Jack Mason's Open Salon Blog

The More Pervasive the Use of Business Analytics, the Better the...

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:05:00 -0400

The More Pervasive the Use of Business Analytics, the Better the ROI - Enterprise Apps Today

A recent Nucleus Research study shows that, in contrast to most enterprise software deployments, which yield an initially strong ROI that diminishes over time, companies gain a greater ROI as they broaden and deepen their use of analytics.

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ibmsocialbiz: Networks and complexity. Organizations and...

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:05:07 -0400

ibmsocialbiz:

Networks and complexity. Organizations and societies evolved from tribes to institutions to markets to networks, each stage triggered by major societal changes in communications. The written word enabled institutions, the printed word fostered regional and global markets, and the digital word is empowering worldwide networks.

Why Teams Make Us Happy :: Articles :: The 99 Percent In 2009, I...

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:05:00 -0400

Why Teams Make Us Happy :: Articles :: The 99 Percent

In 2009, I lived two professional lives. The first was being a member of a close-knit, highly passionate team working together to organize the creative world. The other was rather lonely, as a writer aiming to finish my book. Over the course of that year, I experienced the extreme sides of the work spectrum. During the work week, I was part of a highly collaborative dream team. And every weekend I worked solo, writing alone and planning what would become Making Ideas Happen.

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Researchers Craft Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Generic...

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:05:27 -0400

Researchers Craft Stable Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Generic solar cells are made with a significant amount of silicon. Unfortunately, silicon can be pretty scarce, expensive and toxic. So a variation was made by replacing the silicon with the semiconductor titanium oxide in a dye-sensitized solar cell. This is referred to asa Grätzel solar cell. Even more unfortunately, these can leak and tend to have a short shelf life. But a team at Northwestern University may have solved all that by developing a stable version of the .

The traditional Grätzel design includes an electrolyte made from an organic liquid that can leak and corrode the cell. In order to prevent leaks, the group at Northwestern simply limited the liquid aspect of the design. A combination of cesium, tin, and iodine is added to the dye-coated particles in liquid form but then solidifies.

Traditional silicon-based solar cells have a conversion rate around 20 percent of the light they take in while the regular Grätzel design converts near 11 or 12 percent. Improvements on the Grätzel have been slow to development due to the leaking problem. Northwestern’s version was shown to convert at 10.2 percent but leaves open the possibility of major improvements now that the solid won’t spoil the cell over time.

Even if the efficiency fails to be significantly improved, the lower costs and increased durability provided by the new design might win the day and see commercialization. If so, it could mean an increase in cheap, sustainable energy.

via electricpower:

Gizmag via Engadget, image credit via PNNL – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Geekosystem

What My 11 Year Old’s Stanford Course Taught Me About...

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:05:50 -0400

What My 11 Year Old’s Stanford Course Taught Me About Online Education - Forbes

My 11 year old son just took a course at Stanford. That has a nice ring to it but it is actually meaningless because these days anyone can take a course at Stanford. You don’t even have to pay. All you need is access to a computer and a reasonable Internet connection. So what we can say is my 11 year old son just watched a bunch of videos on the Internet.

That doesn’t make for an interesting post except that this ‘bunch of videos’ is currently being heralded as the future of higher education. In the New York Times, David Brooks saw courses like the one my son took as a tsunami about to hit campuses all over the world. And he isn’t alone. Harvard’s Clay Christensen sees it asa transformative technology that will change education forever. And along with Stanford many other institutions, most notably Harvard and MIT, are leaping into the online mix. This is attracting attention and investment dollars. It has people nervous and excited. So I wondered, what happens when someone who has grown up online encountered one of these new ventures?

The course my son just completed was ‘Game Theory’ taught by Matthew Jackson and Yoav Shoham.