2010 August

Google has taken a giant step into social gaming this week with the purchase of the online entertainment company Slide, a San Francisco-based manufacturer of social apps for sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, and Google’s own Orkut. TechCrunch reports the deal to have a $182 million price tag.

Let’s pause our Zunes for a moment and reflect upon yet another Microsoft branding fiasco. A few weeks ago the software giant cancelled its new social media based phone – the Kin – after only six weeks on the shelves. With estimated sales during that time period ranging between 500 to just short of 10 thousand units, it’s no surprise that the product was pulled. But why did it fail so miserably? Let’s poke fun at high-tech’s uncool kid, Microsoft, to find out the answer.

Rural communities in the United States are lacking Broadband infrastructure, and the resulting lack of Information & Communication Technology in these less populated areas causing them to suffer. Places like Clarksville, New Hampshire; Sherman Mills, Maine; and Enosburgh, Vermont, may be behind in the Information Age because of their geographic location and (un)available means of communication, but this does not necessarily mean all are purposefully living “off-the-grid”