"Through a series of experiments, C. Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester determined that habitual video-game players were better able than non-players to focus on visually complex situations, keep track of multiple items at once and to process fast-changing information."
Looking at entrepreneurs' social networks and their career histories to see what the connection is to innovation, Martin Ruef, assistant professor of strategic management, concludes that the most creative entrepreneurs spend less time than average networking with business colleagues who are friends and more time networking with a diverse group that includes acquaintances and strangers. "Contrary to common assumptions," says Ruef, "the evidence suggests that in many cases strong social ties do not provide significant new information, so it helps not to be as embedded in them."
"The aim of the project is to see how mobile devices can be used to teach basic numeracy and literacy skills to young adults that have dropped out of the education system."
"Weblogging as a persistent conversation provides a balance of views with the same self-correction mechanism that's built into conversation itself. There is still a risk that wrong information can be put forward, but objectivity never escapes that risk entirely either. And the intersubjectivity of weblogging has some benefits that have to be weighed against the risk: It encourages innovative thinking, it shoots down bad ideas quickly, and it allows natural talents to surface and flourish."
"The real promise of social software has less to do with commercial productivity, and more to do with generating social capital: trust, social engagement, and the development of sustainable knowledge-sharing mechanisms that enable our advancement and evolution within social groups."
"Fears of severe acute respiratory syndrome and terrorism, combined with drastically reduced travel budgets, mean more companies are considering video conferencing as an alternative to face-to-face meetings. But Hewlett-Packard scientists say the most natural way to "meet" when people are not face to face is to use robots. The scientists, who work out of HP's research laboratory in Palo Alto, were recently on hand to prove it, showing off the prototype for a robot that could navigate through the halls of a building, lower itself down to eye level at a conference table and even mix and mingle with associates as if it were a person."
Six Episodes of Douglas Adams' SHADA.
"Among this year's themes are Learning in Enterprises, E-Learning Policies in Practice, New Roles for Teachers and Trainers and Future Technologies for Learning. The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition featuring many of the companies active in e-learning."
CNET: Will Wi-Fi lower nurses’ blood pressure?
CNET: Will Wi-Fi lower nurses' blood pressure?
"The devices could be a perfect fit for hospital nursing, a truly on-the-go profession. Besides using the phones to make or receive calls, nurses can use the high-speed connection to transfer records when within a 300-foot radius of a Wi-Fi access point. Wi-Fi technology lets people access a network wirelessly and share resources on that network."
"Many corporations substantiate their e-learning initiatives after the fact by eliminating related jobs or reducing travel expenditures for training. Although these are viable cost savings, they should not be the sole motivation for an e-learning initiative. E-learning must demonstrate that employees are learning more efficiently and retaining more of the curriculum compared to in-class training. The bottom line is: Is e-learning improving employee productivity?"
"When patients at Anne Arundel Medical Center need a dose of morphine or an extra helping of Jell-O, they don't just buzz a nurse - they call one directly over the hospital's Wi-Fi network. Old-style page buttons have been retooled to ring the wireless handsets of staff anywhere in the building..."
Check out this ZDNet video for a demonstration of such a device.
"Designing information architecture for complex websites requires understanding user information needs and mental models in that domain. Personas, or user archetypes, created for such domains should also reflect types of information needs, and usage of information set. We have created a statistical technique to identify important underlying groupings of information needs. In a preliminary study, we show how designers can use this information in conjunction with data from interviews and observations to generate and refine personas."
Darwin: Are You Ready for Social Software?
"Traditional software approaches the relationship of people to groups from a top-down fashion. In the corporate setting, its hard to imagine a person existing without being specifically assigned membership to top-down groups: your team, your division, the budget committee and so on.
"Ever since the Web entered the popular consciousness, observers have noted that it puts information at your fingertips but tends to keep wisdom out of reach. In a space organized around connected minds, however, the search for wisdom becomes more promising."
NY Times won the 'Best of Show' award at the recently held Malofiej International Infographic Awards. To know why, check out their multimedia section.
Business 2.0: Unplug That Projector!
"Just as using a word processor doesn't make someone a better writer, structuring presentations with PowerPoint won't improve the quality of an individual's ideas. If you need to present information to others and you want your presentations to matter, heed what Tufte has to say."
- Target opportunities where increased knowledge flow will have the most impact on your bottom line.
Fast Company: What Did You Do During the 2000s?
"While you've been wishing for the inspiration to start something great, thousands of entrepreneurs have used the prevailing sense of uncertainty to start truly remarkable companies. Lucrative Web businesses, successful tool catalogs, fast-growing PR firms -- all have started on a shoestring, and all have been profitable ahead of schedule."
CareerJournal: Where have all the CLOs and CKOs gone?
"CKOs are like a vitamin pill. They make you feel good, but in a bear market the only thing that really sells is painkillers." More than 25% of Fortune 500 companies had CKOs during the height of the knowledge-management craze, according to some studies... fewer than 20% of top companies have a CKO or CLO today."