Following the Candidate

I follow Will Richardson on Twitter (among others…) It’s interesting to read the comments and track the updates as you can follow some of these leaders as they go about doing what it is that they are doing. Today, he made an interesting observation.

Barack Obama is on Twitter.

So, I hopped over and sure enough, he has a Twitter presence. I checked out the history of his updates and it’s fascinating reading. It’s a virtual timeline of major happenings in his attempt to become the next president. Within the hour, I get the notification that he’s now following me.

I’m trying to get a grip on how a politician would use social networking and it makes a great deal of sense. Follow your candidates and get a sense of what’s really happening and not just what makes the 6:00 news. From a candidate’s perspective, you can control what message that you get out and it doesn’t go through a network producer/editor. And, unlike a major speech, the candidate has to get the message across in 140 characters. Best of all, it’s free.

I’m sure that someone must have taken the time to do a mashup on an internet mapping service of all of the candidate’s public appearances. You’ve got to believe that they are getting with the program and understanding another aspect of their constituency. Now, we’re not talking about millions of followers so the presence isn’t necessarily going to put the candidate over the top. However, it does serve to show that he’s trying to connect with voters and I’m sure the efforts will make a piece on a major news source as they take a turn at showing how candidates try to be young and in touch.

Flip back and Hillary Clinton is there as well. I’m not quite naive enough to think that these major candidates are doing the twittering themselves each time. It’s interesting to read and insightful however it is created.

Unfortunately for them though, this follower is Canadian.

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Tags: Twitter, presidential candidates

The Library as Conversation

If you have an hour, here’s an interesting presentation to listen to.

http://ptbed.org/downloads/BigIdeas.mp4

How do you create knowledge? It’s about conversation and how should libraries embrace conversations and promote active participation.

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Tags: socialnetworks, participation, library

Search is big business

If there’s any question that “Search” is big business, it’s solidified in this report in Business Week.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D8UFR6K00.htm

The report indicates that internet search giant Yahoo! will lay off 1000 workers.  The number 1000 is a large number and gives a sense of the size of the corporation.  But, the more telltale indicator is apparent when you read that revenue is predicted to be up to $6 billion dollars with profits in the millions.  This is huge and almost surreal to think of something that big.  And, you access it with your $39/month internet account.

You’ve got to believe that when you’re talking business of this size that you can’t rest on your laurels.  There was a time when you could count on your hand the big areas.  Altavista, Yahoo, Lycos but there has been so much growth in other areas of search.  Search also has evolved to the point where you may need or want to search from wherever you are.  There was a time when you went to a website to do  a search.  In attempts to corner the search market, access to search engines reaches into your browser with its search windows and your search bar add-ins. 

Not willing to sit at the back of the bus, APIs are available that will allow people to perform their searches right from your blog or wiki or webpage.  In the demand for universal search, those of us who are web producers must add as much functionality to our websites as others.  Search engines provide this functionality to us to incorporate this into our own productions.

In this mode, search is big business and viral.  It reaches into our desktops, our favourite webpages, our toolbars, and yes, even our bookmarked pages.

Search is no longer use something that you do; it’s everywhere; and it’s big business.

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Tags: internet, search

Thanks to Ross…

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Tags: Blog

Even comes with cupholders

The Airbus A380 is one of Airbus’ latest and greatest entry into their fine line of aircraft. It is touted by the company to be Greener, Cleaner, Quieter, and Smarter. The Airbus website outlines the details and the specifications of this marvelous machine. It’s spectacular from end to end.

Read all about it at: http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/index2.html

I got a whole new appreciation for the aircraft, the design, and certainly for the pilots who make sure that you get from starting point to destination.

However, with the wonders of computer technology, I have a whole deeper appreciation for the job of the pilot. It has been a long time since I’ve seen a virtual reality simulation that engaged me this deeply.

Strap yourself in and head over to: http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/cockpit1.htm

And before you take off, check out the cup holders!

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Tags: Aircraft, virtual reality

Five reasons not to fear a $200 Linux PC

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6227419.html?tag=nl.e539

You sure hear enough in certain places about the joys of these less expensive computers. How much longer before they become mainstream and students show up at your doorsteps demanding to use them in their classes. How long can an educational system say no?

Want to try it out? Before you throw our your old outdated computer and spend big bucks to upgrade at home, get yourself a Linux distribution and throw it on the machine.

My old MDG machine which was getting progressively slower and more sluggish with Windows Home Edition is like a brand new machine with Edubuntu on it. It’s got my required suite of applications: Flock, FirstClass, OpenOffice, NVU, Python as well as lots of other things that I use on a rotating basis.

The cool thing is that there is no shortage of support should you need it.

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Tags: Computers, Linux

Facebook Everywhere

I’m still wading my way through the implications of this but I see school boards who block websites shaking over this announcement.

On Saturday, Facebook announced that it was releasing a Facebook API that will allow you to host Facebook applications on your own website. If this plays out like it might, you could be hosting your own favourite application just a quick click away. This would, in theory, allow your application to share the wealth of information that Facebook apps collect about its users.

This potentially extends the power of the social network to areas that we may not have anticipated. Suppose the world all of a sudden embraces the concept of OpenID. If you’re a marketing type, just think of where this might take you. Create an online educational application using OpenID and there’s no stopping you.

Fully understanding Facebook’s Beacon may well be a learning that we all have to take.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/hightech/facebook-beacon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_(Facebook)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140182-c,onlineprivacy/article.html

OSAPAC’s recent announcement of its licensing of the Media Awareness Network’s Webworkshop is timely. The lessons contained therein are good resources for school districts.

We’ve known for a long time that internet content blocking is marginally effective.

Is it time for a universal internet curriculum? Should a consortium of social networking developers be on the writing team?

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Tags: Internet, privacy

Destroy the web

One site at a time.

Ever wanted to egg a website that you didn’t like. Perhaps it’s got a different political view than yours?

Maybe you’re just bored?

http://www.netdisaster.com/

There might even be an educational application to it!  Try the vacuum cleaner and suck the words off cnn.com and see what you have left!

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Tags: Justfor fun

Apple Flops

I really enjoy the Mac versus PC commercials. They’re very funny and well crafted.

They would also lead one to believe that everything that Apple computers touch turns into gold. If you’ve followed the product line, you’ll realize that not everything has turned to gravy for the company. In a bit of nostalgia, Wired Magazine talks about what it seems as some of the biggest flops that have happened in the past 24 years.

It’s a cool walk through memory lane. I remember Lisa being the showcase of a MACUL vendor floor in Detroit when it was released. Sadly, I remember buying some of this stuff. Remember the puck? A mouse where the tail was were the head should be and you always had to look down to make sure that you were oriented? It made the list.

Check out the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/2r9oab

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Tags: Macintosh, computers

Everyone Complains About the Weather, But No One Ever Does Anything About it

I wish I knew the original attribution of the above quote.

Straying from my usual comments about technology and education, I just want to complain about the weather.  I’ve had it with winter here in the “Sun Parlor”.

I figured out why yesterday.

When I was growing up in Huron County, winter was winter.  The snow started mid-November and stuck around until after the March Break hockey tournaments.  You knew that it was winter; you wore winter boots; winter jackets; gloves; and a hat.  We had a snowmobile and it was a primary source of winter transportation.  The town streets got narrower and narrower as the snow banks grew.  It was just a fact of life and we lived it.

Now, in the “Sun Parlor”, we have many winters.  It starts in earnest usually right about the RCAC Symposium in December.  Then it warms up and the snow goes away.  Then it snows again.  Then it warms up and goes away.  In fact, if you are supposed to have 40 winters by the time that you are 40, I would suspect that Essex County people enjoy at least 4 or 5 times that many.  You can wake up to snow in the morning and then a balmy snow free drive home at night.  Or, vice versa.  Yesterday, for example, was a beautiful morning.  When I left after doing a workshop at 6, it was cold and there was snow everywhere.

To really get the effect, you have two sets of attire in your car.  You may not need snow boots in the morning but you might later on.

Even the dedicated folks who work on the roads have a difficult time.  We don’t experience much of a sand/salt mixture.  We got right to straight rock salt it seems.  So, to defy the laws of nature, when you’re driving in -18 degree temperature, there are salt puddles on the roads.

So, I figure that I’ve had at least 4 winters since the first of December and I’m tired of it.

As it says in the time, nobody seems to be able to do anything about it but I figured that I’d just add myself to the list of complainers.

Have a nice, snowy, wintery, warm, blustery, cool, frigid day.  Take your pick.

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Tags: Weather, ranting