newspeak

Slack uses consumer design to invade the enterprise – Business Insider.

I started using Slack a short while ago, in part because a client was using it. It’s remarkably good at what it does: set up a seemingly intuitive, predictable environment for modern workgroups. I’d previously tried out Asana, for another client, and numerous other systems, open and not. Most have problems. They introduce obstacles, demand fidelity to their system, force loss of something one never thought of as important but suddenly realised was; and take time to get used to. Slack does not do any of that. Nor does it invoke that terrible antipathy that arises after entering yet again the same old data about oneself.

Apple and IBM should both look at what UX Write have done on iOS and what we are doing at the Apache Incubator project Corinthia.

Apple IBM Is Going Well And Will Grow – Business Insider.

“VALS Semester of Code is a program that offers students the chance to write code for open source projects. We have worked with the open source community to identify and fund exciting projects for the upcoming academic year.”

Student applications close 13 March 2015.

Welcome to Semester of Code.

Command-C ‣ Clipboard Sharing Tool for iOS and OS X.

Useful. I find that I spend a lot of time using my iPad mini but by no means have I abandoned by laptop. Passing certain kinds of information from one to the other is relatively easy using Apple’s own tools. But this seems easier and more capable.

iPad Air 2 Review: Why the iPad Became My Main Computer – MacStories.

” Publishers that dominate the lucrative U.S. textbook market, estimated to have $8 billion in annual sales, claim they aren’t threatened by OER, as open educational resources are called.”

….

“Publishers themselves are moving quickly to online content, some of it free. But they’re being challenged on many sides. Earlier this month, Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel described the textbook industry as “unimaginative,” a burden on schools and ripe for change. The FCC funds Internet and broadband services to schools and libraries, recently increasing its spending to $3.9 billion. Rosenworcel is pushing to expand Internet connectivity for students, to eliminate the “homework gap” between rich and poor students, who can’t do work online at home.

“Amid the educational technology boom, plenty of developers have joined the gold rush to cash in by improving the “how” of learning and teaching. Now more are tackling the “what,” seeking to create a vast public library of vetted lessons.”

Goodbye textbooks, hello free online resources – San Jose Mercury News.

“While leftist parties in Spain and elsewhere tend to view the mass media with contempt and the people appearing on TV as tainted, Podemos has opted for the opposite approach. Iglesias and other party representatives like Bescansa, Íñigo Errejón and Juan Carlos Monedero have taken to Spanish television, incessantly participating on the tertulias—political-debate shows—and appearing in interviews on the country’s commercial channels. They’ve more than held their own against politicians like Esperanza Aguirre, the head of the Partido Popular in Madrid, and journalists like Eduardo Inda (the Spanish equivalents of Mitch McConnell and David Brooks, respectively). On TV, Podemos members have set themselves apart with a clear, commonsensical message, a distinct lack of fear and even a different style of dress: Iglesias sometimes wears a tie but never a jacket, while Monedero prefers political T-shirts and a red neck scarf. And unlike their opponents, they are always well prepared.”

via Can Podemos Win in Spain? | The Nation.

What Works Case Studies | ICIC.

This is really interesting. The Mondragon Corporation of Spain is one of the most important longtime cooperatives. I’ve sought to publicise its work but had been unaware of the United Steelworkers’ agreement with Mondragon. Nor, for that matter, of ICIC’s activities here.

High priced hepatitis C treatments spark massive public outcry and political debate in Spain – le blog davidhammerstein.

At what point do we call a protest by the consumer class, by those who are (or want to be) happily bourgeois (to use a forgotten them) a political act? It used to be easy to characterise these sorts of things, but the ease of such characterisation dulled perception, analysis, and left a lot of powerful community movements unrecognised and forgotten.

Occupy gained a footnote and maybe even more. But it was also critiqued, as a movement, for ultimately being shallow and unprepared for its own success: for not having an political frame of action, let alone an ideological framework. The recent (and until Charlie Hebdo) ongoing demonstrations in the US against Black deaths at the hands of the police reached into what the old-school ideologues liked. There seemed to be a point, a claim, a thing to be achieved that would actually lead to a meaningful and lasting change. Is that still true?

But perhaps the change itself lies more with the logic of communication and thus community identity. Happened with television, and first radio; and was grossly exploited by demagogues.

Mariana Mazzucato | How Governments Can Promote Innovation | Foreign Affairs.