The recordings from the fabulous Webstock 2008 conference in Wellington NZ are now online. I would highly recommend tuning in and learning from these. A few from my favourite list were:

-Kelly Goto: “Getting Unstuck” - This is far beyond techy webness (which is great in itself but you need to understand your audience!) and dabbles in the realm of organisational culture and health. This is a fantastic presentation and will give you a lot to think about around application to your own role and context.

-Amy Hoy: “Usability for Evil” - Again this was all about people. The presentation was focused on principles of human psychology; understanding how we actually function, process information and basic motivations before thinking about anything else, that including what is on a website and how it is designed.

I ended up missing Russell Brown’s presentation, so looking forward to listening to that one as very much in my sphere of interest. Will also be good to catch up on those missed when I had to make a tough choice at the break out sessions!

All Webstock 2008 presentations are available online here

• Web 3.0 and what it includes
• Semantic Web
• Semantic Apps
• Open Data
• Mobile Web
• Mobile Web Apps
• Recommendation Engines
• Also, some web predictions for the future and other resources

View Slideshow presentation from Readwriteweb’s Richard Macmanus on Slideshare

If you don’t know what all ten things below are and whether or not they have a place in your business then read the Full article here

• Green IT
• Unified Communications
• Business Process Management
• Metadata Management
• Virtualisation 2.0
• Mash Ups and Composite Applications
• Web Platform & WOA
• Computing Fabrics
• Real world web
• Social software

Microsoft is developing Big-Brother style software capable of remotely monitoring a workers productivity, competence and physical wellbeing, The Times reports.
Read it on stuff.co.nz Here

“The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes.”
Read it in Slate Here

“The Chinese don’t get creativity, right? Sure, they can stamp out a widget, or knock off a DVD, but when it comes to imagination, they just don’t have the gene. Well, keep telling yourself that.”

In Summary - No China is not content to be the factory to the globe.. The Next Cultural Revolution - Fast Company

Lovin It - The Chinese Creative Industries - China Daily

“Even the Chinese will tell you that they’ve been good at making the next new thing, and copying the next new thing, but not imagining the next new thing. That may be about to change.”
Read the Economist’s View on the Creative Creation of Creativity in China Here

Interesting to read about the revival and application of indigenous/cultural creativity seen in history today. Similar discussions in India. Read an article here about Patrick Dodson who has become an evangelist for Indian Creativity who says it is time to unleash it - in particular in the multimedia arena.

Dodson says, “From what I understand, most of your primary and secondary education systems are math-logic oriented with little or no input in the areas of art, music and creative expressions. This combined with an inherited commonwealth ‘blending in’ attitude stifles the growth of an individual—and thus the nation.” Read more Creativity in multimedia: Why Indias talent is underutilised here

Found this quite interesting. Foreign companies have had a tough time getting traction in the Chinese Market for instance both Yahoo and EBay now both have local partners running ops.In the Chinese online landscape www.baidu.com holds over 60% market share with www.google.com at 23.7%. Come just to see Google Domination as a reality, here there and easy to think everywhere, but not so in country using 2nd largest group of web users (123 million at the end of last year, 77 million on Broadband)

Snippet from Official Google Blog:
“Figuring out how to deal with China has been a difficult exercise for Google. The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship – something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company.” Read Testimony: Internet in China Here

Read about Chinese Internet Censorship Here

IAC (Barry Dillers online conglomerate) is going in to China with $100 million investment in services for local users. IAC may go down partnership route also with a media partner to get awareness out there. 

 The “Young Digital Mavens” study was commissioned by IAC (media conglomerate) and JWT (biggest ad agency in the US) which ”aimed to explore how attitudes toward digital technology are changing among Chinese and American youth at a time when people are spending less time with traditional media and more with interactive technology.” Getting a lot of air time so a good move to start getting brand salience on the up.

The study also showed that Chinese users were more likely to be web addicts…
China online users more likely to be web addicts - Reuters
42 percent of users in China said they at times felt “addicted” to their Web use compared with 18 percent of U.S. users. Diller described Web games as an area of importance in the Chinese market.

Successful business ideas developed in China might be exported for use in the U.S. market, Diller said. Getting quite a lot of air time already with publicity of recent research undertaken.

A bit of well rounded news for the early morning:

Some Science - Skin Cell to Stem Cell Hack is like turning ‘lead into gold’
This is huge..
Google News Check - 737 Articles (most in last hour)
Some Tech - Futurists pick Top Tech Trends
And From the Markets - The New Market Bubble Theory

Wasn’t that long ago (really) that I sat in the Careers Advisers class and I swear that the options presented to our class could most certainly be counted on one hand.. Doc. Nurse. Lawyer. Accountant.. About ends there. Not to mention the fact that the only technology exposure available = typing class (Although under the guise Text and Information Mgmt and I must admit I did enjoy playing Mavis Beacon) The geek image is rapidly falling away I think - all the tech ppl, I have met of late totally rock! Finger on the pulse, constantly investing own time in knowledge building (for personal and career reasons) and comfortable in a rapidly changing environment..

-Gartner predicts an international shortage of three million ICT workers by 2010 and 10 million by 2020 while, regionally, an IDC survey of the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan has predicted a shortfall of 221,000 people with advanced skills in wireless technologies, security and IP telephony by 2009 - part of a total network professional shortfall of 396,000 for the area.

-NZ Govt have set the industry a target of contributing 10 per cent of GDP by 2012

Ancient geek image no help to tech industry’s growth

Out with the geek, in with the chic

Less of my prose today and more from others - some great links.

Computers read the news and trade on it quickly (Reuters)

Newspapers should embrace online aggregators (Publishing 2.0)

Times Inc moves into Digital Mags (Advertising Age)

The Extremely Tired And Overemphasized Notion Of Liberal Media Bias (Business Week)

Computers can read the news faster, I will give them that, even if they have no context and cannot detect subtle double negatives and vague pronouns.

But the digi-mag? Sand in the keys turning the pages is a risk I am not willing to take.

Was Reading the Australian Financial Review Boss Magazine at lunch, with feature on “50 business ideas to navigate the future” picked out a few related to my usual topics of interest, tech dev, psychology and business.

• The little guy - Mass scale doesn’t always mean market clout. “Long tail” effect helps explain shift from mass production to niche.
• Evangelist - Coolest new job is to be an evangelist. Love it.
• Web2.0 and 3.0 - Web3.0 will take it one step further - integrating your online personality (avatar) more closely with the real you.
• Neurons - Bring on the Darwinian Renaissance. These days the interest is all in the evolution of the mind, with the trend to use Evolutionary Psychology as a framework for unlocking the reasons we behave the way we do.
• Transparency - We like our companies to have a bit of a human side to them, just as we do out leaders.
• Digital Eye- Massachussets Institute of tech folk have reverse engineered human eyes and the part of the brain that recognises objects (ventral visual pathway). Applications for a pair of electronic eyes are limitless. The electronic eyes get in right 82% in the lab and human eyes 80%…
• Brain Control, No more mouse (or RSI)- Translates human brain waves into computerspeak- called electroencephalography (EEG). Player wears sensitised scalp cap..
• Happiness - People continue searching for ways to have a fit and toned mind as well as glutes and abs. Think Martin Seligman, Guru of the Positive Psychology movement (A young branch of Psychology)