Online communites

I found a VERY interesting graphical representation of online communities based on estimated size of membership. It looks like most of the communities are represented, even if Microsoft is relegated to Icy North. I love finding visual representations like this and I am always amazed at the time it took to put something like this together.

Please make sure to check out all the other amazingly interesting maps:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

Be warned this site covers eclectic topics such as:
Gastronomic Cartography: the France of Breads; Where (and How) Evolution Is Taught In the US; Bushlandia vs. Reality; A Vulture’s View of Ethiopia and much, much more....enjoy.

PowerPoint: Beating a dead horse?

In line with May’s Learning Circuits’ big question around PowerPoint I found some more interesting reading on the topic of PowerPoint, its uses/abuses, presentation styles and more>>:

Don’t Hate PowerPoint; Hate the PowerPointers
Really Bad PowerPoint, Part II

I still stand by my initial argument that PowerPoint has a place in business, specifically as a tool for communicating information during a business meeting/presentation. I don't see it as an eLearning tool, although there are exceptions where an extremely creative person has used PowerPoint and created a great eLearning course. Having said that, the exceptions proof the rule. As far as bad PowerPoint presentation go, I re-assert that you can blame the tool, rather blame the presenters. A tool is only as good or bad as the person using it.

Do you have any good examples of PowerPoint presentations? I am a huge fan or visual presentations that don't rely on bullet points. A massive amount of bullets tend to lead to a reductionist presentation and generally the presenter will use the bullet points as cue points which loses the interaction level with the audience. Your thoughts? Is this discussion over and should I lay it to rest?

Web 2.0: Quality vs. Quantity

Tony Karrer is having an interesting conversation regarding Web 2.0 and the implications for content creation, and more importantly the quality of the content that is created. I agree with Tony that the new tools for generating and sharing content are great, but shouldn’t there be some sort of arbitration? We are so used to peer reviews and publishers who decide what is worthwhile reading. Web 2.0 is leveling the playing field and any ‘old schmo’ can voice their opinion via the web.

My feeling is that we may be heading towards a tipping point. At the moment tools such as blogging, wikis, RSS feeds etc are really coming to the fore even though some of the technology has been around for a long time. Many companies currently require their employees to blog as part of their job description. Personally I see that changing in the short term, primarily because of the world load that people have. In the end the experts will create a community of bloggers (which I already see in the eLearning industry) and debate important developments in the industry using the new technologies.

The ‘average’ working is in the trenches putting out the fires. I think I mixed two visual metaphors there, but you get the point. In my humble opinion the web will self regulate and we will see more focused blogging by fewer individuals. The usefulness/ROI of blogging is hard to measure so companies will eventually dismiss most of it as hype and move on. Most employees will cease blogging and the experts will remain.

Blogging is just one aspect of web 2.0. I need to catch my breath and consider the broader implications. Back in a bit.

Where are the Examples of eLearning?

This month's Learning Circuits Big Question really hits close to home.

The b?g question is:
Where are the Examples of eLearning?

Unfortunately most custom development vendors like Cyber Media Creations are bound by NDA with our customers. This means that we can't post any of our demos on our website, so potential customers can't see the type of work that we've done in the past. You can read through our project fact sheets, but this doesn't give you a sense of the interesting work that we've done.

Even if we could post some examples we would be limited by the internet. Some of the high quality video work that we've done has been deployed on CD at full screen video quality. We really couldn't demo that on the web without redeveloping the interface and dropping the video quality which would defeat the purpose.

I do show/demo potential customers some of our recently completed projects as long as they are not direct competitors or in the same industry as the customer that the project was developed for. In the case of eLearning; where the product offering and quality is so diverse; it is important to show your products, but unfortunately most customers are not willing to let you demo their custom built product on the web. That's our reason for not showcasing our eLearning projects. In my opinion it is a competitive disadvantage but a reality of custom eLearning development.

The dandelion in the room

I don’t often use examples from my own private life mainly because I don’t think people are that interested in hearing about how my weekend was. If I was Bill Gates or Nelson Mandela this would be different, but I’m not. Regardless of the fact I am still going to share my story with you. Actually it was more like a Eureka moment with a twist of humor.

Over the weekend I had every intention of spreading mass mayhem and destruction on all weeds that inhabit my acre of property. On the Friday afternoon I was out sizing up the battle field when my three year old came up and patted me on the leg. “Look at the pretty flowers”. I looked down to see her holding a massive fist full of white puffed seeded Dandelions that she was blowing a light consistent breeze over. She was delicately spreading millions of dandelion seeds across my entire lawn! She looked so happy and an awe with herself that I had to smile.

What struck me almost immediately was the ease with which this story could be transported across to the real world, you know the business world. Think of two departments/groups with differing objectives. Neither group has evil intentions, they just have different perspectives. Now think about the eLearning vendor, your IT department, subject matter experts, project sponsors etc… The dandelions have increased exponentially. In order to ensure success, we need to make sure that there are no dandelions in the room. Make sure that you analyze your objectives, goals and metrics for success. Now make sure that these stack up against other stakeholders.

See you thoughts it was just going to be a cute little story about my three year old. I guess there is a lot to learn, even from the youngest members of the human kind.