I’ve been in publishing a long time, and I’ve generally been a fan of copyright restrictions. Those encyclopedia or history books? A lot of hard work goes into making those facts accurate, accessible and compelling. But a couple of recent(ish) happenings are giving me cause to rethink how we are applying copyright laws. “Ambulance chasing” … Read more What is Copyright Protecting?
Apparently, it is all about the intention. Re-Mission is a video game for young people battling cancer. The teen “becomes” Roxxi the nanobot, whose mission is to destroy cancer cells and prevent the spread of cancer. Developed by HopeLab, with support from a boatload of impressive organizations, Re-Mission is designed to be a fun, engaging … Read more Intention
Can Inspire make high school chemistry comprehensible? A cool new “intelligent” textbook uses AI to make dense topics more accessible. IA beats AI. Thoughtful TED Talk by Shyam Sankar on human-computer symbiosis. Inside the Haiti Earthquake. A simulation that lets students experience the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and make strategic decisions about how to … Read more Stuff Worth Checking Out
Linda Holliday, founder and CEO of Semi-Linear, has “New media habits with old media tastes.” I have a similar problem, which I usually refer to as “so many books, so little time.” Semi-Linear has released a new product – Citia – that deconstructs major non-fiction works and lets readers (users) peruse the major themes, digging … Read more What’s the Point?
Your favorite author’s new masterpiece in beta? Hiptype provides some really interesting analytics on e-books (sorry, not print). What chapters do users read? Where do you lose them? How many buy the book after reading the sample? Collecting both demographic info and reading habits in a small app, Hiptype supports “data-driven publishing.” Aside from the … Read more Moby Dick in Beta?
Forbes’ Ken Krogue writes a good article on the changes (demise?) of SEO in The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content. There are many important points in the article, and I highly recommend reading all of it, but the point I want to focus on is this: The bottom line … Read more The Checkerboard Hat
The potential of MOOCs is (potentially) amazing. Massive Open Online Courses, where hundreds of thousands of students take a single class, make many delirious with hope for the spread of knowledge, unlimited by tuition costs, geographical distance, and suspect merit selectivity. I’m interested, too. I’ve taken a couple of classes and marveled at many more. … Read more Can MOOCs Make the World Smarter?
The 2012 Olympics start in 32 days, and recent TV programming was lousy with Olympic trials. (Including this amazing tie for third place in the women’s 100 meters.) And while the athletes (and advertisers) are preparing, teachers are also preparing to use the Olympics to engage students. Project Britain has developed some teaching resources — … Read more Olympic Teaching
Guidelines for creating good infographics are not hard to find. The guidelines generally cover some configuration of the following: Determine the goal of the infographic — what you want to communicate Analyze relevant data and determine which data sets are most important Design thoughtfully And the graphical representation of data is often wonderful. It can … Read more The Persistence of Bad Infographics
Play a game, get a job. Knack, a start-up, has released Happy Hour, a game designed to test the cognitive skills employers might want, including emotional intelligence, comfort with risk, and flexibility. Playing the short game can give employers as much info about you as extensive interviewing. (Just try convincing the HR people, though.) Turns … Read more Happy Hour as the Path to a New Job