To make the technology-enabled social networking easier (i.e. Twitter), I created a “Hello my Name is” Twitter sticker for attendees to write their twitter user name on. This will hopefully make the Twitter business card exchange must faster.
My fantastic fellow T-Mobile co-worker Jeff Tillett and I will be printing them and handing them out at our presentation on how to develop low cost mobile learning solutions on Wednesday (114).
I am looking forward to attending the many DevLearn inspirational presentations on innovative learning (gaming, mobile and social), as well as the usual informal conversation with (in my humble opinion) the best minds in the eLearning world.
See you there!
The geniuses behind Google Maps recently announced Google Wave, which they are calling a “personal communication and collaboration tool”. It is a browser application (HTML 5) that brings the opportunity to “collate” and evolve emails and traditional documents into a real-time collaborative experience that will integrate instant messaging, wiki (read-write) and social networking components. You can also easily embed these “wave” conversations on blogs to share the discussion…pretty cool!
BONUS points – Google Waves works on Android mobile devices. I repeat…Google Waves works on Android mobile devices. Check out the video below!!! I cannot wait to try out on my G1. Being a huge fan of Gmail and Google Documents, I just signed up for the alpha and am VERY, VERY interested in how a tool like this can be used to streamline business communication and collaboration. HEADS UP teammates and peers out there, get ready for the Mark Wave…coming soon!
They are not only calling it an application but also a platform and protocol. Being open source, Google is looking for the community to try out, see what works and extend it to make it better.
I like this quote about email-
“…email (aka snail mail), which was invented 40 years ago, is still today is the most popular communication tool….but lacks the experience of real-time SMS etc. ”
BlogWell will be showcasing a number of social media case studies from a variety of industries. Interesting to note that a number of big companies are leveraging Twitter for customer relationship building such as @mayoclinic, @hrblock, @allstate, @uscoastguard
BlogWell is the only conference devoted to learning how big businesses successfully participate in social media. You’ll learn directly from the executives at the largest corporations in the world who are engaging in this right now.
Just getting back from San Jose and a million thanks to Brent and the Guild for an absolutely amazing DevLearn08 (#dl08). The event was held in the beautiful Fairmont hotel near Adobe headquarters and was jammed packed with inspirational keynotes, deep dive concurrent sessions and physical + virtual connections with fellow bloggers, tweeters and learning professionals.
What were your favorite presentations? I was able to catch excellent conversations and sessions on mobile learning (Judy Brown, BJ Schone, Barbara Ludwig, David Metcalf), immersive learning (Mark Oehlert), instructional design using the semantic web (Rueben Tozman), micro-blogging trends (Michelle Lentz), new work literacy (Tony Karrer)…and many, many others. Of course, there was a lot of tweeting going on and informal aha moments. Special shout out to my new T-Mobile teammate Jeff Tillet, who I am excited to dive into new media learning solutions with.
Keynote Highlights
Tim O’Reilly – follow the alpha geeks, early adopters and people who need training the least (high performers). Reach out to them and turn them into mentors, as well as provide convenient resources, reinforcement. Then study successes.
Dan Roam says – break every problem into Who, What, Where, Why and How…all you need is a napkin and sharpie. By the way, I tested the PowerPoint slideshow drawing feature, which is cool and can even convert to a slide object.
John Medina – covered a few of his 12 Brain Rules and how the education system counteracts how the brain has evolved to process and store information.
LinkedIn, da Vinci and Qik dinner
The days and nights were crazy busy, and in a few cab rushed evenings, I was also able to meet up with Jackie Danicki from Qik in beatiful Palo Alto for dinner, see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Technology Musuem, drive around Google-land and get a tour of LinkedIn headquarters, where we rocked out to Guitar Hero and got free snacks and fruit drinks in the LunchedIn kitchen. Special thanks to my co-presenter George Aston’s cousin Scott (LinkedIn web developer) for the dinner and tour…look forward to further tech discussions.
Thanks to everyone for coming to our 402 session on Using Rapid Video…it was almost a full house, which was cool. After quick hitting brain and film theory fundamentals with video examples, we broke the session into a hands-on video workshop with three groups tasked with props, storyboard and a Flip camera to rapidly create content. George and I were stoked by the amount of participation and levels of creativity. Please find what the groups created below on YouTube, as well as our slide deck in SlideShare. Also, if you are interested in current trends in user generated video, check out my article in Training Solutions Magazine.
402 Workshop Videos
Group 1 | Using paper props
Group 2 | Using real props
Group 3 | Using a flip chart and markers
Note: First few audio seconds for each video have a slight delay…not sure why…maybe a Vista issue with Flip software???
Social media tools help people easily (and virtually) connect with peers, friends and families to help answer questions like “how are you you”,”have you seen this video” and “so, what are you doing”. As Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6 puts it social media is like a new phone. (credit Chris Brogan).
Moving forward, we can’t help but consider the opportunity to use this new form of social connection on the job. Your average employee has been using email for everything and for a very long time, and it is time to figure out best way to incorporate these tools with your team and organization. A lot of you out there are probably already doing this via grass roots.
Why bring social media tools into your organization and what is the best way? Groundswell, written by two analysts from Forrester Research, tells us to walk through Peope Objective Strategy Technology:
People – What is your employee and/or customer technographic profile?
Objective – Select one (yes only one) objective (Talk, Listen, Energize, Support or Embrace).
Strategy – What will be different when you are done? Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best employees or create a knowledge support groups and self-serve community?
Technology - NOW select your tool of choice (user-generated video, blogs, social network)
Let’s compare two technographic profiles. Do you see any differences? Notice the difference between critics, creator, joiners and inactives. Which group would be easier to talk to vs. listen to? Which group would be conducive for building an online community?