Steve Jurvetson, in his ForaTV video presentation, “The User-Generated, Real-Time Web,” says (among other things) that we’re going to see Skype spin off from eBay in the next few months (his speech was in June) and create standalone, wifi-based phones which have been a part of the founding vision of Skype since the beginning but have been prevented by the pressure of telecom companies on the multinational corporation eBay. Steve also contends UCC (user created content) already is more important than content which is centrally produced by traditional mainstream media outlets.
Earlier this week, John Donahoe (CEO of eBay) stated lawsuit issues are NOT going to “…derail the $1.9 billion deal with Netscape founder Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.” Last week in Hong Kong, some participants at the 21st Century Learning Conference were discussing the uncertain future of Skype and wondering if it would continue to be a viable videoconferencing platform for education. These predications and news items make that future look hopeful, but we’ll have to stay tuned.
The march of disruptive technologies continues. Bring on the choices. As consumers when we have more choices, we benefit. When artificial barriers to competition are imposed by law and corporate pressures, generally consumers pay higher prices and have fewer choices.
As a related aside, Steve’s 3 minute TEDtalk from March 2007 on being a rocket hobbyist is amazing. Share this with your kids and inspire them to become rocket scientists. Literally.
If you want to see more hobby rocket launch images, check out this set from Steve’s Flickr site.
Hat tip to Alan Levine for the link to Steve Jurvetson’s ForaTV preso.
Technorati Tags:
phone, rocket, science, skype, technology, wifi, rockets, launch, scientist, ebay, purchase, phones, disruptive
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On this day..
- Applying STEM Skills with Robotic Sphero Balls (Donor’s Choose Project) – 2014
- Teens use Facebook primarily for private purposes – 2010
- Different Purposes for Using of Digital Tools to Teach Literacy in the College Classroom by Richard Beach – 2010
- Social Media Counter updated for September 2010 – 2010
- Critical for Ning site administrators to address spam – 2009
- Visual Tapestry – Flight – 2009
- Visually exploring earth with Panoramio – 2008
- Seeking the elusive “inbox zero” – 2007
- Universities banning Skype – 2006
- Portaportal and flexibly learning new tools – 2006