The Future is GREEN

Another article in Wired News spoke of the top ten futurists' trends: Green computing is on top of the list :) Greenpeace warriors will be excited about to know that Marsha Rhea, a senior futurist for the Institute for Alternative Futures is advising investors that only put money in energy and computer companies that are investing in greener alternatives.

Blogging at work

As write this, I am blogging at work having just checked my account at bloglines. In Wired News, the article described how several corporations have implemented anti-blogging policies in the work environment. Many employees say that no all blogs should be off-limits because many blogs can be places for employees to resolve issues on work projects; however, employers maintain that some items that employees wish to share in a blog may be sensitive material that in the wrong hands could cost the company millions of dollars.

I thought some of the replies to the article intersting such as:

Blog" is just the beginning. If you think text is controversial, wait until the audio and video blogs catch up. ... soon you're going to have to filter out "podcast" ( http://www.podcastalley.com/ ) and as it grows "vlog" and "Videocasting" ( http://www.vobbo.com/ ) as well.

Another reply stated the following:

So do these corporations serve as the line in the sand regarding companies leveraging employees to perform PR through corporate or personal blogs? Google will use Joe Programmer to spin perspective on Google Print, while an online discount broker will do whatever is necessary to not only outlaw employees blogging, but browsing blogs as well? It'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out it cubicle-land.

IT and Egalitarin Working Environment

I am re-reading SLL now with the lens of school administator. A Harvard professor, Shoshona Zuboff is quoted in SLL by stating that she is not observing the egalitarin working environment which she says is a result of management not wanting to share authority and power. In some school organizations, I observing this lack of the egalitarin environment which I attribute to the standards movement in accountability of student achievement. Why? Competition has evolved among teachers not to get non-disabled students for fear that test scores from these students might not make the grade on the teacher's performance. I wonder what would happen if all teachers got special education students, general education students, and gifted & talented students equally? I would hope that the true teachers would surfaced within the learning organization.

Also in SLL, Ronald Coase states that organizations develop when the transaction costs of contracting, evaluatiing, and enforcing are lower for it than the individual. I think case could be made that IT has allowed the homeschool network to boom because the transaction costs are lower for individuals.

Bill Joy, Samuel Johnson and E-Waste

In the Social Life of Information (SLI), the authors mention a computer scientist by the name of Bill Joy that technologies might wipe humanity out. The authors state that this view was tunnel-vision.

Today there was an article in the BCC about e-waste in India. Companies are having the very poor disassemble computer parts; these employees desparate for money are not aware of the effects of such a job as on their health:

"There should not be any lead in our blood because lead has no biological function. You and I, living in a society like this, will have about 8-10 micrograms per decilitre. Even at a level of 5 micrograms per decilitre lead can bring about DNA aberrations. And in children, anything around 10 micrograms per decilitre can bring down the IQ. Half of children in a city like Bangalore already have blood lead levels at about 10 micrograms per decilitre, which has resulted in a reduction in their intelligence quotient. We are seeing more and more cases now because more and more electronic waste is being handled by our people."

The prognostications made in the article remind me of Samuel Johnson's advice made in SLI: "Mankind needs more often to be reminded than informed." One of the reasons that is given that the Romans fell was their lead water pipes. History has a funny way of repeating itself. Will the heavy metals used in our technologies be at a cost to our global society?

Blogging as a News Source

In an article from the BCC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4330690.stm
the arguement is made that news from blogs have proven themselves worthy:

They have proved their worth as news sources in recent times, perhaps most notably following Hurricane Katrina.

Pete Clifton, editor of the BBC News website, thinks blogs have a valuable role to play because they embrace the value of what people know, and what they are saying. He further went on to say he doesn't think blogs will takeover sources of news journalism like the BBC, but could be complimentary.

AOL bought Weblogs, Inc. which indicates that they see $$$ from it.

One criticism made in the article was the blurring of professional news with that from blogs which is happening on Yahoo News.

Should institutes of higher learning be concerned with CMS and convergence

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0401.pdf

My understanding of this article is that convergence of software systems allows for collaboration across departments as well as a cost-effective compondent using CMS.

Developing an Open Source Community of Practice

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/MWR0563.pdf

This was an interesting overview of why an institution of higher learning would consider open source software. According to this author, commerical software is not geared towards institutions of higher learning because vendors look for ways to consolidate. Commerical vendors are not interested in a custom-made product. This observation seems to contradict the observations made in the Social Life for Information in which individualization would be paramount.