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Bits and Pieces
David Chartier had a nice article this week that made me do some thinking — No off switch: “Hyperconnectivity” on the rise. You see, I had trouble getting my posts up on Thursday and Friday because of hyperconnectivity (rather than lack of connectivity). But it wasn’t hyper-connectivity in the sense that I had too many e-mail messages or to much reading to do on my aggregator. No, those things are actually symptomatic of a larger problem. You see, the real and deeper problem with hyper-connectivity is that it makes us think we can actually get more done than we really can.
Case in point. My daughter was visiting for a long-promised father-daughter week in Boston. The only problem was that I also had some pretty big product design deliverables at work. Well, I’m a pretty fair multi-tasker so I figured I could get to work extra-early every morning, leave after lunch and, after doing tourist stuff with her the rest of the day, could sneak in some work late at night.
I probably don’t need to tell you how my little plan worked out. The inability to make a few blog posts turned out to be the least of my time miscalculations. All I can say is that, luckily, no father daughter relationships were harmed int he making of this reality. I only wish I could say the same about all my deadlines and deliverables.
What I did become aware of is the sense of false time elasticity our hyperconnectedness gives us.Somehow, because we can multi-task and accomplish so much in a normal day, we become unrealistic about what is really possible (or advisable). We try to squeeze in more than we should or possibly can and that’s when the stress really happens.
Chartier is right about there not being an easy off switch when it comes to being connected (personally, I don’t really want one). But the switch isn’t the real problem. My real weakness is in being lured into thinking and believing that I can do more than is humanly possible.
I learned my lesson last week. Now I’ll see if I can put it into practice.
Today’s Research Clippings (May 14-May 17)
May 14, May 15, May 16, May 17
May 14
1. Article: Online Learning Tips
Author: Miguel Guhlin Resource: Around the Corner - MGuhlin.net
Excerpt: “Although the article Your 5 Best Tips for No-Fail Production by Matt Villano in Campus Technology (May, 2008) magazine was intended for a higher-ed audience, I found myself reading the article with some interest. I also didn’t know about Moodlerooms…”
2. Article: No off switch: “Hyperconnectivity” on the rise
Author: David Chartier Resource: Ars Technica
Excerpt: “Many of us leave our day jobs at the office and come home to our families, prime time television, or possibly an hour or two of World of Warcraft. According to a new study from Interactive Data Corp. (IDC) and sponsored by Nortel, however, an emerging demographic of ‘hyperconnected’ individuals in the workforce doesn’t have an off switch. While these Internet-thirsty gadget hounds are a respectable minority right now, IDC says the need for connectivity is on the rise—and the enterprise needs to be ready. So do the psychiatrists.”
3. Article: More Americans snipping landlines in favor of cell phones
Author: David Chartier Resource: Ars Technica
Excerpt: “Traditional telephone landlines in the US are slowly going the way of the rotary dial. According to a new survey from the National Institutes of Health, the majority of US residents still have both a home and mobile phone, but many are increasingly snipping the wires on their traditional home phone service in favor of a wireless phone. Conducted by the CDC between July and December of 2007, the NIH survey includes responses from 24,514 adults aged 18 or older, and 9,122 children under the age of 18, from 13,083 households. In the context of the survey, a “wireless family” is defined by anyone in a family owning a working mobile phone. More than one family can live in a household, however, accounting for situations where multiple single-person families (individuals) or unrelated roommates live together.”
4. Article: Researchers: written English language will weather LOL storm
Author: Jacqui Cheng Resource: Ars Technica
Excerpt: “Concerned parents and disgusted Internet elitists often criticize teenagers for their use of abbreviated speech and shorthand online, frequently arguing that it is ruining their language skills. It turns out that’s not the case, however, according to new research from the University of Toronto to be published in the spring 2008 issue of American Speech. In fact, not only is ‘IM speak’ not destroying anyone’s language skills, it is actually being characterized as ‘an expansive new linguistic renaissance.’”
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May 15
1. Article: Verizon picks Linux—but not Android—for mobile platform
Author: Ryan Paul Resource: Ars Technica
Excerpt: “Mobile carrier Verizon Wireless has joined the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation and has announced plans to adopt the open source software platform. Linux-based phones will be available from Verizon next year, alongside other devices that run competing proprietary operating systems. The LiMo Foundation is an industry group that was founded by leading handset makers. Their goal is to collaboratively develop a comprehensive Linux-based mobile software stack that can be modified easily and used at no cost on a wide range of hardware devices. Key members include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG.”
2. Article: Why Twitter Matters
Author: Stephen Baker Resource: BusinessWeek
Excerpt: “It’s easy to laugh at nonsense on Twitter, the microblogging rage. ‘My nose is leaking,’ writes someone called Zapples, ’so imma go to sleep now.…’ But I’ve heard lots of similar drivel (and even produced some myself) on the phone—an important technology if there ever was one. The key question today isn’t what’s dumb on Twitter, but instead how a service with bite-size messages topping out at 140 characters can be smart, useful, maybe even necessary. Here’s why I’m looking. In the last few months, the traffic on Twitter has exploded, growing far beyond its circles of bleeding-edge tech enthusiasts and hard-core social networkers.”
3. Article: Analyst: Amazon.com’s Kindle to generate $750 million by 2010
Author: Erica Ogg Resource: CNET News.com
Excerpt:”Calling it the iPod of the book business, CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney says the Kindle e-book reader will generate three-quarters of a billion dollars for Amazon.com in less than two years. That should account for up to 3 percent of Amazon’s business. See his chart and reasoning here. His calculations assume that unit sales will grow from 189,000 by the end of this year to 2.2 million units in just two years. By then he assumes the price of the device will be just below $300. Mahaney also points out that Amazon does have the largest selection of e-book content.
4. Article: 50 Ways to Tell a Story
Author: Alan Levine Resource: CogDogRoo
Excerpt:”It was not long ago that producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and technical expertise; we are at the point now where we can do some very compelling content creation with nothing more complex than a web browser. In this workshop you will:
- Design a basic story concept that can be created in a web 2.0 tool using images, audio, and/or video.
- And then create it quickly using one of 50+ different web tools that are free to use.
- Plus, you will share in this wiki site your example and observations on the value of the tool
We are using the word “story” in a general sense; it may be a deeply personal one of the digital storytelling variety, or it may be a tale of a travel trip, or a simple multimedia presentation.”
5. Article: New Facebook Chat Feature Scales to 70 Million Users Using Erlang
Author: Todd Hoff Resource: High Scalability
Excerpt: “I’ve done some XMPP development so when I read Facebook was making a Jabber chat client I was really curious how they would make it work. While core XMPP is straightforward, a number of protocol extensions like discovery, forms, chat states, pubsub, multi user chat, and privacy lists really up the implementation complexity. Some real engineering challenges were involved to make this puppy scale and perform. It’s not clear what extensions they’ve implemented, but a blog entry by Facebook’s Eugene Letuchy hits some of the architectural challenges they faced and how they overcame them.”
6. Article: (Serious) Games in 5 Paragraphs
Author: Clark Quinn Resource: Learnlets
Excerpt: “Serious Games (or, to be Politically Correct™, Immersive Learning Simulations) have hit the corporate learning mainstream, so you should be asking yourself: ‘why are people excited?’ Quite simply, because games (I’m not PC™) are probably the most pragmatically effective learning practice you can get. Sure, mentored real performance is the ideal, but there are two potential hiccups: scaling individual mentors has proven to be unrealistically expensive, and mistakes in live practice often are expensive, dangerous, or both. Why do you think we have flight simulators?”
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May 16
1. Article: OLPC and Microsoft will make Windows available on XO
Author: Ryan Paul Resource: Ars Technica
Excerpt: “The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project announced yesterday that Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system will be available on XO laptops in addition to the open source Linux operating system. The Windows-based XO systems will be deployed in upcoming pilot programs next month. The OLPC project has developed a low-cost education laptop which it is attempting to sell in bulk to governments in developing countries. The project has been plagued with a steady stream of serious problems that have left it on life support. The software platform change look like a desperate last-minute attempt to sustain the project, which some say has abandoned its education goals.”
2. Article: In the Basement of the Ivory Tower
Author: Professor X Resource: The Atlantic
Excerpt: “My students take English 101 and English 102 not because they want to but because they must. Both colleges I teach at require that all students, no matter what their majors or career objectives, pass these two courses. For many of my students, this is difficult. Some of the young guys, the police-officers-to-be, have wonderfully open faces across which play their every passing emotion, and when we start reading ‘Araby’ or ‘Barn Burning,’ their boredom quickly becomes apparent. They fidget; they prop their heads on their arms; they yawn and sometimes appear to grimace in pain, as though they had been tasered. Their eyes implore: How could you do this to me?”
3. Article: Why old media is running scared of Google
Author: Charles Cooper Resource: CNET News.com
Excerpt: ” think Piper Jaffrey’s Gene Munster offers a better answer when he wrote in a recent report that Google “has forced old media companies to realize they must act immediately or lose relevance in the Internet space.” He may be right about that. These companies typically came late to the party when they recognized that lots of their customers (and advertisers) were heading to the Internet. And thanks to the Yahoo novella, we’ve seen how even a company like Microsoft, which doesn’t fit under the “old media” label, finds itself scrambling to find answers to the Google question.”
4. Article: RIM’s Lazaridis: Qwerty is the next big thing
Author: Natasha Lomas Resource: CNET News.com
Excerpt: “Q&A BlackBerry maker RIM has been very busy this week hosting the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando, Fla. One of the announcements causing the biggest stir was the BlackBerry Bold–touted by some as the device to rival the iPhone.
The most exciting mobile trend is…
Full Qwerty keyboards. I’m sorry, it really is. I’m not making this up. People are running out of their two-year contracts and they’re coming into the stores and they want to be able to do Facebook and they want to be able to do instant messaging and they want to be able to do e-mail and they ask for those features thinking that they’re going to get another flip phone and they’re walking out with a (BlackBerry) Curve or a Pearl because they’re the best devices for doing those kinds of activities. And so what is the defining factor? The keyboard. ”
5. Article: The Nightmare of Social Networking Systems
Author: Syzygy (Jamie C.) Resource: AFI Screen Nation
Excerpt: “This video was created a part of the Horizon Project 2008 (http://horizonproject2008.wikispaces.com) where I was asked to envision the future of social networking as it evolves into social Operating systems. I combined animations with an interview of my teacher (an active edublogger) to create the final film. Here is the link to the world wide Horizonproject2008 http://horizonproject2008.wikispaces.com/Social+Operating+Systems”
6. Article: Testfest: Learning imapct conference day 4
Author: Derek Wenmoth Resource: Derek’s Blog
Excerpt: “What a learning experience! Locked in a room with around 40 “geeks” talking in a language that would require considerable interpretation for most (including me), our task was to put a range of applications and processes to the test to see how well they performed in terms of meeting the Common Cartridge specifications developed by the IMS Global consortium. The test was simple enough - to submit a content “cartridge” that had been created using each of the processes being examined to a “testing application” that analysed the code line by line and provided feedback in terms of how many errors were found. The second step then was to open the import the cartridge into an LMS system and open it to see how it operates in that environment. None of the participants had been able to do either of these things with the particular applications being used prior to the test, so it was a real test in that sense!”
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May 17
1. Product: Omnisio
Reference: Jane Hart Resource: Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day
Excerpt: “Omnisio lets you select clips from videos you find on YouTube and other video sites, and easily post them on your profile page or blog. Even better, you and your friends can add comments directly in the video! With Omnisio you make and share your own shows by assembling clips from different videos. Do you have a video and some powerpoint slides that go with it? With Omnisio you can show them both side-by-side - synchronized - and give your viewers a rich and interactive experience! Great for conferences, lectures and corporate training.”
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