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- Microsoft showcases School of the FutureYesterday
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The fourth annual Microsoft School of the Future World Summit runs from today through Thursday in Seattle.
"The theme, “What’s Possible,” will enable more than 250 participants to facilitate a global discussion on what schools in the future can look like by examining the areas of instruction, organization design, technology, the challenges of implementing new policy and emerging trends everyone faces as they prepare students for the 21st century global workforce."
Pioneered by the software giant, the first pilot program has been ongoing in Philadelphia.
250 participants from 30 countries are attending the conference presented by Microsoft Partners in Learning.
Extensive information and downloads on this forward looking initiative are available from the 3 links above.
Students and educators can also 'join' and learn more at the MVU - Thanksgiving - Reach Out and Touch SomeoneNovember 27
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About a year and a half ago, I started this blog with a few goals in mind.
In all honesty, the main goal was to re-brand myself in an industry that I had been active in since the very beginning, although very much behind the scenes.
I felt things changing and I wanted to be positioned. (Who knew??) Like many entrepreneurs, I had had a few successes and a few failures. Those that have been there know what I mean. You learn A LOT.
What I didn't expect at all, came as a pleasant surprise from my activity on Friendfeed, Twitter and Facebook .... and a few other places.
Online friendships that turned to real ones. Some in person, some on podcasts, and some on the phone. All enjoyable and/or valuable.
In one case, someone had followed me on Friendfeed for a bit, liked some of what I had written, and recommended a client. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable (and fun!?) business relationships that I ever had.
If I start naming names, you might be reading this post until tomorrow. Suffice to say that, I, for one, am grateful (and give thanks) to the entrepreneurs that brought us some of these great networking products.....
....and especially to the many, many 'electronic' friends that came through and more often than not, completely unexpectedly for this and other projects.
Those that know me well, know that I have always held out positive thought - YouTube fights back. I didn't watch.November 23
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Last night after weeks of 'quiet hype' on the YouTube blog and elsewhere, Google launched YouTube Live.
There are already some lessons to be learned, as the reviews (mostly bad), continue to roll-in.
Prior to the launch, there had been numerous articles on how people were adopting Hulu in large numbers. I've written about Hulu here since the private beta, and I am still a die-hard Hulu fan.
Why?
I spend some (much more lately) of my time in the 'real world'. I occasionally miss a TV show that I enjoy and I can sit back with my wife anytime and watch that missed episode. It's really that simple. Hulu's easy and simple interface is great .... and we usually discover something else after.
Web video is still in transition. MOST people simply don't have the time to watch blog videos at anywhere near the level they are being produced.
A good example would be Robert Scoble. Scoble, who recently returned from China (and at last check on Friendfee - Google's SearchWiki - Can it work ?November 21
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Last night, Google turned on a new feature within their flagship product, Google Search.
Those logged in with a Google account can now change the search results for any given search phrase and / or comment on a particular result.
The 'changes' will only be visible to the account holder however the comments are PUBLIC.
Google has used this approach before in other offerings. In Google News, those mentioned in a news story have the option of commenting or reacting to the story. In Google's image search, volunteers can use Image Labeler to correct the location or content of photos.
This latest offering is a little different and certainly has some positives and negatives.
Google will no doubt pick up some additional GMail and other Google accounts as you need a free Google account to use it. Assuming they monitor the comments, deletions, and push-up's, Google will have some direct user interaction to utilyze.
The public comments are somewhat different and could potentially open a whole new chapter of 'abuse'. That remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there.
Perhaps Google was testing us this morning when I typed in 'Search Engine' and got this in the No. 1 position:
- More free stuff from Google and MicrosoftNovember 19
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It was just a couple of days ago that in a piece about Microsoft, I suggested it might be prime time to return to the old MS model of 'giving stuff away' to try and capture large chunks of online market share.
There is no better time than an 'economic downturn' to win users, potentially over the long term, by providing some important products for FREE.
Google and Microsoft (and others) have spent millions developing and / or acquiring software over the last decade. While their internal development and deployment approaches differ, they have made 'some' products readily available to the public. Google, in particular, has rolled out one product at a time, many times competing directly with Microsoft with web-based products.
Late yesterday came word that Google has released a new Search Based Keyword Tool. While Yahoo and Google have both delivered keyword 'suggestion' tools over the years and more recently the highly touted Google Ad Planner (which seems to have disappeared from the news but is a great tool for media buyers), this new tool takes a somewhat different approach. Barry Schwartz has posted a good review and walk through at Search Engine Land here.
From Microsoft
