The+Idea+Page

What are you thinking today? List ideas, topics, problems or potential solutions. Any format will work.

I stumbled across this video on [|Scott Mcleod's] Blog [|Dangerously Irrelevant]. I think it provides a little insight to what we are trying to accomplish with our Idea Page and maybe it would generate additional ideas for our collaborative project. If students could use the tools he describes in a similar way, we might be on to something.

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Social Computing is a term that relates to all social platform activities. Interaction around information in open spaces online. Two of the most popular subsets are:
 * Social Networking - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc
 * Social Media - YouTube, Blip, Reverb Nation, Vimeo etc

IBM's Social Computing Guidelines: http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html - an interesting read, and brief. How does a company allow 400,000 people to socialize freely on the internet without worrying about company trade secrets getting out or people 'misbehaving'?

Email vs Facebook/Twitter
 * Email - Where ideas go to die (see Luis Suarez blog for some insight on living without email): http://www.elsua.net/
 * Facebook - Powerful due to the control held by the consumer and manager of relationships and information - you. Private too, when configured correctly.
 * Twitter - Wide open and vast. Simple and effective.
 * LinkedIn - Growing again in effectiveness for businesses unafraid of the 'job market' stigma attached. Over 450,000 current and former IBMers listed.

What does it mean to collaborate? To evolve, to grow, to learn, to experiment, to share with confidence, to LISTEN with a keen sense of humility. To never be intimidated by anyone - especially some random guy from IBM who has invaded your wiki - because good ideas come best and brightest when dialogue flows.

Zach's answer: I don't think that I could even add to what George said....very great answer! But I do want to point out that Wikipedia for example is a collaborative wiki, and is now proven to be more accurate than Britannica. It just shows that we really do grow if we are willing to put information out there for criticism and review.

What do you think are the hallmarks of a good social (YouTube) video?

George's answer: Our team has zeroed in on a few strategies we like a lot right now. The main principle is to have real people speaking as naturally as possible. No script, no narration, hopefully some real stories infused, some sense of who the person is that is speaking - a touch of personality. We like to show or somehow deliver a sense of geographic / gender and cultural diversity, and have the productions look and sound as best possible based on given budget. Normally, we go in with the best premise we can conceive, with a sharp focus on one simple story that can be examined in under 5 minutes. Simple concept/story that has some depth. We like to try to focus on displaying progress... future-forward thinking delivered by intelligent people who can speak about developing innovations and concepts in plain English so anyone can understand it. One of our key hallmarks is capturing as much content as we can and then creating our final product based more on what has been captured than assuming we have our story before we do our interviews. The interviews often re-shape our initial premise and direct our editing and final product. If we work too hard at directing toward something, it backfires and loses the natural warmth we seek to achieve.

Ryan's answer: George, I agree 5 minutes or less is important. I would also add from my personal experiences that the video must either be entertaining or thought provoking. I will watch when I am engaged. Entertain me or challenge me.

Who is using technology around you? For you? By you? Would you?

What daily data do you depend on to be effective and efficient?

What would a smarter planet look like in rural Ohio?

World population... Why we need a smarter planet. World population from 1800 to 2100, based on UN 2004 projections and US Census Bureau historical estimates. | Source=own work | Date=19 September 2008 | Author=Loren Cobb



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Some IBM project links - just some food for thought on approach to media production techniques and some 'different' IBM undertakings:

IBM Interactive History: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/interactive/index.html Recent podcasts (my favorite is the traffic one): http://www.reverbnation.com/asmarterplanet Recent videos: DNA Transistor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKi30ai35mU Mad Science part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_rr-uMlBU0 World Community Grid: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ World Community Grid article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/145/look-whos-curing-cancer.html Corporate Service Corps: https://www-146.ibm.com/corporateservicecorps/ SMS For Life: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29022.wss Stockholm traffic solution: http://www.ibm.com/podcasts/howitworks/040207/index.shtml