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Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Nov 08 09

George Siemens — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:25:00 PST

In this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, takes you to news and stories on emergent media, technology and learning, helping you make good sense of the many changes taking place around you and of how these directly impact your daily lives.

Photo credit: Victor Habbick

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Future of The Social Web - Of course, the web is not social. Just like technology is not social. Or media is not social. We use these resources for social means, but that is a function of use, not of the characteristics inherent in the web or media. We compress "social uses of the web" to social web for convenience sake. But we really do not mean it like we say it.

The Age of The Informavore - A good name is often as good as (or better than) a good idea. The age of the informavore displays both provocative thinking and a memorable term.

Openness and The Future of Education - IRRODL just released a special issue on Openness and the Future of Education. Future of education is not an explicit focus in the articles, but can be anticipated as a result of the focus of the articles.

Cannot Squeeze Knowledge From a Pixel - Meaning is found in associations. It is simple concept, but has substantial implications. To get an accurate picture of "something", context first needs to be understood. This short video - cannot squeeze knowledge from a pixel - summarizes this point.

Personal View of E-Learning: Saudi Arabia - I have not had the privilege of visiting Saudi Arabia. As a result, I particularly appreciated reading Tony Bates' experiences of leading a series of workshops in his post: A personal view of e-learning.

Social Isolation and Technology - Barry Wellman - with his Netville research - was the first researcher that I am aware of who questioned the tech use = isolation viewpoint. People who are connected online often have higher levels face-to-face interactions.

Call For Chapters: Personal Learning Environments / Networks - I posted this last month, but by way of a quick reminder: Call for Chapters: Personal Learning Environments / Networks.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Future of The Social Web

Of course, the web is not social. Just like technology is not social. Or media is not social. We use these resources for social means, but that is a function of use, not of the characteristics inherent in the web or media.

We compress "social uses of the web" to social web for convenience sake. But we really do not mean it like we say it.

Anyway, in case you are wondering what the social web will look like in the future, it will be about meaningful experiences:

"The past five years of Social Media evolution have focused on growth and adoption, but anticipates that the next stage of advancement is dedicated to improving social functionality. I would also add personalization and portability.
The biggest opportunity for the expansion of social networks is to build bridges between these isolated islands to deliver a more fulfilling, meaningful and productive experience."

Random point - sentences like this do not mean much to most human beings: "The future of the social web must begin with data portability to accelerate proliferation throughout Roger's Diffusion of Innovation adoption system".

Um. Ok.

The Age of The Informavore

A good name is often as good as (or better than) a good idea.

The age of the informavore displays both provocative thinking and a memorable term. The video (about 30 min) is a loosely connected flow of thoughts on:

The impact of the web on humanity,

information abundance,

thinking outside of the human brain (i.e. network as a cognitive agent), and

the lack of understanding most users have about the ideology of software.

While we spend much time talking about change, the "becoming" aspect is overlooked.

What are we becoming due to technology? Is it what we want to become? Which parts should we be resisting? Or, for that matter, what have you resisted recently?

Openness and The Future of Education

IRRODL just released a special issue on Openness and the Future of Education.

Future of education is not an explicit focus in the articles, but can be anticipated as a result of the focus of the articles. Topics include:

Openess and textbooks,

peer-to-peer learning,

impact of openness,

disaggregated future of higher education, and even

an article reviewing CCK08 (the open course I taught with Stephen Downes last fall - the 2009 version is going strong as well).

A strong issue - congrats to Terry Anderson, David Wiley, and John Hilton III.

I keep returning to a question that is often overlooked in discussions of openness: What happens once everything is open?

So far we have a fair bit of experience with the impact of open content on curriculum, a bit less experience with the impact of openness on teaching / learning, and almost nothing on how the system of education itself is impacted.

Openness is not the end game. It is a transitory stage that will shape teaching and learning. My interest lies with the emerging landscape of systemic change.

Cannot Squeeze Knowledge From a Pixel

Meaning is found in associations. It is simple concept, but has substantial implications. To get an accurate picture of "something", context first needs to be understood. This short video - cannot squeeze knowledge from a pixel - summarizes this point.

An email address, for example, means very little unless we see it in a broader context and in light of associations formed between the address and other entities. Nothing new about that. However, information connectedness raises privacy and ethical concerns.

Should my doctor know my credit rating? My driving record? Should the government be able to get complete, integrated access to all my data (remember Total Information Awareness?).

Spaces and barriers between data are important - only what is required for a particular context should be known to banker / government / doctor / lawyer / employer. However, and this is a significant concern, participation on the open web is increasing data accessibility.

An employer cannot ask a potential employee her / his age. But that information is freely available on Facebook (often). An employer cannot ask about health concerns. But, again, that information can often be gleaned through Twitter, blogging, and Facebook status updates.

Personal View of E-Learning: Saudi Arabia

I have not had the privilege of visiting Saudi Arabia. As a result, I particularly appreciated reading Tony Bates' experiences of leading a series of workshops in his post: A personal view of e-learning.

The limited adoption of technology in universities is not that unusual from my experience. A growing number of universities are more organized and structured in their online learning initiative, but many do so without strategic considerations.

Technology use is driven at a grassroots level (which is fine, but for system-level implementation, some top down support and resources allocation is needed). Tony's discussion of his presentation experiences and how male / female separate varied by different universities is worth a quick read.

Social Isolation and Technology

Technology use is routinely equated with social isolation. We are often told (and in turn tell our youth) to "log out and interact with the real world".

Barry Wellman - with his Netville research - was the first researcher that I am aware of who questioned the tech use = isolation viewpoint. People who are connected online often have higher levels face-to-face interactions.

A new Pew Internet (motto: "Why say it in 20 pages when you can say it in 84") report, Social Isolation and New Technology, explores how internet and mobile use influences network diversity and socialization (or isolation).

In the process, the report challenges most myths about online participation:

Most people have diverse networks, are socially connected (not only in remote online relationships but also to local online networks),

participate more actively in volunteering than individuals with less online activity, and

visit libraries and public spaces.

Call For Chapters: Personal Learning Environments / Networks

I posted this last month, but by way of a quick reminder: Call for Chapters: Personal Learning Environments / Networks. Deadline for a two-page abstract is November 15, 2009.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on November 7th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

George Siemens is the Associate Director in the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. George blogs at www.elearnspace.org where he shares his vision on the educational landscape and the impact that media technologies have on the educational system. George Siemens is also the author of Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and the book "Knowing Knowledge" where he develops a learning theory called connectivism which uses a network as the central metaphor for learning and focuses on knowledge as a way to making connections.

Photo credits:
Future of The Social Web - Leah-Anne Thompson
The Age of The Informavore - Christopher Hall
Openness and The Future of Education - Refat
Cannot Squeeze Knowledge From a Pixel - Vacuum3d
Personal View of E-Learning: Saudi Arabia - Viktoriia Kulish
Social Isolation and Technology - Elena Volegzhanina
Call For Chapters: Personal Learning Environments / Networks - Andrey Davidenko

Facebook Business Guide: How Companies Can Utilize Facebook Pages For Social Media Marketing - Part 1

The Advance Guard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:34:00 PST

Did you know Facebook is a great tool for your business? Is your company utilizing the new features of Facebook pages to do social media marketing? If you are not yet leveraging the power of social media to boost your sales or engaging your customers, it is time you seriously take action on this front.

Photo credit: James Steidl

Facebook was originally conceived as a place to stay in touch with lost college mates. Time has passed since then, and now Facebook has become the largest social media in the world by far, with more than 300 million active users and a reported growth of 513.7% in the first six months of 2009 alone.

With Nielsen recently reporting Facebook on the tail of large companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!, the company will probably grow even more in the second half of 2009 as well.

That said, how can you take advantage of this stunning popularity to create new opportunities for your company and reach a broader audience trough social media?

Facebook has just come to rescue by introducing some important changes to its business pages, which now allow even more interaction and engagement that you can turn to your advantage.

With this roll-out, everything changes. Brand's actions are now shared across the network, finally allowing them to participate as members of the community rather than remaining passive spectators.

Let's look together at the main changes:

The wall tab will become the official landing page for Facebook users, making pages more useful than before to showcase newest content and stimulating conversations with fans.

Users can select which tab to show to non-Facebook users as the landing page. This is particularly useful to let everyone access relevant information or specific content you want to promote even to those users without a Facebook account.

Content posted on the wall now will appear more often inside the News Feeds of your fans. Curating the wall will then be crucial to drive traffic to your page by spreading viral content.

The status update will gradually substitute inbox messages when it comes to sharing small bits of content with fans in a less obtrusive way.

Brands can sync their Twitter and Facebook accounts to automatically post selected tweets to Facebook as status updates.

In the first part of this Facebook Business Guide, you can find some key valuable strategies to help you leverage the most out of the communication and marketing potential available inside the new Facebook Pages features.

Thanks to the great research work done by the guys at The Advance Guard, here all the details:

About Face: A Free White Paper On Facebook Pages

by The Advance Guard

Introduction To This Facebook Guide

In March 2009, Facebook changed their page offering for brands and businesses, introducing enhanced design and functionality options that more closely echoed the format of personal profiles. We believe this is a fundamental shift, going beyond just a new layout. It compels brands to now use the Facebook platform "socially".

Until now, many brand presences on pages have featured fixed design and layout at the top, using either static graphic panels or Flash animations. Most of these simply linked off-network. Facebook social activity - wall posts, discussion groups, photo and video albums - were pushed "below the fold".

This hierarchy led to featured content remaining isolated from the type of social activity that has led to the mass viral sharing of content amongst regular Facebook users. And while some companies began to join this conversation - engaging in dialog with their fans - their ability to interact was limited by their "brand voice" appearing only on their page.

With this roll-out, everything changes. Brand's actions are now shared across the network, finally allowing them to participate as members of the community rather than remaining passive spectators.

Gone are the fixed graphic areas (or rather - moved elsewhere, as we will discuss), replaced by a lifestream of activity that regular Facebook users will recognize from their own profiles. This activity stream - now the main landing area for fans - will also be shared across the network, appearing in newsfeeds on fans' homepages.

This offers a unique opportunity for brands to engage consumers, providing viral hooks to recruit new fans, and recurring opportunities for existing fans to re-engage. But to take advantage of this, brands MUST be social by:

Creating content,

sharing status updates,

posting photos,

hosting events and

making regular contributions to the Community.

It is an exciting opportunity, both for companies that already have Facebook pages, and those that want to take the first step.

This white paper has been written to provide some high-level ideas to get you started.

Who Is This Facebook Guide For?

This is not a beginners guide to Facebook.

Instead, it is written as a primer to those already familiar with Facebook through personal profiles and the old style pages. It addresses the new upgrades, and provides ideas and thought starters to help you create - or improve - your brand's presence.

Its not written - or endorsed - by Facebook.

We are a marketing consultancy, who work with a number of clients on their Facebook strategy and implementation, and who are passionate about the potential this platform offers to brands to socialize their presence and engage their fans. As such, this white paper is a work in progress.

But then again, is not everything?

Facebook Guide Structure

While there are many ways to start thinking about the building blocks for Facebook pages, we have structured this document to follow the sequence of tabs you will see when you visit a new page.

We will talk about some of the options for each tab in turn, to help you make decisions on how to initially set them up, and how to make the most of what they have to offer.

We will then focus on Facebook-created applications, and how to use them to enhance your page activity.

Finally we will cover options like setting landing URLs for non-fans, and thoughts on using the new Status Update function.

Note: There is some differences in terminology being used by Facebook - Facebook pages, fan pages and Public Profiles. We may update this in a future version.

Overview of The Facebook Navbar

The new design schema allows up to six visible tabs across the top of your brand's profile (see above example). As such, we believe this can be seen as a main navigation bar for your pages.

You have some control over the order, naming and function of these tabs. We will cover each of these in more detail in the following pages, but as an overview:

Wall - All Facebook members land on this tab by default, which always appears first on the navbar. Treat this as your home page and as a chronological "lifestream" acting as the primary focus for all fans.

Info - This is the second mandatory tab that needs to be completed in full for maximum effect. Available options will depend on your industry category.

Boxes - A freeform area that allows you to display custom text, graphic and animated areas, as well as boxes associated with custom applications.

Wall info boxes tabs - Several more visible tabs that you control. These could be filled with existing applications, such as photos, videos, events, discussions - or could be completely customized with your own original content by using the FBML application.

The exact number of tabs available for customization will depend on whether you remove the boxes tab, but there could be up to four extra tabs visible at any time.

Each tab has its own unique URL, so promotions and advertising - in fact, any link - can drive traffic to a specific tab. This could be particularly useful for a sweepstakes, promoting an event, or featuring a specific piece of content. You can also define which tab a non-fan, or non-Facebook member will see by default.

Remember, content from all tabs is now visible to non-Facebook members. This means your Facebook presence can act as a fully-hosted, highly-functional website to the outside world, with multiple sections.

Now let's look at our options each tab in order...

How To Set Up Your Facebook Wall Page

The most dramatic change for pages is that the wall - a chronological stream of all activity across your pages (including fan wall posts) - is now the default landing page for all incoming fans, so its important to plan a schedule for the release of content you will be creating and sharing, to keep this area fresh and relevant.

If you want the focus of this default tab to be solely on your own content - or if a high volume of fan wall posts pushes your own content off the page too quickly - consider changing the wall settings to "Only Posts by Page" as a default. fans who visit can then switch to see fan posts too. After changing this setting, you will need to refresh your browser to see the change take effect.

Deciding whether or not to limit to "Only Posts By Page" is an important one.

If you plan on updating your content regularly, this may be your best option.

For brands with less activity, defaulting to "Posts by Pages and Fans" will supplement this area with fan-generated posts.

Remember, this "lifestream" of your brand is not just a landing zone. It is a timeline, with your most recent activity first. Little (or no) activity from your brand will be very apparent to visitors.

Think like a blogger, not an advertiser - try to unfold stories over time, rather than blasting out messages. Later, we will show you which applications are best suited for this task.

(Note: You can choose to expand comments automatically. If you do this, and later want to remove a specific comment from a photo or video, you can only do this on the media itself, not from the wall page)

See how The New York Times has implemented the wall on their fan page.

See how Barack Obama's page utilizes the wall.

Make Your Facebook Info Page Friendly and Appealing

Up until now, brands could (and did) minimize the info section of their page. Many reduced it to only a URL field and a "Founded in” sentence, to take up minimal space.

In the new design, info has its own tab, fixed a the #two spot, and cannot be moved or deleted. This is precious real estate, so complete this section in as much detail as possible.

Depending on your industry category, the options for this section will change, but whatever they are, think beyond the standard boilerplate of information - make it as creative, interesting and friendly as you can. This can also be changed whenever you wish, so do not forget about it - keep it updated and relevant.

While you cannot style text in this area - or add images - you can expand some boxes with extended text paragraphs. URLs automatically hot link, so try to add links to all your brand presences - not just your websites, but YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace - anywhere your brand can also be found online.

See how NPR populate their info area with extended text and links back to their sites.

How To Use Facebook Photos App

Facebook is the largest photo sharing platform in existence. All members - including brands - can upload and share photos and images.

Facebook gives special prominence to photo updates on the wall, with large areas of the feed given over to image updates, so adding photos to your pages will reward you with high-impact news items.

There is no limit to the number of photos or photo albums (groups of photos) you can create, so do not hold back. Consider using Facebook as an image bank for:

Product shots,

posters,

advertising and

event photography that shows other Facebook fans.

Choosing album covers is a very important choice, as they will become the central image in the timeline both on your wall and in fan's newsfeeds. Any photo in an album can be chosen as an album cover and you can swap this at any time in the future.

Of all content, you will probably find that photos get the most comments and interaction from fans, all of which are transmitted across the network virally. So a content strategy that focuses on creating photos for any and all occasions will reap dividends.

See how Aerie by American Eagle uses photos to promote their clothing and fan events.

How To Integrate and Embed Videos Into Your Facebook Page

Video has always been a powerful medium for marketers, and Facebook's video application provides the ability to upload 16:9 high definition clips in multiple formats, up to 1GB in size, and up to 20 minutes time limit.

You will find the size and quality of video on Facebook to rival other online services, with the added benefits that we discussed with photos:

Social sharing,

tagging,

high-impact newsfeed population,

commenting.

Additionally, as the original uploader of a video, Facebook allows you (and only you) to embed these videos elsewhere on the web.

However, if you decide to use YouTube.com as your publisher database for brand videos, you can still populate them into you feed. Using the Links application (explained in the following pages), you can link directly to a clip, which will automatically embed a playable option in your feed, as well as transmitting that action to your fans.

This "embed" facility for video works for most of the major community video sites, including Vimeo and Viddler (in fact, any service Facebook has "whitelisted")

See how Target is sharing previously created videos.

See how Threadless create customized video messages for Facebook fans.

Managing Facebook Events

One major success in the virtual community of Facebook has been helping to enable real-world meetups between fans with the events application. With the page redesign, this capability becomes even more important, allowing brands to announce events on their wall and across the network.

All events created on Facebook can display attendees, show photos and videos, and even host its own discussion area. All this activity creates viral pollination, as each attending RSVP from a fan will enter into their newsfeed, spreading awareness for the event to their friends. (Make sure you follow up any event with a photo album or video. Do not forget to tag everyone in the photos that you know personally as well.)

Get creative with what you consider an "event." This could be a party, concert or new store opening, but it could also be any call to action. Many brands recently have turned watching the premier of a television show, buying an album or entering a sweepstakes into an event.

See how Verizon use events to inform fans of their sponsorship schedule.

See how Livestrong keeps fans notified about events happening around the country.

How To Use Facebook Discussions and Reviews

One application that most are probably already familiar with is discussions, the Facebook-provided message board application.

Once this is installed on your page, anyone can start a new discussion topic, respond to a question or join an already active conversation.

If you install this application on your page it is important that you are not only a spectator, but also an active participant. This is a great chance for fans to talk directly to the brand they love, and for the brand to respond.

As an additional bonus, if you are an administrator of your page and comment on your own discussion board, your posts will show up as belonging to the brand - not your personal profile - and populate that way onto the wall.

Another application to consider installing is reviews, especially if you have a brand that creates a range of products or package goods.

Positive reviews written by fans can provide strong motivation for trial and purchase. As with discussions, fan reviews populate into their newsfeeds for their friends to read, extending the reach of conversation.

See how Starbucks has designated a tab to a fan discussion group.

See how Ben & Jerry’s showcase fan reviews on their pages.

How To Use Facebook Notes and Links

Another way to populate the Facebook platform - both on your wall and in newsfeeds of your fans - is to create notes and to post Links.

The notes application provides a freeform area that can contain text, links and graphics.

While design capabilities are limited (similar to that of an RSS feed), notes are ideal places to announce a sweepstakes or Sale, write Facebook-specific posts, or issue a special notice or press release.

The notes application can also be set to import stories from an external RSS feed, so if you have a blog, linking notes to your feed will automatically populate posts onto your page as they are published.

The Links application provides the ability to add URL bookmarks - the closest we have to Del.icio.us for pages (Third party Del.icio.us applications currently do not play well with pages). This could be a blogroll of friendly sites, links to news or press releases, or just to sites of interest.

Depending on your level of activity with these apps, you may decide not to include them in the wall / info sidebar or on the boxes tab of your page, but you should still install them, and use them as a way to populate stories and URLs onto the wall.

See how CNN displays notes on a tab to feature Facebook-specific topics.

End of Part 1

Originally written by The Advance Guard team, and first published on The Advance Guard on March 13th, 2009 as About Face: A Free White Paper on Facebook Pages.

About The Advance Guard

Formed in October 2007, The Advance Guard is a new media consultancy company that creates radical marketing programs using emerging technology and community platforms. Their focus is next-generation online marketing, using new technology, community dialog and social media techniques to engage customers and brands.

Photo credits:
Introduction To This Facebook Guide - Roberto Pirola
Who Is This Facebook Guide For? - Dima Lomachevsky
Facebook Guide Structure - Ieva Geneviciene
All other images - The Advance Guard

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 31 09

George Siemens — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:11:00 PDT

If you are interested in finding out the key media trends, the events and the new communication technologies that are shaping your future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores and reports on new fascinating stories and insights and their impact on learning, work and society.

Photo credit: Robert Mizerek

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Social Media Time - Nielsen's research states that 18% of time spent online is spent on social networking sites and services.

Social Search - Google just announced Social Search. The service helps you "to find publicly available content from your social circle".

The Web In 5 Years: More of Now - Interesting thoughts from Eric Schmidt - CEO, Google - on the web in five years.

Go Grandpa! - By now, I think the view of innate generational differences in technology use has been sufficiently debunked (see Mark Bullen's Netgenskeptic site). NY Times highlights the appeal of technology among the elderly.

Communicating Complexity - I have been following Indexed - a site that uses simple visuals to communicate complex relationships and interactions. For example: The relationship between information and confusion.

Falling of The Cliff - When change happens in a networked environment, it is rapid. We have seen it in the financial markets, music industry, TV (YouTube), and, perhaps at it is most pronounced, the newspaper industry.

A Personal Cyberinfrastructure - At Open Education in Vancouver in August, Gardner Campbell argued that cPanel could be used as an LMS.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Social Media Time

Nielsen's research states that 18% of time spent online is spent on social networking sites and services. At first glance, this seems a bit high - especially considering the figure is 3x's greater than last year.

However, if accurate, it provides strong support to the reports claim that

"This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used… While video and text content remain central to the Web experience - the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium's growth".

More info is available here.

Social Search

Google just announced Social Search. The service helps you "to find publicly available content from your social circle".

Google extracts information on your social circle from three sources: Google Reader subscriptions, Google Profiles, and Google chat (GMail). They use the term "surfacing" connections to describe not only adding your friends, but one additional degree: your friend's friends.

This move by Google is a direct assault on Facebook.

Facebook has emphasized social connections over content. Google has, to date, primarily emphasized information sorting, filtering, and ranking. Facebook's model of emphasizing social rather than information connections is a problem for Google.

What is unique in Social Search is the focus on aggregation rather than place-based interaction. In theory, Google emphasizes pulling together various pieces of online interactions through aggregation, whereas Facebook emphasizes housing interactions in their environment.

The Web In 5 Years: More of Now

Interesting thoughts from Eric Schmidt - CEO, Google - on the web in five years.

It is interesting to note that we are seeing increased consolidation of ideas and concepts around the future of technology and the web.

Schmidt's comments do not provide anything new. It is a laundry list of topics and predictions that most people who are involved in technology fields are already familiar with:

Real-time web,

greater bandwidth,

user-generated information,

power / authority shifts due to amateur content,

growth of Chinese language online, etc.

Five years ago, when the groundwork of the social web and emerging technologies in general was being laid, new and revolutionary ideas arose every week (at least that is what it felt like).

It is possible that a reduction of diverse views is a natural progression as the web matures. On the other hand, the revolution is being monetized and utility-drive of technologies might be pushing concept normalization.

Go Grandpa!

By now, I think the view of innate generational differences in technology use has been sufficiently debunked (see Mark Bullen's Netgenskeptic site).

NY Times highlights the appeal of technology among the elderly:

"Some of the highest growth rates in broadband use are happening among the elderly. The Pew Research Center found that broadband use for those 65 and older increased from 19 percent in May 2008 to 30 percent in April 2009. Since 2005, broadband use has tripled in that group."

Communicating Complexity

I have been following Indexed - a site that uses simple visuals to communicate complex relationships and interactions.

For example: The relationship between information and confusion. The simplicity of the approach somewhat hides the impact. We live life in flows, but we are remembered by artifacts. A blog post, a paper, or an image are artifacts.

Given the abundance of information that washes across our mind on a daily basis, an image can have greater impact than a well-reasoned scientific paper. Connections, associations, and relationships can often be better communicated visually than with text.

Falling of The Cliff

When change happens in a networked environment, it is rapid. We have seen it in the financial markets, music industry, TV (YouTube), and, perhaps at it is most pronounced, the newspaper industry.

For example, consider these results from major publications in the US. Only one had increased circulation - others had enormous drops - up to 25% in a six month period.

Hierarchical organizations are simply not designed to adapt to change at this pace.

A Personal Cyberinfrastructure

At Open Education in Vancouver in August, Gardner Campbell argued that cPanel could be used as an LMS.

If you are not familiar with cPanel, it is a fairly accessible interface (similar to Ensim) for managing websites on a server. Adding a wiki, a forum, a blog, or a chat room only requires a few clicks. Gardner expands this view in A Personal Cyberinfrastructure:

"Suppose that when students matriculate, they are assigned their own web servers - not 1GB folders in the institution's web space but honest-to-goodness virtualized web servers of the kind available for $7.99 a month from a variety of hosting services, with built-in affordances ranging from database maintenance to web analytics. As part of the first-year orientation, each student would pick a domain name.
Over the course of the first year, in a set of lab seminars facilitated by instructional technologists, librarians, and faculty advisors from across the curriculum, students would build out their digital presences in an environment made of the medium of the web itself."

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 30th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

Photo credits:
Social Media Time - Stefan Hanusch
Social Media Time - Center for Community Engagement
Social Search - Chris Lamphear
The Web In 5 Years: More of Now - Stephen Aaron Rees
Go Grandpa! - Lisa F. Young
Communicating Complexity - Indexed
Falling of The Cliff - Stefan Hanusch
A Personal Cyberinfrastructure - Yuri Arcurs

Online Journalism: New Skills For Passionate Online Journalists - Alan Murray

Zachary M. Seward — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:38:00 PDT

Which are the critical skills needed for today online successful journalists? What do you need to know and do to compete with bloggers and independent reporters springing up all around you?

Photo credit: Robin Good

Right now, at the end of 2009, newspapers are buzzing around a report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations which states that the average weekday circulation of nearly 400 dailies in the US slid 10.6% from April to September, compared with a 7.1% decline during the previous six-month period.

What is worse, this steep decline in newspaper circulation (which obviously has a deep reflection in advertising revenues) takes place when the whole publishing industry worldwide is suffering from one of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

What is the formula that online journalists can adopt to get through this long tunnel?

Alan Murray of the WSJ identifies some key skills that online journalists need to acquire to keep themselves valuable to their publishers:

Have a sincere passion in what they are doing

Be fast to cover a piece of news and be willing to post multiple times a day

Build a community of loyal supporters and always engage readers

Use social media tools like Twitter to keep in touch with the buzz

Know how search engines work to drive traffic to their content

Most importantly, online journalists should be able to learn how to utilize a balanced mix of editorial and marketing techniques and tools in their normal day-to-day work. Being capable of writing great content and knowing how to distribute it and market it efficiently online is definitely one of the most valuable pair of skills an online reporter must have:

The art of a good blog is figuring out the right mix between the piece that you know is going to get maximum search engine hits to the piece that really defines what you are doing that is uniquely valuable. That second piece might not bring in as much traffic, but it is the piece that is going to keep the traffic once you get it in the door.

In this video interview, Alan Murray, online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, paints the profile and the key skills needed by online journalist wanting to become indispensable asset to his newsroom.

Here all the details:

Alan Murray Of The The Wall Street Journal On Hiring and Managing Online Reporters

Duration: 2 44''

by Zachary M. Seward - Nieman Journalism Lab

Full English Text Transcription

Online Journalists Become Community Marketers

In the digital area, you do want people who can be very fast and are willing to post multiple times a day and to multitask. They really have to get engaged in finding their audience.

In my generation, the notion of marketing your own copy... that was like dirty. "Do not make me get near that. That is somebody else's job". But in fact, now, marketing - we do not call it that - but it is a big part of what online journalists do:

Figuring out which blogs they need to be in touch with, in order to keep their audience together,

using Twitter to drive traffic to your stuff,

figuring out the right mix.

The art of a good blog is figuring out the right mix between the piece that you know is going to get maximum search engine hits to the piece that really defines what you are doing that is uniquely valuable. That second piece might not bring in as much traffic, but it is the piece that is going to keep the traffic once you get it in the door.

All of that, which is part of the job of building a community, building an audience - those are totally new skills.

Can Any Journalist Adapt To This New Online Role?

When I say entrepreneurial, I am talking about people who have shown some ability to play that game, which is very foreign to most journalists of my age. You have to play to people's strengths.

What we have done is we have gone out and tried to figure out who are the people in the newsroom who can really adapt to that new style of posting seven times a day and enjoy it. Because, one thing about the web is - and I think you guys know this - if you are not enjoying what you are doing, it is going to come through. It is a much more personal medium.

If you are not in there, having a good time, excited about what you are doing, there is very little possibility that you are readers are going to get excited about what you are doing.

There is not much point in taking a reporter who - you mentioned one minute ago - and saying you ought to be writing eight times on the web. It just does not get you anywhere.

As a manager, what I have tried to do, what we have tried to do, is: find the people who are particularly suited for posting and let them be the ones to do that. People get very excited about it, they get juiced about it and enjoy doing it. And then try and create jobs for other people to do the type of journalism they do best.

Because we are still doing the full range, going to keep doing long-form journalism, going to keep doing daily journalism and we are going to be building up these real-time columns, all at the same time.

For us, at least, there is a wide swath of types of writing you can do, and it is up to managers to get the right people in the right job.

Original video of Alan Murray and video transcription republished with full permission of Nieman Journalism Lab and first published on April 14th, 2009 as "The new skillset for online reporters: speed, marketing, audience-building, tweeting, and "having a good time"". First published on MasterNewMedia on October 28th, 2009 as Online Journalism: New Skills For Passionate Online Journalists - Alan Murray"

About Alan Murray

Alan Murray is online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, and author of the "Business" column, which runs on page 2 every Wednesday. He is also a regular contributor to CNBC, and author of the book "Revolt in the Boardroom: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America". Mr. Murray has management responsibility for the Journal's multimedia efforts, including its relationship with CNBC television, the Wall Street Journal books business, the paper's events business, and a variety of online ventures.

Photo credits:
Online Journalists Become Community Marketers - Darren Whittingham
Can Any Journalist Adapt To This New Online Role? - Lev Dolgachov

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 24 09

George Siemens — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:43:00 PDT

In this weekly Media Literacy Digest, open education and connectivism advocate George Siemens, brings to you a great set of news stories on emerging media, communication technologies and education-related trends. His goal is one of helping you make good sense of the many changes taking place around you and of how these directly impact your daily lives.

Photo credit: Ene

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Twitter and Status Updating - Twitter has been criticized for its lack of relevance to younger internet users (teens). Some progress is being made on that front, according to a new Pew report.

Networked Learning Hotseat - In preparation for Networked Learning 2010, conference organizers have arranged several "hot seat" sessions. A hot seat is basically a week long (mostly asynchronous) discussion on a particular theme / topic.

Economy and Internet Trends - Mary Meeker delivered a presentation to Web 2.0 conference recently looking at the state of the economy and the Internet (powerpoint / pdf slides).

ECAR Annual Report of Undergraduate Tech Use - The ECAR 2009 report of undergraduate IT use has been released. If you have followed these reports over the last few years, you will not find much new.

Search: Twitter, Facebook, People - Bing and Google search deals for Facebook and Twitter are getting quite a bit of attention and commentary. Somewhat related, I just came across Cluuz - a people search tool.

Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning - I have been thinking about what learning might / could / should look like in today's technological age.

LearnTrends 2009 - I am looking forward to LearnTrends 2009. The LearnTrends Innovation nominations close Oct 31. A reminder - the LearnTrends Innovation nominations close Oct 31.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Twitter and Status Updating

Twitter has been criticized for its lack of relevance to younger internet users (teens). Some progress is being made on that front, according to a new Pew report.

In terms of numbers, one in five internet users utilize Twitter (or similar status updating) service. From a quick read of the article, I do not see any mention of how often people actually update their status.

This "I am on Twitter" statement reminds me of blogs in early 2000. I would frequently hear someone say "oh, yeah, I blog". Not mentioned, however, was that one or two posts had been made and the site had since been largely abandoned. Not sure if Twitter has the same profile. The real question is not "are you on Twitter", but "are you consistently on Twitter".

Networked Learning Hotseat

In preparation for Networked Learning 2010, conference organizers have arranged several "hot seat" sessions. A hot seat is basically a week long (mostly asynchronous) discussion on a particular theme / topic.

Starting Oct 26, Stephen Downes and I are hosting a discussion on the impact of learning on networked technologies. Attendance is free for the online session, but you do need to register / create an account to contribute.

Economy and Internet Trends

Mary Meeker delivered a presentation to Web 2.0 conference recently looking at the state of the economy and the Internet (powerpoint / pdf slides).

From slide 28, a quick look back over the last few years:

2004 - China Internet - Opportunity is Immense 2005 - Broadband - Becoming Pervasive, Driving Growth in Communications / UGC

2006 - Online Video - Building Momentum

2007 - Social Networks - Proliferating, Driving Platform Changes

2008 - Economic Recession - Creates Challenge + Opportunity for Web Companies

2009 - Mobile Internet - Is and Will be Bigger Than Most Think

Later in the presentation (slide 32), Meeker forecasts the huge growth, and increased integration, of internet-connected devices.

The iPhone and social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) figure prominently in her assessment.

ECAR Annual Report of Undergraduate Tech Use

The ECAR 2009 report of undergraduate IT use has been released. If you have followed these reports over the last few years, you will not find much new.

A key assertion from previous surveys is validated: "They [students] consistently report that they prefer only a moderate amount of IT when it comes to their courses".

The main difference in this year's report is the inclusion of a new, but basic, chapter on mobile technologies.

One drawback - the ECAR survey continues to suffer from low response rate (see Appendix D), resulting in some concern about accepting generalizations made in the report.

However, it is the most complete report on IT use by students that I am aware of… and, since it has been around for five years, it will grow in value for longitudinal analysis (of undergraduate profiles, though it would be helpful to track development of learners use of IT during their time in university and beyond).

Search: Twitter, Facebook, People

Bing and Google search deals for Facebook and Twitter are getting quite a bit of attention and commentary.

What is the value of real time search? It is largely about being aware of global patterns of interest - a sort of zeitgeist or attentional focus (some have called it consciousness, but that seems silly - knowing what many people are talking about is hardly "consciousness". Perhaps awareness is a better term):

Now that Google and Bing are getting the firehose, it could have a big impact on search results. For the search engines, the firehose is much more valuable than any single Tweet. They can index it and sift it, looking for patterns and spikes in keywords and shared links to get a better sense of what people across the Web are paying attention to at any given moment. This data can then be folded back into regular search results, even if the top result is not a Tweet.

Somewhat related, I just came across Cluuz - a people search tool. The results are fairly accurate - but the images displaying network connections are still a bit basic.

Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning

I have been thinking about what learning might / could / should look like in today's technological age. Thoughts are posted on my connectivism blog: Technologically externalized knowledge and learning.

LearnTrends 2009

I am looking forward to LearnTrends 2009 - an online conference that Tony Karrer, Jay Cross, and I are organizing. The official conference page has been posted. Fantastic lineup of speakers (great job Jay & Tony!!).

A reminder - the LearnTrends Innovation nominations close Oct 31.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 23rd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

Photo credits:
Twitter and Status Updating - Jimmac.Musichall
Networked Learning Hotseat - Mreco99
Economy and Internet Trends - Alexandr Shirokov
ECAR Annual Report of Undergraduate Tech Use - Flashon
Search: Twitter, Facebook, People - Jay Simmons
Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning - Connectivism
LearnTrends 2009 - LearnTrends

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 17 09

George Siemens — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:02:00 PDT

In this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, reports on this week most interesting breakthroughs, events, new media technologies and on the social impact these have on society, work and learning.

Photo credit: Anatoly Vartanov

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier - Consider work. Many people are now involved in work that does not require physical presence at an office. Yet, how we define and value work still carries the views from 50+ years ago.

Value of Visual Thinking - Resources such as this - the value of visual thinking - are helpful in increasing my guilt and sense of inadequacy with visuals and increasing my desire to continue improving how I communicate.

A Few Web 2.0 Resources - Microsoft and web 2.0 resources (via Stephen Downes) I am not sure how Microsoft defines web 2.0 - not much in the list that fits my definition. However, still a number of useful resources.

The Chemistry of Information Addiction - The chemistry of information addiction indicates why many people find the internet (particularly under the banner of real-time tools) so rewarding: We crave information and we want it now.

Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy - Tony Bates explores using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy (and part 2). Toward the end of the second post, Tony offers a series of 10 implications. I generally agree with these points, but do not think it offers enough about the systemic change required by universities.

Personal Learning Environments / Networks: Call For Chapters - Our PLE / N conference is well underway. If interested, the recordings are available (under week five).

Nowism - Google Wave, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook have given rise to the what is known as the real time web. Trendwatching picks up on this theme and addresses it as Nowism (good list of realtime tools about 1 / 3 of the way in).

Emerging Technologies, Africa - Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa is an open online 12 week course. I am teaching the course with Dave Cormier. IETA is delivered in both English and French.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier

The ideologies that give birth to systems remain long after they cease being valuable.

End result: We have systems and policies that function under ideologies / views that are no longer needed, and in many instances, have an overall negative impact. Consider work.

Many people are now involved in work that does not require physical presence at an office. Yet, how we define and value work still carries the views from 50+ years ago.

Taylorism is still reflected in how we see work and employees.

Inside Higher Ed considers decentralized work:

"Whether you call it teleworking, Web working, telecommuting, distance working or e-working, the concept is the same: Work is not some place you go, it is something you do. It focuses on the information-age idea of decentralizing the office, as opposed to the industrial-age idea of bringing everyone to one single location."

Value of Visual Thinking

I am inept with visuals.

I made a decision at the start of the year to increase my use of visuals in presentation and blog posts. I have not been tremendously successful, but I will keep trying.

Resources such as this - the value of visual thinking - are helpful in

increasing my guilt and sense of inadequacy with visuals and

increasing my desire to continue improving how I communicate.

From the post:

"In the design of business, visual thinking will be key in the design of new processes, systems, and structures.
Expect to see the mapping of

ecosystems,

flows,

org charts,

social systems and

data visualization.

All of which can help people understand and get behind change."

A Few Web 2.0 Resources

A few (unrelated) resources on web 2.0:

Microsoft and web 2.0 resources (via Stephen Downes) I am not sure how Microsoft defines web 2.0 - not much in the list that fits my definition. However, still a number of useful resources.

The distance between Microsoft and Google is quite evident in participative / collaborative tools. Google is the web 2.0 poster child (have a quick look at their labs). I think Google needs a strong competitor. Microsoft has had trouble playing that role so far …

IBM & Web 2.0 - a number of videos, websites, whitepapers, etc. on how IBM uses web 2.0.

Adoption of emerging technologies for collaborating and organizational productivity (interesting to note that learning is not an explicit focus) is growing.

The Chemistry of Information Addiction

Information addiction is appearing more frequently as a term to describe how our brain craves information.

The chemistry of information addiction indicates why many people find the internet (particularly under the banner of real-time tools) so rewarding: We crave information and we want it now.

The author states that we find "not-knowing" to be stressful. I am curious how the stress of not-knowing relates to the stress of information abundance - i.e. "significant attainments lost in the mass of the inconsequential"

Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy

Tony Bates explores using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy (and part 2).

After exploring the challenges faced by universities, Tony concludes, logically, that:

I believe we need much more variety in institutional structures and models of educational delivery than we have at the current time.
We need in other words more innovation and experimentation, if the challenge of greater access, greater quality and lower cost is to be met.

Only through experimentation, trial and error and a certain amount of risk-taking are we likely to find new models that "work" in that they achieve the three goals stated: more access, better quality, less cost.

The problem with this observation is that traditional universities are generally too tied to existing models to innovate rapidly. I have met with too many departments that have plans like "next year, we will have two courses online".

There is a sense that the university's response is mismatched to reality of the scope of societal change.

Toward the end of the second post, Tony offers a series of 10 implications. I generally agree with these points, but do not think it offers enough about the systemic change required by universities.

If we are going to look 20 years in the future, I am less concerned about details such as instructional tactics than I am about the big issues of policy / funding / research / systemic structure of higher education.

Personal Learning Environments/Networks: Call For Chapters

Our PLE / N conference is well underway. If interested, the recordings are available (under week five).

A call for chapters has been issued as well for an upcoming PLE book.

Nowism

Google Wave, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook have given rise to the what is known as the real time web. Trendwatching picks up on this theme and addresses it as Nowism (good list of realtime tools about 1 / 3 of the way in). This briefing is worth a skim.

Notable quote:

The bottom line: While the appeal and influence of "now" has been building for years, societal attitudes, sky-high consumer expectations and new technologies are currently converging in such a powerful way that brands truly have no choice but to go "real-time":
In their business intelligence processes,

in their customer conversations,

in their innovation labs,

in their distribution, sales, marketing and branding departments…

Emerging Technologies, Africa

I have posted this before, but, since the course started today, I will mention it again: Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa is an open online 12 week course. I am teaching the course with Dave Cormier. IETA is delivered in both English and French.

More information:

Google Groups - for regular emails from course instructors

Moodle - English

Moodle - French

Syllabus - English

Syllabus - French

Main landing page for the course.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 16th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

Photo credits:
Decentralized Work: The Final Frontier - Yuri Arcurs
Value of Visual Thinking - David Armano
A Few Web 2.0 Resources - TebNad
The Chemistry of Information Addiction - Scol22
Using Technology To Improve The Cost-Effectiveness of The Academy - Stephen Coburn
Personal Learning Environments / Networks: Call For Chapters - Luminis
Nowism - Mehmet Dilsiz
Emerging Technologies, Africa - Marc Dietrich
Emerging Technologies, Africa - Adama01

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 10 09

George Siemens — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:10:00 PDT

If you are interested in finding out the key media trends, the events and the new communication technologies that are shaping your future, in this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, takes you to places, people and new resources to help you make greater sense of this fast changing panorama.

Photo credit: Ndul

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Trends… - What worked pre-internet for managing information will not work today. Little surprise then that trend watching / recognition is quickly becoming a field of value for educators, business leaders, and governments.

History and Evolution of Social Media - We are still early on the social media hype curve. Letting people connect effortlessly produces all kinds of interesting results. But the implications of easy connectivity are not fully understood.

The Great Keynote Meltdown - It seems that a poor keynote presentation caused the audience to go into mild mob mode through the twitter back channel.

Personal Learning Environments Conference -
The Personal Learning Environments and Networks Conference starts next week (Oct 13-16). The event is free to attend. The event has been organized by National Research Council of Canada PLE Project and the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba.

Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks - I am interested in how networks influence learning. To date, this has received too little attention from researchers. Yes, I know, disease research generates more funds for universities

Real Time Web and Google - Clive Thompson's argument that the real time web is leaving Google behind makes a few interesting points… but it is essentially wrong.

Saudi Arabia: KAUST - Education is rapidly globalizing. Local views need to give way to international perspectives. For example, consider the new $12 billion Saudi Arabian KAUST

Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters - Something as simple as an online forum or blog - or even online consultation - is not unrealistic. Decision made in isolation and then dropped on others is no way to run an organization or a community.

Social Network Statistics - We rely on government to provide some level of protection (in Canada we have fairly rigid rules for the type of individual data that can be shared). Even then, sites like Facebook can gain a fairly accurate "picture" of who individuals are simply by mining network associations.

Finding Data - Let's say you have this idea for a visualization or application, or you are just curious about some trend. You can not find the data, and without the data, you can not even start.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Trends…

P. W. Anderson made the statement in the early 70's that "more is different". Or, as a slight variation, David Gelernter has stated: "30. If you have three pet dogs, give them names. If you have 10,000 head of cattle, do not bother."

When considering the pace of information flow today, it makes sense that we need

new skills,

new attitudes, and

new tools to function.

What worked pre-internet for managing information will not work today. Little surprise then that trend watching / recognition is quickly becoming a field of value for

educators,

business leaders, and

governments.

Trendwatching's monthly briefings are helpful in this regard. It is a well curated list of trends.

If you are interested in something a bit more chaotic, Trendsmap follows emerging Twitter topics.

The curatorial and the visualization of emerging trends approach are first generation attempts at making sense of abundance. We need better tools that are somewhat tied to our context (i.e. search patterns, our interests, needs).

History and Evolution of Social Media

We are still early on the social media hype curve. Letting people connect effortlessly produces all kinds of interesting results. But the implications of easy connectivity are not fully understood.

Should we have "tech free" zones in schools?

How does etiquette change when conversation continually flows on microblogging services such as Twitter?

What is appropriate to post on Facebook?

What about mobile phone etiquette? Or, perhaps most importantly for educators,

How should teaching and learning be structured in a networked world?

These questions are already being addressed by educators and researchers (journal special editions and even new journal launches are focusing on the social media aspect of teaching / learning).

A quick look back - to gain a sense of history - is always a good idea.

The history and evolution of social media takes a rapid stroll through various services and potential implications. While the article is not focused on education, it is a good overview of how we got to where we are.

Social networking site: Definition, history, and scholarship tackles a similar theme…

The Great Keynote Meltdown

The Great Keynote Meltdown traces a failed keynote presentation and the response of the audience: "Presentational etiquette is changing along with audience expectations. Twitter is there, and people are going to use it, for good or for bad".

It seems that a poor keynote presentation caused the audience to go into mild mob mode through the Twitter back channel. This type of critique often happens post-presentation (remember pre-realtime web? "I will not go to that conference again. Poor speakers, badly organized. It was a waste of time").

The prominence of mobile devices and microblogging services surfaces this type of feedback and amplifies it when conference attendees connect to each other. It is a reality both speakers and organizers need be aware of… and plan for.

What is a conference organizer / keynote presenter to do these days? Create and encourage the use of channels for surfacing criticism and feedback. Hiding failures is not really success.

Personal Learning Environments Conference

The Personal Learning Environments and Networks Conference starts next week (Oct 13-16). The event is free to attend. We will be posting summaries on The Daily, so you might want to sign up for the week to keep track of the conference.

The event has been organized by National Research Council of Canada PLE Project and the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba.

Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks

Networks are the language of our era - explaining, among other things

biology,

information flow,

disease transfer,

financial market failure, and

political structures underlying public voting records.

A recently published text - Connected - addresses how networks influence our lives on a daily basis.

From a promotional article on the book: Obesity, politics, STDs flow in social networks

Examining years of research of their own and from others, the authors conclude that social networks, both offline and online, are crucial in understanding everything from voting patterns to the spread of disease.
People have profound influences on each other's behavior within three degrees of separation, the authors find. That means that your friends, your friends' friends, and your friends' friends' friends may all affect your eating habits, voting preferences, happiness, and more.

I am interested in how networks influence learning. To date, this has received too little attention from researchers.

Yes, I know, disease research generates more funds for universities. For that matter negatives like disease, obesity, and other challenges confronting humanity provide greater motivation than pursuing positives like learning and development. Maybe that is part of the research problem…

Real Time Web and Google

Clive Thompson's argument that the real time web is leaving Google behind makes a few interesting points… but it is essentially wrong.

Controversial statements draw more attention (hence, why I am linking to this!), but what Thompson overlooks is that the web is expanding and fragmenting into specialized subsets… not that the core web is changing.

For example, an individual wanting to research Michael Jackson (as stated in Thompson's article), will not only be concerned with the events over the last few days, but over Jackson's lifetime.

We use the web for different purposes at different times.

The author also states that Google's contribution was organizing the web on authority, somehow suggesting that this is not the case with Twitter and Facebook.

Have you ever tried following a trending topic on Twitter? If you are tracking a hot topic, you will have 800 updates each time you refresh. It is a mess. It is like Yahoo in 1997: Topics by categories… but largely useless.

This trend-lover attitude (Ooh, look, it is new, that means it changes everything) is great for drawing attention… but rather useless for anything else.

A contextual, balanced, and nuanced understanding of search patterns and varying circumstance with varying needs is needed. But, it appears nuanced and balanced is now the new extreme.

Saudi Arabia: KAUST

Education can be somewhat insular.

A university campus is a community… a small city. For many students (if my experience can be generalized), understanding the local university environment is a big enough challenge in itself.

It is unrealistic to expect most members of society to be aware of the complexities of higher education in other provinces / states or even other countries.

Education is rapidly globalizing. Local views need to give way to international perspectives.For example, consider the new $12 billion Saudi Arabian KAUST.

Those who proclaim universities have a limited future need to redirect their focus to the enormous funds directed to universities and how national pride (and future identity) are reflected in "world class" universities.

Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters

I live south of Winnipeg in a small community.

During my commute this morning, I noticed a section of our street "under construction". The street was closed off. I have no idea what they are doing. And why.

It occurred to me that I am no longer satisfied in "letting things happen to me". Perhaps I am influenced too much by participatory technologies, but I like to know what is happening my community.

Who decided this road should be repaired?

Why?

How long will it take?

What other priorities were shelved as a result?

Not-knowing is not acceptable. Something as simple as an online forum or blog - or even online consultation - is not unrealistic. It takes five minutes to set up a blog. Decision made in isolation and then dropped on others is no way to run an organization or a community.

Local Politicians Use Social Media to Connect with Voters:

"Perhaps most significant to the evolving shift in local political communication is the sense that social media is starting to fill the void left by downsized news staffs or the complete absence of journalists in smaller communities."

We want information and we want to be involved. That is not asking too much, is it?

Social Network Statistics

The Internet knows us. Really. It does. It knows us at an aggregate level - consider the age / income / children / gender information on social network statistics. But, we are also known individually.

We rely on government to provide some level of protection (in Canada we have fairly rigid rules for the type of individual data that can be shared). Even then, sites like Facebook can gain a fairly accurate "picture" of who individuals are simply by mining network associations.

If I am predominantly friending people with certain religious or political views, I am signaling some level or probability as to my own views. But, it does not stop there.

Facebook has one of my favorite lines about data collection:

"Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as
newspapers,

blogs,

instant messaging services, and

other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags)

in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience."

Finding Data

As little as 10 years ago, the barrier to finding data was something like a pay wall (or that the data was in a physical form and you had to go to a library to access it).

Today, data abounds. It is readily accessible. Which is great if you are trying to visualize data and / or interactions. 30 Resources to Find the Data You Need:

"Let's say you have this idea for a visualization or application, or you are just curious about some trend. But you have a problem.
You can not find the data, and without the data, you can not even start. This is a guide and a list of sources for where you can find that data you're looking for. There is a lot out there."

Follow through to the comments - several additional resources listed there…

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 9th, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

Photo credits:
Trends… - Trendsmap
History and Evolution of Social Media - Dmitry Margolin
The Great Keynote Meltdown - Argus456
Personal Learning Environments Conference - Konstantin Chagin
Obesity, Politics, STDs Flow In Social Networks - CNN
Real Time Web and Google - Chris Lamphear
Real Time Web and Google - Wipeout44
Saudi Arabia: KAUST - University of Bradford
Local Politicians Use Social Media To Connect With Voters - Aliaksei Lakamkin
Social Network Statistics - Pablo631
Finding Data - Hypermania

Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: Social Networks

Josh Gordon — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:46:00 PDT

How do organizations really use social networks? Is social media useful to acquire new customers or just to maintain strong relationships with existing clients?

Photo credit: Kheng Guan Toh

The answer to whether social media are good for customer engagement or relationship building is: "Social media is good for both".

As long as you do not get too greedy or "salesy" in your business approach, social media proves to be very useful to connect with your audience.

Social media is free to join, easy to use and, most importantly, it is "a way to supercharge the word of mouth", and as every marketer will tell you, a positive word of mouth is the best mean to convert prospects into sales.

Shel Holtz, summarizes well the impact of social media in business strategies:

"I see [social media] as a place to build relationships, but it is not for direct selling. That is not what people want to receive on Facebook. People are there to socialize, and if you can offer value through conversation, you can build relationships with those customers. If you pitch them, they will ignore you, or worse."

In part 3 of this report (Part 1 - Part 2), marketing analyst Josh Gordon shares interesting data to make sense of the penetration and main functions of social media inside the corporate world.

Here all the details:

The Coming Change In Social Media Business Applications: Separating The Biz From The Buzz

by Josh Gordon

Business Applications of Social Networks

1. Sales Use of Social Networks

Top Uses of Social Networks

How organizations use social networks for sales

Top uses of social networks for sales are to maintain and build relationships.

The most common use of social media networks, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, is "Maintaining social contact with clients" (67.6%). After that, about half of businesses surveyed use social media to achieve a "Better understanding of client attitudes" (50.6%).

Sales Use of Social Media Networks

Sales functions organizations plan to adopt in the future

Sales use of social media networks could shift sharply toward an emphasis on customer prospecting.

As organizations look to the future, the same trend emerges as seen in the general social media and Twitter responses: a shift toward more customer communications and, in particular, toward prospecting.

The two sales prospecting options rise dramatically to become the top goals for social network usage.

"Sales prospecting by targeting 'self-identified' new customers" moves up to the top choice, from No. 5 currently, and "Sales prospecting by social networking" moves up as well, from third place to second.

Moving forward, it seems clear that social networks will be a top lead generation tool.

Practical Advice On Use of Social Networks

Put this information to work:

According to Brian Solis, principal at FutureWorks,

"Human interaction is still human interaction, and what it takes to be successful with it has not changed. What has changed is the places where it happens."

Says Solis:

"Social media tools help you find conversations that can give you insight into what individuals in your market are saying about your product. This can give you an opportunity to engage people on their terms, not as a salesperson, but as a resource, and then get the sale because of it."

I use social networks to find out who my clients really are.

We all vary our modes of conversation when we speak to different types of people: an intimidating boss, a pesky child, a policeman giving a speeding ticket, or… a salesperson.

Often, when I "see" two of my clients "talking" to each other on a social network, their conversation with each other is very different from my conversations with either of them, as someone trying to sell them.

But when I see clients "talking" to their peers, I learn what is truly important to them, and it is rarely about me or my product. I look for what they are passionate enough to write about, how they react to each other, what they are afraid of, and who their heroes and villains are.

Understanding a person's values and passions is a first step to understanding them, and a prerequisite to any sale.

Shel Holtz, principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, warns about being too "salesy" when you engage potential clients in a social media environment:

"I see it as a place to build relationships, but it is not for direct selling. That is not what people want to receive on Facebook. People are there to socialize, and if you can offer value through conversation, you can build relationships with those customers. If you pitch them, they will ignore you, or worse."

Dan McCarthy, chairman and CEO of Network Communications Inc., shares that he becomes better at reaching out to new clients as they get to know him though his personal profile and postings on social media sites.

Years ago, McCarthy realized that the people with whom he had the best business relationships were also those who knew the most about his personal side.

Says McCarthy,

"If you connect the way you live to the way you make a living, you create an incredible degree of authenticity, which is what today's digital generation is looking for in the people they work with.
My professional identity and my personal identity are very connected."

Survey respondents also wrote in "other" uses of social media for sales, including:

Project opportunity identification;

posting discount codes on Facebook and Twitter;

promoting educational collateral and events;

listing salespeople in LinkedIn profiles; and

highlighting case studies.

2. Marketing Use of Social Networks

Promoting Organic Messages and Monitoring Customer Trends

Marketing functions organizations adopt now

Top uses for marketing functions are promoting organic messages and monitoring customer trends.

About half of the organizations surveyed actively promote themselves through organic messaging (56%), monitor trends among their customers (53.1%), and provide ways for customers to interact with their company (51.5%).

About a third use social networks to research new product ideas (34.1%), while about one in four advertises on social networks (26.7%).

Providing Ways To Interact With Customers

Marketing functions organizations plan to adopt in the future

Top marketing use of social networks shifts toward providing ways to interact with customers.

Looking ahead, we see the same trend repeated as organizations refocus their social media toward customer-focused programs.

The top choice moving forward is "We provide ways for customers to interact with our company," which is only the third most-used marketing function at present.

Marketing is part of the shift toward using social media as a way to connect and acquire customers.

"Understanding a person's values and passions is a first step to understanding them, and a prerequisite to any sale."

Please check all of the marketing functions offered by social networks-like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace - that your organization now uses.

Practical Advice On Marketing Use of Social Networks

Put this information to work:

According to Dan Schawbel, social media specialist at EMC Corporation, and author of the book, Me 2.0:

"Social media tools are popular marketing tools because they are free, people are already using them, and there is an opportunity cost for not getting involved today.
Depending on your line of business, certain social networks will work better for you than others. It is all about aligning business strategy to the use of each tool. Otherwise, you are wasting time and not reaching the right audience with the right message on the right network."

Brian Solis indicates that there could be more going on in social networks than you realize. He poses the question, "If a conversation takes place online and you are not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?" In fact, there might even be dangers in not participating.

Says Solis,

"Conversations are taking place, with or without you.
If you are not part of the conversation, then you are leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it is accurate or incorrect. Or, even worse, you may be leaving it up to your competition to jump in to become the resource for the community.”

Monitoring and reacting to customer behavior is key. Ari Herzog, principal of Ari Herzog and Associates, learned that firsthand when a new pizza restaurant opened in his town. Herzog tried it, liked it, and wrote a positive review of it on the social media review site, Yelp.

A few months later, when he revisited the restaurant with his mother and sister, he was surprised when a waiter came by with a free order of chips and salsa as a thank you for the review.

What kind of impression did that make? Herzog shared the story with me when I interviewed him, and now you are among thousands reading about it here. Now that is good marketing!

Herzog 's enthusiasm is typical of what social media can do for any brand.

Says Dan McCarthy:

"The Holy Grail for a marketer is positive word of mouth. If you can capture this, it is the highest means of converting prospects to sales, and at the least expense. Social media is a way to supercharge word of mouth."

Survey respondents also wrote in "other" uses of social media for marketing, including:

Showcasing case studies,

running a professional group on LinkedIn, and

communicating with media outlets.

Link to an extensive list of social media marketing examples on Peter Kim's blog, "Being Peter Kim."

3. Public Relations Use of Social Networks

Public Relations Functions

Public relations functions offered by social networks

Social networks serve a variety of public relations functions.

The four most common public relations functions using social media are:

Maintaining a company profile page (66.6%);

using social networks to distribute press releases and news items (59.3%);

monitoring and responding to mentions of the company and its products (58%); and

interacting with bloggers and members of the traditional press (54.6%).

Looking to the future, organizations plan no changes in how they use social networks to support their public relations efforts, with future uses being identical in sequence and proportion to current use.

Practical Advice On Public Relations Use of Social Networks

Put this information to work:

Public relations professionals would do well to monitor social networks for activity about their organization and products. Shel Holtz, calls this essential:

"If you are monitoring, you can be part of the conversation.
Social media is becoming the communication channel for breaking news.

Remember that the first reports of the US Airways flight that water-landed in the Hudson River were first reported on Twitter by someone with a cell phone on a nearby ferry.

If your company gets in the news, you may find out about it first by monitoring social networks."

The other PR function unique to social media is the ability to post a company profile page. Some companies take this free service more seriously than others.

Annie Ta, from Facebook's corporate communications team, says:

"We encourage businesses to really engage with consumers on their profiles. For example, businesses should update their status, post videos and photos, and start discussion threads with their consumers.
Public profiles provide a way for businesses to talk to consumers and understand them. Some of the most successful public profiles are those that create a genuine dialogue with their fans."

Link to two great examples of company profile pages: Dell and Visa.

Survey respondents also wrote in "other" uses of social media for public relations, including:

Updating fans and customers on company news;

promoting company events;

registration for events;

maintaining an alumni group for past employees; and

promoting a fundraising program.

4. Use of Social Networks For Internal Communications

Save Money Using Social Networks

Internal workflow functions that social network use and plan to use.

Organizations can save expense by using existing social networks to create work groups where documents, schedules, and communication are shared collaboratively, from anywhere on Earth.

While there are security concerns with posting potentially sensitive internal communications on a third party's network, the irresistible "free" cost for simple groups is motivation for many.

Currently, the top uses of these services are "Sharing documents" and "Maintaining communication with teams."

Looking ahead, the use of social networks to help internal workflow will remain similar to usage today with one difference: Fewer organizations will use social networks for file sharing.

Among current uses, "file sharing" is tied with "maintaining communication with teams" for the top use. For the future, it drops to fourth place, near the bottom.

Practical Advice On The Use of Social Networks For Internal Communications

Put this information to work:

The results speak for themselves here, and since not much is changing, there is little to add.

Survey respondents also wrote in "other" uses of social media for internal workflow, including:

Training,

building bonds with remote teams, and

general social use with no professional communications.

Conclusions

This study is the first to document the coming shift in the use of social media - from a helpful tool for a variety of communication needs, to an essential tool for customer engagement.

As organizations invest in social media programs, incorporating this shift into the plans should be considered a high priority.

Skeptics might say that a more customer-centric approach is natural in a recession when business is scarce. But a recession is not just a time of slow sales.

More significantly, it is also a time when the pace of change accelerates, and the competitive landscape of industries is reshaped.

A research study done by Bain & Co. in the aftermath of the 2001 recession discovered that competitive change during the recession occurred at about twice the normal rate. In addition, companies that changed competitive positions against one another during the recession remained in their new rankings long after it had passed.

In 1929, rival cereal makers Kellogg's and Post were in a close race to win the emerging cold breakfast cereal market.

Through the Great Depression that followed, Kellogg's maintained an aggressive marketing posture, while Post slashed its ad budgets. When the slow time ended, Kellogg's had a market advantage over its rival that it maintains to this day-almost 70 years later. (More on that story here)

It would be a mistake to assume that this shift toward customer-centric usage of social media is temporary.

In fact, the shift toward customer engagement, and away from general communications, shows a more important role for social media use at organizations. As Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, said, "The purpose of a business is to create a customer."

On the same list as above, pick the one internal workflow function your organization is considering using in the future.

End of Part 3

Part 1: Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: An Overview

Part 2: Business Applications Of Social Media Inside Organizations: Twitter

Originally written by Josh Gordon for Social Media Biz Buzz, and first published on July 20th, 2009 as The Coming Change in Social Media Business Applications

About Josh Gordon

Josh Gordon is president of Selling 2.0, where he works to improve the performance of organizations and sales teams with research-based training and consulting services. Josh has written four books on the subject. For more information, visit www.Selling2.com.

Photo credits:
The Coming Change In Social Media Business Applications: Separating The Biz From The Buzz - Pjcross
Practical Use of Twitter - Andrzej Tokarski

Create Online Surveys: Guide To The Best Free Services

Daniele Bazzano — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:48:00 PDT

Are you looking for a web-based service that allows you to create and publish a professional online survey? Do you need to create an online survey but are not too sure about what service to use? In this MasterNewMedia guide you can find the best available online survey services and some information to help you choose your ideal one.

Photo credit: John Takai

Online surveys main application is to help you get in touch with your customers and readers. Whether you want to know what your subscribers think of your site or how well they have received your new price changes, creating online surveys is a perfect way to receive opinions and criticism on your existing offering or before investing energy and money into a new project.

Not only.

Online surveys are specifically conceived to request personal feedback, which means you put your users at the center of your own marketing strategy, making your audience feel compelled to create something valuable and great with you. Your users feel not just paying customers, but proactive consumers whose voice gets to be heard.

Recently I have seen myself how online surveys can be a powerful mean to collect useful data and engage your audience. When Robin Good recently launched his new POP project some weeks ago, he started an online survey asking his interested subscribers which topic they would have liked most to be covered inside the course. In a matter of hours I saw Robin gathering lots of valuable data about what topics people really wanted to hear about, and then shaping his curriculum to serve those very items.

How do these online survey creators work?

You simply register for the service and start creating your questions. There are several options here: you may want to go for an open question with a text box, create a drop-down menu with multiple choices, have a matrix of multiple responses, or ask respondents to rate a specific item to express their level of satisfaction.

Once your survey is completed, you have several ways to distribute it, either by sending a link to your subscribers or by publishing directly on your web site or blog. As soon as people start filling in data, your online survey service starts organizing the information received into reports, that you can either keep private or make available for everyone else to see.

Now that I have stimulated your curiosity, let me share with you some of the key features and traits that characterize these online survey services:

Web-based: Online surveys are completely built and managed on the web. You do not need to download any software, plug-in, add-on or anything else to create questions and collect the responses.

Real-time evaluation: Results of your online surveys are processed in real-time and are immediately visible.

Multi-language: Multiple languages are fully supported so you can reach your audience in its native tongue.

Survey report: During the life of your online surveys you get detailed, analytic reports on the state of your survey. How many people have responded so far, which kind of responses have you got, etc.

Besides these key general features and traits, I have used some additional characteristics to prepare a set of comparative tables and individual reviews to help me put all of these online survey services through their paces.

The comparative criteria I have selected include:

Questions per survey: Number of questions you may ask on each online survey.

Responses per survey: Amount of responses you get from each online survey you create.

Question types: Different kinds of questions you can ask inside your online survey.

Distribution: Ways to publish and share your online survey (embed, e-mail, direct URL, etc.)

Later editing: Adding, editing or deleting questions after your online survey has been published.

Templates: Custom ready-made templates and themes to style your online survey.

Export / download: Support for exporting or downloading your online survey for offline editing and consulting.

Private / public option: Access restriction to allow only selected users to collaborate on your online survey.

Skip logic: Conditional questions that are asked inside the online survey only if previous answers met precise criteria you have set.

Premium features: Key advanced features available in premium paid accounts.

Here all the details:

Create Online Surveys - Comparative Tables

Create Online Surveys

SurveyMonkey

Survey Monkey is a web service that lets you create online surveys. You can start how many surveys you want, limited to 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. There is a wide range of question types you can add to your survey. Some of these are: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), matrix of choices, drop-down menu, rating scale, textbox, and more. To create your surveys you can also choose among several ready-made templates. Once your survey is ready, you can provide a link back to your survey or embed it on any web page or social media site using a standard snippet of embed code. It is always possible, even after you publish your survey, to edit your questions. At a free level, you do not have export / download features, private / public option, neither you can use a skip logic to add questions based on previous answers. Premium accounts start at $19.95/month and allow you to have unlimited questions per survey, unlimited custom themes, branding options, custom "thank you" pages and much more.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Zoomerang

Zoomerang is a powerful online survey creator with a large research analysis business behind it. At a free level, you can start unlimited surveys with 30 questions and 100 responses for each. There are many question types you can choose from, like: matrix of choices, multiple choice (one and multiple answers), rating scale, textbox, drop-down menu and more. Questions can always be modified, even after you publish your survey and people have already started responding. Zoomerang also offers customers to access their 2+ million survey takers to find out anything you want. No embed, export / download feature, public / private option, custom templates nor skip logic are available. To enable all these features, you must switch to one of the premium accounts available. The first level of premium accounts is priced at $199/year and also allows you to have unlimited questions and responses for each survey and use ready-made templates.
http://www.zoomerang.com/
PollDaddy

PollDaddy is an online service to create embeddable surveys and polls. You can start unlimited surveys with 10 questions and 100 responses each, completely free of charge. You have up to 11 different types of questions spanning from multiple choices to matrix of choices, from drop-down menu to textboxes and more. An option to use skip logic (create questions that depend on previous answers) is also available. You cannot edit your questions once the survey is open and published. Once your survey is ready, you can customize it using a ready-made theme and then embed your survey using a snippet of embed code. No export / download feature, nor public / private option are supported. Premium plans for PollDaddy start from $200/year and give you unlimited questions, 1000 responses for each survey, more customization possibilities and survey data export.
http://polldaddy.com/
Google Forms

Google Forms is a web-based service inside Google Docs that allows you to create free online surveys. You can start unlimited surveys, with no limit for questions and responses. You can also choose among seven types of questions like: multiple choices, drop-down menus, textboxes, and also use the so-called "skip logic" which allows you to create questions based on previous answers. Like any other document published on Google Docs, you can always modify your survey after publication. Once your survey is ready, you can customize it with a ready-made theme and then embed your survey on any web page or social media site using a standard snippet of embed code. If you need to export your survey data, you can do so from the Google Docs dashboard. By default, your survey is set as private, unless you publish or embed it somewhere on the web. No premium features are available.
http://docs.google.com/
eSurveysPro

eSurveysPro is a web-based survey creator that lets you create as many surveys you want with unlimited questions and responses. You also have a wide range of question types available, like: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), matrix of choices, drop-down menu, rating scale, textbox, and more. Skip logic (a feature to create questions that depend on previous answers) is available as well. No embed option, export / download feature. ready-made themes, nor private / public settings are available. Changing questions on your published surveys is also not supported. Premium plans for eSurveyPro start from $100/year and allow you to go ads-free, export the data of your surveys, have priority e-mail support and receive e-mail notifications related to your surveys.
http://www.esurveyspro.com/
Wufoo

Wufoo is an online form builder that you can use to create embeddable surveys. The free account of Wufoo allows you to create up to three online forms with 10 questions each. The number of available responses per survey is not specified. Your surveys can either be public or private and you have a range of seven question types to choose when building your forms, like: multiple choices, matrix of choices, textboxes, drop-down menus and much more. Editing your questions after publishing your survey is not possible. Once your form is completed, you can personalize your survey with one of the ready-made templates available. No skip logic (creating questions that depend on previous answers), nor the export of your survey data are available. Wufoo premium accounts grant you access to extended features like: higher number of surveys you can create, file attachments, password-protected surveys and export / download option. Premium accounts start from $9.95/month.
http://wufoo.com/
QuestionForm

QuestionForm is a web service that you can use to create embeddable online surveys. You can build two surveys with five questions each and unlimited responses, free of charge. You also have up to eight types of questions you can use, including: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), matrix of choices, drop-down menu, rating scale, textbox, and more. You are able to create, edit or delete questions even after your online survey has been published. Also, if you need to export your data you can do so from the QuestionForm dashboard. No ready-made templates, private / public option, nor skip logic (a feature to create questions that depend on previous answers) are available. Premium accounts of QuestionForm start from $9.95 and allow you to create up to four surveys with 15 question each, use custom templates, add file attachments to online surveys and receive technical support via e-mail.
http://questionform.com/
KwikSurveys

KwikSurveys is a free online survey creator that allows you to build unlimited surveys with no restriction to the number of questions you can include and responses you can receive. Also, you have up to seven different question types to create your survey like: matrix of choices, drop-down menu, multiple choice (one and multiple answers), textbox, rating scale and more. If you need to export your survey data, the web service gives you an option to do so. Using KwikSurveys you cannot embed your online surveys, nor you have the option to edit your questions after your survey has been published. Also custom templates, private / public option and skip logic feature to create conditional questions are not available. No premium accounts either.
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/
eSurveyCreator

With eSurveyCreator you can build embeddable online surveys right from your browser window. Without spending a dime, you have one free month to build unlimited surveys with no question limits and 350 available responses per survey. Seven types of questions can be used on eSurveyCreator to build your survey, including: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), textbox, matrix of choices and more. You can also use the so-called skip-logic feature, which allows you to add conditional questions that depend on previous answers inside the survey. No ready-made templates, nor private / public options are supported, but a feature to export your survey data is available. Premium accounts, starting from $24/month, allow you to get rid of time limitations, have unlimited responses, add photo and logos to your survey, use custom themes and also go ads-free.
http://www.esurveycreator.com/
FreeOnlineSurveys

FreeOnlineSurveys allows you to create an online survey free of charge. Your survey may contain up to 20 questions and 50 responses and will expire after ten days. Among the seven available question types you can use, there are: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), matrix of choices, drop-down menu and a few others. Once you have published your survey, there is no way to edit your questions, add or delete them. Notwithstanding the free component of the web service, FreeOnlineSurveys is very limited in features. You have no embed option, custom templates, export / download feature, embed option, private / public settings, nor skip logic to create conditional answers that depend on previous answers. No premium plans are available either.
http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com/
Pollograph

Pollograph is a web service that allows you to create online surveys. With a free account you can create up to five surveys with unlimited questions and 200 responses each. Question types available with Pollograph are seven, including: multiple choice (one and multiple answers), matrix of choices, textbox and a few others. To style your survey, you can use one of the ready-made templates available and then start adding your questions. Your surveys can either be public or private. Not available on Pollograph are: embed option, export / download feature, skip logic (conditional questions based on previous answers) nor the ability to modify your questions after the survey has been published. Premium plans for Pollograph start from $10/month and let you create up to 99 online surveys with 1000 responses each, have a link back to your site inside the survey, and privately view your results.
http://www.pollograph.com/

Originally prepared by Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on October 5th, 2009 as "Create Online Surveys: Guide To The Best Free Services".

Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Oct 03 09

George Siemens — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:10:00 PDT

In this issue of Media Literacy Digest, open education advocate George Siemens, explores and reports on new fascinating stories and insights converging around communication technologies and their impact on learning, work and society.

Photo credit: Michele Piacquadio

Inside this Media Literacy Digest:

Heading To Athabasca University - I have accepted a position with Athabasca University and, as a result, will be leaving my current position at University of Manitoba. It was a tough decision.

Social Learning Presentations - Jane Hart shares her social media presentations via slideshare playlist. A total of 18 presentations are available, addressing a variety of technologies, concepts, and frameworks for social learning.

Narrowing Gap - Face-To-Face and Online - With location-aware software and mobile devices… and the immediacy of Twitter / Facebook, the gap between physical and virtual is shrinking.

Universities and Research - Most research in universities is not commercialized. For that matter, most likely cannot be commercialized due to specialized nature of inquiry.

Introduction To Emerging Technologies: Open Course - In about two weeks, Dave Cormier and I will begin our open online course on Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa. The course will be offered in both English and French.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Heading To Athabasca University

I have accepted a position with Athabasca University and, as a result, will be leaving my current position at University of Manitoba. It was a tough decision.

I have enjoyed working at U of M - particularly with Peter Tittenberger, Director of Learning Technologies Centre, one of the most creative / innovative leaders I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

When presented with an opportunity to work with Terry Anderson, Jon Dron, Rory McGreal, Griff Richards, and others (I do not think I will be working directly with Debra Hoven, but will enjoy the conversations, I am sure!), the prospect of fertile soil for innovation and discussion is too great to resist!

I will post more about position details and work tasks soon, but at this stage, my work will be positioned with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute and the broader university community in developing a virtual media lab.

It appears I will be able to continue

my current focus of online conferences,

workshops,

elearnspace newsletter, and

related activities.

In addition to planning a November 1 start date at Athabasca, I have a somewhat hectic speaking schedule for the rest of fall (Portugal, Vancouver, Norway, Barcelona, Toronto, New Zealand).

I believe we are at an exciting time in higher education, where new technologies, new pedagogies, and even new institutional structures, will converge to produce an unprecedented period of innovation in learning and learning sciences.

Change, at personal, professional, and organizational levels is today's educational zeitgeist.

Social Learning Presentations

Jane Hart shares her social media presentations via slideshare playlist (you can select various presentations on the right-hand side of the embedded slideshare "player").

A total of 18 presentations are available, addressing a variety of technologies, concepts, and frameworks for social learning. Some level of narration would be a helpful addition, but overall, a good resource to introduce technologically-mediated social learning.

Narrowing Gap - Face-To-Face and Online

With location-aware software and mobile devices… and the immediacy of Twitter / Facebook, the gap between physical and virtual is shrinking.

As Tony Karrer notes, in addressing online / face-to-face conferences:

"What is interesting here is that it used to be that you could count on your in-person audience to be singletasking (is that a word?) and paying attention. Now, they are going to be multitasking just like your online audience."

Perhaps I spend too much time online, but I would like to do with the physical world (and conversations) what I do online:

tag,

sort,

annotate,

organize,

archive (the internet of things?).

Overlaying a data layer on the physical world - such as walking through a historical district and being able to see buildings on your mobile device as they looked 100 years ago - contributes to physical / virtual blurring.

I will take it a step further: The biggest challenge facing technologists today is to provide a seamless method of integrating our online selves and our physical selves. I would argue the two separate selves should not even exist - they will converge into one entity.

Universities and Research

In an idea reminiscent of Swanson's concept of undiscovered public knowledge, Techcrunch is suggesting corporations turn to universities for a wealth of innovative ideas.

Most research in universities is not commercialized. For that matter, most likely cannot be commercialized due to specialized nature of inquiry.

However, according to TC, entrepreneurs should explore the "motherlode of innovation hidden in the huge stacks of patents and discoveries backlogged at our universities and research labs".

Universities are attempting to take control of commercializing their own research.Specialized departments have been set up in larger universities to facilitate this task (and, in many cases, revenues from commercialization activities are growing as a percentage of overall funding).

By design, however, higher education is not equipped to function at the speed (or for that matter, the priorities) of business.

I am concerned that a revenue generation focus will cause universities to lose focus of the broader (philosophic / social / exploratory) they play in societies.

Do all aspects of society - health care, education, even government - need to converge on a corporate/business model? If so, where will we find the important counter balance to ensure one model does not come to dominate completely?

Introduction To Emerging Technologies: Open Course

In about two weeks, Dave Cormier and I will begin our open online course on Introduction to Emerging Technologies, Africa. The course will be offered in both English and French.

If you would like to be kept informed about the course (as a participant or observer), please join the Google Group.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 2nd, 2009 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About George Siemens

Photo credits:
Heading To Athabasca University - Bellestock
Social Learning Presentations - Yanik Chauvin
Narrowing Gap - Face-To-Face and Online - Sergey Peterman
Universities and Research - Yuri Arcurs
Introduction To Emerging Technologies: Open Course - Anyka