Don Tapscott's Blog, page 53

Net Gen Education Challenge extended to June 6

The Net Gen Education Challenge deadline has been extended to midnight, June 6. This is the second year for the Challenge, where students are asked to produce a video illustrating how the social web nurtures teaching, learning, collaboration, and innovation for the 21st century. Read my post from March 13th for the Challenge details. The submissions so far have been excellent, and I look forward to announcing the winners in the near future.

Young people are the most active online reputation managers

A new report says that a growing portion of adult internet users are concerned about their digital online identity.  More than half (57%) of internet users over age 18 say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006. And a big surprise: Despite their reputation for being reckless with their online reputations, it turns out that young adults, what I call the Net Generation,  are the most active...

It's a wrap on MacroWikinomics

I should apologize and explain why I haven't posted anything for a number of weeks.  I've been working around-the-clock with co-author Anthony D. Williams on the final draft of MacroWikinomics. This morning the book went into production, meaning it's pretty much out of our hands and up to the publishers to bring to market.

It's been three years since Anthony and I wrote Wikinomics, which explored how mass collaboration was changing the way businesses communicate, compete, and succeed in the...

HP is title sponsor of the Net Gen Education Challenge

I'm pleased to announce HP as the title sponsor of the two global video challenges I announced in March. The HP Net Gen Education Challenge calls for ideas to shape the future of education and the HP MacroWikinomics Challenge calls for ideas on how to fix what's wrong with the world and its institutions, like business, government, the environment, and global problem solving. HP provides technology and services to help people and companies address their challenges and inspire new thinking, so ...

Capitalist crisis – what should be done?

Last week's fraud charges against Goldman Sachs were a wake-up call that trouble still lies ahead for Wall Street. With the global economy remaining stalled, the deepening jobs crisis, a looming commercial real-estate meltdown and other storm warnings of systemic problems, a wave of books dissects this greed-induced mess. Among the best are The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Michael Lewis's gripping blockbuster of how some smart people benefited from anticipating the implosion; Too...

Openness will prove more effective for the military

Reversing a decision it made last summer, the U.S. Marine Corps has decided earlier this week to allow Marines to use Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to keep in touch with family and friends.  The service now encourages "responsible and effective use" of social networking technology.

As quoted by Wired.com, a new directive states that "The Marine Corps embraces and strives to leverage the advances of internet-based capabilities. Effective immediately, internet-based...

Real-time advertising offers unprecedented precision

The old saw, "half my ads work, only I don't know which half" may soon not be as true as it once was. In yesterday's marketplace, companies tried to target their ads by choosing the television shows, magazines and other mediums that had demographics most closely resembling their target audience.  But the measurements were crude, and billions of dollars were spent putting advertising in front of people who had zero interest in the product.  If you lived in an apartment, advertisements...

Children a key element of National Broadband Strategy

The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Strategy is an ambitious ten-year plan to bring the benefits of broadband to all citizens in the country. Just prior to the Strategy's submission to Congress last week, FCC  Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech entitled "Digital Opportunity: A Broadband Plan for Children and Families." Unfortunately, the speech attracted zero media interest.

Genachowski announced a highly laudable "Children's Agenda for Digital Opportunity." It...

Net Gen Education Challenge underway

I'm delighted to say that I've again joined with Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay (Beijing (BISS) International School, China) to issue two global video challenges on how the social web nurtures teaching, learning, collaboration, and innovation for the 21st century.

Just as we did last year, the Net Gen Education Challenge is a call for ideas to shape the future of education. However, this year we've also added the MacroWikinomics Challenge. We're looking for ideas on how ...

Anonymity is double-edged sword

In a new study published in the Journal Psychological Science, psychologists Chen-Bo Zhong and Vanessa Bohns of the University of Toronto and Francesca Gino of the University of North Carolina suggest that under the cover of darkness, people's worst traits come out.  When human operate in darkness – literally, when a room or environment are not as well lit as others, and they think they can't be seen — they are more prone to lying, cheating and stealing.

The study found that even small steps s...