Category: Technology

I am a Member of CPSquare

cpsquareI short time ago I joined CPSquare, the online community of practice on communities of practice. With a list of great reasons to join, with the access to thought leaders and researchers in the field being the one that convinced me to sign up, I finally had my first tangible experience of being a member — a NYC meetup organized by Bronwyn Stuckey that occurred yesterday where I met Bronwyn and Caren Levine, both for the first time.

I really wished I could have spent more time with them both, but it was the middle of the day and lunch is only so long! At least now when I read their posts and work, I will have more of a sense of who the avatar is that is writing! Perhaps this is the ideal for (blended) eLearning–work online with opportunities for F2F meeting and collaboration when possible?

Want a sense on how fascinating this community is? If so, take a look at the list of member blogs.

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How to Use Twitter in Higher Education

I decided that I will list my Twitter name on the syllabus for the class I am teaching that begins tomorrow, Project Management for Training. I decided to do this after reading an article in the Chronicle, Forget E-Mail: New Messaging Service Has Students and Professors Atwitter. As my class is in a continuing education certificate program, I am not sure how or what I will do with it, but I know nothing will happen unless I take the first steps.

While my class will only touch on technology, I am interested in listing the Twitter address and seeing where it may lead. Has anybody out there effectively used Twitter in an adult-oriented, non-technology focused class?

Twitter Thoughts from BarCampNYC3

twitter2 I started using Twitter a little over a year ago, when I first encountered it while at Northern Voice 2007, and am still active there at http://twitter.com/JeffreyKeefer. Since then, it has become more popular in the last year. I am still surprised with how many people use it for such a variety of purposes, yet there are no usage costs or advertisements on it or otherwise anything that seems questionable.

One of the BarCampNYC3 sessions yesterday speculated about several future revenue models that may or may not be in their business plan. What struck me is that Twitter allows, and even encourages, developers to use the Twitter data in other applications, which is interesting since all of the Twitter data and posts have been available and indexed on Google for some time. If it goes on Twitter, count on it being part of the public Web.

While I do not know Twitter’s business model and am not an investor in their technology, as a user I find their product the pinnacle of clarity and openness. Let’s hope as the technology begins to go mainstream, that they do not turn on their customers.

Come to think of it, does Twitter even have customers?

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What is Chumby?

This is a session to discuss Chumby, which I recall hearing about but have never seen. Alexandre Rafalovitch was the presenter.

Chumby is Linux-based, uses wifi, flash lite widget, touchscreen, accelerometer, speakers, and usb. It is corded and small.

It is not supposed to be a computer replacement, but an augmenter.

It integrates with Winamp, radio stations, iPod, alarm, and has open architecture so things can be written for it.

There is a Chumby forum where people make suggestions and other people then consider writing their own applications for it. One of them suggested having a pill reminder, which reminds me of the medication management issues in and around telehealth.

Chumby seems like a great piece of hardware, and I want to look into this tool more. This has been one of the more interesting sessions today!

Blogs as Community

Max from Microsoft started to speak about Microsoft Channel 9. The goal was to get information out to the developers within the company. It was called Channel 9 since that is the airline channel where the information between the pilots and the control tower can be heard.

Max is speaking about Channel 8. He showed us the current blog appearance of the Channel 8, which looks and feels like a blog with reversed chronological feeds.

On the new appearance, Max was showing us elements of the new site design. He then used the people in this session as a usability discussion group. There was some interesting feedback from a usability perspective. It included some work on anonymity, including your personal avatar, and even a rotating discussion post.

The moderator plays a larger roll.

There is some discussion about chatting and how advertising has colored our use and expectations of technology. There was an example of some building of a community because there was user input into the building of a computer, and then it was given away at the end. The give-away seemed to help community.

There is really a big issue with the wifi access here at BarCampNYC3. I do not see a lot of people using laptops here, perhaps less than 20%. I do not think the wifi system here at Polytechnic can handle this small number.

What causes people to interact, even here in our sessions? There is a fear of not looking stupid, or lacking in information.

The discussion is starting to get a bit unfocused, as can happen in unconference sessions, but I am no longer paying much attention.

Ahh, time to go and thus to post this.