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| Current Topic: High Tech Developments |
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Concept Mapping Goes Global |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
1:46 pm EDT, Jun 2, 2005 |
"We need to move education from a memorizing system and repetitive system to a dynamic system." "It helps you reflect on what you've learned so that you can go into it deeper." "If you organize it as a concept map, then you have to understand the topic. We want kids to become knowledge constructors instead of just information consumers." Concept Mapping Goes Global |
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Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren Build a Cone of Silence |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
6:54 am EDT, May 31, 2005 |
The cone of silence, called Babble, is actually a device composed of a sound processor and several speakers that multiply and scramble voices that come within its range. About the size of a clock radio, the first model is designed for a person using a phone, but other models will work in open office space. Babble, which is intended to function as a substitute for walls and acoustic tiling, is an example of a new class of product that uses computing technology to shape sound. The system will be introduced in June by Sonare Technologies, a new subsidiary of Herman Miller, the maker of the Aeron chair, as part of an effort to move beyond office furniture. The company hopes that some of its designs will lead to spinoff companies that will be profitable for the investors. One of the prototypes closest to becoming a candidate for a spinoff is a novel tabletop digital map, about the size of a large flat panel television. The system has a touch-sensitive screen, making it possible to handle high-resolution digital imagery as easily as sliding a paper map across a table. The system is controlled by a series of hand gestures. For example, to zoom on a region, a user touches both hands to the screen and slides them apart. "People came up afterwards and said they were moved to tears by the demonstration," Mr. Hillis said. Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren Build a Cone of Silence |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
2:28 pm EDT, May 30, 2005 |
An ambitious plan by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab to develop and distribute a laptop computer costing no more than $100 is expected to take a major step forward next month with the receipt of the first order.
China is expected to order 3 million machines and Brazil is expected to buy 1 million of the laptops. He's looking for three more nations--one each in Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia--to commit to laptops orders, in addition to supplying some to the U.S., before the machine goes into production, hopefully sometime in 2006. "The rest of the cost [beyond $100] is there to support an absolutely obese, overweight, and unreliable operating system. If you get rid of that and start with a thin, tiny operating system you can do an awful lot," Negroponte says. $100 Laptop |
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Technologies of Cooperation [PDF] |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
3:36 am EDT, May 30, 2005 |
If MemeStreams is a Social Accounting tool, who will become the Arthur Andersen of culture jamming? Emerging digital technologies present new opportunities for developing complex cooperative strategies that change the way people work together to solve problems and generate wealth. Central to this class of cooperation-amplifying technologies are eight key clusters, each with distinctive contributions to cooperative strategy: Self-organizing mesh networks
Community computing grids
Peer production networks
Social mobile computing
Group-forming networks
Social software
Social accounting tools
Knowledge collectives Each of these technology clusters can be viewed not only as a template for design of cooperative systems, but also as tools people can use to tune organizations, projects, processes, and markets for increased cooperation. Specifically, each can be used in distinctive ways to alter the key dimensions of cooperative systems -- structure, rules, resources, thresholds, feedback, memory, and identity. Technologies of Cooperation [PDF] |
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The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
2:10 am EDT, May 30, 2005 |
Personal memory assistants, always on life recorders, reputation networks and so on -- the pieces of the participatory panopticon -- will thrust us into a world that is both painful and seductive. It will be a world of knowing that someone may always be recording your actions. It will be a world where official misbehavior will be ever more difficult to hide. It will be a world where your relationships are tested by relentless honesty. It will be a world where you will never worry about forgetting a name, or a number, or a face. It will be a world in which it is difficult or even impossible to hide. It will be a world where youll never again lose a fleeting moment of unexpected beauty. The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
5:22 am EDT, May 29, 2005 |
It's a transformation as significant as when we went from black-and-white to colorand it's already underway. The promise is that you'll be able to watch anything you want, anywhereon a huge high-def screen or on your phone. Television Reloaded |
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Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
5:02 am EDT, May 29, 2005 |
Bill Joy, Nicholas Negroponte, and more! Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT showcases the technologies that are poised to make a dramatic impact on our world. Now in its 5th year, this unique two-day event brings together world-renowned innovators and leaders in technology and business for keynote, panel and breakout discussions that center on the transformative technological innovations certain to better our lives, create opportunities and fuel economic growth. The event will also celebrate Technology Review's top 35 Innovators Under 35 and award the 2005 Innovator of the Year. Did you know that Bill Joy joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers? Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT |
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Airport Screeners Could Get X-Rated X-Ray Views |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
9:37 am EDT, May 24, 2005 |
Get ready for electronic portals known as backscatters, expected to be tested at a handful of airports this year, that use X-ray imaging technology to allow a screener to scan a body. And yes, the body image is detailed. Let's not be coy here, ladies and gentlemen: "Well, you'll see basically everything." The technology is available, he said. "It's a question of the decision to deploy it and to try to balance that with legitimate privacy concerns." Airport Screeners Could Get X-Rated X-Ray Views |
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'Social Defense Mechanisms', Or, How To Build Your Own Cell Phone Jammer [PDF] |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
9:16 am EDT, May 24, 2005 |
In contemporary Western society, electronic devices are becoming so prevalent that many people find themselves surrounded by technologies they find frustrating or annoying. The electronics industry has little incentive to address this complaint; I designed two counter-technologies to help people defend their personal space from unwanted electronic intrusion. Both devices were designed and prototyped with reference to the culture-jamming "Design Noir" philosophy. The first is a pair of glasses that darken whenever a television is in view. The second is low-power RF jammer capable of preventing cell phones or similarly intrusive wireless devices from operating within a users personal space. By building functional prototypes that reflect equal consideration of technical and social issues, I identify three attributes of Noir products: Personal empowerment, participation in a critical discourse, and subversion. 'Social Defense Mechanisms', Or, How To Build Your Own Cell Phone Jammer [PDF] |
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| Topic: High Tech Developments |
9:13 am EDT, May 24, 2005 |
She got the idea when a friend with whom she was eating dinner broke off their conversation to answer her cellphone. She got mad. Then she got even, in the way a graduate student at the MIT Media Laboratory, very well might. She built a gadget. Widespread interest in jammers suggests an unslaked need that legal and technical refinements may one day allow legitimate companies to satisfy. Zone of Silence |
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