What Would Google Do?

Sorry I've been so busy lately- I promise to update polls and such soon! For now I want to comment on something specific...

So for my digital media studies class we've been reading "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis (my teacher even skyped him into class to talk to us about it- very cool!). This book is awesome, I highly recommend it. I don't have much time to write now but I wanted to discuss one aspect of the book I found very interesting.

In his section on Google U- what a university would look like if ruled by the same principles that govern Google- he mentions something I would love to have. He says universities should set time aside for creation. (Google has a 20% rule with most of it's employees- 20% of the time working is spent on creating new things for Google). People can work on a book, song, computer program, etc, and it's part of the curriculum! Think of how much farther I'd be on my countless short stories if I wasn't so bogged down with school work! This solution is also feasible because it's not trying to get rid of the classroom or homework, just incorporate creation as well. Think of how many great authors, musicians, and programmers would be born if they were given time to fiddle around with what they enjoy- and didn't have to wait until after college to find the time to do it? I love this idea- what do you think?

Another fascinating thing he mentions is how Google is changing the way we live- even to the point of having a say in what we name our children. He says some people are giving children increasingly unique names so they can be better located in a google search, and some admit to basing their child's name on whether or not the domain name was free. This worries me- and I feel sorry for the child named BelchingOrange23 because that was a "unique" enough name.