The Daily ‘Dog online periodical for public relations professionals recaps a Gartner report of where different emerging technologies are. The report shows a curve which moves through these phases: Technology Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, and Plateau of Productivity. Predictions set in this context include:

Web 2.0, although placed in their Trough of Disillusionment now, is tipped to emerge within two years to have a transformational impact on business as companies steadily gain more experience and success with both the technologies and the cultural implications.

Virtual worlds, which are suffering from disillusionment after their peak of hype in 2007, will in the long term represent an important media channel to support and build broader communities of interest.

Technologies and trends at or around the peak of the Hype Cycle in 2008 that will reach the plateau in two to five years are:

Social Networking platforms - the MySpace, Facebook model. Companies are examining the role that these sites, or their enterprise-grade equivalents, will play in future collaboration environments.

Microblogging - The Twitter phenomenon has caught on among certain online communities, and leading-edge companies are investigating its role in enhancing other social media and channels.

Institute for the Future, let by Jane McGonigal “Resident Game Designer” is experimenting with Superstruct, “the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game,” starting in September — and you are invited:

This fall, the Institute for the Future invites you to play Superstruct, the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game. It’s not just about envisioning the future—it’s about inventing the future. Everyone is welcome to join the game. Watch for the opening volley of threats and survival stories, September 2008.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 22, 2019

Humans have 23 years to go

Global Extinction Awareness System starts the countdown for Homo sapiens.

PALO ALTO, CA — Based on the results of a year-long supercomputer simulation, the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS) has reset the “survival horizon” for Homo sapiens - the human race - from “indefinite” to 23 years.

“The survival horizon identifies the point in time after which a threatened population is expected to experience a catastrophic collapse,” GEAS president Audrey Chen said. “It is the point from which a species is unlikely to recover. By identifying a survival horizon of 2042, GEAS has given human civilization a definite deadline for making substantive changes to planet and practices.”

University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a biological brain formed from cultured neurons. And this is a world’s premiere. Other research teams have tried to control robots with ‘brains,’ but there was always a computer in the loop. This new project is the first one to examine ‘how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.’ As life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide insights into how the brain works and help aging people. In fact, the main goal of this project is to understand better the development of diseases and disorders which affect the brain such as Alzheimer or Parkinson diseases. It’s interesting to note that this project is being led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who became famous in 1998 when a silicon chip was implanted in his arm to allow a computer to monitor him in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. But read more…

Links: ZDNet, Primidi

HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) has been sponsoring an online discussion of participatory learning.

Welcome to this discussion about participatory learning. You can stop the video widget below from playing (and start it again, if you wish), by hovering your mouse over the video window, which will make the clickable controls appear. Note that one of the controls is “reply.” If you click on that, and you have an account at http://www.seesmic.com (it doesn’t take long to register, and accounts are free), then an authentication form will pop up. Enter your Seesmic login info and you can reply to the video with your own video. See the small horizontal strip of thumbnails at the bottom of the video? Hover and click on those to play the replies. The replies are displayed in chronological order, with the earliest videos at your right — you can scroll through them in either direction, stop and click on any one, and stop it the same way, by hovering over the controls. At the same time that we invite you to join the discussion “horizontally” through these videos, you are invited to enter plain old text comments by way of the comment thread that scrolls vertically below this post.

(Tweeted by ckreutz)

CNN reports that the use of mobile telephones to monitor elections has been effective in countering electoral manipulation and corruption in Africa:

LONDON, England (CNN) — The humble mobile phone is driving a new revolution which some experts hope could bring fairer elections and democracy to some African states.

During the 2006 local government elections in Senegal, Radio Sud used reporters and correspondents with cell phones to call in what they saw.

Many African countries have struggled against rigged elections and authoritarian rule since gaining independence last century.

However, African observers say the growth of simple communication technologies like cell phones are assisting many states to progress towards open and fair elections in increasingly democratic systems.

Senegal is one of a number of African countries to hold successful elections by keeping voting and counting in check through independent communication.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said many African nations now had a “very open society” and the increasing success of elections owed a lot to the existence of mobile phones.

“With communication and cell phones, this is where it is difficult to cheat in elections now. You are announced at the district level and cell phones go wild so by the time you go to the capital, if you have changed the figures, they will know and you will be caught out.”

Jim Witkin wrote on Triplepundit a very interesting story about social ecology as one of the five pillars of sustainability. Jim refers to work of Walter Stahel — one of the founders of the sustainability movement.

[by way of Christian Kreutz Bookmarks on Delicio.us]

Many of the initiatives addressing the issues of social ecology rely on bringing modern technologies — like cell phones, computers, and Internet access — to populations in need. These initiatives are helping to “bridge the digital divide” and are often referred to as ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development). ICTs are used either directly by the disadvantaged population in some manner, or can be used to assist aid organizations and NGOs to improve socio-economic conditions. We can’t remember what our lives were like before the use computers and mobile phones; we often take these tools for granted, but for many people in developing regions these communication tools can have a profound impact on improving their lives and communities.

(..)
“The good news: recognizing the widespread use of mobile phones even in the most remote areas, several non-profits are helping to grow this “Social Mobile” space, providing simple tools and basic training to grassroots NGOs. One of the more prominent non-profits in this space is kiwanja.net, founded by Ken Banks who offers an explanation for his focus on mobile phones, “Clearly, mobile phones are relatively cheap (when compared to personal or laptop computers, anyway). They are small and portable, have good battery life, provide instant voice communications, have SMS functionality at the very least… What’s more, hundreds of millions of some of the poorest members of society either own one or have access to one. No other two-way communications technology comes close.”

Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion
Stuart A. Kauffman
2008, Basic Books

There are some books that do not fade after the first encounter. They do not let go of the mind, instead re-surfacing again and again, because they communicate something fundamental, something vital, with the potential to change an entire worldview. Stuart Kauffman’s “Reinventing the Sacred” is one of those books, rarely-encountered, that collects a plethora of profound wisdom into one powerful read. This new work from a preeminent complexity theorist contains not only fluid prose but also important insights into physics, biology, human nature, economics, and culture, with serious implications for our changing world and our personal lives.

My review, as well as downloadable pdf’s of the Preface and Chapter 1 are posted here on the P2P Foundation blog (http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/reinventing-the-sacred-stuart-kauffman/2008/08/25)

Over the ten years I have been reviewing webpages for learning subjects, I have expected that my capacity for “gee whiz” reaction would diminish. Not so. Even the most jaded critic would have to say “gee whiz” to the University of Nottingham’s The Periodic Table of Videos.

I remember back in the mid-1990s, periodic tables were a favorite project for the early webmasters for the obvious reason that the new interactive medium was a far more compelling way to present the elements than printing them on paper. On a webpage the table can be interactive, and each element can be made clickable to take the inquiring visitor to a specialized information for the element clicked. And now, with video practical and YouTube available, the periodic table has gone video, as described here by the folks at Nottingham:

Tables charting the chemical elements have been around since the 19th century - but this modern version has a short video about each one.

In the short time since launching this site, our videos have been watched more than 1.7 million times.

But we’re not finished yet. We’ve started updating all the videos with new stories, better samples and bigger experiments.

So once you’ve watched all 118 videos, make sure you come back and check on our progress. We still have a few surprises up our sleeves!

Together now: GEE WHIZ!

Via Wired Campus

The harnessing of smart mobbing methodology by the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama was in gear last night when this text message was sent to supporters who signed up with their phone numbers at the Obama website (as quoted in the New York Times this morning):

Shortly after 3 a.m., the Obama campaign updated its Web site and sent this text message to supporters:

“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!”

Last night’s news casts speculated that the delay throughout yesterday in making the announcement was in part due to the ongoing sign up of supporters at the campaign website to receive the announcement — each sign-up providing a phone number identifying a probable supporter.

Recently I found Bliin a social networking service using satellite positioning data, mobile phones and the internet. Using Bliin marks my first 2.0 experience with GPS satellite positioning systems and that’s quite a thrill for a nomadic worker.

“Bliin enables users to be live all the time, anywhere in the world where there is mobile phone and internet coverage. Friends and family can follow every step you take but you decide who can ’see’ you. Basically you use your mobile phone, with the software we provide, to tell where you are, to locate your fiends and to share photos, videos, text and audio files with them,” explains Stef Kolman, co-founder of bliin yourLIVE

Shares - photos, videos, text and audio files - are uploaded to the bliin website and tagged by satellite navigation data. Communications can be oriented around a user’s location to enable them to show friends and families where they are, what they are doing and what is going on in the vicinity.

Services like this have an enormous potential for social networks. Despite the effort it took me to grasp the thinking behind the concept I am already a fan of Bliin. Helpful in my learning process was the online support of the Bliin team. With patience they answered all my questions. The messaging option between users of this service is a strong feature. With the flat rate we have in Holland for mobile internet (as low as 8 euro a month for unlimited data use) it is in our country possible ‘to be always on’. Only when I pass the border and go to another country I turn GPS off. Otherwise the international tariffs for internet use can lead to extreme high bills.

Read more on bliins weblog about this powerful service or go to this article of the European Space Agency ESA and Elias Hazou’s short story on Cyprus mail about ‘making your virtual mark on the map’.

To fully experience it’s capabilities and use it within a social network I included the url of my user info to my Twitter bio. I will keep you posted about the actual experiences by Bliining My Life.