Learning, Technology & Change

changes in software maintenance

2008-08-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

There appears to be a growing revolt against the boilerplate approach to software maintenance pricing(see zdnet). As a vendor, I appreciate how much revenue this draws in. At the same time from a customer standpoint it can be a challenge in today's cost-cutting environment.

The idea of declining fees or a customer-specific agreement are an interesting and at the same time troubling idea.

Successful software companies are often judged on their maintenance revenue. A company relying on just implementation dollars could be considered a consulting company. This will change the way software companies are valued, and force them to create new

Is the customer actively applying updates?
Is the customer constantly calling for support or new enhancements?
Perhaps the fee would be based on some level of activity metric. Do you have new users entering the system? Rolling out a new phase?

Maybe some sort of rolling average factoring support calls, implementations and active users.

This seems to ring true as a better way to provide value to clients. At the same time this adds much more complexity to software maintenance. It would almost sound like an annual negotiation process between vendor and client debating on the merits of their app usage. A reasonable process could keep clients who can't justify the baseline maintenance fee given their usage.

Is this a necessary evolution vendor nightmare?

Related Links:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=459

are police the answer to the homeless question?

2008-08-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

There's a report today about how the Chinatown Business Improvement Area has hired private security to get rid of panhandlers. The toronto council is being called out for not meeting the needs of the city.

"City council should be putting more cops on the streets to address this!"

I don't know if that's the answer. Maybe I'm too far down the left-wing but using cops / security to remove panhandlers is a response to a symptom without any regard for the cause. Adding cops is just a nimby attitude.

One response was to highlight how McDs & Timmy's are actively recruiting (TV & Radio spots) for employees thus people must be Choosing to panhandle. When you're of no fixed address I suppose it's difficult to receive a call for an interview. I also wonder how open managers are to the idea of hiring people down on their luck, since homeless are normally treated as criminals. To me the idea that panhandlers make more money than a legitimate job seems laughable. It reeks of rationalization by a society too eager to step over anyone rather than lend a hand. I'm sure like everything to do with money there are those that can exploit a set of circumstances to their advantage. I would say these con-men are the outliers not the norm.

I wonder if there've been anyone like Sudhir Venkatesh to do an in-depth study on the homeless to better understand the issues.

Related Links:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/167/5/477.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/5cjnj8

where's my data

2008-07-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

It's an increasing trend for myself (and others) to move data online. My bookmarks? Del.icio.us. My Documents? Google Docs. Other lists are now a part of my NetVibes page.

Last night I wanted to a look up a book I had heard about the other day. No sweat I'll just check my notes page on my homepage with a special note on books but - Netvibes was down....this is bull$hit i'm paying how much a month for this flaky service??

oh Yeah. i'm paying nothing. So why am I putting so much faith and giving up so much control?
It's all about the convenience I suppose. Bookmarks available whenever notes available wherever.

Am I putting way too much trust in the cloud?

missing in rapid e-learning

2008-07-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Rapid eLearning tools are becoming a standard. The ability to quickly create content develop interactions without web developer skills is a necessity. The reduction in the cost of instruction is amazing. The great thing with these tools are that anyone can create learning content. The problem is - anyone can create content. The argument being made is that unqualified people are creating bad content (powerpoint, word documents, Email...).

Providing tools to improve the quality of the content can't hurt. I think a larger benefit can be had by automating how we build content. Can we create a tool to help the author analyze the information? Is it declarative knowledge (perhaps more user-friendly questions)? If so then these are the ways you should present the information. Is it procedural knowledge, then try this. Maybe in some sort of wizard format. You create the learning objectives and determine the knowledge type. From there you could drill down and get more detailed. Perhaps some time of decision tree where a user categorizes the information and the desired performance change, then a tool could suggest options. Perhaps we'll call it rapid instructional design. It doesn't provide a very holistic approach to learning but that would be more about correctly aggregating objectives together.

More to come.

Cigarettes & LMS'

2008-07-17T12:43:00.001-07:00

Your LMS will not cause cardiovascular disease. Each time you use your LMS is will not shorten your life by 11 minutes. Still, I believe a traditional LMS is similar to cigarette. A Learning Management System is supposed to be about tracking a user’s learning. What progress have they made, what courses have they taken what are their scores? In reality I think this is not quite true. An LMS is about pushing information. Let me elaborate.

Cigarettes are a means of delivering nicotine. Big Tobacco has fought this, but that’s the truth of it. There’s a certain image perpetuated, but that’s just the sales pitch. Cigarettes deliver nicotine and all of its “benefits” to your body. It’s a somewhat acceptable means to get a fix (versus chewing tobacco).

Learning Management Systems deliver content to users. What about all the other new functionality? Those are how vendors stay relevant and sell new versions. It’s similar to how Microsoft has to keep “improving” the word processor (read: extra features that I have to learn just to complete basic tasks). I’ve been in discussions about our online learning strategy. I think our strategy is two-fold, Content & LMS software. I believe the emphasis has been incorrectly weighted towards software. Our LMS’ primary purpose is to support the training and rollout of our main solution. The best way to do this is to provide a large catalog of high-quality content. The goal of a learning solution is to bring about change. Content is what delivers a change in performance the LMS is more about the project management.

So what went wrong? When working on online learning content, and software development, where should the resources go? One might think that software is more important. Functionality is King! Making software is cool, we’re providing more capabilities to customers! In reality The primary value to clients is content. That’s the value proposal, that should be the primary focus.

The tide is turning as large corporations are consolidating technology. It’s much less likely to have LMS for a single department within a company. Instead they will subscribe to an online course, or purchase content to use within their existing corporate system. You can’t really argue with it, having a central learning repository is important. LMS functionality is becoming commoditized. It’s becoming a value-add on an HRMS, CMS etc.

So when given the choice for development remember that clients will always need a content fix. Whether it’s through your LMS or not.

Must Focus!!

2008-06-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

There is a significant amount of noise these days. Much of Knowledge Management is about helping people cope with the massive amounts of information available to them. George Siemens had a nice little post that got me thinking. Knowledge workers are bombarded with email, IM, twitter etc. New media is becoming more centred on commercial-size chunks. YouTube videos and micro-blogs are a perfect example. Finding the time to listen to a 20 minute podcast feels daunting at times. I really feel my ability to focus has been compromised by too much time multi-tasking. In the moments where I have important tasks to complete I find difficulty focusing on it to just "git'er done". I'm far too used to just clicking a link and going down the rabbit hole.

Shut UP already

Multi-tasking?

easy validation

2008-06-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

When searching on obscure topics I'm bound to get results from questionable sources. When I see a more modern layout, it lends creedence to the source. The article in question could be out of date or a complete fallacy but the layout validates it. I noticed today a newer form of validation.

When a site has social media buttons ( submit to Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us) Since that site is "more hip" I'm more inclined to dig deeper.

What other cues do you find when you encounter new sites?

twitter loyalty?

2008-06-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

With developers apparently jumping off the bandwagon it's natural to assume users will follow. As less development occurs other tools will become more integrated and easier to use.

As a user do you care? if i move to friendfeed, getting reconnected would be a pain, but i'm not really leaving much behind. Links are bookmarked in del.icio.us. Personally I don't really favourite many tweets. If I like a link I tag it. The real-time nature of twitter doesn't translate that well for long-term value.

Related Links:
http://staynalive.com/articles/2008/06/19/developers-bailing-on-twitter/

video games and failure

2008-06-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

Let's say you're 10 years old again. You drop the game-ending flyball and your friends won't let you live it down for a week. Bomb on your math test, your Dad won't let you go on that trip.
In your latest PS3 shoot-em up game you run around trying to kill the bad guys. If you get shot and die? That's terrible right? what will you ever do???

How about select continue and try again. No big deal. You get booed off the stage in Guitar Hero - fine. Load it up let's have another go.

No wonder kids love video games. In the real world failure Sucks. People remind you of failure even hold it over your head ("well remember that time..."). There's no punishment there for failing. You don't let anyone down. You just play.

With new revolution to gaming from the Nintendo Wii, the door has opened even wider to let video games become a teaching tool. The Wii has allowed us to take gaming from the controller-enabled to anyone.

How can we take a lesson from video games and create painless failure in learning environments?

Gap? more like gorge...

2008-06-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Work Literacy asks: is there a gap in work literacy?. The idea behind work literacy are methods and processes that could make people more proficient in their jobs.

A group of engineers gather. The client is not happy. The technical problem is tougher than expected. Everyone's in the war room to figure it out. You start to explain that you've figured it out... but no one gets it. They look for a second and stare. Then someone else pipes on and everyone is onto another idea... but you had it... why won't they listen, why don't they get it?

There is a big gap inbetween intelligence and effectiveness, that gap is communication. I would call it a massive gap or gorge. Your effectiveness is directly related to your ability communicate ideas.

I meet and work with many bright minds on a regular basis. Their intuition and insight continuously amazes me. The sticking point is that I see a lot of wasted time when people can't successfully exchange ideas. Their brilliance is hindered by their language. Many people are unable to structure, and present their ideas in a coherent fashion. It's something I catch myself struggling with. I understand it in my head but the practice of making it easy for someone else to grasp is a different matter.

Regular practice is the key to successfully communicating. Presenting, and writing on a regular basis will only help improve your writing. You can also learn from other examples of good communication, but practice will yield the most benefit.

The ability to structure and communicate ideas concisely and effectively is hugely under-valued.
No matter how smart you are, unless you work completely on your own, if you can't convey your ideas - you're useless.

Related Links:
http://www.workliteracy.com/work-literacy-gap
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds

2008-05-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Another outstanding contribution from the crew at Common Craft. They always craft their messages using a great metaphor and bring complicated concepts down to the bare essentials. I find them an inspiration for learning professionals. In an age where people tend to cram as much material as possible into a training session the ability to distill information down to core concepts is key. Their story technique works wonders for retention.

A great example of information design.

ugh...

2008-05-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

heading to user conference in Montreal. My head has been in a fog all weekend with no remedy in site. Presenting on Tuesday & Wednesday... this ought to be hilarious. If anything the aches and pains should make for some good tweets.

Social Knowledge Management (Pt 2 of...)

2008-05-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

We're doing a talk on how our customers can better understand and use social software to further their knowledge management initiatives. I took this question to my social network. LinkedIn Answers is a great tool for tapping the wisdom of the crowds.

I posed the following question

How can we use the enthusiasm and technology of web 2.0 within knowledge management initiatives?

I got some great responses, which also spawned a few followup discussions. People are optimistic about "Enterprise 2.0" and its adoption. Sharepoint is a traditional collaboration tool which Microsoft is attempting to "socialize". Other more familiar 2.0 tools mentioned were the suite from 37signals

It would appear that the tools are there and maturing. However, with any Knowledge Management initiative the tools are not enough. The people using the tools are the ones that build the knowledge base (Bad tools never help the cause either). So I go back to the question of the enthusiasm and passion people have for using social software. No one pays me to tag, digg, tweet or blog, yet it I do it all the time. What do people get from doing it?

Reputation.

In cyberspace (why does no one use that term anymore?) reputation rules. Reputation gets you subscribers, twitter followers, referrals etc. What's the simplest way to implement reputation in an application? Rating systems where content authors are scored by the community? What about editors? How about those that attempt to game the system when incentives are placed on ratings.

"Who will rate the raters?"

Related Posts:
Social Media & Knowledge Management

Cellphones, Driving & Learning Cognition

2008-04-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

There's a growing debate amongst the effect of cellphones while driving. While it would seem to be logical that cellphones would increase the rate of accidents. However a recent study proved otherwise. A study of regions that have banned cellphones while driving reported no decrease in the rate of accidents. There is some difficulty in producing hard data as to whether accidents are reduced. How many people will admit to being on the phone? Within the learning field there is a similar discussion about the effect of distracting the user through different forms of media.

So if accidents aren't decreasing, this seems to elude to two options.

1) Cellphones aren't a distraction
2) Drivers are still using their cellphones

People for banning cellphones would argue that the number of accidents involving phones are going down. Those opposed to the ban point to stats and state that it doesn't make a difference. So it follows that other types of accidents are going up. So a third option appears:

3) Drivers are finding other distractions

Okay. So what's this got to do with learning. As of late there's more weight being given to cognitive science. Cognitive science tells us how our mind processes stimuli. When taking learning it's distracting to have both audio narration and redundant text narration. What's being read fights with what's being heard for the mind to process. In a car it's the same thing, passengers talking, tunes playing, GPS systems directing, DVD movies playing. Everything takes its toll on the mind.

No matter what the study says distractions - Bad. Whether people are distracted by cellphones, coffee, the newspaper, makeup, or passengers if they're not focussed on the road - it's a problem. Despite the clear evidence, can eliminating a distraction hurt? Any data to show that talking on a cellphone improves a person's driving? I suppose without hard evidence we shouldn't restrict liberties (unless it helps the terrorists - I digress).

See Also:
Calgary Herald

shut up already

2008-04-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

I like twitter, really i do. But it's not a good signal to noise ratio. I'm trying to be very selective on who I follow. I'm extra careful with my notifications. but it's increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I understand the value in getting closer in touch with people through these life streams. Part of why i follow people is to find insight and perspective. The aimless blabber with some twitter streams is tough to justify.

Why must it be justified? - Because twitter is eating into my day more and more. following Guy Kawasaki & Jeremiah Owyang along could be a part-time job.

I follow a selected few, and don't read everything, how on earth do people with hundreds or thousands manage? Are they ignored for the most part except for the occasional trip to twitterland? With the lack of good search tools (hash tags are a good step) what's the point in all those followers are people really keeping up or are they just basing it on chance?

Tech Crunch: Web 3.0 Will Be About Reducing the Noise—And Twhirl Isn’t Helping
Seth Godin: Signal to Noise

How do you cope?

Learning ROI

2008-04-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

In the ASTD big question - what would I like to do better is communicate ROI on training investments across the organization.

*Bam* the very next day this comes out from Chief Learning Officer. The rest of the organization speaks in dollars and cents, revenues and expenses, if you don't speak in their language you're done. Getting the right metrics is key. In software training, what type of metrics can we use?

The whole point of training initiative is to meet a performance objective. For me this often means supporting a new rollout. Perhaps we need to tie specific modules to tasks in the project. Then post go-live managers can monitor and match training completion to "real-world tasks". After completing the report writing topic, have the user create a report. How well did they complete the task? If they did well - great. If they didn't, how does the real task compare to what they accomplished in class? Are the tasks comparable?

There is a great deal of discussion that ROI is not an appropriate metric for learning, I don't know if that's an acceptable answer for anyone in a corporate environment. Everything comes down to the bottom line. I recently came across "Developing and Measuring Training the Six Sigma Way: A Business Approach to Training and Development" by Kaliym A. Islam. I haven't gotten my hands on it yet but I'm looking forward to evaluating learning programs without the classic Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels.

What other tangible methods of learning are available?

Related Posts
Better ROI

Learning Town

2008-04-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

When I first heard about this, I had the same reaction as most. Of course, that's what we need- another social network.

But actually we do. I haven't been too active yet, but I'm getting into it now.

It's definitely still in its infancy, similar to FastCompany many users are unsure of the structure - how & where to post. The sheer volume of people registering and posting in such a short period of time would appear to bode well. There are some great posts and starting points on Rapid eLearning, instructional design models and even Learning ROI. From a social networking standpoint I haven't friended anyone - yet. Since the conversations are open to all so I'm not seeing the value in that, but the connections will come in time.

I'm still working my Social Media & KM project so I will start seeding questions on Learning Town and see how it goes as well.

In the meantime, I'd invite you to join the conversation and look me up.

Toronto Gun Ban - misguided?

2008-04-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

In the last few days Mayor David Miller has launched an online campaign to put pressure on the feds to ban handguns. The immediate reaction is why, do criminals attempt to legally acquire handguns before performing illegal activities? To me the logic doesn't work.

The mayor has created a video plea & a petition. There's a letter to the PM and a factsheet. The letter called for the feds to completely ban handguns. Before passing judgement, I decided to give it a better look. There isn't any real mention of the guns being illegally imported and what to do about that.

An interesting quote from the factsheet:

Approximately 60% to 66% (two-thirds) of guns seized by the Toronto Police
Service enter Canada illegally across the Canada-U.S. border, and about one-third (up to 40%) are from domestic sources.

None of these stats are more recent than 2006 but I wouldn't think there's been a big change. If anything there's probably been an increase in gun violence. That's over 1/3 of gun seizures are registered handguns. To me that was startling. This stat doesn't reveal whether those weapons were involved in crimes or turned in voluntarily. Removing 1/3 of the guns off the street sounds like a pretty good idea. Perhaps then we'd have less excuses and could go after the other 2/3 of illegal weapons.

It does seem that we're going after law-abiding citizens. Should we get rid of all the cars so drunk drivers will have nothing to drive with? What percentage of legally registered guns are used criminally? I'm pretty sure about 100% of illegals guns are used for criminal purposes. Perhaps tougher registration laws are in order, increase the level of responsibility on gun owners to ensure that they are serious about their collecting, sport or whatever.

While I think the Mayor should be targeting the illegal guns which are all about illegal activity. Removing 1/3 of the guns used illegally can't be that bad an idea.

Will you be missed?

2008-04-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin has a good post about standing out. If a certain brand up and vanished, would you miss it? I know apple inspires this sort of rabid loyalty.

Seth extends this to people. What mark have you made? Will you be missed? Will anyone notice? In today's organizational culture people are meant to be plug and play. With development and succession planning everyone is replaceable. The backup has a backup.

From an organizational view I understand it. Personally I would like to stand out. When I leave here I would like to be missed. It means I made a difference. Not just another 9-5er. I made an impact. I think this comes from going above and beyond. Making the effort to connect with clients. Helping them understand their needs not just the extent of their budget. Connecting with co-workers, helping them grow as well.

I want to be missed.

Better ROI

2008-04-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

The Learning Circuits Blog: Do Better

The ASTD's Big Question of April 2008 is:

What would you like to do better as a learning professional?

A very broad question that could go in so many different directions. To me it's a simple question. I need to be able to sell the ROI on learning better. Large userbase, wide geography, cost of travel, logistics are the standard selling points. This comes all down to cost. So long as it's cheaper than a classroom program it's better.

The value of e-learning is much more than a cost-savings issue. Interactive, engaging content available just-in-time is a very valuable resource. How can we as professionals impress that across our organizations? Often I work with new rollouts. Being a new initiative there isn't concrete evidence that support calls are up, people are having difficulty. I can't come back one year later and show how calls have gone down, thus performance is up.

I suppose I should be grateful that users aren't being left to fend for themselves from the outset. Users are provided with tools. However, since we've always had the tools it's difficult to understand life without them. The value becomes an unknown quantity.User surveys don't bring insight as users don't know what they don't know (yet). In the end I'm left with this question:

How can I better impress the value of eLearning across the organization?

Social Media & Knowledge Management

2008-03-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

As part of our user conference we're having a discussion of what we can learn from the world of social media when implementing a knowledge management initiative. I think there's a huge opportunity to learn from Social Media, not just with regards to knowledge management.

Usability, collaboration, flattening hierarchies, wisdom of the crowds, openness. Some of the basic ideas of social media.

So what better way to explore the idea than to use social media? Sort of social media On Social Media. Not a unique concept - just go on del.icio.us and see how many people tag pages with "del.icio.us." So we'll start with this post. This will probably turn into a series of posts to help clarify some ideas. I'll post some questions in some other areas and see what comes up.

instructional design- reality check

2008-03-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Most of what's discussed on instructional design is toward the ideal scenario. What Should we be producing. In the ideal world we're talking about an immersive unique experiential environment. This becomes half-systematic and half-creative exercise.

I'm looking for ways to work this into our current design methodology, creativity comes at a very tangible price. The implementation becomes considerably longer when we don't use a cookie cutter approach software rollouts don't always allow for such timelines. Clients are generally pleased with the end result. True ROI on learning, and testing of retention is not done as often as we'd like - why? again, because it's not in the budget.

It's refreshing to hear Cammy represent this same train of thought http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/2008/03/e-learning-project-reality-guerrilla.html

Clean water for all

2008-03-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

You can do a good thing but just ordering a glass of water.

Cara foods is involved in a great project with Unicef. The Tapproject.ca is about having customers donate 1$ for each glass of tap water in order to help unicef provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation for over 90 countries.

From the website:

It's our single most bountiful resource. Yet, water is a daily privilege millions take for granted. The little known truth is that lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second largest worldwide killer of children under five.

Cara restaurants are Swiss Chalet, Harvey's, Milestones, Montana's & Caseys. So do some good, go have a drink!

A great way to promote awareness raise some money. Besides drinking bottled water is for chumps.

potential versus profits

2008-03-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Gerald Green of the Houston Rockets was cut from the team. Amidst their amazing win streak they needed to get bigger in Yao's absence. In his place they got Mike Harris, the antithesis of Green. Hardworking, hustler, takes nothing for granted.

Some were quick to point to Green's Prep to Pros path as the cause. "If he only went to college" perhaps he could've refined his game, upped his basketball IQ and become something really special. He never fulfilled all the hype. He made a massive slide in the draft itself, because of questions surrounding his work-ethic.

So do you fault him and his agent, family etc for not going to college first? What about the millions he made on his rookie contract. He might have gone to college, and been revealed, and Never drafted. Should he have turned it down and gone to college?

Why shouldn't he cash in when given the chance? If the NBA continues to devalue skill over potential then that's their fault.

If it were me, given the opportunity- even if I knew I had big gaping holes in my game, i take that shot. I go to the league, I take that massive cheque. Wouldn't you? Nothing's stopping him from going to college now, getting an education using that rookie money. He could also play overseas which could renew his love and drive to play the game.

For his sake I really hope he gets it together to realize some of that incredible potential.

i should not OBAY!

2008-03-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Back in January and February there was a great little campaign that most people in the GTA noticed. It was a parody on a new drug that would make child conform to their parent's will. Odd, no one was quite sure what it was about. In the end it was Ontario Colleges, an advocacy group encouraging... college.

The idea that many students are being herded into college so their parents can live through them is one many people have experienced. Looking back, I don't recall entertaining the idea of going to college. All through highschool it was all about going to university. Calling college a distant second doesn't do it justice. I don't think it was even an option. Realizing the opportunities my parents never had wasn't too big of an agenda, or so I think.

I see in my family now that my younger cousins are being strongly encouraged. I think it's a very valid debate. Colleges have gotten a bad rap. Universities have received a false title. College is for kids that couldn't get into university; university will get you a good job.

From a person with Computer Science degree I can still say that university is (and should be) about thinking - Not getting a job. University is about becoming a more well-rounded person, being able to critically think for yourself. The lines have been clouded by the idea that you can't get a job without university. Schools have created more and more specialization to make students more attractive to employers. Where have all the free-thinkers gone? I guess that's bound just to Liberal Arts now.

There is discussion about the coming shortage of skilled trades with the bulk of baby boomers nearing retirement. However I haven't heard of rates for tradespeople going through the roof yet. Perhaps I should consider a new career now, by the time I get through school and an apprenticeship all the boomers will be retired, and I could rake it in at a Y2k consultant-type pace.