Fleep’s Deep Thoughts

Courtesy of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign comes a summary of recent news articles with information about Gov. Strickland’s plans for reforming education in the State of Ohio.
There has been a flurry of news reports about Gov. Ted Strickland’s education reform plan. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, the governor [...]

On the third day of the vBusiness Expo in Second Life, IBM’s Sandra Kearney, Global Director for 3D Internet & Virtual Business, speaks about the evolution of internet technology and the potential of virtual worlds for work and collaboration. She sees an ecosystem of technology tools, platforms, and services that [...]

Haven’t read the book, but listening to this video while mopping:

Representative Ed Markey presides over the virtual hearing in Second Life. Photo courtesy Rik Riel.
Update: Alan Levine at the New Media Consortium’s site just posted an audio link of the hearing. Thanks Alan!
TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2008
Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Hearing
9:30 [...]

I am cross-posting a comment I just made on a 400+ thread at the broken toys blog because I think buried in a bunch of really ugly muck is an extremely interesting question, and I’d rather participate in a conversation that is moderated.
The background of this very extensive conversation can be found here:
* [...]

Remarks below are liveblogged/paraphrased from the event, all mistakes in translation are mine!
- We know that education is not a key priority, it is THE priority. We know that the single greatest determininant for a young student’s economic success is their educational attainment.
- Our political leaders are making higher education a priority. [...]

As the Ohio primary draws near and now that John Edwards has dropped out of the race, I’ve been trying to pay a little more attention to the political process going on all around me. I ignored Super Tuesday completely, I’ve been purposely avoiding as much of the “horse race” coverage as possible, and [...]

Thanks @fireton for this old protest song gem:

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore
© John Prine
While digesting Reader’s Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could [...]

Live on Reuters island in Second Life, Adam Reuters interviews SL CEO Philip Rosedale, currently discussing entrepreneurship. Philip disagrees that there is a PR strategy problem, and says that transparency is the way to go, but pre-discussion of policies may be more damaging than just announcing policy changes when they [...]

Just the other day I watched a PBS Frontline episode about Kiva, a micro-lending non-profit that uses the web to connect lenders and borrowers. Individual lenders can see pictures and stories of loan applicants, choose which projects to fund, and track the borrowers progress on loan repayment. Even small dollar amounts can have [...]