Category Archives: current events

When a "cloud" is not in "the cloud"

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Are we living in the cloud too much? Yes, I meant to say “cloud” with no “s,” not “clouds.” Well so it seems, indeed!

When you Google “cloud” the results are worth seeing. Naturally, the top results come from Wikipedia, but interestingly the #1 result corresponds to “Cloud Computing“, the ubiquitous term that seems to be anywhere we turn to these days (“Cloud-enabled printer,” “Cloud-based game,” etc.) and at #2 comes our traditional, beloved “Cloud” (remember those? when was the last time you sat down and actually LOOKED at the clouds passing?)

Anyway… this cloud too shall pass to make room for the next marketing meme. :)

What?! $60K for a 3-day hospital stay?

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What do you do when you get in the mail one of those innocuous “This Is Not A Bill” letters for your 3-day hospital stay, while they ruled out bacterial meningitis (the cause of your stay turned out to be viral meningitis)… and the line for Account Balance has 5 figures (plus decimals): $60,714, 98?

I mean… this is going to be billed to my insurance company, but let me rewind to the beginning:

  • I didn’t get hospitalized for a month. I was in the hospital for 3 days.
  • I didn’t give birth to a baby. I was basically in bed most of the time, getting blood work done and a bunch of tests performed to rule out the bacterial kind of meningitis.
  • I have insurance, but… what if I didn’t?

The hospital I went to (Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Berkeley) offers discounts for uninsured people, but… still, $60K+ for a 3-day stay in the hospital?

Does anyone else think this is simply wrong, even if my insurance ends up footing the bill in its entirety? I am certainly demanding an itemized bill tomorrow and I will make sure to go over it with a big magnifying glass to spot any possible overcharges!

Ah! Did I mention this is only the hospital bill? Specialists still haven’t sent theirs!

Howard Zinn: "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train"

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Sunday afternoon is always a good time for a good documentary. Today, it was time to sit down and watch Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. Until not too long ago, I admit my ignorance: I had no clue who Howard Zinn was… until I walked into a local Berkeley coffee shop with one of our new advisors at the Diabetes Hands Foundation and saw her pointing at his image on the wall, saying: “Howard Zinn! He’s one of my heroes…” I knew I had to find out more about him.

It turns out Howard Zinn wrote a seminal book titled A People’s History of the United States, a book where he sought:

“…to present American history through the eyes of working people, rather than political and economic elites.”

I learned there was a 2004 documentary about his life (good that he was alive at the time -he passed away in early 2010) so I decided to watch it today. As I watched the documentary, I live tweeted it:

Here’s a POWERFUL thought from Zinn, not unlike what Ghandi said in the day:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.”

He inspired me to write this:

Forget about trying to please everyone and focus on doing the right thing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Howard Zinn. Have you read about him/his work?

Los tweets de Chavez

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Me parece interesante el fenomeno de Chavez en Twitter… por dos razones:

  • Si Chavez mismo esta twitteando, realmente el pais anda a la deriva, porque el hombre esta mandando mensajes mas o menos a razon de 3 mensajes por minuto.
  • Si alguien mas esta twitteando por el (lo mas probable), es tan fake la vaina que da pena… pero sirve de entretenimiento, digo yo…

Un pana me mostraba hace un rato esta serie de tweets de una zuliana rogandole a Chavez por una casita, pidiendole que le respondiera.

En fin… aqui les dejo un ejemplo de los tweets de @chavezcandanga, para que se deleiten.

Ning Changes: Lessons Learned

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Today, the world of Ning Network Creators woke up with expectation to learn about the details of the new direction that Ning will be taking. A lot of reactions resulted from the announcement to cut free social networks and let go 40% of the staff, no more than 3 weeks ago.

The day following the announcement, after a night of little sleep, I wrote an Open Letter to Jason Rosenthal and Marc Andreesen, the CEO and the Chairman/Co-Founder of Ning. In the post I appealed to them, asking them to consider the impact the decision would have on small nonprofits and education networks.

Accompanying the post was a petition started by Jason Chmura, from the Society for Nonprofit Organizations, rallying to keep EDU and NPO Ning networks free. In no time, the petition gathered nearly 1,200 signatures.

Early this morning, the news broke on the Ning blog and the New York Times:

What does this mean for Network Creators? (completed details here)

  • Large networks (with thousands of members) were likely paying for some kind of premium service. In general, in these cases, the Ning Pro package is likely to be a great deal. As an example, in TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes we are currently using most of the premium services, which add up to around $80 per month per network. The Ning Pro option will bring that cost down to $49.95 per month per network.
  • Mid-size networks (under a thousand members but more than 150 members) that may have been paying for some premium services may find themselves saving some money too. Even if they were not paying $19.95, except for the inability to upload videos and music to the network (you can still embed players from other sites), the value you can get from this package (including the ability to run your own ads) seems like a great value to me too.
  • Small networks (under 150 members), unless they are a K-12 network, are faced with the Ning Mini option, which leaves out a few features (Groups, Events) and limits membership at 150 members and limits support access. Yet this option opens up the ability to run your own ads, which (even running Google Ads, believe me!) can easily cover the $2.95 that the package runs for.
  • Last, some networks will choose to migrate away from Ning and pursue some of the Ning alternatives that have been discussed in detail in recent weeks. Ning has stated:

We will be adding an automated export option to the manage page of each Ning Network by the July launch. You will have 30 days after the launch to select the migration option and export your Ning Networks content in an Atom syndicated format.

What does this mean for nonprofit networks?

The nonprofit technology sector has learned a few lessons. One of the important lessons goes in line with what I told to the writer of the New York Times (quoting from the article -I don’t get to quote myself from the Times too often!):

“The big lesson for nonprofits and education technologists alike would be to keep in mind that if you want absolute control over the way a certain platform or solution works, the only way that can be accomplished is by housing it yourself,” he said. “Unfortunately that comes at an additional cost, and that cost has to be taken by someone.”

Nonprofits outside of the US may face a mixed future, depending on their ability to afford the fees to be charged when the new pricing packages kick in.

What does this mean for Ning?

I think Ning has also learned a big lesson, as it shows in the way they managed the announcement today, compared to the way the first announcement was made.

Today’s announcement used every possible channel (email, the Creators network, their Twitter account, the NYTimes piece and even a press release that made it on a few other sites). They even scheduled 4 conference calls to answer questions about the changes in the coming few days.

They will still be charging for all networks (K-12 networks, they will just be charging someone other than the network creator): the essence of the information to be shared hasn’t changed. But the way in which is has been shared is much more appreciated by everyone.

What do YOU think about the announcement Ning made today? How will it affect your plans in connection with the Ning platform?