Management, Marketing, Events, Leadership, Fun and some Useless Stuff...

PM Yousuf Raza Gilani's letter to Swiss Government

2012-02-15T10:09:00.000-06:00

This is the most funniest thing I came across on facebook today. A parody of the letter written by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Swiss President. This might be translated to something like:

Dear President, Switzerland,

I am in trouble here, but hope you are well. As you already know how much effort our "martyred queen" and her husband have put in to rob the country and to deposit all the wealth in your banks, however, a crippled judge is after me and insists on writing a letter to you in this era of wireless technology. You are then requested to take good care of our wealth to make sure we could use it during the time of disgrace.

Love to your family and kids,

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Karachi - Least Expensive City in the World

2012-02-15T04:39:00.002-06:00

Herald Sun has published a survey conducted by The Economist that compared the price of 160 products and services in 130 cities. According to the survey, Karachi has become the least expensive city in the world.

This is most probably due to the weak rupee that makes us least expensive even during the high inflation.

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/melbourne-ranked-8th-most-expensive-city-in-the-world/story-fn32891l-1226271407342?sv=a9f8be57234ffda924ce7f6a8969fb04

Wind Turbines for better crops

2012-01-09T07:05:00.000-06:00

Wind turbines not only generate free energy, they also divert more CO₂ toward crops and result in highly productive crops. Read more:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/12/111219-wind-turbines-help-crops-on-farms/?fb_ref=.TwYe_oUTEwY.like&fb_source=timeline

Politicians are never wrong

2012-01-09T06:42:00.003-06:00

"Two elements of successful leadership: a willingness to be wrong and an eagerness to admit it." - Seth Godin

Nawaz Sharif & Asif Ali Zardari (L to R)

Above title and quotes are extracted from Seth Godin's very interesting post about admitting mistakes. Click the link below to learn more:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/01/i-was-wrong.html.

Biggest achievements of General Pervez Musharraf

2012-01-07T03:44:00.000-06:00

Pakistan economy and business, unfortunately grows and flourish during the tenure of military dictators. However, they have some institutional weaknesses that probably come from their training. They are completely incapable of handling many sensitive issues with the required maturity, diplomacy and consensus. Judicial crisis and Lal Masjid operation are two best examples of why we should keep army away from ruling the country. All military persons needs to be trained to have the courage to admit mistakes and challenge the wrong decisions of superiors

Did Allama Iqbal really support Two Nation Theory - TNT ?

2012-01-06T04:02:00.001-06:00

اس دور میں مے اور ہے ، جام اور ہے جم اور
ساقی نے بنا کی روشِ لُطف و ستم اور
مسلم نے بھی تعمیر کیا اپنا حرم اور
تہذیب کے آزر نے ترشوائے صنم اور

ان تازہ خداؤں میں بڑا سب سے وطن ہے
جو پیرہن اس کا ہے ، وہ مذہب کا کفن ہے
یہ بت کہ تراشیدہء تہذیبِ نوی ہے
غارت گرِ کاشانہء دینِ نبَویؐ ہے

بازو ترا توحید کی قوت سے قوی ہے
اسلام ترا دیس ہے ، تو مصطفویؐ ہے
نظّارہء دیرینہ زمانے کو دکھا دے
اے مصطفوی خاک میں اس بت کو ملا دے!

ہو قید مقامی تو نتیجہ ہے تباہی
رہ بحر میں آزاد وطن صورت ماہی
ہے ترک وطن سنت محبوب الٰہی
دے تو بھی نبوت کی صداقت پہ گواہی

گفتار سیاست میں وطن اور ہی کچھ ہے
ارشاد نبوت میں وطن اور ہی کچھ ہے

اقوام جہاں میں ہے رقابت تو اسی سے
تسخیر ہے مقصود تجارت تو اسی سے
خالی ہے صداقت سے سیاست تو اسی سے
کمزور کا گھر ہوتا ہے غارت تو اسی سے
اقوام میں مخلوق خدا بٹتی ہے اس سے
قومیت اسلام کی جڑ کٹتی ہے اس سے

Radical Ideas about Managing People

2012-01-06T03:43:00.000-06:00

Majority of Senior Leaders and Human Resource Executive will reject following ideas as senseless and not achievable. However, these innovative and disruptive ideas are successfully implemented in some companies and help those companies attract the best talent and keep the engagement levels high.

1. Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days

Red Frog Events allows its employees unlimited vacation days. According to Joe Reynolds:

"Through building a company on accountability, mutual respect, and teamwork, we've seen our unlimited vacation day policy have tremendous results for our employees' personal development and for productivity. There. I said it. I think Red Frog is more productive by giving unlimited vacation days."

2. First, Let's Fire All the Managers

Self management is the exact opposite of bureaucracy, and bureaucracy means a large number of people hired on high budgets only to make sure other people produce results. According to Gary Hamel

"Management is the least efficient activity in your organization."

"A related problem is that the most powerful managers are the ones furthest from frontline realities. All too often, decisions made on an Olympian peak prove to be unworkable on the ground."

"Wouldn’t it be great if we could achieve high levels of coordination without a supervisory superstructure? Wouldn’t it be terrific if we could get the freedom and flexibility of an open market with the control and coordination of a tightly knit hierarchy? If only we could manage without managers"

Morning Star is the success story mentioned in this article. Over the past 20 years, Morning Star’s volumes, revenues, and profits have grown at a double-digit clip, claims Rufer. Industry growth, by contrast, has averaged 1% a year. As a private company, Morning Star doesn’t share its financial results, but I was told that the company has funded virtually all its growth from internal sources, which suggests it is robustly profitable. On the basis of its own benchmarking data, Morning Star believes it is the world’s most efficient tomato processor.

3. The Case for a Four-Day Work Week

"How much more innovative and exciting would your business be if every single team member spent one full day each week devoted to research? What insights, new ideas and energy would be pumped into your business?"

"In our case, Thursday nights after work become an even bigger chance for team socialization and fun. This also seems to be vital to retention rates. A recent study indicated the No. 1 reason for a person not to change jobs is based upon having a close friend at the same company. Sort of makes sense, right?"

PTI plans to deal with energy crisis - by Dr. Farid Malik

2012-01-05T07:59:00.000-06:00

Dr. Farid A. Malik, PTI spokesperson on Science & Technology, in this video, stresses that the coal is the only feasible solution to deal with the energy crisis faced by Pakistan. He also claims to start digging coal within 60 days of PTI getting into power.

A good thing to note about this video is that PTI has a Science and Technology division and watching someone from the original PTI team speaking on the media. PTI should have brought similar unknown people forward and should have tried to present them to mainstream media instead of recruiting rejected heavy weights from other corrupt political parties. The only reasonable heavy weight they have secured so far appears to be Javed Hashmi though.

Rajnikanth's super duper popularity on Facebook

2012-01-05T06:16:00.000-06:00

Check how popular Rajnikanth, the super duper hero of South Indian Movies, is on Facebook

Why not have a dictator?

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

This chart shows how democracy has screwed up the economy of Pakistan in several decades. The GDP growth rate during Zia ul Haq era is specially remarkable considering the negative impact of Bhutto's senseless Nationalization that still keeps the major businessmen from investing appropriately in the country and has encouraged formation of cartels.

Inflation rise figures in PPP Government from 2007 to 2011

2012-01-04T06:35:00.004-06:00

These are the inflation figures someone posted on Facebook today. Some of these figures look exaggerated while the person who posted the chart claims that it represents the average prices throughout Pakistan.

I have just verified the prices of CNG at the end of 2007 & 2011 in Karachi to be Rs. 33.50 and Rs. 70 which is over a 100% increase.

The truth, however, is that inflation has increased at a far higher rate than the income of lower and middle class while the feudal landlords have made a lot this year due to better crops. This change in inflation also requires changes in Income Tax rates since the value of money has decreased.

Another bitter truth is that CNG is still not available readily at the inflated prices and many analysts attribute this gas shortage to profits of the oil companies rather than the real shortage. As a matter of fact, Government earned around Rs. 250 billion last year from GST and levy on petrol.

References:
http://archives.dawn.com/2008/03/21/ebr1.htm
http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/01/zardari-orders-review-on-petroleum-price-hike.html

US lawmakers target Pakistan aid, Iran central bank

2012-01-02T08:09:00.000-06:00

This is the title of a news story published in Dawn on December 14th, 2011. I just wish they stay true to their words and stop every single dollar of aid to Pakistan. They should also pass some legislation to recover the previous aid from the Swiss bank accounts of all Pakistani politicians.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/12/14/us-lawmakers-target-pakistan-aid-iran-central-bank.html

Indian Social Entrepreneurs into Clean Energy

2011-12-29T04:32:00.000-06:00

I was inspired by an article by Esha Chabbra published on inc.com today . This is another of the remarkable achievement by our Indian friends with a vision to grow and support the under-served and low income population of India. This is also an example for Pakistani businessmen and entrepreneurs to learn and execute in this way to deal with the current energy crisis.

Unfortunately, no political party in Pakistan talks about clean/alternative energy or environment or even have thought about setting up a committee or division to look into these important issues that actually matter for the masses.

Simpa Networks, is a Karnataka based Solar Energy provider started by Microsoft ex-employee and social entrepreneur, Paul Needham in 2010. Simpa builds solar electricity systems that range from $150 to $450 (approx 13,000 to 40,000 Pakistani rupees, with special thanks to current democratic leadership), which is not affordable to be paid by their target market in one bill. Therefore, Simpa has created a installment payment model that not only pays for the consumed electricity but also towards the system ownership. As soon as the system is completely owned by the consumer, which usually exceeds a year, the electricity becomes free.

The equipment also comes with a micro-controller to disable the unit if the bills are not timely paid by the consumers. Following pictures are taken from the website of Simpa Networks of an installation in the home of a cricket bat producer in rural India.

Inspired from: Navigating the Developing-Nation Solar Boom

Imran Khan & Javed Hashmi

2011-12-28T03:00:00.001-06:00

Imran Khan, Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto

2011-12-27T12:33:00.000-06:00

Here are some popular pics captured from Facebook:

Asif Zardari giving Sharjah Cup to Imran Khan over 20 years back from now

Zaradari angry about Bilawal's Facebook Status

Senior .NET Software Engineers required at Constellation Software

2011-11-22T07:56:00.001-06:00

Majiq Inc., a division of Constellation Software Inc., is looking to add Senior .NET Software Engineers to its team at the Karachi/Contour office.

SSEs work under the close supervision, guidance and direction of product engineering managers in developing OLTP applications, including framework and user interfaces. Our main product is an n-tier, enterprise-level, international Sales Order Processing and Manufacturing system for the pulp and paper industry running on the .Net platform. We are a process driven group using model and test driven development processes, including agile techniques and test driven design. Experience with complex data sets, WinForms, and complex web services experience highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Work under the supervision of the development team in Redmond to assist in the maintenance and extension of a large OLTP application
Troubleshoot, correct, and document software defects reported by internal and external sources
Develop working knowledge of our customers core business and apply this knowledge to the development of software solutions
Follow all established software development processes, practices, and standards set forth by the development team in Redmond

Required Knowledge and Skills

Strong understanding of OOP principles and concepts
5 years experience developing Windows applications in C# or Java and .Net 2.0/3.5/4
5 years experience in analysis, design, development, and testing of complex OLTP applications.
Experience in developing ADO.Net and WinForms based applications.
OOAD, XML, XSD, MS-SQL
Excellent grasp of software development life cycles.
Analytical approach to requirements gathering and problem solving.
Good communication skills, both written and oral.

Preferred Knowledge and Skills

Experience with Oracle RDBMS.
Experience with IIS/ASP.Net.
Experience in developing Windows web services.
Experience with medium to large software development projects.
Experience maintaining and extending software in a manufacturing environment.

Qualifications

BS in Computer Science or equivalent industry experience.
Ability to work in a dynamic team environment.
Strong interpersonal skills and an orientation towards customer satisfaction.

Interested candidates should send their application/resumes to talha.anwer@majiq.com as soon as possible and ensure the vacancy applied for is mentioned in the subject line.

Technical Writer required at Constellation Software

2011-11-21T11:31:00.001-06:00

Constellation Software (Contour Software - Karachi) needs a Technical Writer responsible for writing technical as well as user documentation. The opportunity will expose the individual to an ERP suite being used by hundreds of companies worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

Initial responsibilities will be to work closely with Karachi office developers, to document a new product platform, and all modules written on it.
Future responsibilities may include performing documentation tasks for the core ERP system, and its various modules, for ongoing releases and patches. This will require increasing amounts of interaction with the main R&D team in Canada.

Skills Required

The ability to write technical and end-user product documentation.
Expert-level capabilities in MS Word, and Robo Help.
The ability to learn and explain software in written form - excellent written English capabilities.
Strong verbal communication skills - a great amount of interaction with North American team members will be necessary.
A self-starter attitude

The ability to learn and become an expert on the product will require a self-starter; a person who can take provided materials and input, and work on their own in order to learn an application and industry domain, with minimal supervision.

If you enjoy working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and possess the ability to fulfill the specified requirements, this role is a great fit for you! Candidate must have atleast 2 years of experience in same domain.

Interested candidates should send their application/resumes to talha.anwer@majiq.com as soon as possible and ensure the vacancy applied for is mentioned in the subject line.

The Future of e-Learning and Instructional Design

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

I am going to share the notes from panel discussion held at The Future of e-Learning and Instructional Design event organized by ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) on October 27, 2011. These notes were sent by Karen Wade to the participants and shared by Ed Sattar with all 360training employees.

Panelists:

Ed Sattar – CEO and President, 360training

Bjorn Billhardt – Founder and CEO, Enspire Learning

Kenneth Dublin – CEO and President, The Learning Pad

Sanjay Nasta – CEO, MicroAssist

Pick one challenge facing us in the field of e learning. What opportunity do you see nestled within that challenge?

Bjorn Billhardt – We live in a time of the next step of how technology will influence the learning field. Interactive and social media are ways in which you can now collaborate with other people. Technology is there before the applications catch up to it. That’s the opportunity – to use this interactive face-to-face media and figure out how to best create learning environments that take advantage of this. The challenge is that there’s always a lot of hype. Separating what actually will work and make people learn from what is not going to work is the challenge.

Sanjay Nasta – I’ll agree with Bjorn. Our customers are getting more and more focused on the business value and effectiveness of learning. Learning for the sake of learning and learning purely for information is dying. I’m a huge proponent of social learning. Also, the availability of learning anytime anywhere. The idea of an eight-hour class, while it will still be around, is going away. I learn from YouTube. I originally come from the software development field. Everyone wanted to make their own accounting program. Quickbooks killed that.

Ken Dublin – Our companies overlap and they each have very distinct end users. The challenge I’m facing as a vocational education institution is the lack of computer skills. My end users haven’t heard of a podcast or wiki. So we can have all of these great tools but if the end user is not able to use the software…there’s an opportunity in training them to use technology. I believe in blended learning for vocational education. Another challenge is making sure the assessments are being taken by the person taking the class.

Ed Sattar – We deal with consumer-based and corporate-based compliance training. The first is realtors, broker, cosmetologists, etc. pursuing some sort of certification. The challenge we see is that there’s a huge margin and price erosion. There’s relentless price pressure from corporate decision-makers to drive the prices down. However, they demand interactivity—moving objects and video, which is very expensive. The other thing is the challenge of demonstrating that elearning leads to behavior change. You can assess if people understand the rules, but does this lead to behavior change? Internationally there’s the ROI issue. In the U.S. that used to be more of an issue than it is now.

Are you seeing more opportunity for e learning in the U.S. or Global companies?

Ken Dublin – From the spam I get from all the companies in India and Brazil, it definitely is global. When you see companies who have a global workforce, you need to provide them with tools. Global Industry Analysis Inc. expects global learning to reach $107.3 billion by 2015.

Ed Sattar – From a compliance perspective, the U.S. will be the main market, due to Sarbanes-Oxley, Medicaid, etc. That will continue to grow. They’re expecting Asia to be the second largest market behind the U.S., surpassing the U.K. I see more opportunities in leadership training vs. compliance training. I was in Manila recently and they wanted leadership training. The reason is that in Asia, educational programs are very focused. You don’t take electives. So you come out of school not very well rounded. You need these leadership training courses to supplement that. Most of the people that run these global companies are ex-pats from the U.S. or Europe. Middle management in global companies is not yet well-groomed.

Are there particular industry sectors where you anticipate greater growth than others for e learning?

Sanjay Nasta – Government’s on the decline for us. Health and energy, even within government agencies, is thriving. We’re doing a lot of training around health awareness. In our particular company, we do a lot with law enforcement, which never seems to dry up.

Bjorn Billhardt – We do a lot of leadership training. Internationally, there’s a huge thirst for leadership training especially China & Indonesia. More and more of our employees are traveling internationally to deliver both in-person training and online training. The brand of American education (i.e. getting a degree) is so powerful still across the world. I’m from Germany and it’s still the case, even there. From a leadership training perspective, the opportunity is where the knowledge workers are. The amount of information they have to process and put to productive use in their field is tremendous, in a much deeper way than it used to be when companies were more hierarchical. You need to understand as a knowledge worker what the company’s goals are and how you can contribute to them. Financial services, technology, the medical field. Soft skills, business skills, communication skills. Those things will continue to grow.

What kinds of skill-sets would you like instructional designers to have?

Bjorn Billhardt - Cross-functional, higher-level thinking skills. There’s of course the product knowledge, which is critical, but above and beyond that, what our clients are looking for is for us to understand their business. Not just the learning objectives but their business objectives and why the HR department was tasked with creating this training. We need to understand what the business is about, what their strategy is about, what the CEO is trying to accomplish. Showing that you have the ability to think on a higher level as to why a course is needed. And then thinking creatively outside of the box.

Ed Sattar – I would definitely second that. Someone who has the mindset of a product manager. Who thinks strategically. Who has the ability to interact with stakeholders and C level executives. Prices are dropping, so the cost of e learning has to drop. A lot of the tactical stuff has to be off-shored. How do we build better tools into our content management system so that even a layman can use them? Also project management skills.

Ken Dublin – Most of the instructional designers I know start out as teachers or trainers. That helps them know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to learning. I’m a proponent of KISS, keep it simple. I’ve seen some instructional designers use open-source software and design fantastic stuff. Don’t break the bank. You can use CamStudio and Skype.

Sanjay Nasta – I’ll agree with Bjorn and add that things are changing so fast…the ability to acquire new information quickly. We want to be able to speak with authority to our clients about how to create a course using instructional design principles, but the technology changes so fast. Flash is dying to HTML5. Instructional designers have to be able to absorb the rate of technology. I think learning is behind in absorbing technology. We are about to start catching up, though. I think the next three years are going to see a rapid change in technology and you have to be flexible.

Bjorn Billhardt – Mindy Jackson is one of the best IDs in Austin if not the U.S. and really delves deeply into people’s background in hiring. Mindy, what are you looking for in talent?

Mindy Jackson – A trans-disciplinary person. Someone who can integrate the learning sciences with the business acumen. Speak the language of business and synthesize a lot of information very quickly. Pull information from many different sources and make sound decisions from this.

With the proliferation of mobile devices, why are we lagging behind in creating mobile courses?

Annette Priest – The cost. The customers are driving the prices down. Right now there is a fractured playing field. When you develop for mobile, you need to develop for different devices and the apps are not consistent. As HTML5 takes off, it will get better, but there will still be differences on different devices. We’re getting to a better place.

Bjorn Billhardt – I don’t think we’ve figured out how to use mobile devices for learning. We have a webinar on our site about mobile learning. There’s a misunderstanding among clients that we can take a two-hour e learning course and transform it easily to mobile.

Annette Priest – Context is really key and is complicated. Who’s using the device? What type of device? Is the environment loud, bright? How much time do they have? Are they being interrupted? This requires a totally different thought process.

Sanjay Nasta – We don’t have an enterprise mobile device yet. Companies are working on that. We need to resolve affordability & infrastructure issues. Intel’s development will help. The government issue is accessibility.

Ed Sattar – There’s a mindset of, “let’s do mobile learning for the sake of mobile learning.” And then there’s the ROI mindset. Then there’s whether there’s a way to apply mobile learning to a company’s objectives.

Laura James (360training.com) - For the compliance industry, a mobile device is useful, because you can be practicing for your exam when you’re waiting in line, etc. It’s great for reinforcement and practice during small chunks of time we have throughout the day. But we do thousands of hours of training a year. Maintaining that on multiple platforms is a huge issue.

Ken Dublin – K-12 students are already doing their homework on their smart phones. Kids have better eyesight than adults.

We’d like to hear your take on IDs doing less technical instructional design and being in more of a consultant role.

Bjorn Billhardt – The Khan Academy is brilliant. Sal Khan explains very complicated subject matter in very easy terms. As the mediums change to more modular quick content and SMEs are becoming more familiar with the medium…it used to be there was very clearly defined “classroom” training. And then Sal Khan comes along with his little screen doodles that are incredibly effective. It goes back to thinking of how an instructional designer can be a consultant to the expert. Bring the expert on-screen.

Laura James (360training.com) – We’re working directly with a lot of SMEs. Some are very good at training, but a lot of them don’t have that background. I’m looking for IDs who are good coaches to help the SMEs be more self-sufficient.

How do you make decisions on the tradeoff of cost versus quality?

Ed Sattar – Compliance training that used to cost the student $139 now costs $39. We decided to do crowd sourcing. We brand our site as an “Amazon” of training and education. We drive traffic leads and call out to trainers and content experts. We syndicate that content with classroom training. That was our counter-strategy. You can upload SCORM content. And we have moderators behind the scenes: our instructional designers. They look at if the course is instructionally sound.

Participant – For vendors like Dell, the development cycle is getting shorter. There’s a question of how to modify the e learning process to keep up with shortening development cycles.

Ed Sattar – Regarding quality, when we’re out there pitching to corporate clients, they say different things. Some need interactivity, some want a barebones course. We’ve created an option for PowerPoint submissions.

Are there new ways to assess proficiency that are more compelling than traditional ways?

Linda Warren – Medical simulators are a good example. They track what you’re doing. In the end, you have output showing what you’ve accomplished. So the assessment isn’t based on a test but how well you’ve done the task.

Where are the credible studies demonstrating that learning actually takes place in an e learning course?

Sanjay Nasta – Can I reframe that? It’s performance taking place.

Linda Warren – We’re a vendor. We create the training and see how it works. Our relationship ends when we deliver the training. It’s up to the client to engage us to do that follow-up study or to do it themselves or with a 3rd party, unless a pilot study with testing is part of the process.

Is there a journal study or citation that tracks the effectiveness of e learning?

Annette Priest – I did some work for the Army and they’ve done research on it. If you dig into the ASTD Yearbook (compilation of studies) I’m sure you can find some more detail. The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) has that.

Participant – Look particularly at the US marines.

Bjorn Billhardt – The dearth of hard evidence that e learning is truly affecting behavior may relate to the fact that it’s really difficult to measure this. The question is asked more about e learning than classroom training. It’s just as hard to measure it for a day-long lecture or an MBA program as it is for e learning. You have to know what you want to measure first. Maybe it’s more of an art than a science form. When a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) says “this is what I want” to the CEO (say, for a Superbowl ad), there are so many factors going into it. Marketers speak the language of ROI and they understand that you can’t really measure things. CMO’s reframe it in terms of anecdotal trends. You can piece together a preponderance of evidence that a course is effective. They use both credibility and marketing communication.

Looking at the ADDIE model, which part is the easiest to compromise to get the product out there faster/cheaper?

Mindy Jackson – It’s a very important model because it keeps us attuned to the important aspects of designing learning. For the advanced practitioner, once you’ve used that model many times, it helps you in your work. You get a lot from your training partner, and then you have to decide what’s missing that will inhibit the construction of the learning. Sometimes they’ll give you what you need and sometimes they won’t.

What kind of social learning has been effective and what do you see on the horizon?

Sanjay – We run a peer-to-peer group called Elearning Council. It’s a very “try and see what succeeds” structure. It’s very experimental.

Birgit Schultz – At the panel yesterday, they talked about the “control and command” vs. “encourage and engage.” One argument for building social media in is that if you let the learners create content, it may not be accurate. But the rest of the group will mediate that. The outcome of using social media for learning is a more self-reliant individual who will think outside the box and be a more well-rounded employee.

Sanjay Nasta – In social media, people check the facts, which creates a more active and engaged learner. The Horizon Report outlines what they call near-term, mid-term and far-term technologies that will have an impact on learning: mobile, ebooks, augmented reality, game-based, gesture-based computing, and elearning analytics. That’s one place to keep a finger on a pulse of what is changing. Where else can we go to keep a finger on the pulse?

Ken Dublin – Tapping into organizations like ASTD. Other national agencies: salt.org – look under Resources on their site. osalt.com shows all of the commercial software and open-source alternatives. I work with a company is looking at working with using 3D technology/iPhone camera to train employees on physical structures they encounter in the workplace. Other individuals who have been on that spot where the structure is located can add information to the 3D modeling again. This was from salt.org.

Bjorn Billhardt – Our industry is often very myopic. Let’s go outside our industry. TechCrunch and Gigaohm are great sites for looking at technology. A lot of their stuff will fade, but some will stick.

Sanjay Nasta – I’m creating a personal learning network. I have a Twitter group called “Best of Learning.” You can create a flipbook on your iPad of your Twitter feeds.

Laura James – The Elearning Guild. Looking at other fields can add a different perspective. Books on creative writing and storytelling. Demographics, audience, and psychology books. Branching out a little bit and picking out a book from a completely different field.

Ed Sattar – LinkedIn’s Instructional Technology group.

Participant –There’s a saturation of information. [The panelists agreed.]

Karen Wade – Austin ASTD has a group called the Cliff Notes Club. If you want a great reading list, go back on our calendar and look at the books.

What did we miss tonight? What questions we should have asked?

Ken Dublin – What I tell my staff is to be a lifelong learner. As a learning professional, you’re always giving. What are you taking? Always replenish yourself. Take care of yourself and it will keep you creative and thinking out of the box. Be learning other areas so that when one area dries up, you can transfer to another.

Sanjay Nasta – When I go through an airport, I’ll buy a random magazine and get inspired. Yes, entrepreneurs have a nasty habit of looking everywhere (the shiny penny syndrome), but every once in a while it pays off.

How has the competitive landscape changed your business in the last few years?

Bjorn Billhardt – I truly think we’re just at the beginning of this interactive revolution. In 10 years, we will be learning completely differently from how we’re learning today. As learning designers, you cannot relent on thinking, “How can we use this new technology?” Maybe the killer app of mobile learning is using the iPad in the classroom, for instance. Don’t just get enamored with the technology but think about how it can be used to improve learning.

Sanjay Nasta – How people learn about their hobbies is very different from how they learn about their professions. For instance, people use YouTube. There are lessons in that.

Karen Wade – Tonight my big goal was to start a conversation. At ASTD, we have a LinkedIn group, a Yahoo group and we communicate on Twitter. This is our last eLearning SIG for 2011 but we have a great line up for 2012 that you can access on the Austin ASTD events calendar.

Suzette Conway – Use the Twitter hashtag #el2012 to continue this topic. Clay Leben will be editing the video he recorded of tonight’s talk and we’ll be posting it on YouTube.

PS: Taken by Tracy Jones during the event. Not a verbatim transcript.

Web Development Manager required at 360training/Softech Corporation Karachi Office

2011-10-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

360training, karachi office immediately needs a Web Development Manager (WDM) for its Channel Sales and Marketing department. The WDM will be required to manage the team of web developers working on Company’s product websites/ customer portals etc. He/she will be required to analyze the performance of the team while evaluating KPIs and ensuring that all marketing strategies are implemented properly.

Key Responsibilities

Primary responsibility will be to manage the web development team and direct their efforts in regard to the following:
- Portal site maintenance
- Managing the efforts of the Web Dev team and ensuring that they are on time for project ETAs.
- Portal site migration (from other CMS to WordPress)
- Migration efforts in regard to moving from one shopping cart system to another
- Re-skinning entire sites, including the application of style guides.
- Ensuring that campaigns and promotions are constructed properly onto the sites.
Individual KPI scoring for each of the team members.
Work with IT Teams and cart teams to ensure the success of projects

Position requirements

A good knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript
Excellent management skills
- The ability the measure KPI’s
- Time manage your team
- Put into process (or keep) good practices within the team
- Be able to manage expectations by giving accurate ETA’s that can be relied upon
Have a good knowledge of Word Press and understand how to:
- Migrate to Word Press from another CMS
- Apply proper plug-ins
- Properly use databases
- Create and manage page templates
- Manage proper release protocol to insure site integrity
Ensure that proper Google Analytics Tracking code (and other analytics coding) is applied by the dev team.
Ensure that SEO Metadata is properly applied to our sites.
Needs to have experience working on eCommerce sites.
Other useful but not required skills:
- Know the adobe suite
- jQuery
- Ajax

Qualification & Experience required

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science (minimum) + Other areas of study providing similar skill sets and experience considered

Timings: 1200 – 2100 PST (1500 - 0000 Preferred)

This is a full time position with a complete benefits package upon hire. The position offers a base salary with quarterly bonuses, medical and life insurance and paid holidays. Interested candidates should send their application/resumes to talha.anwer@360training.com by October 30th, 2011 and ensure the vacancy applied for is mentioned in the subject line.

Technical Lead required at 360training/Softech Corporation Karachi Office

2011-09-06T05:13:00.000-05:00

360training, karachi office immediately needs a Technical Lead (TL) for its Channel Sales and Marketing department. TL will be required to develop cross browser, standards compliant, high performance websites using modern web development tools and techniques. TL will maintain existing web sites by modifying content and creating new pages. TL will also interact with SEO team to create search engine friendly content and links and will also be responsible to interact with BULS (Business Unit Leaders) for clarification regarding the tasks assigned. TL will collaborate with Austin team members for Release Process as well

Key Responsibilities

Develop and maintain cross browser, standards compliant, high performance websites using modern web development tools and techniques.
Interact with SEO team to create search engine friendly content and links.
Maintain sites developed on any platform like PHP/Wordpress, Classic ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion etc.
Create / Modify Wordpress Themes and Templates
Manage web developer(s) and keep track of their performance
Follow Release Process and bring ideas for improvement
Effectively prioritize tasks to enhance results
Provide daily KPI reports

Position requirements

Proficiency in any one programming language including C#, JAVA, PHP, CFML etc.
1+ years’ experience of coding in PHP
3+ years’ experience in coding with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, jQuery and Web2.0
Excellent English writing and conversation skills
Object Oriented Programming & SQL Skills (for MS-SQL & MySQL)
Experience with MVC & ORM Frameworks preferred
1+ years Wordpress development knowledge preferred
1+ years’ experience with offshore development environment preferred
3+ months Experience with ColdFusion preferred

Qualification & Experience required

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science (minimum) and at least 3 years of experience.

Timings: 1200 – 2100 PST (1500 - 0000 Preferred)

This is a full time position with a complete benefits package upon hire. The position offers a base salary with quarterly bonuses, medical and life insurance and paid holidays. Interested candidates should send their application/resumes to talha.anwer@360training.com by September 30th, 2011 and ensure the vacancy applied for is mentioned in the subject line.

Selecting a Durable, Scratch Proof Kitchen Countertop for your Kitchen

2011-05-10T04:53:00.004-05:00

Selecting the most suitable countertop is a crucial activity in kitchen design. You have to consider a lot of factors to decide what is best for your kitchen, which includes cost, durability, maintenance, aesthetics, colors and overall beauty, of course. You can select from a variety of Granite, Stainless Steel, Laminate, Marble and wooden countertops for your kitchen.

These days, in majority of Interior design projects and showrooms in Pakistan like Habitt, you will notice the abundance of attractive laminate countertops available in colors that go very well with the kitchen furniture and design. However, the smooth surface of laminate is made from a plastic-coated synthetic, requires impractically extensive care and is a great burden on your pocket.

In my opinion, Granite gives you the best value for money (reasonable quality and color costs around Rs. 550-600 / sq. feet) and is the most suitable choice due to following reasons:

Tough & Durable

Granite is strong and scratch resistant. You will still admire the beauty of your natural stone five years down the road. You can even have your kids dance on the counter.

No extraordindary care needed

I have literally seen homes that had to built a hidden small kitchen (often called dirty kitchen) to maintain the shine of their laminate countertops and PVC cabinets. Granite countertops, however, can be easily cleaned and maintained. You can cut meat and vegetables on it and put hot items such as griddles, fryers, and oven toaster without fear of leaving leave char marks or burning the surface of your kitchen countertop.

Cost

The cost of Granite is higher than marble. However, you will have to regret after a few months if you select marble to save even Rs. 100/sq feet.

Beauty & Availability

Granite counter tops are naturally beautiful after a good lasting finish. These are available in a variety of patterns and colors, from various shades of popular beige and brown to red, white, green, blue, and black.

That was all about the kitchen design, if you are looking for great website designs, take a look at my website, http://cssexpression.com/gallery

U.S. President Barack Obama killed in Suicide Attack

2011-05-04T05:40:00.004-05:00

LONDON (Wednesday 04/05/2011 04:20pm GMT): US President Barack Obama has been killed in a suicide attack launched using Adobe's Photoshop. This news has shocked the world since the same sophisticated "kill anywhere" technology was used by U.S special forces to kill the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin laden, hiding in Pakistan.

Pentagon is investigating how the technology got into the hands of terrorists. However, one authentic resource on the condition of anonymity told Reuters that the technology was apparently transferred by a US soldier frustrated with Obama Administration policies.

Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, has said that they are looking to shutdown the Internet for two weeks and destroy the suspected hard disks using a virus to prevent similar assassinations.

US Senate has demanded the trial of Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen, who was also selected to serve for President's Management Advisory Board, for creating this deadly weapon and not adapting necessary precautions to avoid it's abuse by terrorists. Shantanu, however, has commented that he was totally unaware that his software could be used for counter terrorism activities and he deserves appreciation for that. He said those responsible for training terrorists on photoshop should be blamed instead of Adobe. Adobe also plans on releasing a photoshop update to identify the images of high profile figures to avoid bloodshed.

President of Pakistan, Mr. Zardari told media that he had indicated to Obama to avoid being photographed a couple years back since he had found crucial evidence about terrorists learning Photoshop.

News Update (6:00 pm GMT): Pentagon has issued a statement that Mr. Obama is well and alive and the news of his assassination is fake. However, Tehrik Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the attack and mentioned they had buried the original president Obama into pieces according to his family traditions and replaced their own trained person as Obama just after first Photoshop attack on Osama bin laden. Michelle Obama was contacted to verify if she found any changes in Obama on which she stated that she did not find any changes, however, she's excited to see how strong and romantic he has become for the last two days. Weird????

Director of Operations required for Netsolace Islamabad

2011-04-18T10:46:00.001-05:00

Netsolace is looking for Director of Operations for their Pakistan Office.

Responsibilities

Planning: Overall company strategy, Strategic Plan, Operational Plan
Organization: Organization chart; Job descriptions, Authority levels
Management recruitment and development: Succession planning, in-house training, outside training, promotion from within, human resource plan, new positions, active recruiting
Policy: Corporate policies, new policies, management input, review
Standards of performance and performance reviews: Standards of performance, performance reviews, performance improvement plans
Controls: Monthly reports, quarterly reviews, supplemental action programs
Management morale: Involvement in planning, salary discussions, access to CEO, management turnover
Product development: Overall strategy, quarterly priority meetings, status reports, new products, development expense
Profitability and growth: Profit objectives, results compared to industry, sales objectives, dependency on single product/customer, market share, profitability by product line
Will report directly to CEO but will work in coordination with VPs and other Directors.

Desired Skills & Experience

Candidate must have software development experience and 5-10 years of experience in a leadership role for a large division or company.
Candidate must be highly qualified preferably with Masters Degree in Business Administration.
Experience in strategic planning and execution. Knowledge of contracting, negotiating, and change management. Skill in examining and re-engineering operations and procedures. Experience in formulating policy, and developing and implementing new strategies and procedures. Ability to develop financial plans and manage resources. Ability to analyze and interpret financial data.
Work requires professional written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to motivate teams and simultaneously manage several projects.

About Netsolace

Netsolace is a technology company that develops Operations and Relationship Management software for franchises. East Haven, Connecticut based Edible Arrangements and Margate, Florida based Salad Creations are two of their major customers. The company has strategic alliance with MSA (Michael H. Seid & Associates), the franchise industry’s leading consultant.

Netsolace offers a suite of software solutions that enables better monitoring, communications and data management at each stage of the franchise lifecycle. The application suite is web-based applications and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Source: Posted by Andrea Yelle on LinkedIn, URL: http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=1536562&goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=nmp_rj_job

Mubarak Village: Best Fishing Spot in Karachi, Pakistan

2011-04-15T08:40:00.002-05:00

Around 20 kms far right from Hawksbay within the mountains is a beach area, Mubarak Village, definitely one of the best fishing spots in Karachi. Some of my colleagues went there last year in September, caught around 11kgs of fish, an exciting average of 1kg per person. This time it was planned on April 9, and I was part of the team for this off season fishing trip. We took with us more prawns and mayya (to catch more fish) but had to give away that to villagers since most of the people became sea sick and vomited in deep sea and just wanted to get back to the shores.

The best part of the trip was that we carried life jackets with us that we had bought for Rs 650/- each from lighthouse sports market. The jackets went very well with the sloppy shore that was over 10 feet deeper just after a couple meters into the sea and we could easily float and move in around 20 feet deep water without risking our lives.

Attack on Biryani after fishing and vomiting

The rent of the boats for around 22 guys was Rs. 5,000 for the three boats and we could even visit Charna island in the same cost that's clearly visible from Mubarak village and is a few kilometers away.

Interestingly, the largest fish we caught was not from deep sea but the shore. Two of our guys decided to follow the local children who were fishing there and finally caught a fish around 1 kg in a couple hours.

Fisherman from IT Help desk

By the way, this place is not only good for fishing. You can collect some precious sea stuff, like corals and colorful stones from Mubarak Village

Fisherman from Engineering Support

Tell me about yourself - One of worst Interview questions

2011-04-15T06:27:00.001-05:00

Why is this Bad? It's a loaded question, and oftentimes the responder goes off on a tangent about aspects about themselves that are unrelated to the true point of your question. The responder typically doesn't know how to respond and may very easily venture off into providing answers that truly can lead to other illegal questions (Well, I'm a 32 year old female, I enjoy spending time with my 2 kids...". Sure career coaches would say to the responder that you shouldn't venture beyond your professional self, but not everyone knows this is the direction of the question, just too broad.

A better interview question: "Tell me about some of your major accomplishments in your professional career?" or "What are some things in your professional career that you are most proud off?"

It sets the tone that you aren't going to venture into "illegal" land and because it is open-ended yet specific to your professional career, you're able to start a conversation from there.

From: Katrina M Harrel, CEO of Your Simple Bookkeeper, an Virtual Accounting Services company focused on Micro Business Education

Source: http://ask.inc.com/besides-anything-that-could-be-seen-as-discriminatory-what-are-some-bad-job-interview-questions#answer-f866ab187771e7855ff311befe16396e9aa9aa6d8868b82c22b695e2827dde39