Lighten up! It's the weekend!

Animated Lehrer. Clever Flash illustration of Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" song. [learnandteachonline.com]

10:19:18 PM    

VideoEgg simplifies posting video online.

VideoEgg Launches.

Company: VideoEgg
Launched: September 19, 2005
Location: New Haven CT

VideoEgg, founded by three Yale graduates from the class of ’04, launced at DEMO in Huntington Beach, CA on Monday.

VideoEgg is a web-based publishing service that allows users to capture video content from virtually any device and format and publish it to the web. Click here for an example featuring Buzz Bruggeman.

At first glance, VideoEgg has some really excellent features. A live demo is available on their site, and allows you to drag a video into the viewer to get a taste for how easy it is to use. Flash 8 allows the viewing of videos with enhanced quality.

Publishers can easily integrate content directly on their website by simply adding a html snippet.

Tags: videoegg, video, vlogs, techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0

2:34:46 PM    

Dept. of Back to the Lab.

I saw this in Tomalak's Realm and thought, great, it's about time somebody put an iPod-type drive into a camcorder. But reading the review brought me back to reality. The headline must have been written by someone from JVC. In short, these camcorders would be ok for consumer use, but they complicate editing and the quality is not up to professional standards. Still, it's nice to know somebody is thinking in the right direction.

NY Times: Aha! Video Straight to a Computer. The "Aha!" moment came when JVC looked at the iPod. Why, JVC wondered, are we still recording onto tapes and discs, if we can record directly onto a tiny little hard drive like the iPod's? The camcorder could hold hours and hours of video, and you'd never have to buy another tape or specialized blank DVD. [Tomalak's Realm]

2:28:11 PM    

George Siemens points to Stephen Downes: Let us Learn to Solve Problems.

The discussion of David Jonassen's ideas continues.

Let us Learn to Solve Problems: "...experimental design in education is a shell game. The result from such scientific research depends more on the assumptions made by the researchers and analysists as on the actual empirical pheonomena being studied. Indeed, the empirical results are themselves almost irrelevant; you may as well work with random data. And in practice, what we see is empirical research being used to obscure, rather than highlight, the theoretical or political presumptions informing the outcome."

2:13:34 PM    

On being a connector.

The number of educators paying attention to George Siemens' ideas is growing.

Teaching Connectivism. Teaching Connectivism: "My personal knowledge is really a network of correspondences and connections. I learn by interacting with a huge network of individuals and learning objects (some are available online, some offline)." [Connectivism Blog]

12:46:16 PM    

George Siemens points us to an LMS Field Guide.

Kind of basic, and no specific reviews of products, but possibly useful to managers.

LMS Field Guide (.pdf) - short report on learning management system product features, pricing models, implementation, etc. The statistics are a bit depressing (and quite indicative of how organizations view an LMS). What did survey respondents view as most valuable aspects of an LMS? Testing, reporting, and compliance tracking.

12:41:27 PM    

Finding Google WiFi in all the wrong places.

Om Malik says that Google's wifi service can be found in London. Is this how their rollout works, a global Easter Egg hunt? [Scripting News]

12:37:02 PM    

Continuing discussion of Author's Guild suit against Google over Digital Rights.

Electronic Frontier Foundation:   Author's Guild Sues Google.

Author's Guild Sues Google  —  As many have reported, the Author's Guild has filed a class-action copyright infringement lawsuit [PDF] against Google in the Southern District of New York.  The dispute, as we've mentioned before, involves Google Print.  —  I believe Google has a strong fair use defense here.

Source:   Electronic Frontier Foundation
Link:   http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003992.php

View discussion

11:11:51 AM    

Feedburner could be a service worth getting to know.

Feedburner Releases Important Stats.

Feedburner released important statistics on their service yesterday. If you are unfamiliar with Feedburner, check out our original profile.

The graphs show total feeds managed by feedburner and total subscribers to those feeds. Both show hockey-stick like growth that looks similar to data released by Technorati (see item no. 2 in a past TechCrunch weekly summary).

I believe that these stats are very relevant to the blogospere in general. We are in a steadily increasing tide, that is increasing at an increasing rate. All boats are rising.

Feedburner now manages about 100,000 feeds and about 4.3 million people subscribe to those feeds. The growth rates are obvious:

Paul Kedrosky notes that the number of feed subscribers is doubling approximately every 60 days.

What I’d like to know is what percentage pay the $5 per month for the Pro product. If it’s around 5% (that’s my guess), then FeedBurner revenues (not including advertising) would be about $300,000 or so annualized.

The only thing left to ask is, do you have your FeedBurner sticker yet? I do.

We’ve previously written about Feedburner on September 7, 2005, July 15, 2005, July 4, 2005 and June 14, 2005.

Tags: feedburner, rss, atom, blogs, blogging, stats, statistics, techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0

11:05:46 AM    

Some technology is not for everyone (apparently).

OK, so the video clip thing is kind of doubtful, where quality and length of video is concerned. But IF you know that a lot of the people you are trying to reach are in the demographic for which this phone is intended, why wouldn't you try to exploit the phone features? Doesn't mean you have to buy one yourself. Put up the AK-47.

My New Cell Phone? Doubtful!.

Hmmm. Looking at the feature list, you might think the saliva is beginning to build. After all, the LG VX9800 looks like one juicy morsel when it comes to geek-enabled cell phonery. Figure the QWERTY keypad, bluetooth, MP3 playback capability, EV-DO support, miniSD expansion slot...what more do I want?

 

How about a real PDA OS? I don't particularly care which one, just something that gives me enough juice to do something interesting. And useful.

 

And I swear, this new video clip thing is going to wind up forcing me to climb onto a rooftop somewhere with an AK-47. On one side you've got vendors like Verso building applications to allow Verizon-types to block Web traffic like P2P, free VoIP and similar stuff because they're ostensibly "bandwidth drains."

 

And then you read about great new "products" from those same ISPs (like Verizon with this freaking phone) that allow you to sign up for what amounts to tiny, low-rez video snippets of various bits of TV content?! So not only are you wasting more time and bandwidth on something that can't entertain you for more than 10 seconds; you're also paying for something you get with better quality for free at home?!  How is this anything but a bandwidth drain?

 

Kills me.

11:03:36 AM    

No man is an island.

Helen Chen is writing about students entering universities, but we are all learning to have the same confidence in and reliance on technology. My guess is that you will find much of what she has to say is germane to your situation with older workers and learners. After all, if we wire up the world for the new members of the workforce, the old fudds are going to have no choice but to go along for the ride. Who knows, the OF may find they like being "always-on."

Reflection in an Always-on Learning Environment: Has It Been Turned Off? - Helen L. Chen, Campus Technology. Who are the students entering today's colleges and universities? Sometimes referred to as the Net Generation or Millennials (students born in or after 1982), we know that this is a group that has never known a world without computers and the Internet.... [Online Learning Update]

10:58:39 AM    

Lots of good things to look through.

Robin Good comes out with these lists every week, and usually there are only one or two that would be useful to home-based entrepreneurs. But this week I could imagine uses for every one of his picks, so here is the link to his list. Have fun!

Robin Good's New Media Picks of the Week: n°18.

Here is my new media picks selection for this week. Check out what I have found: Cross-platform File Sharing and Synchronization Online collaboration across email, calendaring and contacts Recording tool captures any video playing on your screen Graphic visualization of delicious contents RSS one-stop reference Personal Publishing and CMS service Multimedia search engine Social bookmarking site Create short intelligible URLs from long ones One search box to search all of Google services New media picks…

Direct and Related Links for 'Robin Good’s New Media Picks of the Week: n°18'

10:54:11 AM    

WiFi Internet service coming from Google?

Google Apparently Planning Wi-Fi Service. As earlier rumored (and even earlier foretold), Google is preparing to launch its own wireless internet service, Google WiFi, according to several pages found on the company's Website on Tuesday,... [MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing]

10:48:09 AM    

Google: Copyright infringement?

Elinor Mills / CNET.com:   Authors Guild sues Google over library project.

Authors Guild sues Google over library project  —  The Authors Guild on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against search engine Google, alleging that its scanning and digitizing of library books constitutes a "massive" copyright infringement.  —  As part of its Google Print Library Project …

Source:   CNET.com
Author:   Elinor Mills
Link:   http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5875384.html

View discussion

11:49:27 PM    

Small business connection woes.

Survey: Small businesses lack broadband options.

(InfoWorld) - More than three-quarters of U.S. small businesses in rural areas don't have access to cable-modem or DSL broadband Internet services, according to a survey released Tuesday by satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems.

Another 44 percent of suburban small businesses don't have so-called terrestrial broadband services available, according to the survey conducted online by Survey.com. Sixty percent of all U.S. businesses with 10 employees or fewer said they didn't have access to cable or DSL. The survey covered 250 businesses with 100 employees or fewer.

Thirty-five percent of urban small businesses surveyed said they do not have access to terrestrial broadband.

By Grant_Gross@idg.com (Grant Gross). [InfoWorld: Top News]

11:40:10 PM    

Cheat sheets on emerging learning practices and technologies.

From Educause. These will be very handy for explaining some of the new terminology.

7 Things You Should Know About.... (via elearnspace)

7 Things You Should Know About... (via EdTeckUK) - covers blogs, wikis, podcasts, video logs, etc. Each .pdf is a 2-page overview of the technology, addressing questions such as "what is it, how does it work, where is it going, what are the implications?"

10:38:53 AM    

Opera vs. Firefox: Latest move to gain market share.

Citation below is from memeorandum, so you can follow the discussion link and see what other major weblogs are saying about this. I've got Opera running on one machine. My only complaint is that it doesn't do CSS well (or at all), otherwise the interface is great and the app is not bloatware -- very easy on the memory requirements. -- Bill

opera.com:   Feel Free: Opera Eliminates Ad Banner and Licensing Fee.

Feel Free: Opera Eliminates Ad Banner and Licensing Fee  —  Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser.  The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download - completely free of charge - at http://www.opera.com.

Source:   opera.com
Link:   http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/09/20/

View discussion

10:33:59 AM    

Direct marketing and RSS.

How Direct Marketing Needs to Change for the Marketing Future.

With marketing slowly transforming from a clear “push” to a “semi-pull” model, one has to wonder how direct marketing will need to evolve to survive on the long-term. In this article, we take a look at some of the possibilities, especially in relation to RSS.

Direct and Related Links for 'How Direct Marketing Needs to Change for the Marketing Future'

9:39:37 PM    

You have your weblog set up and you have an RSS feed. Now what?

Taking the Easier Route to Generating RSS Subscribers.

RSS is certainly still far from being user-friendly, which is especially evident once you try and left-click on an RSS subscribe button. If you don’t want to waste potential subscribers, what other alternatives do you have? And what are the best ways of generating RSS feed subscribers?

Direct and Related Links for 'Taking the Easier Route to Generating RSS Subscribers'

9:38:24 PM    

If you are an entrepreneur, you should be writing a weblog.

Incidentally, this is an example of how Memeorandum makes it easier to follow conversations across weblogs.

Global PR Blog Week 2.0:   Adding Your Voice to the Conversation. Why CEOs Should Blog.

Adding Your Voice to the Conversation.  Why CEOs Should Blog  —  By Jeneane D. Sessum, The Content Factor |  Just how taxing is it to be one of today's chief executive officers?  Most are on call, in one form or another, nearly 24 hours a day.  According to an article in the Pocket Manager …

Source:   Global PR Blog Week 2.0
Link:   http://www.globalprblogweek.com/2005/09/19/sessum-why-ceos-should-blog/

View discussion

9:37:13 PM    

Watsawiki?

elearnspace  points to a List of wikis (actually of wiki tools). Check it out.

2:44:58 PM    

Getting Things Done with Google Desktop.

Bob Walsh on GTD and Google Desktop, Part 1: Outlook.

GTD (Getting things done) is an approach to personal organization and task management that has gained an almost cult-like following in the tech and business communities. At To-Done, Walsh explains how to replace Outlook with Google's new Desktop Search (Beta 2) as a key part of your GTD routine.

2:41:30 PM    

Laptops? We don't need no steenking laptops!

Thumb Drives Grow Up.

2:30:24 PM    

Ajax catching on at Microsoft, ClearNova. Just noting this because of all the attention Ajax is getting the last couple of weeks. Article quotes a Forrester researcher: "Ajax is just scripting. Although flexible and easy, it's difficult to maintain applications written with scripts because of a lack of structure... . 'It's not a silver bullet,' he noted.  [Computerworld News]

10:18:49 AM    

TechCrunch reviews Memeorandum.

" If you are a busy executive and only have five minutes a day to see what the blogs are saying, this is THE PLACE to come to every day." [TechCrunch]

I've been using their feed for about two weeks now. It's great, but it takes some thinking to get the information you want.  Covers only tech and political issues (are there any others?).

10:11:37 AM    

Tags: techcrunch, web2.0, web+2.0, delicious, del.icio.us, yahoo, google, skype, ebay, rss, ajax, blogs, blogging, tags, tagging

9:59:43 AM