Recommended Listening: Adam Bosworth

I am back!
I have just returned from a brief vacation. If anybody wants to know my schedule, here is a link to my work calender.

Recommended listening: Adam Bosworth talks to the Gillmor Gang.
Steve Gillmor, contributing editor, ZDNet; Doc Searls, senior editor, Linux Journal; Michael Vizard, editor-in-chief, CRN; Dana Gardner, senior analyst, Yankee Group and Jon Udell, lead analyst, InfoWorld Test Center interview Adam Bosworth, Google's VP of Engineering. In this conversation they discuss his vision for the future of search architecture. This is a great conversation about topics like RSS, attention.xml, and the politics of search technology. A very detailed description of this session is here on ITConversations. This session is important to anybody who needs to do research and gather information, in other words, anybody in education.

Recommended listening: Gillmor and Malik

Steve Gillmor (of the Gillmor Gang) is back and he has hit the ground running! In this segment he interviews Om Malik (Om Malik is a San Francisco-based senior writer for Business 2.0. He has covered technology and telecom for over a decade for publications like Forbes) on the Google Factory Tour. This is a conversation between two really intelligent guys who know what they are talking about and who "get it." One of my favorite parts of the conversation is at the end when Gillmor and Malik talk about RSS and Skype. In this segment Gillmor talks about what he calls "disruptive transition" and how there are a multiplicity of technologies working together to create a disruptive wave. In my opinion academic technologists had better listen to this type of talk. The world is changing!
http://mp3.gillmordaily.podshow.com/gillmordaily2.mp3

SJSU Professor Steve Greene, new Edupodder podcast

Podcast ten, 47.56 minutes - May 19, 2005, A conversation with Professor Steve Greene, Looking back and looking ahead.
To listen to audio, click here --> MP3 File Here


Tech evangelist, Journalism Professor and friend Steve Greene. Professor Greene has been with the School of Journalism and Mass Communications for 19 years and has recently announced his pending retirement. In this candid conversation professor Greene discusses the move of technology into the school and where he sees it going. Greene also discusses his new mission involving technology. Plus, he discusses the early years of Robert Scoble as a student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University.

It is bike to work day

Dump the beast, ride your bike!

It is bike to work day today. There are so many better ways to get to work than driving a gas hog. That is what today is all about. I love to ride my bike to work, especially when the weather cooperates. Sadly, it did not cooperate today. I had a nice bike ride yesterday, but I drove today.

A new Edupodder Podcast

Before the bleeding edge, A student perspective on Emerging Technology
48.15 minutes - This session is a conversation with three students, Mass Communications student Ryan Sholin, Journalism student Daniel Sato and Computer Engineering student Harry Fu. The topic is Emerging Technology, where is it going in higher education? What kinds of things do these students, two of whom are bloggers, all of whom are interested in technology, see on the far off horizon and what would they like the future world of education to look like.

Audio File is here:

• Audio File [11.05 MB, 48.15 min, Mp3 File]

SJSU sends team to Microsoft competition

Bob Scoble may bump into some students from our alma mater, SJSU, at Redmond as our campus is sending a team to Microsoft's Embedded Student Challenge in Redmond, Washington. More details are in this Spartan Daily article.

The feed is everything!

The browser, and E-mail, is becoming increasingly obsolete! E-mail is broken and more modern aggregators are gaining in functionality. Offered as a point of evidence, is this posting. RSS is starting the slow march from the edge to the core.

Stop Hey What’s that Sound… by ZDNet's Steve Gillmor -- Timmm-berrrr: One general theme from Feedburner's testing will be of special interest to publishers: click-through rates from RSS feeds back to sites are decreasing. The company says this is happening across all the feeds it manages. [...]

The lecture hall is closed

When I walk past this room at SJSU, several times a day, it is full of students sitting and note taking while their professor, the sage on the stage, delivers a long verbal lecture. This photo was taken using my cell device. This device can take pictures, movies and even receive and play audio mp3 files. There is no reason this device, and/or smarter small devices like this, couldn't receive the lecture content as a part of a podcast and then the student, at the time of his/her choosing, could consume that content. The student could interact with the professor through a weblog or a learning management system, like Moodle.

Me at Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesloan/
http://www.flickr.com/people/stevesloan/

Student Blogger Podcast Location and Time!

We have a room at SJSU, IRC302, and a time, 2-3pm and a day, Wednesday May 18. This is dead day! If you are a student and a blogger or other user of Emerging Technology please email me at s_sloan@mac.com and let me know if you can or can't come to the conversation. Faculty and staff are also invited but the focus is going to be on students.

~Steve

This is what my new phone looks like!

I made the jump to a 21st century phone. It has a ton of new features including the ability to shoot stills and video, play MP3's and even blog! I will report more as I use the phone. It works with Mac OS X Tiger. David Sobotta shot this photo, I got it off Flickr. Bob, I am sorry, it is not a Scoble Phone.

Notes from work

This is from the recent InDesign User Group Meeting. It is about the new version of InDesign in CS2.
This is from the recent Stanford/Palo Alto User Group Meeting. It featured QuarkXPress 6.5.

The message is, you can't control the message anymore!

Today I went to Google and did a search on photojournalism sjsu. I expected the first hit would be the program's web site. Instead the first hit in Google was a student, Daniel Sato's blog.

Institutions like our university may go to great pains to control the message. We may create acceptable use and official web policies and all this is run through enterprise PR departments and are considered by high levels of management. Decisions may be made and mandated across the whole of our domain name space. This approach may work fine in a world defined be portals and specific points of entry. But, that is not the way people use the Internet any more.

Search engines pierce portals. Plus, sources totally outside our name spaces become authoritative. These are sources totally outside an institution's ability to control or define. It is hard for me to imagine a more important concept to get across when considering Emerging Technology. You cannot control the message, the medium itself does that now! Consider this, I am writing this on my lunch hour. Who controls the message of what you are reading now? Is this incredible or what!

Ghost Rider's of Cat's Hill

In the June issue of my bike club's newsletter, the Black and Blue Bottom [1 MB PDF], are some of the bike racing photos I have taken over the last couple of months. Years ago I was a newspaper photographer and I shot a lot of sports. I still love to do it and have really enjoyed some of the artistic effects I have been able to get using my Digital Nikon camera. I hope you like the pictures!
~Steve

Friday the 13th bits

Be smart, wait a few Rev's before installing Tiger
Jeez, did everybody forget all the problems with Mac OS 10.3.0? Did you expect less with 10.4.0? Yes, I bought it, but I installed it on a test system. It is going to take at least two more rev's before this is going to be ready for prime time. If you insist on being on the bleeding edge expect a few cuts! When it hits 10.4.3, and that version has been out awhile, then you might be safe to consider real adoption.

Waiting for a room for Podcast
I am waiting for a room before I can announce the time for the student blogging conversation. Please stay tuned!

Another day in paradise

Form, and profits, follows function

Yesterday a professor whom I really respect asked me how will (the people who do "x") make money in a world based on emerging technology (that threatens the way "x" is currently done?) I told him I didn't know and that we cannot know. The nature of emerging technologies is that they replace old paradigms with new paradigms. Evolution of these new paradigms start in the edge, in niche markets. This happens because the new technologies are, at the time they are emergent, not very functional. Because of the lack of functionality at the onset they are not threatening to the sustaining technologies of the time. Only after they find a role in a niche market, evolve and are able to add functionality and new and previously unpredictable capabilities, are they able to disrupt the existing paradigms. These types of technologies are also called Disruptive Technologies! That is the thesis of The Innovator's Dilemma, When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, By Clayton M. Christensen.

In my opinion this is key to understanding the evolution of these technologies. Because at the time of emergence the exact nature of their potential is not yet clear, neither can be the profit model. For example, how could you predict the profit model of the automobile industry in the 1890's when the automobile was the not very functional emergent technology and steam powered railroads were the sustaining efficient transportation paradigm?

Let's do a student podcast!

Calling all student bloggers, podcasters and other digitari!
I want to have a conversation with student bloggers and release that conversation as a podcast. The conversation will be on the topic of emerging technology in the classroom. I don't want to set too many parameters, let's see where the conversation takes us. We are working on getting a room and the date and time will be announced.

SJSU Emerging Technology Series: NEW - The evolution of the Web

Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web
The World Wide Web Consortium is also known as W3C, These are the folks who define and redefine what the Web is and how it functions. They are now working on changes to the Web that will add functionality and change the way the web works. In this paper, they describe the direction they are going, their vision is called the Semantic Web:

The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which integrates a variety of applications using XML for syntax and URIs for naming.

"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation." -- Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, Ora Lassila, The Semantic Web, Scientific American, May 2001

There is no doubt the Web is changing. The Web started out as an environment where documents were posted and people went to the Web just to read documents. All work was still done on local computers where we used local software to do work. Then came web applications like Amazon and Google where the applications reside on computers on the Web. We read and write to these computers and the web browser becomes the gateway but the Web provides the services. Emerging Technologies like blogging and podcasting have extended this metaphor and this evolved Web is often called Web 2.0. Dan Gillmor speaks about how the Web is changing and suggests that we may be going into the third incarnation of the Web. Increasingly the Web is becoming it's own environment and is becoming reborn into what some consider to be a global operating system with it's own set of rules, called Application Program Interfaces (API), for exchanging information between disparate systems to create new sets of data.

Looking at this evolving Web is what this new seminar will be all about. This is planned to be introduced with the running of the summer series of Emerging Technology sessions at the Center for Faculty Development and Support at SJSU.

Geek dinner in San Francisco great fun

Last night I went to a Geek Dinner pre meeting for the SuperNova conference in San Francisco. I had a great time and met some interesting people. Being exposed to this group is one of the greatest ways I have of learning about what emerging technologies we should be planning for at the university. It really helps me in what I do to help our faculty. That, in turn, helps improve the quality of education at our school.

Odeo, one of Fortune's top 25 breakout companies in 2005

This is really cool! I saw their demo at Etech and this is really hot stuff. I said then, "this is huge for education." I guess it is huge for more than education.

Is the Tablet PC is one of those sleeper ideas, like the Internet?

It took over twenty years for the Internet to gain traction, starting as ARPANET in 1969, it took the invention of the web, a good business model and over 20 years for it to approach the pervasive Internet we now see. In this post Dennis Dunleavy talks about the Tablet PC and his belief that they are something that we will be seeing more and more of in the classroom.  In the comments to the post Daniel Sato said, "Tablet pc's seem to have been around a couple of years...and yet no one has really made a strong push to market them. It would seem that the use of a stylus and a digitizing/graphics tablet would be perfectly suited for a student, allowing us to take notes as if writing on paper, and then translate this into text with accompanying audio."

I agree with both of them, just like the Internet it is taking awhile for this technology to gain traction. This is too bad as it could make a lot of great features available for our students, not to mention save their backs! Everything a student needs for his or her classes, and that is now now carried in their backpack can fit in a Tablet PC! I have a 500 page textbook in mine, plus One Note, plus all the functionality of a notebook computer. I use it for taking notes which I distill to PDF and post on my blogs. I can even post to my blog standing up. IMHO, this technology rocks!

Microsoft, and it's OEMs, could eat their competitors lunch if they would get with the program and market this. Tell me why Scoble, why can't I buy one in our bookstore yet? Why isn't somebody making this happen?

TrackBack is now on my blog

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. I wish that this feature was in Blogger. If it is in the paid version, it would be a feature I could see myself paying for. But, for now, I will use Haloscan.

Recommended Listening: South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive session on Podcasting

Accorrding to Doug Kaye, "a panel of early adopters define podcasting and discuss its future starting with the relationship between blogging and podcasting, and the equipment and effort involved in starting a podcast and keeping it going." If you want to hear a session that really explains what podcasting is and what the potential is for this medium, listen up. You can click right to the mp3 file!

Cat's Hill Crit Bike Race, 2005

Today's Cat's Hill Crit Bike Race was thrilling.  The weather stayed dry and the racing was intense. I think everybody had a good time watching the race. I know I did!

It was a great opportunity to use my digital SLR and have some fun with it. I used a strobe to stop action on this pan shot.

Details from podcasting session

Podcasting in Education, Thursday May 5

This is the presentation I have shown at the recent CATS conference in Sacramento and the Educause Western Regional Conference in San Francisco. A look at what this exciting new technology offers education. Come see how a Podcast is made! Thursday, May 5, 10am IRC210 for SJSU Faculty, Staff and Peer mentors. For session details you can contact Steve Sloan at 408.924.2374 or Email steve.sloan@sjsu.edu.

Session Files:

• Power Point
• Audio Files

SJSU Tech Events for May 9-13

Center for Faculty Development:

Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger Overview, Tuesday May 10
We have recently seen the Official Launch of Apple's new Operating System, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Come find out more and get a Free Lunch! 

The session will include an overview of the features in Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4). This new version of the operating system has over 200 new features. Some of the new features that will be covered include:

• Spotlight — powerful search tool built in to the OS
• Dashboard — quickly access little useful applications
• iChat A/V — now with the ability to audio conference with 10 users and video with 4
• Automator — which allows you to automate common tasks easily
• Safari RSS — receive RSS feeds with a summary of the news you want
• VoiceOver — access your Mac through speech, audible cues and keyboard navigation
• QuickTime 7 — the future of video is crystal clear

This Apple event is Noon, IRC 308 Tuesday May 10 by Dane Riley (Dane is providing lunch. RSVP to dane@apple.com)

Spartan Bookstore:

Spartan Shops Mac Theater (Featuring Dane Riley, Apple System Engineer)
Spartan Bookstore

Wednesday, May 11th

• 10am Tiger Overview
• 11am iPod and iTunes
• 12pm iLife
• 1pm Tiger
• 2pm OS X Tips and Tricks
  

Thursday, May 12th

•  10am Tiger
•  11am iPod and iTunes
•  2pm Tiger
•  3pm OS X Tips and Tricks

Adobe's new licensing scheme is an issue with CS2

Yesterday Adobe graciously hosted the most recent meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Adobe InDesign User Group. Before the meeting, to help the group, I went and got the Pizza and worked to make the event a success. At the meeting folks from Adobe showed the new version of Adobe InDesign in the Creative Suite, CS2. It is a great program with fantastic features for creative professionals.

However, unlike previous versions of Adobe products, this new version has a new limitation. It includes a digital rights management (DRM) scheme that allows you to install it on only two computers. When I voiced my concern to an Adobe rep he explained that their logic is that each user will be able to install the software on a desktop system and a laptop. I explained to the rep that I have three critical computers I use, one at work, one at home (for when I bring my work home) and a laptop. I only use the software on one of these computers at a time.

I trust Adobe and am loyal to them. I buy every new version they produce when it comes out. I don't distribute this software to anybody else. It is just too bad that despite my loyalty, integrity and respect for their intellectual property, that respect is not returned. It is too bad that Adobe does not trust me, or its other customers.

What do these good people have in common?

Internet Connections



Through my blog and related web sites these people, Laurence Grotheer and Jeanette Glicksman Grotheer, Elaine Whitebook and Kimberly Fracchia Lalli, all of whom are friends of mine, have made connections with old friends of theirs. Some of them have had multiple old friends who have found them just by doing an Internet search on their names.


That is one of the powers of the Internet, the ability to make unexpected connections with people whom you thought were gone from your life.


On a personal level, it is neat to know that I have been able to make a difference, in a totally unexpected way into my friend's lives. Because I have an interest in technology, and due to the conversational nature of the Internet (and the power of search engines) I have been able to make their lives better. I think that is kinda cool!

Events for people at SJSU

Here are some upcoming CFDS events of interest:

On Campus:

Podcasting in Education, Thursday May 5
This is the presentation I have shown at the recent CATS conference in Sacramento and the Educause Western Regional Conference in San Francisco. A look at what this exciting new technology offers education. Come see how a Podcast is made! Thursday, May 5, 10am IRC210 for SJSU Faculty, Staff and Peer mentors. Please call 4-2303, or E-mail cfd@sjsu.edu, to RSVP. For session details you can contact Steve Sloan at 42374 or Email steve.sloan@sjsu.edu.

Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger Overview, Tuesday May 10
We have recently seen the Official Launch of Apple's new Operating System, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Come find out more and get a Free Lunch! This Apple event is Noon, IRC 308 Tuesday May 10 by Dane Riley (Dane is providing lunch. RSVP to dane@apple.com)

Off Campus:

Free Adobe Desktop publishing event
Adobe InDesign CS2 at Adobe HQ near campus!, Wednesday May 4
The Bay Area InDesign User Group is dedicating its entire meeting, Wednesday, May 4th to the newly announced release of Adobe® InDesign® CS2. At this meeting the InDesign team introduces us to the new features of InDesign CS2. Be among the first ones to see the ins and outs of this amazing new version of Adobe InDesign. Date, Wednesday, May 4, 2005 Time: 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm, Adobe Systems, Inc., 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704. This is open to the public!
To Register:
http://www.indesignusergroup.com/sanfrancisco/index.php
For location info/maps:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pdfs/sjmap.pdf

New Edupodder Podcast: Tablet PC and other Portable Devices in Higher Education

(9.8 MB, 40.57 min.) This session an interview with SJSU MIS Professor Malu Roldan. Professor Roldan is with the faculty of the Management Information Systems Department at SJSU. She is also the Project Director for SJSU's Mobility project; a Hewlett Packard funded initiative that brings together interdisciplinary project teams to work on technology-enabled projects for community based organizations. She conducts research on engaged pedagogies and on the application of emerging technologies, such as Tablet PC and other mobile devices, in learning environments.