How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.

That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Read Entire Post on Wired

Just got Rock Band on the iPhone and took it for a spin.

Here is my first impression from the first (Lynard Skynard) song I played.

1. Great job translating the experience to the iPhone format. It’s all about the details: For example, when you hit a note the “breaking glass” look on each (fret) looks tight. Very nice detail. The subtle fade on the division between the image and the guitar neck is always a nice subtle detail. Makes the scene feel like a “memory”.

2. It eases you in very well. Starts nice and slow so that you get used to it and then as the song crescendos it gets faster. By then you already have the hang of it and can jam a lot better. Great for first time players who have not played the console.

3. Finally, the detail that I digged the most… I wondered if you can shake the phone as the “whammy bar”… yep you can! I just tried it and the phone vibrated it! I think. I could have been tripping. But regardless that was rad. I actually got a crowd gather around me here in the office.
For sure felt like a rock star… thumb star that is…

From first impressions the only negatives that I saw are more issues with my thumbs. They are pretty fat. So I tripped over them a bit. But I am sure I can get used to it with some practice. As my music teacher always said “practice.. practice…practice…”.
Which I didn’t do. That is whey I am not a concert violinist.

Bottom line, if you like Rock Band on the Xbox 360 or PS3 and you want a game with great replay value (on the bus, waiting for your lady to try out clothes at macy’s, DMV lines _____________ Fill in the blank) this might be a good $9.99 investment. Worst case show off to your office mates for 5 minutes at lunch.

Click Here to Get More Info!

Click Here to Just Buy it!:

-jc

The Opportunity Green VIP Party was crazy fun. Sorry if you missed it. Check out the sexy pictures.

They both have to “get some traction” before cutting deals and getting funding.

An insightful article titled Musician Finds a Following Online in The Wall Street Journal Shelly Banjo and Kelly K. Spors tell the story of how bloggers, myspace and new promotion platforms such as TuneCore.com, CDBaby.com, Sonicbids.com, Slicethepie.com and Musicnation.com are changing the landscape of how music is produced, distributed and monetized.

The article chronicles Justin Vernon a musician who after recording an album in “his parents cabin” posting it to MySpace and sending it to key music bloggers was able to garner a good deal of traction with fans get on David Letterman, form a new band and get signed to a major label.

“Mr. Vernon’s rapid success shows how small, relatively unknown artists can gain fame via the Web without the large marketing budgets and backing of a major record label. The exposure on blogs, YouTube, social-networking, marketing and other sites can allow them to nurture a following quickly and cheaply.”

To me the takeaway is simple: Give a musician a record deal and he will eat for a few years, teach a musician the mechanics of the business and give him the tools, and he will eat for a lifetime.
Digital technology, the internet and the ever lower learning curve that creatives have to to create micro-enterprises will soon enough replace the macro-enterprises created by the economy’s of scale driven corporations of the 20th century.

I would dare to posit that once more talented (artist) musicians like Just Vernon discover and begin using the (rather simple) tools available to them to create, distribute and monetize their product (art) the music industry as is today will give way to micro-enterprises with the artists as CEO’s of their own destiny.

Lets look at some of the tools outlined in the article:
TuneCore.com: Create, upload and distribute your own music to iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and more. Keep 100% of your royalties.
CDBaby.com: The largest seller of independent music (CD’s) on the internet.
Sonicbids.com: Brings musicians and promoters together. Musicians pay $5.95 to $10.95 a month or $50 to $100 a year in membership fees.
Slicethepie.com: Allows musicians to raise money to record and promote their albums. Anyone can invest including the fans. Slicethepie keeps a 10% fee and a percentage of royalties for 2 years.
Musicnation.com: Connects musicians to fans by giving them tools and a platform to market themselves. Also gives contracts to to top talent.

This is only a small slice of the pie of what I know is out there.
It is unavoidable that new business models like direct sales, corporate sponsorship, touring and merchandise and others yet to emerge will make the 21st century the century of the creatives.
To quote (one of my favorite authors) Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind:

“The last few decades have belonged to the computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to creators, designers, storytellers, caregivers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

And I believe this so much that I am betting on it. I created an education company to help educate creatives on business. I even called it:
Evilbusinessman

Can I get a “muahhahahahaha” from all my fellow creatives.