GigaOM » Collaboration

Improved Knoodle assists with “social learning”

Aliza Sherman — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:02:21 +0000

Having reviewed training app Knoodle before (see Knoodle Makes Cloud-Based Training a Cinch), I was interested in the new developments with the service, announced this week. Knoodle is a web-based platform for creating, sharing and managing training presentations. Its new features make presentation creation more streamlined, particularly if you are creating split-screen presentations combining slides and video.

The latest developments with Knoodle include:

You can now add surveys, quizzes, video and audio on the fly at the time you create a presentation, instead of toggling to another screen to pull them in.
The ability to drag-and-drop multiple files for easy bulk uploading.
The ability to fine-tune slide syncing: If you have the time code, you can type in the exact time you want a slide to appear in your video or your audio track.
A new feature to manage your presentations so you can see all the presentations you’ve created in a single viewing window to help streamline the editing and publishing process.

According to the Knoodle folks, today’s workplace looks like the Web: social, integrated and on-demand. There is an increasing need for fast knowledge sharing, particularly with the rise of virtual companies. And learning within virtual teams must come from everyone regardless of location, role or function. Everyone has the responsibility to be both teacher and learner. The demand from virtual companies is that the tools they use resemble social tools: they are more familiar and easier to adopt and use. The challenge when using a holistic, social approach to knowledge sharing and information flow, within a virtual or dispersed team in particular, is to manage the chaos. Tools must be pervasive, organized, and offer some measure of control and preferably with a dashboard view.

So where does Knoodle fit in to this concept of holistic, social learning? It’s easy to implement, even for people who are not professional producers of presentations. You can create content on the fly or take pre-existing content, including slides, audio, graphics and text, straight into the Knoodle application. If everyone can capture their knowledge from the field, from their home offices, from their cubicles, and make it readily available to the rest of the team, there is less “silo-ing” of information and learning.

Pricing is flexible and based on customer needs and required hours per month in terms of viewing of presentations. You can ramp up your plan or downgrade it based on actual usage. If you export your video presentations, viewing is done out of the Knoodle system so doesn’t count against your subscription plan.

How are you capturing knowledge within your organization to foster social learning?

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What happens when students create their own collaboration tools?

Terri Griffith — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:03:00 +0000

I teach technology and innovation to working professional MBA students who are changing courses and teams every ten weeks. Collaboration tools are critical to our effectiveness. Over the last two years, my courses have served as testing grounds for two locally-grown, student-designed tools: Acceledge and Piazza. These tools, as well as other student-built offerings, such as Coursekit, are the result of a growing student frustration with “old-school” collaboration.

My students come to class straight from their jobs at a variety Silicon Valley firms large and small. They are required to do team projects, and much of the team work is virtual. They tell me they have the following requirements for collaboration tools:

Privacy. While they are interested in sharing examples from work, they don’t want these examples available publicly.
Threaded/searchable Q&A with the answers coming from both students and faculty.
Ability to share relevant links and files for commentary. Basically Facebook for the classroom.
A simple, clear calendar with readings and due dates available at a glance (in other words, project management tools).

And there’s also my additional requirement: On-line quizzes with a gradebook that supports the U.S. regulations for educational privacy.

While all faculty at my university have access to Angel (a Blackboard course management system), in my classes, I’m happy to beta-test student-built tools, and I find especially interesting the simplicity offered by these solutions. An effective collaboration application is not about how many features the tool has — it’s about getting the task done.

Acceledge

This term I used Acceledge, founded by one of my students, as my main course management tool instead of Angel. It’s a custom-built tool, based on the open-source Moodle learning platform. Its simplicity is what drew me to say “yes” to the trial. Because of the customizations added on top of the Moodle base, the students only saw the features they told me they needed — there was no wiki, and no deep detail around each topic.

Piazza

Pooja Nath, Founder and CEO of Piazza, was still an MBA student at Stanford when she approached me two years ago about trying her Q&A tool. From the Piazza site:

I started Piazza so every student can have that opportunity to learn from her classmates. Whether she’s too shy to ask, whether she’s working alone in her dorm room, or whether her few friends in her class don’t know the answer either.

I want Piazza to be a remedy for students who are not given the intellectual space, freedom, or support to fulfill their educational potential and desire for learning. And I want Piazza to empower instructors to have a positive, personal impact on more students.

Piazza is designed to connect students, TAs, and professors so every student can get help when she needs it — even at 2AM.

Again, the simplicity and student-focus is what made me say “yes” to the trial. The only repeat complaint I’ve had from students is about the quality of some the questions posted by their classmates and the fact that Piazza is not an integral part of the overall course management tool. Both my students and I find huge benefit in the control they have over when and how they see questions.

Coursekit

The University of Pennsylvania is apparently feeling the same push by students to take control of their collaboration space. Coursekit is the result of frustration on the part of Wharton undergraduate Joseph Cohen (cofounder & CEO). From the Coursekit site:

We started Coursekit out of frustration with existing school software.

We’ve re-imagined what a class should look like online. We give instructors and students amazingly designed tools to manage their courses — gradebook, calendaring, file management — and we make it unbelievably easy to interact with one another.

We believe that there’s a lot more to class than lecture. Post links, videos, files. Start discussions. Write a blog post. Ask about an assignment. Classes are meant to be social, but they rarely are. We’re changing that.

There is much to be learned from the priorities of students with multiple courses (projects) functioning in self-managing teams. They aren’t looking for bells and whistles; they are looking to simplify and be effective. We can all learn from these students’ experiences and perspectives: Translate academic team project to basic team work, gradebook to performance appraisal, and you have a web working environment with needs similar to those of most organizations.

Take the students’ perspective for the moment — frankly, we are all students in this quickly-changing environment — how could simplification enhance your projects? What is the minimum viable product for your setting?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Harry Wood

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The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview

Education or Experimentation? Professional Development for Innovative Teams

Georgina Laidlaw — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:05:07 +0000

For innovative teams — those in startups as well as those innovating within established organizations — traditional professional development, or PD, has become an anachronism.

While those in traditional fields may pursue study and qualifications in order to advance their careers and earning potential, and see PD as both a reward and a motivator, for those in working in technology and innovation, the pathways for — and value of — professional development aren’t so clear-cut.

And for team leaders seeking to attract and motivate truly innovative staff, the role of PD in employee motivation and satisfaction can be very fuzzy.

In a recent interview, I asked a mobile developer how he keeps his skills at the top of his field. He laughed and said, “Coming to work is a good start!” In this industry, at least, the progress is being made — and knowledge is most quickly gained — in startups and innovative businesses, not in universities.

That explains why younger players entering the industry today face such fierce competition. There are plenty of people already working in innovative technology roles on the strength of experience and talent, rather than qualifications. As the technology sector gains maturity, employers now have the luxury of valuing people with proven experience (with or without formal qualifications) over fresh graduates. And few employers will bother speaking to a candidate who hasn’t learned or created anything new since they finished formal study.

The freshly released Startup Genome Project report corroborates the value of non-school learning. The research found “Startups that have helpful mentors, track metrics effectively, and learn from startup thought leaders raise 7x more money and have 3.5x better user growth” than those that don’t. No mention is made of the value of formal qualifications as a basis for startup success.

Your potential team members don’t want to see professional development listed as an employment benefit in their contracts; they choose jobs on the basis of how much the roles themselves will let them learn. The risky thrill of experimenting to create world-first products and take them successfully to market is a core appeal for those who work in innovative technology.

For this reason, proven expertise is usually more respected than qualifications by peers and colleagues. In innovative development, team members expect their peers to be able to walk the talk — for the good of the team, the project itself, and the individual’s own on-the-job PD. That motivates team members to seek productive, challenging, high-profile projects with great teams that they can learn from, rather than formal qualifications. Similarly, successful team leaders know that the bottom line depends entirely on whether team members can deliver, so rewards and respect naturally flow from successful experimentation, not traditional education.

Not surprisingly, the terms on which these types of team members are engaged aren’t those that appeal to those opting to work in more staid, traditional fields. The innovators thrive on possibility, the thrill of pushing boundaries, and the chance to have an impact. Offer to foot the bill for an MBA, and you’ll likely get a lot of blank stares. Employers may expect staff to walk the talk, but team members, too, judge employer credibility in terms of on-the-job projects, tasks, and teams. They want:

roles that effectively amount to paid experimentation, perhaps through the opportunity to participate in rapid prototyping projects where team members can focus on mastering a new skill or its application in a certain environment
to attend industry events that combine seminars with networking events — providing access to the “thought leadership” and “mentoring” mentioned in the Startup Genome report
the ability to contact and engage with other specialists outside the organization, on the organization’s time and, potentially, money.

Rather than being an after-hours, formal, institutionalized proposition, successful PD in innovative teams is holistic and always-on. Instead of tracking the team member’s achievement on the basis of grades, leaders are more likely to assess the ROI on what may be a guesstimated investment in PD by looking at individuals’ influences on company revenues and profits. And team leaders who understand these motivations can consistently attract and manage good innovators.

Image courtesy stock.xchng user madame_min.

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The Freelancer's Library of Free E-books, Manifestos and Other Resources

Celine Roque — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:00:51 +0000

There’s no shortage of free learning materials available online for both new and experienced freelancers. While you can turn to hundreds of articles and blog posts, there’s nothing like reading a longer, more comprehensive book to really get some insight on a particular topic.

Here’s a collection of some great downloadable PDFs, e-books and manifestos:

Freelancing and Teleworking

Go Freelance

Leif Kendall’s “Go Freelance” is an introductory guide to the world of freelancing. You’ll go through the process of preparing yourself for the leap to the freelance world, finding work, networking and setting rates. If you’ve been freelancing for while, some of Kendall’s advice might seem elementary. But if you’re a new freelancer or about to become one, you can easily learn the basics from this e-book.

A Human’s Guide to Freelance Living

Unlike the nuts-and-bolts guide listed above, this PDF from Charlie Pabst focuses on productivity and work habits. As practicing freelancers know, these things are just as important as business skills.

Business Tips

Your Business Brickyard

Howard Mann’s guide strips away the non-essentials of business building, allowing you to “go back to the brickyard” and start with the fundamentals. It’s a useful book if you’re encountering problems with your business. On the first reading, I was able to take a long, honest look at my own freelancing practice and spot several weaknesses. There’s also an accompanying goal-setting worksheet you can download.

Getting Real

“Getting Real” from 37signals (the company behind the popular project management app, Basecamp) may be about building web apps, but many of the ideas are applicable to almost any kind of freelancing endeavor — especially if you find yourself working with a group. This e-book is free to read online, but if you prefer to read it as a printed book or downloadable PDF, you’ll have to buy it.

100 Ways to Help You Make Money

Although the title sounds gimmicky, the advice contained in this guide by management guru Tom Peters is practical. It includes points on thanking your clients, getting up early and finding your story. At over 60 pages, this book is much longer than most of the guides in this collection, so you might want to read this in small doses over a few days.

Improving Your Web Presence

The Simple Web

For anyone who has ever wanted more from their blog or web site, Skellie recommends that you evaluate each element based on four categories — Gripping, Resonating, Interacting and Talking. As the name implies, the ideas in this guide are simple and easy to implement.

Killer Flagship Content

This is required reading for anyone with a professional blog. In this e-book, Chris Garrett talks about the importance of compelling blog posts, the “flagship” content that will be the core of your blog. (Note: a feed subscription is required to download the book)

Rockstar Personal Branding

If you’re new to personal branding, this free download provides a clear, actionable introduction. Throughout the guide, Skellie asks some simple yet compelling questions that can help anyone form their brand, be they generalists or specialists. Other topics include how to craft your personal elevator pitch and how to leverage blogging for your brand. (Note: a newsletter subscription is required to download the book.)

Inspiration

The Liberation Manifesto

In this guide, Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind lists the reasons why you should liberate yourself from the cubicle-bound lifestyle. Mead provides an inspirational boost to aspiring teleworkers, particularly if they have a rebellious streak. A recommended read for those who can’t seem to push themselves to take the first step.

How to be Creative

Hugh MacLeod, best known for his business card cartoons over at Gapingvoid.com, compiled this honest, straightforward collection of blog posts on what it takes to be creative. It’s worth reading over and over again, especially when you’re feeling uninspired or frustrated with your work.

Have you read or made any e-books that you’d like other WWD readers to know about? Share them with us in the comments.

Image by lusi from sxc.hu

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4 Borrowed Ideas That Have Made the Biggest Difference in My Work

Celine Roque — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:00:37 +0000

If it takes a village to raise a child, it’s possible that it takes a vast digital village to raise a teleworker. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our work habits, tools and business perspective are at least partly influenced by the people and ideas we encounter online.

Take a moment to think about the blogs you regularly visit, the high-profile professionals that you consider your mentors, and the groups you interact with online. How have they shaped your work? What extraordinary ideas have you learned from them?

As I pondered this myself, I identified the most important ideas that have helped me as a web worker.

Inbox Zero. Email processing is an important skill for us to learn. Most of us deal with dozens, if not hundreds, of incoming email messages each day. This makes email processing a tedious task for most of us. But for me, what made this task simpler was the concept of Inbox Zero from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders.

The main idea is that you need to process your email inbox until there’s nothing in it. There are only five things you can do with each email you receive: Delete, Delegate, Respond, Defer or Do. If you know that each email is actionable, tackling a hyperactive inbox won’t feel as overwhelming.

The E-myth. Just as I was starting my online freelancing career, I was lucky enough to read “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber. Basically, the E-myth refers to the “entrepreneurial myth” that if you’re good at a certain skill, you can automatically run a business around that skill. If you’re a talented and original graphic designer, for example, it doesn’t always follow that you’ll be good at running your own design studio or practice. From budgeting business costs to marketing, entrepreneurs deal with several responsibilities that they have to learn on their own.

Although this might not be relevant to telecommuting employees, it’s essential for freelancers to understand. We may be very skilled in our line of work, but we also need to be smart business people if we want to succeed.

Stop when you’re going good. Two months ago, I came across a post by Nadia-Ballas Ruta for Write to Done. Included in the article was a quote from Ernest Hemingway about how to beat writer’s block:

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day…you will never be stuck.”

I still take advantage of bursts of creativity, but I follow Hemingway’s advice and always end a writing session mid-sentence. This means that I can avoid being stuck during the following session.

The Purple Cow. Seth Godin wrote a book called “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.” The gist of this book is that whatever it is you’re offering — whether it’s a product or a service — should be remarkable and original. For example, it’s not enough to just be a web designer. There must be a compelling reason why clients want to work with you and not the hundreds of thousands of other designers out there.

At this point in my career, I may not be a remarkable purple cow. But the idea gives me something to aspire to. At the very least, I no longer fear my own attempts at being remarkable. In his book, Seth Godin wrote something that I take comfort in when I’m in doubt:

“Another reason the Purple Cow is so rare is because people are so afraid. If you’re remarkable, then it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise — ever.”

From my day-to-day habits to the big picture, it’s likely that I’ve overlooked dozens of other borrowed ideas that have helped me become a better online worker. Ten years from now, if I look back and feel proud of my career accomplishments, I know that I’ll have a vast digital village to thank for that.

What borrowed concepts have you followed and applied to your own work? Have you tried any of the ideas listed above?

Image by brokenarts from sxc.hu

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WiZiQ: Teach and Be Taught

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:00:21 +0000

I think it’s safe to say that many online workers would also describe themselves as lifelong learners. I know that personally, I’m always looking for new ways to learn, which is why I was so intrigued when I came across WiZiQ. The web service bills itself as an “Online Educational Platform for Teachers and Learners” and is available free of charge. What it provides is a virtual classroom, the purpose of which is left completely up to users.

Definitely an attractive proposition, and one which I can think of many uses for in terms of web working applications. But in practice, what are WiZiQ’s limitations? Could I, for instance, monetize the service, and offer lessons created with WiZiQ as part of a subscription or pay-per-lesson model?

First of all, it’s clear that WiZiQ is designed with live interaction in mind. It features an extensive scheduling system, and allows you to comb your network of contacts to invite participants to join your sessions. Of course, to participate, potential students/instructors must first sign up for a WiZiQ account. Once set up, users can upload all kinds of documents, including PowerPoint presentations, to supplement their teaching.

Sessions feature a whiteboard which can be used by all participants. The whiteboard is for live writing and drawing, and live audio and/or video feeds can be used for communication between teachers and participants. Classroom control can be shifted to anyone participating, at the discretion of the instructor/moderator.

When I signed up, I was asked about my purposes in using the service, and about what subjects I was interested in teaching (since I indicated that I wanted to use it for teaching). The categories available led me to believe that at least one of the purposes of WiZiQ was to supplement actual, accredited education, meaning that profs or high school teachers could opt to use a free WiZiQ classroom to enhance or replace a physical one.

Since that seems to be the case, it seems that you can use the service as a platform for subscription or paid lessons, but there’s no way to automate this process using WiZiQ, meaning that you’ll have to set up those details on your own elsewhere between you and your clients.

WiZiQ is useful even if you’re not looking to sell your services. There’s a wide variety of free, public lessons available, and if you’re goal is to become a subject matter expert in your particular field, there are worse ways to go about it. My only concern is that you don’t reach a huge audience through WiZiQ, since the main benefit is live interaction, which obviously how many people you can reach. Still, you can archive and make available for review all of your recorded lessons.

The site is also a handy networking and scouting tool. Through it, you can meet other professionals working in the same field as yourself. That’s good for professional development, or, if you happen to be a headhunter or employer, you can use WiZiQ to find potential employees or contractors.

Some people might be overwhelmed by WiZiQ, since, despite the relatively simple tools it uses, it asks for a lot of information and actually more closely resembles a full-fledged social network than a collaborative web app. Still, it could be a nice, free addition to your web working arsenal.

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