Jon Udell: Politics and audioblogging

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Jon Udell: Politics and audioblogging Let's think about how this might have played in 2003. There's a really good chance those students would have blogged the incident, with accompanying audio if not video. Having done so, there's a really good chance the blog community would have noticed and amplified the students' blog.

Jon Udell, one of my favorite bloggers, writes about how technology may have a transformative effect on politics. The example he quotes is about an Al Gore quote from 1999 taken out of context by the media, to the dismay of those who actually heard his talk. He makes the point that blogging and searchable audio could be used to fact check media stories.

Phil Wainewright on Wi-Fi

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AppSwitching Diary: Web Based Applications With Wi-Fi WiFi's combination of broadband and wireless fundamentally changes the equation. Once you can take your broadband connection with you, then the balance tilts decisively in favor of web-based applications that you can access wherever you are, irrespective of their or your location.

In this post, he mentions his experience using a T-Mobile Hotspot at a Starbucks. I have had an account for a few months and find it quite useful. When traveling between schools, or between meetings, I find myself with some time to kill. I can now easily stop at a Starbucks, have a cup of coffee, and catch up on email, or other such work.

Just recently discovered that a coffee shop near my school has free Wi-Fi. That is where this post is coming from.

O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference

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O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2003 Join the leaders from the many worlds of pervasive computing to explore and invent the new Internet infrastructure and culture. Speakers include: Howard Rheingold, Alan Kay, Clay Shirky, Eric Bonabeau, Tim O'Reilly, David S. Isenberg and many others.

I attended last year and found it to be one of the better conferences I have ever attended. This year's lineup of speakers and topics looks even better. While the registration fee is a bit steep compared to regular education conferences, they do offer a 50% discount for academic instructors. From talking to conference chair Rael Dornfest, teachers qualifiy for that. Now I need to find some funding.... :-)

Movable Type as a Journal Tool

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Movable Type as Journal Tool Students in this beginning German class at the University of North Carolina use Movable Type to publish their journal entries. Another exciting use of weblogs in education. I have wanted to do this with our Linux Terminal Server Project schools, but rather than make them public, they would be used as learning logs for only the student and teacher to read and comment on. RSS could be used to alert the instructor of new entries. Lots of possibilities... Now if we can only convince our IT folks to install Movable Type on the LTSP boxes...

Pointer to Discussion Board Reviews

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Discussion Boards
Found this nice Hot Scripts site on discussion boards today. It offers a nifty little quick review that covers features, platforms, cost (all have free versions), ratings, etc. on over 150 types of boards. You also get links to the download and home page sites for each board. I'm setting one up for my sons' ball team to use. [The Educator Asylum News] This reference points to a listing of many discussion boards. Have been looking for such a resource and found it this morning thanks to NetNewsWire, and The Educator Asylum....

Girls and Computer Science Classes

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Where the Girls Aren't Anyone who has ever tried to pry a girl offline knows that girls like computers. They just don't understand how they work. Computer science, the mathematics-based study of programming, is so unpopular among girls that even the most rigorous girls' schools rarely find enough students to fill a class. Tech-minded teachers worry that programming is to this generation what math was to their mothers -- a boys' club preventing girls from getting a foothold in the technological world.

Portland's Budget Woes Make the NY Times

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New York Times: Schools Ending Year Early to Cut Costs But nowhere except Oregon have so many districts announced plans to severely shorten the academic year. The superintendent here, James R. Scherzinger, has ordered administrators to prepare to cut 15 days from the calendar, and he said that unless voters approve a tax increase in a referendum on Jan. 28, a prospect pollsters say is quite unlikely, he will urge a cut that totals 24 days.

The nation learns that Oregon can't fund its schools...

Customer Owned Networks vs. Telcos...

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Shirky: Customer-owned Networks and ZapMail To understand what's going to happen to the telephone companies this year thanks to WiFi (otherwise known as 802.11b) and Voice over IP (VoIP) you only need to know one story: ZapMail.

The business Fred Smith imagined being in -- build a network that's cheap to run but charge customers as it if were expensive -- is the business the telephone companies are in today.

Another interesting article by Clay Shirky about the growth of Wi-Fi and Voice Over IP and how the proliferation of these technologies is challenging the business models of phone companies....

Apples New Laptop...

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Apple's New iSUV By Paul Boutin Jobs and company have hit the same consumer brain button that keeps the H2 on backorder. While everyone else was out cost-cutting, Apple built a lust object. Sitting among the rows of jaded industry journalists at Jobs' feet, two things were obvious: Nobody, but nobody, really needs this computer. And everybody wants one.

Another reference to Traci

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Traci Smolen's Weblog: Last lame poem I will write... Traci this is a test. This is only a test... Traci this is a test. This is only a test... Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...Traci this is a test. This is only a test...

More About Samuel Pepys' Diary...

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Phil Gyford: Writing: An introduction to weblog terms for weblog readers Phil Gyford's Samuel Pepys' Diary, is gaining quite a few readers. (For background BBC News has a nice introduction... ) As a result, he has come up with a list of blogging terms for those new to weblogs and their conventions.

If you haven't seen Samuel Pepeys Diary, be sure to check it out. What a great way to publish historical documents. I love the comments section under each entry. Today several folks are speculating why the Thames froze over in 1660.

Lazyweb Request Page...

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LazyWeb Do you have an idea that you think others might be able to solve?Make a LazyWeb request by writing it on your own blog, and then sending a Trackback ping...

What a great idea... Have an idea and don't know how to implement it? Throw it out there for others to help you solve... An RSS feed too, so you can have all the great ideas come to your RSS reader...

Satellite Radio....

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New York Times: Forsaking AM and FM for Satellite-Dial Diversity When Michael Scantlen purchased a Sirius satellite radio system for his car, he had to buy not only the equipment but extra gasoline as well. "The first week I got Sirius, I used up an extra half-tank of gas because I didn't want to stop listening to the programming," said Mr. Scantlen, 47, an electrical engineer in Agawam, Mass. "I haven't listened to regular radio since I bought it"

Would like to take a look at this. Would be great for trips up to the mountains...

RSS Feeds in your mailbox

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Aaron's RSS to Email Aggregator :: OSDir.com :: Open Source Software, Reviews & News Many people have their email clients so well tuned that to ask them to get their news from another application or client is close to sacrilege. So, lets solve their problem and go one step further. Let's use this to automate your site's RSS feed into a mailing list so you can serve both camps. Yummy. Let's go...

Let's see then I can then auto forward them to my cell phone... and be instantly informed whenever Dave Winer sneezes... :-)