Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Educomm 2008 Day One
David Pogue, the New York Times personal technology columnist, had an interesting and entertaining keynote address this morning about Web2.0. You'll be able to view the video of his keynote next week on the www.EduCommconference.com web site. My favorite part was the two songs he ended the program with. David went out on a limb saying he didn't think video on cells phones would take off. I bet a bunch of cell phone companies didn't want to hear that. With beta cell phones starting to have mini projectors in them I think they may be viable. I venture to say that many internet tv stations will pick up viewership because of the program
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Doing the will of God
Nothing makes us more uncertain and unsecure that not being sure we are in the will of God. And nothing is more encouraging than knowing for sure that we are. Then, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what happens, we can stand fast.
We can be out of a job (yep), but know that we are in the will of God. We can face a threatening situation but know that we are in the will of God. We can have the odds stacked against us but know we are in the will of God. Nothing intimidates those who know that what they believe is based on what God has said.
The one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
We can be out of a job (yep), but know that we are in the will of God. We can face a threatening situation but know that we are in the will of God. We can have the odds stacked against us but know we are in the will of God. Nothing intimidates those who know that what they believe is based on what God has said.
The one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
Monday, March 31, 2008
Very Important Meeting April1 at KETC (No Joke)
Missouri Motion Media Association (MOMMA) has rescheduled it's meeting! After cancelling the much anticipated March 4 reception due to the huge snow in St. Louis, MOMMA is pleased to announce that they are back on track and look forward to seeing you!
The Board of Directors of the Missouri Motion Media Association invites you to a membership preview reception at the studios of KETC Television, in St. Louis on April 1, 2008 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. KETC Studios are located at 3655 Olive Street.
Network with film and digital media industry professionals, share your brochures, business cards, ideas, and news. Learn more about how the Missouri Motion Media Association (MOMMA) can serve your personal career growth and goals.
Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served along with some great conversation and information about how this new association is changing the landscape of Missouri's film industry.
Can't make the meeting? Then go to MOMMA's web site: www.mommaonline.com.
The Board of Directors of the Missouri Motion Media Association invites you to a membership preview reception at the studios of KETC Television, in St. Louis on April 1, 2008 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. KETC Studios are located at 3655 Olive Street.
Network with film and digital media industry professionals, share your brochures, business cards, ideas, and news. Learn more about how the Missouri Motion Media Association (MOMMA) can serve your personal career growth and goals.
Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served along with some great conversation and information about how this new association is changing the landscape of Missouri's film industry.
Can't make the meeting? Then go to MOMMA's web site: www.mommaonline.com.
Adobe Photoshop Express vs Picnik
Adobe Photoshop has finally entered into the online photo editing arena with Adobe Photoshop Express. I’ve waited rather impatiently for this one, since Adobe has always been the image editing king. I obviously had rather high hopes for it. That being said, I’ve been pretty darn impressed with Picnik.com, and it has been a mainstay in my Top Ten Web 2.0 presentations. So, instead of simply reviewing the new kid on the block, I figure we ought to see how it stands up to the current king of the hill.
Categories for the throwdown are going to be: Image In, Basic Editing, Filters/Fun Stuff, Image Out, Bonus Features, and User Experience.
Image In Photoshop: In order to begin using Photoshop, you need to create an Adobe account. Plug in the information, and then wait for the confirmation email. Unfortunately, you can’t start using Express until you get your account confirmed and for some reason, my confirmation email took over 2 hours to arrive. Once you’re in, you can bring in photos in one of 4 ways: By uploading them from your computer, by importing them in from y our photo albums (assuming you’ve already uploaded them), by choosing photos from the general community, or by importing them from other sites. The other sites options are pretty limited right now, just Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa. I would seriously hope that those options increase in the future. No Flickr? That’s just crazy. When you upload a new photo, you can choose to keep things organized by putting it into an album, which is a nice idea if you’re going to be using this often. Then you just double click to begin editing.
Picnik: Right from the splash page, you can upload a photo. No need to register at all, but you are certainly welcome to. Bonus points for that, particularly in a school environment. Besides uploading, you can also grab a photo by providing a URL to it, doing a Yahoo search for one, using your Webcam to snap a picture, or by importing one from MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket or Webshots.
Winner - Picnik due to the ease of getting started and variety of ways to bring in pics.
Basic Editing Photoshop: You have the usual suite of tools, red eye correction, crop and resize, , white balance, and saturation. But then you also have a few more unusual ones like Touchup, Fill Light and Highlight. When you select a tool, tools are very easy to use, most providing you with a series of preview thumbnails that you just mouseover. When you do, the actual image you’re working on changes to reflect what it would look like if you applied it. Just click the checkmark if you like it and want to keep it. Photoshop zooms your photo in and out dynamically based on the tool you’re using, so you always have the maximum possible screen space. Also, it gives you a navigation window to move around in. There are multiple levels of undo, and you get a nice visual timeline to go back multiple levels. Most of the tools are pretty self-explanatory, but that retouch tool still has me stumped. Sort of like a poor mans clone stamp, that I can’t get to do anything productive.
Picnik: Once again, all the basics are there. Autofix, rotate, crop, resize, exposure, color, sharpen and red eye correction. With most of the tools, you can either use sliders or specify your changes numerically. Every tool has onscreen tips to go along with it, and is pretty darn self-explanatory. A zoom slider is always in the lower right, and then you just click and drag to navigate around the image. However, if you’re using a tool that uses click and drag (like crop or rotate), there doesn’t seem to be any way to navigate around the image. Just gotta zoom out all the way. Bonus points under red eye for having two settings to choose from, Human and Furball .
Winner - Photoshop, for having more options to choose from and a really slick live preview interface. Close call.
Filters/Fun Stuff Photoshop: Considering that Photoshop is the king of filters, I’m a little disappointed in the choices here. You have Pop Color, Hue, Black and White, Tint, Sketch and Distort. Black and White does exactly what you’d think, sketch turns your photo into a drawing of sorts. Hue and tint just mess with the colors in a pretty basic way. Pop color also messes with your colors, but in a very targeted way. In my image of the Sphinx beneath a blue sky, I could easily recolor just the sphinx or just the sky. Very Warhol-like. I’m surprised at how accurate it was in its changes. The last filter is Distort, which allows you to pinch, stretch, and twirl the image, distorting it to your heart’s content.
Picnik: Many of Picnik’s filters and fun features used to be available only to premium subscribers. They’ve changed their revenue model to be ad supported for the free version, and put all of the fun stuff back in! Consequently, you have a TON of filters to choose from, including sketches, neon outlines, blurs, mattes, frames, color changes and so on. I’m not kidding, there are a slew of them in there. And you have full control over each of them, to make them mild or max them out. In addition to that, you can add text to images, stamp on shapes or clip art, whiten teeth, blur out ‘blemishes’, or add frames to your photo. At the premium level, they’ve recently added the ability to adjust the levels and curves of your image, exactly the same way you could in Photoshop (the offline version).
Winner - Picnik, in a landslide.
Image Out Photoshop: When you’re all done and you click Save, it saves it back to your library. From there, if you click on the image, you can choose to download it, embed it, get the URL, or email it. For both the embed and copy url commands, it just copies them straight to the clip board. You don’t see the code until you paste it. While that’s fine for advanced users, I think so basic users who have a peripheral understanding of how the clipboard, copy and paste works, may have difficulty with that. Email allows you to email the image once you provide a message and address (or you can use one from an addressbook you can populate). Download gave me the option of choosing one of two sizes for my image before I actually saved it to my computer.
Picnik: When you click the Save & Share tab, you get a series of options that includes save to computer, email photo, Flickr slideshow, email to website, print photo, and then the option to export it directly to MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket and Webshots. The options under each of them are what really set Picnik apart tho. Under Save to Computer, you can choose the dimensions for the image (just type in the numbers), what format you want (TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP or PDF) and what quality you want the compression to be if you chose JPG. Under email photo, you can pick from several different image sizes as well, and choose what email address you want the photo to be coming from. Email to website allows you to send the photo to Typepad, Costco, Walmart, Kodak, AOL, or any other site that allows you to import photos via email. And then of course, you could always just print it out.
Winner - Picnik, in another landslide.
User Experience Photoshop: One the whole, it’s fairly easy to use, although I’ve noticed that it seems to be a bit pokey. It takes a really long time to upload, save, or bounce between sections of the site. The ability to store photos in albums is really nice, as is the dedicated space, but when you just want to get in, edit a photo and get out, it really gets in the way. There is one feature in particular that’s absolutely incredible though. As you apply changes to the image you’re editing, a check box appears next to each feature you’ve used. At any time, you can uncheck that box to turn off that effect. Essentially that allows you to undo anything you’ve done, in any order. That’s incredibly slick. Major points for including that. However, some of the features are a little obscure. I had to play a little while before I figured out what they did. Not only that, after about 20 minutes I noticed that some tools had a little wrench in the lower right of the tool bar. Clicking that opened up advanced options I hadn’t seen before. Doesn’t do you much good if you don’t know they’re there! The interface itself has a black background, and to be honest, is pretty dreary. For lack of a better way of describing it, using Photoshop Express feels like work.
Picnik: Picnik has been through several changes, almost all of them improvements. This version has a huge banner ad at the bottom of the page though, which I’m really not thrilled with. Admittedly, they need to figure out a way to make a buck off of this, so I can’t really complain too strongly, the site is still largely free. Picnik loads up quickly, and is very self explanatory. I think teachers of almost any level could just jump right into it and get started. That being said, there are also some pretty powerful features. While curves and levels are at the premium level right now, those are impressive new additions to an already powerful editor. The interface itself really feels like you’re on a picnik. flowers everywhere, bright colors, and in general it just feels friendly and cute. Where Photoshop feels like work, Picnik feels like fun.
Winner: Picnik. It just feels comfortable to use without any real learning curve.
Conclusion: Well, there you have it. While Photoshop may do the dirty work a little bit better, there’s no question that if I have a quick edit to do, I’ll be heading over to Picnik. It has more features, a friendlier interface, feels snappier, and gives me way more options for getting my images in or out of their site. Okay, now all my professional photographer pals will be emailing me!
Categories for the throwdown are going to be: Image In, Basic Editing, Filters/Fun Stuff, Image Out, Bonus Features, and User Experience.
Image In Photoshop: In order to begin using Photoshop, you need to create an Adobe account. Plug in the information, and then wait for the confirmation email. Unfortunately, you can’t start using Express until you get your account confirmed and for some reason, my confirmation email took over 2 hours to arrive. Once you’re in, you can bring in photos in one of 4 ways: By uploading them from your computer, by importing them in from y our photo albums (assuming you’ve already uploaded them), by choosing photos from the general community, or by importing them from other sites. The other sites options are pretty limited right now, just Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa. I would seriously hope that those options increase in the future. No Flickr? That’s just crazy. When you upload a new photo, you can choose to keep things organized by putting it into an album, which is a nice idea if you’re going to be using this often. Then you just double click to begin editing.
Picnik: Right from the splash page, you can upload a photo. No need to register at all, but you are certainly welcome to. Bonus points for that, particularly in a school environment. Besides uploading, you can also grab a photo by providing a URL to it, doing a Yahoo search for one, using your Webcam to snap a picture, or by importing one from MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket or Webshots.
Winner - Picnik due to the ease of getting started and variety of ways to bring in pics.
Basic Editing Photoshop: You have the usual suite of tools, red eye correction, crop and resize, , white balance, and saturation. But then you also have a few more unusual ones like Touchup, Fill Light and Highlight. When you select a tool, tools are very easy to use, most providing you with a series of preview thumbnails that you just mouseover. When you do, the actual image you’re working on changes to reflect what it would look like if you applied it. Just click the checkmark if you like it and want to keep it. Photoshop zooms your photo in and out dynamically based on the tool you’re using, so you always have the maximum possible screen space. Also, it gives you a navigation window to move around in. There are multiple levels of undo, and you get a nice visual timeline to go back multiple levels. Most of the tools are pretty self-explanatory, but that retouch tool still has me stumped. Sort of like a poor mans clone stamp, that I can’t get to do anything productive.
Picnik: Once again, all the basics are there. Autofix, rotate, crop, resize, exposure, color, sharpen and red eye correction. With most of the tools, you can either use sliders or specify your changes numerically. Every tool has onscreen tips to go along with it, and is pretty darn self-explanatory. A zoom slider is always in the lower right, and then you just click and drag to navigate around the image. However, if you’re using a tool that uses click and drag (like crop or rotate), there doesn’t seem to be any way to navigate around the image. Just gotta zoom out all the way. Bonus points under red eye for having two settings to choose from, Human and Furball .
Winner - Photoshop, for having more options to choose from and a really slick live preview interface. Close call.
Filters/Fun Stuff Photoshop: Considering that Photoshop is the king of filters, I’m a little disappointed in the choices here. You have Pop Color, Hue, Black and White, Tint, Sketch and Distort. Black and White does exactly what you’d think, sketch turns your photo into a drawing of sorts. Hue and tint just mess with the colors in a pretty basic way. Pop color also messes with your colors, but in a very targeted way. In my image of the Sphinx beneath a blue sky, I could easily recolor just the sphinx or just the sky. Very Warhol-like. I’m surprised at how accurate it was in its changes. The last filter is Distort, which allows you to pinch, stretch, and twirl the image, distorting it to your heart’s content.
Picnik: Many of Picnik’s filters and fun features used to be available only to premium subscribers. They’ve changed their revenue model to be ad supported for the free version, and put all of the fun stuff back in! Consequently, you have a TON of filters to choose from, including sketches, neon outlines, blurs, mattes, frames, color changes and so on. I’m not kidding, there are a slew of them in there. And you have full control over each of them, to make them mild or max them out. In addition to that, you can add text to images, stamp on shapes or clip art, whiten teeth, blur out ‘blemishes’, or add frames to your photo. At the premium level, they’ve recently added the ability to adjust the levels and curves of your image, exactly the same way you could in Photoshop (the offline version).
Winner - Picnik, in a landslide.
Image Out Photoshop: When you’re all done and you click Save, it saves it back to your library. From there, if you click on the image, you can choose to download it, embed it, get the URL, or email it. For both the embed and copy url commands, it just copies them straight to the clip board. You don’t see the code until you paste it. While that’s fine for advanced users, I think so basic users who have a peripheral understanding of how the clipboard, copy and paste works, may have difficulty with that. Email allows you to email the image once you provide a message and address (or you can use one from an addressbook you can populate). Download gave me the option of choosing one of two sizes for my image before I actually saved it to my computer.
Picnik: When you click the Save & Share tab, you get a series of options that includes save to computer, email photo, Flickr slideshow, email to website, print photo, and then the option to export it directly to MySpace, Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket and Webshots. The options under each of them are what really set Picnik apart tho. Under Save to Computer, you can choose the dimensions for the image (just type in the numbers), what format you want (TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP or PDF) and what quality you want the compression to be if you chose JPG. Under email photo, you can pick from several different image sizes as well, and choose what email address you want the photo to be coming from. Email to website allows you to send the photo to Typepad, Costco, Walmart, Kodak, AOL, or any other site that allows you to import photos via email. And then of course, you could always just print it out.
Winner - Picnik, in another landslide.
User Experience Photoshop: One the whole, it’s fairly easy to use, although I’ve noticed that it seems to be a bit pokey. It takes a really long time to upload, save, or bounce between sections of the site. The ability to store photos in albums is really nice, as is the dedicated space, but when you just want to get in, edit a photo and get out, it really gets in the way. There is one feature in particular that’s absolutely incredible though. As you apply changes to the image you’re editing, a check box appears next to each feature you’ve used. At any time, you can uncheck that box to turn off that effect. Essentially that allows you to undo anything you’ve done, in any order. That’s incredibly slick. Major points for including that. However, some of the features are a little obscure. I had to play a little while before I figured out what they did. Not only that, after about 20 minutes I noticed that some tools had a little wrench in the lower right of the tool bar. Clicking that opened up advanced options I hadn’t seen before. Doesn’t do you much good if you don’t know they’re there! The interface itself has a black background, and to be honest, is pretty dreary. For lack of a better way of describing it, using Photoshop Express feels like work.
Picnik: Picnik has been through several changes, almost all of them improvements. This version has a huge banner ad at the bottom of the page though, which I’m really not thrilled with. Admittedly, they need to figure out a way to make a buck off of this, so I can’t really complain too strongly, the site is still largely free. Picnik loads up quickly, and is very self explanatory. I think teachers of almost any level could just jump right into it and get started. That being said, there are also some pretty powerful features. While curves and levels are at the premium level right now, those are impressive new additions to an already powerful editor. The interface itself really feels like you’re on a picnik. flowers everywhere, bright colors, and in general it just feels friendly and cute. Where Photoshop feels like work, Picnik feels like fun.
Winner: Picnik. It just feels comfortable to use without any real learning curve.
Conclusion: Well, there you have it. While Photoshop may do the dirty work a little bit better, there’s no question that if I have a quick edit to do, I’ll be heading over to Picnik. It has more features, a friendlier interface, feels snappier, and gives me way more options for getting my images in or out of their site. Okay, now all my professional photographer pals will be emailing me!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Top Elearning Course Authoring tools
This data shows that the Articulate tools, Adobe Captivate and Dreamweaver and Lectora are near the top for elearning course authoring. While tools such as Toolbook and Authorware are down a bit.
What surprised me is that there wasn't more discussion around this. Is this just common knowledge these days? Do people buy this?
What surprised me is that there wasn't more discussion around this. Is this just common knowledge these days? Do people buy this?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Motivations new hero Jon Gordon
Okay if you haven't pick it up yet and you like movational resources take at look at Jon Gordon's new book "The Energy Bus".
http://www.jongordon.com/theenergybusbook.html
Sign up for his weekly e-newsletter and listen to his short podcasts that you'll find on his website.
http://www.jongordon.com/theenergybusbook.html
Sign up for his weekly e-newsletter and listen to his short podcasts that you'll find on his website.
Homer Dixon - Ingenuity Gap
Are we moving to fast? Is the world to fast paced to manage?
Read Homer Dixon's take on the issue.
http://www.homerdixon.com/ingenuitygap/home.html
Read Homer Dixon's take on the issue.
http://www.homerdixon.com/ingenuitygap/home.html
Newsy news
Recent research and news
Elluminate Builds Bridge to Moodle-Collaborative technology developer Elluminate has brought its Live! virtual classroom software to the Moodle platform. The company released a piece of software Tuesday called Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which is designed to integrate Live! into the open-source learning management system: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22037
• Sloan-C Report: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning: >http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/online_nation.pdf
• Community of Inquiry- >http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p153-168Lim258.pdf
• Second Life- >http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2008/Feb/Free/Feb2008.htm and http://www.news.com/Universities%20register%20for%20virtual%20future/2100-1032_3-6157088.html?tag=nefd.lede
• Research on positive effects of hypertext on reading comprehension->http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=21925 (contact Anthony for copy)• Eduventures conducted research to better understand the views, attitudes, usage, and future demand/ownership of various technologies and brands among college students. The research, conducted via a Web survey, targeted 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university. Among students responding to the question, which of the following devices do you currently own, 79 percent own a laptop compared to 49 percent who own a desktop; 30 percent own both. >http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/1/prweb658623.htm
• Today's business students have grown up with computer-based simulations. So it's only natural that business simulations are growing in popularity in business-school programs—and threatening the once unassailable dominance of the case study (BusinessWeek, 1/24/08). Online learning simulations are Internet-based games that allow students to perform tasks such as overseeing operations management of a virtual factory or serving as chief executive of a virtual business and networking with other executives. >http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jan2008/bs20080128_035814.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
• Adobe pushing Flash for Learning- Adobe emphasized a view of learning around Flash for video and an animated Web at their stand during Learning Technologies, a show at Olympia in London last week. Although the word "Acrobat" is still used to describe a software product there was almost no mention for the Portable Document Format (PDF) widely assumed to be still a significant proportion of current income. The implication is that Adobe anticipates a Web based less on text and learning environments based less on paper. >http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381717&rel_no=1&back_url=
Elluminate Builds Bridge to Moodle-Collaborative technology developer Elluminate has brought its Live! virtual classroom software to the Moodle platform. The company released a piece of software Tuesday called Elluminate Bridge for Moodle, which is designed to integrate Live! into the open-source learning management system: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22037
• Sloan-C Report: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning: >http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/online_nation.pdf
• Community of Inquiry- >http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p153-168Lim258.pdf
• Second Life- >http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2008/Feb/Free/Feb2008.htm and http://www.news.com/Universities%20register%20for%20virtual%20future/2100-1032_3-6157088.html?tag=nefd.lede
• Research on positive effects of hypertext on reading comprehension->http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=21925 (contact Anthony for copy)• Eduventures conducted research to better understand the views, attitudes, usage, and future demand/ownership of various technologies and brands among college students. The research, conducted via a Web survey, targeted 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university. Among students responding to the question, which of the following devices do you currently own, 79 percent own a laptop compared to 49 percent who own a desktop; 30 percent own both. >http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/1/prweb658623.htm
• Today's business students have grown up with computer-based simulations. So it's only natural that business simulations are growing in popularity in business-school programs—and threatening the once unassailable dominance of the case study (BusinessWeek, 1/24/08). Online learning simulations are Internet-based games that allow students to perform tasks such as overseeing operations management of a virtual factory or serving as chief executive of a virtual business and networking with other executives. >http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jan2008/bs20080128_035814.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
• Adobe pushing Flash for Learning- Adobe emphasized a view of learning around Flash for video and an animated Web at their stand during Learning Technologies, a show at Olympia in London last week. Although the word "Acrobat" is still used to describe a software product there was almost no mention for the Portable Document Format (PDF) widely assumed to be still a significant proportion of current income. The implication is that Adobe anticipates a Web based less on text and learning environments based less on paper. >http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=381717&rel_no=1&back_url=
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sure I have a hybrid car. Think my footprint is any smaller?
Watch this enlighting video on the story of stuff.
http://dotsub.com/films/thestory_2/
Watch this enlighting video on the story of stuff.
http://dotsub.com/films/thestory_2/
Did you know
I love these eye opening types of videos.
Thought you all might enjoy it too.
http://dotsub.com/films/didyouknow20/
After viewing you might like to join the conversation, http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com -- Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE
Thought you all might enjoy it too.
http://dotsub.com/films/didyouknow20/
After viewing you might like to join the conversation, http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com -- Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Mobile Workforce...thoughts
The productivity gains from giving your employees access to mobile email are difficult to quantify. How much more did we actually accomplish because we were able to review and respond to a slew of emails when making the same number of phone calls would have taken us three times as long? How many problems were we able to resolve quickly just because we had email access? Does anyone actually remember how we got anything done before email? In all of this, the role that email plays in developing relationships and building professional networks is often overlooked. I am not sure if I could get by with out my mobile phone/email device!
Email inarguably changed the face of business, and push email went even further with realizing efficiencies, enhancing communications and driving up productivity. But simply putting the tool—email—in the hands of employees isn’t necessarily enough to achieve the desired results.(Graph: All day usage)
MIT’s Center for Digital Business (CDB), run by executive director David Verrill, found that companies investing the same dollar amounts into information technology don’t always achieve the same productivity gains. The CDB performed a study involving an executive recruiting firm to determine the correlation between email use and productivity in the enterprise.
Researchers looked at 125,000 email messages sent over a period of 10 months. Results were divided into sent email (external and internal) and received email (external and internal).
(Graph: Peak usage in the middle of the day)
Those consultants who were the most highly connected achieved the greatest levels of productivity. These individuals were labeled “information hubs,” according to Verrill, and were highly connected both within and outside the organization. These “information hub” employees yielded the most revenue for the recruiting firm.
(Graph: Uniform usage throughout the day)
"Information hub” employees were associated with having a vaster store of information than others, and having more information is associated with greater productivity, according to the study.
Mobile access to email increases the productivity of those individuals already displaying high value in terms of information distribution. “Mobile information systems have the reported potential to increase the efficiency of mobile employees as a result of improved distribution of information and lower operational cost as well as increase effectiveness, for example in the form of higher quality decision-making,” write Judith Gebauer, Michael J. Shaw and Ramanath Subramanyam, in a study on mobile email (Once Built Well, They May Come: An Empirical Study on Mobile Email).
(Graph: Heavy usage late in the day)
The CDB research also offers insight into email usage patterns. Some consultants (see graph, All day usage) started their days early at 4 a.m. and worked steadily until 6 p.m., where the graph shows a noticeable decline, and then steady activity resumes between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., with only a few messages sent between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Others (see graph, Uniform usage) concentrate their energy into eight hours, toiling steadily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. So what’s the solution? Pressing a BlackBerry into a worker’s palm isn’t going to help if that person was not actively using email in the first place. To achieve greater productivity, employees should network within their organizations and strive to quickly disseminate critical information as it comes down the pipeline.
Email inarguably changed the face of business, and push email went even further with realizing efficiencies, enhancing communications and driving up productivity. But simply putting the tool—email—in the hands of employees isn’t necessarily enough to achieve the desired results.(Graph: All day usage)
MIT’s Center for Digital Business (CDB), run by executive director David Verrill, found that companies investing the same dollar amounts into information technology don’t always achieve the same productivity gains. The CDB performed a study involving an executive recruiting firm to determine the correlation between email use and productivity in the enterprise.
Researchers looked at 125,000 email messages sent over a period of 10 months. Results were divided into sent email (external and internal) and received email (external and internal).
(Graph: Peak usage in the middle of the day)
Those consultants who were the most highly connected achieved the greatest levels of productivity. These individuals were labeled “information hubs,” according to Verrill, and were highly connected both within and outside the organization. These “information hub” employees yielded the most revenue for the recruiting firm.
(Graph: Uniform usage throughout the day)
"Information hub” employees were associated with having a vaster store of information than others, and having more information is associated with greater productivity, according to the study.
Mobile access to email increases the productivity of those individuals already displaying high value in terms of information distribution. “Mobile information systems have the reported potential to increase the efficiency of mobile employees as a result of improved distribution of information and lower operational cost as well as increase effectiveness, for example in the form of higher quality decision-making,” write Judith Gebauer, Michael J. Shaw and Ramanath Subramanyam, in a study on mobile email (Once Built Well, They May Come: An Empirical Study on Mobile Email).
(Graph: Heavy usage late in the day)
The CDB research also offers insight into email usage patterns. Some consultants (see graph, All day usage) started their days early at 4 a.m. and worked steadily until 6 p.m., where the graph shows a noticeable decline, and then steady activity resumes between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., with only a few messages sent between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Others (see graph, Uniform usage) concentrate their energy into eight hours, toiling steadily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. So what’s the solution? Pressing a BlackBerry into a worker’s palm isn’t going to help if that person was not actively using email in the first place. To achieve greater productivity, employees should network within their organizations and strive to quickly disseminate critical information as it comes down the pipeline.
Oracle and Web2.0
There's more behind Oracle's (Nasdaq: ORCL) decision to prebrief bloggers on its latest product release than a sense that the time is ripe.
With the launch of On Demand, version 15, the company is introducing robust new Web 2.0 functionality – and it's sending a strong signal that more of this type of application development is on the horizon.
Oracle's message is that Web 2.0 is now part of the CRM family, Beagle Research founder Denis Pombriant told CRM Buyer. "You talk to [Oracle executive Anthony Lye] and you get a sense he is all over Web 2.0 and social networking and what it means for the CRM industry."
To be sure, the industry has been talking about Web 2.0 for some time, Pombriant continued, but a lot of companies have done little more than talk.
Pieces of the Whole
The main value-add the new release offers is the ability to use pieces – or portlets – of the Oracle CRM app on a variety of media.
For instance, users can take Oracle CRM On Demand objects – top accounts or contacts or sales leads – and embed them as gadgets on iGoogle or MyYahoo or on their BlackBerry devices. They can also add relevant content from other applications such as MySpace and RSS (really simple syndication) feeds.
"We are not just throwing data around without security precautions," said Lye, who is senior vice president of Oracle CRM On Demand. "Only people with authenticated accounts can access these portlets" – even when they're embedded on an open iGoogle page.
Oracle has also incorporated a social networking-type function called "sticky notes," which provides a forum for back-and-forth posting through a home page without having to navigate to specific records. For example, colleagues can create a social network through sticky notes associated with a specific opportunity.
"We wanted On Demand to be connected to news and networks on the Internet," Lye elaborated. "So we built connectivity to Reuters news and provided connectivity to social networking sites via an [application programming interface] we built using the Open Social API from Google."
This means a salesperson can link a relationship it might have on LinkedIn or MySpace -- or any of the 3,000 other sites that the API covers, save Facebook – and be updated on the portlet every time a change is made to the profile.
New Mobile Sales
Oracle has also released Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant, a new mobile sales application that uses Web services to connect to On Demand.
Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant is designed to facilitate collaboration and ease the performance of frequent routine tasks while on the road. It includes features for managing appointments and collaborating with sales team members, along with automated prompts for follow-up.
Users can view account information and customer contact information, and place calls, e-mail , or text message through the application. They can also get driving directions via PIM (personal information management) and Web integration.
Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant supports the BlackBerry smartphone from Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) , and is available for Oracle CRM On Demand customers for US$30 per user per month.
With the launch of On Demand, version 15, the company is introducing robust new Web 2.0 functionality – and it's sending a strong signal that more of this type of application development is on the horizon.
Oracle's message is that Web 2.0 is now part of the CRM family, Beagle Research founder Denis Pombriant told CRM Buyer. "You talk to [Oracle executive Anthony Lye] and you get a sense he is all over Web 2.0 and social networking and what it means for the CRM industry."
To be sure, the industry has been talking about Web 2.0 for some time, Pombriant continued, but a lot of companies have done little more than talk.
Pieces of the Whole
The main value-add the new release offers is the ability to use pieces – or portlets – of the Oracle CRM app on a variety of media.
For instance, users can take Oracle CRM On Demand objects – top accounts or contacts or sales leads – and embed them as gadgets on iGoogle or MyYahoo or on their BlackBerry devices. They can also add relevant content from other applications such as MySpace and RSS (really simple syndication) feeds.
"We are not just throwing data around without security precautions," said Lye, who is senior vice president of Oracle CRM On Demand. "Only people with authenticated accounts can access these portlets" – even when they're embedded on an open iGoogle page.
Oracle has also incorporated a social networking-type function called "sticky notes," which provides a forum for back-and-forth posting through a home page without having to navigate to specific records. For example, colleagues can create a social network through sticky notes associated with a specific opportunity.
"We wanted On Demand to be connected to news and networks on the Internet," Lye elaborated. "So we built connectivity to Reuters news and provided connectivity to social networking sites via an [application programming interface] we built using the Open Social API from Google."
This means a salesperson can link a relationship it might have on LinkedIn or MySpace -- or any of the 3,000 other sites that the API covers, save Facebook – and be updated on the portlet every time a change is made to the profile.
New Mobile Sales
Oracle has also released Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant, a new mobile sales application that uses Web services to connect to On Demand.
Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant is designed to facilitate collaboration and ease the performance of frequent routine tasks while on the road. It includes features for managing appointments and collaborating with sales team members, along with automated prompts for follow-up.
Users can view account information and customer contact information, and place calls, e-mail , or text message through the application. They can also get driving directions via PIM (personal information management) and Web integration.
Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant supports the BlackBerry smartphone from Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) , and is available for Oracle CRM On Demand customers for US$30 per user per month.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
$125,000 a year teachers, oh my
I was floored when I read this article in the NY Times. I mean, every teacher in the school will be making $125,000 a year and the principal will be making $90,000 a year. Everything is upside down, dogs and cats are living together, the devil is strapping on ice skates as we speak.
So is this the big grand ol’ teaching lottery? Is every person within 200 miles of NY going to be dusting off their resume and applying for the positions? While they do state that the roles are going to be a little more rigorous and that there will be extra responsibilities, let’s face it, who among us are only doing the things specified in our job description? I think we’re all used to put in quite a bit of overtime as need be. So nothing new there.
I think this does bring up a larger question of, how do you measure the worth of a teacher? How will they determine who deserves the six figure salary?
The school’s teachers will be selected through a rigorous application process outlined on its Web site, www.tepcharter.org, and run by Mr. Vanderhoek. There will be telephone and in-person interviews, and applicants will have to submit multiple forms of evidence attesting to their students’ achievement and their own prowess; only those scoring at the 90th percentile in the verbal section of the GRE, GMAT or similar tests need apply. The process will culminate in three live teaching auditions.
So there you go. Quantitative results along with live ‘auditions’. Not a bad way to go. I’m sure we’ll get some arguments about whether that really ensures they’ll get the best of the best, but you do need to pick some criteria and run with it.
That being said, as a former teacher I know that I felt I had a legitimate right to complain about my salary. Especially when they asked us to come in on weekends, stay late for events, and other such things. However, would a higher salary really have changed all that?
To be honest, this charter school kinda scares me. If they spend this incredible amount of money, hire only the ‘best’ teachers and STILL have the same issues that every other school has… well, what does that say about our educational system and the way we assess it? And if they ARE successful, are they basically ‘proving’ that schools won’t be successful until salaries increase and teachers are paid what they feel they are worth? That could lead to some rather messy negotiations in the next few years.
And of course, the biggest question to me is, how much of it is the money versus that age old formula of caring teachers who have high expectations in a supportive environment with clear vision and leadership.
One last question that I’d love to hear your thoughts on:Would you rather work in an environment where you had little technology, little extra support, but complete autonomy and made six figures, or an environment where you had aids, ample technology, shorter hours, less responsibility outside traditional duties, but ‘only’ made $60,000. Which would you choose?
So is this the big grand ol’ teaching lottery? Is every person within 200 miles of NY going to be dusting off their resume and applying for the positions? While they do state that the roles are going to be a little more rigorous and that there will be extra responsibilities, let’s face it, who among us are only doing the things specified in our job description? I think we’re all used to put in quite a bit of overtime as need be. So nothing new there.
I think this does bring up a larger question of, how do you measure the worth of a teacher? How will they determine who deserves the six figure salary?
The school’s teachers will be selected through a rigorous application process outlined on its Web site, www.tepcharter.org, and run by Mr. Vanderhoek. There will be telephone and in-person interviews, and applicants will have to submit multiple forms of evidence attesting to their students’ achievement and their own prowess; only those scoring at the 90th percentile in the verbal section of the GRE, GMAT or similar tests need apply. The process will culminate in three live teaching auditions.
So there you go. Quantitative results along with live ‘auditions’. Not a bad way to go. I’m sure we’ll get some arguments about whether that really ensures they’ll get the best of the best, but you do need to pick some criteria and run with it.
That being said, as a former teacher I know that I felt I had a legitimate right to complain about my salary. Especially when they asked us to come in on weekends, stay late for events, and other such things. However, would a higher salary really have changed all that?
To be honest, this charter school kinda scares me. If they spend this incredible amount of money, hire only the ‘best’ teachers and STILL have the same issues that every other school has… well, what does that say about our educational system and the way we assess it? And if they ARE successful, are they basically ‘proving’ that schools won’t be successful until salaries increase and teachers are paid what they feel they are worth? That could lead to some rather messy negotiations in the next few years.
And of course, the biggest question to me is, how much of it is the money versus that age old formula of caring teachers who have high expectations in a supportive environment with clear vision and leadership.
One last question that I’d love to hear your thoughts on:Would you rather work in an environment where you had little technology, little extra support, but complete autonomy and made six figures, or an environment where you had aids, ample technology, shorter hours, less responsibility outside traditional duties, but ‘only’ made $60,000. Which would you choose?
2nd life event
The University of Delaware is presenting its first simulcast in Second Life tonight, featuring the Global Agenda 2008 series, Boiling Point: International Politics of Climate Change.Tonight's session:The Media and Climate Change, Andrew Revkin, New York TimesDate and time: March 12, 2008, 7:30 p.m. Eastern TimeSecond Life location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Delaware/138/226/30Session description:Controversy over global warming extends to a debate over how the media are handling the issue. Do the media “cry wolf” or do they accurately reflect scientific and political discussions about climate change? What role do the media play in making political decisions about climate change, both domestically and internationally.New York Times environment writer Andrew Revkin addresses these and other questions in a “live” presentation at the University of Delaware, Wednesday, March 12, part of the 2008 edition of the university’s “Global Agenda” international affairs speaker series. Moderated by former CNN world affairs correspondent and UD distinguished journalist in residence Ralph Begleiter.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Mashups for everything
So what is a Mashup?
Wikipedia defines 4 differnt types of Mashups:
Mashup (digital), a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.
Mashup (music), the musical genre encompassing songs which consist entirely of parts of other songs.
Mashup (video), a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one.
Mashup (web application hybrid), a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source.
The best site I have found showing the many Mashups is http://www.programmableweb.com/
The site has a listing over 2800 different Mashups. From Celebrity Mashups,
http://www.programmableweb.com/tag/celebrity , to Mapping Mashups http://www.programmableweb.com/mapping , I shared with a Professor of Archeology a Mapping Mashup and now he uses that tool to show his students the various digs he has been on around the world. On his class website they are able to see his past explorations marked on the map. Then the student can click on that area of the map and see a descripition of the dig, the findings and photographs. I'd link you to his class site but it is for students. Of course you can sign up for his class if you want to move to the St. Louis area and pay the tution fee.
If you know me you know I love all kinds of car racing. Here is a wonderful little NASCAR Mashup http://www.programmableweb.com/mashup/nascar-map-race-week which is a
community site that helps NASCAR fans find and recommend places to eat (did I mention i Love BBQ) and stay near the track, as well as find events leading up to race day. Custom maps can be emailed to friends, or downloaded to Google Earth.
So if you haven't thought about using mashups in your teaching I'd suggest giving it a try! I think you'll find your students will love it!
Wikipedia defines 4 differnt types of Mashups:
Mashup (digital), a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.
Mashup (music), the musical genre encompassing songs which consist entirely of parts of other songs.
Mashup (video), a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one.
Mashup (web application hybrid), a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source.
The best site I have found showing the many Mashups is http://www.programmableweb.com/
The site has a listing over 2800 different Mashups. From Celebrity Mashups,
http://www.programmableweb.com/tag/celebrity , to Mapping Mashups http://www.programmableweb.com/mapping , I shared with a Professor of Archeology a Mapping Mashup and now he uses that tool to show his students the various digs he has been on around the world. On his class website they are able to see his past explorations marked on the map. Then the student can click on that area of the map and see a descripition of the dig, the findings and photographs. I'd link you to his class site but it is for students. Of course you can sign up for his class if you want to move to the St. Louis area and pay the tution fee.
If you know me you know I love all kinds of car racing. Here is a wonderful little NASCAR Mashup http://www.programmableweb.com/mashup/nascar-map-race-week which is a
community site that helps NASCAR fans find and recommend places to eat (did I mention i Love BBQ) and stay near the track, as well as find events leading up to race day. Custom maps can be emailed to friends, or downloaded to Google Earth.
So if you haven't thought about using mashups in your teaching I'd suggest giving it a try! I think you'll find your students will love it!
Friday, March 7, 2008
POD safe!
I’ve mentioned it before in my old blog, but given the recent demise of AllofMp3.com, the biggest violator of music copyright since Napster, I figure it’s worth a repeat appearance.
While I love FreePlayMusic.com, the name is horribly deceiving. The audio there is not Podsafe, and for most purposes they actually charge a pretty fair amount (that’s relative to educators, not Hollywood types). You really have to scour their ratecard to understand what fees are actually involved.
In direct contrast to this, GarageBand.com is extremely podcast friendly, and has a very easy system for determining whether music is ‘podsafe’ or not. If you can download it, you can podcast it. Technically, if the music isn’t covered by Creative Commons, then you only have permission to republish it through GCast.com (their sister site), but most bands that I’ve found use CC. You can read the details here if you like. However you do it, it’s common courtesy to let bands know you’re using their music. More often than not, they really appreciate hearing that schools are using their music!
Personally, I’ve found it to be a fantastic source of podsafe music, as well as music to fill up your iPod! And not only that, it’s also highly EduSafe. I’ve never come across anything objectionable during my time spent surfing around through the site.
Oh yeah, and if you find any choice funk tracks, let me know
While I love FreePlayMusic.com, the name is horribly deceiving. The audio there is not Podsafe, and for most purposes they actually charge a pretty fair amount (that’s relative to educators, not Hollywood types). You really have to scour their ratecard to understand what fees are actually involved.
In direct contrast to this, GarageBand.com is extremely podcast friendly, and has a very easy system for determining whether music is ‘podsafe’ or not. If you can download it, you can podcast it. Technically, if the music isn’t covered by Creative Commons, then you only have permission to republish it through GCast.com (their sister site), but most bands that I’ve found use CC. You can read the details here if you like. However you do it, it’s common courtesy to let bands know you’re using their music. More often than not, they really appreciate hearing that schools are using their music!
Personally, I’ve found it to be a fantastic source of podsafe music, as well as music to fill up your iPod! And not only that, it’s also highly EduSafe. I’ve never come across anything objectionable during my time spent surfing around through the site.
Oh yeah, and if you find any choice funk tracks, let me know
How to use Photostory3
I ran into David Jakes, an educator in Illinois, at METC he has put together a series of 11 screencasts teaching people how to use Photostory 3. If you’re just getting started in the world of digital storytelling, this is an incredible resource. Actually, his entire website, Jakes Online, is worth exploring. Tons of resources, you could easily spend hours exploring everything he has there
Floola Freeware better than iTunes?
Got an iPod? If so, then you’re probably the victim of an arranged marriage to iTunes. Like it or not, that iPod really wants to hook up with iTunes, and unfortunately many schools don’t allow the use of iTunes on school computers. So hypthetically, let’s say you wanted to add unitedstreaming videos to your iPod so that you can use them on your MegaVCR, you were out of luck.
That’s where Floola comes in. "Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes).It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.Floola supports all most common used features including podcasts!"
You just drop it on your iPod in disk mode, and run it from there. It looks and feels remarkably similar to iTunes, and has many of the same functions. There are even some functions thrown in that iTunes hasn’t implemented yet. No, you can’t access the music store and buy new music, but c’est la vie. It’s a great substitute for times when you can’t get access to iTunes.
So if you can’t convince your IT person that there’s actually educational reasons to use an iPod in the classroom, then take advantage of Floola!
That’s where Floola comes in. "Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes).It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.Floola supports all most common used features including podcasts!"
You just drop it on your iPod in disk mode, and run it from there. It looks and feels remarkably similar to iTunes, and has many of the same functions. There are even some functions thrown in that iTunes hasn’t implemented yet. No, you can’t access the music store and buy new music, but c’est la vie. It’s a great substitute for times when you can’t get access to iTunes.
So if you can’t convince your IT person that there’s actually educational reasons to use an iPod in the classroom, then take advantage of Floola!
I likee AuthorStream
Of course, I’m never quite satisfied with any presentation I create, so I was tweaking the slides all the way up to the very minute I began presenting. After a recent presentation, plenty of people asked if I was going to be posting a copy of the presentation online. Normally, I’d use Slideshare to do so, but these presentations made ample use of Powerpoints custom animations. If you don’t over do it, those animations can be great for calling attention to particular details in a slide. Unfortunately, Slideshare doesn’t support those animations at all.
So, after a little searching around I stumbled upon AuthorStream. It supports those animations and handles them rather well. It also supports narratives, like Slideshare does. You can embed presentations, watch them full screen, email them, comment on them all the usually goodies you’d expect. Oh yeah, there’s one more distinct advantage of AuthorStream tho… It has an application that you can download that will convert your powerpoints en masse to flash and then allow you to import them into the AuthorStream website or into WizIQ. So you can embed it into your site, link to a really nifty full window player, or just direct people to their site. And since you can save them offline, no worries about the site disappearing or anything.
So, after a little searching around I stumbled upon AuthorStream. It supports those animations and handles them rather well. It also supports narratives, like Slideshare does. You can embed presentations, watch them full screen, email them, comment on them all the usually goodies you’d expect. Oh yeah, there’s one more distinct advantage of AuthorStream tho… It has an application that you can download that will convert your powerpoints en masse to flash and then allow you to import them into the AuthorStream website or into WizIQ. So you can embed it into your site, link to a really nifty full window player, or just direct people to their site. And since you can save them offline, no worries about the site disappearing or anything.
So what is Twitter and why is gaining popularity. Here is that Lee Levever with another one of his clear and consise explainations of web2.0 applications: http://www.youtube.com/user/leelefever
I thought Twitter was just fun and games until I read this post by Elizabeth Lane.
If you actually visit the blog (instead of reading it via aggregator), you’d see that I added Twitter to my sidebar now. I don’t know what it is about it, but there’s no question it’s infectious. For some reason, I get a kick out of knowing that Kelly Dumont is playing around with Sketchup and Tim Lauer had a dentist appointment today.
Some might call it a distraction, but I consider it the equivalent of a 20 second ’smoke break’. Sometimes you just need a minute to step back, give your mind a minute and then refocus. Twitter really seems to fill that need for me. While it may be fluff, it’s still social networking, something that I’ve found of enormous value over time. My contacts are my professional development, my intellectual stimulation, and also my friends. I don’t consider any interaction with them, regardless of how casual, to be a waste of time.
I think that’s what students are realizing, that most adults are missing the point on. The people who excel at MySpace and AIM are becoming masters of business, marketing, sales, and design. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And if you don’t know them yet, can you find them and tap into them?
Oh yeah, you can find me on Twitter at randymalta. So what are you up to right now?
I thought Twitter was just fun and games until I read this post by Elizabeth Lane.
If you actually visit the blog (instead of reading it via aggregator), you’d see that I added Twitter to my sidebar now. I don’t know what it is about it, but there’s no question it’s infectious. For some reason, I get a kick out of knowing that Kelly Dumont is playing around with Sketchup and Tim Lauer had a dentist appointment today.
Some might call it a distraction, but I consider it the equivalent of a 20 second ’smoke break’. Sometimes you just need a minute to step back, give your mind a minute and then refocus. Twitter really seems to fill that need for me. While it may be fluff, it’s still social networking, something that I’ve found of enormous value over time. My contacts are my professional development, my intellectual stimulation, and also my friends. I don’t consider any interaction with them, regardless of how casual, to be a waste of time.
I think that’s what students are realizing, that most adults are missing the point on. The people who excel at MySpace and AIM are becoming masters of business, marketing, sales, and design. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And if you don’t know them yet, can you find them and tap into them?
Oh yeah, you can find me on Twitter at randymalta. So what are you up to right now?
my new blog site and Tweet for twitter!
I've move, moved my blog that is. One thing about usd technology is that technology keeps changing and for most of the time for the better. SO I've clsoed my old blog down and I am starting new on this Blog site. You will not see anything different. It is just much easy for me to used this site to compose my blog in and add hyperlinks for you. So now continung with the new improved blog:
I discovered Tweet Scan yesterday, which at first glance looks like yet another Twitter search engine. To be honest, I’ve been pretty disappointed with most Twitter searches, namely because they don’t go back far enough, take too long or just give wonky results. Consequently, I had pretty low expectations for Tweet Scan. I was pleasantly surprised.
The basic search already deviates from expectations right from the get go. Instead of just being able to do a basic search, it allows you to filter that search to a specific username. So, you can scan just your tweets, or the tweets from a friend. I’m still waiting for someone to add in a third option, ’scan the people I follow’, a search that will filter the results based on tweets by the people that you’ve chosen to follow, which for the most part are the only tweets you see! The search seems to be accurate, very readable, and has links to scan back farther. I did a search for FETC and was able to pull out results as far back as mid December. Not bad, not bad… The results also come with a “Tweet this” link, a permalink to that search and an RSS feed as well.
The site could use some UI help, but if you go into settings you’ll see five customizable fields. By putting in keywords there you can set it up to do some automated searches for you. For example, you could have it automatically pull out references to your name. For example, sometimes people might type “randymalya" instead of “randymalta″. Problem being, the former won’t pull up under replies. You could also search for things like, “digital storytelling” to see a report of every tweet with that keyword. And so on. You can set it to email you the results daily, weekly, or even drag the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. Every time you click it, it rotates through your saved searches. Slick!
This really starts to add some pretty neat functionality to Twitter. I do Twitterpolls all the time, but if I ask people to respond with a specfic keyword, I can get an RSS feed of just those results. Perhaps I could even use a widget to display JUST those results into something…. like a blog post for example.
So if I posted a Twitterpoll asking, “What’s your favorite Twitter hack or application?”, I could dynamically display the results below. Now wouldn’t that be nifty, eh? Tweet Scan seems to be lagging about 12-24 hours behind real-time, but results should start to pop in below.
UPDATE:Well, they should. But they didn’t. In fact, there’s a two day blackout period that Tweetscan isn’t finding any results in. Very disappointing. You can see the results on a TerraMinds search, but the RSS feed seems wonky and I couldn’t get it to populate below. Very bummed about that. But it’s not worth investing any more time into right now. Feh.
I discovered Tweet Scan yesterday, which at first glance looks like yet another Twitter search engine. To be honest, I’ve been pretty disappointed with most Twitter searches, namely because they don’t go back far enough, take too long or just give wonky results. Consequently, I had pretty low expectations for Tweet Scan. I was pleasantly surprised.
The basic search already deviates from expectations right from the get go. Instead of just being able to do a basic search, it allows you to filter that search to a specific username. So, you can scan just your tweets, or the tweets from a friend. I’m still waiting for someone to add in a third option, ’scan the people I follow’, a search that will filter the results based on tweets by the people that you’ve chosen to follow, which for the most part are the only tweets you see! The search seems to be accurate, very readable, and has links to scan back farther. I did a search for FETC and was able to pull out results as far back as mid December. Not bad, not bad… The results also come with a “Tweet this” link, a permalink to that search and an RSS feed as well.
The site could use some UI help, but if you go into settings you’ll see five customizable fields. By putting in keywords there you can set it up to do some automated searches for you. For example, you could have it automatically pull out references to your name. For example, sometimes people might type “randymalya" instead of “randymalta″. Problem being, the former won’t pull up under replies. You could also search for things like, “digital storytelling” to see a report of every tweet with that keyword. And so on. You can set it to email you the results daily, weekly, or even drag the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar. Every time you click it, it rotates through your saved searches. Slick!
This really starts to add some pretty neat functionality to Twitter. I do Twitterpolls all the time, but if I ask people to respond with a specfic keyword, I can get an RSS feed of just those results. Perhaps I could even use a widget to display JUST those results into something…. like a blog post for example.
So if I posted a Twitterpoll asking, “What’s your favorite Twitter hack or application?”, I could dynamically display the results below. Now wouldn’t that be nifty, eh? Tweet Scan seems to be lagging about 12-24 hours behind real-time, but results should start to pop in below.
UPDATE:Well, they should. But they didn’t. In fact, there’s a two day blackout period that Tweetscan isn’t finding any results in. Very disappointing. You can see the results on a TerraMinds search, but the RSS feed seems wonky and I couldn’t get it to populate below. Very bummed about that. But it’s not worth investing any more time into right now. Feh.
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