Flat Classroom Project

This tells what the world wide web is and gives the history of it.

"The World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is a service that operates over the Internet, as e-mail does. The history of the Internet dates back significantly further than that of the World Wide Web. The hypertext portion of the Web in particular has an intricate intellectual history; notable influences and precursors include Vannevar Bush's Memex,[1] IBM's Generalized Markup Language,[2] and Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu.[1]"

This web page shows the history of blogging and what it could evolve into.

Youtube connects the world online in many ways. One personal example that I have experienced is the Edutopia contest. It connected me and many other youth from around the United States to the George Lucas Foundation.

Apache helped discover the greatness of open-sourcing.

Apache is characterized by a collaborative, consensus, based developed process, an open and pragmatic software license, and a desire to create high quality software.

good source for the definitions

worked for wild brain, an animation studio that created stuff for the Disney channel.

Over the last 25 years, Scott Hyten has either been a founding employee, founded, co-founded or provided startup capital for some of the world's leading companies and practices, including technology practice Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) (Continuum outsourcing), the world's leading healthcare technology practice at Perot Systems (NYSE:PER); the largest independent animation studio at Wild Brain; and the world's leading managed hosting and internet broadcast compan at ThePlanet.com. Whether through managing 3-D Seismic exploration in the North Sea, Indonesia and Africa for Mobil Oil or building more than 100 computer-generated television shows and music videos for the Walt Disney Company, Hyten has pioneered the use and integration of technology utilizing a worldwide supply chain while producing product for a global market. He is featured in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tom Friedman's book, "The World is Flat." and has latterly received the Albert Einstein Award for technology, Scott Hyten's Specialties: Technology, Entertainment, Digital Content Distribution and Music

Fiber Optic Cables connected the world online by making the internet available to everyone in the world with a computer.

The NCSA is a great stepping stone to the evolution of Web 2.0.

Where the h*** is Matt is an example of connecting the world online because he traveled the world, danced, and had people from all around the world on his video.

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This is a great example of mobile and ubiquitous computing. It is a great example of social entrepreneurship

" Equal-Opportunity Globalization Historically, companies in the United States, Europe and Japan have led globalization, because those countries pushed products and services into developing countries. As the business of offshore sourcing grows, globalization is beginning to become widely accepted elsewhere. With "nearshore" and offshore sourcing, the global equation has changed. Enterprises in developing countries and emerging markets are now reaching into developed economies, offering a talented workforce at a fraction of the price. Developed and developing economies are exploiting each other's markets, economies and labor forces. It is natural to expect that those disadvantaged by globalization - irrespective of market - will protest and make known their issues. Likewise, local politicians and political parties may try to protect jobs and obtain votes through legislation such as the bills currently being debated in four U.S. states aimed at blocking the outsourcing of government work to offshore enterprises. Moreover, unlike previous instances of globalization - in textiles, products and manufacturing - the latest round is occurring almost instantaneously over a vast and sophisticated communication network. This has enabled business, projects, tasks and jobs to be transferred to virtual workforces across the globe quickly and transparently - a trend that is occurring so rapidly as to disorient entire professions, societies and organizations. Changing Nature of Technical Work Another factor making outsourcing attractive is the changing nature of technical work. By 2006, service-oriented architecture (SOA) will be at least partially adopted in more than 60 percent of new, large and systematically oriented application development projects (0.7 probability). The proliferation of Web services and SOA is causing software to be developed in smaller units that are easier to map to business processes. These smaller units are also ideal for an offshore envi

This is the wikipedia description of OLPC. It consists of many aspects of the project.

The concept of OLPC is a fascinating one. There are many issues with trading inside Africa but perhaps the coolest aspect of this is the "mesh" concept where one computer literally grabs internet off another OLPC that is nearby. The hand crank is also very cool as well.

"Mobile computing allows people to make use of computing and information systems without being tied to a desktop computer located in their office, classroom, or home. People can now make use of computer systems while on the move, whether waiting for a flight in some airport departure lounge, drinking coffee in their favorite cafe, simply driving home, or even just walking down the street. Thanks to the improved portability and processing power of laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants, and even mobile phones, as well as improved battery life and the near universal coverage of wireless data communications networks, mobile computer users can now make use of almost the same range of services as desktop users. While the use of current mobile computers often follows the traditional pattern of a single user interacting with their dedicated computer via its own display and keyboard, mobile computing is still at an early stage of development. In his seminal paper on the computer for the 21st century written in 1991†, Marc Weiser noted that "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." Weiser put forward a vision of future computer systems in which "computers themselves vanish into the background". In doing so he inspired a field of research known as ubiquitous computing . In the ubiquitous computing vision, interconnected (mobile) computers are embedded unobtrusively in everyday appliances and environments and co-operate to provide information and services on behalf of their users. The ubiquitous computing vision is now becoming a reality enabled by recent and expected developments in new sensor technologies - increasing the range of stimuli that can be effectively sensed, by wireless networking - allowing mobile computer systems to co-operate, by miniaturization of computational devices - allowing massive deployment of sensor-based systems in every

We are working towards this year's Flat Classroom Conference which will be held in conjunction with ASB Unplugged (since we are sharing opening ceremonies we are calling it a mini-conference.) The same powerful learning from last year's conference will be there and you as the teacher and your students will come away transformed! This is the application form and we do have some scholarships and host families for students although we do not have scholarships for airfare. This is in February and applications for scholarships and student attendees are due by October 31, 2009. This wiki has all the information.

Talks about how Trent Lott's scandal broke over the internet.

Talks about Dan Rather and shows some of the scandals that he went through.

"Digital Play is a blog of activities and ideas for EFL/ESL Teachers interested in using computer games and digital toys with their learners The authors of the blog are:- * Kyle Mawer * Graham Stanley"

Net neutrality is an important issue being addressed by the US government right now to prevent companies from sort of creating their own version of the Internet. These rules are supposed to keep things "open." I'm also sending these to my digiteen students (you can follow digiteen at http://www.twitter.com/digiteen) and Flat Classroom students (http://www.twitter.com/flatclassroom) for work on their project.

Very important overview of "net neutrality" being debated and discussed here in the USA. This would be an important topic to include under government and business for the Flat Classroom Project.