Learning from the creative industries – consistency to build trust — from infoq.com

In the June 2010 edition of Wired magazine Jonah Leher wrote an article titled “Animating a Blockbuster: Inside Pixar’s creative magic” in which he examines the creative process in use at Pixar Animation Studios. He states

“Since 1995 when the first Toy Story was released, Pixar has made nine films, and every one has been a smashing success. Pixar’s secret? It’s unusual creative process.”

According to Leher: “the studio has built a team of moviemakers who know and trust one another in ways unimaginable on most sets”

He points out how Pixar’s process requires deep trust among the team, and the ability to handle feedback on the quality of the work being done. Each day the team review the work done the previous day and “ruthlessly shred” each frame. This constant feedback cycle enables the team to continuously improve the quality of the work being done, and the product being developed. This process involves every member of the team, “even the most junior staffers are encouraged to join in”, the intent is to learn, adapt and improve in a short cycle time – something that should be very familiar to anyone who has worked in an Agile software development team.

This safe to fail environment is one of the key aspects that makes Pixar so successful. Leher quotes Lee Unkrich (director of Toy Story 3) who says “It is important that nobody gets mad at you for screwing up. We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That’s why our goal is to screw up as fast as possible”

Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 2: Creation, Design & Digital Optimism — from life-connected.com by Kim Gaskins

This is part 2 of the study results discussion. Part 1: “Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 1: Web in the Physical World.” Download a 3-page PDF summary of study results.

Children’s “Future Requests” for  Computers and the Internet
Study Lead: Jessica Reinis

What do children think computers should be doing? Children’s “Future Requests” for Computers and the Internet is the second installment of Latitude 42s: an Open Innovation Series, user- powered research studies which unite collective creativity and sophisticated quantitative analysis to generate Web-based solutions for the future.

Thai-Language.com


Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc (SIL) International is a faith-based nonprofit organization committed to serving language communities worldwide as they build capacity for sustainable language development. SIL has some linguistic software available for translators and linguistics that goes beyond simply learning a language. They are more like language analysis and language parsing. Check out http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/index.asp

Categories include:

  • Data Management
  • Font
  • Font Utility
  • Keyboard Utility
  • Other
  • Parser
  • Programming Language
  • Text Analysis
  • Text Utility

For German, see:
dict.leo.org


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The Rise of the Cloud (graphic)

pogoplug -- creating your own version of cloud computing for $129

The Pogoplug connects your USB drive to the Internet
so you can easily share and access your files from anywhere.

“Putterman, 43, began to wonder: Why hasn’t anyone created a gizmo that plugs into your personal hard drive and connects it to the Internet, allowing you to access your files directly, from your own hard drive, anywhere? You’d have no service fees or upload quotas.  A password system could grant chosen friends and colleagues access to your data, too.”

From:
Your own personal $129 cloud — from CNNMoney.com

pogoplug.top.jpg
Pogoplug founder Daniel Putterman

10 Internet of Things Blogs To Keep An Eye On — from ReadWriteWeb [via Steve Knode]

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iPhone Apps - the hottest course on campus

Articles/resources re: computer technology — from PCBargainHunters.com

For those interested in Computer Science, there is a nice list of resources at:
http://www.pcbargainhunter.com/articles/computer-science-topics.html

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http://www.tuvie.com/holo-2-0-future-wearable-computer-for-2015/

  

http://www.tuvie.com/holo-2-0-future-wearable-computer-for-2015/

  

http://www.tuvie.com/holo-2-0-future-wearable-computer-for-2015/

Apple sells out developer conference in eight days — from CNET

From DSC:
If you are in computer science, this should tell you something about where you want to spend some time.

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From DSC:
A trusted and wise colleague and I agreed many years ago (~2003 or so) that we had seen the peak of Microsoft. This morning, I was reminded of those reflections and conversations when I saw today’s article by Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO salesforce.com:

The end of Microsoft. A door opens to a new cloud.
As apps migrate to the Net, the software giant’s old model looks older every day.

Though I doubt we’ll see Microsoft going away entirely any time soon:

If you are in computer science:
You need to be paying attention to cloud-based computing and begin moving in that direction in terms of your investments in time/efforts.

If you are in business/economics:
Learn the lesson from what happens when you do business like Microsoft did (i.e. dealing ruthlessly and often times unfairly with competitors, while not listening to your customers and those within the standards-setting-bodies of the world). When you make your bed like that, you will lie in a bed like that. Microsoft will have a hard time adjusting to a world based upon creativity, innovation, collaboration, standards, respect for others, working in a platform that they can’t control, and will struggle to keep up with those organizations who are able to move at the speed of trust (Covey). Maybe this same writing was on the wall when Bill Gates made his decision to leave Microsoft years ago.

Looking for Jobs?: Look to IT — from ITIF.org by Robert D. Atkinson and and Scott M. Andes

In this WebMemo ITIF finds there has been impressive domestic growth of high-skill, high-wage IT jobs over the past ten years. ITIF’s analysis shows there were 688,000 new IT jobs created from 1999-2008, an increase of 26 percent – four times faster than U.S. employment as a whole. The addition of thousands of high-end jobs in the areas of network design and administration as well as data communications analysis and engineering more than offset lower level programming jobs that have moved to other countries. Because of this job growth, U.S. GDP is over $52 billion larger in 2008 than in 1999. The memo reinforces the need to maintain investment in this area. The advent and expansion of new IT systems such as health IT and smart grids, the continued expansion of broadband, and the growth of e-commerce and e-government, show the importance of IT jobs to the U.S. economy going forward.

More encouraging, IT jobs are predicted to grow even further in the next decade. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook…

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Geoffrey Moore: April 2010 Presentation – Core, Content, and the Cloud — my thanks to Mr. Rick DeVries, Calvin College IT Dept. for this resource

PresentationExcerpt of slides

Geoffrey Moore -- April 2010 Presentation

Geoffrey Moore's Agenda

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