Here are the top ten shows on IT Conversations (ordered by number of downloads) for February 2008:
- Muhammad Yunus - Tech Nation (No rating yet)
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and author of "Creating a World Without Poverty."
- Jerry Thompson - The Future of Voice (Rating: 2.60)
At British Telecom, VoIP technology and the Internet are seen to provide some exciting opportunities to grow new business models. Jerry Thompson, Chief of Applications at British Telecom, talks about BT's transition from being a traditional voice-based telecommunications enterprise to a VoIP-based service provider.
- Steven Pinker - Tech Nation (Rating: 4.57)
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Harvard professor Steven Pinker, who talks about how words relate to thinking, and how they also don't.
- Will Glass-Husain - Developing a Successful Open Source Consulting Business (Rating: 4.14)
Technical skill is just one piece of the open source consulting puzzle. Business skills are also crucial. Will Glass-Husain puts it all together in this popular tutorial on running a successful software consultancy. Combining business philosophy with practical tips and case studies, he highlights principles of customer service, time management, sales and pricing to help guide aspiring consultants manage their own business.
- Dr. Joel Selanikio - Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators (Rating: 4.67)
Dr. Joel Selanikio is the co-founder of DataDyne, a non-profit consultancy dedicated to improving the quantity and quality of public health data. He works mainly in developing countries where the dominant computer is the cellphone, and the dominant network protocol is SMS, a phenomenon that he calls "the invisible computer revolution."
- Phil Windley - Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators (Rating: 4.67)
ITConversations executive producer Phil Windley, who teaches computer science at Brigham Young University, has worked with students to develop a general framework for online reputation. In this conversation with Jon Udell he discusses the goals and status of the project, and explores ways in which online and offline reputations are both similar and different.
- Jesse Stay - Technometria: Facebook (Rating: 3.25)
Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. It is also one of the hottest websites in today's world, and is having a major impact on career and business. Jesse Stay, co-author of the upcoming book "I'm on Facebook--Now What???" joins Phil and Scott to discuss the book and the current status and future of Facebook, both as a social networking site and a place for business.
- Bill Buxton - Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators (Rating: 4.00)
Bill Buxton, a principal researcher with Microsoft Research, is the author of Sketching User Experience. In this conversation he talks about design thinking -- a way of producing, illustrating, and winnowing ideas about how products could work.
- Wendell Wallach - The Road to Singularity (Rating: 4.25)
How close are we to the era where intelligent machines will make decisions for us? As systems become ever more autonomous, machine decisions may outstrip our ability to predict them, creating the need for an artificial morality. Yale bioethicist Wendell Wallach takes the role of friendly skeptic in this deeply thoughtful and balanced look at the promises and perils of artificial intelligence, computational ethics and the singularity.
- Sir Edmund Hillary - Tech Nation (No rating yet)
From the Tech Nation archives: the 1993 interview with Sir Edmund Hillary, who together with Tenzing Norgay in 1953 was first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
It looks like Interview with Innovators and TechNation take the prize this month with three shows in the top ten each. Good work!
