Found a good use for the magnetic strip, credit card style room keys from hotels - use them as a shoehorn when going through airport security.
Its an eco-friendly re-use, doesn’t set-off metal detectors and helps keep the backs of shoes in shape.
Mind you, I’m not advocating taking them just for this purpose but I know how easy it is to forget to return them (and that there are plenty of people who do take the keys on purpose for fear of any personal information that’s stored on the magnetic strip.)
Thank you to the kind people at Handshaw. They put on a successful conference on e-learning, learning management systems and general instructional design. I was fortunate enough to attend and meet some of the impressive people behind their Lumenix product and the creative people who use it.
For those not familiar with e-learning, its more than moving content and tests onto a computer. It encompasses an understanding of how adults learn, a mastery of technical tools, project management to get e-learning projects produced and organizational politics to secure budgets and manage expectations.
An oft discussed topic was how instructional designers and e-learning technologists work with subject matter experts. There is a delicate balance between keeping the SME involved in a project while the ID or e-learning technologist maintain their role as the trained professional in e-learning.
Interestingly, its something I hear all the time from designers and developers with respect to clients. It seems that in both worlds, there is a management art to building a process where everyone recognizes and respects the value each person brings to a project.
Thank you, as well to an informative presentation from Bryan Chapman on Rapid Content Development for e-learning.
Vertabase recently made a software donation to the Michigan Council of Women and Technology to support the good work that they do.
The MCWT is actively supports the diversification of the Michigan economy and invests in the future of women in Michigan -Vertabase’s home.
The MCWT provides leadership, mentoring, community outreach, professional development and networking to professional women within the Michigan technology community. MCWT provides a robust web of technology resources and an industry voice for its constituents while fostering the support of an advancement of women and best practices in technology.
The project management software will be used to facilitate the administration and management of the numerous critical projects and events for the MCWT.
Along with corporate sponsors including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems, Vertabase will be recognized for its contribution to the MCWT at the Partnership and Scholarship Event, to be held at the Birmingham Country Club, in Michigan, on May 3rd.
The event will include a robotics demonstration by some past scholarship awardees and the presentation of laptop’s to current scholarship awardees.
Cigarettes have a way of bonding people together. In offices, in schools, in public places smokers hang-out together. They form connections bumming cigarettes, getting a light and sharing stories of being an outsider, a smoker, with fellow travelers.
As there are smokers and non-smokers, smoking sections and the rest of the world, it seems that cell phone users are becoming the new smokers and cell phones the new cigarettes. Not to be too Carrie Bradshaw but recent stories report authorities in offices, schools and public places are restricting the use of cell phones. They are designating the times, places and how cell phones can be used.
Take this story from The Current (a news show on CBC Radio One) where school boards are taking steps to control cell phone use in public schools. Will there soon be groups of ‘phoners congregating behind bleachers or darkened corners to sneak a call or quick txt msg between class?
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Congratulations to the Central Michigan University Chippewas! Fire up Chips!
The Chippewas beat the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders in the 2006 Motor City Bowl to claim the first Division I-A bowl victory in school history.
From the Chippewa side, the game was a pleasure to behold. Quarterback Dan LeFevour was in total sync with his receivers and had a great read of the field.
When Bryan Anderson was open, LeFevour sent him the ball.
When it was Justin Gardner with a shot at a run, the ball was there.
When the deep field was clogged, he’d see a path clear ahead and he’d go for it. He wouldn’t hesitate -he’d go for the run. And swiftly weave his was for yardage and a touchdown. He and the team were tight and the scoreboard showed it.
And the fans were tight. If you read the local Detroit papers, that made all the difference.
Sure, having a Michigan team helped break attendance records at the Motor City Bowl. And yeah, it was great to have a Michigan team to root for. But it was the energy of a charged team, the whole CMU team: from players to fans to friends, that made the game great.
In a stadium and city not always used to that kind of teamwork -it was indeed a beautiful thing to behold.
Speaking of teamwork, a special thank you to the players who gave their energy and time working hard on December 25th to feed those in need at the Salvation Army in Detroit.
Read a recent post on some of the limits people are reaching with Basecamp. They seem to apply to the general “software should do less” approach many people associate with Web 2.0.
The philosophy of software that “does less” can actually create more work and aggravation once users, teams or projects scale up to a certain level of complexity. The approach starts to lose its usefulness.
At a certain level of scope or scale, people can benefit from project management software (and software designers) that “do more” in terms of details and thought out interface and functional architecture/workflow.
This applies to functionality contained in the project management software (like scheduling and project planning) as well as functionality which reaches outside to users or clients (like automatic email notifications and identity management or access level management). It also speaks to the value of more involved customer support and training, where the project management software company takes time to understand the work their customer does.
Web 2.0 is about useful tools. “Do less” type software can certainly be useful and has its place (just look at the growth of Basecamp’s project collaboration tool). But these types of software are not one size fits all solutions. There are project management software solutions that offer similar benefits as Basecamp and other first generation Web 2.0 tools, but which are built to handle projects of a larger scale.
YouTube would be a bad move for Google.
It is bad for shareholders since it makes Google less competitive on search since it provides a disincentive to make any advances in search technology. It also may create additional legal exposure for Google in terms of click-fraud lawsuits.
It is also bad for advertisers since it dilutes the value of Google’s ad distribution network. Advertisers are the life-blood of Google’s revenue model.
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Does Google’s very economic model cause it to violate its principle to “do no evil?”
In all fairness, the same question could be asked of all automated ad distribution networks, not just Google’s Adwords program.
Looking at how the ad networks work, it seems that the more content there is on a subject (that is, the more popular or broad a keyword is), the more competition there will be for producers of that content to get noticed.
Therefore, producers will bid-up the price of an ad on that keyword. Is this the most efficient way for searchers to find relevant results?
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Bainbridge OMPG carries on an interesting exploration on the value of automated ad distribution networks to distribute ads across offline media. That is, does it make sense for advertisers to hire companies like Google, Yahoo or MSN to do their non-online media buying?
(Which brings up another question on how much media convergence is really valuable for brand advertisers -but that’ll have to wait for a different day).
The Bainbridge post talks in terms of relevancy and targeting.
Another angle to bring into the discussion is the supply of online content and the ease with which it can be created. While television channels have proliferated in the last two decades, and video content is ever finding new places to be viewed, it pales in comparison to the amount of content available on the web.
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Found an anecdote on Mark Cuban’s blog. Highlights the nature of the information on Wikipedia (and the process on its formation).
Along the same note, here’s a link to a now classic Stephen Colbert report on Wikipedia.
