Category Archives: News
Write Up on Podio
I build a set of Apps on Podio for managing the technology inventory of education facilities. The Apps were built with the Fordham RETC in mind, but are being applied universally. It’s a nice little write up you can read here.
Richard Roth Exhibition
Not to long ago I wrote about an artist I recently discovered, Richard Roth. I looked forward to his artwork coming to an area near me so I can see it in person. Mr. Roth must have taken notice.
He messaged me before the holidays about his current exhibition at the Tomlinson Kong Contemporary in NYC. The exhibit is running until January 7, 2012. I will certainly be taking a visit to see his work and encourage you to check it out if in the area.
It is nice to see things like this happen from having a website. It show interaction and a true extent of the Internet as social communications.
Steve Jobs 1955-2011
“Death is the destination we all share, no one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life.” Steve Jobs
The End of OpenOffice, The Beginning of LibreOffice
Just to be clear, OpenOffice has not been discontinued (yet) and remains a free office suite. But knowing how widely used OpenOffice is in education, this is important information to know.
You may be aware that OpenOffice is owned by Oracle, after acquiring Sun. The Free and Open Office Suite, often called the free alternative to Microsoft Office, is controlled by a large corporation.
Oracle is a company certainly looking to make profits. This has caused some concern over the future of OpenOffice. Much of the community does not feel Oracle is a supporter of open-source, and may try to turn OpenOffice into a for-profit product. Oracle’s current licensing allows for them to use the contributed code for profit (though this hasn’t been done). This would be going directly against what open-source and community supported software is about. Forcing developers to relinquish copyright when contributing code.
As a result, several members of the core developing group for OpenOffice have resigned and created their own fork of the OpenOffice program; The Document Foundation is born.
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The Glif
What is The Glif? It’s a beautifully simplistic piece of industrial design. Simple enough that you’ll wish you thought of it. It’s an attachment for your iPhone 4. It works as a multi-angle stand and tripod mount.
I found The Glif on Kickstarter. For those of you who don’t know Kickstarter, I recommend checking it out. People post their ideas on the website and raise money to bring their ideas to reality. You usually only donate $10-$50, and depending how much you donate the creators will give you something as a thank you. In the case of The Glif, if you donated $20 you got one of the first Glifs to be produced (basically pre-ordering one).
So far they have raised over $100,000 to manufacture the device. I got an email update today saying prototyping (pictured above) is done and production should begin soon. I’ve been waiting anxiously to get mine. I’ll be posting a review as soon as I get my hands on one.
Kindle Use at the University Level Takes a Step Backwards
College and University programs that promote using Kindles or like e-reading devices are being suspended by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education.
Recent complaints by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind have sparked court settlements between the DOJ and the universities currently involved in programs promoting the use of e-readers in the classroom, specifically the Kindle DX. The Kindle DX has been viewed as discrimatory against blind students and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. These programs are currently being suspended at 4 schools; Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City, Reed College in Portland, Oregon and Arizona State University.
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Now on College Blender
StephenWoicik.com is now on College Blender. I’ve had a couple blogs on this network (not sure why it took so long for me to add this one). It’s a great network for young bloggers in college or just out of college. If you’re a member feel free to follow this blog. If you’re not a member and you’re a blogger I definitely suggest joining and being an active member. It’s a great way to get your blog/name out there.
Companies Using Child Monitoring Software to Collect Marketing Data
It doesn’t get much worse than this from a big bad corporation stand point. Companies that sell software to help parents monitor a child’s activity online have been repackaging the data collected as market research and selling it to other companies. The Associated Press released an article on the subject the other day.
Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking ways to tailor their marketing messages to kids.
“This scares me more than anything I have seen using monitoring technology,” said Parry Aftab, a child-safety advocate. “You don’t put children’s personal information at risk.”
This goes to show just how much of a grey area Internet laws really are. Being able to monitor a child’s activity is pretty low. Although by the parents agreeing to these ‘terms’ in the Terms of Service of the software, the companies are most likely in the clear of any legal punishments. Take it as a warning to be carful what software you rely on for personal information.
“Microsoft” and “Cool” In The Same Sentence?
Back in March, Microsoft decided to launch a new advertising campaign for it’s flagship product, Windows. This $300 million image overhaul is Microsoft’s first action against the bad press of Vista and direct insult from Apple in the Mac vs. PC advertising campaign.
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For this, Microsoft has decided to stray away from their usual advertising agency,McCann Worldgroup, and enlist the hippest advertising guru in the business, Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky. He has been called the “Steve Jobs of the Ad World” (Fast Company) and is responsible for some of the boldest and most successful ad campaigns of recent, including the “truth” campaign and the very successful Burger King campaign (see image below).
Alex Bogusky and his co-executive creative directors, Andrew Keller and Rob Reilly, seem to be excited for the challenge. “Microsoft is at the epicenter of the great brand challenge of the next decade-or millennium” (via: fast company). Alex Bogusky and his group pride themselves on taking on stale or older brands in a transition, and making them “cool” once again. Often using strange and bold ideas to push a brand to its limits. And for an agency driven by challenge, Microsoft may be their advertising dream come true. No company has been more stale, in terms of their image, in the past 20 years than Microsoft.
Enough with the history and why these companies are working together. This deal was made in March 2008, and we are now beginning to see what the result will be. The Mojave Experiment has been a preliminary online advertisig campaing to counter the bad press Vista has been getting. It’s basic idea is to show people using Vista without telling them it’s Vista and record their reactions (think The Pepsi Challenge with computers). The Mojave Experiment has been recieved with mixed reviews, but this is by no means Microsofts big plans for the Windows advertising campaign. The big ideas coming from Bogusky and his group involve celebrities and Bill Gates. The most interesting, is the pairing of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The first of these ads are beginning to surface.
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The campaign will center around the slogan “Windows, Not Walls” and highlight what makes Windows a great operating system. Bogusky is staying to true to his usual ad style. Instead fo trying to compete with other brands he his trying to focus on what makes Windows great. This is the opposite of Apple advertising that prefers to show how good they are by showing how bad Windows is. “It’s not a matter of forcing people. It’s getting people to want to use it [Windows]. If you can’t, you’re not going to do great advertising,” Rob Rielly said in his interview with fast company.
Bogusky and his group seem to have the idea right, hopefully it shows in their campaign. Windows does offer a lot of things that other operating systems can not, but many of these things are for more tech savvy people. Using Jerry Seinfeld is also a good choice, he’s famous enough for young and old to know him and enjoy his work but he doesn’t seem out of touch to pair with Microsoft. If they went out and just got some young hip celebrity it would seem like a desperation act, scrounging for young people support. I look forward to see how this campaign takes shape and if it can truly give Microsoft Windows the image overhaul it’s long over due for.
Blackberry Media Sync: Bringing Blackberry and iTunes Together
Blackbery phones have been becoming more media centric in an atempt to compete better with the Apple iPhone and appeal to a younger, non-corporate crowd, and Blackberry Media Sync is the newest addition to their media software line up. Media Sync allows for your Blackberry to sync with your iTunes library, as well as other media on you computer. This makes it much easier to use playlists on your Blackberry rather than the old way of drag-and-drop file transfers. Media Sync is available for the Pearl, Curve, and 8800 series.