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Critical Mass: How Digital Technology Will Define the Way You Live Digital communities are where you live-that's "you" as in Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2006, which recognizes and celebrates "the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter." This Digital Communities Special Report discusses how the 120 million Americans who are active online users and creators of content and services are changing the world by redefining it around their preferences and predilections, and by the technologies they use and the way they use them. Also see http://www.accela.com/products/whitepapers.asp

Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work.

Revenue from music sold over the Internet, via mobile phones and in other digital forms, rose by 25 percent last year, to $3.7 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report set for publication Friday. Digital sales accounted for 20 percent of the industry's revenue, up from 15 percent a year earlier.

At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers' science lectures. Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for "digital sections" of several English, history and science classes. And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create - and share - lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.

As travel costs rise and airlines cut service, companies large and small are rethinking the face-to-face meeting - and business travel as well. At the same time, the technology has matured to the point where it is often practical, affordable and more productive to move digital bits instead of bodies.

...less than a month before the Feb. 17 deadline, so many American households have yet to take the necessary steps to continue to watch over-the-air television - more than 6.5 million, according to Nielsen Media Research - that Congress has considered giving them more time.

According to the latest data, the U.S. "adoption rate" for mobile phones stands at 85 percent. That's higher than the percentage of Americans who have DVD players (84 percent), home PCs (80 percent), digital cameras (69 percent) or MP3 players (40 percent), according to the Nielsen Co. "The concept that within my lifetime we'd have the kind of penetration we have today is unimaginable," says Martin Cooper, 79, the former Motorola researcher who invented the portable cell phone in 1973.

My friend and colleague Marc (who really needs a blog) alerted me to this story regarding a recent legal ruling in the matter of the University of Ottawa and the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (UPUO). The case arose when the U of O charged that Professor Denis Rancourt "had misrepresented his course in a detailed web posting, in such a way as to have described a dramatically different course not compatible with the official course description." The 65-page ruling the case supported Dr. Rancourt's actions as within the purview of academic freedom.

Seretta picked FirstClass to serve as the school's unified messaging and collaboration solution. Accustomed to paper and more traditional means of communication, many staff members and faculty were reluctant to embrace the new system. Seretta didn't give in. "We went from zero to 90 percent adoption within three months, so there was no time for hand wringing or debate," said Seretta. "We simply said no more paper, unless it involved internal documents that require signatures."

Have you bought any textbooks recently? K-12 book prices are outlandish; college textbooks border on criminal and publishers are moving slower than molasses in January when it comes to moving towards any sort of electronic publishing model. I know, let's cut down countless trees, print on them with toxic inks, and gouge the heck out of students when we could drastically cut costs and environmental impact by publishing books electronically! Good call.

This might be an interesting way to facilitate conversation in classes and professional development.