Monday, November 03, 2008

Book on High Speed Networks & Social Computing

The Tower & The Cloud - Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing is an e-book that addresses high speed networks and social computing, two powerful forces that have been shaping our economy and our lives. This is extremely relevant in the context of not only learning, but also in the scope and implications of the global financial debacle we are facing.

This industrial scale computing - consider the global financial networks - has implications that are far-reaching in their impact. Human beings have limits in their levels of competency in their standards and practices when dealing with computational environments. They do not meet the oversight practices required for such highly advanced networked technology. We tend to compartmentalize how we deal with these standards and practices.

This leads us to ask very weighted questions.
"Who is actually responsible for the oversight of this?"
"Do they really comprehend the complete dynamic of what humans are capable of understanding and what realistic compliance practices they can put into place to evaluate the implications of such a global financial network?"
Perhaps, more importantly, "Who is teaching our children the evolutionary practices they need to cope with advanced computational networks?"



The Tower & The Cloud - Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing awakens insight into these issues. It is available for download as an e-book - according to Common Cause agreements - or purchase of the hardback

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Kids 2020 Beta Website Live!

I've been back and forth the USA quite a bit this year. We've been trying to get a prototype for the Kids 2020 Learning Programme in place. In the meantime, we've also been hard at work trying to get the website ready to open to the public.

In my role as Chairperson for the Kids 2020 Foundation, I proudly announce that today, parts of the Beta 1.0 version of the Kids 2020 website are now live.



We appreciate any feedback you would like to share with us. Of course, the site is very limited at this time. We are only a small group of volunteers making small steps forward.

Many, many thanks to Hans, Marcel, Gwyn, Sierd, and Rob. They have shared their expertise and shown their dedication to bringing Kids 2020 alive online.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Logo for Quantum Brands BV



We're starting year with a new look for the old logo - designed by my partner, Sierd Loman. With all the digital applications, he wanted something that would take the symbol into new dimensions. He's working on a "moving" version, a bit like the gyroscope from the film "Contact".