I found very interesting post on Tom Barrett's "ICT in my Classroom" blog about how Twitter is used as an educational tool.

Tom's post also describes where Twitter is positioned among other communications tools. Twitter is not a synchronous or an asynchronous communication system. It is rather both at once depending how channel's followers use it.

He makes a nice metaphoric comparison between Twitter and a flowing torrent where people can just stand by it and observes the flow. Some prefers to jump into while others simply do not pay much attention to the  stream.

Personally I am amazed to see how many different ways Twitter is used today. There are, indeed, lots of individuals (you and me) but also some politicians (Clinton, Obama, UK Prime Minister), Public Services (LA fire department, AmCross), Airlines, News agencies, etc.. which are increasingly using it, but not necessarily to interact with others but to broadcast content or information.

Is any company using Twitter for internal use only ? 

Tags: 2008, air, airlines, art, ATT, blog, ces, communication, downing, ia, ict, im, iso, lan, nomadcom.net, paris, post, prime minister, public, services, twit, Twitter, uk, wp

Quite surprised to discover that British Prime Minister Office, the famous 10 Downing Street, is, since very few days, using social networks to communicate on the Web. 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown (at least his PR team) is active on Twitter and photos of the French President's visit to Downing Street have been published, by PM communication team, on Flickr.

Is PM Brown a geek also ? 

Who will be next ? This one perhaps ?

Q: Will it give enough "respectability" to introduce micro-blogging into corporate environment ? or is it still too early ? I will come on that subject again, after reading Simon's post

Tags: 2008, blog, brown, communication, downing, Flickr, geek, ia, im, lan, micro-blogging, network, nomadcom.net, photo, politics, post, prime minister, sco, social, social networking, twit, Twitter, uk, web, web 2.0, wp, www

Emirates Airlines announced yesterday that passengers will no longer have to switch off their mobile phones and will be allowed to make calls and text people during their journey on-board.

The first flight with authorized mobile phone calls was made on 20th of March between Dubai and Casablanca on-board of an Emirates Airbus A340-300 fitted with AeroMobile system, which ensures mobile telephones operate at minimum power during flights and make sure mobile phone signal does not interfere with aircraft navigation equipments.

A second aircraft equipped with the same AeroMobile system will be in service shortly.

Rates were not published, but in 2007, cost per minute was estimated between 2.50 and 3.50 USD.

Source: Arabnews via Wi-Fi Networking 

Tags: 2007, 2008, aeromobile, air, airbus, aircraft, airlines, arc, art, blog, cellphone, cellular, emirates, flight, gsm onboard, ia, im, King, lan, light, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobile phone, network, nomadcom.net, passengers, phone, phones, power, Travel, wifi, wp, www

How do your corporate applications look like ?

Sources : Stuff That Happends via Fred Cavazza

Tags: 2008, apple, blog, ces, cleaver, Fun, google, humor, ia, im, kiss, lan, nomadcom.net, simple, simplicity, vision, wp, www

London police launched on 25th of February a new advertising campaign. Posters and TV ads are urging Londoners to turn in people who might be taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

"Thousands of people take photos every day.

What if one of them seems odd ?

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.If you see someone doing that, we need to know.

Let experienced officers decide what action to take." 

Other posters target households:

"you see hundreds of houses every day. What if one has unusual activities and seems suspicious"

as well as mobile phone users :

"Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious?"

What's going on in London ? Is the Metropolitan police not busy enough ? did they become completely paranoiac ? or do they need some budget increase ?

Where is this so famous British phlegm ?

As a response, many people have already redesigned the posters to point out the absurdity of them. Some samples are available on BoingBoing.

Tags: 2008, advertising, ATT, attack, blog, camera, civil liberties, counterterrorism, CTU, design, february, fon, ia, ict, im, King, lan, launch, location, london, mobile, mobile phone, nomadcom.net, officer, paranoia, PDF, phone, photo, photographers, Photography, picture, police, post, posters, public, security, snitch, suspect, terror, terrorism, uk, USA, user, wp, www, XP

The WNDW team has released its second edition of the book "Wireless Networking in the Developing World". The 425 page book includes lots of new material, including new chapters on solar power and economic planning, several new case studies.

The book is released for free under a Creative Commons license and is available in several languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, and soon Arabic and Portuguese). and it is free to download, print, update, or redistribute it.

The Wireless Networking in the Developing World book is just one part of the WNDW project. Community forums, training workshops, and additional material are also available on their website, http://wndw.net/.

via : Lunch over IP 

Tags: 2008, art, blog, book, community, develloping country, development, free, HP, ia, im, internet, King, lan, language, network, nomadcom.net, pda, power, project, release, Telecommunications, train, update, W NDW, web, website, wifi, wireless, world, wp, www

Back online after few days on Chinese Mountains I discovered lots of interesting informations about Internet disruptions which occurred earlier this month and impacted more than 90 millions Internet users. Outages were due to up to cuts on up to 9 submarines cables located, for most of them, around the Arabian Peninsula.

"I Love Bonnie" published on the 12th the excellent "The Submarine Cables – A Complete Guide to the 2008 Internet Outage". The post contains tons of informations and links and provides a detailed review of the events. Media coverage can be found on Renesys site. Steven M. Bellovin professor at Columbia  University analyzed the possible causes of these outages.

Some also speaks, indeed, about conspiracy  

Tags: 2008, access, blog, cable, ces, columbia, disruption, event, Flickr, ia, im, Impact, internet, internet access, lan, LED, nomadcom.net, online, outage, photo, post, review, sco, submarine, Telecommunications, university, user, wp, www

This time iA (Information Architects) have taken almost 300 of the most influential and successful websites and pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map

An A3 printable version is available as well as an online clickable one.

Where your prefered sites are located on this map ? Are you moving by the trend ? 

Tags: 2008, arc, blog, bt, ces, ia, im, information architects, lan, map, mapping, nomadcom.net, online, PDF, release, tendancy, train, trend, web, website, wp, www

I haven't review in details all news from the CES 2008 that closed its doors on Thursday but it seems the Global Energy problem contributes to have better ideas regarding the way we can power our IT stuff.

One company, Green Plug, has identified a significant contributor to the high cost of battery-powered consumer electronics products, wasted energy and unnecessary toxic waste. A typical home or office has a dozen or more power transformers that convert between 90V and 254V wall power to device-specific DC power. Every adapter is physically unique and therefore is thrown away every time a device is replaced.

Green Plug comes with a better idea.

Creating a standardize power supply which can be used by all Green Plug^TM compliant devices utilize uniform cables and connectors; so, you never have to worry about finding the right adapter for your laptop, DV camera, cell phone or power tool.

Let's hope they will be able to convinced enough partners to have a real impact on the market and we'll have soon all our electronic devices using a single and unique type of power supply.

Tags: 2008, adaptor, art, ATT, blog, cable, camera, ces, electricity, energy, find, fon, Gadgets, global, global power efficiency, green, ia, im, Impact, lan, laptop, nomadcom.net, phone, power, power adaptor, review, supply, web, wp, www

Just after posting the article about new safety measures on US aircraft I found an interesting post on New York Times "Jet Lagged" blog titled "Airport Security Folies"

Here after a short excerpt of Patrick Smith article

" Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes. Explosives scanning for checked luggage, for instance, was long overdue and is perhaps the most welcome addition. Unfortunately, at concourse checkpoints all across America, the madness of passenger screening continues in plain view. It began with pat-downs and the senseless confiscation of pointy objects. Then came the mandatory shoe removal, followed in the summer of 2006 by the prohibition of liquids and gels. We can only imagine what is next…."

Continue reading it on NYT website 

On my own opinion, Airport security today is a mix between relevant and must have security measures on a side but also theatrical, annoying and ridiculous measures. Some of these measures are time consuming, put passengers and crew on their nerves for no safety added value. What does really justify them?

• Government "zero  political risk" (if something happens they will be able to tell that all possible protection measures were already taken) ?
• Fear factor = better military/law enforcement budget ?
• Security private experts / companies have highly increase their financial income since September 2001. They certainly not ready to give this golden egg away.
• Did I speak about million dollars detectors and scanners manipulated by low trained personnel ?    

but do you think air travels are safer to face well prepared, organized and motivated enemies ?

Tags: 2007, 2008, air, air travel, aircraft, airport, art, ATT, attack, batteries, blog, detector, enforcement, fon, ia, ict, im, jet lagged, lan, law, LED, lithium, MIT, new york times, nomadcom.net, nyt, organize, passengers, post, risk, safe, safety, screen, security, spare, terror, train, Travel, web, website, what is, wp, www, XP