SOMEWHAT FRANK

New Focus on Entrepreneurship at Purdue

I just spent three and half days last week at my undergrad alma mater, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was my first trip back to Purdue since October of 2005 and I was pleasantly surprised at the positive updates on campus since my last visit.

I Am Somewhat Inspired: What Inspires You?

Innovation starts with education and I believe in lifetime learning. I starting writing SOMEWHAT FRANK due to my curiosity and interest in learning more about blogging. Now I am inspired by personal technology. I like to figure things out and that helps to keep me constantly learning new things. Intel recently created, Inspired By Education, a site dedicated to helping to highlight the importance of education and lifetime learning. I shared my thoughts on "What Inspires Me?" in this video (above). Check it out and share what What inspires you? by uploading a video.

Wattzon: A Personalized Energy Tracker

"It's gettin' hot in herre, so take off all your clothes." from the popular Nelly song, Hot In Herre

Rather than shed all your clothes you might want to first determine why it is getting so hot in here - on the planet Earth. Climate change is definitely something that has take center stage as the Earth is heating up. But we all can help to lessen our individual impact on climate change. Something as simple as unplugging your coffeemaker or toaster after use can help to save energy and reduce your negative impact on climate change. I find it is difficult to measure the various things I am doing to impact climate change. WattzOn recently launched to create tools to help us all determine our energy consumption.

Spreed News Helps You Speed Read News

There is so much news content being produced by both mainstream and social media outlets these days that it harder than ever to get through all of it. Taking an academic approach to productivity and literacy Spreed News recently launched to try and help you read through your news faster, thus saving you time.

What will computers empower us to do?

Intel recently unveiled the World Mural Project to coincide with its 40th Anniversary celebration. This unique collaborative Web artwork offers content from the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, a worldwide after-school community-based technology learning program for kids in under-served communities. The project offers an interact display as you can navigate the globe looking at the various pieces of user contributed artwork around the theme "what computers will empower us to do" over the next 40 years.

Drop your SOMEWHAT FRANK perspective on that very question:

What will computers empower us to do in the next 40 years?

In the comments section.

Read Books In Small Doses On Twitter

DailyLit, a creative daily book delivery offering, has just added another means for users to consume book contents in small digestible increments by enabling a Twitter groups with daily updates. If you are interested in reading your books in short, serialized installments via Twitter, DailyLit is offering the following three titles available for free:

• TwitterID: DailyLitMagicK
  Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
  128 readers (followers)
  
• TwitterID: DailyLitPride
  Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
  68 readers (followers)
  
• TwitterID: DailyLitSucceed
  Tom Peters's 100 Ways to Success/Make Money
  60 readers (followers)

Twitter users will be able to follow the selected title each day with Twitter updates providing a link to that day's installment. This release further shows DailyLit's devotion to making book reading more manageable in our everyday busy lives.

Social Media & Blogging Presentation

I just spoke at the Social Rockstar Workshop at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. about Social Media & Blogging. It was a great conversation and thank you to everyone that attended. I have uploaded to docstoc the online document sharing site for anyone that would like to take a look at the presentation.

I got some social media feedback from some of the attendees here and here.

Social Media & Blogging - Get more documents

Forvo: An Online Pronunciations Dictionary

I am terrible at pronunciations. Forvo is an online resource that might be able to help by leveraging the wisdom of the crowds to collect and offer audio pronunciations of words. Currently, they offer 14,653 words 13,131 pronunciations in 182 languages.

GoTrybe Aims To Keep Kids Fit & Healthy

Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Most computer games, mobile devices and other online activities these days contribute to a sedentary lifestyle. How can kids keep on top of the obesity? GoTrybe, a Tennessee based startup, offers a interactive online approach aimed at attacking the problem. GoTrybe is an interactive community for kids based on health and wellness. 

What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funds?

Stanford University recently launched on on-campus venture fund called SSE Ventures. I think this is a great idea but I do not thing Stanford University is the only school that is doing this. So I thought I would ask SOMEWHAT FRANK readers to try and come up with other schools that might have similar programs. Here is a SOMEWHAT FRANK question for you:

What Schools Offer On-Campus Venture Funds?

Leave the school name, fund or program in the comments section below.

Edmodo: Microblogging For Education

Microblogging has becoming extremely popular as sites like Twitter and Pownce have jumped onto the scene to enable users to quickly share messages, links and files. I recently got a preview of a Chicago-based startup that has created platform a new microblogging platform. Edmodo, a self-funded bootstrapping startup co-founded by Jeff O'Hara and Nic Borg offers microblogging for education and groups. Since both co-founders work in education, they wanted to do something to help others in the space. They also noticed there were not microblogging platforms available with the rostering and privacy options needed in the educational space - so they decided to build Edmodo.

Neulio Online Education Platform Launches

Are you particularly good at something and want to tell the world just how to do it? Or do you work at a company looking to setup some free online courses but don't know where to start? If so, you might want to check out Neulio. Neulio, an Orlando, Florida based startup, recently launched to offer a free platform for anyone looking to create an online course to educate via distance learning.

Video: Why Facebook Works For Me...

Facebook usage has been on the rise and with it, a frenzy to create Facebook applications. What's all the frenzy about? Dave McClure, an advisor for several startups and non-profits, has created a new course titled, Creating Engaging Facebook Apps at Stanford University to help answer that very question. For the course, Matt Monahan has created a video to explain why Facebook works for him.

Ruckus Aims Free Music At College Kids

Ruckus Networks, a Herndon,Virginia-based startup, has been making some noise on college campuses across the US. Ruckus is a college-only multimedia service offering free ad-supported downloads to college students.  After some initial bad reviews, Ruckus seems to be making moves and gaining traction. Ruckus has over 3 million music tracks available and just recently launched a Facebook application, extensive social networking capabilities, and an improved video service just in time for the new school year.

PlayboyU College Network Examined

PlayboyU was launched last week by Playboy to offer a social entertainment community for college students only.  Focused solely on taking advantage of all the "good things" and "good times" that happen in college, PlayboyU offers a new web "campus" for students to play. Interestingly, PlayboyU is built on the social network application platform, Ning.