After being out of a country and off-the grid (yikes!) for just under a week, I’ve finally been able to comb through my emails, address most of the fires, and already fail at project “inbox zero.” Fantastic! Happy 2012, world!
In my heap of 985 emails (in 4 days!), I found a private beta invitation to Microsoft’s so.cl network from David Sascino, Senior Program Manager (FUSE Labs) at Microsoft Corporation. You may have heard about this FUSE labs project under it’s working title “Tulalip” which, in true Microsoft reactionary style, launched right around the time Google Plus did in 2011.
There’s really not too much value I can add to this conversation because Jim Stroud already made a pretty amusing video which you can watch for thoughtful analysis + I’ve only perused the network briefly…enough to understand that (currently) there’s no apparent value or technology I need from so.cl that doesn’t already exist in my digital portfolio.
What I need is time. So unless Microsoft invents a time machine (oh wait! MS Windows is kind of like a time-machine since I get to experience 2nd rate technology that mac users have had for years only with archaic limitations that don’t let me install an SSD hard drive unless I buy a new license! what?) or the next best thing and does it first (i.e. Kinect), I’m not really interested but you decide for yourself: http://so.cl (I have 10 invites if you don’t yet have access).
Please post your comments on so.cl below…
Heineken have taken Social Media that one step further by turning people into QR codes. The idea is that at a music festival, all the festival goers have a their own personal QR code that when scanned provides information about themselves. Social Networking but in the real world.
http://www.simplyzesty.com/advertising-and-marketing/heineken-turn-people-in-to-qr-codes-with-brilliant-marketing-campaign/
The brilliant folks at XPLANE | Dachis Group have created yet another “Did You Know?” info-video. Though version 5 is hyperlocal and specific to Iowa and its education system, there are very interesting contrasting global stats with regards to social media, mobile, digital media consumption, etc. Some examples include:
- World population = 7 billion people. There are 5 billion mobile phones on the planet.
- More people have access to a mobile phone than a clean toilet.
- 25% of American households have only a cell phone.
- 2 billion people are on the Internet (3 out of every 10 people on Earth). 750 million of them are on Facebook (1 in 9 people).
- 200 million people on Twitter
- 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute = 176,000 feature-length movies every week.
- 29% of all people under 25, get all or most of their tv online.
- Kindle books outsell both hardbacks and paperbacks combined on Amazon.
- Wikipedia has 3.6 million articles in English alone.
- Flickr users have uploaded 5 billion pictures. Facebook users 50 billion.
- 92% of American children have an online presence by the time they are 2 years old.
- By 2015, 80 million American will own an iPad.
- There were 300 million mobile app downloads in 2009. 5 billion in 2010. That’s a 1,566% increase in one year.
- The amount of digital information worldwide will increase 44X between now and 2020.
- 247 billion emails are sent everyday. 80% of those are spam or viruses.
- 6.1 trillion text messages were sent last year. 87% of all teenagers text; on average 3,339 texts per month.
- By 2019, ~50% of high school courses are projected to be online.
for additional stats and downloadable resources click here.
I generally don’t use online forums as political platforms, but I can’t imagine that most people wouldn’t agree with the statement: our prosperity and our future success largely depends on the quality of education children get today. And unfortunately, the US public school system is set up to graduate freshly minted ‘factory workers’ in a world where most of our ‘factories’ have been outsourced outside the country.
The cheap, if not free, technology and collaboration infrastructure we have (e.g. social networks, broadband, etc.) should be a catalyst for our education system, which should focus on graduating ‘knowledge workers’ that are problem solvers who understand the dynamics of a global economy, are technically savvy, culturally literate, socially enabled, and can see ‘perspective’ beyond the 15 mile radius bubble in which most of them live in for most of their lives.
If history is any indication of the future, I don’t think that politicians will fix this issue anytime soon. The change will come with stirring videos like above, local enablers like Dr. McLeod, parents that care about their children’s future, and local communities that want to prosper. After all, why would you want to be surrounded by a community that’s comprised of citizens adept at ‘low-level mental work’ and ‘basic [life] skills’?
Is your community different or similar to those in Iowa? What is being done to change the status quo? How is this getting accomplished? Please share below…
Once again XPLANE | Dachis Group has teamed up with Dr. Scott McLeod of Iowa State University to create a thought-provoking video. The brand-new “Iowa, Did You Know?” kicked off the School Administrators of Iowa Conference on Wednesday, August 3, 2011. This DYK video contrasts the world’s exponential growth in technology and learning with Iowa’s struggles to best prepare K-12 students for this new future.
