Interview with Natalie Robertson

Natalie talks about how she feels empowered by the ability to quickly connect with others who share similar interests.

MP3 File

Apple launches 'Me.com'

Yesterday Apple announced 'Me' - a system to synchronize your digital life through the cloud. manage your digital assets, your friends and your communications across devices and on both PC and Mac platforms. It is an extension of the .Mac offering and a competitor to Microsoft Live Mesh and similar backup and sync offerings. This is another example of the increasing battle of the big brands to 'own' the relationship with consumers in the cloud and remain part of the vale chain for 'The Digital Me'.

Watch the promo video here >>>

Interview with Mark Barlow on 'The Digital Me' and Social Networking

Last Friday, June 6th, I interviewed a colleague of mine at Telecom New Zealand, Mark Barlow. Mark works in the Technology Strategy Group. In this video he shares some interesting thoughts on what he thinks will be the next big thing for social networking - direct brain interface to the human network through the power of thought. He also talks about managing our digital brand.

First SaaS now PaaS - Platform as a Service

When Bill Gates was giving his final keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 08 he said: “ The second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people. It will be more focused on being user centric. Microsoft will deliver platforms that will let people build applications. Those applications will run not only on the PC, they’ll run up in the internet, or in the cloud, as we say, on the phone, in the car, in the TV” (tinyurl.com/5k303p).

A little later Live Mesh was released. Below is a promotion for this data synchronization idea. Google, Apple, Sun, Amazon and others are also fighting over this new turf war in the air – or rather, in the cloud. How will it play out? How will it enable the digital me?

Openness is the new black

'Marc's Voice' blog post from yesterday (June 3rd) offers an interesting perspective on the current land grab in the cloud, and the tensions between a desire for lock-in and a paradigm of openness (using Microsoft Live Mesh and Twitter as examples). Worth a read to get a sense of the new world order we are moving into as the cloud increasingly becomes the operating system and big companies such as Nokia, Vodafone, Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft fight over territory in what could quickly become wireless world war three.

Interview with Pamela Minett on managing 'The Digital Me'

I caught up with Pamella Minett this week. Pamela is co-director of the Ymedia Challenge and a passionate advocate for new media, especially its role in supporting social enterprise. She had just returned from a heady few days at the X|Media|Lab event in Wellington hanging out with such luminaries as Tom Duterme - Head New Business Development, Google (Mountain View), Alvin Wang Graylin - China’s Leading Mobile Entrepreneur (Shanghai), Noah Falstein - The Father of Serious Games; President, The Inspiracy (San Francisco), Marcelino Ford-Livene - General Manager, Interactive Content, Intel Digital Home Group; Governor of Interactive Media, Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences (Los Angeles) and many more. I spoke to her about the increasing importance of managing 'The Digital Me' and what trends she saw for how we might do this in the future.

Interview with David Gleave on empowerment through networked learning

I last met David Gleave in Bangkok in January 2008 during the Future of Learning in a Networked World unconference event. David spent 20 years working for Cambridge University setting up UCLES examinations around the world. He now has his own global education and testing company. David shares his thoughts on the changing nature of education, the importance of brand and the future of examinations.

Also in the video are Vance Stevens - an educator and longtime Webhead, Michael Coghlan - Flexible Learning Leader from Australia, Terry Fredrickson - Editor of the Education section of the Bangkok Post, Trish Everett - a passionate user of technology in education in Outback Australia and Bob Puffer - Teacher at the American School in Bangkok.