USS Midwaaaay awesome

The party aboard the USS Midway was awesome, you know that you are dealing with good people when the CEO is handing out ipods in a crowd of people yelling into the mic, " get your ass on the dancefloor." For real, thanks for the party, the drinks, the flight simulators, the Cluny whiskey, and throwing a kick ass party with over 1000 of America's most interactive minds. ciao.

Intel outside: the web wide world.

Yes,

i just attened a panel discussion presented by Intel and it went very well. Chris Thomas was introduced by a Blackboard employee who read from notes and said that the keynote's alma mata was walkeeshow, which I immediatley called out to clarify things for my Wisconsin brethern, Waukasha.. in any case...

The presentation was great, we started with a brand new commercial of kids saying interesting and peculiar things like: "I remember hot spots,", " I remember when computers weighed 4 pounds", etc. the reason that people clapped after the commercial/introduction was aired in the conference room was the irony and the beauty of our future. Children are always our future and for them to be talking about things, ourselves are more than liklye going to be saying was fun.

The presentation had little to do with Blackboard itself, but that didn't matter, I learned about bigger things. Fopr instance, i now realize that intel is going to try to make wi-fi world wide, like cell phones are used today. The speaker, Chris, spoke about architechure and enery issues regarding programs and how he sees the future. he also invited up some colleagues and a Bb Student to give a quick quip about what he sees at the future.

It was cool. but...

Coming from an Argentine American perspective, it seemed bold, brash, and rude at times. One person from the audience talked about $100 computers, which i assume they mean the UN mandate which is a gesture and no real answer to anything. How about pencils? Intel and silicon valley can make computers as cheap as they want and may get their global wi fi, but China is producing pencils which are cheaper and just as good for communicating... So my point is that the commercial, the presentation, and all our dreams in there take money to run and govenments to accomodate commercialization of products, this is money that most governemets do not have. I have to say that i am a little disgusted and amazed at this company, i really like the simple idea of a dual processor, it is the basis of communication i can't believe for the life of me why no one ahd thought of this idea before.

regarding pradigm shifts, ( implentation point aka "tipping point") i think that cell phones is an intersting example however, they are global, and perhaps with open-source phenoms like Fon things will change, we will see.

Mardi Gras last night... No class today.

Yes, it is true. I will not be attending the Blackboard sevices event today. But tonight... oh yeah.

That's the main reason for coming anyway, the party on the USS Midway.

hehe ( just kidding)

Well, I wish this blog could be more forth telling about the conference, overall i am very impressed with the product and apparently many people are impressed by podcasting, at times, in two separate events, i almost felt like I was a presenter.

So I met most' everyone, got a book signed by the incredible keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping point. (One of my favorite parts about the tipping point of paul revere was later expalined to me to be a romantisized example by a professor from Concord) rubbed elbows with the founders and traded business cards, to my surprise, and met many people with suffixes at the end of their name, PhD, MBA, Doogie Howser MD, you name it they were there.

I am pretty glad that i came and had fun (a little too much) with the University Hardford Conn Tech Department last night.

WEll, I could still go, there is penty of time, but the thing is, I don't have blackboard, I don't use it blackboard, I am here to find the best services for my company and to give it the foundation it needs to grow. I only really wanted to come to the first two days anyway, but now as life would have it, will have to stay for the third and so I suppose it all works out.

p.s. I now know what it is like to be at a teaching conference with America's brightest minds at the forefront of interactive education... it is marvellous and I hope to bring this to the world of teaching in my own mavellous way. Cheers.