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Shared ’cause I’ve got Pac Man Fever.
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the hard drives on both my work & home laptops recently died. there’s a certain freedom in totally starting over but hooray for home servers [shifted]
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Hopes are boosted for success at the Copenhagen climate summit as it emerges more than 60 state leaders are expected to attend.
Over the past decade, Amazon.com and eBay have continued to dominate the online retail market in the United States. However, there have been signs that more social and distributed forms of online shopping are gaining traction. eBay, in particular, is beginning to lose ground.
In this post, we review the past decade of e-commerce and the key trends. Advances in recommendations technology, together with the emergence of social media and mobile commerce, have combined to change the way e-commerce is transacted.
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This is the third in a ReadWriteWeb series looking back at some of the key trends of the past 10 years. We previously covered the online music industry and the democratization of news media.
Over the past decade the online retail industry has seen great strides in the use of recommendations technology. Amazon has consistently led the field in this, with its sophisticated blend of personalized, social and item recommendations.
Many of the retail recommendations in use today rely on implicit user data. These systems typically track user data, which is then analyzed with a set of usually proprietary algorithms. The end result: recommendations for users. Earlier this year we looked into Baynote's recommendation system:
"Baynote observes real-time user behavior on a site and looks for implicit, emergent patterns. It uses collective intelligence and an affinity engine to analyze the data. Common behaviors which it tracks include page refers, queries, mouse movement, time spent on a page, peer behavior."
Other similar recommendation technologies we've profiled include MyBuys, ATG and richrelevance.
As with nearly every other industry, shopping sites have increasingly used social media to promote their wares.
According to Shop.org's recent eHoliday Study, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season. Specifically, more than half of retailers have "added or improved their Facebook page (60.3%) and Twitter pages (58.7%)" this year. Nearly two-thirds (65.6%) have "added or enhanced blogs and RSS feeds" over the same time period.
One result of this has been a big increase in implicit social recommendations data across social networks and blogs.
Another trend with ecommerce sites is distributed sales. Anyone can embed an Amazon store into their blog or social network these days. As Kurt Collins of social commerce vendor Cartfly told us in December, this won't replace "end destination e-commerce" - but it will "augment sales tremendously" at the edge of the network.
The growth of mobile phones has been a big trend this decade. However, as Sarah Perez wrote in September, mobile commerce in the U.S. market has struggled for momentum.
According to data from eMarketer, more than 70 million U.S. mobile phone users will access the internet from their devices this year. Despite this, the m-commerce market remains immature. In an April 2009 survey by RIS News, privacy and security concerns are still at the forefront of both shoppers' and retailers' minds.
There is some promise that mobile commerce will finally gain traction in the coming decade. Mobile payments firm Billing Revolution found that on-the-go consumers are happy to purchase small ticket items like pizza and movie tickets, for example.
One market that has shown strong signs of mobile commerce growth is Japan, according to Morgan Stanley.
See also our analysis of mobile payments.
New recommendations technologies make it easier every year for consumers to find what they want, social media has driven a lot of retail activity to small websites and social networks, and mobile commerce has slowly but surely gained a foothold in e-commerce.
These are just some of the trends in e-commerce over the past 10 years. While Amazon.com and eBay continue to be the giants of online retail, the Social Web and advances in web technology have both had a big impact this decade.
See also:
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China enjoyed center stage this week thanks to President Obama's visit. Naturally, trade relations were on the agenda.
For Internet companies sitting in the US, news reports that chronicled the President's every move in China were a visible reminder of the business opportunity that may seem a click away.
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This guest post was written by Wei Wang.
So, why not export social media to China just like KFC and American Idol? After all, seeing Yao Ming, arguably China's grandest international star, on Facebook and Twitter, one naturally figures, aside from the language and periodic blocking of websites, "What's the diff?"
But Facebook has gained little traction in China (with only 390,000 users), and tweets have virtually ground to a halt since the government started blocking Twitter, and these factors point to the "diff."
Simply flinging an American product into the Chinese market won't succeed, because every social media category has a Chinese equivalent that is tuned to the particular needs of the mainland Chinese market.
One of China's "Facebooks," Kaixin001.com, has already secured over 40 million users since launching only last year. The platform gained its initial popularity through applications that you would recognize from the real Facebook, such as "Friends for sale" and "Parking wars" - but with a Chinese twist.
Take, for example, the application called "Xingming Yuanfen," in which you type in a friend's name to test your "yuanfen" (i.e. your predetermined relationship with that person). Another application explains who you were in your previous life. It turns out I was a bandit, much to the chagrin of my parents.
These "fortune-telling" applications enjoy incredible popularity on computers and mobile phones. While fortune-telling jars Western sensibilities, it remains a part of Chinese culture.
But the best example of China walking to the beat of its own drummer is the continued popularity of the BBS.
That's not a typo.
That is the same bulletin board system that went by the wayside in the US with dial-up modems and US Robotics. Chinese students - who, like their counterparts in the US, are more open to experimentation than other segments - established the foundation for BBS' to flourish in China.
All major universities operate their own BBS. Peking University and Tsinghua University (which are the Harvard and MIT of China) host the Weiming BBS (named after Weiming Lake at Peking University) and Shuimu Tsinghua BBS, respectively.
With 10+ years' worth of graduates who grew up on BBS' now driving the Chinese Internet market, these same people have fueled a range of BBS sites tied to their interests and professions. According to the latest CINIC (China Internet Network Information Center) report, roughly 30% of Chinese Web users spend a significant amount of time on a BBS. So, these sites certainly transcend geekdom.
55BBS, for example, is an online community where users share discount information, coupons and other creative ways to land a good deal. Users also share news of what they got from their latest shopping spree, showing off a photo of skin care products as if it were a trophy.
Perhaps the most unique phenomenon in China is Tianya, the #1 BBS, with almost 30 million users.
What is Tianya? Think of it as a gathering place for an eclectic blend of intellectuals, journalists, freelancers, professors, researchers, gadflies, etc. Users write on and comment about sensitive social issues that may be off-limits to mainstream media. People also head to this forum to gossip about celebrities (okay, some things don't change between cultures).
A Chinese word has been coined for BBS evangelists: "Da'rens," which roughly means "people who really know how to do something." We're now starting to see some "Da'rens" parlay their popularity into commercial success. The famous makeup Da'ren known as Arora started out writing about cosmetics on a BBS before launching a blog for the mega-portal Sina.com.
From a Chinese perspective, the fundamental difference between a blog and BBS is that a BBS allows for anonymity, which appeals to the introversion of many Chinese. Blogging is also more of a solitary activity, with readers chiming in with comments later. The BBS, on the other hand, is more of a collaborative undertaking, which also appeals to the Chinese.
This all means that Internet companies from the US looking to crack the mainland Chinese market need to do their homework and tailor their products accordingly.
Here's an easy litmus test when planning your market entry in China: "What's the difference between the US and Chinese version of your product?"
If the answer takes more than 60 seconds to explain, then you've got a fighting chance.
Wei Wang is a digital consultant with The Hoffman Agency, a communications consultancy with offices in Beijing (where Wei is based) and Shanghai, as well as throughout Asia, the US and Europe. She can be reached at WWang@Hoffman.com.
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A few weeks ago, I spoke to someone who had finally reached the end of her rope with an obdurate boss. Having suggested a series of social media initiatives, only to see them wither on the vine as he refused to either push them forward or cancel them, she was ready to move on - not just to another job, but a whole different organization. (Possibly the mob. She has recently dreamed up some innovations on the homicide front that she's eager to try.)
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One of the reasons social media can be so challenging is that it often challenges hierarchies... and people at the top of those hierarchies have grown comfortable there. Some see the potential advantages of an engaging, open online presence, but others feel threatened and vulnerable. They have a wide range of hostile responses at their disposal: from the passive-aggressive (my friend's boss) to the outright belligerent (see below).
What's your experience? Have you found yourself inadvertently threatening the powers that be?
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One more find by Stephen Abram; a Campus Technology report indicating that by 2014, the number of US students taking at least some of their courses online will rise from 10.65 million in 2009 to 18.65 million. If true, there should remain plenty of opportunities for librarians supporting distance or blended learners!
The other week I pointed to a graphic showing newspaper circulation over the last two decades. Stephen Abram has uncovered a similar graphic showing circulation revenue for a few of the big general news magazines. Theme song: Free Falling, by Tom Petty.
Karen at Library Web Chic has a great list of tools that she uses for remote collaboration and interaction. I've used almost all of these, but will be playing with CamTwist and remembering to use my JungleDisk now :-)
How have I been coping w/o the Kindle? Just fine, actually. I've read well over a dozen novels on my iPhone this year. My preferred ereader of choice is Stanza (ironically now owned by Amazon) - can't think of a single thing to do to improve it. I buy most of my books from Fictionwise. There's also the Canadian option of Shortcovers, with both a store and ereader. Shortcovers just hasn't been quite as seamless as Stanza/Fictionwise for me.
For newspapers, yesterday I discovered PressDisplay. It's got my local paper and an iPhone app, though if I do decide to subscribe I'll probably choose to read my morning paper on the laptop. For me, I think newspapers and magazines on an ereader would be killer, and that's one thing I was hoping the Kindle would do for me.
It does indeed frost my shorts that I can't share the books I've purchased with anyone else. I haven't yet, but will probably explore options for cracking the DRM in order to do so.
What am I missing, eh?
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Mashery is a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. At the "Business of APIs" conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper "Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services" to discover how you can use APIs for your business.
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Codero is a dedicated and managed hosting company focused on the real needs of today's small and mid-sized businesses. The company believes in supporting robust websites, storefronts and online communities that will grow and adapt.
Groupsite.com is a self-serve platform for creating social collaboration communities called Groupsites. Groupsites combine the most useful features of social networking and collaboration tools enabling groups large and small to communicate, share and network. Groupsites are currently in use by more than 30,000 groups as user communities, intranets, member communities, team workgroups and social networks. Each Groupsite can be branded and customized and includes discussion forums, calendaring, file sharing, member profiles (professional or social), activity feeds and full-featured sub-groups among other group-centric features.
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Faroo is a peer-to-peer Web search engine that has no centralized index and crawler. Each web page visited by users is automatically included into the distributed index. Search results are ranked based on distributed usage statistics of Web pages visited by Faroo users, which leads to more democratic, user-centric ranking.
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From social media to local search to video SEO, Search Engine Strategies Chicago puts you in front of the experts who will help you sort which technologies and channel will take you to the next level and which are just hype.
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The massive and apparently stable East Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass, a new study suggests.
Some great responses to this month's big question New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills. I'm learning a lot from the posts. A few random reactions and a few of the nuggets I've pulled out from the discussion.
See my post on Multitasking for a summary of this. Or better, take a look at Ken Allan - Binge Thinking. Or Clive Shepherd's How should presenters address multitasking? simple statement:
Multitasking is an illusion – we are simply not capable of doing it.
But some caveats to this general rule.
Doodling and Notetaking are good.
I have learnt to take notes while giving nearly full attention to a presentation. It’s one multitasking practice that I’m good at.
A log of the responses point out that a distracted audience is first a symptom of the presenter's ability to engage the audience.
Kristine Howard October Big Question
If you are going to present online or in person, do what it takes to do it well.
Clive Shepherd - How should presenters address multitasking?
Multitasking learners? Opportunity, not threat
I may very well be back channelling, bookmarking, googling, or even writing notes in my blog a a draft.
I like learning through dialogue. I enjoy the conversation around what that sage on the stage is talking about. My “multitasking” devices are a way to have that without being disruptive, so I’m not convinced they are a bad thing, just a reflective tool.
[but]
If a presentation is not engaging me, I will multitask in a less presenter pleasing manner, and by that I mean I may do some admin, catch up on what’s been going on.
Claudia Escribano: Presentations Re-Imagined
Why do people multi-task?
- They’re distracted by other obligations.
- They’re bored.
- They’re sharing your presentation with their network.
- They feel they learn better when they’re flitting between several activities.
Which several of these lead into the following.
I think Max Bezzina What presenters could do when the audience multi-tasks says it well:
Embrace the fact that people will be tempted to multi-task. If this is an issue for you and/or for the success of the presentation, tell them about it in the beginning of the presentation.
Kristine Howard October Big Question has some great specific suggestions:
Rani Gill: Social norms, expectations, attention, a game? also has some great suggestions:
Claudia Escribano in Presentations Re-Imagined really provides an interesting way to handle this including asking people to volunteer to be distracted. Interesting thought. See her post for more detail than I'm providing. But I really like the thought and a good way to help establish the norm along the lines of Rani's post.
Tell participants upfront that your presentation is a little different from what they may be used to. It’s not just you talking to them; it’s a total participatory event in which everyone plays a role. Then present the roles and ask them to identify what role they’d like to play:
- Listeners
- Sharers
- Note-Takers
- Questioners
- Activity Leaders
- Distracted People
You could ask for a show of hands for each role. Or you could set aside parts of the room for each role and have people select their role as they come in and sit down.
This idea is somewhat echoed by Geoff Cain
You are still thinking of this as a problem instead of an opportunity - you have to learn how to harness the Google jockeys and tweeters.
Clayn suggests:
Each class period I randomly select a student to be the back channel moderator for that day. I see the moderator as filling the same role as an assistant sitting on the phone during an auction. They act as a proxy, voicing the bids of individuals over the phone. The back channel moderator will strive to respond to comments made, if they can, or voice the question -when appropriate - for general class consumption. Not only does this free me from trying to do this myself, it forces students into a more active role in the classroom.
Great idea to assign moderator to someone else during the session. This is maybe a role to add to the list the Claudia gives. And directly addresses the concern raised in Multitasking learners? Opportunity, not threat
I have presented online without a moderator before, and after a reasonable amount of experience, still find it hard to listen and read a backchannel, or talk and read a backchannel.
Which is how I feel. In fact, that's often my recommendation to anyone presenting at an online event. Of course, I'm moderating in most of those cases for people. When I myself am presenting, I know to ignore the back channel for periods of time and then tune back in. But having assigned a moderator, I can quickly ask them for help with what I should address.
My general sense is that people are split on whether "bad" multitasking is disrespectful.
Multitasking learners? Opportunity, not threat
I’ve heard many trainers complain online that it’s disrespectful to them when people multitask. I counter that it’s disrespectful to learners to present something that does not meet their needs, not wonder why they are not paying attention, then get offended when they don’t listen. If people aren’t paying attention, or multitasking in a bad way, it shows you that something isn’t working, and if handled well, can perhaps highlight some areas for improvement, whether they be with you, the content, the venue etc. It may also highlight that sometimes life just takes over and it’s got nothing to do with you as a presenter.
Clive Shepherd - How should presenters address multitasking?
I don’t mind this as long as they are polite about it: show some interest when the presenter starts up; look up and smile once in a while; try not to look as if the presenter has somehow intruded on your personal office space. Personally, if I’m paid to speak, I’ll put up with a lack of politeness; if I’m not, I’m quite prepared to walk off. Life’s too short.
What I recently saw was the audience being much more upset than the presenters about backchannel discussions that are straying being rude. I prefer an active audience myself. Of course, there are boundaries such as being offensive to the presenter in any backchannel.
We’ve just announced the innovation awards associated with LearnTrends 2009. The session was fraught with technical difficulties, so I thought it would be worth capturing a bit about each of the four award winners here.
CUDA technologies is a small software firm within the Hi Performance Learning and IQ Business Group in South Africa, the United Stated and Australia.
In 2007, they launched the CUDA Business Brain as an integrated Workplace Performance Support Solution. It provides a blend of learning management and performance support. Because they operate in bandwidth constrained locations, they have implemented an extremely light web interface. They provide automated content distribution capability. A unique a Visio enabled process publishing tool that 'walks' users through performance support when they need it. This combination, backed by flexible expert location, rating and ranking mechanisms, makes our offering stand apart in providing cutting edge performance support and learning management to large audiences.
Learnosity provide a set of tools to help in the assessment, teaching and learning of spoken language skills. The Learnosity system is designed for speaking, listening and learning via a mobile phone.
The use of the mobile phone allows students practice their spoken skills in and outside of the classroom, facilitating student-led learning. The use of such simple technology eliminates any required technical support in the classroom, and make the system extremely easy to use for both teachers and students. Voice-chat and text-chat facilitate structured, moderated and anonymous peer-to-peer learning.
Thinking Worlds is a new kind of 3D “Serious Games” simulation engine and authoring tool. It provides an authoring interface that fuses a visual story boarding system with easy to follow templates, both of which require no programming skill at all. It makes it possible to develop rich simulations in a fast and cost-effective way. It publishes simulations that are both LMS and SCORM compliant. Playback is through standard technologies allowing easier distribution.
CLT Plug&Learn is an interesting blended language learning course combining learning software with extensive online tutoring and regular (virtual) classroom training, framed by a placement test, a Kick-Off meeting and a final test. Based on the results of the placement test, students are offered a language course designed to meet their goals. During the self-study phase, they practice their written, reading, listening, comprehension and pronunciation skills with the language software. A tutoring team assists students via e-mail. They receive a weekly e-mail with their assignment, additional written production exercises, motivational and technical tips as well as personalized feedback based on the self-study results as recorded in the LMS.
Congratulations to the winners.
I received a question today that I really wasn't sure how to answer and thought that lots of folks might have thoughts around this. Here's the question:
I have some extra budget money and I need to invest in software and hardware that will help me create cutting edge, top shelf eLearning programs.
I already have these software programs:
- Articulate Suite '09
- Adobe Master Suite CS3 (Not sure that I really need to upgrade to CS4)
- Camtasia & Snag It
Are there any other must have software programs? It has to work with Articulate of course! Free software is always nice but I don't mind paying for high quality products. I have still and video cameras, a mic and a computer ... do you think I need any other hardware items? I'm happy with my LMS, so I don't need help there.
I can't claim that many of us will face the problem of having a budget that we need to use before the end of the year. But I thought it might be fun to help someone else spend their money.
I realize that with this little bit of information, it's almost impossible to have the right answer, but I'm sure there are lots of interesting possibilities.
What purchases would you suggest?
Great post by Dion Hinchcliffe - Twenty-two power laws of the emerging social economy where he discusses what Steve Balmer calls “the new normal”. Balmer talks about how a reset of economic expectations during the downturn has created an environment that is putting pressure on business to do more with less. Some of the specifics of this transformation are captured in the following graphic:
This is lines up really well with a lot of what I discuss in Business of Learning and Trends in Learning. The primary shifts he talks about are:
Dion then goes through his 22 laws that are useful to understand what is going on with all of this shift. Several of them I regularly talk about:
Overall, Dion's post is a great source for helping to think through what's really going on at a macro level with learning.
Here is this week's ReadWriteWeb events guide. As always, you can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans.
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Featuring the most cutting-edge mobile startups from around the globe, Under the Radar will get you dialed in to what the 2010 mobile innovation marketplace will look like. It's a must-attend event for dealmakers from global carriers, brands, media companies, and handset manufacturers responsible for helping their companies leverage new mobile technology and innovation in the fast-evolving digital landscape.
Save $200: book by 2 October 2009, and get the early-bird rate.
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Online Information and IMS together create the largest event dedicated to the information industry. Consisting of an exhibition delivering over 9,000 visitors from 70 countries, a conference and a show-floor seminar program, the event provides an annual meeting place for the global information industry.
Online Information is once again set to play host to thousands of information professionals, information end-users and publishers from around the globe, meeting suppliers of online content, e-publishing, and library management solutions. IMS provides a forum for IT, business, and information management professionals to find unlimited, relevant advice, educational content and compare solutions under one roof. Attend IMS and meet suppliers of content management, search solutions, and Web 2.0 technologies.
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The SF MusicTech Summit brings together 600+ visionaries in the music/technology space, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology eco-system in a proactive environment, highly conducive to deal making. Register with a great ReadWriteWeb 15% discount.
From social media to local search to video SEO, Search Engine Strategies Chicago puts you in front of the experts who will help you sort which technologies and channel will take you to the next level and which are just hype.
Search Engine Strategies is the pioneer of educational conference series in search engine marketing. It's the venue where the industry visionaries and thought leaders gather each year to discuss the newest trends, share insights and present the strategic action plans you need to grow your business. Sessions include:
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Developer sessions will cover best practices, cross-browser development and mash-ups. Marketing sessions will focus on monetization opportunities, distribution strategies and stats. Join 200+ individuals involved in add-on development to help define an emerging new market in the Web's eco-system.
ReadWriteWeb readers save $50 by using the discount code "addoncon09RRW."
This is the social media conference that comes to you. Social Fresh is a one-day, case-study-rich conference targeted for marketers. Social Fresh Nashville will have 30+ speakers, including Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer, Gavin Baker of Ruby Tuesday and John Andrews of Collective Bias (formerly of Walmart).
ReadWriteWeb readers get a 15% discount with the code "RWW15".
Enterprise Social 2.0: Rip or ROI?
This senior executive event will bring together decision makers from the Top Fortune companies to discuss innovative strategies on how to maximise business performance through social media engagement. The event will include keynote speeches, best-practice presentations as well as interactive discussion sessions.
The summit will provide excellent opportunities for you to hear international experts discuss best practices on how to drive business performance using Web 2.0 and social media. Key issues to be discussed include:
This is the social media conference that comes to you. Social Fresh is a one-day, case-study-rich conference targeted for marketers. Social Fresh Tampa will have 30+ speakers, including Chris Barger of GM, Maggie Fox of Social Media Group and John Andrews of Collective Bias (formerly of Walmart).
ReadWriteWeb readers get a 15% discount with the code "RWW15".
Active limited partners, top rated venture capitalists, and successful entrepreneurs are invited to Silicon Valley on February 18, 2010 to discuss the Future of Funding. The venture capital bubble has burst, and change is coming. Now is the time to have a constructive dialog about the future with all of the stakeholders at the table.
Don't miss the opportunity to partake in this exclusive event hosted by TheFunded. Please visit www.futureoffunding.com to see speaker and event details.
ReadWriteWeb readers use the code "RWW" and get 10% off.
2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London
The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams:
The event features key speakers from global brands, organizations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more.
Download this entire events calendar in iCal format.
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The USSR's first civilian cosmonaut, Konstantin Feoktistov, a crew member of the 1964 Voskhod spaceship, dies.
Astronaut Randolph Bresnik becomes a father in space after his wife gives birth to a daughter back home on Earth in Texas.
This month’s Big Question in the ASTD Learning Circuits Blog is ‘How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organisation?’
How indeed? Well one way to approach this issue is to step back from the technology and ask yourself whether bottom-up learning in general (which has always happened, but which social media facilitates) is appropriate for the target population?
Bottom-up learning is managed by employees themselves. Why? Because it is in their interests to gain whatever knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively. A bottom-up approach is needed to address the 80% of learning that is needed 20% of the time. It most needs to be encouraged in those organisations in which there is constant change and fluidity in tasks and goals.
Bottom-up learning is cheaper, more responsive, less controlling, less patronising and altogether more in tune with the times. But it is also less certain, less measurable and less suited to dependent learners who don't know what they don't know.
For bottom-up learning to thrive, employees need the motive, the means and the opportunity (just like in the crime novels). They will only have the motive if they are rewarded for effective performance. The will only have the means if employers help them to develop the metacognitive skills (the skills you need to learn independently) and provide the right tools (particularly the social networking software that is revolutionising the way we interact with each other online). They will only have the opportunity if employers are able to foster a culture which encourages self-initiative and does not penalise mistakes.
L&d professionals could do worse in future than to regard bottom-up learning as the default solution, the one they choose routinely except where it is obviously unsuitable. For too long, employees have been spoon-fed their education and their training, and have failed to develop as independent learners to the extent that they should have done. Those entering the workforce in 2010 have overcome these barriers and have higher expectations. Provide them with the motive, the means and the opportunities and their capabilities are likely to astound you.
Working life provides a great many valuable learning experiences, but it will never provide the diversity of opportunity that an individual can obtain by maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Those who overwork are severely damaging their potential to learn, as John Medina points out in Brain Rules:
In their article Cognitive Fitness for the Harvard Business Review, Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts make the following recommendations to managers if they are to attain the highest levels of ‘cognitive fitness’:
Above all, what this article recommends is for corporate drones to get a life. To be sharp, you need stimulus beyond your office walls. The opportunities for informal learning are severely restricted if your life consists of work, eat and sleep and no more. And if your day consists of the same experiences repeated over and over, you're not developing at all - you're probably not even going to be very good at your job.
I am becoming increasingly aware of the the need to make clear a distinction between the broad concept of digital learning content, in all its many varieties, and the much narrower idea of interactive tutorials of the traditional CBT (computer-based training) variety.
In the former category I'd put the following:
I'd say that every l&d professional should have at least a basic level of competence in the design and development of digital learning content, at least those forms of content most relevant to the learning domain for which they are responsible. This is no more than a natural evolution from their traditional responsibility for the production of PowerPoint slides and handouts which support most classroom events.
What this is not saying is that l&d professionals need to be able to create interactive self-study courses which completely replace their face-to-face predecessors. While some trainers will have the aptitudes and interests which will help them to excel in this area, in most cases this will remain a job for specialists. It is much, much harder to create a set of fully self-contained instructional materials than it is to develop the components - the explanations, the examples, the demonstrations, the practice exercises, the assessments.
Unfortunately, most attempts to train l&d professionals in the design and development of digital learning materials begin and ends with the assumption that the end result will be a self-contained tutorial. Because it is typical to try and achieve this in a couple of days with only a minimal amount of practice, these interventions are very unlikely to lead to any useful level of competence and will most likely only reinforce the idea that this is a job to be put out to full-time instructional designers.
What is much more feasible and much more useful is to concentrate on far simpler forms of content:
The way I see it, the idea of rapid e-learning needs to work at two distinct levels:
What's needed is more training and encouragement to support the latter, rather than a futile attempt to develop advanced levels of instructional design expertise across broad swathes of the l&d profession.
I’m just in time to tackle this month’s Big Question from the Learning Circuits Blog. The question was prompted to some extent by my post Multitasking is now every presenter’s problem, in which I put forward the notion that it wasn’t just webinar presenters who had to deal with their audience multitasking, this was now rife at face-to-face events as well.
There were some great responses to the Big Question – I particularly liked the concept of Binge Thinking suggested by Ken Allen. I’m not going to rework the arguments here, but I would like to clarify my own thoughts and conclusions:
One of the most inspiring books I've read this year has been How to do better creative work by Steve Harrison (Pearson, 2009), which I saw in the window of a specialist art book shop in Brick Lane, London. Steve spent 15 years as a creative director for top ad agencies and his book is aimed at primarily at those doing similar jobs, but I found his ideas rang very loud bells in relation to e-learning development. In fact I'd go so far as to say that anyone who runs an e-learning development company and who doesn't give this book a read would be missing out on some fantastic insights into the creative process.
Not only did I learn how to design an ad that might work (pity, because I'd just created two ads which broke all these rules by not concentrating on problems and solutions and without a clear call to action), I also found out about the 'massive passives', i.e. the majority of internet users who do not engage in any form of online collaboration or networking, but who do an awful lot of consuming. I enjoyed taking the following quote and substituting training for marketing:
"In hard times, clients can't afford to throw money at a marketing problem and agencies can't afford to do work that goes unnoticed. Those who never really knew what they were doing get found out - for, as the saying goes, when the tide goes out you get to know who has been swimming naked."
This one caught my attention:
"If you set out to win awards you won't have a snowball in hell's chance of doing something that works. And, of yes, you'll be out of a job in six months."
Steve mocks the idea that brainstorming produces great creative ideas. Instead he quotes this process by James Webb Young:
Oh and if you think that time pressure and 'being pumped' is going to work in your favour then think again:
"Time pressure stifles creativity because people can't deeply engage with the problem. Creativity requires an incubation period."
I've run out of energy for typing in any more of these great quotes, so if you want more you'll just have to buy the book. Not that many people actually will, because as Steve points out:
"It's a sad fact, but if you read just one book a year during the course of your career, you'll be among the top five per cent most learned people in the industry. Indeed, you could probably claim guru status."
All three now on the M-Libraries wiki page, Resource Shelf points out that LexisNexis, EBSCOhost, and Summon are all sporting fancy new mobile-friendly interfaces.
Researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider are delighted with the progress made since the machine restarted.
