The writings of Lee Kraus

Thanks Steve

2011-10-05T22:41:00.000-04:00

Not that I will have anything to add to the news that Steve Jobs has passed away, but I will say that I certainly admired his passion from afar. Many times, as an entrepreneur I turned to Apple to look at how they did it, and made myself determined that this was the standard I wanted to set. I wanted to make something that people would be passionate about, something that was better then anything they could have asked for or even known that they wanted. I rarely achieved, let alone hit that standard time and again.

I am so impressed with the commitment to excellence.

Thanks, Steve.

Using the new MacBook Air

2011-08-02T22:26:00.000-04:00

I made the jump and spent money that has taken me years to save and bought the new 13" MacBook Air. After two days.... I love it. It is so nice. Of course the form factor is great and the new Lion OS is really nice. I have been downloading Mac Apps and Chrome Apps and podcasts.

It is so thin, I slid it into my laptop case, with the other monster Dell laptop already in there. This is the first "personal" laptop I have bought for myself in over 12 years, because I always get them through work.

Also a quick note on the Apple Store experience, it is amazing. I just spent the last 6 to 7 months working on a customer service training project and let me tell you, Apple has it down. We spent hours just talking through the new features of Lion.

I really hope that this laptop will allow me to get back to writing and even allow me to start programming. I want to create web content and build my own apps one day.

So, I am an Apple fanboy. Always have been. And with cool technology like this.... always will be.

All about Dynamic Views for Readers - Blogger Help

2011-05-24T20:42:00.000-04:00

All about Dynamic Views for Readers - Blogger Help

The Dynamic Views in Blogger is really cool. I don't know if it is new, but it let's you have an overview of blog content.

Great Animation on Motivation

2010-07-01T08:41:00.001-04:00

This video is going round the web, but very interesting.

The message is that higher incentives lead to poorer performance on even basic cognitive tasks. Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose lead to better performance, once you take the issue of money off the table.

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

The main point is to think about how you can provide your team with more autonomy, more time to achieve mastery on specific skills, and provide everyone with a clear purpose.

UPDATE: Check out this long and interesting post from Michael Feldstein Sakai Conference: Kamenetz Keynote http://bit.ly/cNigzC He takes the ideas from a keynote from Anya Kamenetz at the Sakai Conference and compares them to Dan Pink's ideas. There is a lot of information here, but some interesting things to consider if you are familiar or have time to go through them.

Dan Roam: The History of Visual Thinking

2010-06-15T07:36:00.000-04:00

Here is a great short movie by Dan Roam on the history of visual thinking. It is a great example of how we can improve learning.

SXSW 2010: Dan Roam on Visual Thinking from Teehan+Lax on Vimeo.

I would love to see more trainers put this type of thinking into their presentations. Specifically on ideas that can be abstract. I wonder if we can convert the iPad into a tool to make these types of presentations. Does anyone know of a specific tool / app for presenting through the iPad?

Home vs School: The best 21st Century Learning Environment

2010-06-11T09:16:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about a comment I heard on Rocketboom from an Intel employee discussing the release of their classmatePC designed for the classroom. His comment was something to the effect that since students have broadband and computers at home, they are set back 20 years when they enter the classroom. (I am paraphrasing). This is an interesting idea on a couple of levels.

At School

From Flickr

The school technology experience often looks like working on a document, creating a presentation, researching a planet, or maybe even blogging if you are lucky. Most technology at school is limited to controlled weekly or maybe even daily time slots working in locked computing environments on very structured lessons. All for seemingly good reasons - equal access, meeting learning standards, protection from harmful content. These types of situations are a good start, but they just don't support the kind of deeper learning that happens in a more open online environment.

Compare this to Home.

I think it is certainly true that the majority of our youth now has internet access at home. Many have multiple devices that are connected to broadband access, including the traditional desktop that is typically in the home office area, at least one parent as a laptop from work (if not both), they may have a netbook that maybe a grandparent got them for Christmas, an ipod touch for their birthday, many have iphones, and then many have game consoles like the xBox360, Wii, or Playstation that are connected. (not to mention the PSP and iPad). Soon, we will be able to add AppleTV and GoogleTV connecting our TVs throughout the house. So, while a few homes have all these things, most have at least one.

We are beginning to see that students have more open access to the web at home then they do in the school. With this in place, the home learning environment looks a little different then what kids see at school. This open learning platform is more like having a constant feedback loop with repeated opportunities for reading, listening, and watching content and on-going collaboration.

Of course, this more open approach can be in conflict with the more controlled school environment, particularly when access to technology is limited and lessons are focused on specific outcomes and I think some of that tension represents an important value that educators bring to the process.

When our youth are given more freedom to work through a reinforcement loop that happens when you surf the web, they are able to accelerate their own, self-driven learning.

Now I don't want to create a stereotype that somehow our youth are in this constant mode of multi-tasking and can somehow manage all these things simultaneously for hours on end, because that is not really what I am seeing. What it looks like to me, is that my 11 year old is switching among these various activities, waiting for feedback from a particular activity and filling the down time with content consumption or some other engaging activity.

So, it might be that he is maintaining an on-going chat session with a couple of friends online, while he switches back and forth with the realtime stats feed of an NBA game that is on the TV. When the announcer mentions something that is happening in the sports world, he jumps over and reads an online article about that event. Then after the chat has ended or at least paused he will launch an online game and play for ten minutes or launch a YouTube video to checkout. If it is funny or compelling in some way he will send the link to a friend.

Each of these activities are in their own way a feedback loop and must be compelling for the young learner to stay engaged or they will simply move on and try something different. If the activity is compelling enough they will engage at a deeper level, reading it completely, making a comment, sharing it with a friend.

The determination of what is compelling is made on the fly based on a variety of factors including the topic, who is involved, and the emotional component of the content. (think baby laughing on YouTube). My son is a frequent online visitor of a guy who makes up parody songs about the NFL and it is really an emotional connection with that content and he always wants to share the with me.

Provided with enough "free time" learners will begin to build reading and collaboration skills and hopefully at some point start to take the role of creator. If you want to really help today's youth, encourage them to be creators on the web. Post a video, write a song and post it, blog, and even engage in Facebook and Twitter (Note: I won't let me 11 yr old on Facebook and his Twitter stream is private to friends). These are great skills they will use for the rest of their life.

Some Early Programs

So there may be some interesting things with the way kids use technology at school vs the way the use them at home. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in two programs that are changing this reality for school kids.

The Globaloria program that has been implemented throughout West Virginia (I was the Program Manager for a year) and promotes this more open exploration of learning and extend computer use.

The second program, is a program that I am involved in is a 1 to 1 computer to student program at a local elementary school that will be entering it's second year this fall. Students each have a netbook computer to use for the entire school day, everyday and get to take the technology home for homework assignments and hopefully to explore additional content.

What do you Think?

I think that next question is, if the above is actually happening at some level, what impact will that have on our youth? Who will thrive in this new environment? Is a single computer with internet access equal to many devices, or does having a mobile device at an early age give you an advantage? Maybe you completely disagree with this assessment of what is happening?

iPhone 4 Announced

2010-06-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

The new iPhone was announced today. Of course the hype is impressive. The phone will have Facetime (wifi-based video calling), a 960x640 display, multi-tasking, and HD video editing and playback, all on a new OS (details here).

Of course, it will take time to decide if it is open enough for those who value openness and I do at some level. No announcement on adding cellular carries that I saw or heard.

Over the next few days I will try to consider how the iPhone4 might be used as an educational tool. What type of learning can it enable?

What is your initial reaction to the announcement?

Adobe comes back with an answer for the iPad.

2010-06-06T21:57:00.000-04:00

Adobe's new software is designed to build content for the iPad. I think it was a great idea for Adobe to come back with an ipad solution. A great example of bringing something positive to the market amid negative discussions with the HTML5 vs Flash issue.

In addition to bringing something positive to the market, they came with very specific influencers, Wired and Toy Story. I am not sure I am ready to pay $5 an issue, but it does show that Adobe wants to story top-of-mind in the new digital space of mobile computing.

Tweeting on-hold Wait Times?

2010-06-04T09:11:00.001-04:00

So I have had the idea that I think would be a great service to allow people to tweet when they are being asked to wait on hold on the telephone, or at the doctor or dentist office. Something like #onhold or #waiting and then the company that you are waiting #onhold ATT or #onhold Frontier or #waiting Walmart. It would be important to really think about how to handle the formatting of the tags and support information. I realize you could just start doing it on twitter and see it would take off, but it might be interesting to build a site designed to aggregate the data and provide the Zeitgeist in a human readable way. If you could add an estimated time, that would be great as well.

I haven't thought it through, but it seems the service would be valuable to consumers if linked to Yelp or other consumer services and it could provide insight into customer service for many companies. It might also be more of a mobile app, but I think there wouldn't be strong adoption if people had to download an app.

Is there anything out there already? I haven't looked.

One positive angle would be to allow people to log something productive or positive they were able to do while waiting.

#waiting dentist 10min brainstormed new twitter service

UPDATE: Bob Coffield twitter stream reveals something along these lines in healthcare...

@iHealthBeat new web-based tool called @MedWaitTime
to check wait times at hospitals and doctor's office: http://bit.ly/9r56Lo#health20

iPad App for Mixing Beats: BeatWave

2010-06-02T23:51:00.000-04:00

My daughter and I have had fun creating four layered beats with BeatWave. I free iPad app that allows you to select a series or patterns of tones to make a cool collection beats. The really cool part was when we started experiment with the patterns that make the visual representation of the beat. It did have a feature to email the beat, but I am not sure how it worked once you received the email.

If you want to have some fun find a friend when you might check it out!

A Billion Users, But a Trillion Sensors

2010-06-01T07:29:00.000-04:00

The web is starting to bring on new sensors that will change the way that we interact with the internet, data, and the world. By connecting the items of the world to the web, we will be immersed in a (insert really big metaphor like sea or galaxy) of data and information. This will change things once again. To get a grasp on what that looks like and to make a case that we will have to rethink how we build technical infrastructure and design user interfaces, the folks at MAYA Design created this video.

Trillions from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

I really like to the simple approach in the video, showing how big a trillion things are and how they begin to consider where we will probably have to look for our own design inspirations. It is interesting to think about how this will impact science, education, marketing, collaboration, etc. These changes also once again underscore the need to improve content aggregation tools. We will have to have better ways to handle this data. Finally, for the first time, I think it has made me think about how cloud computing will become a real necessity for leveraging all the data of the future. This is going to be interesting.

Google TV for Education

2010-05-28T09:25:00.000-04:00

Earlier, Google showed their new Google TV solution. Some pundits dismissed it due to the fact that much of this technology exists, but I think that Google has a pretty good feel for timing. I think the timing feels right for integrating television programming with web-browsing. There are so many factors that play into how TV is consumed and how people use the Internet in that same environment. The Google solution may address that many people are trying to find a comfortable way to jump between the internet and TV in a simple way. In addition the physical considerations, Google has taken a search-centric approach to content. I think that this represents a shift in culture that many won't "get" for some time, but eventually, they will really come to appreciate the simplicity of the Google approach. True, Microsoft Media Center tried to pull this off and was able to do some cool things, but it just seems to be a completely different environment from the web, that it just doesn't always feel right.

Of course for me, I immediately started thinking about the learning implications of GoogleTV. Can you imagine every student with a tablet at their desk and the teacher controlling the large flat panel TV at the front of the room? Then have the students push their work to the front of the room or the teacher by selecting it. Seth Godin's Blog post: iPad killer app #2: fixing meetings talks about making meetings better by suppling every attendee with an tablet with certain functionality, most of these ideas would work in the classroom as well. Then, having GoogleTV integrated in for the instructor would be awesome. The ability to search for rich video content, bookmark it, and pull it just at the right time during the lesson or presentation. Have students respond to the video by answering the 10 questions on their Google Site.

I know, there is a lot of infrastructure required for such a scenario, but it is a lot closer then it was before. Google continues to work to bring things to consumers to drive technology use. Yes, they want to sell advertising and we have to monitor what our learners are exposed to, but if GoogleTV turns out to serve as a centralized search tool connecting content on television with content on the web, our world probably just got a little more integrated.

If you are not familiar with what Google is proposing, check it out here.

PowerPoint Tips from Seth Godin

2010-05-26T16:29:00.000-04:00

There are nine, but this is my favorite. -Lee

Pay by the word.

Here's the deal: You should have to put $5 into the coffee fund for every single word on the wordiest slide in your deck. 400 words costs $2000. If that were true, would you use fewer words? A lot fewer? I've said this before, but I need to try again: words belong in memos. Powerpoint is for ideas. If you have bullets, please, please, please only use one word in each bullet. Two if you have to. Three never.

-Seth Godin
http://bit.ly/b07syq

Using the iPad for Work

2010-04-04T21:44:00.001-04:00

I thought it would be cool to hammer out a blog post from me new iPad. The device is very responsive. I have been amazed at how quick I have gone from web to the other. I also really like the iBooks app. I have been able to download several apps and they all seem to be working well. It will be interesting to see if I can actually use it for work. I think that it should be pretty useful.

It appears that the compose mode in blogger won't function so I can't post the image that I wanted to include. I may have to try another publishing tool.

http://bit.ly/9hLbtx Google has added bike trails to Google Maps.

2010-03-10T09:44:00.001-05:00

Posted via web from Lee Kraus

Just posted my SALT slides "Supporting Social Media Engagement" http://bit.ly/supportingsocialmedia to the Mythology Blog.

2010-03-09T13:28:00.001-05:00

Posted via web from Lee Kraus

Broadband Haves and Have Nots

2010-02-25T08:48:00.002-05:00

According to the FCC, about 93 million Americans don’t use fast, broadband Internet, citing cost and complexity as a factor in their refusal to enter the 20th century.
The study, below, found that 80 million adults and 13 million children either still use dial-up or don’t use the Internet at all at home, suggesting that either the survey methodology might be flawed or we’re in serious trouble.
Read the rest of this entry »

via feedproxy.google.com

It would be interesting to overlay West Virginia's demographics to this chart. I also don't think this reflects demand. That is a separate issue. I just heard NPR report on this and they made it seem like Internet was just for updating your Facebook status. That is so wrong of them.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

I keep looking for ways to make life easier. It's hard.

2010-02-24T10:47:00.001-05:00

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

What caught my fancy today!

2010-02-19T11:00:00.001-05:00

via feedproxy.google.com

This is very funny.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Ambiguity is exhausting - You Need to Script the Critical Moves

2010-02-13T09:20:00.001-05:00

So I am trying to find time to read through Chip Heath and Dan Heath's new book Switch - How to Change Things when Change is Hard. So far it has been a great read and I have a feeling that I will totally recommend the book once I read it all. When I picked it up this morning, I almost immediately began to relate to their message.

When you want to have or support change you have to script the critical moves.

People get overloaded. As the Heath brother's point out and we note in our marketing workshop at Mythology (the company I have been at for over a year), "The Paradox of Choice" debilitates us because we become overloaded. We tend to shut down. So if you want change you can't offer a lot of options.

This is an issue that I have dealt with poorly when it comes to recommending technologies, I often give people two or three options to collaborate or create a web page or edit a photograph, with the idea that they might want to explore a couple of options and figure out what is best for them or best for the situation they are in. This is rarely what they want. They really want me to decide the best option and tell them what it is. This usually presents the challenge of investing enough time to understand their issues and choose the best option or to try to guess and give them your recommendation (best guess). I find the second one hard to do of course.

The next part of the process is the one that really hit me this morning. "It's not only options that yield decision paralysis..." Ambiguity does, too. Ambiguity is exhausting to those who are trying to implement the change. The book goes on, "Many leaders pride themselves on setting high-level direction: I'll set the vision and stay out of the details." This is crazy. (my addition) People need someone to bring the noble goal within the realm of everyday behavior, someone who can suggest a good place to start.

The Heath Brothers sum it up by saying "Ambiguity is the enemy. Any successful change requires a translation of ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors. In short.... you need to script the critical moves. The book goes into examples of how to do this.

I am going to try to reflect on how some of the changes that I would like to see in myself, at home, and in the office are ambiguous. Practical examples such as creating a chart for exercise and/or scripting a process for purchasing miscellaneous items out of the home budget (I just haven't made that easy enough yet) are good areas where scripting the critical steps are almost mandatory for success.

Of course, as I write this blog post I realize that these things are common sense and I've known them for years and have had many successes implementing support structures (scripting the critical moves) across all aspects of my life. It would be hard to be part of several start-up businesses over 15 years and not have some component of this in place.

I think what I like the most is that the Heath Brothers made it clear to me that it's not just ineffective not to plan the details of change, it is exhausting.

Resolutions 2010: script the critical moves (fredzimny.wordpress.com)

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

Evaluation Copy of Switch just came in. Very cool.

2010-01-22T14:49:00.001-05:00

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock

2010-01-05T20:39:00.001-05:00

My conclusions in the previous post still stand: 1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market; and 2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009/2010 due to Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, Firefox bookmarks, and more. However, a lot of commenters wrote that they still use RSS Readers each and every day. Here are the main reasons why:

1. Control over Information Flow

RSS Readers allow users to control their flow of information, whereas it's impossible to keep up with the Twitter firehose of real-time information. Mathew Ballad (comment 11) put it well:

"I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter, I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over."

It's not just about controlling your stream of daily news. Many people have feeds that they just don't want to miss. Tim Bray has a folder of feeds in NetNewsWire that he feels is "unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say."

Some people would argue that it's a thankless task trying to control your RSS Reader. I am one of those people and I long ago gave up trying to keep my 'unread' count at zero. Indeed nowadays I don't even try to mark as 'read' my email - using Gmail, I just let it all flow in and mark the ones I should reply to with stars.

On a similar point, RSS pioneer Dave Winer remarked (comment 80) that Google Reader "has the wrong view of RSS." In a follow-up post, he wrote that "fundamentally, Google Reader views RSS as email," by which I think he means users feel compelled to read everything in it. His view is that "reading every story is a meaningless concept" and that RSS Readers need to find a way around this issue.

2. Evolving User Interfaces

Some readers are expecting RSS Readers to transform their UIs in 2010, in particular for "processing life and news streams in the same interface." (Marco A Torres)

This has already happened to a degree in Google Reader, which has many nice social sharing features. @businessquests (comment 57) called Google Reader "a monitoring and intelligence tool enabled by tagging and publication of tag-based RSS feeds."

Eric (comment 19) agreed, commenting:

"I use it [Google Reader] not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me."

Eric also noted that he gets breaking news in Google Reader, thanks to its support of the real-time standard PubSubHubbub.

However a number of people complained that Google Reader isn't evolving fast enough in terms of user experience. I would put myself in that camp too. So, like me, you may want to check out some new feed reading innovations. Feedly (one of our Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009), Fever (one of our Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies of 2009) and my6sense (an iPhone app - our review) are 3 apps that received multiple mentions from our readers.

We use Fever internally at ReadWriteWeb and I just today downloaded my6sense onto my iPhone. As an aside, note that two of those apps (Feedly and my6sense) integrate Twitter as well as RSS feeds.

3. Tracking Twitter

It's not necessarily an either/or situation between RSS Readers and Twitter. Lynne Pope from New Zealand pointed out (comment 44) that she uses Google Reader to track some Twitter accounts:

"Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available."

4. Mobile News

A number of people remarked that they commonly read their feeds via a mobile version of an RSS Reader. Something for those of us who are sick of being tied to PCs to do more of, perhaps. Bill (comment 46) wrote:

"I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep."

5. Categorized News

Perhaps some of us are finding RSS Readers difficult to use nowadays because we don't use them efficiently. If you spend some initial time setting up your Reader and categorizing your feeds, then chances are you will get a lot more out of it. Randy Orrison (comment 78) described a good use case that you may want to emulate:

"I have folders in Google Reader for the blogs that I check every day, new release feeds for software I use (I could never remember to check all 20+ websites regularly), and down at the bottom of the folder list feeds from busy aggregators (like TechMeme) and news sites (like the BBC)."

Conclusion

Reading through all 160+ comments on my post restored some of my faith in RSS Readers. Viva la read/write Web! I'm going to test out some of the tools people suggested, find new ways to integrate Twitter streams with my RSS feeds, read more on my iPhone using my6sense and other services, and do some re-ordering in my Google Reader.

What are your thoughts now about RSS Readers, given the discussion summarized here?

via feedproxy.google.com

Great post. I reduced the number of feeds I monitor, use Feedly and Posterous now and really have started to enjoy reading my RSS feeds again.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

AWESOME: Muscle-Based Computer Control Scheme

2010-01-02T07:19:00.001-05:00

via feedproxy.google.com

Very interesting idea on new way to interface with your computer or device.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Highlights from 2009 in Pictures

2009-12-29T08:40:00.002-05:00

via feedproxy.google.com

Great video on 2009. I really think Orli captures the core technologies and trends of 2009.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Coming Back to Basecamp

2009-12-28T16:36:00.002-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

I am implementing Basecamp again after a couple of years away from the product. I am really excited to get it in place and have everyone using it.

Does anyone know what the best browser extensions, iphone apps, and support products are? I know there is a list on 37signals.com page, but wondered about some third party recommendations.

Is anyone making a Chrome extension for basecamp?

RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline

2009-12-21T06:38:00.001-05:00

RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline

Written by Richard MacManus / December 20, 2009 8:04 PM / 74 Comments

« Prior Post

One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don't check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me.

Frankly I'm more likely to use Google Reader to search for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what's happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?

In February 2007 we reported on the state of the RSS Reader market, based on statistics from Feedburner and Pheedo. At that point Google had 59% market share amongst web-based RSS Readers, followed by Bloglines with 33%, then Newsgator and Netvibes with 3% (note: this didn't count Newsgator's desktop apps, like FeedDemon). Pheedo's stats in February 2007 were somewhat different: Newsgator Online had 27% share, followed by MyYahoo! with 20%, Blogines 19% and Google Reader 13%.

The first time ReadWriteWeb looked into market share for RSS Readers was 5 years ago, in December 2004. At that point, very early in the web 2.0 era, Bloglines was the clear leader and Google Reader wasn't even a glint in the milkman's eye.

2009 Update on RSS Reader Market

Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. The product has been infrequently updated since Google acquired it in June 2007 and it no longer even has a proper blog (a Google blog called Adsense For Feeds was the closest I could find).

Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective - its last blog post was January 2009. Tellingly though, it has an active Twitter account.

The best data we have then is ReadWriteWeb's own Feedburner account. Here is the top 10 for Dec 09:

1. Google Feedfetcher 85665 (includes both Google Reader and its start page iGoogle)
2. Bloglines 38797
3. Netvibes 34894
4. FriendFeed 16269
5. NewsGator Online 6753
6. Firefox Live Bookmarks 2999
7. PostRank 2454
8. Windows RSS Platform 1587
9. Mac OS X RSS Reader 1307
10. Zhuaxia 1127 (a Chinese RSS Reader)

Feedburner's numbers always need to be taken with a large grain of salt, nevertheless we can see that Google is now over twice the number of Bloglines. There's little sign of life on Bloglines' blog either and its Compete.com traffic numbers show a decline since June 2009.

Netvibes, FriendFeed, Newsgator and PostRank are the only other english language competitors showing in our Feedburner numbers. The others are either browser (Firefox) or operating system readers.

Also note that Newsgator shut down its online RSS Reader at the end of July this year.

Conclusion: Google Dominates, RSS Readers Less Relevant

These statistics are by no means the definitive RSS Reader market numbers. They do clearly show two things though:

1) Google now dominates what's left of the RSS Reader market. Bloglines is hanging in there, but it seems like it's given up the fight judging by lack of activity in its blog and traffic dips.

2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009. People can monitor news and information via Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, their Firefox bookmarks, their OS, aggregators like Techmeme, and so on.

Tell us in the comments how you currently read your RSS feeds and how often you check them in an RSS Reader - if indeed you still use one...

Update: I should add that our news writers use a variety of RSS Readers daily.

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I've experienced this for sure. I used to be in google reader multiple times a day, now i check it a few times a week.

Posted by: Ken Warner
| December 20, 2009 8:23 PM

A few thousand geeks may be beyond Google Reader, but the rest of the world is barely beginning to notice readers. Neither of my daughters go to feed readers; one of my daughters uses her iPhone apps as a de facto RSS reader. And neither to any of my non-geeky friends. So I'm not sure being "over" Google Reader applies to any mass movement. And I also would make a bet that most people don't think consciously of Twitter as a source for news.

As for me, I maintain four Twitter accounts that I check every day, some more frequently than others. And I go to Google Reader in the morning and in the evening. Twitter is definitely my source for breaking news, but Google Reader is my way of aggregating all things I want to read but would otherwise space out

Posted by: Francine | December 20, 2009 8:25 PM

I use Google Reader multiple times per day. Twitter is nice for current events, but I don't grok how to stay up to date with it. Like, tweets happen on their time, which isn't necessarily when I'm ready for them. RSS lets me control when.

How do people keep up with a bunch of blogs and news without a feed reader?

Posted by: JEP
| December 20, 2009 8:26 PM

I still use Google Reader, and I've found it more useful now that I've got Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed to share articles on. So, interestingly enough, though those and other social services may be making RSS readers less useful, they've actually made GReader more useful for me. But then, that's me...

Posted by: Dennis Jernberg
| December 20, 2009 8:36 PM

I still rely heavily on RSS to get news and read interesting blogs. I have used NetNewsWire from the very beginning. I would never rely solely on Twitter, nor waste my time going to websites.

Posted by: CB
| December 20, 2009 8:58 PM

I think that rss readers are now more useful than 3 years ago,given that rss is the de facto standard for social sharing, but the readers need to evolve in their GUI, that definitely looks soooo boring compared with twitter and facebook. I'm pretty sure that in 2010 we'll see a big evolution of rss readers, processing life and news streams in the same interface.

Posted by: Marco A Torres
| December 20, 2009 9:01 PM

Why is RSS reading the fragmented experience and not Twitter + fb + startpages + Techmeme?

Posted by: Kevin Donovan | December 20, 2009 9:04 PM

I can't quite figure out how to use Twitter or Facebook as a feed reader. They seem more like feed notifiers to me; a way to see that there is a new blog post or news story without getting the post or story directly. They are a way for friends to say "hey, check out this post" or for blogs to say "look at what we just posted". It's a great way to get exposed to information from unfamiliar sources, but less convenient than a feed reader for keeping up with blogs or news sources you already know about and rely on. Rather then follow a link in a tweet from a known blog, isn't it easier to read the article directly in a feed reader where it can be saved, shared, emailed, and sent to other sources, including Twitter and Facebook, usually with one click? I can't figure out how this can be done with Twitter or Facebook. Is there a how-to guide somewhere?

Posted by: almostinfocus | December 20, 2009 9:10 PM

I'm with Francine. ditto, ditto, and ditto. I'd add that I think RSS is stuck in an awkward place now, with most still in the dark that it's possible to get news without browsing. Yes, people use Twitter, but speaking of stats, seen those lately? Most of the tweets coming from 5%, and most of it in the me-statements category. So again, the Scobles of the world are getting all their news from the news providers that've learned to echo on Twitter, but most of the users are still just using it to self-cast.

So RSS is unknown by most of the pack, left behind by the earliest adopters, and the few middle-grounders like us are in its sweet spot.

And besides, why do we all have to like the same thing, Digerati? What is this, middle school? God forbid a bunch of you like something and just shut up and use it, and stop whining about what you've left behind... Oh, I'm sorry, do we all need to go to the bathroom now?

Posted by: John Eich
| December 20, 2009 9:11 PM

I tend to check Google Reader multiple times a day. While I do keep up with bigger news through Friendfeed or Twitter. I like to keep up with multiple Graphic Design blogs, tech blogs, entertainment blogs, photography blogs and Apple blogs on my own. I just can't see myself ditching RSS Readers for something that I really don't have much control over.

Posted by: Mathew Ballad | December 20, 2009 9:17 PM

I use multiple rss readers all day, every day ;) that's how I find most of what I write here that then gets shared around Twitter

Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
| December 20, 2009 9:18 PM

Hi Marshall,

Great article, we've been tracking RSS (As in having a feed meta tag in a site's homepage) at BuiltWith and it looks like it has started to decline around August 2009 -

http://trends.builtwith.com/feeds/RSS

Whilst Atom has been on the steady incline -

http://trends.builtwith.com/feeds/Atom

Been interested to know why that is.

Gary

Posted by: Gary | December 20, 2009 9:28 PM

I read magazines and they are still delivered in my mailbox.

I read several dozen blogs and they are delivered through my reader (Google Reader).

My rule is: If the author didn't spend 10x longer writing the article than it would take for me to read, then it's not worth my time to read.

Posted by: Rob | December 20, 2009 9:29 PM

I still use rss2email (which is not surprising since I'm the project maintainer) to deliver new entries from my feed list every 30 minutes. My email client is always-on so I'm pretty much always aware of what's new.

Posted by: turbodog
| December 20, 2009 9:30 PM

I'd go further, we no longer need rss or twitter or ... specific "readers", instead we need apps that "ignore" the serialization type...

Posted by: wii recepteur | December 20, 2009 9:36 PM

It seems that because of googles dominance with google reader that there has been now noticeable evolution in news aggregator features beyond the obvious sharing features.
I think that many issues having to do with the "reliability" and "authenticity" of news could be addressed by users of feed aggregator

Posted by: william | December 20, 2009 9:50 PM

Google Reader is my primary news source and probably my favourite webapp. I use it not only as a constantly evolving newspaper, but to share and to create new snippets using the "Note in Reader..." bookmarklet. I also subscribe to others' interests and see what they have marked to share with me.

If you haven't used Reader's social features then I can understand why you're still thinking it's just a serialized feed.

I honestly can't understand why Twitter can be considered a news source other than as an alert that something is happening so I should go look elsewhere for details. I like it for neighbourhood gossip ("Oh, a new store opened around the corner."), but beyond that there's so much noise.

The difference to me is that there's an article behind the RSS headline in Google Reader. Not just 140 chars of fluff surrounded by a cloud of self-importance. Plus, with PubSubHub I do see breaking news in Reader.

Posted by: Eric | December 20, 2009 9:57 PM

I use Google Reader to absorb, share, and save daily news. I'm not sure Twitter will ever replace this - but then again I probably thought G Reader would never replace nytimes.com

...

Posted by: jared zlotnick
| December 20, 2009 10:07 PM

I'm in NetNewsWire right now, so there.

I dunno, I get that there are other sources - but I just haven't totally moved on. I use Twitter in addition, but don't necessarily find anything outside of the people I follow on a daily basis.

Posted by: George Huff | December 20, 2009 10:08 PM

I don't use a RSS Reader

Why should i? I bookmark the RSS on my firefox toolbar and as and when required check the subject lines. If something appeals me i go to the actual website and read it,

Posted by: Royston Olivera | December 20, 2009 10:10 PM

I use NetNewsWire on my iPhone almost daily. It's the main place I actually find time to read feeds, when I'm standing in line for coffee or wherever I find a few minutes. Thanks to Instapaper I'm not worried about getting sucked into something as it's so easy to just read it later.

RSS is far from dead. While many geeks may have moved on, my sisters just discovered it in recent years. They have no idea what twitter is, what to do with it, or why they should care.

Posted by: sjs
| December 20, 2009 10:11 PM

I use Google Reader to read news everyday - there's no better way to search for a specific topic from a wide range of publications including magazine sites and smaller blogs. Google News/ Google Alerts on their own fail at this. And sending Google Alerts to Google Reader is so much more efficient than having them clog up your inbox.

Posted by: Malorie | December 20, 2009 10:11 PM

I use Feedly several times a day, supplemented by Twitter. I've been playing with Lazyfeed lately, really dig its new interface and have discovered new sources with this new tool.

Rarely go directly to blogs anymore. I jump from feedly to blogs, instead.

For what I do, a lot of the info I consume is visual, so I still rely on flickr, youtube and tumblr for most of that.

Posted by: Rick | December 20, 2009 10:14 PM

Google Reader, daily.

Posted by: Dirk Krause
| December 20, 2009 10:14 PM

I use Google Reader. Have tried using Twitter but miss a lot if I am not on Twitter. At least with Google Reader I know I won't miss anything

Posted by: Peter | December 20, 2009 10:16 PM

This will go down as one of the most beaten to death topics of 2009, imo.

But I'll bite. Google Reader, couple times per day, read through Feedly. There are times when I go days without checking the feeds, but usually scroll back to any missed articles. Something twitter cannot do, the info just flys to fast to use twitter as a news reader/gatherer.

Posted by: Joseph
| December 20, 2009 10:16 PM

I check my Google Reader on pc/phone more than I do Twitter or Facebook. I feel a sense of impending doom if I haven't cleared it out.

Posted by: Alex Williams | eROI
| December 20, 2009 10:18 PM

RSS feeds and Twitter can be combined. See http://www.analyticbridge.com/group/collectiveintelligence/forum/topics/tweepsearch-to-searchrank

Posted by: Analyticbridge | December 20, 2009 10:21 PM

I live in Google Reader 3-4 hours a day. I use "Share" to add to my Shared Items list. This list is pulled into my blog site witha WP Google Reader plug-in and make a nice list, so my blog readers see what I'm interested in. Also FriendFeed gets immediate notification via PubSubHubBub and posts my shared items to FriendFeed and then FF shortens the URL and ships it off to my Twitter account. Usually faster than I can switch tabs and view the posts.

So I can browse, read and share to 4 places all within Google Reader. I can also email items to specific people if I want to. What couldn't be simpler?

Posted by: Keith | December 20, 2009 10:23 PM

I'm subscribed to RWW in Google Reader, and I just read this post in Feedly.

Posted by: Daniel | December 20, 2009 10:25 PM

RSS always has been and will be a back-end technology that powers many of the front-end services we use every day. Feed readers have always hovered around 8-12% consumer adoption. The fact that Feedburner and similar services haven't iterated much in the past few years, while disappointing, is hardly cause for hyperbolic speculation about the 'death of RSS.' Feeds aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Posted by: Dan | December 20, 2009 10:28 PM

I use Google Reader via browser on my BlackBerry, and Firefox add-on Feedly (which is 100% in sync with Google Reader) on desktop/laptop, several times a day.

Posted by: HenkJan van der Klis
| December 20, 2009 10:35 PM

I think RSS is still essential. It's how I order and arrange my personal little newspaper-view on the world; I mean it's like my customised newspaper. I use MyYahoo from habit. Everything from Blogs, news items, comics, even some basic tools. The beauty is the selective control over your channels - sometimes twitter becomes too much of an always-on channel. With RSS it's about serious-length content, and will be ready and waiting and easily-overviewed when I'm ready.
reens

Posted by: Rino | December 20, 2009 10:37 PM

I've had hard time getting on board the Twitter wagon. Too much noise and I frankly don't care for second or third hand information. Ironically I contribute to the high volume by pushing my own RSS onto Twitter. I just don't use it as a source of information. Twitter's near real time update of course is great. Often, by the time I look at a RSS feed, it has been "liked" by a handful of people, read, by many more. Google Reader update rate is still plenty fast, after all I do have to work and tear myself away from the web at least periodically, as I imagine most people do. This post has me consider tracking Twitter accounts of the content makers to whose RSS feeds I presently subscribe, the 263 of them... Or, resist the coolness factor and remain quaintly backward. The web is unforgiving however, novelty rules - everything else withers, I am afraid that such will be the fate of RSS. What am I missing about Twitter? Or, is the face of the web a small technocratic elite and plenty of "sheep"?

Posted by: Rolling Red | December 20, 2009 10:39 PM

I started using rss through opera browser few years back, I instantly switched when google launched its rss reader.I have been using it since then , the reason I switched was I can access it from anywhere and the sharing option with friends/family through email was a plus. I live on the reader 24/7 @work plus @home for any kinda updates.Recently I have added some of the ppl from twitter to follow them in the reader, so that I don't miss any important info.

After twitter launched its lists feature ,I am slowing moving to seesmic on web , 3 tabs which are always open in my browser are gmail,google reader and seesmic.

Posted by: mdanuz | December 20, 2009 10:39 PM

I just read some interesting and important news everyday, so RSS is not necessary for me, too busy to have a rest.

Posted by: batterycentury | December 20, 2009 10:43 PM

I use Google Reader daily, and I actually just started using it this year. I love that I can just star items for later if I don't have the time to actually read the article. I like twitter for breaking news and keeping up with people, but I barely know anyone who actually uses twitter for anything but chit-chatting aside from myself, and those that I do know IRL that use twitter rank few in numbers. I don't think RSS readers are dead, obviously since i just started using one,and I think Twitter has a long way to go before people will take it seriously enough to rely on it as a main news source.

Posted by: Lianna Sharon Davis
| December 20, 2009 10:49 PM

There's no way I can read hundreds of news articles and keep up with the world each day unless I use Google Reader. With only a few buttons (and no mouse) I can scroll through hundreds of articles. I spend my morning with Google Reader similar to how my parents used to spend hours reading newspaper, but now I read more, much faster, and in more details if I want to.

I haven't found anything else that's faster and more configurable than Google Reader. My guess as to why RSS is going down is that there's way more distractions today, such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are fine for entertainment, but nothing beats good information than using Google Reader to read good RSS streams.

Posted by: Kevin | December 20, 2009 10:53 PM

I read RWW in NetNewsWire. The difference is that if I miss a few hours or even days of Twitter, well so what. On the other hand, there is one folder of feeds in NNW that I feel it's unacceptable when I don't at least glance at everything those people have to say.

Posted by: Tim | December 20, 2009 10:54 PM

I have Google Reader and try to go through it at least once a week, but sometimes I leave it for 2-3 weeks

Posted by: Simon G | December 20, 2009 11:02 PM

Like what some others are saying....

I can't afford to miss any post on some sites, and Google Reader is still the best way for me to make this happen. Twitter lists of sites could work, I just like the feed-reader experience more because I can see more of the article without having to click.

Also, interestingly, I told my college-age sister about Google Reader and now she's hooked.

But even Google Reader isn't that amazing. I find the search function pretty bad given that this is a Google product. Maybe we just need better RSS readers? Maybe more people will want to start using them as they use the web for work, school research, etc.?

I'm not holding my breath on those last points, I just think/hope RSS readers still have a place.

Posted by: Eric | December 20, 2009 11:03 PM

I use feeds now more than I ever have in the past. Twitter accounts I want to follow, but which are primarily just pushing information without interacting, go into Google Reader instead of being followed on Twitter. I also use Google Reader to save backup copies of my own Twitter account (this is really useful when you want to refer back & find something quickly).

I depend on feeds for news and information, and for keeping up-to-date with several blogs I read.
Being able to organise feeds into categories and having a good search function make readers invaluable tools for me.

Even so, it has been Twitter that has increased my use of feeds. Time zone differences mean a lot of good information can be missed in a tweet stream. Pulling the important streams into a reader means the information is readily available.

Posted by: Lynne Pope
| December 20, 2009 11:04 PM

I agree. I've been using Google Reader since long time ago and I only use it as a database for searching information, along with Firefox bookmarks and Google itself.

Posted by: Christian Castelli
| December 20, 2009 11:06 PM

I'm similar to Rino (#33) and sjs (#21). For me, it's all about creating my own private magazine, tailored to my interests, on my *off-line mobile device*.

I use NewsRob on Android to pull the most recent 250 articles from Google Reader via my home wifi. Then I walk out the door and head for the commuter train, where I will read my feeds while other poor souls are stuck with the newspaper. Same on the way home and late at night when I'm rocking the baby to sleep.

Feeds on laptops: maybe kinda lame. Feeds on mobile: awesome.

Posted by: Bill | December 20, 2009 11:07 PM

I've got to say, this article blew me away. Not because I agree with the premise - the decline of RSS - but because of how much it missed the mark with regards to my personal habits. I (and it appears the majority of the commenters) depend on RSS readers to get my news. I check Twitter and use it to find interesting links, but as a news source it would be terrible. My use of Twitter, which may be different from the digerati that follow this blog, is only occasional and is more about monitoring trends / people. The other alternatives like Facebook or Friendfeed aren't all that appealing as substitutes either. And I can never go back to browsing individual websites.

Posted by: Brian | December 20, 2009 11:08 PM

I still use Google Reader daily. Twitter and such cannot replace the functionality of RSS readers. Some bloggers I follow dont use Twitter and even if they would I would most probably miss some of theie posts w/o an RSS reader.

Posted by: Max | December 20, 2009 11:41 PM

I agree that Twitter isn't a very good tool for keeping up with important information.

I actually read this story from one of the latest desktop communication devices called eLert Gadget which also doubles as an easy to use, straight forward RSS reader.

Unlike Google reader and feed demon its a lot easier to use:
http://www.elertgadget.com/downloadbookmark.php

Posted by: Internet Corporation
| December 20, 2009 11:46 PM

While I recognize there is not a growing market for stand-alone RSS readers, saying RSS is in disarray is like saying HTTP is in disarray. I use Google Reader many times a day, every day. When not in front of the laptop, I get my RSS on my iPhone via my6sense. The day I stop reading RSS feeds is the day I stop reading the Web (this site included).

Posted by: Louis Gray | December 20, 2009 11:49 PM

This ridiculousness about not needing RSS or readers because of Twitter has really got to stop. Twitter is great, but it's only part of the story. Blogs are hugely valuable and the best way to keep up with them is still RSS. Google is such a huge brand name they have been able to take over the RSS reader space and that's just the way it goes. The fact that there are few competitors anymore is testament to the fact that it's probably not a good business strategy to go straight up against Google, especially when their technology is free. With the new advances is realtime RSS we will see the continuation of RSS as a valuable and important technology.

Posted by: Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Firefox 3.5: The World’s Most Popular Browser

2009-12-21T06:34:00.001-05:00

Firefox 3.5 is now the most popular browser worldwide, edging past Internet Explorer 7, according to analytics site StatCounter.

The timing has favored FF3.5, however: IE7 usage has died off as people upgrade to IE8, meaning that Internet Explorer’sInternet Explorer
market share is currently spread equally across IE7 and IE8. Add together all versions of IE versus all versions of FirefoxFirefox
, and Microsoft’s browser is still leading the pack by a long way.

Nonetheless, the trend lines favor Firefox in the long run: IE’s market share continues its slow decline while Firefox has sustained steady growth.

StatCounter uses its tracking codes on 3 million websites (5 billion total pageviews) to generate the numbers.

[via Slashdot]

via feedproxy.google.com

Firefox finally caught IE. Interesting to see the Chrome isn't on this list. I predict it will catch IE very fast and then be competitive with Firefox for years to come.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

NBA Player Fined $7,500 for a Tweet

2009-12-20T13:07:00.001-05:00

Brandon Jennings [@YUNGBUCK3] has made headlines for his unconventional road to the NBA — after skipping college he played professional basketball in Europe before getting drafted by the Bucks in 2009 — but now he’s making headlines for his tweets.

Last weekend Jennings tweeted 15 minutes after the Bucks game against the Trailblazers ended. That’s a big no-no in the NBA, as the league’s social media policy spells out that players aren’t allowed to tweet post-game until the team has finished talking to the media. The cost for Jennings’ Twitter hiccup? A hefty $7,500.

The tweet in question is rather benign. It reads, “Back to 500. Yess!!! “500″ means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys.”

But that’s clearly not the point. Jennings broke an established rule, and the NBA needs to follow through with the fine in order to set a precedent and make a statement to other players who are all-a-TwitterTwitter
.

Of course Jennings was none-to-happy about the amount of the fine, and he turned to Twitter to voice his malcontent about the price of his preemptive tweet. “I understand I got fined, but 7500? For being happy over a win, you would of thought I said something bad. I mean it was a big win for us.”

He later apologized for the behavior, said it wouldn’t happen again, and even talked about deleting his Twitter account. Given that he deleted his original account after a YouTubeYouTube
incident earlier in the year, and then took to his Facebook Page to share with his fans that he had a new account, we have a feeling that Jennings will stick around on Twitter for awhile longer.

Now that we’ve seen a plethora of athletes penalized for their poor Twitter behavior — Antonio Cromartie, Larry Johnson, and members of the Texas Tech football team — these occurrences are starting to become commonplace. So who will be the next athlete to say too much on Twitter? Who knows, but we do expect some Twitter sparks to fly this weekend when the Chargers and the Bengals (Ochocinco’s team) face each other on the field in San Diego.

[via SI.com]

[Img credit: Bekah stargazing, FlickrFlickr
]

via feedproxy.google.com

So, the NBA wants manage the flow of information and has to use a negative approach to do that. It seems this is mostly about keep the mainstream media happy and not about any kind of value creation for the league. I imagine it will go away once league officials decide that it really isn't in their interest to limit the connection between the players and fans.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

State of elearning 2009

2009-12-19T16:01:00.001-05:00

State of elearning 2009

Tony Bates reflects on 2009, noting positive developments and disappointments:

Then we look at the public sector, and in particular the big research universities, and what do we see? Clickers, lecture capture, multiple screens in the classroom, learning management systems with Powerpoint slides and pdf files loaded, and a total lack of recognition that the current formal higher education system is failing, and a total lack of vision of what is needed for the future, and the role that information and communications technologies can play in formal learning.

I think there is too much focus on trying to innovate within the system rather than innovating the system itself. The latter requires vision, leadership, and experimentation/failure.

Posted in Uncategorized.

No comments

By gsiemens – December 18, 2009

via elearnspace.org

Interesting quote via George Siemans, from Tony Bates. Many still are trying to leverage technology to make a traditional model for education better, when it is time to think about a new way to educate. I know it is hard, but the infrastructure for these new model is here. It's time to give every student a netbook or smartphone and start empowering their learning network. Give them the foundation in digital literacy they need to own their own learning.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half Billion Dollars Or More

2009-12-17T22:55:00.001-05:00

Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million.

Yelp was founded in 2004 as a way to let users leave reviews on local businesses. Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast – the company says it’s real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques.

Yelp has whispered that 2009 revenues will be around $30 million and are expecting $50 million or so in 2010.

Yelp last raised venture capital in early 2008 from DAG at a $200 million pre-money valuation, we’ve heard. They’ve raised a total of $31 million over four venture rounds.

On the odds of the deal happening – one source says its 80% likely. Not signed, sealed and delivered, but past the term sheet stage.

Google is building out their own directory of local businesses with its Place Pages, which can be accessed via Google Maps and local search. They are encouraging local businesses to put Google-branded stickers in store windows and recently added their own ratings summaries to business profiles. Yelp, of course, already has all of this data, along with a growing and active audience of consumers who are used to finding (and rating) businesses on Yelp.

For their part, Google is clearly on a shopping spree. They recently acquired AdMob for $750 million, and were in the running on the LaLa acquisition. Expect lots of deals to be announced by them over the next three months.

CrunchBase Information

Google

Yelp

Information provided by CrunchBase

via feedproxy.google.com

So, I don't use Yelp, but it is obvious that Google continues to integrate into local communities. It is so important the the continue to innovate around relevance (or purchase that innovation). Consumers are going to continue to demand that their information be individualized and they will go to however can do that the best.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

Sad to lose Chris Henry

2009-12-17T21:58:00.001-05:00

http://www.mahalo.com/chris-henry-dead

http://www.mahalo.com/chris-henry

Crazy story if true: "On December 17, 2009 Cincinnati Bengals receiverChris Henry died from injuries sustained from adomestic dispute with his fiance, Loleini Tonga. His official time of death was 6:36 AM, reported police.¹The cause of death is was from injuries sustained from falling out of a moving pickup truck, which his wife is believe to have driven.² Henry was seen jumping into the bed of the pickup truck as Tonga drove away from their house, where tire marks were found in the yard.¹Henry was found on Interstate 85 just outside Charlotte, less than a mile away from his house, where police say he "came out the back" of the moving vehicle.³

via calacanis.com

It really is sad to see something so tragic. I feel for his three children.

Posted via web from Lee's posterous

How to Train Corporate on Social Media: One Approach

2009-12-16T17:52:00.004-05:00

Mashable has noticed an interesting approach to training employees on using social media. The company, Telstra has put together a guide to social media and posted it online. The use a comic book format to discuss Facebook and MySpace.

The format is interesting and it seems easy enough to go through. It also has embedded video that is available on YouTube.

It is certainly worth a closer look. I haven't dug into the actual instructional design and I don't know if they really address using social media as part of their work or it is more a "guidance" or "governance" training, trying to ensure the employees are not doing improper things.

Certainly worth a deeper look.

Google Latitude

2009-12-15T17:18:00.003-05:00

I have been playing with Google Latitude, but the fact that they don't have an iphone app is a real pain. You actually have to open the browser to get it to pick up your location and there is no other reason to go to that page. That isn't very practical. They should connect it to something else, that you actually use, like gmail.

I am looking for a solution for my Dad. Does the Droid automatically update latitude? If so how often? Every X minutes? Can you set it?

Thanks.

About Three and Half Years to Appear

2009-12-09T15:55:00.009-05:00

I wrote this post in April 2007 wondering if my cell phone could be connected to my bathroom scales so that I could easily monitor my weight. I happen to like to weigh in a lot.

http://leekraus.blogspot.com/2007/04/cell-phone-desires.html

Well, http://www.withings.com/en/ is now available.

So what else is now available from this list?

I want it to be the key to my car and home.
~~I want it to track my family members and tell me where they are.~~
I want it to be my wallet.
~~I want to watch the news on it.~~
I want it to translate different languages.
~~I want it to be a universal remote control.~~
I want it to monitor my heart rate and blood pressure and transmit the data to my doctor.
I want it to access my virtual worlds.
I want it to jam all personal communications of other people near me.
~~I want it to just be a phone.~~

~~I want it to link to my bathroom scales.~~
~~I want it to load all my podcasts, wirelessly.~~ Functionality yes, practical no
~~I want it to always have my location on a google map. (We are close.)~~
I want it to alert me when I am within 10 miles of anything on "my interests" list like a Mountain Bike shop or a Ben and Jerry's.
~~I want it to capture my audio and email me transcripts.~~Thanks Jott
I want it to link to my car and tell me when and what maintenance to do. (Ford Synch, but not open)
I want it to have an awesome, high quality camera embedded. (Relatively speaking maybe)
I want it to project a full size light keyboard on any flat surface so I can type into it.
I want it to offer free data services.
I want it to be indestructible. (Ok, I've dropped mine a few times.)

Google Sites Upgrade with Lists

2009-11-09T14:53:00.003-05:00

I just noticed a cool upgrade in Google Sites. You can now embed a Google spreadsheet as a list. This was a much need feature that allows you to edit the spreadsheet within google sites. I wonder how long it has been there? Look for it when you set the properties when embedding a spreadsheet in your page.

Top 10 things I Don't Have Time to Blog About

2009-09-17T21:09:00.002-04:00

I am using Posterous now and thought that I would like to try to post to my blog from Gmail and so here it is.

Top 10 things I Don't Have Time to Blog About

When people don't respond to your email. What do you do? Did they miss it? Do they hate you?
CreateWV Conference has some great tracks on Education.
Web 2.0 and elearning. Where are we at right now?
Where Marketing and Training come together.
Data mining and SEO and Paid Search.
A Twitter app in the form of Google Reader would be awesome.
Squarespace pros and cons. Mostly Pros.
Young people making out on the Wheelchair Ramp outside my office window. Not once, BUT TWICE?
Tweetdeck iphone app is really getting better
People who are very prolific on the web and don't respond to your email. They hate you.

Bonus: are all SEOs using RFDa? If not will they soon?

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

Google's New Interface for News: The FastFlip

2009-09-15T06:20:00.005-04:00

Google has released a new interface for thier news. FastFlip. I think it is interesting because it represents another way to access and browse information. As we start to combine realtime information such as Twitter search and Google Waves with news and articles we need new ways of reading through the large amounts of data. I kind of like the new format, but I am not sure if I would seek it out. I have been using Cool Iris more lately so maybe it can be useful.

Great lunch to send off our great Intern. Thanks @jeffjam and Rusty!

2009-09-11T12:28:00.001-04:00

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

http://bit.ly/gDXAp Interesting presentation on the "fold" - mentions research that indicates people don't mind to scroll.

2009-09-11T08:21:00.001-04:00

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

CreateWV Community

2009-09-11T07:13:00.001-04:00

The CreateWV online community is up to about 42 members, but they are not very active. If you are interested in helping West Virginia create a new economy, new opportunities, and a new attitude check out this online community. It is easy to sign up and start engaging. There are groups around the key areas of the CreateWV such as diversity, education, technology, and business innovation. The site allows each individual to have a platform to share and engage and collaborate. Come check it out!

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

A Quick Personal Reflection

2009-09-11T06:59:00.001-04:00

Here it is September and things have really been going great since I
have been working at Mythology Marketing. My one year employment mark
will be in October. Since coming on board I have learned so much about
marketing, strategic planning, and implementation of interactive
marketing plans with all types of organizations. Working for Jeff
James is incredible. If you every want to see what happens when you
combine marketing brilliance with incredible work ethic, just hang out
with Jeff for a couple of days and you will see how it all comes
together.

On the personal front, things are going great as well. Our family's
spiritual journey is about to hit a new level of commitment, Alex is
loving football, and Emily got great news from the doc. We are truly
blessed. My wife is in her third year back in the classroom after 7
years home with our children. Her challenges/opportunities include 21
third graders with 21 netbooks, one of which is our daughter Emily
(3rd grader not netbook). I continue to focus on my running, trying
to gear up for a marathon and a half in January.

Back to the professional side of things, I have become engaged in the
cross between data, marketing, and social media. It is a truly
fascinating intersection of information and ideas. A lot of my recent
activity has been around helping organizations put in processes that
help them engage in web/interactive marketing and social media in the
most effective way. Of course a lot of that is about being efficient
as well. Most don't know how to find the time to engage. So far my
recommendations have been around processes and tools that can help.

I continue to design, implement, and manage training and learning
activities. They tend to be more integrated into marketing processes,
but I enjoy working within a set of business goals and outcomes that
are not "training" specific. Of course, many would say all goals and
outcomes should be business specific.

As I look ahead, I am excited about helping Mythology get to the next
level, spending more time with my family, and continuing to engage in
great groups like CreateWV, Mountain State Marketers, and learning to
be a better person.

Posted via email from Lee's posterous

Twitter is only for lunch plans and the weather

2009-08-06T12:01:00.005-04:00

Twitter went down for awhile this morning and it seems to be a point of conversation in the larger social network of the web. Places like Facebook (also having issues today) and Friendfeed pick up the communication connections while Twitter is down.

But what I wanted to post about is the fact that many have to "snicker" or react to it light-heartedly. This is true from general people making comments or large media outlets.

For users of the fast-growing messaging service, the outage means no tweeting about lunchplans, the weather or the fact that Twitter is down. - Fox News

I don't think that we will see this overtime, but for now we mock or find amuzing what we don't understand. I wonder why write the article that it is down if it doesn't have value?

The Passing of a Mentor and a Friend

2009-08-03T11:21:00.005-04:00

I was so sad to hear on Sunday that my graduate school mentor and friend had passed away. John Oughton, also a friend and former colleage sent me a message via Facebook on Sunday and then Monday morning I found this post from Curt Bonk that Dr. Michael Reed had passed away earlier in the week.

I spent three years working very closely with him at West Virginia University completing my doctorate degree. He taught me so much about life and research.

I was a very young graduate student in 1993 when he accepted me into the Instructional Technology program at the University. He sat me down and talked to me about what it would take to complete the program. I quickly became in awe at his knowledge and ability and clung to his every word for the entire time that I was there. It was only through his support and reassurance that I had the confidence to engage in the program, become an instructor, and write the manuscripts required to get my degree.

His impact on my life cannot be understated. My first real lasting memory was when I got my first paper back from him covered with red ink, coffee stains, and cigarette burns. As he had it to me, he said "I see you managed to get all the Reed trademarks on this one." I was in shock. My original words were barely visible. We sat at his "private" office out back on the patio and discussed for what seemed like hours about what it would take for me to be a researcher and a writer. For the next three years he spent countless more hours on the task.

Probably the smartest thing I have every done outside of my family, is to make myself 100% open to the criticism, feedback, and counseling of Mike Reed.

In addition to the dinners around town and dog walks at the farm, I remember spending all weekend in his office shivering, he kept it very cold in there, as I worked on re-write, after re-write, after re-write wondering if Dr. Reed would want me to write it again.

We didn't talk as much as I would have liked after I graduated in 1996. I think particularly because I didn't stay in academia. I would email or call him from time to time. I talked with him last in November 2007 about a career change and he mentored me like I was still one of his kids. He listened intently about my family and told me about his work and housing situation.

Over the last two days more and more comments have come in on Curt's post and they have really made me miss him. Seeing his picture puts me back there working on research, teaching class, presenting at conferences, and asking Dr. Reed so many questions that I am sure drove him crazy.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and so many who's lives he touched just as he did mine.

Google Wave as a Learning Tool

2009-06-12T08:53:00.000-04:00

The web is a buzz over Google Wave. The platform is an incredible communication tool that if realized will change the way we work, collaborate, and learn. The tool was created by the engineers that brought us Google maps. Take the time to check out the demonstration.

If you watched the video (I know it is long.) you realize immediately how this type of workflow can really improve the productivity of a virtual team. It solves one of the biggest problems on the web, which is long emails with multiple threads that contain a lot of critical information on various topics. Being able to parse that information out and understand the timeframe of the conversation is very time consuming. It also addresses integration of instant messaging and mobile phones into the conversation. Currently these sub-conversations typically get lost. Wave also is dealing with team-based live document editing, realtime photo sharing, and language translations. Impressive, to say the least.

But I immediately began to think about how Google Wave is a platform for social learning. As with any new technology there are a couple of ways to think about it. One is to consider how this might improve the traditional models of education. Think of a Wave as a tool that could support current collaborative learning models. It would also be fun to consider how Google Wave might be transformational in creating a new approach or social learning platform.

I think this will put us a lot closer to the concept Jay Cross talked about years ago called workflow learning. The concept as I remember Jay explaining back then was the learning opportunities would be embedded into the workflow process. No one would go to a class or even take an online course, that wasn't embedded into the workflow or task of the knowledge worker. Waves really open up that possibility.

I know that I will be very interested to learn more about Google Waves in the near future.

Social Media Panel in Charleston

2009-06-05T07:17:00.005-04:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a panel on web.20 in Charleston. The event was hosted by the Charleston Area Alliance for the Generation Charleston group. It was a great experience for me to be a panel presenter with a great group of knowledgeable peers. The event focused on web2.0 and use social media for professional networking. The panel details are here.

There was a nice group of participants and when asked about 80%+ were on Facebook and LinkedIn. Here is the Facebook page for the event. The panelists seemed to compliment each other well. I talked a little about marketing yourself online. With only five minutes to talk, I didn't really go very deep, but hopefully shared a few nuggets along the way.

I just wanted to be sure that I said Thank You to those who invited me and participated.

A Twittering Coffee Machine

2009-05-05T14:46:00.003-04:00

I think this is interesting. A Twittering coffee machine. Much like my post about controlling your house lighting, it is fun to consider how a world full of twittering objects could make life easier. This coffee pot is connected to a Macbook so I don't think it is cost effective, but the idea of getting a tweet when the coffee is ready, is something I would like.

Blankomat, The Coffee Machine That Tweets from Plugg Conference on Vimeo.

coathangr : Welcome

2009-03-06T13:14:00.001-05:00

coathangr : Welcome

Sometimes people just want to share what they are wearing....

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A New Learning Tool: siftables

2009-02-27T12:10:00.001-05:00

This MIT student is working on new human to computer interfaces. It is a great presentation.

I think that the impact of how people interact with this type of technology is so interesting. I wonder if you could add the same kind of interactivity between consenting iphones or other devices such as your television. Pour your playlist from your iphone into your friends? Or the photos from your camera into your laptop. That would be cool.

From a learning perspective, it is interesting to consider a learning activity that allowed you to build fluency, like the ones in the examples, but also a lot of other learning applications. You could most likely create a lot of simulations where the block represents an real world object or condition and displays a color graphic or plays a sound based on many different factors of proximity.

Cool stuff.

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This Week in Tech Reminds Me of Home

2009-02-25T08:27:00.001-05:00

I listened to most of this weeks episode of TWIT on the way down to the office today on my iPhone. I didn't listen to it all because I wanted to hear some of the coverage of the President's speech last night.

The panel on the podcast talked about the conversion of television signals from analog to digital that has been the center of national attention for awhile now. Doesn't effect my family directly, we are on satellite TV that now offers local channels, but we are watching local commercials again after probably 10 years. The quality really hasn't changed much over that time.

The conversation did however take me back to when I was a kid living in rural West Virginia. (Those of you who know me, probably are saying, "You are still a kid living in rural WV.") Anyway, my dad put a tall television antenna at the top of the hill behind our house. My guess is that is was over a quarter mile from the house to the top of the hill, so we had to run two wires back to the house and connect them to the TV to get a signal.

I don't remember the actual creation of the wiring system, but what I do remember was that sometimes, probably due to weather, the antenna would get moved and the signal to the TV would turn poor or even go out. This meant that the antenna needed to be adjusted to once again get a clear signal. In order to make such a fine adjustment it required that my two siblings and I be strategically placed at points along the path, so when someone at the top of the hill adjusted the antenna, someone at the TV could tell if it was an improvement or made it worse. The two people located somewhere on the hill in between the two key locations just need to relay the message accurately. As a dad today, I can only imagine how my Dad must have laughed through such a family activity.

It was quite an event to tune the TV. And what did this gain the Kraus House in terms of high quality entertainment in the later 1970's and early 1980's? Usually the ability to see the picture on channel 5 and hear the sound on Channel 12. We thought it was great.

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Joomla Installation For an Beginner

2009-02-24T22:26:00.001-05:00

So I have a couple of websites that I am trying to get live on the web. One is a community site the other a prototype of a concept that I have in mind. I have a hosting package on DreamHost and was able to use the "One-Click Installs" to load Joomla. You have to setup a database and a user account for the database. But really that was it.

If you don't know Joomla is an open source content management system that allows you to create websites without programming. I would much rather learn to program my own site, but "Learn to Program" has been on my todo list for years. So something like this is my alternative.

Once it is installed, they send you an email with some additional instructions. I followed them as close as possible and I have the site up and working. I did forget what I had set as a username, so it took me a couple of tries to get in, my mistake not theirs. Now, I really need to learn how to use Joomla.

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A Big Year in 2009: A Physical Challenge

2009-02-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

So I am setting myself up for a big year. I am finalizing a transition to a new job and getting myself organized around the goals that I have set out for myself in 2009. On the personal side I am seeking to find balance in my spiritual, mental, social, and physical components of my life. While, I have some specific things in each of the four areas, in this post I want to share my goals for my focus on the physical component. I am looking to improve my health as a key step to improving my overall quality of life, mental clarity, and attitude.

For me it is important to set goals that I can see and obtain. The goal that I am focused on this year is to participate in the 2010 Disney Marathon next January. This will be my second marathon. I completed the first marathon in 2006, also at Disney. I was so excited about just finishing the race, it was incredible. However, being goal oriented, I decided that this year I want to step it up in a big way and will focus on competing the Goofy Challenge. This consists of completing a half marathon on Saturday morning and then a full marathon on Sunday morning of the same weekend. The additional miles will mean that I have to really step up my ability to get in long runs and recover quickly. I have set some key milestones for myself and hope that I can build the necessary strength and endurance necessary to finish.

The focus for me will be on endurance (heart rate), body tone (strength), and monitoring my knees that ofter give me trouble. The technology support that I am using includes the GPS through my iPhone. I have started using an app called RunKeeper. It keeps my location, times, and min/miles data as I run. I am currently using the free edition, but will most likely upgrade when am convinved it is realiable enough to use for the entire training program. One great feature is that it uploads the data to the web immediately following a run and provides me access to it. Any great benefit of running with a GPS-enabled device is the ability to just take off in any direction and log know who far you have run.

I am also looking into purchasing a heart monitor. This is going to be critical for me to build the endurance that I will need for strength and recovery. I haven't really made up my mind, but I know that I want a device with an audible alert to let me know when I am out of my key range.

Finally, something that I haven't structured at all is body toning. I don't know why, you think it would be easy to do push-ups and set-ups each day or lift weights, but I can't seem to get myself into the pattern. I will focus on getting it into my schedule so that I can hold myself accountable.

In the end I hope that it is helpful to others beyond what I know it will do for me. I hope to organize a fund raiser around the event and bring in some money for the WVU Children's Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Department.

I hope to share more throughout the year about my adventures and goals, there will be many highs and lows I am sure. If you are a big time runner you won't be impressed with my ability, but if you are someone who is interested in setting goals, improving your health, and trying to improve all aspects of your life through improved physical conditioning then you might be interested in following along.

Here's to 2009 and setting big goals!

Collaboration at Cisco via John Chambers

2009-02-20T08:57:00.001-05:00

Here is an interesting video of John Chambers, fellow WVU grad, discussing command and control versus collaboration style management. It is very clear that Cisco applies a very sophisticated management style to production and operations. They are now focused on leveraging the power of social networking and collaboration to empower company decisions and planning.

Via: Mohamed Amine Chatti

Nokia N97

2008-12-12T22:14:00.003-05:00

This is a very interesting gadget. The Nokia N97 has a nice wide screen and a full keyboard. The video makes it look to operate smoothly, but that is very hard to tell.

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Key Ideas of Learning Trends 2008

2008-12-07T11:41:00.002-05:00

I was trying to create an opportunity to share the main ideas presented in an online conference last month, but the hyperlink to the map doesn't give access. I am going to post it here to see if the community can link through this embedded map to access the content. I also included a couple of other conferences, hoping that maybe someone would share other presentations and key ideas. Be warned, I really didn't capture a lot personally, I was hoping to get others involved.

If anyone knows other places on the web where this information lives, post it here or let me know and I will post it.

Update: It didn't work, the map didn't click through.

Hyperlink: http://www.mindmeister.com/12384408

Embedded link: Learning Trends November 2008

The option that does seem to work is browsing to it by search for Trends on the mindmeister.com site.

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

2008-11-19T17:36:00.001-05:00

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

I am not a theme kind of guy, but if you like to jazz up your gmail account here you go. I guess you might get used to a theme over time, but I find it really hard to have a page that you spend a lot of time on, to be color intensive. I have gmail on all the time, so I just don't want that much glare during my work day. I might be interested in a tailored them that adds a few logos from my favorite teams, but nothing over the top.

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New Communication on the Web - Google Chat Video

2008-11-11T21:48:00.002-05:00

I just tried video chat on Google and it was easy and cool. It worked really well. I think this is another important step to improved communication on the web. I really need to get a laptop with an integrated camera and mic. I wonder if this is enough justification to get a new Mac laptop? It will also be interesting to see if you can embed a chat module into other pages like Blogger and Google Sites. Time to experiment.

Adding a Twitter Widget

2008-11-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

I added a widget to my blog that would display my Twitter updates. I am not sure exactly who I am sending this information to, but I thought it might be good to bring it all together in one place. We will see. I think that my adhoc approach to tools and widgets on my blog site has not been too supportive for readers, it has been mostly about me trying out new tools. That has really been what my blog has been about.

If you are interested in adding a Widget for Twitter, it was really easy. Go to WidgetBox and enter your twitter username. Then embed the code into your blog.

[Quotable] NetNewsWire, JotSpot, Git, Google, old Texas sayings, etc. - (37signals)

2008-07-29T23:50:00.001-04:00

Major in learning

“It’s easy to educate for the routine, and hard to educate for the novel. Keep in mind that many required skills will change: developers today code in something called Python, but when I was in school C was all the rage. The need for reasoning, though, remains constant, so we believe in taking the most challenging courses in core disciplines: math, sciences, humanities.” Google’s advice to students

[Quotable] NetNewsWire, JotSpot, Git, Google, old Texas sayings, etc. - (37signals)

Great quote via 37Signals blog. Google knows that new employees need to know how to learn and not just know a single technology. This is true for everyone now. I've seen this, employees clinging to the technology that they worked so hard to become really good at. It can be hard to make the shift when it is time. In high school I learned T-Maker a word processing system that required that you know tags to format the document. I would have 20 years experience in it now had they just not made a better word processor. Learn to learn.

Knol in progress

2008-07-29T23:33:00.001-04:00

As any good member of the Internet community I am working on my first Knol article. It still needs work, but is coming along. It is going to be about the strategy of making blogging part of your learning program. If you have any ideas on the topic, leave a comment here.

It is really interesting that the idea of creating a Knol article has made me take a more structured or formal approach to writing it, something I don't do on this blog. I have always written in a very informal voice here. For better or worse.

Jeff James has already posted a Knol on Scaling Social Media Initiatives and I wrote a review of it here. Jeff is an incredible writer and does a great job making things very clear.

I will eventually post the article here as well.

e-Clippings (Learning As Art): Broadband in 77% of U.S. Households by 2012 and that might not be gerat news

2008-07-28T21:00:00.001-04:00

Broadband in 77% of U.S. Households by 2012 and that might not be great news. So PC World is reporting on a Gartner study that says that upon reaching a high threshold of broadband penetration "ISPs will concentrate less on building out their networks to reach new customers and more on expanding what customers can do with their broadband Internet connections." This appears to be good news for those of us in urban or suburban areas but less so for those in rural areas.

e-Clippings (Learning As Art): Broadband in 77% of U.S. Households by 2012 and that might not be gerat news

Mark points out that ISP's will focus on existing areas. This is not such good news for West Virginia. I know a lot of people still stuck with dial-up. My parents for one. Interestingly, they are in a Verizon services area so maybe they will be within this group who would benefit from the ISP looking to improve those they currently serve.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is not to be able to leverage current communication tools with my parents because Verizon just hasn't got to them. What could be very simple tech support activities are way more complicated. This is why we need more options. It would really be great to see some additional ISP providers come up with alternative solutions. There is a demand for it, if some one could just build it.

TechCrunch Tablet PC

2008-07-26T14:44:00.001-04:00

TechCrunch

TechCrunch has pitched the idea to create an open source Internet tablet. This is a great idea. I really hope that they can get this to work out. This would be an exciting tool for anyone, but the educational impact would be large. There are rumors that Mac is creating a MacAirTouch. That would be cool as well. It is also a similar concept to the recently redesigned OLPC.

I'll be watching this.

Some Questions Can't Be Answered by Google

2008-07-26T08:59:00.001-04:00

Some Questions Can't Be Answered by Google
Originally uploaded by Mykl Roventine

This is a great sign.

Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer

2008-07-25T16:07:00.001-04:00

Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer

Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer

My sister told me about Randy and his lecture. It is such a heart-wrenching story. He was able to have an impact on so many including me. I really want to be a Tigger.... I would recommend that you also read his book that talks a little more about how much he supported his family.

YouTube - Jott for iPhone

2008-07-10T21:07:00.001-04:00

YouTube - Jott for iPhone

I think this did it for me. I soo need this for my mileage log. I just don't like having a notebook in the car all the time. I was trying to take a picture of the odometer but that didn't capture enough information. This would be perfect. Just say it into Jott and it gets record to a list. The reason I can't do that with my cell now is because I don't have a cell signal at my house. Living in rural WV has it's trials.

That should justify a new iPhone shouldn't it? I have already been using Jott for notes from time to time, but this just looks really well done.

I wonder if you it could be integrated to transcribe your voicemail? That would be cool.

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Lively

2008-07-08T18:57:00.001-04:00

Lively

Google has started a SecondLife type virtual world called Lively. I am loading it now. The avatars in the pictures look really interesting, kind of Tim-Burton-Esc". It is taking a little time for the "room" to materialize, but still pretty cool. There is a lot going on. I think they wanted to make sure that it wasn't like SecondLife.

I am sure this will be the topic on conversation for some time to come in the blogesphere.

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Flock Issues

2008-07-08T16:16:00.003-04:00

I just took a Flock survey which makes me think I should blog about the problems that I have been having with the browser lately. I can't get Flash 9 Plugin to work in the browser and I can never get the blog editor to be friendly. Once you post with it, then blogger can't handle the HTML it uses....

Does anyone else see this?

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SO maybe there were so fixes? That is great. I am able to update this blog post from blogger.

Twitter to Your House

2008-05-20T08:11:00.002-04:00

Check out this cool idea. You can send Twitter messages to your house.

Control Lights with Twitter from Justin on Vimeo.

I think that this is another great example of how the web and the physical world are coming together.

Twitter Crowds

2008-05-09T16:27:00.001-04:00

Crowdstatus is a really interesting idea, but could really be a lot more. I know is in Alpha and I am not complaining about it at all. Actually I think it is a great idea. There needs to be a lot more control around twitter and levels of privacy. You need Twitter to be the primary service, so everyone can join, but I would like to have a twitter group just for my immediate family, one for my customers are work, and then maybe a public feed.

The reality is that we share different things with different people. I would love to let my family know where I am and what's happening. Not that I really want to keep that from the world, I just don't want to bother the 52 people following me on twitter with the information.

Crowdstatus has this type of potential.

I mentioned something like this a year ago in my first post about twitter. Twitter will continue to gain in popularity and it will continue to get more valuable.

PhotoPhlow: An elearning Application

2008-04-24T08:18:00.003-04:00

This video really makes me think that PhotoPhlow is an elearning application. Check it out and see what you think, but collaboratively walking through photos of events, processes, and data seems very educational to me. This would be a "social learning" tool.

Google App Engine

2008-04-11T23:35:00.004-04:00

With the launch of Google App Engine, it is quite possible that we are seeing another evolutionary step to the next generation of the web. The tools required to get more context and process around the information on the web is getting closer and closer to the masses who need them. This is not the last step, it is just another step. From what I can tell you still need to be a strong programmer to leverage the new Google App Engine. It really is just providing the "stack" or everything that you need behind the web application. And while it probably won't directly impact a lot of people in the learning world, it will indirectly.

As application tools get easier to create and easier to scale and easier to throw away, even more people will experiment and play around on the web. We created TwoBrains in just a few months, but we still had to pay for the back end. It was really cheap. I think I spent $1700 for two years of hosting and a little more for a domain name. Now the same application (theoretically) could sit on Google App Engine. You just cut $1700 off the cost.

Of course, it won't be perfect, many will complain about this or that, but the end result will be good for people who use the web. Just like many other things it will take some time, but this is a very good thing.

Curriculum Pacing: A Wiki Solution for a School

2008-03-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I spent hours in Google Sites. After a great 3 hour discussion with my wife, I decided that her elementary school (my kids school as well) would benefit from having an internal wiki where they could look at curriculum alignment and pacing issues. The small private school has a large problem with teacher-turnover because they leave for better paying jobs and health benefits in the public school system. The end result is that each new teacher is basically re-inventing, typically based on the adopted textbooks, what is being taught in the classroom each year.

So the primary issues are West Virginia's Content Standards and Objects (WVCSO), the WESTest, which is the West Virginia Department of Education's standardized test, the SAT10 which is the National standardized test, the adopted text books, and the essential skills. (I think I got everything.) Now, to make it a little more interesting, her school researched and found that the Indiana Standards are better aligned to the national standards, so they are using them as a primary guide. WOW. How could could you possible stay on top of that? There is no way to do it. And just a reminder, most of these teachers are in their first fives years. To add to all this of course is that the standards, assessments, and textbooks change every year or two so investing in a large database of the current information would get outdated quickly.

So, what I thought we could do is create an internal wiki that would provide access to all the components of the puzzle and a place for educators and administrators to provide insight and feedback on each area. They could create pacing guides and link to standards and resources. I started with Google Sites, but after plunking around for hours, Zoho is still a little "slicker" (my current opinion, could change). I have created several pages but the format is still a little strang. I know it would be a lot better for the teachers to create the structure, but I feel like I have to create something to get them started and I could create a lot of the external links.

This situation is quite a challenge. The WVDE doesn't provide unique URLs at the standard or objective level. This is unreal! I made public comments concerning this issue last summer. I can't imagine that they don't offer these in a variety of data formats and on their site with a unique url that is permanent. This is really lame. Come one WV. To be fair Indiana doesn't do a much better job. I would like to see a wiki page where I could provide a link to similar standards and it jump right to that standard and objective for easy review.

At this point, this is about as far as I have gotten into the process. I am going to play around with getting the textbook information available and having each educator include their pacing guide for the year, a link to all their lesson plans, and maybe a del.icio.us feed for web resources.

I will try to continue to post my adventure from time to time and I am hoping some one out there will show me how they accomplished this with a much better solution. PLEASE let me know.

I also plan to post some about another project them I am working on.... more later.

Google Sites First Impression

2008-02-28T22:56:00.002-05:00

I played around with Google Sites this evening really fast. I am a long time user of JotSpot and actually talked on the phone with the JotSpot development team when they first launched the tool. I exchanged a couple of emails with Joe Kraus as well. That was pretty cool.

While the tool is not JotSpot, it is a neat little wiki tool and I think it will become quiet popular quite quick. I recently had been using Zoho's wiki solution to manage a fairly complex project and so I just did a cut and paste of a couple of pages for comparison. Both are fairly quick and have easy editing. I am really enjoying the ease of use that Zoho has. Google sites seemed more responsive then my JotSpot site, I am guessing this is the Google Backend upgrade. It may also be due to the stripped down version of the application. There are many things that have been removed from the application since it was JotSpot.

The biggest thing that I hope they add back is the ability to have a blog within the wiki. Zoho doesn't offer this feature and I didn't see it in Google Sites. It is a great tool for an internal blog. The Zoho wiki has a 10mg limit on attachments. This is a significant barrier that causes you to come up with an alternative location to house your attachments and causes the need for another service. I haven't seen this limitation on Google Sites.

Another issue that surfaced quickly was when I tried to past an embed script from SlideShare, Google Sites stripped some of the code citing that it was unsafe. Zoho, on the other hand as an Embed HTML feature that allows me to easily embed SlideShare presentations.

So for the moment I will stay with Zoho, but continue to experiment with Google. I am really not sure I see a clear winner at this point.

The People in Flock

2008-02-16T10:18:00.001-05:00

I can't get the "people" function of Flock to work. I have no idea why it isn't working. Just got the latest version of the browser and it did fix the problem.

Blogged with Flock

Open Education

2008-02-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

So as usual, I get busy an neglect this blog. I have been working a really exciting new program called Globaloria. The project is an open educational environment called MyGLife. It has been a lot of fun working with the educators, meeting new people, and actually participating in a Global learning initiative.

I am maintaining a project blog over here if you are interested in learning more. The program focuses on teaching middle, high, and college students to create Flash-based games. The program delivered through a framework that includes a starter kit, a wiki, and a series of blogs. The educators serve as co-learners and work collaboratively with the students to build games that have a positive social or educational impact. The wiki contains a number of tutorials located either within the wiki or out on the web. My role has been to provide support for all the participants, engage the community, and enroll/recruit new schools.

Cursive Writing Meme

2008-01-28T07:54:00.000-05:00

Tony picked up on a meme that I wrote about last year, Why Teach Cursive writing. It is interesting because the article has been one of my most visited posts. I think this topic really effects everyone in some way, because almost all of us have gone through the process of learning to write in cursive. I am still not sure the exact answer on whether to teach it in schools, but I can tell you that most parents I talk to don't value it as high as they once did.

Instructional Technology Job Opening in Utah

2008-01-17T07:20:00.000-05:00

Smart guy and West Virginia native David Wiley posted about a new position at his school and asked others to give it a mention. So here goes...

Come Work at USU!

Published January 15, 2008 open contentTags: cosl, employment, jobs, usu

The Instructional Technology Department at Utah State University (my academic home and the home of the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning) has a faculty opening. We’re not looking for expertise in a specific area of instructional technology - just a super smart, hard working, great-to-get-along-with colleague to help move the field forward.The job description is online, and the first steps of the application process are all electronic.

Personally, I’m excited by the follow excerpt from the job description: Applicants must be able to teach courses in one or more of the following general areas: 1. learning sciences, 2. instructional design, 3. research methods, 4. e-learning/distance education, 5. open education, 6. multimedia design and development, 7. performance improvement and training, 8. learning theory, 9. school library media, 10. assessment/evaluation.

Come Work at USU! « iterating toward openness

2007 Blog Stats

2008-01-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

I thought it was interesting that Tony posted his blog stats for 2007. So I thought I would post mine as well. As you can see, I haven't had quite the readership that Tony has. My guess is that it is because I write for myself more that I write for my audience. I reflected on this in 2006 here. Interestingly it is one of the top read posts on my site. I do have 186 subscribers to the site as measured by Feedburner, which I find amazing. Here are my stats.

I can see where I could probably make my blog a lot better. Tony called out these bloggers to post their stats. I wonder if they will.

Stephen Downes ~ Both OLDaily and Half an Hour

GMail Error #102

2008-01-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

So my question is... is this only the 102 error that gmail has had or did my instance of Gmail encounter error 102?

MicroProjector by 3M: Way Cool

2008-01-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

This is pretty cool. A micro-projector that you can hold in your hand.

I want one.

Learn more here.

Hyperlinking within Video: The Future Has Arrived

2007-12-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

Check out this video. I remember discussions about the future in the early 90s when we talk about being able to click on the person within a video and get more information about that individual. Well, this is one example of how that is a reality. The educational ramifications are pretty amazing. Think about an assessment requiring you to watch a video and clicking on the "unsafe" happenings, or taking a live video feed of a terrible accident and embedding clickable annotations of additional content to offer different perspectives or more information. Way cool.

http://www.podtech.net/home/4716/making-video-interactive-2

Making Sense of New Technologies by George Siemens

2007-12-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

Sense-Making of Technology and Media: a George Siemens Weekly Digest

George Siemens has written a post over at Robin Good's blog. It is a the first of a series that is designed to help use all the new technologies that are coming from everywhere these days. I am honored that he used a quote from this blog to include in his first piece. Thanks George.

I would recommend that you read both George's and Robin's blog. I have for years.

How to leverage a Network: What I Learned in 2007

2007-12-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

The Learning Circuit’s Blog Big Question of the Month. What did I learn about learning in 2007? I learned so much it is hard to get it down to a couple of things. This blog probably captures a lot of what I learned.

Some things that really sunk in for me include:

the way that the network presents information and opportunities that simply cannot exist in any other format
the power of social networks to enable the "discovery" phase of learning
that RSS is a powerful tool for improving information flow, which directly supports learning

I am sure there are so many more, but there are a couple.

Managing Information Overload or Incremental Relevancy

2007-12-04T08:10:00.000-05:00

I was asked the other day in an email how I manage information overload. I think it is a really important topic and one that I could probably improve a lot upon in my own activities, if I focused a little more on it.

When I think about information overload, I usually start thinking about the vast amounts of information that comes to me or I wade through on a daily basis that is basically "junk". That is not just the obvious junk mail or even vast amounts of trial and error that occurs when searching or researching on the web (i.e. Google or Yahoo), but the junk information that comes in the form of posts or comments within the groups that interest me, but aren't talking about things I care about today or in the precious minutes of my day when I have time to check out my email, RSS feeds, or social networks that I belong to.

Some talk about this as the signal to noise ratio. How much information do you have to weed through to get to the highly relevant content that you really want?

What I do to produce "incremental relevancy" which I hope leads to incremental productivity improvement is to try to tweak my daily (continual) information management practices through both automation and structure within these communication tools.

Email

Email is currently the default form of electronic communication in most organizations. Some believe and I tend to agree that email is broke and its associated actions tend to be rude, but because it has become the primary means of communication, you can't ignore it. So, I tend to try to make it as efficient as possible. I monitor two accounts, a work account (which I use Outlook 2003 or the Exchange Mail client) and a gmail account. With the Outlook/Exchange-based account I have been overloaded with spam because the account has been listed publicly on the web for years and I have about 9 years of email newsletters that I have joined. This listing range from elearning industry groups to technology groups, to marketing groups. So the "noise" is very high in this account. There is a very small percentage of email in the account that is useful, however, those that are useful, tend to be mission critical and cannot be overlooked or ignored.

My strategy here is to try to allow the mail filters in Outlook to catch most of the spam. It has been somewhat effective, but nothing like the gmail spam filter that is incredibly reliable. I try to delete those non-relevant emails that don't get filtered out, but this is a source of frustration. It takes too long to rid the inbox of these items.

RSS
The next tool that I use for information gathering is an RSS Reader. I use Google Reader because it is fast and functional and web-based, allowing access from anywhere on the web. I am fairly liberal with the Feeds that I add to the my Reader so I have 271 subscriptions generating just under 5000 posts a month. I can run into frustration with this level of content or flow. If I can't keep up, I can get behind on a couple thousand posts. At first glance this can be paralyzing.

Some strategies that can be used with this "river" of content is labels or folders. You can categorize feeds of information by topic or category. I have also noticed that there are different types of feeds and I tend to deal with them separately. There is the standard blog post feed that comes fairly regularly and typically contains some level of content. These are typically ones that I want to read, but take some time to get through. There is also search feed, these feeds are typically vanity searches or keyword searches that I use to monitor the web for topics of interest. They tend to have very high noise. Finally, I have some monitor feeds, these feeds typically alert me of an event. Someone updated a wiki, posted a comment, logged into an application, posted a resource to Del.icio.us. This type of feed typically just needs a quick scan to look for interesting resources then I can move on. However, event-based are extremely useful particularly in social situations to give you a near-realtime notice without the overhead of email.

A strategy to deal with information overload from RSS feeds is to categorize by topic and type of feed. That way if you have a series of blog posts that you know you want to take some time later and read, put them in a folder that you don't have to get to zero unread items. By putting monitor feeds in a single folder you can quickly review and click "Mark all read" with very little overhead. My understanding is that some tools are allowing you to subscribe to just the top 5% of a feed based on relevancy. If accurate this would be a very cool tool.

Social Networks
Another source of information on the web and a potential place for information overload is social networks. I am a member of several social networks and sub-groups within those networks. For me these include Facebook, LinkedIn, and TwoBrains. I have a few smaller networks that I try from time to time, but these are my primary sources. The value of the social network is the social interaction that you get from like minded people. However, you can spend considerable time monitoring the site.

To assist in monitoring social networks, use RSS whenever possible. Although I haven't figured out how to do this with Facebook. Maybe someone else has, let me know.

My final comment is that I become much more productive once I got my mobile phone that allowed me to engage these tools during any available down time. I try to do a lot of filtering via my Treo while I am in line at the store, waiting for an oil change, or waiting for a meeting to start. This allows me to focus a lot of my time at a computer on engaging in the content I am interested in and not just filtering information.

I'll bet there are a lot better ideas out there then mine. Do any of these activities resonate with you?

The Fiber has been cut

2007-11-29T21:51:00.000-05:00

I spent the day without Internet access, well most of it anyway. Starting a new business without access to the network is no fun. I spent the first hour and a half thinking it was something local. Then I finally called the company and the rep told me "The Fiber had been cut and the entire 304 area code was out of service."

The good news. We are back. And my home network is a little tidier where I cleaned up the wires while I was testing each connection.

Supporting Incremental Relevancy

2007-11-26T11:07:00.000-05:00

Interestingly, there are companies that are zeroing in on this exact problem. Mahalo, Jason Calacanis' new, people-powered search and KnowNow, who is focused on RSS for the enterprise. These companies are talking about and pushing solutions to improve the signal to noise ratio on the web. These two particular companies are approaching it in different ways.

One Mahalo is using a "humans as aggregators" approach. This means that they are actually creating search result pages that they feel best address the search term or topic. Early results seem to be pretty well done.

KnowNow is "RSS-ifing" as much data as possible, allowing for very sophisticated filtering options. This approach should allow corporations to continually create new mash-ups that combine existing and new data sources and deliver them through RSS to a host of devices.

Both of these approaches address the support of incremental relevancy, that is continually improving the relevance of the information that you are engaging in or giving your attention to...

There may be some links to Pattern Recognition Theory. Stephen Downes is discussing this at his blog. Do we learn be recognizing the connections in the information? I think so...

Shopping Amazon by Voice Command on Jott

2007-11-20T18:35:00.002-05:00

and

I've been using Jott for quite some time to leave messages for myself, especially when I am on the road. The service will email you the message as a audio file and a transcript of the message. They have now integrated the service with Amazon.com to allow you to have product information emailed to yourself or a friend.

Wouldn't it be pretty interesting if I could send you an elearning module via voice command on a cell phone? What if I was a support representative that covered a three state area. Once onsite I realized that a particular module would be particularly helpful for your situation. Instead of waiting until I got back to the office or the hotel, I just called my LMS and emailed the module information and link with a simple voice command.

Might be pretty cool.

Blog Readability

2007-11-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

I saw some bloggers using this tool to analyze readability. Personally, I'm thinking it mistakenly thought my misspelled words and typos were something highly intelligent.

It has been a long time sense I studied the facts that go into readability. What would be cool is a tool that would allow me to translate my blog to a 6th grade level and I could start my own USAToday (ok, maybe it is at a 10th grade level).

Anthony Salcito on Innovative Schools

2007-11-14T09:11:00.001-05:00

Anthony Salcito, the General Manager of US Education for Microsoft is presenting on innovative schools. I am just going to blog my notes as he goes.

Series of slides...
Students today can't prepare bark 1703
Students depend too much on paper 1815
Students depend too much on ink 1907
Students depend too much on store-bought ink 1928
Students depend too much on ball point pens 1950

This generation...
6 apps running on pc
4-5 email addresses
26% use foreign news service
fastest growing segment is 5 to 7 year olds
....

Transformation in Skills
Agrarian
Industrial
....

Trends in the Workplace
Companies like Microsoft hire based on your ability to change

Global

25% of population of China with highest IQ is great then population of North America

China has labor surplus and is number one English speaking country soon.

Top 10 jobs in demand today didn't exist in 2004.

Our Collective Challenge

produce highly educated and technologically capable people

US Workforce Crisis

300,000 skilled IT jobs have gone unfilled

Education is Everything

(all slide material is available)

Technology is not the issue

"Still in the acquisition-age in technology" - I like this one.
We have to take it off the table. Ask questions first. How do you want to engage students on new content? How do you want to use assessment to drive a real learning experience? Typically the answer is allow the technology to support that process.

School of the Future
Initially was that is was going to look like a "classroom" of the future, but then they changed the conversation. District built the building and Microsoft only guided the process.

SOF Project Principles
Learning first, technology later
Language is Paramount...
Lack of process impedes success...
Be comfortable not knowing...
Identify the questions and answers will come...

Success factors.... (5 total)

It was built on a public park.

Thinking of schools as assets for economic development. School buildings as community hubs. School becomes a destination.

Showing a video. The facility is awesome.

Class start at 9:30am but the kids show up early, application to college is a requirement for graduation.

Use competency wheel for everyone. Administrators, Teachers, Parents, and Students.

We don't embrace how to scale innovation of education. They have a tool for how to scale innovation.

Many of the kids were at a 3rd or 4th grade level and their "seriousness of purpose" has changed.

Question from audience... when will you invest in WV? Microsoft did not fund the building. Many examples take the best of the best, this project used existing teachers and the cost was less then refurbishment of other schools. MS invested in human capital and technology. Their are many ways to move forward.

Question... can this work without a new facility. Yes... the reality is that all text are online and teachers use a virtual teaching assistant. SOF used feedback all throughout the class (student response from group) the tool created an individualized lesson plan. Used it for a year and pulled it out. Now MS is going to release it as a product soon.

Question... competency wheel. MS hires on capacity to learn... trying to introduce competency-based learning, success is more broad. The wheel is the same for everyone, just have different levels. Idea is that by reinforcing this creates more agile learning. That's the hope. There are a lot of educational resources that support this model, but they are very open to failure. Look at the tools and adjust them to what you most need.

Thank you.

Create WV Conference in Progress

2007-11-14T07:54:00.000-05:00

I have been attending the CreateWV Conference and it has been very interesting and fun. I have connected with some old colleagues and friends and have been introduced to some new entrepreneurs here in West Virginia. I tended to be drawn to the technology and education sessions of course and when I did venture out to the session on "creating a cool hangout", I was called out to fix my wifes flat tire.

Today I am will hit a session on "Resources" attracting investment in your community and "Place" creating a community identity.

I will try to share more if I have time.

Live College Football in High Definition on a 30' screen

2007-11-09T09:01:00.000-05:00

I had a really cool opportunity last night to watch live college football in high definition on a movie screen. It was awesome. The picture quality was just unbelievable. You could see the rubber pellets that are commonly thrown around on Mountaineer Field and the instant replays were crystal clear.

The experience was unique and during the commercials the different personalities at ESPN. We got to hear Lou Holtz tell us he was born in the state of West Virginia many times. The talked to many of the radio personalities from ESPNRadio and even had the on field reporter do a segment. There was a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff being discussed and shown.

I would to tally recommend that, if given the opportunity you try to catch a game this way. The ticket was $10, the atmosphere a little more family friendly then going to the stadium, and the theater brought in pizza at the half (although it didn't taste good at all).

I am guessing that ESPN will learn that this is a pretty compelling way to watch football. The feed was given to 8(?) theaters in West Virginia and Kentucky and there was good attendance at the theater we attended.

The best thing was seeing my son get excited about Mountaineer Football.

I shot a couple of videos... but they were pretty poor...

Game

Pre-Game

Scoble's Social Media Starfish on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2007-11-08T10:37:00.001-05:00

Scoble's Social Media Starfish on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is a great image... captures a lot of what is happening.

Quote from a Times Article

2007-11-08T09:48:00.001-05:00

The poor schoolmarm or master, required to provide a certain amount of value for your child’s entertainment dollar, now must compete with texting, instant-messaging, Facebook, eBay, YouTube, Addictinggames.com and other poxes on pedagogy.

New Class(room) War: Teacher vs. Technology - New York Times

Conference Themes of Defrag Applied to Learning

2007-11-08T08:13:00.001-05:00

Sean Ammirati does a nice job summarizing 5 themes that surfaced during the Defrag Conference held in Denver. The themes are

The Attention Economy
Next-Level Discovery
Social Graph
User Centric Identity
Enterprise Customers

I've talked about attention before, but I continue to think it is an important topic for anyone working with education and training to consider. The idea of structured attention is interesting in that it refers to attention around physical things like books, music, and movies because they are popular and "easier for the computer to process".

A lot of education today is could also be thought about as structured attention, learning events like a semester long course or class, a webinar, or an online lesson. This is why the learning management systems managers courses and content and not learning. Learning, like attention, is not really something you can "manage" it is something you support, encourage, and reward.

Next-Level discovery is about filtering support (I am working on a post to address this in detail) for the "fire hose" of information that is being aimed at you through your email, aggregator, and social network. There are huge implications for learning here, probably "learner control" and "instructional design" being at the forefront.

The social graph is about the relationships that "loosely couple" the social network. Does your online social network map to your "real life" social network? Would a hierarchy within your social network improve communication? There are a lot of interesting things that will happen, particularly when relationships can be better mapped causing the trust of the connection to skyrocket. Then things will really start to get interesting.

Identity will always be a critical issue because it is really about trust. It's a no-brainer that trust supports learning.

Finally, the fifth theme, Enterprise Customers Arrive is an important theme because it is going to let a lot of you who want to implement these tools, will now have the support of management and the IT department, that will create a marketplace for new approaches and ideas. It will also allow a lot of people to overcome the idea that Facebook is for the kids. I personally don't get that attitude, but I know it is real.

Blogged with Flock

Social Learning Goals

2007-10-25T16:44:00.001-04:00

The Learning Goal

So this image is of all the learning goals listed on TwoBrains. I thought it would cool to allow social collaboration at the "goal" level of learning. However, it seems that our user interface is in the way. If you log into TwoBrains (it's free) and click "existing" goals, you will see this cloud of goals. The bolder goals have more people associated or interested in them. So you can click a goal that you are interested in. I realize there is a readability problem with the smaller goals. That is something we should/could fix if we ever get the time and money.

The Resources to Learn

The other issue is that very few people who checked out TwoBrains actually identified learning resources that could support a goal. I think, again, there is a problem with knowing how the system works. We could make it more intuitive. An instructional video would be great of course.

That's Del.icio.us

This button would also probably help a lot of people. It is where we integrated TwoBrains with del.icio.us the social bookmarking site. So you don't have to enter resources by hand, you can just search the tags in your del.icio.us account and dynamically pull them into TwoBrains. This is how I do it, because I have del.icio.us integrated into Flock. So as I am checking out a web page, I can click the star, add a tag. Then later when I am reviewing my learning goals, I can pull the resource into TwoBrains as a match with the learning goal.

I realize you could have a social exchange around tags if you agreed upon what tag to use and TwoBrains real advantage is around what others are associated around goals. Although I gone back to a resource I marked to a goal before.

Extending into the network

Another cool feature of TwoBrains is the badge. This is a snippet of code that will display your top ten goals from TwoBrains. This will allow a learner to declare that they are learning things and basically invite other to check it out. It could use some flexibility, it might be a little big and maybe allow you to pick the number of goals you want to share, and we also want to show the number of people learning that goal on TwoBrains.

Well, if you are interested I hope that this helps. I have been meaning to write a lot more about TwoBrains, but hadn't had the chance. I really like the concept and I truly hope that those who use the service will find some type of value in it. It is really valuable to me to just see what other people are interested in. It kind of takes me back to my teacher roots of just wanting to help people understand.

If you have checked out TwoBrains, Thanks. If you haven't try it out and give us some honest feedback.

Blogged with Flock

Blogging from Flock

2007-10-24T22:27:00.001-04:00

So I kind of got away from using Flock's embedded blogging tool. The reason is that it used to create some crazy code and Blogger would freak out on my when I tried to edit the post. This is important to me because I almost always have to go back and edit the post.

So I am going to use this post to try again.

Why do I use Flock you might ask?

Well I use it because they are working head to make changes and try an improve it's usefulness. That might scare some away, but I like to see what they have done, how the changed to interface, and what new features they have added.

UPDATE: It worked!

Blogged with Flock

TwoBrains "Pick of the Day"

2007-10-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

We are honored to be Jane's pick of the day. Jane Hart highlights sites and applications that are interesting to the elearning community. TwoBrains is an experiment that we put together a little over a year ago. It provides the ability to identify and/or share a learning goal and associate resources to it from around the web.

In what was one of my less stellar moments, I changed the brand from LearningFlow to TwoBrains, so that we could use LearningFlow for a variety of services. The change was necessary, the new branding was the issue. It is exciting to see that we are up to 187 users, and although we are probably not really ready to sell to Google yet, I am planning for a huge increase in traffic once it goes mainstream ;).

We know there are a lot of changes that should/could be made to the TwoBrains service, "groups" is probably the most needed. If we can find some resources to make these changes we will. It would also be great to be able to show some content around the goal and sequence the content resources.

One thing that I hope will happen from this exposure is that we get some feedback from our users. I am always interested in new ideas about how to improve. Ultimately, I think we were on the right track, this type of system should allow learners to organize resources and benefit from the network effect.

Thanks Jane!

UPDATE: The power of Jane's pick pushed us to 200 users. One of which entered learning goals. I am working on adding resources for those posting goals.

Heart Walk Follow-up

2007-10-08T10:22:00.001-04:00

Just a quick follow-up to let everyone know that the Heart Walk went great! Heather Cross and Dr. John Phillips put on a wonderful event and we met a lot of heart disease survivors. I will be posting some great pictures soon.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all of you who support Emily's Team.

Traditional Donation Form for Heart Walk

2007-10-04T11:14:00.001-04:00

I had a couple of people ask about donating to the heart walk. Just fill out this form and mail it in with a check and it counts! Yeah! Thanks so much!
Update: Just cut and paste it into Word or Google Docs to fill out and print. Thanks again.

----

Support me as I participate in the Heart Walk 2007-2008 Greater Morgantown, WV.

Participant's Name: Lee Kraus
Team Name: Emily's Team

Yes! I will make a contribution to help American Heart Association - Monongalia County, WV.

Platinum ($500+) Donation Level #4
Gold ($250+) Donation Level #3
Silver ($100+) Donation Level #2
Bronze ($25+) Donation Level #1

Please Make Your Checks Payable to American Heart Association - Monongalia County, WV

Name __________________________________________

Address ________________________________________

City______________________ State/Province__________

Zip/Postal Code _________________

Country__________________________

Donor Phone_____________________________________

Email __________________________________________

Thank You So Much For Your Contribution!
Mail this form and your check to:

AHA - GRA Monongalia County, WV
Attn: Heather Cross
1110 Prestwick Ave
Morgantown WV 26508

Unfinished Business in Blogger

2007-10-03T21:16:00.000-04:00

So check this out, I thought I had a couple of unfinished posts in Blogger in draft form that I needed to finish up and either delete or publish. Often I want to spend a little time blogging about an idea so I jot down the concept, but get interrupted by any number of things that .... hold on....

kidding.

A couple? Thirty to be exact over the past two years. Unbelievable. It always takes more time to write the you think it will (at least for me.) I am always thinking that I should do a podcast here as well, because I can talk, it's getting me to shut up that's the trick.

Anyway, the ideas in these posts range from why is Tom Friedman's back so popular, I couldn't even finish it, to Zoho is a great tool to create curriculum maps, to building interactivity in a course can be fun with web2.0 tools.

Data on the Facebook Discussion

2007-10-02T13:03:00.001-04:00

Compete.com Analyzes How Facebook Users Spend Their Time

Some interesting data to follow-up our discussion on Facebook from Compete.com via Tim OReilly. The bulk of the activity is coming from surfing profiles or engaging in applications that have been developed for the platform.

It will be interesting to look at the specific activity behind the applications and monitor if that component gains in popularity over time. Meaning, once you establish you social network will your attention shift to "doing" something, like determining if someone is HotorNot or maybe asking you teacher to clarify the homework assignment. Or will is the primary goal just being social?