Surfing the Wenatchee

Irene got a video of some of us surfing this past weekend in the Wenatchee @ 8000cfs. I'm the last kayaker in the video, yellow boat and green helmet.

Are We on the Economic Mend?

The WSJ just released an article foretelling that small to mid size banks will be losing ~100 Billion in capital this year due to commercial real-estate investments. Joe Weisenthal of Yahoo's TechInsider goes on to say, it isn't just the big banks that make bad investments. 

Wow!  I think Joe has forgotten trickle down economics. When big banks royally mess up and send the economy into a whirlwind downfall shouldn't it be assumed that eventually the smaller banks will be impacted? It doesn't mean the small banks make bad investments, it means that everyone is affected.

This too big to fail philosophy has some holes. The impact on the smaller banks is a glaring one. We should be letting companies fail that deserve to fail and saving companies that have good business practices that will be adversely affected by the Mortgage crisis. Investing in commercial real-estate was only a bad investment because of the economic down-turn. But giving loans for commercial real-estate is critical and necessary for a functioning economy. The smaller banks shouldn't be penalized for keeping the economy going. Commercial real-estate will not be in a good place until consumer spending rebounds. Consumer spending is being impacted because of job losses and downturns of stock portfolios. It is all a vicious cycle. But right now, the big question is, where will economic stimulation have its biggest impact?

This is a time for disruption. We can't assume that everything will or even should go back to the way it was. There were things that were broken e.g. population decreasing, housing development increasing, housing prices overly inflated, commercial real-estate also inflated, loans overly accessible by people and businesses that do not have collateral or sufficient income. Oh and don't forget, our overall environmental impact and oil crisis. We needed something to shake things out. I just hope that we take this opportunity to build the economy of the future instead of trying to keep the status quo. Take the stimulus money and make it an opportunity for innovation and new leadership. I don't have any faith in the incumbents in the big banks. Nor do I have any faith in the incumbents in the US auto-manufacturing. Let's push for the new economy. Sustainability, fiscal responsibility and potentially even more small business.

Sadly, indicators tell me that the economy hasn't hit its low yet. Take a look at what Howard Davidowitz has to say. Unemployment is high and shows no true signs of decreasing, consumer spending has not mended, foreclosures are continuing, credit is unaccessible to the individual etc., the commercial real-estate is on the verge of depression, the dollar is finally getting hit by Brazilian and Chinese trade and we are likely to start seeing some major inflation. But I am positive that the economy will turn around; however, I expect another major dip before that happens.

What will the signs be of an economy on the mend?

• Stop bailouts for companies that are failing
• Start paying off our debt, not just the interest for our debt
• Implement proper banking regulations and criminalize the behavior that made us get into this mess in the first place
• Decrease unemployment
  
• Increased consumer spending
  
• Foreigners renew faith in US government (Obama has been helping here) and the dollar (Stimulus packages doing major damage here)

Warner's Music Group (WMG) kills your Home Videos

I'm nervous to the point of panic, the kind of panic that makes your mouth dry.  I realize as I am filming Bruno descend over the crest of the waterfall that there is no way for me to portage.  I am running that 25 foot waterfall in my kayak whether I like it or not.  I snuggle myself into my boat and Muse starts playing in my ear, a high beat music that is as intense as I feel right now. But suddenly... there is silence.

Warner's Music Group's (WMG) has turned off the sound!

Warning!!! If you are hosting home videos on the internet that you overlaid copyrighted music to, realize that your videos may already have been deleted or had all of the sound removed.

Since when is using music on a home made, personal use video a target for copyright infringement?

I'm recently home from a 1/2 year of travels in South America. I was contemplating music compliments for movies I will make to highlight my trips kayaking in Ecuador, packing in Patagonia, tango dancing in Buenos Aires, horseback riding across the Andes, and motorcycle riding to Machu Pichu when I found that none of my older hosted videos were working anymore.

Why would they remove all of the sound from my insignificant videos you ask?

Well, I am infringing on one of the oldest laws of capitalism, Copyright! And, YouTube was just one of the many companies out there willing to help me do it publicly. Sorry YouTube, but you were in breach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when you helped my publish my video to my blog which states that it is illegal to aid in copyright infringement. The laws put in place are a result of World Trade Organization treaties and are seriously helping WMG in negotiations with YouTube.

My initial reaction was to yell, "WHY!?!?" when I feel am doing free advertising for them.

But I guess, they can't afford to see it my way. Highlighting new artists in my videos doesn't outweigh the potential piracy threats out there. I sit here and stir in my personal frustration while I listen to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on a Sideload playlist, another company targeted being sued by Britian's largest Music house, EMI. Sideload has a pretty cool new technology concept where you could upload your MP3s into a secure locker for access by all of your devices. The music companies have been levering DMCA to seriously threaten many new technology startups. The latest is against any passive MP3 search engines e.g. Seeqpod, Sideload, Songza, Skreemr, Google, and YouTube.

Since ~2003, EMI and WMG have been seen as victims losing their shorts in the 21st century where technology and piracy have reigned; however, recently, the losses impacting the big music players because of the likes of Napster and its descendants are no longing having the same effect. The law has leaned in their favor time and time again. EMI just announced triple gains in operating revenue last year due to both cost savings and digital content sales. Sidenote: Potentially a good stock market buy if you assume these lawsuits will continue to limit piracy.

We all understand why the likes of Bittorent are bad for the Music and Entertainment industry. When you can download an entire album in minutes and a movie in thirty, you know something is awry.

In all honesty, I believe in being paid for your work. I believe that one should pay for IP as long as it has value. Regardless, I hope that YouTube and others figure out how to play nice with the vendors and enable us to get to some middle ground so that the home "Wanna Be" movie directors can cross that fine line of copyright infringement, use our paid for music, and still make kick ass home videos without upsetting anyone.

In the meantime, the individual is SOL and any tech company that wants to make it in the music domain had better start out as good citizens and not enable bad behavior or they better be ready with strong legal defense.

I think there is a lot to be said for the technology leadership that all of these companies have brought to the table. I know that my music knowledge has increased as a result of the infrastructure they have put in motion. Perhaps now, all of my future music knowledge will be subject to advertising. The key to a good mucic tech biz is empowering the online listener is to broaden their musical taste and library while hiding the cost of the content. The current list of contenders playing with the music companies and leveraging advertising and other mechanisms to pay for the copyrighted content are Last.FM, Pandora, MySpace, Rhapsody, Napster, Imeem and Yahoo Music.

Ecuadorian Adventurer

I have done a terrible job writing about my travels so far on the blog, but Brett has been documenting a lot. Check it out!

The Thompson River, BC on Oct 10 and 11th at 14,000 cfs

Wow, it is not every day that you get walking pneumonia, nor is it every day that you get to run the Thompson. I had been feeling bad like I was fighting a cold off as I sat across from Joyce listening to her tall tales of 20 foot waves on the Thompson.

"OMG!!!! It is the best river ever. My favorite. It is not a matter of IF you will flip, just when. And it may take you four or more attempts to roll, but swimming is not an option on that river. It is H U G E. When you roll... no worries, just sit there and feel the boat hit the crest of the wave, then hip snap. It will take you awhile to get it, but keep trying. AND Do not eddy out, the whirlpools will eat you. It is a formidable river, but you'll be fine." - Joyce Stuart, kayakista extraordinaire.

So I call Shanna... "What Ugh?@. you have never done this river before? Why? I am sh$#in my pants. Joyce is talking about 20 foot waves with laterals slappin you silly. Idamay can't even claim she has run it because she swam all the big rapids out of the shoot. She flipped at Frog, the very first rapid! And I am getting sick. Man, I want to be top of my game for this thing. Should we go? Are we ready for this? Seriously"

Needless to say, I did nothing to calm Shanna's nerves. Now both of us were freaking out.

Next thing I know, I am packed and crossing the border listening to Dale's story of shipping an entire semi and it's contents bolt by bolt to his work in the MidWest after trying to cross from Canada back into the US years ago. They were detained for seven days because someone forgot a piece of paper. They had to fly home after the detainment. Meanwhile parts from the semi and cargo were being rejected by shop staff because they were being sent by the customs house COD and they did not realize it what it was.

Six hours later, my cold is already rearing its nasty head and I am worrying that I won't be able to run the river the next day.

We slept in a little town called Hope that looked like it hadn't progressed in fifty years. Sweet people, cheap eats and a freezing cold motel room that later turned into a sauna. The drive to the river from Hope is amazing and I would recommend driving it in the light to experience it.

The morning greeted me with a full blown cold. The day before I was hoping that the cold was just an excuse so I wouldn't have to face my fear about this river. It could have been my out. But when faced with reality, I pouted and went to try and sleep it off instead of risking getting sicker.

Shanna, Dale, and Don ran the river that day. They were invited by the Ontario Kayak Club to a Canadian Thanksgiving. But they declined and came back and ate Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches with me.

Shanna came back to the cabin with a big, wild eyes. "Oh no becky, Who cares about Frog, who cares about the cutting board, it was that other rapid after the Frog that was crazy. No one even knows it's name. That wave picked me up and threw me."

At that point, I could tell that Shanna was secretly hoping I was not going to feel good the next day so that she didn't have to run it again. But, I shattered that hope and rallied the next day. I felt horrible, but I went anyhow. I just promised myself that I would not try to surf the Frog so that I would keep all of my energy to run the river. As soon as you know you are going on a river like this, fear sets in. It becomes your job to control it, keep it hidden, and stay focused on what you know how to do.

Needless to say, my cold later turned into walking pneumonia. But it was worth it. I learned two lessons...
1) Stay out of the water when you are sick
2) Bring potentially two boats to the Thompson next time. The play boat for the Frog and a river runner for everything else. 14,000 cfs of water on a little Jackson Kayak is a lot of fun, but holy cow, it throws you around, it stops you when you are full speed, and good luck catching waves baby, ain't gonna happen. I was missing my Dagger Animas from the Hells Canyon. That thing sliced through waves and I could catch the green waves.

One time I was following Don on a rapid and were cruising pretty fast towards the end of a big wave train, the next thing I know, it was like he hit the e-brake or something and did a complete 180 and was moving up river... not on purpose mind you. He was not trying to Eddy out. I flew past him laughing, like oh wow.

Granite on the Hells Canyon @24000 cfs was still the biggest wave I have ever been on. It felt like 25 feet, something that could throw my 12 foot boat on end without a problem. But the waves on Thompson were big and they didn't stop. They were huge. And, it is my understanding that the water level was quite low for this river.

Check out the video I made. The boyz are surfing the frog, appropriately named for how it throws the boat up and down in a frog like movement.

This rapid is one of the easiest rapids on the river. The line is generally on the right and it has some pretty big waves down that entire line.

I am eager to go back and surf the Frog. Next time, I want to make sure that I have a few hours just for that.



Note: I have a typo in Dale's last name, it is Bonson.

Who cares about one laptop per child?

Who cares about one laptop per child (OLPC) when you have the iPhone? This was the question that came to mind as Apple begins to role out v2 of the iPhone at much lower prices.

While I primarily use my iPhone to manage my life... my contacts, my email, my videos, my pictures, where to go, how to get there, what rivers to run and stay away from, etc; I see it as a full blown computer and why not leverage it for education at such a low price point? 8-16GB of storage and it's processing power and applications are more than enough.

The keyboard ain't that great, but the screen sure is better than the XO. And the iPhone has all the applications on it to manage one's life. Sure you require a cellular subscription in order to use it as an actual phone and to make the majority of the apps come alive. But why not make the phone wireless and get WiMax in place in rural or impoverished areas? Then you would have universal information access without the subscription fees. And regardless, how many kids do you know that don't have a cell phone and an iPod regardless of their current economic status in the US?

Also, rugged... yeah it can be. I have dropped my iPhone far too many times and it is still working. It has no hard drive so it is less fragile than the average computer. And well, the hard plastic cases are pretty cheap.

But does the iPhone have the Logo programming language I ask myself? I am sure if you wanted it to be there, it would be easy enough for a Lisp nerd to get it up and running. And, heck, you already have ruby or python on the iPhone. Just install the terminal app. Ruby and Python are real languages with actual purpose and while logo just makes me feel nostalgic. But logo definitely has it merits when teaching programming to a child. I just wonder how many students today actually use it. And if they do, when does the light bulb goes off to encourage a child to evolve from logo into a real programming language.

The iPhone aside, while many doubt the intentions of the OLPC, I do see a lot of Pros and Cons for OLPC as it is today:

Pros

• Lowers the barrier to entry to having a computer as a child
• Introduces all children (potentially impoverished) to Computers
• Teachers need a menu of tools to pull from to train students with, OLPC can be seen as a powerful tool provided they have the skills to leverage it
  

Cons

• Not all teachers have had sufficient professional development to introduce a device like this into the class
• Now teachers have to manage, chat, internet access, iPods and cell phones in the classroom.
• The Teacher should still be the boss. The students should be learning structure in much the same way that there will be when they have a career. If the computer has all of the attention, the teacher will have less relevance. This will translate into other social challenges over time.
• Who is going to maintain the equipment?

I loved the story from Ray Fisman's article, the $100 distraction. He highlights without proper guidance and educator influence from a child's guardians, the likelihood of the OLPC being of any value in that child's education is quite low.

It just seems, if the students are already going to already have an phone, an MP3 player, and well now a computer. Why not consolidate into one device?

Semantic Web in Education

SynapticMash begins to turn up the volume on our product offerings. In preparation for my talk at the Linked Data Planet on the 16th in NY City, Jennifer Zaino did a great job of summarizing our conversation about some of the key technology challenges in schools and how SynapticMash is here to save the day. At the Linked Data planet I will go into more details on how Web 2.0 can be leveraged to solve big challenges in education.

Bringing the Semantic Web to Education
May 30, 2008
By Jennifer Zaino

Talk in NY with Tim Berner's Lee @ Linked DataPlanet

Linked Data Planet June 17-18, NY City
Wed Jun 18, 2008 -- 3:00pm - 3:50pm
Track: Terrace Ballroom
W11: The Social Internet, Promise or Plague in Education?

I really must update my abstract... but this is the current draft.

The Social Internet has spawned numerous networks silos with data that is isolated from traditional search mechanisms. How will all of this new data being generated in these silos be accessed? When, if ever, is it appropriate to connect with the data and profiles in these silos? Education is a great arena to explore when thinking about bridging privacy needs with the benefits of data connectivity and collaboration provided by social networking. Can social networking keep students profiles protected, enhance student performance and facilitate professional development with social networking? This talk will cover the benefits of and technology best practices for collaborative educational environments and data connectivity in education.

SPEAKER: Rebecca Dias, VP of Software Development, SynapticMash

UI Developer Needed

Are you a CSS guru? How are your Javascript and Ajax skills? Can you code reusable components? Do you know enough ruby to be dangerous? How about Information Architecture Skills and the ability to work with designers? Are you an open source fiend?

We need you if you fit the bill.
ruby - jobs @ synapticmash .com

Surfing the Cispus

I wanted to have Michael Deckert's grace....

This guys was soooo smooth on the river. He didn't actually need a paddle. He rigged up a cool little pully system for us so that we could keep getting on the wave. Great core strength exercise... let me tell you.

Surfing the lower gorge on the green

This was the most amazing day. Check it out!!!

Marketing as a Second Language (MSL)

David Marsee is my lead designer. We were both laughing (and crying) this last week as we designed this.

During this experience we both about fell over laughing when we invented a new special services declaration within the bounds of our office, Marketing as second language or MSL.

While Dave has a great mind for marketing, the majority of the world does not. Ed Guadet, if you are out there, hands off!! He would get bored with your business model anyhow ;)/

Back on topic... when people can not understand marketing, it is painful to even try to explain certain concepts. And when you are sent whitepapers to create what should be a simple message, you can declare that these people need to be put into the MSL program. For the majority of the world that is MSL, I thought I would laugh with you and give you a few lessons on how less is more....

here are my tips... what are yours?

• the most difficult task is consolidating a page into one sentence that has necessary emotional and intellectual impact. It takes four months and potentially 60K worh to marketing spend to come up with:

SynaticMash
build's excellence in student achievement (copyright, 2008)

• 800 x 600 is all the information a mind can handle anyhow, so keep the nav unless you are communicating with statisticians
  
• 11pt font or larger
• 508 enabled cause everyone deserves the right to learn and teach
  
• the mind pulls to the right of the screen unless something is in the middle to draw the eyes
• people want simplicity, that is why blogger survives when I have 5 profiles on different social networks.. this is my blog, the other ones s#$% cause they aren't this simple
  

Anyhow... kudos to Dave

Come join us at the NCCE Conference in Seattle

I have been too busy to blog about it, but tomorrow I will give my first talk on the work SynapticMash is doing. It will also be our first live demo of our product offerings.

Here are the talk details...
http://www.ncce.org/2008

Friday, February 29, 2008, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Room 620

Social Learning Networks: Moving Beyond ePortfolios
Rebecca Dias, VP for Software Development

The SynapticMash platform provides a new type of social learning network. Fusing the social collaboration of MySpace with the rich media experience of YouTube, SynapticMash makes it easy to create electronic portfolios and online classes with streaming audio, video, and flash learning applications.

Audience: Grades 3-16, Admin, IT, Library Media
Expertise: All Levels
Strand: Online Learning

Ruby Coders and UI Designers Needed

We are looking for more talent. Check it out!! We need a Guru Ruby Developer and a Lead Graphic UI and RIA designer. We are also looking for extremely talented mid-tier folks that can crunch data and get real world applications of AI...

Check out careers at SynapticMash.