Pokemon 2008 World Championships

I’m at the 2008 Pokemon World Championships today in Orlando with my daughter. Right now there is a Video Game Showdown going on featuring the top 64 players from the U.S. and Japan - 32 American players and 32 Japanese players divided into two age brackets competing. First place winners of the video game showdown will each receive a grand prize that includes a six-day vacation package to New York City, Honolulu or Tokyo.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) World Championship is also going on and is much bigger with over 350 players (divided into three age brackets) from 30 countries competing to be named the ultimate World Champions of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Top TCG winners will get prizes and merchandise, including scholarship awards totaling $100,000.

Maybe you’ve only been exposed to the animated Pokemon television show or maybe you’ve got siblings or kids or grand kids who have collected Pokemon cards or played the Pokemon video games. These tournaments are intense – both the video and card games require a high level of skill, strategy and creativity. Games also stress fairness, honesty, respect and learning. All qualities we want to see in our kids - especially our science, math, engineering and technology students.

In total there are over 490 players here from 30 countries – three times as many as when we were last here in 2004. I'll be posting pics on my Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/gordonfsnyder

This is a very impressive bunch of kids!

Alloy Media 2008 College Student Study

Alloy Media just published their 8th annual College Explorer study with some interesting results. The study was conducted online for Alloy within the United States by Harris Interactive. This September 13.6 million college students (ages 18-30) are predicted to arrive on campuses and bring $237 billion in spending (a 20% increase from last year) with them. Here's some detail on some of the mobility gadgets students will be bringing back to school with them next month:

7 in 10 students now own a laptop (a 67% increase in three years), with desktop ownership dropping 34% over the last three years.

Ownership of MP3 players has increased, with 67% of students now owning one and using it for more than just music. 23% are now watching downloadable videos on the “small” screen.

The cell phone, once a utility for getting in touch with friends and family, is now favored by a growing number of students who use it as their all-in-one device for communication, entertainment and web access.

The way television is viewed on campus is changing too:

62% of students report watching TV online.

26% are choosing to visit the various major networks websites 34% are opting for YouTube.

Others emerging platforms on campuses include Veoh, Hulu, and Joost.

I also found the politics portion of the study interesting:

90% are planning to cast their presidential vote in November. 43% state that they’re “Pro-Obama.”

Candidates’ presence on social networking sites became just as vital as a campus town hall with 88% of students (up from 73% just last year) reporting engagement with social media, including visiting social networking websites, video websites like YouTube, and blogs.

Also with regards to social networking - 81% of students have created a social networking profile - popular activities reported include posting web applications, with 39% doing so, and almost one-third posting videos.

You can read more about the study here.

CWA, IBEW and Verizon Settle

The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have tentatively settled on a three year contract, avoiding the 12:01 AM August 11 strike deadline. Here's some details on the agreement from the CWA website:

Verizon will extend union recognition to 600 former MCI technicians at Verizon Business who have been seeking representation for nearly two years.

New opportunities for union workers to provide customer support and service at Verizon Business are also included.

The tentative settlement also eliminates subcontracting of work in a number of job areas, converts many temporary jobs to permanent and brings additional jobs associated with Verizon's cutting edge FiOS technology into the union bargaining units.

Overall, the settlement should create 2,500 new union jobs.

Verizon and the unions have agreed to meet regularly during the course of the new agreement to review technological and business developments affecting employment, which will allow the company to stay current with business opportunities while also insuring that the unions are able to continue to represent employees as the business environment changes.

The settlement preserves fully-paid health care premiums for all active and retired employees.

Future hires will have a defined contribution formula for retirement health care with the amount of Verizon's contributions subject to negotiation in each subsequent contract.

Verizon agreed to work with the unions in a joint effort to achieve meaningful health care reform. The company will provide funding of $2 million per year to the project.

The settlement calls for wage increases totaling 10.87 percent compounded over the three-year contract term.

COLA (cost of living adjustment) language remains in the contract.

Pension bands will be increased by 10.87 percent compounded over the term of the agreement.

The settlement also provides for a streamlined grievance dispute resolution system which will speed up a process that has been taking as long as three years to complete.

Good news for all - workers, Verizon, the unions and most importantly...... Verizon customers.

Will They Strike? Deadline Monday, August 11, 12:01 AM

Negotiations continue at this time between the IBEW, CWA and Verizon. From the CWA website yesterday: the CWA/IBEW Unified Bargaining Committees set a bargaining deadline of Monday, Aug. 11, 12:01 AM for completing contract negotiations with Verizon. At that time, the existing contract that was extended last weekend will expire. Strike action then becomes possible if a fair settlement is not reached.

Been some rumors flying around but I'm not going to tell. It has not been settled yet - will they get it done? I'm still guessing yes!

Is WiMAX Dead?

International telecom advisors Analysys Mason, headquartered in London with offices in over 80 countries, released an interesting report last week on worldwide wireless opportunities for revenue growth. The report predicts cellular technologies will take the largest revenue share between now and 2015. Globally, the study predicts 2.1 billion wireless broadband customers will generate USD784 billion in service revenue by 2015.

Here's some detail from the report:

The revenue increase of about 2400% will be underpinned by continued developments in wireless technologies, improvements in devices and more flexible pricing options.

Because W-CDMA to HSPA to HSPA+ is the natural evolution path for GSM operators, the number of HSPA and HSPA+ customers worldwide will increase from 61 million at the end of 2008 to 1.1 billion at the end of 2015.

Cellular technologies will dominate wireless broadband services, with twenty times as many users as WiMAX by the end of 2015.

LTE will take off relatively slowly, but its customer base will reach 440 million by 2015, with associated revenue of USD194 billion.

WiMAX will be squeezed from developed markets by fixed and cellular broadband services and by 2015 will serve just 98 million customers worldwide, of which 92% will be in developing regions.

The report continues:

WiMAX will fail to achieve a significant share of the rapidly developing wireless broadband market, contributing only 2% of global revenue. “By 2015, there will be twenty times as many customers for cellular broadband services as for WiMAX,” according to Dr Alastair Brydon, co-author of the report, “The vast majority of MNOs will not break ranks to WiMAX, but will upgrade to LTE, resulting in over four times more LTE users by the end of 2015.”

It looks like WiMAX may not fit predicted migration paths according to Analysys Mason. You can get details from the report here.

Will Verizon, the CWA and the IBEW Avoid a Strike?

My Dad worked for AT&T as a lineman/installer repairman and one of my strongest memories growing up is of my Dad on strike in 1968. I was 11 and thought having my Dad home all summer was the greatest thing in the world. He'd go picket a few hours and the rest of the day my two brothers, sister and Mom had him at home. Looking back it was probably a pretty rough summer financially for my parents - when you are on strike you do not get paid. I remember doing a lot of fishing which, to us kids, was a lot of fun but the more I think about it we were probably fishing to put food on our table! We also had a large vegetable garden - fresh fish, tomatoes, corn, peas, beans, peppers, my father home almost all the time and the Red Sox the year after 1967 - it was a great summer.

The four of us kids also learned some valuable lessons about dedication, teamwork, commitment and holding to our beliefs that summer - my Dad could have decided to work and let his union brothers and sisters take the hit but he did not. We also learned a few new words including what a scab and a strikebreaker were.

Fast forward to last Saturday, a little before midnight, when the latest contract expired - Verizon, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) agreed to stop the contract clock and continue to negotiate. Issues on the table include job security, health care and what kind of work the unionized workers are doing - fundamentally the same issues my Dad struck for 40 years ago.

A strike this summer would be significant for the workers, the company and for all of us that live and work in Verizon country. The timing is never right for a strike but, with the massive roll-out of optical services and the convergence of voice, video and data over IP (Internet Protocol), the stakes are probably higher this round than they have ever been. Negotiations have continued over the past two days in an attempt to finalize a new contract and there has been little news. Talks continue right at the minute I'm writing this. Continued focused discussion with no media leaks.... I see this as good news and am thinking this one may just get settled without a strike.

A Great 2008 Summer Conference

Last week, doing something a little different than we’ve done in the past, the National Center for Telecommunications Technologies (NCTT, focusing on information and communications technologies) collaborated with sister NSF Advanced Technology Education Centers of Excellence Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC, focusing on semi-conductor, automated manufacturing and electronics) and OP-TEC (focusing on optics and photonics) to sponsor the SAME-TEC conference in Austin, Texas. Additional sponsors included Austin Community College, AT&T, Intel, National Instruments, MATEC Networks, the National Science Foundation, the Southwest Center for Microsystems Education (SCME), SEMI, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the Texas Business & Education Coalition (TBEC), Texas Instruments, and the Texas State Technical Colleges (TSTC).

SAME-TEC has a long history, starting in 1994 with the vision of David Hata at Portland Community College and continuing to grow and evolve under the leadership and direction of Mike Lesiecki and his team at MATEC.

Last year, while attending SAME-TEC 2007, Dan Hull proposed our three centers collaborate in the 2008 conference and we jumped at the opportunity. The results were greater than I certainly expected. Last week each center focused on it’s own high tech pieces and over 350 attendees had the opportunity to “mix it up” and go to sessions in other disciplines. As the SAME-TEC website notes ~ faculty connected with each other to share practices, knowledge, and new approaches to help students succeed. Industry members connected with educators to ultimately help ensure students emerge into the workforce with the knowledge and skills desired by themselves and employers. Exhibitors connected with existing and potential clients to help determine current and future needs.

Mike’s leadership, Dan’s experience and the work of each center’s team really pulled the conference together nicely. I feel incredibly fortunate to work with such talented and dedicated people.

Of course we had a few hiccups along the way and will learn from them. Next year will be even better – we’ll do it again in collaboration with a number of additional NSF Centers. Watch www.nctt.org, www.matec.org and www.op-tec.org for details.