Mobile, coupled with the web and social media becomes a powerful tool. From the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring, mobile has been playing an unparalleled role in expressing opinions, organizing individuals and distributing information. Enough power to the people to disturb, topple and change. Consider these statistics and trends around mobile technology: As of…
Mobile storytelling: an evolving story
I was recently invited to speak at DUXcamp hosted by NPR and then again at Microsoft Research around the subject of Mobile and Storytelling. I created a rather stream of consciousness presentation, bringing together various thoughts about storytelling in the mobile space. Still very rough around the edges but a central theme is beginning to…
Desperately seeking good kimchi in Seattle
Ever since I moved from Korea to Seattle in August of this year, I’ve been looking for a good place to buy kimchi. There is the Seattle area Korean supermarket, H-Mart, one in Lynnwood and the other in Federal Way, where I know they’ll have a good kimchi. I live in downtown Seattle – without wheels….
iPad as disruptive innovation in education
A recent meeting with a friend who is interested in technology in education, a NYTimes article More schools embracing iPad as a learning tool and recent flood of attention on the growing tablet PC market got me thinking about the potential of tablet PC’s (Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab etc) as a disruptive innovation for…
Up close with Ashoka founder Bill Drayton
Up close with Bill Drayton On June 3-4, I had a rare opportunity to be up close with Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka. He was invited as the keynote speaker at “International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship 2010”, an event hosted by Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Korea University in Seoul. I was asked…
Snowy day in Seoul
Snow in Seoul Seoul saw the heaviest snowfall in recorded history today. Make you realize how short “recorded history” actually is. We got about 24-25cm of snow. Tried for a couple of hours to make it to work on this first working day of 2010, but public transportation was a mess. Gave up after a…
ChangeON conference presentation
On November 20, 2009 I made a presentation at ChangeON, a conference focusing on non-profits internet media, hosted by the Daum Foundation, the charitable arm of the Korean internet portal, Daum Communications. They just posted the video online. My presentation (in Korean) was entitled “UX for Good”, focussing on how internet technologies and social media…
How losing control isn’t that bad
Mister Splashy Pants, a whale named after Greenpeace held a naming competition in 2007 isn’t really news, but Alexis Ohanian, who is a founder of Reddit tells a great story at TED (in 3 minutes no less!) of how social media created a meme, took Greenpeace by surprise, won the competition, Greenpeace ceded control and…
Green roof sightings in Seoul
Green roof tops Daum Communications / Ilshin Building, Seoul, Korea Seoul is not known for it eco-friendly building designs, but a couple of buildings I encountered recently, which have significant green roofs, have made me thinks that there may be hope yet for this city. A Green roof according the Wikipedia: A green roof is…
Sugar on Eee PC
Sugar running on Asus EeePC Finally got Sugar installed on my Asus Eee PC. My brother gave me a pink Asus Eee as a gift for my daughter about a year ago, but having used it for a few days I was convinced that the version Linux it was running and the lack of Korean…