i know these numbers are from december of 2004 and june 2005 but they’re very interesting.

24.9 of 100 people in korea have some sort of broadband (ranked the #1 most broadband connected country) in 2004 and that grew slightly in 2005 to 25.5. 13 out of 100 in the usa (#12) growing to 14.5 in 2005, 10.5 in the uk to 13.5 in 2005 (#14 to #13) and australia has 7.7 out of 100 growing to 10.9 (#21 to #17).

first off i’m surprised the states is only #12 in that list. i would have thought it would be higher up. i am not surprised au is where it is since broadband can be fairly pricey but the growth is encouraging.

UPDATE: the age has an article today (april 5) stating there’s close to 3 million broadband connections in au. there’s also a quote from paul budde saying au has about 25% home penetration where the avg of the rest of the world is about 35%. he also says that even though au broadband penetration is growing, the speed of the connections is not. i had a real quick look the other week and a 512 is the fastest speed i’ve seen available.

i am working on the wordpress templates so if you see things changing or can’t find a certain page, please be patient.

the bioteaming manifesto looks at the problems virtual teams have and tries to illustrate how change can occur by using a biological metaphor.

the authors (ken thompson & robin good) argue there is no culture of collaboration and collaborative learning and often we are too focused on what technology will make everything right instead of nurturing these teams and and this culture. i agree with this and with their list of problems virtual teams encounter (technology adaptation, reliance on old traditional work modes, low team motivation, lack of effective communication approaches, lack of cooperation)

the ant colony where the group is more important than the individual is mentioned. there was also something about bees. to be honest, i hate insects so i felt myself skimming during these sections even though i don’t think it was expanded upon as much as the metaphor could have been.

the nasty nature references aside, i do think they have some great ideas. the 4 action zones (and their rules) provide good starting points to keep in mind when laying down the ground rules with teams. ditto with the 7 beliefs of highly performing teams.

several times i’ve had a look at ning and while i knew there was something there, i just wasn’t getting it. either i didn’t have enough time or my very rough programming skills had deteriorated so badly that i wasn’t seeing it. well that’s changed. today i had a look at this screencast on creating a pix ning application in 6 minutes.

of course the 6 minutes thing is pushing it… no one can type that fast or find the snippets of code they want that quickly but what it does do illustrate very well how powerful ning is. i cloned an existing app for my brautigan site and was feeling frustrated til i watched this. now i’ve confirmed to myself that any knowledge of php i had is hidden somewhere in my brain and that’s why i’m frustrated… not with ning or the cloned app. what a powerful little website/tool to help new programmers learn as well as let experienced folks create stuff quicker and easier.

i had been hearing about florida’s research concerning the creative class while i was busy with my mba so it had been on my reading list for quite some time (this book is ©2002 which is when i was getting ready to start my degree). having lived in a few cities, i’ve become quite interested in what makes a city good to live in and this book addresses that topic.

florida’s research is usa focused. i have not looked around to see if anyone has taken his ‘creative capital theory’ and applied it to different countries. while i’ve been looking for work, i’ve noticed that sydney is where the bulk of international companies and start-ups seem to be. being in melbourne, i’m not very happy about this and i’ve been wondering why. florida says creative people look for areas which are diverse, tolerant and open to ideas. is sydney more diverse, tolerant & open to ideas? i don’t know as i don’t know the city well enough. i have been told repeatedly that melbourne is a lot more conservative than sydney so perhaps it’s not all that open to new ideas.