Friday, March 25, 2011

Developing Applications for Apple’s Mobile Devices

http://apennings.com/multimedia/developing-apps-for-apples-iphone-and-ipad/

The iOS is notable for its user interface. Apple made history by commercializing the graphical user interface developed by Xerox Parc for the Apple Macintosh and continues to push development in this area with the haptic or touch user interface. Apple likes to call this the ‘Human User Interface” and they outline several Human Interface Principles that potential developers should take to heart.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Social Media Curriculum

http://apennings.com/social_media/social-media-some-thoughts-on-curriculum/

Social media has been part of our curriculum for the last several years. I redesigned the foundation courses for the BS in Digital Communications and Media in 2005 and included two courses that cover social media, the Digital Media Management I and II series taught by Igor Shoifot of Fotki.com (now living near Silicon Valley and teaching for UC Berkeley) and Collaboration Technologies that has been taught online by Kristen Sosulski. Last year I developed some ideas for a MS in Social Media and more recently a 2 credit course that would provide an introduction to the promises and perils of social media. The MS didn’t quite fit into the mix here yet but the small course, which seemed almost more difficult to conceptualize, might work out. In any case I thought I would share some ideas I had for developing a curriculum framework for teaching about social media.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Google's Investments in Data Centers Provide a Competitive Advantage

Google’s Competitive Advantages – Fixed Costs
http://apennings.com/media-strategies/googles-competitive-advantages-fixed-costs/

This post examines how Google's massive investments in data centers and fiber optic networks makes it difficult for any other company to effectively compete against Google. Except perhaps Microsoft.