e-wot?

Via DataViz

BBC video showing how augmented reality could be used in gaming.

I tweeted this the other day, but of course wasn’t able to find it again. Hence the blog post.

Unchain the Office Computers! Great article bemoaning corporate IT’s tendency to block IT use, and hence stifle innovation.

Here’s my favorite quote:

The restrictions infantilize workers—they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively. In the information age, most companies’ success depends entirely on the creativity and drive of their workers. IT restrictions are corrosive to that creativity—they keep everyone under the thumb of people who have no idea which tools we need to do our jobs but who are charged with deciding anyway.

And then today I was listening to Buzz Out Loud, BOL1051 and from 28 minutes in, they were talking about the same thing. All good.

Technology empowers us to do things which make us unique. In this TED talk, Neil Gershenfeld from MIT talks about “the killer app of personal fabrication”. He sprints through some breath-takingly brilliant visions of the future. But the point which hit me hardest is that we need to give students, teachers… everybody, more opportunities to move from consumers of technology to fabricators of technology. Watch the video here:

You might be prompted to choose ‘player 7′ or ‘player 8′ (Flash). Pick either one, both worked for me.

It’s a brilliant talk, but hard to follow. Quite complex, compared to other TED talks. I had to watch this one a few times to get the whole picture. But it’s awesome.

All the TED talks are amazing. Check them out at TED.

In the spirit of making stuff, check out Makezine too. It rocks.

Compiled from contributions from over 200 learning professionals who shared their top 10 tools for learning here are Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

The top 3 are Delicious, Firefox and Google Reader. Huzzah!

ZDNet cites a Forester analyst who predicts a drop in the cost of web 2.0 tools for work. Click for Enterprise web 2.0 costs set to plunge

Quoting from the report cited:

“Specialized tools that focus on alumni networks, new employee orientation, and cross-department collaboration may continue to command price premiums, but generally – without significant functional advances in these tools – Forrester is not optimistic: we expect average deployment spend to fall by more than half to $15,300 per customer over the next five years,”

Good news if true. I’ll start touting at work because it suits what I’m trying to do, and then hope it pans out.

So here’s maybe how to persuade more investment in your intranet during the coming recession. Click for ‘Cut costs by expanding your intranet’ – eGov AU

Craig Thomler’s first point is about quantifying and promoting satisfaction with an intranet. This makes sense to me because we don’t do this enough with ours.

I like the way he’s pointing out an opportunity within a potential obstacle. I hadn’t considered this at all. Very relevant and timely I reckon.

Quote:

I often advocate increasing intranet funding during cost cutting exercises as a lower cost channel for engaging staff and sharing information.

Seems like good advice.

Ok, a bit of fun-punditry… Rizzn from Mashable suggests 5 types of web business that might survive the coming financial splat. And Rafe Needleman from Webware suggests 11 companies they think might not make it through the recession. Ooooh.

Mashable’s 5 potential winners are:

1. Co-Working Spaces
2. Bootstrapping and Growth Based Businesses
3. Collaborative Tools
4. Idea Marketplaces
5. Workforce Marketplaces

Click for Mashable – 5 Web 2.0 Businesses That Will Thrive in a Down Economy

Webware’s 11 potential losers are:

1. Twitter
2. Meebo
3. TripIt
4. Zillow
5. Pandora
6. Second Life
7. Skype
8. Ask
9. DailyMotion
10. Netvibes
11. MySpace

Click for Webware – 11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos?

Meh, not so entirely sure about the loser list. Skype? RU sure? Apparently it’s owner, eBay, might drag it down. MySpace, hmm. Twitter, well OK so how does Twitter make money? Second Life, never clicked with me.

Low-income students are in many ways just as technologically savvy as their counterparts
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. click for article

“What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practising the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,” said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university’s College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study. Read More…

I’m a bit disappointed. Jotspot was great. Google’s replacement for it, Google Sites, is not so hot. Here’s why I think so.

Jotspot was more than a wiki. It was a platform on which developers could build applications. For example, the Jotspot site we use has a blog, an app called a ‘bug reporter’, a discussion forum, a ‘knowledge base’ app and a project management tool. There were many other apps you could choose to add. I was hoping that Google Sites would continue to deliver this great functionality. Sadly, it does not. Read More…