Sharing ideas and capturing hidden knowledge that people possess (what they have learned over years, a website, a resource, contact, etc) when trying to solve a problem (and that is what we tend to do a lot of) is always a good strategy.
Tangler or an equivalent would be a suitable vehicle for this sort of exchange as each Tangler subject topic could contain the distilled essence of a solution to the problem posed - just read the forum and get either some tips on getting to a solution or the solution itself (hopefully with links to the relevant resource). Again as with a lot of Web 2.0 applications, there is a tantalising opportunity to aggregate and make accessible the knowledge of the myriad informed groups within an organisation.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ebookee
Have had a look at ebookee and tried a few of their offerings. They have quite a number of titles and reference tomes, some more accessible than others (with a few download links I got a "no content" message), but that notwithstanding, ebooks are very useful and have potential, especially if they are cheap enough and have some longevity. We have found Parsons' "Income Taxation in Australia" electronic version to be extremely useful for a number of high level clients and more material of that calibre would be a definite boon. The free e-mags are OK, but I have to say that the only time I read magazines outside of work is at the doctors or dentists. I certainly couldn't find anything about Brad or Ange which is probably a good thing.
Kindle is a credible effort at a portable universal reader. It is attempting to rival the printed book for portability and ease of use, and while some of its features might go some way towards doing that, it would prove fairly costly to download anything substantial on a whim whilst coming home on the train. Loading up from a PC would probably be the recommended option. Battery life also seems to have been a problem with the Mk 1 model, given that the Mk 2 is advertised as having improved battery life. The Kindle has obviously been around for a while, as it has a glowing testimonial from the Martha Stewart show on the Amazon site promoting it.
Kindle is a credible effort at a portable universal reader. It is attempting to rival the printed book for portability and ease of use, and while some of its features might go some way towards doing that, it would prove fairly costly to download anything substantial on a whim whilst coming home on the train. Loading up from a PC would probably be the recommended option. Battery life also seems to have been a problem with the Mk 1 model, given that the Mk 2 is advertised as having improved battery life. The Kindle has obviously been around for a while, as it has a glowing testimonial from the Martha Stewart show on the Amazon site promoting it.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Beyond 46: My Web 2.0
The task this week is to recommend a Web 2.0 site that might be of use to others. The one that I have chosen is Rollyo - no doubt an abbreviation for "Roll your own" which makes me think it might have some Australian links, the "rolly" being the hand made cigarette much loved of old bushies and for some reason, university students. The Rollyo site howver has nothing to do with tobacco.
" Rollyo" http://www.rollyo.com/ is a site that allows a user to bundle together sets of useful, trusted sites which can then be searched simultaneously for whatever terms are required. This bundling of useful, related sites is very handy and very flexible - sites can be added or removed from a Rollyo "Roll"and time is saved in searching, in that for simple searches at least, only one search need be conducted instead of multiple serial searches. For an exercise on Rollyo, set up an account and then set up a "Searchroll" (ie a bundle of trusted sites) for legal materials. Comlaw http://www.comlaw.gov.au and Austlii http://www.austlii.edu.au would do, although one could add as many as 25 sites if need be. Having set up a "searchroll" use it to carry out a search for the "Public Service Act 1999". The results are pretty good, if the searches are kept simple.
Another useful feature of Rollyo, is that by adding the Rollyo bookmark link to your bookmark bar, it is possible to use Rollyo to search any site that you bookmark, thus saving the need to work down through a site to find the link you want. Same deal as using Google to search a specific site. If you have registered, add the Rollbar link to your bookmark bar and give it a fly. The link to do this is : http://www.rollyo.com/bookmarklet.html.
" Rollyo" http://www.rollyo.com/ is a site that allows a user to bundle together sets of useful, trusted sites which can then be searched simultaneously for whatever terms are required. This bundling of useful, related sites is very handy and very flexible - sites can be added or removed from a Rollyo "Roll"and time is saved in searching, in that for simple searches at least, only one search need be conducted instead of multiple serial searches. For an exercise on Rollyo, set up an account and then set up a "Searchroll" (ie a bundle of trusted sites) for legal materials. Comlaw http://www.comlaw.gov.au and Austlii http://www.austlii.edu.au would do, although one could add as many as 25 sites if need be. Having set up a "searchroll" use it to carry out a search for the "Public Service Act 1999". The results are pretty good, if the searches are kept simple.
Another useful feature of Rollyo, is that by adding the Rollyo bookmark link to your bookmark bar, it is possible to use Rollyo to search any site that you bookmark, thus saving the need to work down through a site to find the link you want. Same deal as using Google to search a specific site. If you have registered, add the Rollbar link to your bookmark bar and give it a fly. The link to do this is : http://www.rollyo.com/bookmarklet.html.
Thing 46: Review
The task this week has to been to review Blogger, Flickr, Bloglines, Find RSS, Generator and Librarything. The general comment for all of them is that they have got bigger, more (and sometimes more user friendly) features and generally have spread their nets wider - Flickr has more photos (plus picnik editing), Generator has more image generators, Syndic8 more feeds accessible and so on. The benefit of going back over these pieces of kit is not so much what new functions they have had bolted on to them, although some of them are improvements that are worth knowing about, rather I saw it is a chance to re-evaluate the tools after a period of time.
Of all of them, the example of Librarything seems to offer tantalizing shortcuts and potential value for catalogued print material and maybe also as a selection tool. Its tagging/sharing aspect could be exploited to provide useful info to our organisation. Our staff might for example use it, in some system friendly form, to keep a personal catalogue of the texts/materials they use, which is then socially available either organisation wide or, depending on the area, only to others in their teams/units. Anonymous knowledge of the tags and materials used by experts (eg CoE members) in particular areas would be informative for people new to a line of work, wanting to research a specialised area, in hand overs etc. No doubt our current LMS could do much the same, however that info is not readily available to the wider organisation. The same overall process might also be adopted with intra-organisational tagging of blogs and feeds taken by different areas of the organisation, on the assumption that the most popular are also the most useful. (something that is not always the case). It is like a process of distilling or sieving the most used and most useful material from the rest.
Generally the 2.0 applications have all got bigger, better and smarter and the fact that they are still around may be indicative of their utility to business. On the other hand, a peek at my kids' Myspace and Facebook offerings tends to make one wonder about MS & FB ever being used as a serious tool.
Of all of them, the example of Librarything seems to offer tantalizing shortcuts and potential value for catalogued print material and maybe also as a selection tool. Its tagging/sharing aspect could be exploited to provide useful info to our organisation. Our staff might for example use it, in some system friendly form, to keep a personal catalogue of the texts/materials they use, which is then socially available either organisation wide or, depending on the area, only to others in their teams/units. Anonymous knowledge of the tags and materials used by experts (eg CoE members) in particular areas would be informative for people new to a line of work, wanting to research a specialised area, in hand overs etc. No doubt our current LMS could do much the same, however that info is not readily available to the wider organisation. The same overall process might also be adopted with intra-organisational tagging of blogs and feeds taken by different areas of the organisation, on the assumption that the most popular are also the most useful. (something that is not always the case). It is like a process of distilling or sieving the most used and most useful material from the rest.
Generally the 2.0 applications have all got bigger, better and smarter and the fact that they are still around may be indicative of their utility to business. On the other hand, a peek at my kids' Myspace and Facebook offerings tends to make one wonder about MS & FB ever being used as a serious tool.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Flowcharts and Mindmaps
Have had a look at Mindmeister and Flowchart.com and have signed up with both. Flowchart.com offer a pretty sophisticated product but it is not as easy to use as Mindmeister. These tools typically would be useful in our organisation for planning and/or explaining projects or processes. My Mindmeister chart is found at http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/14523655. I am not sure whether it will take you there as I haven't published the map on the web. You will probably be prompted for your Mindmeister password and logon anyway. It was a bit of fun and is worth knowing about.
Jott
In a way I am glad that we could not get to use Jott. The concept of being able to send yourself a message every time you recalled something that shouldn't be forgotten would have me spending most of the day on the mobile to myself and the rest of the time checking my msn. Sending yourself an email or putting it in your Outlook diary might provide a second best but available substitute. I didn't need to look at Nag Yourself as it is redundant - I am a happily married man of long standing and so have long ago outsourced that function.
Google Groups
Google groups and newsgroups in general might be handy for a topic overview/big issues at the beginning of a project, but you might want to take what is said with a grain of salt if you are totally unfamiliar with the area. It might also give leads to further resources. If recommending it to clients,I would suggest emphasising the caveats that apply to Wikipedia. The usage figures tell a story - the heyday for this format was the mid 1990s and it has fallen in a hole since, if stats can be believed. The diminished number of participants possibly bespeaks diminished usefulness - a lot of people with something to say have left.
Similar formats have already been tried inside our organisation with mixed success.
Similar formats have already been tried inside our organisation with mixed success.
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