There’s not much debate over the assertion that we’re dealing with some gigantic problems today. The nation is facing historic economic challenges, with looming energy and health care issues not far behind. Voters’ expectations for the Obama administration seem nearly as vast. The White House is searching hard for answers — and has put enormous stock in the promise of technology to solve the difficult riddles in front of us.

President Obama has repeatedly stated his plans to leverage technology as an answer to the nation’s most pressing problems, and the President’s ambitious vision is serving as a call to action for the technology community. A key catalyst will be open source programming, which offers the potential to both lower costs and speed development of urgently needed problem-solving applications.

A panel organized by The Mass Technology Leadership Council (Mass TLC) to be held Wednesday, April 1st in Cambridge, Mass. will explore the enormous potential and promise of open source programming and applications in these “interesting times.”

“Designing IT in the Age of Obama” will be moderated by software innovator and Software Garden president Dan Bricklin. He will be joined by software industry veterans Susie Adams, CTO for Microsoft’s Federal Government Civilian Business division, open source legend Doc Searls, now a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center, and Tim Yeaton, president & CEO of Black Duck Software (A Topaz Partners client).

This deeply knowledgeable panel will discuss the use of open source, proprietary, and mixed software solutions to address challenges and opportunities in healthcare, energy, education, and other pressing national priorities. The roundtable will explore the state of technology today, and make predictions of what’s in store for the future.

Seating is limited for what is expected to a lively and interactive discussion.

Register at http://opensource090331.eventbrite.com.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Technorati Tags: Black Duck, Dan Bricklin, Doc Searls, IT, Mass Technology Leadership Council, MassTLC, Obama, Open Source, Susie Adams, technology, Tim Yeaton, White House

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There’s a natural desire among social media pundits and prognosticators to stay ahead of the curve. Their bread and butter depends on positioning themselves as being smarter and savvier than the average web surfer.

Still, I had to crack up when I saw a prediction that Twitter is about to jump the shark. It was so, well, predictable.

Steve Rubel is a talented and prolific blogger and web enthusiast who works diligently to be first among firsts when it comes to making predictions about where things are heading with marketing and communications.

But search the term “is dead” on Steve’s blog, Micropersuasion, and you’ll quickly find yourself believing in reincarnation.

Back in 2007 he said that Wikipedia is dead thanks to something called Google knol. Don’t worry – you’re not alone, I haven’t heard much about knol either. But I looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently it still exists.

And then back in 2006, Steve proclaimed that the term “social media” was dead. Funny, but I’m hearing the term “social media” so much these days that my head is going to explode. In fact, usage of the term “social media” is itself exploding. This Google graph shows that “social media” references are more widespread than ever:

It’s always difficult to make predictions, especially in our fast-changing digital world. But heck, I want to be first too. So to get completely ahead of the curve, I’ll say this: After Twitter peaks, as Steve predicts, it’s going to resume its rapid growth around the world.

You heard it here first!

You can follow me on Twitter at @timallik.

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Technorati Tags: micropersuasion, Predictions, Social Media, Steve Rubel, Twitter

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As part of PBS’s coverage of the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive & Film conference, PBS asked video blogger Zadi Diaz to interview the industries’ most influential & creative leaders. Here, Zadi interviews author and social media expert Charlene Li:

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Technorati Tags: Charlene Li, Social Media, Social Networks, South by Southwest, SXSW

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