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Joel Orr
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Joel Orr |
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4/15/2006 |
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Joel thinks about and comments on all kinds of stuff |
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SuperNova 2008 |
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By Joel Orr on
6/17/2008
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I'm at SuperNova 2008, in San Francisco. Here are some of the session topics:
The Theory and Practice of Networks • Does Telecom Have
a Future? • Networked Business Models • Whose Social Graph? • The
Internet is People: What We Know, and What it Means • Cyberspace
Constitutional Moments • The Meaning of Openness • All the World’s a
Game: What the Web can Learn from Virtual Worlds • Liquid Conversations
and Distributed Content • Going Green: Toward a More Sustainable
Technology Industry • Who is Driving Marketing Innovation? •
Monetization for Today’s Internet… and Tomorrow’s • Wireless Disruption
• Privacy and Security in the Network Age • Does the Media Get the
Message?
"The shift to network-based computing, services, business processes,
marketing, entertainment, social relationships, connectivity, and
culture will challenge our assumptions about how the ...
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The Ninth COFES is over, and I am thrilled, drained, energized - and have no clue as to what it all means! Help me! |
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By Joel Orr on
4/22/2008
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Life goes by so fast! COFES 2008 was, well, outstanding - even more the prior ones, each of which outdid the ones before. But so much keeps going on! There is hardly time for thought, let alone reflection; stuff keeps happening too quickly for me to make sense of.
We're doing a much better job of posting stuff quickly; explore this site, and you will find recordings, videos, and some comments on what went on at COFES, with more to come - hopefully, before it's all old hat...
What do we do about this phenomenon that signal processing geeks call 'aliasing' - the challenges of representing a high-frequency set of events in a low-frequency medium. Stuff is pouring in as I sit here, and there is no way I can assimilate it all, let alone its implications. I can't even begin to assimilate the ruminations of gurus who are quick to analyze and summarize - and I certainly don't have time to think about how good those analyses are...I know I'm preaching to the converted here. You ha ...
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At the CMU West "Mobile Future" conference in Santa Clara, CA |
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By Joel Orr on
4/20/2008
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I'm sitting in this wonderful conference, full of ideas from all the many powerful presentations I've experienced so far, and the people I've met - and I find myself actually distressed that the slides and more are not already online -- nor is there any indication that they will be! What does that say about us leading-edge scouts? Here's some text from the event site:
In a not-too-distant future, the computing platform of choice for a significant number of consumers will be a hand-held device. Signs of this trend are already apparent in Asia and Scandinavia, and all indicators suggest that this evolution transforms the lives and work of individuals in ways that are both chaotic and enriching. Given the diversity of global communications mechanisms, how can network operators, software vendors, and handset providers accelerate this evolution? The Mobile Future brings together experts from industry and the research community to share and di ...
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Under-$10k 3D printer announced by 3D Systems |
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By Joel Orr on
4/3/2008
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3D Systems, the company that coined "stereolithography," has just announced a printer for less than $10,000.
When the Apple Laserwriter came out in 1985, it cost $7,000 - and opened the era of "desktop publishing." Of course it's not the same thing, but perhaps there are some interesting parallels for us to think about.
At the very least, it will be something of a test of the assumptions of those like Dassault CEO Bernard Charles, who believe that 3D is a universal communication language. Simple CAD puts 3D modeling within reach of all; now this printer puts 3D "hard copy" within reach of many. I'm curious to see what will happen!
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World 2.0 |
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By Joel Orr on
3/25/2008
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On Dave Gurteen's knowledge management blog, a fascinating take on the "2.0" meme:
I
recently spent the whole of January in SE Asia; giving talks and
running knowledge cafes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. As
always I learnt as much as a I taught at these events.
Most of us
understand what Web 2.0 is all about as we move from a read-only web to
a read-write or participatory web.
And we are starting to come
to grips with so called Enterprise 2.0 where the concept and
technologies and social tools of Web 2.0 are moving from the open web
into organizations.It is still early days and there are many issues to
be grappled with as we try to balance the structure and stability of
the old world with the more fluid and complex nature of the new.
But
the "2.0 meme" is starting to affect everything. In a talk in Kuala
Lumpur I was asked how you implement Enterprise 2.0 and I was talking
about so ...
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Global warming? Maybe. But we should still work on alternatives to fossil fuels. |
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By Joel Orr on
3/21/2008
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Amazing how even the most scientifically-minded become advocates of causes whose scientific basis still holds many open questions. There are systemic reasons for this, and they are not new, and I am very far from the first to point this out. I'm reading an anthology of editorials from Analog (formerly Astounding) Science Fiction magazine, written in the forties, fifties, and sixties, by John W. Campbell. He has much to say about the institutional need to quash alternatives--in medicine, very notably, but also in all sciences.
The referenced article below points out that there is a lot of emotion behind climate issues today--but that the implications of the questionable conclusions hold regardless. This is from the American Society for Engineering Educators.
Canadian editorial criticizes climate "hysterics."
In a
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Autodesk World Press Days |
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By Joel Orr on
2/15/2008
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Autodesk held its World Press Days in San Francisco earlier this week. The bottom line: Autodesk is focusing on helping customers integrate all the product lines where it makes sense. The use of REVIT for facilities, integrated with the use of Inventor for the machines that get placed in the facilities, along with Civil 3D for the site - you get the idea.
Running throughout the presentations was the thread of sustainability. Green designs were featured, and environmental impact considered in each case study.
CEO Carl Bass kicked off the event, and was accessible throughout. There is the clear sense that the company is blossoming with an engineer at the helm.
Autodesk's digital prototyping message was prominent, and several speakers went into some depth to explain that this approach to the automation of design is well-thought-out, and is sound both philosophically and organizationally.
The firm now has a Plant divisi ...
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It's never too late to have a happy childhood |
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By Joel Orr on
1/27/2008
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That's a phrase I heard in the framework of the Hoffman Process - a
methodology for finding out things that are keeping you from being who
you really are, and taking action to get them out of the way. But that's
not with this post is about.
I
read recently - it may have been in an ASEE (American Society of
Engineering Educators) mailing - that most people have determined
whether they will pursue a career in engineering or science by the end
of the 8th grade. And the decision hinges on how they feel about math.
I've
also read recently that the number of young people choosing
engineering, science, and technology professions in the US is declining.
The
ability to do math is a filter for getting into good engineering and
science schools. On the surface, that seems reasonable: Math is the
language of precision, and its abstractive tools provide access to the
reasoning of the ages, as well as the ability to carry it o ...
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