i’ve been using zone tick for several years & really like the program. it runs in your task bar (um, yes, windows) and lets you have multiple time zones. i have nyc, london & melbourne in mine but you can customise with more. there’s also a world map, converter, calendar & more i haven’t played with much.

recently they sent out a promo where paid folks can offer their friends a fully functional version that runs til october 1st. if you’re interested in trying it, u can get it for the next few days (promo only runs til the 9th i think) but u can always download the trial version.

IFIP Working Group 8.2 Working Conference on Virtuality and Virtualization
Location: Portland Marriott City Center, Downtown Portland, OR, USA
Date: 29-31 July 2007
Submissions due: 1 November 2006

The focus of the conference is on virtual work and virtualization (in their varieties of meanings) and their recursive influence on work practices, organizations and society. Possible topics include:
• defining virtuality
• personal experiences of virtual work
• theories to explain effects of virtuality
• teamwork in distributed teams
• the nature of distributed work practices
• virtuality and communication, coordination and collaboration
processes
• technologies contributing to virtualization
• mediation and disintermediation of work practices and organizations
• virtuality and team/organizational learning
• virtuality and changing organizational form and function
• impacts of virtuality on supply chains
• drivers, opportunities, and challenges of distributed production
• labour pools in countries contributing to distributed teams
• reinvention of place and time associated with virtualization

IAMB 2007 CONFERENCE – The Gold Coast Hotel, Las Vegas
January 28- 31, 2007
Deadline First Submission: September 17, 2006

Theme: Gearing for the Globalization Era

The International Academy of Management and Business (IAMB) are inviting
scholars and practitioners to submit papers, symposia, and posters for
presentation. Papers are solicited in management and business-related areas
such as: Organizational Behavior and Change; Conflicts and Negotiations;
Human Resource Management; Technology Management; Innovation and Technology;
Public Administration; Business Policy; Marketing Management; Financial
Management; Operations Research; International Business; Cross Cultural
Management; and Management Education and Training.

9th International GOR Conference -GENERAL ONLINE RESEARCH ’07
March, 26-28,2007 at University of Leipzig, German
http://www.gor.de

Conference topics include theories, methods, and findings concerning social and business aspects of the Internet and mobile communication. The aim of the conference is to document the progress of Internet science, innovative developments, and practical experience.

Paper presentations, roundtable presentations, posters, and sessions can be proposed on the following topics: (i’ve shortened this list so see their site for more details)

A: The Internet as a Research Tool (Online Market Research and Social Research, Methods’ Effects of Online Data Collection, Mobile Data Collection, Statistical Biases in Online Sampling, Best Practice Examples, Innovative Data Collection Tools, Online Access Panels, Quality Standards, Data Mining, Online Experiments, Mixed Mode Studies)

B: The Internet Measured (Indices of the Digital Divide(s) and Digital Inequality, Use of Logfiles and Databases, Indices of the Information Society, Measurement of Range of Coverage, Measurement of Online Social Networks, Diffusion of Visual Online & Mobile Communication)

C: The Internet in its Context(Internet, Mobile Communication, and Civil Society, Online Groups & Online Communities, Social Networks and Relationships Online & Offline, Digital Inequality, Democracy, Internet, Social Movements, and Collective Action, Internet & Science, Electronic & Mobile Business, E-Business, Evaluation of Web-Sites and E-Commerce, Mobile Commerce, Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Internet & Mobile Communication in Everyday Life, E- & M-Learning, New Forms and Formats: Internet-TV, Blogs, Podcasts, RSS etc., Internet & Mobile Communication in Organizations, Virtual Teams & Online Communities of Practice, Internet and Journalism, Search Engines, Search Strategies, and Social Outcomes,
Semantic Webs and Topic Maps, Digital Censorship)

If you would like to contribute to the conference by presenting a paper, roundtable report, a poster, or a complete session please submit (an) abstract(s) electronically no later than: September 30th 2006 to: http://www.gor.de

in the ‘huh? how does this happen?’ category… blackboard patents.

for those of you who aren’t in the academic or elearning space, blackboard is a company providing web-based course management software.

my most recent uni used it (although not all the functionality available). it was used as a document repository (where professors dropped their lecture notes, the syllabus, where articles or article links were stored). i think one professor once had our class list up there with individual contact details but 99% of the time it was only used for document/link sharing (by profs, not by students. very 1 way communication).

the software has more to offer including message boards, chat, ability to post grades, etc. recently they were granted at patent on their e-learning software. this has caused a bit of an uproar. blackboard is already the largest company of this sort and once you look at what they’ve patented, you realise they could shut down any software company that contains really basic items. the best explanation i’ve seen is michael feldstein’s explanation of the 44 patent claims. these include things like the ability to have async chat, sync chat, assigning different levels of access (ie student vs prof), students being able to upload files to the prof, etc. REALLY basic stuff. amazing how stuff like this can be patented.

for more info, see the collection of images from the patent and stephen downes site. in fact, read the great post on stephen’s site and special section for much more complete details. plus small blurb on smartmobs by howard rheingold .