Monday, February 28, 2011

Classroom 2,0

I opened my CR 2.0 account and set up a few things on my page. I put the video I made a few days ago speaking about banning cell phone use in cars along with a picture of my pal Minnie. I also made a blog post on my CR page. It seems to be an interesting site with a lot of worthwhile resources. I look forward to scouting around and learning more.

Creative Commons Licensing

I think if I were to creatively churn out my ideal "license-able" item it would be some sort of image similar to the Nike swoosh. Something super simple yet easily recognizable and associated with a particular application. My image or "logo" would be licensed with an Attribution + Noncommercial (by-nc) Creative Commons license. This logo would be associated with education or learning. It would be great for people like us to promote our efforts provided these efforts were education related and not raising profits for a corporation or for profit endeavor. 

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Wikimedia Review


The two Wikimedia projects I reviewed are listed below:
Wikiquote - I was drawn to the Wikiquote project because I enjoy reading quotes from various people especially when I can read them or use them in a situation to make a point or create a comparison.  There are several sites where you can get hundreds of quotes. In many cases the quote I'm reading may be from someone who I know nothing about. I think what I like about this is that the person who said what is quoted is cross referenced in Wikipedia so that I can learn more about the person who made the quoted statement. 

Wikimedia Incubator - I was also interested in the Wikimedia Incubator project. This project allows the different language groups to have their own Wikipedia sites to aggregate knowledge from their culture and I assume the conversion or translation of knowledge items from existing sites to the new language version(s).  I hope that as these sites grow that the knowledge from the new sites also gets translated to the more established sites to spread the variety of knowledge globally.  

Video Post - Motorcycle Helmets

Below is a brief video about different styles of motorcycle helmets and some safety thoughts before we hit the road this spring. I'll see you on the road and please ride safely.

You Tube Account

Obviously all of us have had a You Tube account and have been actively engaged in creating and publishing video clips for this class. Here is the link to my You Tube page. You Tube is well thought out and usable/useful for entertainment, business, and educational purposes. I'll be loading another video either later today or tomorrow. You Tube is amazing.

Audio Farm Account

I set up my Audio Farm account. At the current time it is an account in name only. It is empty at the current time because I have not been able to successfully upload any audio after multiple attempts. I have some audio files I made a couple of semesters ago in WAV form. I haven't been successful (yet) in converting from WAV to MP3 and I'm running out of time to spend on it. It seemed straightforward enough until I started working on uploading files to my account. I didn't have an option to link to my You Tube or Photo Bucket account. Here is my link.

Photo Bucket Account

I set up my Photo Bucket account and uploaded a handful of images I had on hand. The program was easy enough to use and share. It allows users to set up albums or groups of images/photos and share those groups with others. I set my page up in my delicious bookmarks so I can easily navigate back to it. I did not find the opportunity in my profile or anywhere in my account where I could link from that page to an audio sharing or You Tube account. Here is the link to my Photo Bucket account.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Interesting Use of Dating Service in Libya

Did any of you guys catch the catch the world news tonight? If you missed it there was a significant amount of coverage on the chaos in Libya. It is obviously a horrible situation when we're seeing a dictator so engrossed in staying in power that he is bombing his own people. The thing that makes me write tonight is a piece about a group who knew Facebook and other traditional networking sites would be blocked or monitored making them unsafe or unavailable for resistance planning. They turned to a dating site Mawada to make connections and avoid detection.

Check out this video and article describing how they made and maintained their contacts.  Using this site they hoped to pick up  50,000 followers. They ended up with over 170,000 followers. The rest of us can watch and wonder whats next.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Troops With Too Much Connection?

Take a look at this article I read in the N&O the other day. The article speaks to the situation of our troops overseas who may be performing a dangerous mission one moment and sending a text message to a loved one back home the next. Good thing or not? I'm sure we all want these guys and girls to be as connected as they can to their home lives. On the other hand is it a dangerous distraction? You be the judge.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Course Feedback - Web 2.0 Reflections

I have done so many new things as it applies to the internet in the first few weeks of this course it has been a bit overwhelming. When I look at what we have done so far I get a very clear picture that Web 2.0 Social Networking is a huge place. I think I had my first realization how big when we each researched and posted various applications. That was when I saw that it includes everything from Craigslist to Facebook to You Tube to Delicious. Each is vastly different for the user but each clearly qualifies as a form of social networking. One irony is that I check out Craigslist regularly but before taking this class I wouldn't have called it a form of Web 2.0 activity. I have learned that Web 2.0 is a big playing field.

I've used Wikipedia and Wiktionary each on a number of occasions for scholarly research and personal use. In the past when using Wiki information for scholarly research most professors advised students to use caution and some would not allow Wiki research without another source to back it up. I think we've all heard the argument that those types of information don't have the foundation of a reliable and trustworthy source and are therefore suspect. When I saw how easy it was to get a Wiki account and start editing I saw what those professors meant. However, I felt a need to proceed cautiously and not change the true substance of any articles I revised for fear of changing the meaning. I would like to hope that anyone working in that capacity would share that same sense of community and not purposely "screw it up". I know, there are always a few. Hopefully the good guys keep the screw ups in check. In the meantime some sort of confirmation might be good before we bet the farm on a Wiki posting.

About my Second Life experience, I had heard of Second Life but I never bothered learning about it. I certainly see the utility of Second Life for this class and it would be real easy to have a meeting in Second Life without having to set up the traditional bunch of logistics. If you did something like that in a business setting it might even act as a form of virtual team building. Moving forward, I'll use my Second Life account for this class and any other classes I have that require it. Do I think I'll be in Second Life beyond course work? Probably not but I'm keeping an open mind.

I think the most enjoyable aspect of the class for me has been keeping a Blog. I've never been one to keep a journal but I do enjoy writing. I've been challenged to think of relevant topics to write about and that has been an enjoyable activity. The video postings have posed a similar challenge with the added twist of speaking to a camera. That's been a little weird but tolerable. I wonder what the video topic will be this week? I really like my classmates and their upbeat attitudes. Everyone seems willing to help and share their experiences.

Things I'd like to see: The Engineer and Planner in me would love a syllabus. I haven't looked at the grades page lately but the last time I did it didn't show much compared to the work we have done so far.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Social Bookmarking on Delicious

This is similar to what I do now except my links are on my PC at the Bookmarks tab. I use Mozilla Firefox and I like the way I can keep my favorites accessible better than any platform I've used so far. I think I may like Delicious; I need to work with it for a bit and see how it plays out over several days. I can definitely see an advantage of being able to access your links from whatever device you access the internet from. I'll have to look at it next week and see if I can get on Delicious from work. I can see possibilities with this.

Wiki Experience

I've learned a lot about all things Wiki this week. I guess the most striking was how easy it is (was) to get a Wiki identity and jump in and start editing. Quite honestly I went about things pretty cautiously since I didn't want to mess up any of the information displayed there. After a couple of edits it became a pretty simple process. Most of the Web 2.0 terms, particularly the acronyms are unfamiliar to me. I looked for opportunities to wordsmith over opportunities to make real technical change. The last thing I wanted was to inadvertently make a change that alters the technical correctness someone else might rely on. This hasn't been an overly enjoyable assignment but I have interfaced with these Wiki sites in a capacity beyond an ordinary user. Moving forward I may take on the task of looking at material more to my center of excellence that I can perhaps make more robust.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Brief Video About Texting/Cell Phone Bans and Van Pooling

I've been following some of the commentary about banning cell phone use while driving. In North Carolina it is already illegal to send text messages while driving. If I remember correctly when the law was passed it was represented as a way to protect very young drivers from themselves while behind the wheel. I read in the N&O recently that majority of the tickets they write for texting while driving are drivers over 25. Hmmmmm. Take a look at this map and see how cell phone use laws in North Carolina compare to other states.

Check out my video and see if you share the road with the same type drivers I see every week.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Anybody Watching Jeopardy This Week?

Have any of you taken a look at Jeopardy this week? Ordinarily it serves as background noise for me most of the time. This week is a little different because the two all time record winning Jeopardy contestants are competing against Watson an IBM computer system. Check out the information at the link and meet the contestants and the design team. By the way, Watson is pretty much smoking the competition.

The IBM team members interviewed in some of the videos suggest that Watson could help out in the area of Healthcare by helping out with diagnosis and identifying the best types of treatments much more quickly. In the area of Finance Watson can churn through data much more quickly and thoroughly than a team of account managers. According to the video the amount of financial data that must be evaluated grows by approximately 70% each year. I'd like to see a comparison of a 401K fund managed by Watson and a fund managed by a traditional fund manager.

If we keep this in the context of problem solving using massive amounts of information it makes perfect sense. We know the amount of all types of information are more readily available than ever before and that volume grows daily. It only makes sense that perhaps totally human labor intense methods are becoming outdated. With the proper oversight this can be the next error reduction and efficiency gain for problem solving.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Ray's Logo

Egypt Update Via 60 Minutes Etc

I'm watching 60 Minutes and listening to the influence social networks played on the outcome in these early stages of the struggle in Egypt. According to the gentleman in the interview the biggest failure of the regime was their total lack of understanding of social networking. This video is a caption from the interview. We're seeing a true groundswell revolt from the system generations of Egyptians have endured.

This clip provides a few words from President Obama regarding the situation and the hope that they will have an orderly transition. The world is watching....

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Mo Michael Remarks

I guess the most striking thing to me is the community worldwide using You Tube for causes that are serious, humorous, political andphilanthropic. Until I started this class my primary use was to find a humorous clip or to find something I could use of instructional nature. With over 200,000 uploads every day from all over the world the opportunity to learn about each other and share bits of our lives is infinite. Being an Engineer a..nd a Training Professional I immediately go to some form of practical use providing training or some technical demonstration of skill or technique. The piece I often overlook is the human side and the opportunity to share.

The stats he called out in the very beginning regarding the hours of programming created by the big 3 networks in 60 years is less than 6 months of programming submitted to You Tube. Recognizing that the bulk of these video minutes are in 3 minute segments intended for small audiences like our weekly videos. To me that makes it that much more interesting that so many of those clips are for a distinct and particular purpose. I don't think any of us expect to arrive at the top of the charts for our work, but at the same time it could easily happen if we hit on the right topic and started getting passed around. Amazing isn't it?

Finally, I believe there is always a question of authenticity. Since there isn't any control over what gets submitted it seems that you believe what you want at your own risk. Should we expect someone who does a series of video clips to let us know if it is fiction or embellished? Or is it just another form of entertainment like a soap opera?

Friday, February 11, 2011

Wordle and Logo Challenges

Well it has been a challenging week hitting all the marks for the assignments this week. So far I have my Wordle and my Logo created but have been unsuccessful getting them uploaded to this space or ASULearn. I know there is a small thing I'm overlooking throwing it all out for me. It feels like I've spent too much time this week working on stuff that doesn't work.

My next move will be to get back on Second Life and modify my avatar and have a little fun with that. I need to be thinking about another video too. It going to be pretty this weekend. Maybe something with the motorcycle again.
<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3137450/gunnut1" 
          title="Wordle: gunnut1"><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/3137450/gunnut1"
          alt="Wordle: gunnut1"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Random Thoughts from a Recent Trip to Boone

We rode up to Boone Saturday morning and came back home Sunday afternoon. Saturday morning began gray and rainy. When we arrived at the cabin it wasn't raining but everything was wet. After riding around a littlewhile the sun came out and the day ended on a sunny note. The next morning I filmed the video you see here.

In some ways I dream of a work opportunity that allows me to work wherever I am without being tied to set hours and a location. Perhaps this program and the things I'm learning about Web 2.0 applications are preparing me for those types of opportunities.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Home From Boone

We just got home a couple of hours ago from our cabin outside of Boone. Saturday was kind of gloomy and rainy most of the day. Today the sun came out and turned into a glorious day. I really hated to leave. When I got out this morning I filmed a video clip you guys will see here soon. I'm not sure where the camera is or I'd load it up now.

When we first got that place a couple of years ago we couldn't even get cell phone service in the hollow. Now we have cell service sitting in the living room. Apparently they got another tower up that hits just right for us. We don't have internet at this time. I've always been able to work around it or go to a local diner and get on their wireless. It looks like my next phone will be a smart phone. I'll probably go ahead and get the one that can be a wi-fi hotspot also so I can get online wherever I can get phone service. Maybe someday I'll have a job that I don't have to be at a location and can work on line from the mountains..... Hmmmmmm............

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Google Image Labeler

Wow! I had no idea how all the images on Google got labeled beyond what seems obvious. But the obvious doesn't really make sense does it? By the way, I suck at this game!

From a practical business perspective I can see immediate possibilities for this one. I wrote yesterday about a community of practice being formed within my company for the training that will deploy several Web 2.0 concepts. One of the concepts was a Wiki for various shared terms across the industry worldwide. What if we did the same thing with images? My company employs thousands of people worldwide manufacturing all manners of drug and biotechnology products. To develop a "glossary" of images and image names it would be much easier to locate an image or a training document containing a particular tagged image. This would lend itself to using materials already developed or some form of replication.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Using Share Point Sites to Share Training and Promote Standardization

I sat in a meeting today that was intended to generate buzz around a new collaboration effort between the sites to share ideas and materials related to training. The site is set up in Share Point an application we've had for a few months that I haven't taken time to get acquainted with. I guess I will now. There were representatives from sites all over the world on the meeting. If everyone participates it should be pretty interesting.

The site seemed to be pretty well built with ideas like a Wiki for various terms and acronyms. It had an area for individuals to join and share common interest items in the interest of forming a better idea or some form of replication at another plant site. The goal of this latest initiative is to share materials in the interest of reducing redundant work thereby reducing costs while promoting some form of standardization for e learning and GMP training. We'll see.....

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Explaining Web 2.0 to Grandma

CI 5530 Class Definition
“Web 2.0 refers to the transition from static HTML web pages to the new web of collaboration. In the days of Web 1.0, the average internet user was consumer only. Information distribution went one way, from the internet 'gurus' to the user. With Web 2.0 users are both consumers and producers of information. Web 2.0 is any type of web application that allows user interaction, sharing, and collaboration to generate content. This user-generated content replaces the author-generated content of more traditional websites. Web 2.0 allows users to give more feedback to the author of the website. User participation, dynamic content and increased standardization enhance and enrich the user’s experience. This interactive and enterprising process allows all users of Web 2.0 to share knowledge efficiently and effectively at a higher rate of speed. It allows a voice to all people who have access to the internet and is not constrained by economics or political systems. Web 2.0 somewhat levels the playing field between all its participants and subtly blurs the line between creator and contributor.”
Conversation with Grandma
First let's review what Web 1.0 is before we talk about Web 2.0. Web 1.0 refers to your basic internet that works in similar fashion to a book. When you access the Internet and click from page to page you are in effect performing similar actions as if you were leafing through a book or magazine. You can view up and down the page by moving your scroll bar on the right side of the screen, and when you click on various sections of the page it takes you to another page as if you were turning the page. At each page you can read as much or as little as you like. If you prefer you can just look at the pictures.  Just like a book you check out from a library, you can't mark in it or make any changes. Web 1.0 will not allow you to make any changes either.  In the very simplest terms, Web 1.0 consists of text and pictures you can read and look at.
Web 2.0 on the other hand is more like a coloring book or even like a diary or journal. If you like you can keep a Journal on the Internet we'll call a Blog. Blog is short for Weblog.  Your Blog can be a Journal of your daily activities or it can be a listing of all your favorite recipes. What makes this interesting is that other people can view your blog and make comments on whatever material you have posted there.  There are other Web 2.0 locations where you can send your friends messages as though you are writing them a letter. You can also put pictures of your pets and grandchildren on your Internet location for your friends and relatives to see that you allow access to. They will make comments about how your grandchildren have grown and those will come to you in the form of a message. You will of course be able to do the same with all of your friends. This is called Social Networking. It basically helps us keep up with friends and family. Two of the most popular locations for social networking are called Facebook and MySpace.
There are other Web 2.0 activities that are perhaps more technical and purpose driven than what we have talked about to this point. There is a site called Wikipedia where virtually everything under the sun is defined or described. What makes it interesting is that the definition or description is provided by the readers of the site. In other words, the users of the material also have the opportunity to contribute to the information or knowledge base available online. So if you saw a particular subject online that was not described adequately or well, you could register yourself as an authority and provide a more robust description of the subject.  Now this expanded description is available to anyone in the world with a computer and Internet access.
In a nutshell what I have described is an Internet experience where you can contribute to what is online as well as view what is online. Social networking and maintaining a Blog allow you to stay in touch with friends and family and share pictures. You can share your thoughts and have a much closer interface than you can on the telephone. Web 2.0 allows you to have a two-way interface using the Internet whereas Web 1.0 is more one dimensional.