Pokemon Go: Fact, fiction, myths, and observations

An example of container for geocaching game, C...

An example of a container for geocaching game, Czech Republic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Instead of reading news articles about Pokemon Go, I decided to download it myself.

Here’s what I have to say about it.
 

1. First of all, it’s only a game if you decide to play it. I think that a large percentage of people don’t do much with the game aspect. It is more like augmented reality geocaching (treasure hunting via GPS).

 
2. The game aspect is virtually an afterthought. It is so simple that a 4-year-old (maybe younger) can handle the mechanics and the concept. You flick your finger across the screen. Sometimes there’s a small strategy to it, but mostly it’s just a spin of a coin to see what treasures pop-up.
 
3. This is where people usually ask me, why? If there’s no complexity and little strategy, why is it so popular. The reason is simple, it gives people a reason to get outside and discover stuff. True, you can go outside and discover stuff anytime you want. The difference here is that there is a thrill in the hunt. It’s exactly the same as a taking a Saturday to go shopping for a nice pair of shoes or a nice dress or a bull elk.
 
4. As a long-time citizen of the Internet and cyberculture, I have learned that there will always be trolls. People who are determined to ruin anything fun or uplifting or beneficial. Here we have a game that essentially is an anti-game. It forces people to go outside, it doesn’t really have an addictive element other than you can “catch them all”, and it is most fun when you get a group of people working together socially (again, out of the house).
Anyone who has tried to lose weight, get out of debt, or start a new business knows that as soon as you share your plans, there are trolls who try to discourage you.
 
Murder of Adam Walsh

Murder of Adam Walsh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5. Substantiated myths can reach mythical proportions. Yes, someone found a body while playing Pokemon Go. Also, some people were using the locations to stock victims to mug. Also, there was a kid once named Adam Walsh who was kidnapped from a Sears once and the entire country stopped letting their kids peruse the in the toy aisle by themselves for almost 20 years. There was also once a kid who got hit by a car while riding his bike. And this one time a kid went to school and got bullied by a teacher ever day.

My point is, don’t be a troll. If you hate the game because you don’t like that other people are having a good time, you can read books and work in the garden, and do crafts in your house and the Pokemon Go people will not hurt you. I promise. You can take joy and rant on Facebook when you read that one of them got hit by a car. Or you can scoff when you hear that someone vandalized a monument while playing the game.
 
6. There is safety in numbers. There are photos all over the web of crowds of people in Central Park, wandering through public spaces, and driving around town to get to the next cache. Is it really more or less likely that people will be committing serious crimes under these conditions?
 
7. Virtually nothing about the game is random. The locations are curated and there are ways to report problems to the game developers immediately. You won’t find caches on the runway at the airport or inside the home of a pedophile. Ordinary people can’t make their own hotspots. The game developers only selected areas that were legally accessible to the public. So, don’t believe andy rumors you may hear about someone placing a cache of Pokemon fodder in the basement of their home to catch 6-year-olds. That can’t happen.
Technically, a bad guy could stock a given cache at weird times for unsuspecting victims, but that takes us back to the previous point. The same bad guy could stock a certain secluded sidewalk for kids as they walk home from school or joggers at 5am. There is nothing inherently dangerous about Pokemon Go that makes it easier for bad guys to do whatever their evil minds can dream up.
 
8. This is a fad. By this time next year, only a small percentage of people will still be playing the game. However, the game has subtly taught people and app developers that there is a new frontier in augmented reality. Expect shopping apps, travel apps, and more games to begin using these features.
Imagine driving up to a landmark and pointing your phone at it to read more information about that spot. Imaging panning your camera from an area where you can look down at your town and see the city transformed back to certain decades so that you can learn about the progress and history of the city.
Education, commerce, travel, and recreation are about to change for the better. It will mean that we are more plugged-in than ever. But, do we really want to go back to the time where we had to figure everything out from scratch?
 
9. Security glitches will happen. Something will happen with security and something will be exploited. It’s essentially a guarantee. However, ALL of your information is on the Internet. Every time you use your credit card, that information flies through the Internet. Anytime you use your Google Maps or other mobile mapping services, your location is recorded. Every time you go to the hospital, everything you are there for is recorded in a digital database, usually stored in the cloud or on servers that use the Internet to transfer and backup.
If this scares you then you should also know that every single city in the united states is planning on releasing a book that will be placed on every citizen’s front door. Inside that book will be every citizen’s phone number, address, and even their first and last name. Businesses aren’t even safe from this.
A company called Xerox has invented a device that allows you to make hard copy prints of both sides of any credit card. All bad guys have to do is find a way to get you to hand them your credit card for less than 2 minutes. They are going to allow these machines in the billing offices at restaurants and retail stores!
 
My point is, people need to stop worrying so much. If you want to be afraid of something, be afraid of bears, they can kill you. Or be afraid of saturated fats, sugar, and a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t be afraid of millennials walking around a public park or community sidewalk flicking their cellphone screens.

BONUS: If you want to know how they made the maps, how they chose the cache locations, etc. Mashable has a pretty good article explaining all that.

12

07 2016

Education system innovation requires more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

Most Likely to Succeed promotional image

Most Likely to Succeed promotional image

Before reading this post, please do 10 minutes or more on High Tech High.
I recently went to a screening of Most Likely to Succeed. The documentary isn’t available for purchase yet, but it is being screened in communities across the country.

Complete reviews of the film are available all over the interwebs, so I will spare the reader my take on the plot and narrative of the film. However, I will say that I agreed with nearly all of it. The message of the film is that our current education system is outdated. Although it was highly innovative for its time, the system was not created for an era in which virtually every student has access to the world’s facts in his or her pocket. A system where the most common question is, “When will I ever need to know this?” and the answer usually has something to do with getting into college or a likely future need to self-install carpeting into a round room.

Two years ago, I was involved in the creation of a charter school in Colorado. I sat on the board until the school was created, but I chose not to be a part of the board after the school was approved. Our vision was to create a school that could truly achieve individualized learning. They type of school where an autistic student with little emotional comprehension could work with his or her hands or mind to master his or her talents or interests or an artist could learn important principles of math, science, or history through customized art projects.

We were encouraged by the Colorado State Board of Education to innovate – as long as the end result looked like what was happening in the traditional schools. We could call it individualized learning as long as every student learned about bats in the 3rd grade and knew how to label a map of Europe in the 5th grade. The new school would also have to have licensed teachers overseeing the material taught by industry professionals to ensure that the material taught met academic standards – no matter how relevant to the content may be to the real world. If a student were to travel to Italy during the year they were supposed to be studying South America, the visit could not count towards any academic credit. If the student were to visit Italy the year Europe was taught, the visit would count – as long as the student brought back signed brochures and photos from each site they visited.

Any textbooks had to be approved, any industry professional had to be screened by the board or administrators approved by the board, but any teacher could teach any topic as long as they had a Colorado teaching license.

The school that was envisioned to offer individualized learning to all students gradually became molded into an alternative school where higher test scores were ensured and students who needed individualized learning would be encouraged to go through a special needs track in a traditional school.

Back to the movie and the screening. The film was full of examples of how the existing system was outdated and ineffective. The film had just as many examples of successful innovation. It was the kind of movie that made you wonder what would happen if they showed it to a room full of public school teachers. Would they be blown away by the inspiring message? Would they go back to their classrooms to lead a revolution of change?

I watched the film in a public high school auditorium where the audience was comprised of, you guessed it, public school teachers. As study after study was cited, misconception after misconception was documented, I felt that the following Q&A would be full of newly impassioned visionaries, ready to begin the revolt. Instead, the event hosts discussed how the school district was going to implement the concepts from the film by implementing some of the nomenclature and hosting discussions about how to create the illusion (my words) of innovation while not changing any of the standard practices.

The hosts made comments to the effect of, we can’t change the curriculum or the testing requirements, but we can have students do more collaborative work in groups. This was in response to the scenarios depicted in the film where classes were given projects with very few instructions and they were expected to learn and create through experimentation and failure.

When I got home from the film, I did some basic Googling and discovered that film screenings are being sponsored by public school districts all over the United States. Why would public school districts take ownership of a movie with a message that declares that the existing system mandated by those districts and state education boards is obsolete? Perhaps it’s to create the illusion of support. This movie is almost impossible to get access to unless it is presented in such screenings.

I recommend taking any opportunity to see the film. I also suggest participating in the panel discussions after the film. Ask the same questions presented in the film with the same boldness that they are presented in the film. This film brings so many great insights and truths to the surface, those who control the system shouldn’t control the conversation.

20

06 2016

The Rise of Seattle as a Tech Hub

Living in the Pacific Northwest is a privilege in many ways; from the gorgeous scenery to the sense of community, the region has much to offer its residents. Many individuals who work in the tech industry have also discovered that Seattle is rapidly being recognized as a tech hub – this is just one more reason to live in Washington State. Seattle is now home to some of the most successful companies and brands in the industry, including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter. If you’re in the tech industry or plan to be after college, you may want to consider the following reasons that Seattle has risen as a premiere destination for tech industry professionals.

Seattle is Unique Unto Itself

While it’s true that an overwhelming number of tech companies have either set up shop or established major branches in Seattle, the city is unique. It isn’t a carbon copy of the Silicon Valley, and its economy would still thrive without the tech industry. That means that it offers plenty of other personal and career benefits to tech workers – and those who work in the industry may have a better chance of experiencing sustainable success. The Silicon Valley tech explosion ultimately resulted in an area that became dependent on the tech industry to survive, and that simply isn’t the case for the Emerald City. So, if you’re looking for a techie city that isn’t over-dependent on the tech industry, this is it!  

Working for the Major Players

If you’re looking for a job in the tech field, you probably couldn’t pick a better place to live. You might apply for a position at some of the most successful tech companies on the planet. You could find yourself working for a major player, such as Amazon, Uber, Hulu, or Adobe. The list of highly successful tech companies with headquarters or offices in Seattle continues to expand, making your potential to secure an amazing job in the area greater with every passing day.  

Startups May Have a Better Chance of Survival

Because Seattle continues to grow as a tech mecca, the chances of creating a startup in the city and seeing it survive may be greater than they would be in the Silicon Valley. If you are working to get a startup company off the ground, you may currently be able to choose from a broader selection of viable job seekers than in any other part of the world. The major companies only have a finite number of positions available, leaving startups with a wealth of viable job candidates worth considering.

Tech Conferences

Another benefit of living in Seattle is that you have numerous opportunities to attend industry events. A wide range of tech conferences have been scheduled to take place in or around Seattle this year. Talent 42 (a tech recruiting conference), the Seattle Biz-Tech Summit, and the Seattle Tech Security Conference are only a few of the tech events people might attend. Other industry events in or near Seattle include Data Days, FullCon Tech, and Mobile Future Forward. The tech conferences, seminars, and summits in the area present countless occasions for networking with industry peers and learning from thought leaders in the field.   

If you’re in the tech industry, Seattle is the place to be. This spectacular city has ascended to the status of major destination for everything tech-related. A move to the Emerald City could result in your getting the job of your dreams – in addition to living in a magnificent setting that offers an array of famous landmarks and exciting local attractions. 

31

05 2016