Saturday, March 23, 2013

Best Digital Video Infographic Ever

Everyone knows that digital video is a rapidly growing digital information medium. In fact, here are some stats that prove it.
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube. (source: YouTube)
  • In 2012, online video saw a 46.5% growth rate. (source: eMarketer)
Bored yet?

That's why infographics were invented. They use artwork and analogies to make statistics meaningful to people.

A friend recently shared with me an infographic that used YouTube video and audio to explain the severe state of income equality in the United States and how it's really much worse than the straight statistics appear. The video is based on 2011 Harvard Business School research by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely. The video itself is created by someone named Politizane, who no one on the Internet seems to know much about.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Learning Spanish for Free

I just went to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico for a week, and I fell in love not only with the clear aqua waters of the Caribbean but also with the language of its people. I came home resolved to learn Spanish, and planned to buy Rosetta Stone language learning software to get started.

Then, I remembered all the articles on MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) that I've been reading. Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, and edX are the major platforms of online courses. They are collaborations of major universities, venture capitalists, and developers looking to offer the world's best learning to everyone -- for free.

When I searched these sites, there wasn't a Spanish class on them, but further Google searching yielded two other options. The first is Spanish MOOC, which is run by a language educator named Scott Rapp. It simulates a traditional class structure. Run over 12 weeks, it includes lectures, conversation, homework, and even tests. It uses digital tools like Google Hangout for interaction. Also like a traditional class, it has a start and end date, and I had missed my window to join.

So I kept searching, and I found duoLingo.

Using duoLingo is easy. You create an account and walk through the short simple lessons, a combination of phrases, vocabulary and grammar. You read, write, and with your PC's microphone, practice pronunciation. The experience is lightly gamified for fun, and you have the option of repeating areas of the lesson where you need more practice.

Why would a website offer free language classes? It's a bit of a quid pro quo. It teaches you Spanish. You join its crowdsourced project to translate the Internet.

The project is the brainchild of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Luis Von Ahn. According to the Motley Fool, it's a well-funded brainchild with $18 million in backing from venture capital firms, as well as Ashton Kutcher, and Tim Ferris, the author of The 4-Hour Work Week.

We'll see how much Spanish I'll learn in this manner, and whether I'll ever get good enough to contribute to the translation of tomes of content on the Internet. I'm a little skeptical on that part.

Either way, it's amazing that some learning has been freed from its gatekeepers and is providing competition to paid education. Rosetta Stone lost at least one customer for now. It's not enough to charge for learning just cause you can. I'll pay for Rosetta Stone if I end up needing it. But I'll need some proof of that first.

As Thomas Friedman recently reported, "Institutions of higher learning must move, as the historian Walter Russell Mead puts it, from a model of 'time served' to a model of 'stuff learned.'"  If base education is free, then paid education will need to offer more than the promise of 12 weeks or four years to park ourselves in class. They'll need to show us it works.


Monday, January 21, 2013

Airport Serenity Part II -- Long Beach

My family never understands why I want to be at the airport two hours before my flight from Long Beach when it's likely not necessary. The airport is small and usually not too crowded.
There are two reasons.
Number one: Sometimes it is necessary because of unusually long lines. So it's good to be safe.
Number two: I like to read, check email, or catch up on work at the new crop of upscale cafes, wine bars, and restaurants that fill airport gate areas.
Like right now I'm at 4th Street Vine wine bar at the recently revamped Long Beach Airport, a $45 million affair (according to the NY Times) that includes a patio, two bars, burgeoning garden, and food court.
Apparently, I'm part of a trend. Here's the full New York Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/business/at-la-guardia-delta-uses-ipads-to-fill-the-wait-time.html?_r=0
May you be reading it outdoors in January, sitting in a red and black wicker chair, with a California Chardonnay (the dry one) in one hand, watching the sun fall behind Jet Blue A320s. Like I am.





Saturday, January 19, 2013

Serenity at the Airport

For as many times as the airport causes my pulse rate to rise, I have experienced moments of serenity.
Like right now.
I arrived early for a short hop to Long Beach from San Francisco. My early-morning flight leaves from the modern, minimalist International Terminal at SFO. My chai latte and view of the rising sun made only more enjoyable by finding a table near a power outlet so I can charge my iPad.
Peace.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Best privacy notice ever

Creativity is being able to take something as boring as a European Union data protection notice and making it fun. Nice job, Greenpeace. When I went to greenpeace.org today to check out their Toxic fashion campaign, I was greeted by the pop-up below.

Greenpeace not only used creative art and copy to talk about the mundane subject of website cookies, but also made the public service announcement loud and clear. Most people (like me) would be resentfully spending time trying to figure out the most diminutive way to deliver this notice, but Greenpeace actually spent time explaining the cookies. Extra points for drawing happy pictures of cookies, with sprinkles.



Sunday, July 01, 2012

Is Yelp Fair to Businesses

I wrote this article for PCWorld November 2011:


A report written by Harvard Business School assistant professor Michael Luca showed just how powerful a Yelp rating can be: Luca found that a one-star increase in the rating of an independent restaurant leads to a 5 to 9 percent increase in revenue.

But with livelihoods hanging in the balance, the symbiotic relationship among the Yelp technology platform, reviewers, and local businesses is under stress, showing flaws in a system that must accommodate a high volume of user-generated content.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

E-Book Prices Fuel Outrage--and Innovation

Courtesy of PCWorld.com
Writing feature stories is getting harder and harder, what with the digital-planning day job and all. This one was worth the sleepless nights. If you're a book lover outraged at $15 ebook prices or a writer hoping to keep them, check out my latest article for PCWorld.com and find out what the fuss is about.