This iPhone band video brings electronica to a whole new level, which should make Brian Eno proud. Touch screen + mobile devices are obvious creative extensions for learning, art and music.

Just as the synthesizer did not push “real” instruments out of the picture, “iBand” instruments will find their place and compliment the scene, whether performing on stage. or mixing in an airport. Of course, I am sure neo-Kraftwerk artists like Danger and Daft Punk will have fun with the novelty for a little while.

I attended another energetic Seattle Lunch 2.0 on February 15th hosted by blist and the hardest working man in the tech business, Josh Maher. Having experimented with the blist beta, I must say they truly are the world’s easiest database.

Their “rich and intuitive UI” certainly makes creating and managing databases a fun, easy and motivational user experience. So having combined the words “database” and “fun” in one sentence, a round of applause to blist’s user experience consultant, who I chatted with, Amir, I believe is his name. I am looking forward to blist’s “aggressive” feature release schedule in the coming months, as well as their tailoring for mobile devices (i.e iPhone). Keep up the good work blist.

What in it for me…it would be really cool to see blist take a look at building a learning widgets, as Mark Ohelert and Brent Schlenker call it. As the network of information grows and informal learning content continues to be king, giving learners an easy way to “track…knowledge and content directly related to their job and their performance” seems crucial. So blist if you are reading and need someone to help prototype or test drive, just let me know.

Check out this Smash Magazine article on 10 Principles of Effective Web Design, which can really be applied to all aspects of design and especially eLearning. Here a few that I want to call out.

Highlights and thoughts

4. Strive for feature exposure  - A colleague and I always (Jimmy B.)  go back to conversation around the best ways of building form around function. What is your site and/or content’s objective? What do you want people to do? Is it obvious?

6. Strive for simplicity - Less is more” right, but do we actually apply it to our content? I would like to tie this back to principle #4. For the most part, every design element and object should align with the function. As mobile “just in time” content continues to become king, users only want what they need. Anything else is an obstacle or distraction.

 Hey, is that Diigo?

So I just signed up for Diigo, a new way to annotate, highlight and bookmark any content on the web, (thanks Ed Tech), and while reading the article above, I started noticing the presence of Diigo notes with relevant and interesting perspectives. I am really excited about these types of tools and how they foster the “hive” collective intelligence that new web tools enable.

This is an amazing way to musically connect with people, with so many applications for education and entertainment. I just signed up, and am ready to play…I mean try out.

eJamming makes software that enables people to practice music together 1000 miles apart. The idea is to let musicians practice together even when they can’t get together physically, or to let students and teachers work together remotely.

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