Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn and a believer of the “always be learning” approach, announced a major acquisition move this morning, saying Lynda.com is a great fit for the 346+ million user strong social network. According to TechCrunch, the deal is valued at $1.5 billion.
“The world moves too quickly now to rest on the knowledge we gained earlier in our lives,” Weiner said. He went on to say that in a knowledge-driven economy it’s all about the people. I agree with both his comments (click here), even though I only use LinkedIn and not Lynda.com – yet.
Apparently, in addition to what you’d assume you’d normally find on Lynda.com, the site also offers professional development such as courses by Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications. I didn’t know Lynda.com was founded in 1995, too. According to Wikipedia, Lynda.com’s online courses began in 2002. That’s quite a library of knowledge LinkedIn now has – And what a breathtaking social reach for Lynda.com!
OMG, America will soon have a publicly traded marijuana business! Or, a canna biz. No, that’s not made up – Search for cannabusiness on Google and you’ll see it’s totally a legit phrase these days, lots of sites using it. It’s a wordplay on cannabis – Get it? Cannabis, cannabiz, cannabusiness…
My prediction: Seems it’s just a matter of time until the plant is removed from the Controlled Substances Act. That’s the vibe I’m getting, and not just because of MassRoots’s upcoming IPO. Power to the people! And this is me talking, a person who doesn’t smoke! So you might be wondering: “Well, why are you excited then?” Well, part of MassRoots’s story shows that technology and democracy can work beautifully together. And you don’t need to be a smoker to be fascinated by CBD and yes, THC too (Click here to see what I’m talking about – whole plant cannabis therapeutics, baby!). Plus, we need new and lively industries in this country and this one has huge potential. I seriously see it unfolding as win-win – unless idiots or big pharma or whomever manages to fuck it up and halt progress or worse. Let’s hope against that, and hope against infighting too. If you think marijuana has health benefits, unite, because opponents could try to divide and conquer.
Excerpt from the original:
âSo in January we united the cannabis industry against [Apple’s no weed apps] policy,â he said. âOver 10,000 of our users sent personal emails to Apple saying why they loved Mass Roots, ranging from âI just met my husband on hereâ to âI suffer from anxiety, I need a social support networkâ to ‘Iâm a Colorado resident and you are violating my right to free speech.â A private company doesnât have a right to tell me what app I can and canât download on my phone.”
(Scroll down to view them. They’re from around the internet)
. . . If you said #1 and #2, I think you need your head examined. Why? Well – They’ve got no social links!
. . . And this is the social age. WTF.
#3 is tolerable because it’s got some social at the bottom, but LET’S BE REAL – the best of the bunch is #4. Look at how it has neat tabs for the person’s contact info, bio and latest work and it has social media icons.
#1 – Where are the social links!?!?!????
#2 – Pulls from Gravatar, I believe. I again ask: Where are the social media links??
#3 – Pulls from Gravatar but at least 2 social links are included, 3 if you count Skype (Look at the bottom part. Likely included manually)
If you preferred any of the first 3 instead of the final example (shown below), I’d love to know why. The most compact and arguably the best-looking interface is the final one. Take a look!
#4 â the winner: Mine again but on a different site
Yes #3 above is also me, but it’s from SocialWebCafe. #4 is from GrowMap. . . Look carefully and notice that they’re different in structure
#4 has neat tabs for my latest posts and bio
You can see the social media icons clearly, in a cluster
Tiffany Shlain lectures worldwide on filmmaking, the internetâs influence on society, and what the future may bring in our ever-changing world. Invitations have come from Harvard, NASA, Twitter, The Economist Big Ideas conferences, Fortune 500 companies, The Ideas Festival, MIT, and TED events including TEDWomen, among others.
A sought-after keynote speaker known for inspiring presentations, Tiffany received a standing ovation from 11,000 people after she delivered the keynote address for UC Berkeleyâs commencement ceremony in May 2010. She has had four films premiere at Sundance, including her acclaimed feature documentary, Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, which The New York Times hailed as âIncredibly engaging⌠Examining Everything From the Big Bang to Twitter.â The US State Department selected Connected one of the films to represent America at embassies around the world for their 2012 American Film Showcase. Connected had an 11-city theatrical run, its TV broadcast premiere on PBS KQED, and is available on iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and all digital platforms.
Other highlights:
Honored by Newsweek as one of the âWomen Shaping the 21st Centuryâ
Founder of The Webby Awards
Co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
Singled out by The New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and the Sundance Institute for her work using documentaries and internet distribution to engage audiences
Her films have won over 48 awards and distinctions including a 2012 Disruptive Innovation Award from The Tribeca Film Festival, and are known for their irreverent and profound unraveling of complex subjects like identity, technology, and science.
Q: Hi Tiffany. Itâs awesome getting to interview you on your latest body of work you let us preview. Of the films in this series, which one do you feel might resonate the strongest with the widest range of people, regardless of demographic? Technology Shabbat is the one I feel would do that.
A: Yes, I think what resonates is owning the fact that we can make these decisions, and reclaiming that. A lot of people say âWell, I already unplug on vacation.â The thing is, vacations happen once or twice a year, and there is a difference between doing it every week versus once a year. The most recent technology Shabbat was just so great to hang out with my family, doing art projects and things. Plus I felt so relieved, it was fun. Iâve been doing technology Shabbats every week for the last 3 and a half years, so now I run toward it, and they get sweeter and better. I have schedules for them, almost – I know if there are really fun things I want to focus on, I plan for those on Saturday.
In my talks, I like to mention how Einstein talked about motion and how time is relative, and the speeding up of time. I meant to include that in the film too, to let people know itâs possible to take one day and make it feel like itâs 4 days long, and then to feel so relaxed afterward. When my father died… that was profound. When someone close to you dies, you just think about time, all the time, how precious that is, and you can die at any moment. I didnât need any neuroscience to tell me it wasnât good to be that wired,
and to be increasingly distracted. And I was listening to myself. I think when someone dies, you really go deep into what lifeâs about, what you want in life, and how you want to be. I wanted to – and needed to – stop the distractions, the onslaught of data coming at me, just one day a week, because I also love the connectedness, I really do, but I knew it wasnât good all the time.
Q: If someone asks you to demystify the long lines and the camping gear in front of Apple Stores before a major launch, what do you tell them? I have to thank you because Episode 5 (Participatory Revolution) resonated with me. After I watched, now I think I know why I chose tech “mania” as a domain name. As you stated: Weâre creative beings and we want to be part of the mix! Itâs also wonderful to hear that the responses to A Declaration of Interdependence exceeded your expectations. I didnât see that film, but tying it to the 4th of July was pretty brilliant.
A: Oh! You should see it. A Declaration of Interdependence is part of another film series weâre working on called Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change. Basically we do these collaborative films; weâve made 3 and weâre just about to premiere our fourth one this December. Theyâre really fun. You can go to LetItRipple.org and see a lot. Theyâre a completely different way of making films that Iâve ever made. As for those overnight fans in front of stores, I donât know – I think itâs cultural
I saw something on that slow-motion feature on the new iPhone the other day and Iâm like, âI want it!â And then thereâs also the excitement factor of new, novel, fresh⌠I think you can probably say that about anything new. We like new and shiny things, and yes, theyâre also creative tools that allow us to try new things. So I think thereâs a âcult factorâ (laughter) – I mean, I was into Apple products ever since I was a kid and Iâve always been excited when something new comes out. I donât always get it right away like the ones who camp out, but I think theyâre passionately obsessed – they want to have the newest thing the second it comes out.
Q: What were some of your standout memories of doing A Declaration of Interdependence?
A: I mean, just the response, to be sitting in our film studios everyday, it was like I was directing from there! People being at their own locations shooting, and the power in building too, there was something very raw about that that came through in the footage.
Q: Was it easy to decide the order of appearance for the films?
A: We thought Technology Shabbat really showed the way I feel about technology, which is this love-hate relationship. With that film as the opener, we felt it would best set the stage for this series, in that I love technology, but I also worry about what itâs doing to us, and we need to be more mindful. And then the other films go in unexpected directions.
Q: As we move closer to the midpoint of this decade, have you experienced or heard of anything your instinct tells you might become the truly next big thing?
A: Yes, my 10-year-old daughter is coding in a visual coding environment named Tynker. I think thatâs going to open up a huge number of people coding. And itâs visual! Thatâs exciting to me.
Bonus video on global women leaders:
OM Audio, developers of audio products enabling consumers to connect with music like never before, today announced OM/ONE, the world’s first levitating Bluetooth speaker. Talk about an eye-catching conversation-starter. The makers of the OM/ONE say it’s practical and connects wirelessly to all major smartphones, tablets and computers. When detached, the hovering orb acts as a portable speaker that can be taken on the go. The built-in microphone also can transform the OM/ONE into a very cool looking conference room phone.
“In a world full of speakers that look and sound the same, the OM/ONE stands out from all the rest,” said David DeVillez, Founder and CEO at OM Audio. “Prior to our crowdfunding campaign we traveled Silicon Valley getting feedback from some prominent entrepreneurs and musicians and we’ve been very humbled by the praise we’ve received. We’re looking forward to getting these in the hands of consumers this holiday season.” The MSRP is $179 and to get one delivered before the 2014 holiday season visit www omone.com.
Okay, it looks cool – but how does it sound? Well, Mr. DeVillez is an audio engineer and the former Director of Operations, R&D and Engineering at Velodyne Acoustics. One of his design breakthroughs is the OM/ONE levitating driver for hearing every high and low with no external distortion. Listeners can use the OM/ONE by itself or pair it with another OM/ONE. The team says it can pair/unpair and answer call/hang-up with the push of a button.
Opera’s Coast mobile web browser is an iOS browser meant to provide a smooth, leisurely UX. For fun I’ve included one of their promo videos named “Cats by Opera”, which is a play on words (cats, Coast) and pays homage to the light, laid-back vibe the creators would like you to feel. Opera Coast been available as a free app via the Apple App Store since late April. It’s for the iPhone and iPad. If you have sites that work particularly well with the iPad, you can sync them to your iPhone by using the automatic iCloud sync of site tiles in Opera Coast. Related search words and quality website suggestions appear as you type in your query. As you enter a URL, website suggestions pop up.
Based purely on UI, in my humble opinion, Opera Coast reminded me of the Android third-party browser named UC Browser. Opera seemed a bit “cleaner” though. Product manager Huib Kleinhout said
âLike everyone who owns an iPhone, Iâve often picked it up when waiting for something or someone. I was never quite happy with how apps and browsers kind of got in the way of the content. With Opera Coast, we made content the main star of the show, letting the browser app itself get out of the way when you just want to kill some time. Itâs the way the web was meant to be enjoyed.â
Wasn’t sure what to expect from a “Galaxy” camera, but it really feels natural to an Android user like me. The reason? It runs on Android. Whatever you can download from GooglePlay, you can download onto this camera. For example: Photobucket, WordPress for Android, Gmail, GooglePlus, Easy Voice Recorder, Clipper, even Dropbox, Evernote and the normal mobile Chrome browser or “beta” mobile Chrome browser! Yup, it’s just like an Android phone, but it’s a camera and video cam too.
Don’t get me wrong – Samsung’s concept is wonderful, but a few functions required “getting used to” like pressing a side button to get the camera’s flash to pop up. It makes a slight snap sound when it pops up. To hide it, you need to physically push the flash down into its hideaway slot until you hear a locking click sound. At least you know it’s protected when not in use. The function that takes the most “getting used to” is the zoom feature. To zoom, you either pull or push on the wheel on the top right.
I was told this phone was created specifically with bloggers in mind. Would I agree with that characterization? Sort of. An advanced blogger might find this camera helpful if they’re familiar with saving drafts in advance and then accessing them in “WordPress for Android“. Alternatively, a blogger could use the browser-based text-mode editing UI in WordPress together with the Android Photobucket app to do mobile blogging. Not super easy, so I think a new blogger could easily feel frustrated if they assume this device will make blogging easier.
What I definitely don’t like is the fact that you can’t use 2 modes at the same time. For example, if you want to use “Best Face” together with the rapid fire feature (called “Continuous Shot”), you can’t. Or maybe we can but I just don’t know how.  It’s easy to transfer your pics (or recharge the camera) to your computer via a USB, so that’s a positive. Another thing I always find myself doing is resizing on my laptop because the pics taken are just so darn big, even when you set the camera to use the smallest dimensions. Overall verdict: Cool but not necessary for advanced bloggers who intend to do lots of mobile blogging. And a potential source of frustration for new bloggers.
Disclaimer re: prearranged or quid pro quo monetary compensation received: No monetary compensation received.
A: Yes, I think what resonates is owning the fact that we can make these decisions, and reclaiming that. A lot of people say âWell, I already unplug on vacation.â The thing is, vacations happen once or twice a year, and there is a difference between doing it every week versus once a year. The most recent technology Shabbat was just so great to hang out with my family, doing art projects and things. Plus I felt so relieved, it was fun. Iâve been doing technology Shabbats every week for the last 3 and a half years, so now I run toward it, and they get sweeter and better. I have schedules for them, almost – I know if there are really fun things I want to focus on, I plan for those on Saturday.
