Friday, August 27, 2010
Rosling’s World – a documentary about Hans Rosling
About the Documentary
A 55-minute documentary about Hans Rosling’s life & thoughts. Hans Rosling is a professor in international health. His presentations on global development evokes laughter, rejoice and reflections. He wants everyone to question their prejudices about the world – as he himself has needed to do. A documentary by Pär Fjällström, SVT.
(With subtitles in English)
Free statistics for democracy
From a talk by Hans Rosling at the Prince Mahidol Award conferance 2010. Produced by health metric network.
HansRosling
Gapminder Desktop is a new application which allows you to use Gapminder World without an Internet connection available. You can:
Use Gapminder World without the Internet.
Save a list of your own favorite graphs.
Update automatically to the latest version.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Huckabee - Sir Ken Robinson, Author of The Element (01-31-2009)
Sir Ken Robinson discusses his book on finding your passion. Mentions Paul McCartney & George Harrison
Sir Ken Robinson on Q TV
One of the foremost experts in creativity Sir Ken Robinson sat down in Studio Q to talk about his new book 'The Element'.
Sir Ken Robinson, Hammer Lectures
Watch the Q&A begining at 56'30"................................
Ken Robinson has written numerous books, most recently "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything." This talk explores ways to connect peoples' natural aptitudes with their personal passions to achieve at their highest levels in education and business. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for his outstanding achievements in education and the arts.
Learn more about the Hammer Museum at UCLA and Hammer Lectures at www.hammer.ucla.edu.
The New Games People Play: How Game Mechanics Have Changed In The Age Of Social
The New Games People Play: How Game Mechanics Have Changed In The Age Of Social
by Alexia Tsotsis on Aug 1, 2010
The crux behind game mechanics is the feeling that you’ve accomplished something; “Whether you’re clicking on a plot of land or a musical note, that is an accomplishment” says Social Gaming Network’s Shervin Pishevar. Social gaming gives you the opportunity to share these goals with your social graph so that many people see them, as well as the chance to work on these accomplishments collaboratively.
At Friday’s Social Currency CrunchUp, leaders from the Social Gaming space including Pishevar, Disney Mobile SVP Bart Decrem, Stanford School of Business Professor Jennifer Acker and SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch sat down together in order to discuss gaming’s latest incarnation.
What elements are needed for addictive games?
Pavlovian mechanics are crucial. It’s important as a user to feel like the time that you spent came up with a result, social elements like being able to see how you did with other people, and being able to play with other people play into this. Integration with music also creates an emotional linkage, one thing responsible for Tapulous’ success was the functionality to apply multiple songs from artists like Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga.
Decrem elaborates, “There’s an actual science around how to engage and monetize users, the Farmville harvest mechanic, for example. On mobile, its ‘the x factor’ does the game have magic?” What we’re now seeing is what happens when the science of game mechanics in social games is combined with the quirkiness of what you see on the iPhone platform.
According to Seth Priebatsch, new employees at SCVNGR memorize a deck of 50 game dynamics like the progression dynamic, or earning points to make progress. They then can incorporate those elements into a game, “Humans love progress bars, if you see a progress bar, you want to complete it.”
How will games increasingly square with the real world?
Currently all the value creation happens mostly on Facebook, but that will soon change. The panelists all agreed that this recent integration of social and mobile is beginning of a new computing platform, mainly due to the capabilities introduced by the iOS. Killer apps on this new platform will need to incorporate both a social element and an entertainment element in order to survive.
According to Pishevar, SGN is “Working on things where you’re placing your phone in the real world and seeing 3D characters walking down the street, games where you have a garden in your actual physical yard that you’re actually tending to and it’s growing and you can see it on the iPhone.“
Decrem elaborates “There’s no difference to me between playing Tapulous on the iPhone and using my Starbucks card in the morning, wanting to get 15 stars so I can get a free coffee … “
Real life rewards for online behavior are a force to be reckoned with, and will increasingly become more prevalent as developers continue to experience success with them. Yelp for example, saw their usage skyrocket when they incorporated the Check-in element. “You’re checking in with a physical card instead of a mobile. We haven’t invented anything new.”
Says Priebatsch “We are bringing one very new thing to the game framework, the open graph API. Social traffics in connections, games traffic in influence. By applying that to the real world, we are building a platform that traffics in motivations and rewards.”
In what new ways can these game mechanics can be applied in the future?
“We’re really in the first or second inning on the mobile side,” says Pishevar, “The level of creativity and fun that’s coming is incredible.”
Should businesses rush to apply social mechanics? “It’s just natural evolution,” says DeCrem. Businesses developing a product should ask themselves, How about if you can connect with your friends? How about if we make it fun?
Piveshar’s one criticism is that the gaming industry could do so much more. “Because of the social graph many have cut corners of quality in order to monetize; We’ve got hypergrowth. Lots of millions have been created and its time to give something back.”
Acker brought up the idea of games that cure cancer as one way social gaming can actually benefit society, referring to HopeLab’sRe-Mission and Zamzee, “It doesn’t matter how many brochures you show a kid, he’s not going to want to [go to chemo]. But when you build an avatar called Roxy, have her shooting the cancer cells, and then when she feels feel weak you go get her a chemo tap … It’s incredibly powerful.”
Elements of gaming engender powerful emotions; Chemotherapy can become a positive thing and cancer becomes something you can beat. And that’s pretty formidable.
毀掉好創意的十句話
3分鐘，看清腦力激盪的陷阱。
Brainstorming 腦力激盪是辦公室內尋找創意時常常聽到的詞；你可知道它跟Office Lady一樣走進歷史了嗎？
思考權威愛德華．狄．波諾（Edward de Bono）提出了什麼新詞呢？
From NTT’s Showroom In Tokyo: Futuristic Remote Collaboration Apparatus “t-Room”
Here’s the fourth (and final) demo I witnessed at NTT‘s showroom “Note” [JP] in Tokyo: a futuristic apparatus for remote collaboration and education called “t-Room” [PDF]. While NTT’s Home ICT system, the telemedicine technology, and the digital signage system (now with one more video) were quite impressive, the t-Room certainly boasts the biggest wow factor.
The t-Room is essentially a room that consists of multiple video screens and that’s connected to other t-Rooms to share audio and video content remotely (over NTT’s next-generation network).
The showroom has two t-Rooms to demonstrate how two or more people can interact with each other over shared video screens. Users see themselves (plus real or virtual objects) and the persons in the other t-room(s) at life-size and in real-time (it’s also possible to program a time lag).
The technology can be used for entertainment, remote education and collaboration, video conferencing, and other applications. Needless to say, all sessions can be recorded for later reference.
The main difference between the t-Room and conventional video conferencing systems is that the t-room “overlaps” screens, removing (in a way) spatial barriers that separate users who are located far away from each other. And it’s much cooler, too (see the video below).
只要認真做，就會有影響
當圖畫刊登到國語日報之後，對小朋友的影響會是什麼？
若能重返童年，認真度過每一刻
創意絕對不是無中生有，而是醞釀於大量的閱讀後。
創意雖沒有標準答案，某種程度而言，會是模模糊糊的對。
如何解讀別人的心思Rebecca Saxe
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
TechCrunch NOW July 23, 2010: The Mystery Of India's $35 Tablet
TechCrunch NOW July 23, 2010: The Mystery Of India's $35 Tablet
Devin Coldewey on India's $35 tablet and the hurdles to market.
Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur: An Investment Oasis In The Middle East
Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur: An Investment Oasis In The Middle East
Usama Fayyad on his new fund and the need for investment capital in the Middle East.
Yahoo’s Former Chief Data Officer On Their $800 Million Mistake (TCTV)
Posted: 25 Aug 2010 01:54 AM PDT
Dr. Usama Fayyad has worn several hats at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Microsoft, his startups DigiMine and DMX, and of course, at Yahoo where he was their Chief Data Officer for four years.
It’s a rich resume with one unifying theme: data. Few people have spent as much time as Fayyad ruminating on this one subject. From finding volcanoes on Venus to creating better algorithms for ad targeting, Fayyad has made a career on crunching massive data sets and creating elegant algorithms to make sense of white noise. It’s somewhat ironic then, that for a man who lives in data, there is actually very little known about what makes Fayyad tick as an entrepreneur and how he shaped the companies he worked for.
In a rare video interview, SGN founder, Shervin Pishevar, recently spoke to Usama Fayyad in Jordan for TechCrunch TV. During this entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur fireside chat, Fayyad opens up about his obsession for data, how he sold his company to Yahoo (after the 6th offer), how Yahoo made an $800 million mistake (that may have triggered the giant’s ugly tumble) and how he almost became the CTO of Google.
While there are golden nuggets scattered throughout this interview, the discussion on Yahoo is particularly rich and focuses on the rocky period leading up to Microsoft’s now famous (and failed) takeover bid.
Fayyad describes a torn management team that was searching for direction and clear priorities. At one point (presumably mid-2007), Jerry Yang, then CEO, tried to reassemble a list of 7 priorities, ranked according to importance. One of the top debates was whether Yahoo should focus on becoming an ad network or an ad exchange. Fayyad, the chief data officer, thought it was a misplaced debate, that Yahoo should be paying more attention on the growing gulf between Google and Yahoo’s revenue per search (RPS).
At the time, Yahoo was making roughly “1/6 the money that a search on Google was making,” he says. Fayyad was ready to go to war, with roughly a dozen development projects lined up to “close the gap.” According to his calculations, through these initiatives, Yahoo would have pulled in $800 million in incremental revenues within the year.
Those “close the gap” plans were never fully executed, as management went a different direction—- still captivated by the prospect of gold at the end of the ad network/exchange rainbow. As Fayyad explains:
“I was on the camp that said ad exchange is the wrong thing for Yahoo to do, primarily for two reasons: because Yahoo is a big publisher itself so it’s a competitor so how could it run an exchange, can we expect Google to put its inventory on Yahoo, or Microsoft? The other one was that, exchanges as we all know, publishers will never put their premium inventory on exchanges they only put their crap inventory, so to me an outlet of crap inventory is not necessarily a very interesting thing.
But at the time, through a debate between the execs, it was decided that of the seven priorities, of the company, CTG or close the gap fell from #2, which is where i thought it should be (#1 being business up, site up meaning the site is up…) it fell to #7, while ad netowrks and exchange taking up… 2 and 3. So to me that bypassing of 800 million revenue of extra cash in the hands…like i said 20/20 hindsight… at the time people were very worried that we would lose the opportunity to take the leadeship in ad network and in ad exchange and they valued that much more than immediate cash. Now me being the pragmatic, startup scruffy guy, I wanted the cash in the bank, give me the cash and then later let me fight my war. I claim and this is my explanation, once we missed that 800 million in additional revenue, stock goes down, Mr. Ballmer shows up, bad offers, cycle, cycle, cycle, expectations of the street goes down, and it was a really bad spiral that the company got into.”
Assuming Fayyad’s $800 million estimate is correct (it’s not that outlandish when you consider he grew Yahoo’s behavioral targeting business from $20 million to $500 million in four years), that’s a fascinating “what if” scenario. There’s no doubt that Yahoo could have used that cash in hand while it chased the two birds in the bushes.
Interestingly, despite his deep disappointment with the reorganization, he stayed on a little longer after a talk with Yang. The soon to be ex-CEO convinced Fayyad that a new strategy was underway. And indeed, that summer Yahoo rolled out an exciting vision at a splashy corporate event. Yahoo even tapped Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker, to deliver his inspirational story about how he turned around Apple. Unfortunately, for Fayyad, expectations never quite lived up to reality, as he says in an almost plaintive tone: “We came up with a beautiful plan and there was no execution because the company had gone through so much turmoil.”
In total there are roughly 30 minutes of footage of Pishevar’s interview with Fayyad, which I’ve divided into five topics: the development of his startup, how he made the case for data at Yahoo, that $800 million-dollar mistake (see above), his brush with Google and finally his latest venture, Oasis 500, a startup accelerator for entrepreneurs in the Middle East. If you want to see parts one to five from end to end, check out the last clip.
Watch out: The globe trotting Pishevar, who has just wrapped up a tour of the Middle East and is preparing to meet new entrepreneurs in Asia, will be submitting future entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur videos to TechCrunch TV.
In part one of this series, Fayyad talks about how his early years at NASA influenced his ideas on data and how DigiMine came together.
Fayyad discusses how made data/analytics matter at Yahoo:
If Fayyad took a left turn, he could have been the CTO of Google. In this clip, he recalls a conversation with Sergey Brin, when Google was in its infancy. The blunt Fayyad told Brin that Google had no business plan.
In part five, Fayyad discusses his new investment fund Oasis 500, which will help budding entrepreneurs in the Middle East. Although entrepreneurs have decent access to VC money in this region, there is very little capital available for young companies.
Parts one through five:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
goosekingpin's video
雲林縣四湖鄉--鵝
四湖鄉芳源畜牧場負責人吳祥斌推動鵝肉生產履歷，最近獲農委會認證，成為全國第一家通過鵝肉產銷履歷認證的畜牧場，消費者在超市購買芳源畜牧場鵝肉，可透過條碼機查詢其生產過程。
吳祥斌說，生產履歷制度是業者、消費者雙贏政策，業者若能落實生產履歷，可以有效控管飼養成本，政府監督業者，讓消費者吃得有保障。
芳源畜牧場推動生產履歷制度5、6年，成功以「Taiwan Goose」為名外銷日本，推廣優質鵝肉。吳祥斌指出，產品能打進日本市場，代表品質具有一定水準，因為產品檢驗項目達20多種，日方藥物殘留檢測很嚴格，飼養過程絕不能添加任何藥物。
他表示，推動生產履歷制度，要把生產過程中的每個環節都詳實記錄，對傳統生產者來說確實有些麻煩，但養成習慣後，生產過程透明化能開拓市場，對於產業幫助很大。
芳源畜牧場採用全台首創的光控水簾鵝舍，密閉式空間內，四周都是水牆，溫度超過32度就會自動啟動，讓室內溫度能低於室外5度左右，養鵝環境乾淨、舒適，可預防禽流感，還播放音樂，並餵食牧草。
吳祥斌飼養4萬多隻鵝，生產的鵝隻經過合法屠宰場屠宰後製成多項加工產品，透過網路訂購行銷。
他說，今年WHO年度健康食材評選中，鵝肉是所有肉類的第一名，只要選購通過生產履歷認證的產品，消費者就能吃得安心、健康。
http://www.goose.tw/article.php?id=30
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