UX Write – Live Demo
UX Write has a demo: an interactive one so that you can try the app directly. The demo, unlike the app itself, will likely suffer from latency issues. The app is native; the demo is not. But you ought to be able to get a feel for the matter.
Why is UX Write important here? For starters, the approach, technology and ease of use differentiate it and point to very interesting future. But it’s also here now, as an editor on the iPad, and can work quite well–very well–with MS Office files. OO can read those, of course, so there is little problem; and ODF support is being worked on.
I am not being paid for my endorsement. I have gotten to know Peter Kelly, the lead developer through my interest in UX Write and my commitment to getting a usable and superior application on the most popular tablet–the iPad–now. Big companies are reluctant to do this. Disruption is needed. And UX Write is radically disruptive.
Try it, let me (or Peter) know, and then–
Page Layout in the Era of Electronic Publishing | UX Write
Page Layout in the Era of Electronic Publishing | UX Write.
Peter Kelly has been doing brilliant work making texts used by enterprises editable on the iPad. UX Write, which I use (albeit a pre-release version), is actually usable. This latest post by him goes over some of the issues that modern app makers have been working on for over 5 years. (I had a version of this discussion at Canonical’s offices some time ago.)
For-Profit Fiasco: California Public Colleges Turn to Web Courses | The Nation
For-Profit Fiasco: California Public Colleges Turn to Web Courses | The Nation.
Like anyone who has actually taught a college course, I’ve been skeptical of the rush to online coursework. But I also recognize, and have repeatedly lectured on, the need for ICT solutions to the unprecedented need for instructors worldwide to teach not just advanced material but even the most basic. Online education can do that.
But if done badly, it can also wreck not just the particular course experience but far more. This is obvious. What do I envision as a system that is done right? One that does not imagine the student isolated in his or her room with the computer, doing drudgework to recorded videos.
Rather, I’d insist that the necessary element is community, and emphasize the importance of in-person community, where students can be led through courses by mentors, who can also conduct discussion sessions.
It’s Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government
It’s Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government.
Democracy Now!, the morning news hour that one can listen to any number of ways (I listen to the podcast), has an excellent set of interviews with some of the principal speakers at the Freedom to Connect Conference (where I wish I were). The petition to bock the unlocking provision features.
Whonix ALPHA 0.4.5 – Anonymous Operating System
[liberationtech] Whonix ALPHA 0.4.5 – Anonymous Operating System.
One of the most interesting developments in the last few years has been the rise of “liberation technology,” which can mean a raft of things. You get the idea.
CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Big Data and Development Applications
CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: Big Data and Development Applications.
So, a revolution is happening and has been now for several years. It’s not the computer one but one that has more to do with informatics and, even better, the way in people’s doings are understood, characterized, and made then available for further use: as data.
(Of course, Asimov’s Hari Seldon, Robert Silverberg’s Stochastic Man, and the most wildly brilliant, Bester’s Golem^100 anticipated this move. Bester went furthest in deconstructing the self.)
South Sudan: Constructing the new nation
The Niles النيلان -Nyandeng calls for more women at the top.
Professionally, I help organizations with building communities to make things, usually software. But in many places, and that includes the most developed nations, the right kind of developer and company which might employ her may be missing or at least not present enough. So developing a community entails working with education institutions, which is to say, national and subnational government. And it also entails helping small businesses understand the market that is being created and how become part of the emerging ecosystem that includes that market but also other externalities.
I’m thus always interested in learning how community, big, with diverse populations, each with its own notions of identity, yet (more or less) agreeing to national boundaries and expectations, comes into being. (The game model of community as an economic state is equally interesting, though for different reasons. Still, I’ve been exploring ways in which one might model various commons-based peer set ups as a practical tool.)
South Sudan, born as a nation not even two years ago and proving, by the remarkable spirit of its people, an indomitable courage and pride, is fascinating. The country faces harsh challenges. Yet, as the article that prompts my entry here shows, it seems nevertheless to be progressively making itself as a modern nation.
What tactics are being used? Are they working? And if not, why not? And what other techniques and strategies be used? (The Guardian, btw, has a good series of articles on South Sudan.)
And would it make sense to promote technologies that would link students and education institutions to the Web? If so, I’d suggest P2P tools and SMS innovators like Telerivet. But the issue here would not be advancing a particular sort of technology or learning or awareness–that would be even more arrogant than I’m used to being–but working within the existing and emerging structures.
newspeak 