Monday, June 1st, 2009

Letter to a Parent

Not directed at anyone in particular…
Dear Parent,
You are, first of all, the type of caring parent every child needs and deserves. You want what is best for your son or daughter’s healthy growth and bright and happy future. You wish to protect them from as much of the harmful, ugly badness that permeates so much [...]

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

Enemies to Productivity?

I just finished watching a thought-provoking presentation by Iqbal Quadir. Iqbal asserts that technology, particularly those technologies that have facilitated communication, have been critical to the growth and success of democratic societies and the economic welfare of their citizens. He states,
“If citizens can network and make themselves more organized and productive, so that their voices [...]

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Time to Rethink Blocking IM?

The New York Times has an article today describing a research study conducted jointly by Ohio State University and the University of California. The study examined the use of instant messaging and produced some interesting observations, particularly with regards to the time element. In summary, the study determined that IM actually encouraged users to be [...]

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Banning Sure Is Easy

I was reading an article about yet another school district banning yet another social technology this morning, as Hattiesburg has protected its citizens by banning student-teacher communication via text messaging or social networks. No need to bother wasting precious testing-time crafting creative applications of such tools in order to take advantage of their popularity in [...]