Blurts

I would be cool if Clay Shirky (Here comes everybody) and Tim Wu (Master Switch) debated the future of the Internet. I read them to have nearly opposite positions. More and more I am siding with Wu – big corporations are taking over and we seem to be moving toward a provider/consumer model. At best, personal production will be moderated through a big company. Wu seems to suggest that this is the natural way of things and I suppose that unless the government steps in to speak for “everybody” this is the way it works.

Makers show up in strange places. A colleague of mine, a psychologist, purchased a 3d printer to aid in his research. I watched the unboxing this afternoon. Joe is interested in the cognitive capabilities of individuals with serious vision issues. Think intelligence testing for the blind. He creates objects that can be arranged according to patterns – think Raven’s Progressive Matrices, but with objects. You cannot purchase objects to fit this approach, you have to make them. A makerbot is perfectly suited to such “one of” fabrication tasks. 

Just spent some time checking out insurance options for retirement so my context for interpreting the Chrome announcement was a little different. I get it now. Not certain I understand what this means. It seems to me that hardware is becoming less and less important so why the need to project an end to usefulness?

Simply put – students really want to include music in their digital projects. Often, the familiar and trending would be the preference, but this approach ignores copyright. Music made available for student use is available and encourages thought focused on the mood students intend to create.