Daily updates on what I’m reading

• The FASTForward Blog » Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Research from Cecile Demailly: Commentary by Bill Ives – CLIP: The report suggests that, “communicating externally about the internal change may help to change the mindsets internally.” This is an interesting idea. Those that have been successful in enterprise 2.0 are by definition early adopters who often like to promote their efforts in the external world. This external promotion will indicate the importance of the transformation, as well as potentially provide more pride within the workplace.

  Finally, it added that it helps when “new educational modes: mentoring and collaborative learning, structured or unstructured, when the community takes care of improving each one’s participation.” I have always found that collaborative peer learning produces the best results. Enterprise 2.0 tools now allow for this peer learning to be more effective. For example, I have seen several instances where switching to blogs in the learning platform dramatically increased results.

• A Work in Progress: How technology is shaping the way we tell stories – AustinChronicle.com – CLIP: “Like prior moments of rapid media development – script to movable type & the proliferation of books & other printed matter, to the invention of radio, cinema, & then TV – there has always been a “the sky is falling” response along with the flush of excitement at the brave new world the new medium ushers in. And yet, there is something particularly notable about the digital age that makes many media watchers pause. “What we saw in the past was an exploration of new ways to tell stories by both authors & readers,” Carr said, referring to prior new media waves. “It worries me that we don’t see the new influx in narrative. Every new medium exposed opportunities for storytelling. Why is this important new electronic medium not conducive to narrative?” & CLIP: “She agrees that as “people become fatigued with the peppering of information,” the presentation & consumption of story that requires time & attention will have a place again. How stories will be consumed is what will change.”
• Why location based apps are getting traction on the increasingly mobile web – CLIPS: “If Twitter’s raison d’etre is “what are you doing?”, then location based social network apps like Gowalla and Foursquare refine that to “where are you doing it?” And as SXSWi fast approaches, people like Robert Scoble are dubbing this years’ web-geek spring break “the location based SXSW”” and “When Twitter first began to percolate up in the public lexicon, many thought it was dumb, and back in 2006, I was a skeptic as well. I’m operating under the premise that if you’re reading this, you don’t doubt Twitter’s importance. But now, why check in throughout the day and share the geographic details of your travels with your various social networks? What precisely is the point? Still somewhat dubious myself, I polled my Twitter network. How important are place based networks like foursquare and gowalla to businesses and users? What are their impact on the social web? Are they moving the dial? …… What unfolds is a tale of risk, reward, and redemption.”
• The Future of the Internet IV | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project – CLIP: “A survey of nearly 900 Internet stakeholders reveals fascinating new perspectives on the way the Internet is affecting human intelligence and the ways that information is being shared and rendered. The web-based survey gathered opinions from prominent scientists, business leaders, consultants, writers and technology developers. It is the fourth in a series of Internet expert studies conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. In this report, we cover experts’ thoughts on the following issues:
  * Will Google make us stupid?
  * Will the internet enhance or detract from reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge?
  * Is the next wave of innovation in technology, gadgets, and applications pretty clear now, or will the most interesting developments between now and 2020 come “out of the blue”?
  * Will the end-to-end principle of the internet still prevail in 10 years …… “
• DICE 2010: “Design Outside the Box” Presentation Videos – G4tv.com – Great talk by Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell at DICE2010. Particularly like his take on the psychology behind reality vs fantasy – and how reality is sneaking up on us!

Daily update on del.icio.us links with my notes. I also just tweet links @stuarthenshall

• 8 Things Your Phone Will (Probably) Replace | many cases already has….more important to look beyond these examples too cliche. – I like the 8 examples although many users have already begun integrating many of these into their lives. Money as in wallet and video conferencing projectors are not here yet. Money is a huge deal. Still I'd like to see more re health and services in these examples. There's also many expectations that the majority of users won't know or understand yet. Eg print from mobile. Many mobiles can, it's just the printer technology is not broadly spread enough yet. There are other products that don't get mentioned. DId I say "radio"? for example? Pandora re-invents radio…. in fact "mobile music" reinvents speakers… parties etc. We should be careful "lists" don't gloss over the changes in real behavior. Re directions… or reading the paper, music sharing, social gaming, travel management, etc.
• Hardware Becomes Software | nice set of picture examples from guitar tuner to remotes –
• Job Search, Version 3.0 | Better tools exist even on Twitter than just tweeting off a search to find that job. – An observation. This tweet doesn't provide enough detail beyond the curiosity of who is asking for a job. The obvious value-added method is to provide a "link" although sending them outside Twitter doesn't really help much. So the question is… how do you keep the exchange escalating within Twitter? How do you provide the additional information and an easy channel to further discussion without all the "follow" – "email" – "phone" etc? <br />
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  The second issue is how do you find the leads you want? You require a notification service. Timely leads may or may not lead to a more effective conversation. It will communicate that you understand the medium that you are using. <br />
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  This person's strategy was a fail as they had no way to share the CV / resume as part of their Tweet and retain communication inside Twitter. There's also no opportunity for references or otherwise while the twitter profile lacks the development of time. <br />
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  Job's 3.0 or 2.0 or whatever it is called is coming to Twitter.

Daily updates on what I’m reading

• The Social Media Expert Crisis Descends – "If you’ve gotten 200 followers for your corporate Twitter account in Sydney, and sent out 20 tweets, that’s now ample qualification that you are a social media expert. I spoke to someone recently who works in IT but consults to some of Australia’s largest brands on social media; mostly from the tech/ implementation aspect. The stories he told me turned my hair grey…well, more grey. Companies that think less than 100 mentions in a month is a social media success, because their marketing/ PR ppl told them. Companies who are reluctant to tweet, but want to have a social media strategy without Twitter. Australia is suffering from a major outbreak of social media experts, and it is and will damage the whole space. The problem, as I wrote in August, comes back to trust. There is little to no trust in every man and his dog who uses twitter in PR/ Marketing claiming to be an expert. There is zero trust in those who have never really practiced in the space, or have only done so 5 minutes …"
• 35 Great Social Media Infographics | pamorama – Here’s a collection of terrific social media infographics that might come in handy. As you probably know, infographics are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form and they act as a kind of visual shorthand, making information easy to understand and consume. They are driven by the same information as charts, but they’re often a better form of communication because of their pleasant aesthetics — charts and graphs can communicate data, but infographics turn data into information.<br />
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  It’s very helpful to use infographics in presentations, reports, articles, etc., to convey concepts. Instead of poring over figures and long reports to decipher data, an infographic can immediately explain what the data actually means.<br />
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  Most of these have been scaled down or cropped. Each one has been linked to the original, so please visit the links to view them full-size.

Daily updates on what I’m reading

• Time to Rewrite the Brand Playbook for Digital – Advertising Age – CMO Strategy – CLIP: " .. a lot of marketing professionals also tend to forget that brands have always been the products of their media. When there was only print, logos were important. With radio, slogans (in jingles) took center stage. With TV, it became all about brand image communicated through the 30-second spot. Simply put, branding strategies have always been connected to specific media technologies.<br />
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  Change this technology, and the rules of branding crumble. That's why we need to stop asking the wrong questions.<br />
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  First wrong question: How to use digital tools to build brands?<br />
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  This reveals that we are still dealing with the strategy vs. implementation dilemma. The question should be: How can digital tools challenge what we call the brand? Instead of simply wondering whether we should spend more time and effort on developing strategy or focusing on implementation, our challenge is to address branding online simultaneously as behavior and technology."

Daily updates on what I’m reading

• The net generation, unplugged | The Economist – CLIP: "Michael Wesch, who pioneered the use of new media in his cultural anthropology classes at Kansas State University, is also sceptical, saying that many of his incoming students have only a superficial familiarity with the digital tools that they use regularly, especially when it comes to the tools’ social and political potential. Only a small fraction of students may count as true digital natives, in other words. The rest are no better or worse at using technology than the rest of the population.<br />
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  Writing in the British Journal of Education Technology in 2008, a group of academics led by Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong set out to debunk the whole idea of digital natives, arguing that there may be “as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations”. They caution that the idea of a new generation that learns in a different way might actually be counterproductive in education….."

Daily updates on what I’m reading

• Putting people first » Internet on mobiles: evolution of usability and user experience. PhD dissertation. – Overview and Article Downloaded. http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2009/isbn9789522481900/article11.pdf and http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2009/isbn9789522481900/<br />
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  Clip: "Anne Kaikkonen, a UI product manager at Nokia, recently presented her doctoral dissertation on the usability and user experience of the mobile internet. Internet on Mobiles: Evolution of Usability and User Experience (pdf)<br />
  Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy presented at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) on 11 December 2009. …. This dissertation has its focus in the area of human-computer interaction research and practices. The overall goal of my research has been to improve the usability and the user experience of mobile Internet services. My research has sought answers to questions relevant in service development process. Questions have varied during the years, the main question being: How to design and create mobile Internet services that people can use and want to use?"

Daily updates on what I’m reading

• random thoughts on being an entrepreneur | @gapingvoid – Some of my favourites:
  7. People buy your product because it helps fill in the narrative gaps in their lives.
  5. In a world of over-supply and commodification, you are no longer paid to supply. You’re being paid to deliver something else. What that is exactly, is not always obvious.
  11. If an average guy in a bar can understand what you do for a living, chances are you’re halfway to becoming a commodity.
  16. People will always, always be in the market for a story that resonates with them. Your product will either have this quality or it won’t. If your product fails this test, quit your job and go find something else. Just making the product incrementally cheaper or better won’t help you.
  21. In terms of becoming an entrepreneur, probably the most useful thing I learned in the last twenty years was how to enjoy my own company for long stretches of time.

I received an email today from John Stockton Superintendent Acalanes UHSD titled “Eliminating the Competitive Edge”. It’s about more budget cuts in our schools. It’s also reflective of the broad failure of US society to provide effectively for its citizens. It demonstrates a failure of the “government” we collectively elected to develop more prosperous and better futures. Add in health care, and more and I can just count myself as extremely lucky for where I live.

“We educate every student to excel and contribute in a global society.” The Acalanes Union High School mission statement could soon become a dream, instead of a viable mission. With the announced reduction of $254 per student for the 2010-2011 school year and further cuts likely to come, AUHSD students will lose their competitive edge when applying for college, university and technical schools.

The district will receive less funding next year by the state than it did five years ago. During the same period, expenses and state mandates have increased. Class sizes have increased and will continue to do so. Elective programs have been cut. On February 3, 56.9 full-time teaching positions were selected for release at the end of this school year. The Acalanes Union High School District must reduce its 2010-2011 budget by $4.8 million.

Consequently, AUHSD will no longer be offering students a seven-period school day. There will not be state and local funding available to support these class sections. Additionally, six-period day course options must be reduced.

While some people may see this as a return to a basic education structure of several decades past, many view this as the decimation of one of the most respected high school districts in the nation. Although it is natural for most of us to have cherished memories of our high school years, it is clear that a 20th Century education does not meet today’s needs. The mastery of complex academic standards with fewer and fewer resources is simply not possible.

At the request of parent and community leaders, the Governing Board of the Acalanes Union District approved a resolution to submit the Emergency Education Act of 2010 (Measure A) for community consideration. Measure A has a life span of five years at $112 per parcel. This May 4 vote will determine whether the district will need to finalize its program cuts by the mandated May 15 deadline and be forced to provide AUHSD students with a less-competitive high school education.

Both my kids attend or attended Campolindo High School one of the best High Schools in California. I always vote for any bond issue that improves schools and education. However, that only benefits where I live, it doesn’t help to engender better learning skills for all. There’s much wrong with public education, yet making environments less creative, limiting depth of learning, at a time in a childs life when they can gain the most makes little sense to me. I’d predict this measure will pass in our area. It’s simple maths… Add $112 to my property tax and it keeps house values up in the local area. The same approaches in other areas won’t pass and where schools are already terrible even less likely to pass. That creates an even more unbalanced society.

Solving problems like this on the local level is not the long-term answer. Sacramento and Washington – BIG FAIL.

Thanks to Paul Sweeney for pointing me to this Mashable post. Recongnizr is probably on the eComm schedule (although I’m not sure) and is a great example of mobile AR that is coming to a handset sooner rather than later. Makes “Bump” look a little lame.

Recognizr: Facial Recognition Coming to Android Phones

“Recongnizr” is a mobile prototype that allows you to use your phone in order to “see” who a person is and what web services and social networks they’re connected to.

Daily update on del.icio.us links with my notes. I also just tweet links @stuarthenshall

• (714) 916-3519 is a spammer who SMS’d me. How do I put a stop to it? How does one sort out with ATT? – Do I forward the the SMS to ATT? Others will be paying money, for me it is more nuisance factor. Still It's not something I want. What's the business model on this one? I've had 3 in the last week so it is getting worse!