This just in (4).

Microsoft is unveling a new product on March 2, 2006.

Mercury news reports that:

"Code-named `Origami,' the computer is a handheld PC that is smaller and lighter than most laptops on the market today. But it includes the full Windows XP operating system and could run Windows Vista, Microsoft's successor operating system coming out this fall, according to a person familiar with the product."

Promises to retail at $500-800. See the teaser at this site.

Here's the result of an experiment with search engines:

After typing the keyphrase: social software "in quotes" in the corresponding search engines and pressing enter, I got the following results:

Google.com

Yahoo.com

Have I plugged ning.com here?

Very intuitive social software. Users can make their own version of friendster, craiglist, flickr.

Click here to start.

Quiet in the Streets of Manila
'People power' is muted by more arrests and a crackdown on media in the Philippines.

Thus reports LA Times.

Midway around the world, Sun Herald reports,

On a Razor's Edge
Iraq warns of risk of endless civil war.

Take your pick. Manila or Baghdad.

Heaven help us!

The following is just a marker.

"Philippines coup foiled, emergency declared" the London Free Press reports. More here.

I just hope that was a good gamble.

This just in (3).

Richard MacManus reports that:

"The blogosphere is awash with news of Google's latest beta product, Google Page Creator. Page Creator is destined to be a part of Google's Web Office Suite It's a WYSIWYG tool, which publishes "in seconds" has auto-save and comes with 100MB storage."

Here's a screen shot of the site.



As for anything new and free, the beeline stretches light years long.

Here's a screen shot of the site in response to request for access.

Now I just discovered that there are 4 Ps of Creativity and Innovation.

I am intrigued by the 4th P = Product and how Jacob Goldenberg and David Mazursky offer the template approach to de-emphasise the other 3 Ps of Person, Press and Process. More on the book here.

This just in (2).

Dion Hinchcliffe in his article "Web 2.0 and the Five Walls of Confusion" puts in his 2 cents worth on the cognitive dissonance that the second growth spurt of the Internet aka Web 2.0 inflicts on Joe Blogg (pun intended). Here's more.

This goes out to College educators. Mighty precious material.

I just stumbled upon the MIT opencourseware website where you can get fresh ideas on the state of practices on curriculum, syllabus design and implementation. Useful for continually evolving your school programs. I found it via keywords "system dynamics". Gives the course "Systems Simulation" a deeper meaning.

Here's the main site.

Just a quick advert of the paper on KM that I will be presenting.

On the 3rd of March 2005 at the "Emerging Technologies for Philippines 2020" conference. Program details are here.

What would the future be like if there were no more private capital?

Cory Doctorow envisioned it in his downloadable novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, wherein social capital replaced cash as a unit of currency. He calls it Whuffie (sounds like Wafu in a current Filipino swardspeak). Cory talks more about it in an interview with Lisa Rein.

I wonder how politicians would behave in that Magic Kingdom.

Keyword: reputation-based economy

Geobloggers.com is reportedly switching to Yahoo Maps.

Good thing we have panoramio.com - a photo-sharing community where you can locate your photos using Google Maps. You don't even have to use flickr.com. Just upload your photos straightaway to Panoramio. Don't expect a tagging mechanism though.

This just in (1)

McLuhan once said: "The Medium is the Message".

How about the "Medium is the Master."?

Thanks Dianne S.

Example: "The Africans are here". (Remember Pagers of the '80s-mid 90s?)

A browser for your Nintendo DS ?

Nice! Thanks to Phil Torrone. Here's the link.

How is Web 2.0 pronounced?

Keith Jenci has been asked this question once too. He's got other interesting quips on this. I prefer Web 2 dot oh. Here's more.


BTW there's an intriguing point about folksonomies there too. Something I'd like to connect to outsourcing.

Just thought I'd share this.... A flickr "how to".

Here's the link.

Ever wondered how Creativity survives evaluation?

M. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) offers some insights. In the context of human evolution, he admits that "we can't leave the evaluation of new ideas to their respective fields or to the 'invisible hand' of the marketplace" (for the respective reasons of arrogance and "short-termist-cum-basic-instinctual" attitude). Yet he concedes that "it is probably the case that within each field there are enough individuals with both expertise and a sense of the public good who could be deputized to serve the interests of society." (italics supplied) p. 325, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

I am nurturing fresh hopes for using Social Software to preserve culture.

How do you get the attention of gamers in mainstream education?

Seems like the saying "If you can't beat them, join them" might just work.

Jim Brazell writes:

Serious games is a movement started in 2002 at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. The movement is cross-appropriating video game technologies, techniques, structures and tools from the video game industry to other fields of human endeavor (outside of entertainment).

Here's more.

More on Open Source Software (OSS).

Here's a primer on OSS.

I wonder whether social capital is susceptible to pecuniary estimation.

In other words can we apply the concepts of NPV, IRR, ROI to social capital?

This article may just give some answers.

The Department for International Development (DFID) has this to say in its Social Capital Key Sheets. Click here.

I am just a bit intrigued by the point: "Do not predefine the unit of association (family, clan, village, hamlet etc.)" in the list of lessons learned about development interventions working with social capital in the local associational context. Well I guess that is par for the course when one speaks from an outsider's perspective.

Which is it then? Value or Values?

David Stark weighs in with his "For a Sociology of Worth" (2000) .

And Jhai Foundation takes a stand. Anchored on Margaret Wheatley's statement that:

"A quantum universe is enacted only in an environment rich in relationships.
Nothing happens in the quantum world without something encountering something
else. Nothing is independent of relationships that occur. I am constantly
creating the world - evoking it, not discovering it - as I participate in all
its many interactions. This is a world of process, not a world of things." -
Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science, Barrett-Koehler (pb), 1994,
p. 68

Jhai says it's

"about processes that are critical parts of economic development for people
who have been left out. We are especially concerned about people left out of
the opportunity to use information and communication technology tools that
might help them increase earnings and deepen their social networks, business
relations, and friendships."

Perhaps we should have more of this awareness, one that drives people to make a positive difference.

A broad How-to Advice for KM enthusiasts

The whole deal entails visualizing and developing intellectual, intangible and organizational business assets. Take it from Leif Edvinsson (I think he is Nordic/Scandinavian). He expounds a bit in an interview with Juergen Daum (sounds Nordic too-- Am I partial to Scandinavian KM?). Here's the link.

Knowledge Management Schools of Thought

In the American tradition KM is sometimes equated with Information Management, e.g. data mining, corporate intelligence or information portfolio management. Scandinavian KM lays emphasis on the human being and a person's creative ability. Some implications can be had here.

Indeed there is an economic model for creativity.

Gerard Pince thinks so too. He says that in the new growth theory, creativity is the main driver for economic development. Paul Romer (voted by Time as one of the most influential people in 1997) leads the way.

More on the new growth theory here.

Decontextualizing "Pera o Bayong"

How does Social Capital stack up against Private Capital?

Part of the answer may be found in Stefan de Vylder's The Rise And Fall Of The "Swedish Model" where he discusses the role of institutional or social capital in economic growth. He notes for example that social capital can be regarded in two ways. Thus:

"To be rich in social capital can be seen as an end in itself - such a society is, by all criteria, more pleasant to live in than a society where the social capital is weak, or eroding. Social capital can also be regarded as a means, as social capital makes the use of other forms of capital both more equitable and efficient. Transaction costs are drastically reduced when people trust each other, when contracts are enforced, when the legal system is honest and when economic policies are predictable."

Perhaps conversely transaction costs are high because the conventional emphasis on (scarce) private capital allows unenforceability of contracts, dishonest legal system and unpredictable economic policies.

How can Amazon Mechanical Turk humanize IT?

By allowing humans to perform tasks that not even the most powerful computer can accomplish. Example, can a PC identify Ronald McDonald in a given photo? Richard MacManus reports with a list of situations. Here's more.

Related keyword: Outsourcing

Wanna try playing around with customizable signs?

The URL means what it says. Pretty interactive.

http://www.customsigngenerator.com/

Want to know "the current state-of-the-art in graphic design for web pages"? (ca. 2006)

According to Ben Hunt they are:

1. Simple layout
2. 3D effects, used sparingly
3. Soft, neutral background colours
4. Strong colour, used sparingly
5. Cute icons, used sparingly
6. Plenty of whitespace
7. Nice big text

Wowowee or Kawawa we?

Recently someone conducted a FGD on the economics behind Wowowee. The participants were asked to craft an imaginary headline for the tragedy on February 04, 2006. Below is a partial list of responses:

• Search for wealth leads to several deaths
• Poverty leads to calamity
• Poverty is the Mother of Game Shows
• High Hopes heavy Fall
• Wowowee: Sinong nasawi?
• Money to Die For
• Chances give hope, poverty kills folks
• Try and try until you die
• Tigok Fatay Cla
• Wowowee Anniversary Poor-polarity
• Willie of Misfortune
• Gold Diggers, Death Triggers
• Wowowee: Free Admission to heaven
• No Gain, All pain
• Riches Squishes Wishes
• Money Money: Mommy nasan na si Daddy?
• Wowowee: Fahter and Mother Six Feet Under
• Yamang Limited Supply, 70 patay
• Gyera sa Rating, nauwi sa Libing

Wowowee or Kawawawee?

Pera o Bayong. Are the tables turned?

You be the judge...

How can one really preserve culture using ICT tools?

In particular:

How does community knowledge on the web really get passed on to the next generation when the medium changes so quickly? Are blogs really going to be on the web for generations to come? Most of them barely survive a year or two before disappearing into the cyberether. It seems to me that the very speed and ease of social software which allows users to create and share local knowledge may also threaten the sustainability of that knowledge. Is it possible that local knowledge created on online will find ways to live offline, beyond the medium that gave birth?

These are basic questions that Tim Lindgren grapples with when he writes about locative media and blogging. He tells more about Thingster and those implications here.

Indeed, to engender a culture of permanence is a herculean if not an insuperable task. David Lowenthal bewails this reality in "Stewarding the Future"
(More in "The Future of Preserving the Past"). Then again, perhaps the answers may be found in the knowledge holders themselves.

Just wondering, is there an economic theory of creativity?

These are what google returned:

1. New Growth Theory: CREATIVITY
2. Economics and the new economy: the invisible hand meets creative destruction. Leonard I. Nakamura
3. Creative Class Theory

Insights are rather fresh, but can also be controversial. Mind the part about the 3 Ts (Talent, Technology and Tolerance) in Creative Class Theory.

Want to assemble all your diverse Web 2.0 content in one place?

Check out Ning or Suprglu.

Dion Hinchcliffe tells us more about it in Ten Ways To Take Advantage of Web 2.0.

Care to study Filipino or Hekasi?

These and similar subjects are a bane to early learners of the second official language in the Philippines.

Inspired by Ida Ehrlich's book "Instant Vocabulary", I thought of working on an alternative to the usual Filipino-English dictionary. Anyone up to collaborating with me? A template should follow.

Some keywords that popped up on Friday, February 3, 2006 at 9:17 AM somewhere in Manila, Asia.

nanotechnology economic utility social economic models

This is the link that generated the scholarly results.

Has a Nobel Peace Pricey model on this been generated already? Remains to be seen.

Other keywords worth pursuing: perfect competition, perfect information, time lag, knowledge distortion, opportunity, instantaneous utility (gratification, if you will)

Have you lost your mini CD containing the Bluetooth widcomm driver?

I did, so I had to google it just a little bit! After about an hour's worth of human computing power and testing for relevancy (I used different permutations of keywords such as 'bluetooth, download, widcomm, latest, driver'), I came across Babak Farrokhi's Geek style blog.
Bluetooth item seems to be a good place to start. No warranty, express or implied, is assumed though. Next step is when to download the suggested links. Weekend is coming around.

Storyteller social application.

I am experimenting with a ning-based app that allows participants to contribute to making a story... Follow this link for more. BTW it's called dugtongdunong.

How can Asian Countries Protect Traditional Knowledge (Local Knowledge)?

Anil K. Gupta (2001) presents and discusses his framework here.

Note that while Gupta's paper deals with biological materials, his framework can be extended to other forms of creativity. He explains:

Incentives for creating a sufficiently strong desire for experimentation will become embedded when modern institutions recognize, respect and reward the experiments done in the past. The experiments and innovations have led to very significant and identifiable advances in our knowledge about biodiversity and other natural resources and their application in our day-to-day life. One can make an equally strong case for recognizing traditional art and craft forms, music and other kinds of expressions of local creativity of individuals as well as communities based on traditional as well as modern materials.

Google Keywords: "social networking" "folk knowledge"

I have been exploring the usefulness of concept mapping for collaborative learning and KM for about two years.

By and large, people who are primarily visual learners may find knowledge modelling through concept/mind mapping software very effective. A FREE concept mapping utility is available here.
BTW is called Cmap.