It’s cool to watch as the net is changing the way we do everything. Whether I’m shopping for a car or a book, or just trying to keep myself entertained… the old paradigm of passive information consumption is being flipped in the direction of information pursuit.

“What’s that mean?”

Since we came up with the idea of using radio-frequency to transmit information, the primary method of doing so has been thru either traditional radio, or with televisions. How do you interact with your television or radio though??? Well, you don’t really - you just sit there and absorb whatever it is that you’re being told.

It’s kinda like going to church on Easter Sunday… you get dressed up, you get a message in a bottle, you drink, you leave. Maybe you talk to friends after the show but nobody’s in the business of making the message is interested in you what you’re interested in hearing. Unless you have a 2-way radio, no consideration can possibly be given to your mood or feeling at the time of delivery… you just get what you’re given.

The internet is doing something great to the culture of sales and (hopefully) for the world as a whole. Instead of advertising at you, businesses are trying to engage with you by generating content that you’re interested in. That’s not just the businesses that are trying to get you to buy a new car, but also those who are interested in getting you to improve your own knowledge. The whole idea is that we are no longer being broadcasted at, instead we’re being presented with a set of options that adjust to our preferences. We can go 24/7. We can go in our underwear, or nothing at all. We can now pursue an education, instead of being told a story:

For Starters…

Here’s a good one for starters - http://www.academicearth.org/

There’s about a million (not really that many, still plenty) cool looking videos here. They’re all from professor-types… and there’s a range of topics. I was particularly intrigued by the MIT Course Lectures!!! that’s right folks… you can go to school at MIT for free if you have a computer with web access.

Which brings me to…

…my next link - http://laptop.org/en/

The idea is this - by sending these ‘rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected’ laptop w/ educational software & content preinstalled, the One Laptop Per Child group is putting computers in schools for 6-12 year-olds. The kids get to take the laptop home, and the child can use all sorts of open-source (free) software with the laptop.

What’s gonna happen when these kids start entering the workforce where they grew up? They’re going to have access to the same learning materials that the best and brightest have had access to in the first world. Imagine a hundred million entrepreneurs solving problems in the poorest parts of the world. I expect great things. What about you?