Lyn Jeffery

Brussels Economic Forum 2009 Beyond the crisis: a changing economic landscape Brussels, May 15, 2009 Robert Holzman, World Bank - Lyn Jeffery

Cool. "The Second Life Enterprise environment provides users an added layer of security and the ability to scale an avatar community. Servers are installed in a company's data center, providing the 3D experience. The service can support up to 800 concurrent avatars. Second Life is made up of regions. Second Life Enterprise has the capacity for eight regions that also run concurrently." - Lyn Jeffery

"ability to edit AR layers, add 3D animations and share edited scenes via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. " Like putting a fake bug in a glass--the example here. - Lyn Jeffery

For centuries, what was important for me was decided in my brain. But now, apparently, it will be decided somewhere else. "In Europe, and in America too — and it's not by chance — we have a crisis of all the systems that somehow are linked to either thinking or to knowledge....here's the question of what to teach, what to learn, and how to learn. Even for universities and schools, suddenly they are confronted with the question how can we teach? What is the brain actually taking? Or the problems which we have with attention deficit and all that, which are reflections and, of course, results, in a way, of the technical revolution??" So many great quotes here! "What is important, what is not important is something very linear, it's something which needs time, at least the structure of time. Now, you have simultaneity, you have everything happening in real time. And this impacts politics in a way which might be considered for the good, but also for the bad." - Lyn Jeffery

great stuff: only 5000 iPhones sold after initial official launch. Lots of problems: Frank says that early adopters already have it. Unicom has weak slow networks compared to China Mobile, and less coverage. The Chinese app store isn't offering localized apps, and they are also too expensive. The phone is not that subsidized and is selling for almost 4000 RMB--which is still very expensive [note: but not for a high end phone, in China]. - Lyn Jeffery

great concept: "purpose-driven" user-generated video, linking specific purposes and passions, often driven by desired impact, to user generated content. Highlights Unigo, small start-up that collects college students' own videos, and is disrupting the college guide-book industry - Lyn Jeffery

Great example of new kind of learning: collective, mobile, entrepreneurial, super experiential. 4500 euros, 1 year, becoming a Knowmad: "nomadic knowledge workers"...a "platform for entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world". "Our purpose is to create a life-long learning community that starts with a one –year-program and the possibility to add on half a year after that. We work from the principle of a team setting based on Action Learning; meaning we we work with our heads, hearts and hands. First we discover what is going on around us, then we design, then we start to build and then we amplify it in a learning setting and as a socio-economic venture. You will experience this setting with 29 other people, 3 members of staff as well as as experts invited from business, politics and media, from all over the world." - Lyn Jeffery

"Twenty-two countries host time banks, including the Dominican Republic, Israel and Japan; the U.S. has 200 programs and the U.K. has 110. Time banks can be grafted onto non-profit groups, churches or businesses, and each program has its own twists. London recently started a time bank program called Tutor Commuter that matches individuals with others who take the same bus or train so these folks can pick up a new skill like, say, speaking another language." - Lyn Jeffery

fascinating discussion in comments on the subject of how to rank universities on a global basis, the nature of "reputation," and language: For instance, "...citation databases typically contain vastly more Anglophone literature than they do other scholarship. " - Lyn Jeffery

"Links between diet and disease are also emerging. Excessive levels of junk food appear to ‘turn off’ pleasure centres in the brain in mice, such that they eat more and more and become obese. A second project appears to have established a link between alcohol and impaired stem cell production, thereby reinforcing the danger of overconsumption or dependence. Links between too much TV at a young age and impaired brain development are a growing concern, such that the Australian Government is considering banning TV targeted at toddlers . Use of the internet on the other hand, may have a positive effect on our brains according to another project. The brains of new internet users showed significant changes within a week with greater activity in those areas used for decision making and memory . " - Lyn Jeffery

place to download full report: "China’s aspirations to become a standards setter in ICT should be seen against a background of institutional uncertainty in an international economy struggling to devise mechanisms of governance to accommodate rapid technological change and the emergence of large economies, and amidst a pluralism of views on techno-nationalist versus techno-globalist approaches." - Lyn Jeffery

Chinese UFO site - Lyn Jeffery

chat with random people from around the world - Lyn Jeffery

another China UFO site - Lyn Jeffery

"virtually destroying cigarettes may have led the participants to increase their "self-efficacy" in behaviours associated with quitting smoking. As well, the study theorized that the investment of time and energy into crushing cigarettes may be linked to a boost in the participants' motivation, or might create a more positive emotional response to stopping the behaviour." - Lyn Jeffery

brilliant! Art student ends up living in her childhood home: "This place, and every place, is both a vessel for and a vital character in the lives lived within it. My experience of the neighborhood had already filled fifteen maps, but it only scratched the surface of a vast social archeology waiting to be uncovered within the blocks surrounding my house." - Lyn Jeffery