Last Sunday, Jeffrey Young wrote about the use of the Internet to deliver lectures in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article centered on the work of Salman Khan, who posts home-made lectures on YouTube: The lo-fi videos seem to work for students, many of whom have written glowing testimonials or even donated a few [...]

Professional futurists continue to make outstanding contributions toward the development of understandings of the future, but is futures thought limited to this select group? Definitely not! With a do-it-yourself attitude, and leverage of the right resources, anybody can become an effective futurist. Here’s why: Nobody knows the future – don’t trust anybody who says otherwise. [...]

Last month, IBM took out a two-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that touted their vision for a smarter planet. They believe: The world continues to get “smaller” and “flatter.” But we see now that being connected isn’t enough. Fortunately, something else is happening that holds new potential: the planet is becoming smarter. That is, [...]

On her blog, Elena Benito-Ruiz shares a draft chapter on “‘Infoxication 2.0′ as one of the main downsides to Web 2.0 and its educational application.”  Infoxication is a state of intoxication of the mind, caused by an overload of information. Although centered around technology, this is thought to contribute to a decline in intellectual performance. [...]

Gustavo Andrade at UNAM in Mexico City just posted a video from a conference I participated in last April. He writes: 3G technology allows us to build an innovative vision of education. Education anywhere and at anytime, with a device that can be your own cell phone. John Moravec at the University of Minnesota explains [...]

Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, is pressing for a television piece based on his book and, “how youth culture drives innovation and is changing the way the world works. It offers understanding and insight for a time when piracy is just another business model, the remix is our most powerful marketing tool and [...]

The European Patent Office engaged in a two-year futuring project on futures for intellectual property rights in 2025, interviewing 50 key players – including critics – from the fields of science, business, politics, ethics, economics and law. Their opinions were sought opinions on how intellectual property and patenting might evolve over the next fifteen to [...]

[Cross-posted from e-rgonomic] Passport of skills for a knowledge worker: Not restricted to a specific age. Highly engaged, creative, innovative, collaborative and motivated. Uses information and develops knowledge in changing workplaces (not tied to an office). Inventive, intuitive, and able to know things and produce ideas. Capable of creating socially constructed meaning and contextually reinvent [...]

Charles Leadbeater, Debbie Powell and Tim Cowie assembled a short video based on Leadbeater’s We-think book, which “explores how the web is changing our world, creating a culture in which more people than ever can participate, share and collaborate, ideas and information.” (Thanks to Cristóbal Cobo for the link.)

IDC has updated their forecast of expansion the digital universe to accommodate bigger and faster growth. Some highlights: The digital universe in 2007 — at 2.25 x 1021 bits (281 exabytes or 281 billion gigabytes) — was 10% bigger than we thought. The resizing comes as a result of faster growth in cameras, digital TV [...]