Sunday, December 20, 2009
Moving from Darkness to Light...
Stuart preached an inspiring sermon this morning about moving from living in darkness into living in the light.
He used Joan Osborne's song "One of Us" to help him make his point. It was thought provoking and the sermon should be up on the site soon (link here).
Guy closed the service with Matt and Beth Redman's "Never Let Go". What an awesome way to start the week leading up to the biggest (or second biggest) Christian festival of the year.
Hoping you all have a very Blessed Christmas 2009.
Ideal for Critical Thinking or PSHE lessons?
I found this quote on the Do website (link) and thought what an excellent discussion it would make for my Sixth form...
“Many of the great businesses of the next decade will be about making information about our behaviors more visible.”
- evan williams
“Many of the great businesses of the next decade will be about making information about our behaviors more visible.”
- evan williams
A Google Poem
This Google poem was read on Saturday Live BBC Radio 4 this weekend. It’s by Matt Harvey, a performance poet.A Google Poem
What's a google, Daddy?
Well, Son, I'm glad you asked:
It’s a sifter, filter, searcher
cyber guide and cyber Sherpa
all the world’s a google library
does it frighten me? Just slightly
It used to be a noun, son,
but it turned into a verb,
There is nothing you can't google,
Google cattle, Google poodle,
human folly, human foible
Google Babel, Google Breughel.
It shows you things your life is duller than,
Google Gilbert, Google Sullivan,
Shows you what’s for Google free,
for Google sale, and Google rental,
Shows things you shouldn’t Google see
It's so non judge-Google-mental,
Daddy, can we Google Google?
So we did. And there were oodles,
Google shopping, analytics,
Google earth and google physics,
Google info, Google-mation
Google dream interpretation,
Google gosh gorblimey crikey,
Google probing Google psyche,
So to return to your original question,
Google is a bit more than a search engine
And a bit less than a sentient life form
Taking over the world, we hope?
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Are you clever enough for Oxbridge?
As would-be students prepare for pre-Christmas entrance interviews, John Farndon offers a cribsheet on those famously fiendish questions - check them out here
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Mission Ship MV Doulos will stop sailing
The ministry of OM’s ship Doulos will come to an end on 31st December 2009. Doulos is the world’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, now 95 years old, with the hull built in 1914, just two years after Titanic. In spite of the all year round maintenance that has taken place, the amount of steel replacement and other repairs needed for her to continue sailing are overwhelming. The ship is presently in Singapore and has been undergoing the annual period of dry dock and surveys.
taken from http://www.omships.org
taken from http://www.omships.org
I enjoyed my time on the ship and still have very fond memories of her.
Great Monday morning quote...
"Surfing: Making monday mornings bearable for more than 2000 years."- Jaimal Yogis (writer, surfer)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
A-Team: Looking forward to this...
It’s the A-Team!
From left to right, we’ve got Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, District 9’s Sharlto Copley, Liam Neeson, and a cigar.
From left to right, we’ve got Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, District 9’s Sharlto Copley, Liam Neeson, and a cigar.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Explaining Twitter in 25 Tweets
Thank you Geoffrey
WHAT IS TWITTER?
WHAT POLITICIANS ARE SAYING ABOUT TWITTER
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT TWITTER
AND TO SUM UP
Silverwaver
October 9th 2009
WHAT IS TWITTER?
- You see the faces of people you know with notes of what they are writing.
- You are declaring an emotion and expecting a human response
- Twitter is the most effective marketing tool on the planet.
- Twitter has become something unexpectedly important—a discovery engine for finding out what is happening right now
- Define your purpose in using Twitter
- Think hard about your thumbnail and biography link.
- Start following people judiciously with no obligation to follow all who follow you.
- Start tweeting, aim at at least 5 tweets a day, a good experience, a question, something about me and two replies or retweets.
- Learn to use @, RT, DM and #
- A flow of tweets with no inbox problem and no need to reply
- You dip into notes from people you care about
- Twitter allows you to 'rewind' conversations had by others. It is a stream you can dip your toe into.
- An asymmetric connection - you can follow celebs without drowning them
- People behave civilly; if they don't like it they go away
WHAT POLITICIANS ARE SAYING ABOUT TWITTER
- Politicians can be liberated form traditional media and the culture of spin It gives them their voice again. It could be a chaotic election (The Labour Twitter Czar)
- Don't twitter if you are not prepared to go places that you don't expect (Ed Balls)
- The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it – too many twits might make a twat. (David Cameron on Absolute Radio)
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT TWITTER
- Adults are just catching up to what teens have been doing for years
- A Twanker is an egocentric individual who twitters only for one-way broadcasting about their greatness.
- A Twidiot is an individual who uses Twitter only to talk about insignificant things that noone cares about.
AND TO SUM UP
- Twitter is all about the coffee: when you have coffee you are communicating with people: think about who you drink coffee with and in what context. (James Clay)
- If a tenth of what you say is repeatable or retweeted, you must be doing it right.
- In a remote part of the Twitter network, very weak signals that are good, get picked up as in the case of Janis Krums, (Laura Fitton)
- Twitter is a secret beach for web surfers, Follow the twitterers and they will show you where the best surf is.
Silverwaver
October 9th 2009
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
try different
try your watch on the other hand
try a different way to work
try subscribing to a magazine you would never normally subscribe to
try listening to your music on random
try arguing for a point of view you disagree with
try one new thing today that you have never tried before
the brain loves routine, it’s easy
leave the comfort of the comfort zone
stay hungry
Monday, October 05, 2009
Talking about dreaming...
Having spent the day at the Handheld Learning 2009 conference, I thought this was rather good by David Hleatt (from Howies)...
now do!
"dream big, dream small,
dream difficult but brilliant, dream brilliant but difficult,
dream maverick,
dream simple,
dream of change,
dream of going back to how it was..."
now do!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Today is Special
24 September 2009 appears to be a special day in so many ways. 10 years ago I committed myself to my beautiful wife. Melanie, happy anniversary and thanks for the best 10 years yet!
In South Africa it is Heritage Day and National Braai Day. So I found this image to remind me of both events.
Also Guinness is celebrating Arthur Guinness Day. It is the 250th anniversary of the famous brew. Maybe I will have one this evening!
South African Internet Speeds
On a follow up to this article on the BBC website (link), I saw this cartoon, which I think is great:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Did Derren do it with computer science?
Super showman Derren Brown really got the nation talking when on his recent TV special he correctly predicted the week’s lottery numbers. In a live show the lottery balls rolled and dropped, producing what must have been a random number, but all the while in sight at the other side of the studio a transparent Perspex rack contained 6 lottery balls, which, after the draw, he turned to show contained all the winning numbers. A nation was amazed – how could he do that?
And the answer is…
In a later programme Darren ‘revealed how he did it’ using an interesting mathematical concept called the wisdom of crowds. This concept was first recorded by Francis Galton, who attended a farm fair and observed a ‘guess the weight of the ox’ competition. While no one got exactly the correct value the average of the 800 or so guesses was very close to the real value. Derren suggested he predicted the lottery results by having a group of people guess at each of the ball numbers and then taking the average of their guesses. Hummm. Well, with an ox in front of them most people will make a reasonable guess at its weight, so there will be tendency for the average to settle round the correct value, if you use enough farmers. But perhaps not so for lottery balls. To guess the value of ball number one, it can be from 1 to 49, and on average people will guess all over the place. It’s the same for ball two and so on, so the average would actually end up the same for each ball. Enter some more brilliant Brown showmanship: the group selects their numbers using automatic writing. Ohhh, spooky. Automatic writing was a popular pastime in Victorian séances where you simply let your hand doodle and someone interprets what you wrote. When the averages of the automatic writing predictions were calculated by Darren himself (secretly, of course, so as to not cause a problem with the group rushing out and buying tickets), their numbers correctly predicted the draw, and a nation’s collective jaw dropped. So was this really how it was done? Well, there are always possibilities, and that spooky stuff will convince many, but perhaps there are other more technological ways to do what he did.
And the answer is… (Version 2.0)
At the start of the ‘explanation’ show, Derren mentioned that there had been loads of speculation about how he had done it, in newspaper articles, blogs, chats at home and at school and so on. Even with today’s information overload his clever stunt had really caught the nation’s attention, like the stunts of magicians of old. The web lit up with ideas of how it was done. Web 2.0 allows us all to put our thought up there for others to see. Some blogs said he used a computer-controlled laser to secretly burn the numbers onto the back of the balls. Others thought that the prediction balls themselves were ‘programmable’, each with a tiny curved screen on them, so when the balls were turned they showed the right numbers. These ideas are fantastic and creative – we can see how our computer technology can literally ‘do the impossible’. Famously, author Arthur C Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and here people believed that Derren had pulled of this nation-stumping magical miracle using some super tech. Combined with his obvious showmanship, the computer scientists behind the scenes had made all that astonishing entertainment possible. But was that how it was done?
And the winner is?
There was one really clever method that may people believed was behind the effect. That front runner was…well first, lets review the facts. The camera in the studio was hand-held – it wobbled a bit throughout even though it was using the rather nifty steadycam system. Derren and the prediction balls were both in sight all the time at opposite sides of the picture. The lottery draw was live; you could flick between TV channels at the time to prove it. The legal situation didn’t allow Derren to show his prediction till after the balls were drawn, and for some reason he didn’t count the bonus ball drawn at the very end. After all six balls were called he helpfully wrote down the numbers in order on a card he was holding, then crossed the studio to reveal his correct prediction. Written like this the clues are there, in days gone by many magical tricks were done with mirrors, by angling a mirror correctly you could reflect another part of the stage to appear to be somewhere else, and behind and under cover of the mirror you could get up to all manner of clever magic making. We are conditioned to passively accept what’s on ‘live TV’ to be, well, live: a real recording of what’s there in a studio far, far away. But many of the 2.0 bloggers believe Derren used the high-tech equivalent of a mirror trick, a TV split screen effect. Was what happened on the ball side of the screen faked?
Done with a wobbly ‘digital mirror’?
Today’s TV technology would allow the following: even with the natural wobble of a hand-held cam, it would be possible, after Derren had walked past the prediction balls in the introduction, for the whole left hand side of the screen to be replaced by a digital image, synchronised to any camera wobble. In effect half the picture with Derren and the draw could have been live, while the other half functioned like a digital mirror. It would have reflected the situation truthfully at the start, but allowed Derren’s helpers to invisibly change the balls to the correct values before he moved back across, when the digital effect was turned off and he did his reveal. That could be why he didn’t show the prediction at the start. That would also explain why he didn’t bother with the bonus ball and took time to write the numbers down on the card: he needed to give time for the digitally cloaked ball switch to take place. Like all good theories it fits the facts, and explains the assumptions, but is there any real data to support it? Well perhaps. A few keen observers believe that one of the balls in the prediction can be seen to shift up a few millimetres; this would have been caused, they say, by the stagehand putting the correct balls in place too quickly under cover of the split screen before it was switched off. Perhaps some experts in computer vision systems will be able to verify this by analysing the video. The truth is out there, perhaps.
That’s magic?
Split screens, lasers, smart balls, you name it, what this TV event has shown is that the power of theatrical magic, using science to seemingly break the laws of science, is still strong. Whether it was digital magic or some other yet unknown mechanism, it got us talking because Derren knows how to astound and entertain people. Like software, a magic trick is a combination of a secret method and loads of top notch presentation. If you fancy giving it a go you can download our magic books. There is a trick in them about predicting the lottery, but it’s not as good as Derren’s. In fact you might say we ‘roll over’ in the presence of a lottery prediction master!
taken from CS4FN - link
Friday, August 28, 2009
How Information Technology Can Enable 21st Century Schools
Here is the link to the PDF... [click here]
How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City
This is the full copy of the research note written by Matthew Robson (aged 15 years and seven months), an intern at Morgan Stanley, which caused a stir after it was published by the bank.
Radio
Teenage boys (generally) watch more TV when it is the football season, often watching two games and related shows a week (totalling about 5 hours of viewing). A portion of teenagers watches programs that are regular (such as soap operas) at least five times a week for half an hour or so but this portion is shrinking, as it is hard to find the time each day.
Teenagers are also watching less television because of services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows them to watch shows when they want. Whilst watching TV, adverts come on quite regularly (18 minutes of every hour) and teenagers do not want to watch these, so they switch to another channel, or do something else whilst the adverts run.
The majority of teenagers I speak to have Virgin Media as their provider, citing lower costs but similar content of Sky. A fraction of teenagers have Freeview but these people are light users of TV (they watch about 1 ½ hours per week) so they do not require the hundreds of channels that other providers offer.
Newspapers
No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.
The only newspapers that are read are tabloids and freesheets (Metro, London Lite…) mainly because of cost; teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper (hence the popularity of freesheets such as the Metro). Over the last few weeks, the Sun has decreased in cost to 20p, so I have seen more and more copies read by teenagers. Another reason why mainly tabloids are read is that their compact size allows them to be read easily, on a bus or train. This is especially true for The Metro, as it is distributed on buses and trains.
Gaming
Whilst the stereotypical view of gamers is teenage boys, the emergence of the Wii onto the market has created a plethora of girl gamers and younger (6+) gamers. The most common console is the Wii, then the Xbox 360 followed by the PS3. Most teenagers with a games console tend to game not in short bursts, but in long stints (upwards of an hour).
As consoles are now able to connect to the internet, voice chat is possible between users, which has had an impact on phone usage; one can speak for free over the console and so a teenager would be unwilling to pay to use a phone.
PC gaming has little or no place in the teenage market. This may be because usually games are released across all platforms, and whilst one can be sure a game will play on a console PC games require expensive set ups to ensure a game will play smoothly. In addition, PC games are relatively easy to pirate and download for free, so many teenagers would do this rather than buy a game. In contrast, it is near impossible to obtain a console game for free.
Internet
Every teenager has some access to the internet, be it at school or home. Home use is mainly used for fun (such as social networking) whilst school (or library) use is for work. Most teenagers are heavily active on a combination of social networking sites. Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered and visiting >4 times a week. Facebook is popular as one can interact with friends on a wide scale. On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their 'tweets' are pointless.
Outside of social networking, the internet is used primarily as a source of information for a variety of topics. For searching the web, Google is the dominant figure, simply because it is well known and easy to use. Some teenagers make purchases on the internet (on sites like eBay) but this is only used by a small percentage, as a credit card is required and most teenagers do not have credit cards. Many teenagers use YouTube to watch videos (usually anime which cannot be watched anywhere else) and some use it as a music player by having a video with the music they want to listen to playing in the background.
Directories
Teenagers never use real directories (hard copy catalogues such as yellow pages). This is because real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services that teenagers do not require. They also do not use services such as 118 118 because it is quite expensive and they can get the information for free on the internet, simply by typing it into Google.
Viral/Outdoor Marketing
Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content. Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless, as they have never paid any attention to them and they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.
Outdoor advertising usually does not trigger a reaction in teenagers, but sometimes they will oppose it (the Benetton baby adverts). Most teenagers ignore conventional outside advertising (billboards etc) because they have seen outside adverts since they first stepped outside and usually it is not targeted at them (unless it's for a film). However, campaigns such as the GTA: IV characters painted on the side of buildings generate interest because they are different and cause people to stop and think about the advert, maybe leading to further research.
Music
Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whilst doing something else (like travelling or using a computer). This makes it hard to get an idea of the proportion of their time that is spent listening to music.
They are very reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites. Legal ways to get free music that teenagers use are to listen to the radio, watch music TV channels (not very popular, as these usually play music at certain times, which is not always when teenagers are watching) and use music streaming websites (as I mentioned previously).
Almost all teenagers like to have a 'hard copy' of the song (a file of the song that they can keep on their computer and use at will) so that they can transfer it to portable music players and share it with friends.
How teenagers play their music while on the go varies, and usually dependent on wealth –with teenagers from higher income families using iPods and those from lower income families using mobile phones. Some teenagers use both to listen to music, and there are always exceptions to the rule.
A number of people use the music service iTunes (usually in conjunction with iPods) to acquire their music (legally) but again this is unpopular with many teenagers because of the 'high price' (79p per song). Some teenagers use a combination of sources to obtain music, because sometimes the sound quality is better on streaming sites but they cannot use these sites whilst offline, so they would download a song then listen to it on music streaming sites (separate from the file).
Cinema
Teenagers visit the cinema quite often, regardless of what is on. Usually they will target a film first, and set out to see that, but sometimes they will just go and choose when they get there. This is because going to the cinema is not usually about the film, but the experience –and getting together with friends. Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom (13 and 14) but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is due to the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price, which is often double the child price. Also, it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket so teenagers often choose this instead of going to the cinema. Some teenagers choose to download the films off the internet, but this is not favourable as the films are usually bad quality, have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a chance that they will be malicious files and install a virus.
Devices
Mobile Phones
99% of teenagers have a mobile phone and most are quite capable phones. The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, due to their long list of features, built in walkman capability and value (£100 will buy a mid-high range model). Teenagers due to the risk of it getting lost do not own mobile phones over the £200 mark. As a rule, teenagers have phones on pay as you go. This is because they cannot afford the monthly payments, and cannot commit to an 18-month contract. Usually, teenagers only use their phone for texting, calling.
Features such as video messaging or video calling are not used –because they are expensive, (you can get four regular texts for the price of one video message). Services such as instant messaging are used, but not by everyone. It usually depends whether the phone is Wi-Fi compatible, because otherwise it is very expensive to get internet off the phone network. As most teenagers' phones have Bluetooth support, and Bluetooth is free, they utilise this feature often. It is used to send songs and videos (even though it is illegal) and is another way teenagers gain songs for free. Teenagers never use the ringtone and picture selling services, which gained popularity in the early 00s. This is because of the negative press that these services have attracted (where the charge £20 a week with no easy way to cancel the service) and the fact that they can get pictures and music on a computer –then transfer it to their phones at no cost. Mobile email is not used as teenagers have no need; they do not need to be connected to their inbox all the time as they don't receive important emails. Teenagers do not use the internet features on their mobiles as it costs too much, and generally, if they waited an hour they could use their home internet and they are willing to wait as they don't usually have anything urgent to do.
Teenagers do not upgrade their phone very often, with most upgrading every two years. They usually upgrade on their birthday when their parents will buy them a new phone, as they do not normally have enough money to do it themselves.
Televisions
Most teenagers own a TV, with more and more upgrading to HD ready flat screens. However, many are not utilising this HD functionality, as HD channels are expensive extras which many families cannot justify the added expenditure. Many of them don't want to sign up to HD broadcasting services, as adverts are shown on standard definition broadcasts, so they can't see the difference. Most people have Virgin Media as a TV provider. Some have Sky and some have Freeview but very few only have the first five channels (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five).
Computers
Every teenager has access to a basic computer with internet, but most teenagers computers are systems capable of only everyday tasks. Nearly all teenagers' computers have Microsoft office installed, as it allows them to do school work at home. Most (9/10) computers owned by teenagers are PCs, because they are much cheaper than Macs and school computers run Windows, so if a Mac is used at home compatibility issues arise.
Games Consoles
Close to a third of teenagers have a new (2½ years old) games console, 50% having a Wii, 40% with an Xbox 360 and 10% with a PS3. The PS3 has such a low figure because of its high price (£300) and similar features and games to an Xbox 360, which costs less (£160). The Wii's dominance is due to younger brothers and sisters, they have a Wii and parents are not willing to pay for another console.
What is hot?
• Anything with a touch screen is desirable.
• Mobile phones with large capacities for music.
• Portable devices that can connect to the internet (iPhones)
• Really big tellies
What is not?
• Anything with wires
• Phones with black and white screens
• Clunky 'brick' phones
• Devices with less than ten-hour battery life
taken from guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Most teenagers nowadays are not regular listeners to radio. They may occasionally tune in, but they do not try to listen to a program specifically. The main reason teenagers listen to the radio is for music, but now with online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free, and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses.
Television
Most teenagers watch television, but usually there are points in the year where they watch more than average. This is due to programs coming on in seasons, so they will watch a particular show at a certain time for a number of weeks (as long as it lasts) but then they may watch no television for weeks after the program has ended.
Most teenagers watch television, but usually there are points in the year where they watch more than average. This is due to programs coming on in seasons, so they will watch a particular show at a certain time for a number of weeks (as long as it lasts) but then they may watch no television for weeks after the program has ended.
Teenage boys (generally) watch more TV when it is the football season, often watching two games and related shows a week (totalling about 5 hours of viewing). A portion of teenagers watches programs that are regular (such as soap operas) at least five times a week for half an hour or so but this portion is shrinking, as it is hard to find the time each day.
Teenagers are also watching less television because of services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows them to watch shows when they want. Whilst watching TV, adverts come on quite regularly (18 minutes of every hour) and teenagers do not want to watch these, so they switch to another channel, or do something else whilst the adverts run.
The majority of teenagers I speak to have Virgin Media as their provider, citing lower costs but similar content of Sky. A fraction of teenagers have Freeview but these people are light users of TV (they watch about 1 ½ hours per week) so they do not require the hundreds of channels that other providers offer.
Newspapers
No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.
The only newspapers that are read are tabloids and freesheets (Metro, London Lite…) mainly because of cost; teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper (hence the popularity of freesheets such as the Metro). Over the last few weeks, the Sun has decreased in cost to 20p, so I have seen more and more copies read by teenagers. Another reason why mainly tabloids are read is that their compact size allows them to be read easily, on a bus or train. This is especially true for The Metro, as it is distributed on buses and trains.
Gaming
Whilst the stereotypical view of gamers is teenage boys, the emergence of the Wii onto the market has created a plethora of girl gamers and younger (6+) gamers. The most common console is the Wii, then the Xbox 360 followed by the PS3. Most teenagers with a games console tend to game not in short bursts, but in long stints (upwards of an hour).
As consoles are now able to connect to the internet, voice chat is possible between users, which has had an impact on phone usage; one can speak for free over the console and so a teenager would be unwilling to pay to use a phone.
PC gaming has little or no place in the teenage market. This may be because usually games are released across all platforms, and whilst one can be sure a game will play on a console PC games require expensive set ups to ensure a game will play smoothly. In addition, PC games are relatively easy to pirate and download for free, so many teenagers would do this rather than buy a game. In contrast, it is near impossible to obtain a console game for free.
Internet
Every teenager has some access to the internet, be it at school or home. Home use is mainly used for fun (such as social networking) whilst school (or library) use is for work. Most teenagers are heavily active on a combination of social networking sites. Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered and visiting >4 times a week. Facebook is popular as one can interact with friends on a wide scale. On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their 'tweets' are pointless.
Outside of social networking, the internet is used primarily as a source of information for a variety of topics. For searching the web, Google is the dominant figure, simply because it is well known and easy to use. Some teenagers make purchases on the internet (on sites like eBay) but this is only used by a small percentage, as a credit card is required and most teenagers do not have credit cards. Many teenagers use YouTube to watch videos (usually anime which cannot be watched anywhere else) and some use it as a music player by having a video with the music they want to listen to playing in the background.
Directories
Teenagers never use real directories (hard copy catalogues such as yellow pages). This is because real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services that teenagers do not require. They also do not use services such as 118 118 because it is quite expensive and they can get the information for free on the internet, simply by typing it into Google.
Viral/Outdoor Marketing
Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content. Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless, as they have never paid any attention to them and they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.
Outdoor advertising usually does not trigger a reaction in teenagers, but sometimes they will oppose it (the Benetton baby adverts). Most teenagers ignore conventional outside advertising (billboards etc) because they have seen outside adverts since they first stepped outside and usually it is not targeted at them (unless it's for a film). However, campaigns such as the GTA: IV characters painted on the side of buildings generate interest because they are different and cause people to stop and think about the advert, maybe leading to further research.
Music
Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whilst doing something else (like travelling or using a computer). This makes it hard to get an idea of the proportion of their time that is spent listening to music.
They are very reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites. Legal ways to get free music that teenagers use are to listen to the radio, watch music TV channels (not very popular, as these usually play music at certain times, which is not always when teenagers are watching) and use music streaming websites (as I mentioned previously).
Almost all teenagers like to have a 'hard copy' of the song (a file of the song that they can keep on their computer and use at will) so that they can transfer it to portable music players and share it with friends.
How teenagers play their music while on the go varies, and usually dependent on wealth –with teenagers from higher income families using iPods and those from lower income families using mobile phones. Some teenagers use both to listen to music, and there are always exceptions to the rule.
A number of people use the music service iTunes (usually in conjunction with iPods) to acquire their music (legally) but again this is unpopular with many teenagers because of the 'high price' (79p per song). Some teenagers use a combination of sources to obtain music, because sometimes the sound quality is better on streaming sites but they cannot use these sites whilst offline, so they would download a song then listen to it on music streaming sites (separate from the file).
Cinema
Teenagers visit the cinema quite often, regardless of what is on. Usually they will target a film first, and set out to see that, but sometimes they will just go and choose when they get there. This is because going to the cinema is not usually about the film, but the experience –and getting together with friends. Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom (13 and 14) but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is due to the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price, which is often double the child price. Also, it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket so teenagers often choose this instead of going to the cinema. Some teenagers choose to download the films off the internet, but this is not favourable as the films are usually bad quality, have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a chance that they will be malicious files and install a virus.
Devices
Mobile Phones
99% of teenagers have a mobile phone and most are quite capable phones. The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, due to their long list of features, built in walkman capability and value (£100 will buy a mid-high range model). Teenagers due to the risk of it getting lost do not own mobile phones over the £200 mark. As a rule, teenagers have phones on pay as you go. This is because they cannot afford the monthly payments, and cannot commit to an 18-month contract. Usually, teenagers only use their phone for texting, calling.
Features such as video messaging or video calling are not used –because they are expensive, (you can get four regular texts for the price of one video message). Services such as instant messaging are used, but not by everyone. It usually depends whether the phone is Wi-Fi compatible, because otherwise it is very expensive to get internet off the phone network. As most teenagers' phones have Bluetooth support, and Bluetooth is free, they utilise this feature often. It is used to send songs and videos (even though it is illegal) and is another way teenagers gain songs for free. Teenagers never use the ringtone and picture selling services, which gained popularity in the early 00s. This is because of the negative press that these services have attracted (where the charge £20 a week with no easy way to cancel the service) and the fact that they can get pictures and music on a computer –then transfer it to their phones at no cost. Mobile email is not used as teenagers have no need; they do not need to be connected to their inbox all the time as they don't receive important emails. Teenagers do not use the internet features on their mobiles as it costs too much, and generally, if they waited an hour they could use their home internet and they are willing to wait as they don't usually have anything urgent to do.
Teenagers do not upgrade their phone very often, with most upgrading every two years. They usually upgrade on their birthday when their parents will buy them a new phone, as they do not normally have enough money to do it themselves.
Televisions
Most teenagers own a TV, with more and more upgrading to HD ready flat screens. However, many are not utilising this HD functionality, as HD channels are expensive extras which many families cannot justify the added expenditure. Many of them don't want to sign up to HD broadcasting services, as adverts are shown on standard definition broadcasts, so they can't see the difference. Most people have Virgin Media as a TV provider. Some have Sky and some have Freeview but very few only have the first five channels (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five).
Computers
Every teenager has access to a basic computer with internet, but most teenagers computers are systems capable of only everyday tasks. Nearly all teenagers' computers have Microsoft office installed, as it allows them to do school work at home. Most (9/10) computers owned by teenagers are PCs, because they are much cheaper than Macs and school computers run Windows, so if a Mac is used at home compatibility issues arise.
Games Consoles
Close to a third of teenagers have a new (2½ years old) games console, 50% having a Wii, 40% with an Xbox 360 and 10% with a PS3. The PS3 has such a low figure because of its high price (£300) and similar features and games to an Xbox 360, which costs less (£160). The Wii's dominance is due to younger brothers and sisters, they have a Wii and parents are not willing to pay for another console.
What is hot?
• Anything with a touch screen is desirable.
• Mobile phones with large capacities for music.
• Portable devices that can connect to the internet (iPhones)
• Really big tellies
What is not?
• Anything with wires
• Phones with black and white screens
• Clunky 'brick' phones
• Devices with less than ten-hour battery life
taken from guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
If the UK were a village of 100 people...
The Independent carried out some research recently and the resulting statistics and stuff are quite interesting and I have copied the whole article from here. Read on...... and all current demographic and social proportions remained the same, what sort of village would it be? Simon Usborne leads a revealing guided tour.
There are, according to the estimate for this month, 6,790,062,216 people in the world. It's hard enough to say the number, never mind picture those people. You could round it up to a less tongue-twisting 6.8 billion, but does that make such a frightening figure any easier to compute? When you try, do you see faces, or just more brain-frying strings of digits?
The sheer vastness of the data we gather in our attempts to understand the world around us has been challenging statisticians since the earliest censuses. The "size of Wales" approach to number-crunching is popular among headline writers; but is it helpful, for example, to imagine the global population in terms of 75,445 Wembleys, or, indeed, 2,341 Waleses? The numbers are still too big.
It's the same with the news we read and hear each day. What does it mean when we're told that unemployment has risen by 281,000? Is that a huge number? Or just a big one? The stories are about people, but it is often hard to see beyond the figures.
So what if, rather than grapple with endless triplets of zeros, we shrank the world, and all the potentially flummoxing data we mine from it, down to a more manageable size? What if the world were a truly global village of, say, 100 people? What would those faces look like, and who would those people be?
It's a question that has piqued the curiosity of several would-be demographers, including, most famously, the late US environmentalist Donella Meadows. In 1990, she published The State of the Village Report, which was released as a poster at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. At around the same time, a Canadian retired geography teacher called David Smith started work on If the World Were a Village, which was eventually published in 2002. Both works conveyed a vivid sense of global perspective. Smith's research, for example, revealed that a world village of 100 people would be home to 61 Asians, as well as 16 severely undernourished people - and 189 chickens.
Of course, little Britain barely gets a look-in in that reduction: we are equivalent to just about a single person. So what would happen if we gave our country (with a population of 61 million, give or take a Rutland or a West Somerset) the same treatment? If England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were condensed to a single community of 100 people, what would that community look like?
To find out, The Independent put pencil to paper, ear to phone and finger to calculator, and trawled acres of spreadsheets and data-sets published by government and other statistical authorities to produce a snapshot of Britain in the 21st century.
Look around you. Are the people you see representative of the country they call home? If not, this is what Britain really looks like.
If Britain were a village of 100 people...
17 of the 100 villagers would be under the age of 15, while another 16 would be 65 or over (three of them 80 or over).
There would be 80 adults (aged 16 or over), of whom 40 would be married and 11 would live alone.
There would be 42 households in the village, of which 13 would be home to just one person. (Six of these would belong to lone pensioners, of whom five would be female.)
Of the 19 villagers aged between 20 and 34, four would live with their parents.
The village would welcome one new baby this year. The baby would expect to live for 76 years and six months (if it was a boy), or 81 years and seven months (if it was a girl).
One person would die this year.
Ninety-two of the villagers would be white. Two would be black, two Indian, one Pakistani, one of mixed race and two would be of other races.
Ten people would have been born outside the village, three of whom would live in London.
Six people would be gay or lesbian (probably).
84 of them would live in England, eight in Scotland, five in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.
Eight people would live in Greater London (one of them in Croydon).
There would be 51 women and girls, and 49 men and boys.
If Britain were a village of 100 people, and its land mass were scaled down by the same proportion as its population, the village would cover an area the size of 99 football pitches.
Fifty-three of these football pitches would be English, 32 Scottish, nine Welsh and five Northern Irish.
Agricultural land would occupy 20 football pitches, on which 54 sheep, 17 cows, eight pigs and 273 chickens would roam. There would be one farmer.
London would cover just over half a football pitch.
All built-up areas and gardens would occupy the equivalent of six football pitches.
Seventy-two people would identify themselves as Christian (although only 10 people in the village would go to church regularly). Fifteen people would say that they were not religious, while there would be two Muslims, one Hindu and 10 people who practised other religions.
Each person would generate 495kg of waste every year. The village as a whole would generate 163kg of waste every day, of which just 47kg would be put out for recycling.
If Britain were a village of 100 people, 17 of the villagers would smoke, of whom 11 would like to give up.
Nineteen adults and three children would be classified as obese (that is they would have a Body Mass Index of 30 or greater).
Sixteen men and eight women would usually exceed the Government's daily sensible drinking benchmark (3-4 units per day for men; 2-3 units a day for women).
Eight men and four women would have taken an illicit drug in the past year.
Eight people would have asthma.
Eight adults would be suffering from depression today (but as many as 20 would suffer from depression at some point in their lifetime).
One person would have dementia.
The villagers would have 118 mobile phones between them (66 of which would be pay-as-you-go). There would be 55 telephone landlines.
There would be 90 televisions (an average of more than two per household).
Twenty-one villagers would have watched Andy Murray beat Stanislas Wawrinka under floodlights at Wimbledon this year; 32 people would have watched Susan Boyle lose 'Britain's Got Talent'.
Of the 42 households in the village, 32 would have satellite, digital or cable television.
Twenty-seven households would have access to the internet (24 of those would have a broadband connection).
Thirty people would have a Facebook account.
Sixteen of the villagers would be at school – of whom one would be in private education.
One of the 16 pupils would leave school this year. Twelve of them would, when the time comes, go into higher education. Nine of them would achieve five or more GCSE or equivalent passes at grades A*-C.
One person in the village would be illiterate.
There would be one teacher.
Seven people would be in further education. (In 1990, there were only four.)
Of the 62 villagers of working age, 45 would have jobs; nine of them would be in the public sector.
They would earn an average of £388 a week (including part-time workers).
Of the 13 villagers of working age who weren't working, four would be unemployed; three would be looking after family and/or home; three would be excluded from the workforce by sickness; two would be students; and one would have taken early retirement.
The 80 adults in the village would share a personal debt of £2.4m (£30,480 each, on average).
Six would be claiming housing benefit; five would own their homes but have negative equity.
The richest 10 people in the village would receive 30 per cent of the total income. Between them, they would earn more than the poorest 50 combined.
The poorest 10 people in the village would receive 2 per cent of total income.
Two adults would not have access to a bank account.
Fifty-six of the 100 villagers would claim to have given to charity within the past four weeks. Overall, the village would donate £17,393 to charity this year.
Twenty people would claim the state pension; 12 would be women.
Five villagers would be employed in the food industry.
Five men and four women would have had multiple sex partners in the previous year.
If Britain were a village of 100 people, there would be 74 voters.
Only 26 of those voters would have gone to the polls at this year's European elections.
Of the 42 households in the village, 18 would have at least one pet. Between them, those households would have 38 pets (not including fish), including 13 dogs (comprising 10 pedigrees, one cross and two mongrels) and 13 cats (12 of which would be moggies, or non-pedigrees).
Three of the villagers would be vegetarians and a further five would be partly vegetarian.
Between them, the villagers would spend £2,955 a week on food and non-alcoholic drinks. They would spend £1,154 a week on food eaten outside the home, of which £355 would go towards alcohol.
Seventy-eight of the villagers would have a passport.
Fifty-five would have a driving licence.
There would be 56 motor vehicles in the village, including 44 cars and two motorbikes.
Of the 42 households in the village, 18 would have one car, 13 would have two or more cars and 10 would not have a car at all.
In the past year, the people of the village would have made 107 trips abroad, spending £60,055 between them.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Why The Do Lectures matter?
And why becoming a member matters too?
We live in interesting times.
And we live in important times.
Most of the important business models have yet to be written.
Most of the ‘why didn’t I think of that’ answers for climate change have yet to be dreamt of.
Most of the important scientific or technological breakthroughs are just doodles on a notepad.
As well as interesting times, these are exciting times.
Necessity will make a good taskmaster. Crisis will make a good editor. Having finite resources will make us infinitely more creative with how we use them going forward.
Yup, interesting times.
And if consumers will have to change how they consume, and if business will have to change how they do business, then so will Government have to change how they govern.
Our system of having a four-year government for 100-year problems means tough decisions are rarely made. A manifesto designed to win votes isn’t the same as a manifesto designed to do what needs to be done for the safety of future generations.
And how we have treated this planet in the past will have to be different to how we treat it in the future. A tree helps produce oxygen, rain and sucks in carbon dioxide. Yet we only put a value to it once we cut it down. At the very same time as when it stops producing rain, when it stops producing oxygen and stops sucking in carbon dioxide.
Indeed these are interesting times.
We have to fill in a 3-page form to start an account with Fed Ex. Yet a badly run bank has to only fill in a 2-page form to get billions from the Government to shore up their bank.
Interesting times, indeed.
But rather than being a time to be down or despondent, this is the time for great change. And yes, there is much that needs changing. There is much to do.
But reassuringly the human mind is more creative than any computer will ever be. The answers will come from the brightest, stubborn-nest, and oddest of people.
And the thing that brings this oddball bunch together is that they are all stubborn dreamers. Brilliant enough to have the idea. Stubborn enough to make it happen.
Buckminster Fuller described the importance of vision best when he said, “ There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly”. But as well as the vision, you need that grit determination to make your idea live.
That is what The Do Lectures is here to Do. It is a platform for the Doers of the world to tell us their stories. So they can inspire the rest of us to go do something amazing too. In simple farming terms, it is just manure for the field. It is here to help grow ideas.
The Do Lectures is not a business, but it has to pay its way in the world. Appropriately a set of talks with sustainability at its heart needs to be, well, yes, sustainable.
To that end, we sell tickets for the event so the rest of the world can see them the talks for free. Our aim this year is for a million people to see the talks. To me, that is a lot of ‘mind manure’ being spread around the world.
So does the Do Lectures matter? I believe they do. And maybe they matter more in these interesting times than any other time.
I believe that ‘mind manure’ sure needs spreading around.
So my last question today is would you become a member of The Do Lectures?
Memberships costs £50. You will receive 4 newsletters a year. Have the inside track on choosing speakers and be able to make suggestions too. Have first refusal on future tickets. Receive a Do Lectures 2009 T-shirt that has a chance of coming with a golden ticket to this years Do lectures.
But the biggest thing of all is just to feel part of it. To feel like you are doing something to make this happen. To become a doer too.
So if this is crowd funding in its truest form, we need the crowd to put their hands up and say ‘I’m in.’ ‘I think The Do Lectures matter. Here’s my £50.’
A simple email to Claire@thedolectures.co.uk will be enough to start this off.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Thought of the week or advice for life...
Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland ,Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I've ever written."
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God
never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is
up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no
for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will
this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did
or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd
grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."
Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I've ever written."
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God
never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is
up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no
for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will
this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did
or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd
grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."
Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Me in Honduras
A view of base camp and my tent
Me just outside my tent at base camp after an exhausting walkSunday, June 14, 2009
Not sure about the simple home remedies
- AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP. (12 year olds are so gullible)
- AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK. (The tree outside the front door works well too)
- FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
- A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON. (Rat traps are excessive and effect daily productivity)
- IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH. (Otherwise use duct tape - for either)
- YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - Q20 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE Q20. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE. (For heavy duty problems add cable ties)
- IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Goodbye, Geocities.
GeoCities was my first introduction to web development and hosting. It saw me through some good times in the past and even though I am no longer using it, I am sad to see it so. Tonight I will have a drink for GeoCities and the memories it holds for me.
Goodbye and thanks!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
How did you celebrate Earth Day?
Inspiring Action from Greenpeace on Vimeo.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Never a truer word...
Two donkeys were in the field nearby Jerusalem. The one donkey said; " Idon't understand it, just a day before yesterday everyone was throwing their
clothes and palms on the road when I was carrying Jesus on my back but from
yesterday I'm back to being nothing. Those people don't even see it's me who
was carrying Jesus."
The other donkey said: "It works like that, without Jesus you are nothing in
this world"
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Twitter - explained in 140 characters
Greatest explanation of twitter ever:
Perfect.
Perfect.
Friday, March 06, 2009
America move Forward
From the New York Times
First Federal Chief Information Officer
Perhaps not surprisingly, President Obama has formed a close friendship with the District of Columbia’s young, Blackberry-addicted, problem-solving mayor, Adrian Fenty. Now, the president has raided Mr. Fenty’s staff to name a youthful, Indian-born techno-whiz as his first federal chief information officer.
The White House said Thursday that it had selected Vivek Kundra, 34, the chief technology officer for the District, to the federal position, where he will be expected to oversee a push to expand uses of cutting-edge technology. He will have wide powers over federal technology spending, over information sharing between agencies, over greater public access to government information and over questions of security and privacy.
But he will also – as Mr. Obama mentioned twice in the space of a six-line comment distributed by the White House – look for ways to “lower the cost of government operations” through technology.
Mr. Kundra’s background seems to suit him well for both aspects of the job. Born in India, he lived in Tanzania until the age of 11, when he moved to the Maryland suburb of Gaithersburg. One of his first memories there, according to a profile last month in The Washington Post, was of seeing a dog-food commercial on television. “I was shocked,” he said. “I was used to seeing people starve in Africa. It was mind-boggling to me that people could afford to feed their dogs!”
He appears to bring a similar tight-fisted mentality to his oversight of technology in 86 District agencies.
In just 19 months with the District, Mr. Kundra has moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others. He hopes to allow drivers to pay parking tickets or renew their driver’s licenses on Facebook.
First Federal Chief Information Officer
Perhaps not surprisingly, President Obama has formed a close friendship with the District of Columbia’s young, Blackberry-addicted, problem-solving mayor, Adrian Fenty. Now, the president has raided Mr. Fenty’s staff to name a youthful, Indian-born techno-whiz as his first federal chief information officer.
The White House said Thursday that it had selected Vivek Kundra, 34, the chief technology officer for the District, to the federal position, where he will be expected to oversee a push to expand uses of cutting-edge technology. He will have wide powers over federal technology spending, over information sharing between agencies, over greater public access to government information and over questions of security and privacy.
But he will also – as Mr. Obama mentioned twice in the space of a six-line comment distributed by the White House – look for ways to “lower the cost of government operations” through technology.
Mr. Kundra’s background seems to suit him well for both aspects of the job. Born in India, he lived in Tanzania until the age of 11, when he moved to the Maryland suburb of Gaithersburg. One of his first memories there, according to a profile last month in The Washington Post, was of seeing a dog-food commercial on television. “I was shocked,” he said. “I was used to seeing people starve in Africa. It was mind-boggling to me that people could afford to feed their dogs!”
He appears to bring a similar tight-fisted mentality to his oversight of technology in 86 District agencies.
In just 19 months with the District, Mr. Kundra has moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others. He hopes to allow drivers to pay parking tickets or renew their driver’s licenses on Facebook.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
What tools am I using now?
This probably needs more thought over the course of the next couple of days, but right now I am into Twitter, Blogger (using blogger 1.0 widget for my text posts) and Google Docs for all my teaching!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Some Ideas for Lent...
1. Need to train more for the 2 Oceans Half
2. Need to spend more time reading the bible
3. Spend more time in prayer with my family
4. Write more on my blog about thoughts and ideas
5. build good relationships with those around me to strengthen my personal support structure
6. spend some time researching something valuable to improve my teaching
2. Need to spend more time reading the bible
3. Spend more time in prayer with my family
4. Write more on my blog about thoughts and ideas
5. build good relationships with those around me to strengthen my personal support structure
6. spend some time researching something valuable to improve my teaching
Why have I not blogged for a while?
Well, it has probably just been pure lazyiness! I haven't thought that I have too much to say, but in truth I need to start putting more of my thoughts down in text, rather than thinking about them. This way I can look back over time and appreciate how my ideas have developed or how my view have changed. It is a good method of letting God speak to me. As Lent approaches, very quickly, I fear I will let the 40 days slip by very quickly. This is something that I hope will keep me honest and in check. Here is holding thumbs!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
some random einsten quotes
from Alan Hirsch“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
“I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”
“God is subtle but he is not malicious.”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Learning Futures Festival ‘09
Last week, I attended the University of Leicester-hosted Learning Futures Festival ‘09 at the Walkers Stadium, the home of Leicester City Football Club. For a good report of the event check out this link. I will make some comments later, when I have filtered through my notes.
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