Khan Academy plans on using JavaScript as their Language For Learning Programming. We're in a very unique position as we're primarily aiming to teach students who've been through our previous math and science-centric curriculum. Because of this we can create some rather compelling exercises and projects that never would've been feasible otherwise... We want to go beyond basic syntax tweaks though and find ways of using the language that'll result in an easier learning experience. In particular there are two changes which will likely result in a much simpler on-ramp to learning.

*The nucleus of YouTube fame-seekers has migrated to Los Angeles. Hundreds of top-tier partners have left high-speed Internet connections in hometowns everywhere and settled here, on the periphery of the traditional entertainment industry. But for these viral stars, many of whom already pull in six figures a year from their channels, this move isn’t about getting their faces seen by studio heads or their voices heard by A&R reps. Instead, they come to work with one another. They room together, appear in one another’s videos, lend each other equipment and skills: camera work for special effects, say, or video editing for a song. Several have pooled resources to create mini networks, and an ancillary advertising business has materialized whereby YouTube luminaries are matched with companies scrambling to reach a young audience and build a presence online. (more)

Representative Ted Deutch introduced the "Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy" (OCCUPIED) Constitutional Amendment on November 18, 2011. The OCCUPIED amendment would outlaw the use of for-profit corporation money in U.S. election campaigns and give Congress and states the authority to create a public campaign finance system. Labor Union-s and Non-Profit organizations will still be able to contribute to campaigns. On November 1, 2011, Senator Tom Udall also introduced a constitutional amendment in Congress to reform campaign finance which would allow Congress and state legislatures to establish public campaign finance. Two other constitutional campaign finance reform amendments were introduced in Congress in November, 2011. Similar amendments have been advanced by Dylan Ratigan, Karl Auerbach, Cenk Uygur, and others. (Occupy Wall Street, Campaign Finance) (more)

MIT platform for making its courses available online. (more)

Christopher Phillips has a new Constitution Cafe book (ISBN:0393064808) out. What if, in order to really appreciate what a democratic Constitution is all about, and how it can make or break a democracy over the long haul, we have to take part in the process of 'constitution creation'? What if we engaged in a 'constitutional thought experiment'? What if we held a 'new' Constitutional Convention of sorts, and acted as if we were the Framers? Using existing constitutional articles as the starting point, would we come to a more profound understanding of and appreciation for the amazing document created by our Framers -- even or especially if we decided to redo the articles? Would we be able to practice imaginative reasonableness, careful listening and equal recognition as we scrutinize a wide variety of proposals, inviting compelling objections and alternatives? Would we be able to reach creative compromise and consensus or even achieve a higher ground?

Stanford University Computer Science professor (more)

How ironic to discover that MIT used Off Shoring for its Open Course Ware development. (more)

Computer Game/MMORPG (more)

*American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels (C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3), one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming media and archives of C-SPAN programs. C-SPAN's television channels are available to over 100 million cable and satellite households within the United States, while WCSP-FM, also called C-SPAN Radio, is broadcast on FM radio in Washington, D.C., and is available throughout the U.S. on XM Satellite Radio, via Internet streaming, by calling 202.626.8888, and through an iPhone app. (more)

Ruby On Rails PaaS service

see World Of Warcraft

author (more)

Carl Malamud is making/posting Video archives of the streams from the US Congress. Will Brian Lamb's CSPAN try to stop him?

Open Source Hardware for Desktop Fab. (more)

NPR voters have chosen 4 Constitutional Amendment-s. As of Dec. 20, you've chosen to abolish the Electoral College, to limit campaign contributions from corporations (Campaign Finance), to deny corporations the rights of citizens (Corporate Personhood) and to prohibit members of Congress from Lobbying once they leave office... But Christopher Phillips, who has traveled the country sparking discussions about rewriting the Constitution for his book Constitution Cafe, sees loopholes in many of readers' proposed amendments.

process of kicking off creation/passing of a Constitutional Amendment (more)

Updating from 2011-01-29-EgyptUprising... (more)

see Revolts Of 2011

The NSF is going to run contests, awarding 100 science and engineering projects/year $10k plus membership in a class based on Steve Blank's Lean Launchpad course (2011-03-09-Blank[[Lean LaunchpadCourse]]). The common wisdom was that for scientists and engineers to succeed in the entrepreneurial world you’d have to teach them all about business. But it’s only now that we realize that’s wrong. The insight the NSF had is that we just need to teach scientists and engineers to treat business models as another research project that can be solved with learning, discovery and experimentation. I Commented. (more)

Jack Dorsey has dumped 4 Product Manager-s at Twitter. This move is said to be led by Dorsey as a final measure to remove those still closely affiliated with the old Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jason Goldman regime. Those three, of course, all left Twitter in recent months and just re-launched the Obvious startup incubator where Twitter was originally born... The move was led by Jack Dorsey and will see key product guys Kevin Cheng, Josh Elman, and two others we’ve yet to confirm, leave the company... Update: We’ve now confirmed that Anamitra Banerji (@anamitra), who started Twitter’s ad platform, and Jean Paul Cozzatti (@jeanpaul) will round out the foursome of PMs who are leaving. Interesting update on 2011-03-24-DorseyReturnToTwitter. (more)