Educating Entrepreneurs

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Are entrepreneurs an emerging segment of our society? I passionately believe they are. Entrepreneurship is the engine that fuels innovation, employment generation and economic growth. Given the current state of the global economy, entrepreneurs – special attention must be given to educating entrepreneurs. Drucker (1985) states, “what we need is an entrepreneurial society on which innovation and entrepreneurship are normal, steady and continual.”

Entrepreneurship and education need to be leveraged and interconnected if we are to develop the human capital required for building the societies of the future. By creating an environment where entrepreneurship can prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas an empower others, can we ensure that many of the world’s issues will not go unaddressed.

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Online PhDs an Emerging Segment of the Digital Society

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A few weeks ago I responded to a LinkedIn discussion question – “online PhD or not?” There were over 20 responses to this post weighing in both sides. I began to panic as I continued to read some of the posts that argued against online PhD, citing, “lack of acceptance by brick and mortar” institutions. My goal is to one day become a university professor. I fear my degree will be frowned upon because I did not go the traditional route.

Through my research I discovered that at least one-fifth of all higher education students now taking a least one online course. Of the estimated 3.9 million online students, 14 percent of those are taking graduate level courses. My belief is that online PhDs are an emerging segment of society, that will began to gain acceptance as the online education continues to grow.

Who could be better equipped to teach the next wave of online learners than PhDs who went the non-traditional, online route? More notably, is the scholar-practitioner model, that is the cornerstone of many online PhD programs. Online PhDs, learn about their about the scientific endeavor of knowledge while being simultaneously grounded in the day-to-day delivery of a product or service.

Should Web 2.0 Embrace Localization?

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After reading Bernard Sunn’s blog post, “Re-Localization Opportunities – Local 2.0“  I thought how can Web 2.0 developers incorporate local business owners into their 2.0 business models?  Believe it or not, a world still exists outside of the blogosphere or Twittersphere.  The Internet is mainstream, but there is still a market of millions of people and who prefer to shop local and fellowship in person rather than in cyberspace.

So the question is – How can web 2.0 developers reach those consumers?  By somehow targeting local business owners who cater to this market, developers have access to consumers who would normally be off the radar.

I commented on Bernard’s though-provoking post:

What a great post. I too found it thought provoking. I predict that we will see more and more Web 2.0 applications incorporate GPS (annotated tagging) in a way that will pull consumers out to local stores, shops, etc. For example, how can BrightKite take its annotated, geo-tagging application and localize it? How can they partner with local business owners, and bring value to them via their application and local BrightKite users? It will be interesting to watch this trend develop.

Should web application developers incorporate locailization into their business models?  Or should they continue to focus on the cyberspace for revenue generation?

Re-Localization Opportunities – Local 2.0 – ReadWriteWeb.

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Cloud Agents Bring Personalization for the User

ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez blogged about a new Twitter app called Twitchboard in her blog post, The Rise of Cloud Agents.   The uniqueness of Twitchboard stems from its ability to tie together different services on the social web and automates their interactions.

What’s so fascinating to me is not the application Twitchboard, as I haven’t even tried it, but the concept ad ideal of the cloud agent.  Which is term that is ahybrid of two terms – cloud computing and intelligent agent.

After reading Tom Carroll’s comment on the post:

This is just another step toward the cognative economy. The services we see to day are providing the foundation of integrated behaviors. Eventually these cloud agents will mature from simple integration services to complex filters and autonomous extensions of our public persona.

I began to see Twitchboard for more than what is was and more for what it represeneted.  Here is my comment:

I haven’t tried Twitchboard. But, I wanted to comment because I don’t believe the hype is actually for the application (Twitchboard), than it is for the concept of the application – and what the future holds for social network’s connectivity and relevancy. I believe that Twitchboard and similar applications are headed in the direction of personalized service for the user. Service that is centered around context and the user and not the application or the social network. Only time will tell….

What do you think?  I think cloud agents will be a part of web 3.0 in a big way.  Not to say cloud agents Are web 3.0, but only that they will play a part in its functionality and relevance to the user.

What are your thoughts?

The Rise of Cloud Agents – ReadWriteWeb.

State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008 Report

Hubspot has released its first-ever State of the Twitterspere report for Q4 2008.  The report summarizes the trends of Twitter users based on real data pulled from hundreds of thousands of Twitter profiles accessed through the reports generated by Twitter Grader.

I found that the report accurately reflects my Twitter profile.  For example, I currently have a Twitter grade of a 91, which based on the report, Twitter users with a score between 90-100 have an average of over 100 followers.  As of today, I have 169 followers and I’m following 180 people.

Are you on Twitter?  If not join today and connect with me.

Here is a link to the report: State of the Twittersphere – Q4 2008 Report.