kathleen forden

What We Saw on 9/11/01

more about “September 11, 2001: What We Saw by wt…“, posted with vodpod

A moment of silence and rememberance

(Thanks Gerd!)

“Re-Industrialize the Planet”. A quick summary:

* The web is creating a global infrastructure for collaboration (which leads to disruption and confusion)

* As a result, all of our institutions have come to the end of their life-cycle

* The current recession is a crucial punctuation point in human history – the point where we said that we need to reset, the point where the industrial economy has finally run out of gas

* This paradigm shift is creating a crisis of leadership

* The Digital Natives are inheriting this situation – and they think very differently

* Kids are now the authority on many issues

* We have 40 years to re-industrialize the planet

This concept allows to you to experience immersion and effortless navigation in an Augmented Reality environment. New types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch.

Through these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.It’s hands-free and weightless compared to a tablet, no small screen problem as you have on a mobile phone – but is it truly useful?

Unlike most other AR apps we’ve seen lately, where the physical world is referenced by the AR – the two seem unrelated here. It takes all kinds, though, and who’s to say how AR will be used?(Also, isn’t this music a little creepy? It sounds bittersweet about the inevitable and yet slightly frightening future.)None the less, we’d love to get our hands on a prototype of this technology to test it – just as soon as it becomes real.

Check out Peek – a great simple device to get your email anywhere.

Peek was born on a walk in the park when Amol Sarva and his wife, Ursula, were expecting their first child. At six months pregnant, Ursula couldn’t sit still and found comfort in taking long walks. But planning for a new arrival and a busy life besides, Amol saw that Ursula would return feeling behind. Emails were piling up. She had inbox anxiety.

A seasoned wireless industry entrepreneur, Amol had long been using smartphones for mobile email. With smartphone in hand, their long walks were actually a great way for him to stay on top of things at the office. Amol tried to get Ursula to use one, describing the many features: email, texting, voice calling, Internet, etc. But the bells and whistles are exactly what turned her off. She didn’t want a complicated smartphone with extras she didn’t need.

What she really wanted was a simple, nifty device that would let her do email on the go since email was how everyone she knew made plans, caught up, and shared news.

Amol thought a simple, fun, and attractive mobile email device had to exist. He asked his contacts at the cell phone companies, but they were dismissive. Nobody wants “simple”, they want “more”, they said. But Amol saw an opportunity, which he discussed with a few colleagues from earlier ventures. They explored the idea in the “real world”, closely observing real people using email at their desks and on the go.

Amol’s hunch was right; people really want a device that simply does email.

via Peek – About Peek.

Charles de Gaulle – “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”

Update: 9/18/09: Testing them out… I’m in the middle of a testing period of the publishing apps – Tumblr, Posterous, WordPress.com and a few other tools.  Will report feedback on a later post.

As more and more new communication tools (Social Media and Networking) are offered to everyone, I realize that there is a need for aggregating services (which are popping up all over in the Internet space).  With membership to many of the life publishing tools available it has become necessary to have aggregation for your feeds.

Why am I using all of these tools anyway?  I’m creating a lifestream, I’m becoming ubiquist and creating multiple streams of my personal and professional messages.

I have a bio, a blog, a Twitter feed, a Flickr account, a Tumblr account, a FriendFeed account, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, and numerous other accounts including Vodpod, Picassa, Delicious, Digg, Twitpic, SlideShare, YouTube, and Last.fm.

This allows you to produce or share content and have it appear everywhere.  But you need to manage your stream.

So go out and expand your mind and cruise the Internet.  Save what you have interest in and read it, if it stirs something within, then share it with others.  Add your thoughts for each item you want to share on the micro blogging sites I’ve mentioned. Just pick a subject that you have interest in.

Back when I taught the basics of the internet to my son’s first grade, (1997), I explained if you love Lima Beans and Green Jello – the Internet is for you!!  Post that you love it and it will allow others who feel the same way to connect.

Some things never change in society, connections are made due to similar interest.  The tools have just gotten better out there to find your connections.  Enjoy!

The final item I’ll add is to be yourself, just share the color in your life.

As an idea person, I’m constantly amazed at the speed of which new ones seem to be entering the main stream.  If ideas use to be “a dime a dozen“, they are more like “penny for a pound” today.

From tweeting stuff your older father says to discussing the life of a squirrel, these ideas seem to be finding an audience and gaining sucess in short timeframes.  Today the New York Times released an article that showcased the case of a Twitter account named “shitmydadsays”.  Less than 30 days after launch, this young man has over 200,000 followers, media coverage, market appeal, an agent and multiple book offers.

So here’s to the speed of ideas and to hitting that sweet spot that only the world can tell you about.

According to the New York Times Bits blog, a recent study funded by the US Department of Education (PDF) found that on the whole, online learning environments actually led to higher tested performance than face-to-face learning environments. “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” concluded the report’s authors in their key findings.

The report looked at just under one hundred studies that compared the performance of students in online learning environments (or courses with an online study component) to those who were given strictly face-to-face instruction for the same courses. What they found was that students who completed all or some of their coursework online tested on average in the 59th percentile, compared to the 50th percentile for those who received only classroom instruction, and that the results are statistically significant.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/?hp