Steven Johnson is the author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. In his book, Steven directs the reader to look beyond the mere search for a spark of brilliance and to ask himself: what kind of environment nurtures the development of good ideas? In this 4 minute video, the main ideas and questions from Steven's book are summarized and presented with a simple narrative and an engaging use of illustration. These main ideas include: Where do "good ideas" come from? The "Slow Hunch" - most great ideas take a long time to evolve. Good ideas come from collisions of smaller ideas - your "hunch" connecting with someone else's "hunch." The primary engine of creativity and innovation throughout recent history has been connectivity. We have so many new ways to connect now. Even though we're distracted and multi-tasking, we have much more opportunity...
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E-books are projected to revolutionize education. After our last blog-post about Google, Apple had some big news of their own today. Apple released iBooks 2, an update to their e-book software for iOS devices (the iPod, iPad, and iPhone). In true Apple-fashion, a press event was held to present the new software and it's most exciting features. Phil Schiller, introducing iBooks 2, described Apple's desire to use the iPad for educational progress. Schiller pointed out that students like to learn on the iPad - in fact it was the # 1 item on teens' holiday wish lists this year. He then described that iPad textbooks can replace the cumbersome, short-lived, non-interactive paper textbooks that students are used to. Apple has already partnered with McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to start the ball rolling. These companies are currently responsible for 90%...
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The blogosphere is abuzz this month because Google has unveiled an "update" of sorts to it's search engine, called "Search Plus Your World." The basic premise of the new search platform is that Google will combine the regular search results that we are used to with personalized search results based off of your Google+ social networking account. Graeme McMillan, at techland.time.com, gives a pretty good breakdown of the specific "changes" here, but I'll also list out some of the new features for your benefit, based on his info: -Personalized search results based on your Google+ information -Auto-complete prompt based on that same Google+ information -Google+ promotion on the right-hand sidebar of your search results page (for example, linking you to Google+ conversations about your search query) Don't fret: you can apparently turn off the option to have your search per...
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"Smartphone ownership has more than doubled in two years," says Suzanne Choney in this MSBC Technolog article. She's merely interpreting data collected from the past year. That data, collected by Nielsen, a leader in global market research, tells us that over half of people aged 25-34 years, and over half of people aged 18-24 years are all smart phone owners. This generation of smart phone owners use their phone to shop (literally, while at a physical store, they will compare products via a virtual store), engage in social networking (with Facebook being the most popular phone app available), text, and well, I assume to make phone calls sometimes. Why does any of this matter? Because it means your website is increasingly being viewed and utilized on a mobile device. Your Creative People can take your website and design and implement a mobile friendly version for your ...
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