NextNow Member Blog

From:— Karen SOBEL_LOJESKI <klojeski@virtualdistance.com>

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope that you are all well and weathering our current economic situation with some degree of optimism and recovery.

I wanted to let you know that my new book, “Leading the Virtual Workforce:— How Great Leaders Transform Organizations in the 21st Century”, Wiley 2009, is now available for purchase at booksellers everywhere.— The book is full of case studies and new ideas about how leadership should be re-imagined for the digital age.— My sincere thanks to the many executives and thought-leaders in this network who participated in shaping this work including (in order of appearance in the book):

• Steven Tainer, Contemplation Scholar and Author, Berkeley
• Susan Roser, SVP Global Service Support, Western Union
• Robert McMahon, President, US Commercial Operations, Merck
• Cheri Sterman, Director Content and Consumer Relationships, Crayola
• Guido Petit, Director Alcatel-Lucent Technical Academy, Alcatel Lucent
• Gina Poole, Vice President IBM Software Group Marketing 2.0, IBM
• Philip McKinney, VP and CTO Personal Systems Group, HP
• Kathy Burke-Thomas, Associate Director AT&T Project Management Center of Excellence, AT&T
• Larry McAndrews, CEO, National Association of Childrens Hospitals and Related Institutions
• Jack Barsky, VP of Information Technology, NRG
• Piet Hut, Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies

Stories centered on the organizations listed above are discussed in detail.— They give us great insights into what needs to change in order to better lead in today’s world.

If you should choose to read the book and find it beneficial, please post your comments to Amazon.com as this can help to raise awareness about Virtual Distance and the new leadership model proposed.— Also, if you have read the first book and are so inclined, please post your comments on “Uniting the Virtual Workforce:— Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise”, Wiley 2008.

On a separate note, a new book has just been released called “Wired for Innovation:— How Information Technology is Reshaping the Economy” by Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders.— This work was done when I was the Research Director for the Institute for Innovation and Information Productivity and worked closely with Erik and Adam to better understand the ways in which our economy is changing in light of information technology innovation.— If you are interested in how the economic picture is shifting in the wired world, I would highly recommend this book as well.

Thanks again.

Best Regards,

Karen

Warm Regards,

Brenda Hooper
Executive Administrator
Virtual Distance International
707-278-7190 office
707-277-3026 fax
707-591-6069 cell
bhooper@virtualdistance.com
http://www.virtualdistance.com

SIRIKATA: OLD STUFF IN NEW WAYS
Henrik Bennetsen
Nov. 5, 2009——— 12nn – 1pm—— Room 124 Wallenberg Hall

Sirikata (www.sirikata.com) is an BSD licensed open source platform for games and virtual worlds.

The platform has grown out of a several years of research at Stanford University, from two projects catalyzed by Media X, and the current ambition is to expand into a fully community run open source project. The Stanford Humanities Lab has built practical projects that explore potential futures of collaboration, cultural institutions and musical performance. This seminar will demonstrate and discuss this work in context of new technological possibilities offered by Sirikata.

In his role as associate director of the Stanford Humanities Lab Henrik maintains a strong interest in 3D collaborative spaces and open source technology. He is heading— the Speed Limits research project, a collaboration with the Danish Bornholm’s Kunstmuseum on how 3D collaborative technologies may augment traditional cultural institutions.— As part of this, he is deeply involved in the development of the open source Sirkata platform for the deployment of games and virtual worlds. Previously Henrik lead the Lifesquared research project that explored animating traditional archives using new technology. In 2007 he co-founded the Stanford Open Source Lab that has since grown to about 60 members from across the Stanford community. Henrik is Danish and has a MSc. In Media Technology and games from the IT University of Copenhagen and a BSc. in Medialogy from Aalborg University. Before his return to the world of academia Henrik was a professional musician and still has a strong side interest in creative self expression augmented by technology.

Media X Fall Seminars

Thursdays, Noon – 1pm, #124 Wallenberg Hall.

The Media X Fall 2009 Seminars will tap into the latest research and insights on how people and technology influence each other.— Our fall seminars resent these provocative thought leaders.

November 12: “The Mental Price of Media Multitasking”
Clifford Nass, CHiMe Lab

November 19: “The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation”
Chuck House, Media X

December 3: “Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete”
Byron Reeves, HSTAR, Media X

Attendance is free, subject to availability.
Directions and Parking
http://mediax.stanford.edu/directions.html
http://transportation.stanford.edu/pdf/parking-map.pdf

From: —— —Rob Stephenson <rstephenson@thetech.org>

Hi, Bill, The Tech Museum’s Star Trek blockbuster exhibition opened Friday, and I would like to offer Next Now trekkies the following discount code: NOTE-send me an email if you would like the CODE.— Bill Daul.— That is worth a 20% discount on the regular $25 price of admission.— Enter the code when ordering tickets online at http://thetech.org/StarTrek, or provide it when buying them in person at The Tech Museum in San Jose – just make sure they’re not sold out that day.
- Rob

————————–

Robert Stephenson
Curator, The Tech Virtual
The Tech Museum of Innovation
San Jose, CA, USA
http://thetechvirtual.org
http://programforthefuture.org

1 408 795-6162
rstephenson@thetech.org
AIM: rstephelearn, Yahoo!: rstephemi, MSN: rstephemi, Skype: rstephe
SL: Stephe Roux
SL/TG: Copernic Heliosense