VW transparent factory

Original article.

Supercool School - Create your own!

Skillshare - learn anything from anyone

Why not? Having fun...

TEDxSanDiego - Simon Sinek - Restoring the Human in Humanity

Google - snapshot view of edgility blog

Google is always giving you something to try.  The above image is this blog (edgility) in their new snapshot view.  If you like this here is a link to try their other new views and to use these tools on other blogs.

Social media is on the rise at work. A tipping point?

Here is a link to a MIT technology review article that sheds some light on a trend that I continue to see in my work as well.  Social media is finally taking hold (reaching the tipping point) in the workplace.  I am seeing this at the university as more-and-more graduate students are coming to me interested in studying Web 2.0 tools in their places of work. 

This is your brain on Google.

I have been thinking about this for some time.  How does Google impact us?  Do the algorithms keep us sharp and expand our thinking. Or does it narrow what we do and make us less functional? Is our increasing reliance on Google rotting our brains and turning us in to lazy halfwits?  Here is a link to...

Social Chocolate - Radically New Social Adventure Games

Led by the Jane McGonigal (Creative Director) - Social Chocolate is developing new social adventure games. They invite you to play a network game on their website to get to their secret wall.  Click on the image below to play the game - when you complete it add a comment to their "secret wall."  I will be watching for your comments.

YouTube bringing us great experiences...

Thank you for bring us the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra!!

James Paul Gee - on Vimeo

James Paul Gee from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

YouTube University... more debauchery?

YouTube has created a YouTube Creator Institute to teach people how to produce better videos. I think this is much needed - I applaud YouTube in this effort. Particularly if they focus their efforts on teaching aspiring video producers how to create video that goes beyond basic self aggrandizement such as the Fred Videos and moves those producers toward helping others learn and grow as individuals (more like the help with a bow drill set). (Oh, who knows - maybe FRED has taught someone something or helped someone out - probably).

As they state it, "the YouTube Creator Institute equips promising creators with tools, education and promotion to bring their talent to the world." They are running a contest that rewards the inaugural winning class a paid YouTube Creator Institute experience including: tuition, round-trip airfare, food and rooming costs. I just hope that the judges reward innovation and not more cultural debauchery.

Maybe I should submit... what do you think?  What would it be? Anybody have any ideas?

What I will watch - the 50 most innovative companies - Technology Review

Technology review's list of the 50 most innovative companies 2001 is now out.  This is always interesting to peruse. Here are a few that I plan to watch in 2011.

Gever Tulley - playing with fire

Three Big Ideas for building your Edgility

Building and maintaining your online reputation is absolutely vital to increasing your Edgility. I recently found this post on the Wired Advisor blog and I condensed its ideas into three key takeaways. Here are those takeaways and several quotes from that article...

TED talk - Chris Anderson.

Chris Anderson is the curator of TED.  In his TED talk he sheds some light on the significance of distributed video.  It is worth watching. 



Here is the Prezi that he uses in his talk. 

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation on Prezi

Amazing world view - Facebook friends visualized.

This image was so intriguing to me, that I had to stop, write this post, and make the image my desktop background. We have all heard the Facebook statistics - 500 millions users worldwide and growing.  Large numbers are sometimes hard to comprehend.  This image of 10 million pairs of friends from facebook tells the story of facebook's power to connect the world in a single image. Paul Butler graphed the friend pairs by locality and this is what he saw.  You can read more about his methods here.

Book review: Conquer Cyberoverload

I recently read the book Conquer cyberoverload: Get more done, boost your creativity, and reduce stress, by Joanne Cantor. Joanne Cantor (Ph.D) is an internationally recognized expert on the psychology of media and communications. Dr. Cantor is the Director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Joanne Cantor's compelling book describes how the "marvelous technological advances have interfered with our creativity and productivity to an alarming extent." She illustrates how information-based multitasking has negatively impacted learning, productivity, and creativity. Chapter 4 titled, "How information overload blocks creativity" is full of interesting information on how the brain works (surrounding the creative / innovative process).  Innovative / creative breakthroughs come when the brain is relaxed, something that she argues, the brain has less-and-less time to do as we plug ourselves into "our powerful, portable electronic gadgets," and continuously connect ourselves to more information through things like RSS and twitter feeds.

What I like about her books is that she provides "practical steps" on conquering cyberoverload.  Step three provides some brain-enhancing ways to promote creativity - read the book to see the entire list.  One item that resonated with me is to "choose a break of the low-information variety (avoid TV, the Internet, messaging); don't add more information to an already overwhelmed memory capacity." Dr. Cantor concludes that it is during these low-information variety breaks that we will realize our most innovative and creative ideas.

The Granny Cloud - Sugata Mitra

Simply watch this video. Sugata Mitra's ideas are worth spreading.