Discuss: IP is a drag in Cyberspace

The motion for discussion is...
"Intellectual property is a drag in cyberspace: discuss"

Goal
The use of GPL, open source, copyleft and creative commons licenses suggests that intellectual property protection is a drag in cyberspace. Our goal is to study and understand the structure, powers and implications of the GPL.

Instructions
Two groups (red-against, blue-for) will present an analysis and then debate the merits of their different positions, involving the whole class in the closing stages.
The readings given for initial investigation are listed below. We strongly encourage the use of additional secondary sources and providing examples as evidence supporting arguments.
Each group has 5 minutes to present.

Readings

• The GPL: GNU General Public License (www.gnu.org)
• GOETZ, T. "Open Source Everywhere", Wired Magazine, 2004. (wired.com 11.11)

Notes

• From ITworld.com: "Oracle sued Google last August, contending its open-source Android operating system violates Java patents and copyrights that Oracle inherited when it bought Sun Microsystems. Google denies any wrongdoing and has characterized the case as an attack on open source."
• Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (www.wipo.int)
• Yockai Benkler's web, www.benkler.org
• Benkler's 'Wealth of Networks' yupnet.org/benkler/
• The Economy of Ideas by John Perry Barlow (wired.com 2.03)

No Internet?!#... we're all alone

"Over Logging" (or "The Day the Internet Stood Still")

Still from "Over Logging", (South Park Studios, 2008)

Hilarious stupid but also thought provoking, this episode of South Park thinks the unthinkable; what happens if the Internet runs out, when there is not enough Internet to go around? Precise on Wikipedia. 

Discuss: Social Media transforms business

The motion for discussion is...
"Social media transforms business! discuss"
The motion examines both the hype and the facts surrounding social media and Web 2.0 technology.

Goal
To assess the claim that firms employing so called 'Web 2.0 technology' have actually (or not) transformed consumer online behaviour.

Instructions
Two groups (red-against, blue-for) will present an analysis and then debate the merits of their different positions, involving the whole class in the closing stages.
The readings given for initial investigation are listed below. We strongly encourage the use of additional secondary sources and providing examples as evidence supporting arguments.

Readings
Dutta, S. "What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy?," Harvard business review (88:11), November 2010 2010, pp 127-130.

Extras

• Taylor, C.P. "Eight Ways to Ruin Your Social-Media Strategy," 2009. (online at b.net)
• Kaplan, A.M., and Haenlein, M. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons (53:1) 2010, pp 59-68.
• Benkler, Y., and Nissenbaum, H. "Commons-based Peer Production and Virtue," Journal of Political Philosophy (14:4) 2006, pp 394-419.
• The Forth Estate in a Digital Democracy (online video snippet, accessed March 2011)
• The future of work is social (on Slideshare)
• Using the crowd, to create content, to create a 'service'. Waze and passively capturing GPS to model and share traffic status (http://bit.ly/eqTpXX at curiositycounts.com) RT chrisjhorn
• Are location check-in services a fading fad? (www.readwriteweb.com/) 
• Fractures (or Forks) appear in Twitter's micro-blogging market? (edition.cnn.com/)

Al-Jazeera, the Internet and 21st Century media

View more presentations from Bilal Randeree

The Business Value of Social Media @ Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies - Boston, MA April 2011

View more presentations from Jamie Pappas

ShiftHappens Various Versions
I included these for a number of reasons, they illustrate some of the changes impacting any organisation attempting to cope with the changing social/technological transformations shifting society, education, markets. These videos are also notable for having gone 'viral' April 2010 and since in various remixes.


And the remix version ala FatBoy Slim

Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.

Shift Happens 2011

Discuss: The future is Smart and Wireless

The motion for discussion is...
"The future of commerce is smart, wireless, and pervasive! discuss"

Goal
This motion examines the idea of an 'Internet of Things', what it is or might be, its uses, its problems, its boosters, its critics and regulation.

Instructions
Two groups (red-against, blue-for) will present an analysis and then debate the merits of their different positions, involving the whole class in the closing stages.
The readings given for initial investigation are listed below. We strongly encourage the use of additional secondary sources and providing examples as evidence supporting arguments.

Readings

• Eu Com (2009) Internet of Things - An action plan for Europe COM(2009) 278. European Commission. (link)
• Saponas, T. S., Lester, J., Hartung, C. & Kohno, T. (2006) Devices that tell on you: The nike+ipod sport kit. Seattle, WA, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. (link)

Extras

• IoT (Internet of Things) 101 presentation on slideshare (http://slidesha.re/hSVJDm)
• Latitude Life Connected (www.latd.com) accessed March 2011
• German railways merge NFC networks (www.theregister.co.uk) March 2011.
• Explanation of the IoT - Internet of Things (www.readwriteweb.comp) 2010
• Talking Yoghurt Pots and the Silence of the Chips (www.theregister.co.uk) 2009
• The Internet Fridge - yet again (www.readwriteweb.com) 2009
• The i-Loo controversy (wikipedia) 2003

Outsourcing Videos

HP Video Podcast: Be "on the business" for strategic IT and outsourcing
Tim Hynes, IT Director Europe, Middle East & Africa, Microsoft

The Other Side of Outsourcing

Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Accent Neutralization / Discovery Channel looking at high tech outsourcing to India (link).

Database is Dead

What if "analytics-as-a-service" was an operating model you could plug into your firm's infrastructure?

See practicalanalytics.wordpress.com/

Forget the past, yesterday's data is loosing its value with every second that passes.
The future of data is now and predictive.
The problem for most firms is they don't have the capability - the technological infrastructure, the knowledge, skills and knowhow - to look for and find trends, patterns, 'signal's among the noise of the streams of data that engulf them.
That said, if you're in business you know what you want to know; you already know the kinds of questions that are relevant, interesting, essential for your firm's success. What you don't have is the latest shiny piece of tech booty and all its related paraphernalia. While you have the need you don't have the science.
Is there a solution? Outsource the problem to a trusted provider. That's what Ravi Kalakota is suggesting is happening and is necessary.