogs are social change tools, business venues, support and development instruments, wonderful marketing channels, gateways to innovative learner-centered education and peer-review journals for....

...What bloggers have yet failed to achieve in full, is having been able to clearly communicate and explain the power that these tools offer to the non-technical person. The immense opportunity yet untapped by our many brothers and sisters who while having a sharp mind and desire to have an impact by communicating to others their ideas are still stuck in sending emails to their network of contacts....

Learning - Educational Technologies :: Robin Good's Latest News]

Communication as we know it is rapidly changing. We have an abundance of tools and we have only begun to figure out their potential. Communication is no longer about sending messages but opening up a dialogue and providing content that people will want to share with others. People are using media on their terms; when they want it, how they want it and what they want to do with it. It is time to join the conversation.

Failure is never quite as freighting as regret....

I stumbled upon this the other night and can't shake it out of me mind. Failure is trying to achieve something but failing short, or not getting the desired results. You learn and grow from failure, I think somewhere along the line somebody gave failure a negative connotation it doesn[base ']t deserve.

I remember years ago watching an interview on TV with Michael Jordon; there he was sitting on the bleachers in what looked like a high school gym, sitting around him were high school basketball players.

The man conducting the interview said to Jordan, "You are undoubtedly the greatest basketball player who ever lived, how does it feel to fail and not make it as a professional baseball player?"

As I lay there on my couch I began to sit up, I suddenly had that nervous feeling in my stomach as I wait in anticipation to hear what Jordan is going to say.

In a calm, warm voice he said, "I tried the best that I could, and that is all I can do."
That statement has been burned in my brain for years; it's about trying your best!

Regret on the other hand, well that is freighting; regret is not thinking things through, not trying hard enough, knowing you could have done things differently, giving up.

We learn from failure, regret eats at us because somewhere inside of us we know we should have tried harder or could have made smatter decisions.

Don't let fear of failure hold you back; if we are not failing we are not trying anything innovative. Failure is never quite as freighting as regret....

[everyhuman] aka James Torio