Econ Class [view: normal]

In a talk I gave in January, I said that I did not know what online video statistics mean. A few people in the audience insisted that YouTube counted a “view” only if the clip played in full.

They were wrong.

Not only were they wrong, a study from last fall (2008) suggests that most video “views” can be measured in seconds.

TubeMogul analyzed viewed-seconds for a sample of 188,055 videos (22,724,...

I enjoyed reading the Technologies of the Third Mediamorphosis chapter of Roger Fidler’s 1997 book, “Mediamorphosis Understanding New Media.”One of his main points is that despite common perception, the catalytic events for today’s digital media presence occurred before World War II. The chapter made me question which of these generally comes first: the need for new technology (as Fidler argues) o...

The opportunity to learn more about the wireless technology and then shared this information with my classmates was a process that started with the reading materials, the structure of my learning, what to share during the 10 minute presentation, the presentation and then the comments of my classmates after the discussion.

When I read the article for my presentation, at first it was confusing, I di...

Lawrence Lessig will be a guest on KUOW’s “The Conversation” with Ross Reynolds today (1-2pm, 6 February). He is the author of Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. Lessig, a law professor at Stanford, is known for his views on copyright and advocacy for Creative Common licensing. He has switched his focus to political corruption and is co-founder of Change-Congress.org. KU...

After viewing Brian’s presentation, I was inspired to embrace a minimalistic design as well. I enjoyed his presentation because it was more of a conversation aided by interesting visuals that structured his lecture.

I was also influenced by a recent power point presentation at work. The slides were incredibly text heavy and the screens had the “bells and whistles” of rotating text transitions. T...

Fidlers’ “Mediamorphasis” takes readers on a journey through the third great metamorphosis in communication - digital language.  The first two monumental steps in man kinds ability to communicate with one another was of course, spoken and then written language.  It is this third step that truly brings us together as a species.  We are no longer existing in our own pockets of civilization around t...

Based on the article “As We May Think”:

1. What kind of civilian-physicist response was there post-war that encouraged Vannevar Bush to publish this article? (ex: were the physicists themselves really THAT impacted? They most likely had physicist-type jobs before the war led them to war-time physics; what prevented them from returning to that type of pre-war work?)

2. What parallels can be drawn b...

Presentation to UW digital journalism class.

Notes and PPT

• Getting Out of Jail (Egypt)
• From Twitter to NYT in 24 hours (Motrin)
• Worst Twitter Post Ever? (Memphis)

Who’s On Twitter?

• Author Tim Ferriss
• Entrepreneur Craig Newmark
• Technology Evangelist Chris Pirillo

What Publications/Journalists Are on Twitter?

• Anna Marie Cox
• cNet
• NPR News
• NY Review of Books
• WaPo Chris Cillizza
• WaPo Dan Froomkin

What Aggregators Are On Twitter?

• Obama PolFeed
• NewsJunkie
• TechMeme

How to Read and Post

• Twitter.com
• Cellphone/text (configure after setting up account)
• Tweetdeck (requires Adobe Air)
• Twhirl (requires Adobe Air)

Looking at the history of the telephone, it is obvious that understanding how to work the United States patent system is critical in the process of being recognized for an innovation. Should you invent the perpetual motion machine, but have no desire to gain credit for that innovation, then you are all set because you won’t have to do anything. But more often people want credit and the ability to ...

Wireless Technology History

1.    In Bush’s article, he made several predictions about where technology would make advancements in the future.  His thoughts on compression of resources such as encyclopedias materialized in the form of the world wide web.  Where do you see compression affecting other print volumes in the future, and do you believe we are too attached to the idea of holding physical novels to ever replace thos...

Centuries of development and improvements to communications technology have revealed fairly predictable production and market trends. The lifecycle of a product has been established, the theories of performance have been addressed and the pros and cons of competition have been identified.

In her book, “A Social History of American Technology,” Ruth Schwartz Cowan follows the introduction and dis...

How would Christensen’s model of innovation and disruption change when economic instability leads to overall decreased market demand? Who would be the least affected by such decreased demand?

Christensen says the semiconductor industry will move towards a “system similar to the one in which Toyota makes cars.” How could the reverse (car companies operating in a system similar to the one in which I...

1. Is the US patent system a good way to protect innovation? If not, what would be a good way to protect innovation and what impact would this have on innovation and the innovators?

2. Are disruptive technologies bound to succeed? Could the telegraph have done more to stop the telephone? Why does it seem like some technologies are inevitably going to succeed?

3. Can old technologies still have a p...

1. Moore’s law basically says that technology is growing smaller, less expensive and more powerful at an exponential rate. What are some examples of technologies today that are growing at this rate, especially those that apply to communications?
2. Because Moore’s law results in “overshooting consumers,” consumers are benefitting from technologies they haven’t ever needed. This changes market dynamics ...

1. Why were the innovators working on the telephone and the phonograph so hesitant to pronounce them as ‘break-away’ inventions from the telegraph?
2. What other industries (beyond the Intel example) have a growing number of obviously overshot customers?  What industries might develop this problem soon?  What are some potential outcomes in addressing these challenges?
3. When considering information disco...

1. In Chapter 7 from Seen What’s Next, Christensen mentions that one of the innovation’s dilemmas in the case of Intel is that Intel continues to improve its technology, but this creates opportunities for upstarts (disruptive entrants) “The very thing that makes Intel great is the very thing that creates opportunities for the attacking firms.” (171). In this regard, how incumbents like Microsoft...

Visiting the Personal Democracy Forum I was happy to encounter several articles on mobile phone use all over the world. As we think about mobile technologies, high tech devices, applications, market places, deals among wireless carriers, and so on usually come to mind.  It was definitely refreshing to see something else.

An article I found especially interesting was “Nokia Anthropologist Shares T...

On the topic:

The story of the telegraph was surprisingly interesting to me. Part of that came from the unexpected similarities between what happened with the telegraph and what is currently happening with the internet. I am a big fan of Old West history and I think the telegraph had more of an impact on changing the development of the West than it had on the already more developed Eastern United ...

Christensen, ‘Whither Moore’s Law’ the future of semiconductors

What are the signs that advances in microprocessors are NOT overshooting the market?

What is the basis for predicting there will be fewer processor hungry applications in the future?

How will the economic slowdown affect Moore’s law?

On May 21, 2007, British climber Rod Baber set a world record by making a phone call from the top of Mount Everest (BBC). He also claimed the record of sending the highest text message. Baber’s communication exploits are remarkable, but not surprising. It’s merely the latest culmination of a progression towards being able to communicate anytime and everywhere with anyone. Baber’s phone call and te...

Review Citation:

Levine, R. (2000). The cluetrain manifesto: The end of business as usual. Cambridge, Mass: Perseus Books.

“The Cluetrain Manifesto” is a collective work written by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger and published in 2000. Its tagline is “the end of business as usual”. The specter of this book is the Suit. The Suit is the Executive VP, a “fat cat”, clos...

Residents of the mid-1800s must have surely understood that majors changes were going to take place when what had previously been the fingers of Gods, electricity, were now running down the street on poles. The mysterious and powerful force of nature had been harnessed and was being used as the nervous system for a new method of communication. Most citizens’ only experience with electricity came f...

The book The Cluetrain Manifesto by Levine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger, addresses important issues about the communication between companies with customers and employees. They point out that companies have forgotten the human side and had ignored not only their customers, but also their employees. Companies claim to communicate with their customers, but this communication is only a one way comm...