Category: economics
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IPTV, Less advertising, and new media
The latest (December 2006) issue of Wired magazine has several excellent articles that relate to YouTube, IPTV, the rapidly changing landscape of paid advertising, and new media technology use in general– but especially by younger demographic folks. The three articles are part of a series titled “Web Video Grows Up,” and includes “The YouTube Effect,”…
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Thinking about new schools
In his article (linked on the Creativity Exchange) “Beyond Schools: A New Foundation for Education in the 21st Century” (PDF) Gary L. Thompson addresses several key questions and issues about reinventing education for our new millenium: If the World is Flat, then how do we Flatten Education? Education as [a] Pipeline Rather Than [a] Linear…
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Design matters: It’s more than just price
Dan Pink in his excellent book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”, makes a convincing case that “cheaper and cheaper, faster and faster” is not the only formula for success (financial and otherwise) in the 21st century marketplace. Today’s CNN Money article, “Wal-Mart: ‘Cheap’ better than ‘chic’?” supports this contention. In…
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Jumbotrons and forced advertising consumption
I love college football, so it should come as no surprise that this is one of my favorite times of the year! I detest forced consumption of advertising, however, so my feelings were a bit mixed this past weekend when I enjoyed the dedication of Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The new jumbotron…
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Rural and Muni WiFi projects
Every community needs visionary leaders who see future trends and work hard to bring related opportunities to their town or city. Two recent cases involving community wifi networking projects hightlight this contention. Floydada is a small community near Lubbock, Texas, and is the only participanting district in the Texas statewide technology immersion pilot project to…
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Working toward oil independence
“Set America Free” is an organization with diverse membership focused on reducing and eventually eliminating U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. I cannot think of another scientific and technological innovation that could have more impact on geopolitics as well as economics around the globe than this initiative. One of the reasons I am trying to help…
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UN CyberSchoolBus and Infonation
I am a big advocate of helping students not only develop knowledge, motivations, and capacities related to local and national citizenship– but also global citizenship. Given this fact, it should not be surprising I was thrilled to discover the UN CyberSchoolBus website today. According to the site’s mission statement, the specific aims of the site…
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The present and future of leftist national politics
Today’s CNN article “Iran’s Ahmedinejad meets ‘brother’ Chavez” reveals interesting, international diplomatic friendships developing these days. I learned a bit about Hugo Chavez, the leftist President of Venezuela, in the April 2006 issue of National Geographic (“Venezuela According to Chavez”) and after talking with one of our professors in the Texas Tech College of Education…
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Congressional leaders forgetting the T in STEM
Many people have heard that “The World Is Flat,” read Friedman’s book with that title, and heard about the fervor of legislative support for initiatives supporting STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Apparently, some US legislators in Washington want to leave out the “T” which made the world flat in the first place. According to…