Obama, the 2.0 President Has My Attention

Our new 2.0 president has posted his first weekly address from the White House website, via the White House official blog. This, as everyone knows, is not Obama's first encounter with web 2.0 tools. Who could miss the CNN and Facebook postings or the news stories on President Obama and his tight bond with his blackberry. After you view the above video blog, which I embedded via a tool provided by the White House website, I encourage you, the reader to visit the http://www.whitehouse.gov/ website and read the President's Agenda for Technology. As a technology instructor, a librarian and most of all the parent of Net generation children, I am very pleased to see his technology agenda.

Age of the Geek, Baby!

Most of the shows I'm drawn to have a lot of geek technology or show a history of technology with adventure and sci-fi psycho-psychology blended in to them. It is kind of obvious when you look at my top favorites: My Own Worst Enemy, Leverage, Life on Mars and GhostWhisper. The last one might surprise you because it really depends more on the technology behind the special effects that are part of its creative process. Here is a clip by the techno geek of Leverage.

Lee and Sashi LeFever Explain Video Licenses

When I first started exploring the features of Google. I adored the short and simple videos they posted by Lee and Sashi LeFever of commoncraft.com. Lee & Sashi knew just how to explain Google applications and tools in a clear and easily understood video clip. Now they have expanded their video business online and they make how-to videos for other businesses, including Microsoft. You can visit their business at http://www.commoncraft.com/ . What I want to point out is the way Lee and Sashi explain their business practices and show us (and students) how they as a business handle copyright, licensing and fair use. There is a lot to be learned from these two ecommerce entrepreneurs. I hope you'll visit their website to view their video,Video sharing in Plain English. Since this is a blog and I may use one of their free videos here I hope you will enjoy watching this one on blogs...by commoncraft.com : )

Microsoft Trys to Take on Open Source

Microsoft is now seeing the light and promoting collaboration and offering their own web 2.0 tools free of charge. You can go to their microsoft.com/education website and view a webcast on the their new down loadable add-ons and the free online Live@EDU email accounts and Live Office 2007 accounts. The online Office 2007 programs are for Office 2007 licensed users and are being marketed to educators and students. The webcast, Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Free Tools and Resources from Microsoft tells you about these tools and others offered. One can learn more about their new initiative in pursuing the higher education arena by watching the webcast, Live@edu Overview.

I've mention the free down loadable screen recorder, the Community Clips Recorder in a previous post. I've also mentioned the Live Office. I've tried both and think they are impressive. Yet, I hesitate to put full confidence in using them like I do Google tools because they are both still considered Betas and one wonders how long they will last. Of course, one could also wonder if Google can last at the speed that they are offering free web 2.0 services. Will Microsoft stay with their goal of chasing down open source competitors with their own free web 2.0 tools? Can they really adjust to giving away free access to components of their software without charging for it?

I have to admit their webcasts at the Microsoft eduction website are very enticing. I also like the websites student and education product tutorials that is linked the the education web page.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/tutorials.mspx