Mobile Media Production & Training https://www.facebook.com/transmediaNT
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
How to Do Research Online
From the EduPunk's Guide > How to Do Research Online is a great, practical 'how to' with links to all the sites mentioned. Gold!
Maarifa Centres: a model for Digital Playrooms?
If anyone from NRETAS or the Territory 2030 taskforce is reading this, please take note of Maarifa Centres
Monday, August 29, 2011
Storytelling and Social Change
While much of the social entrepreneurship sector focuses on service delivery and market-based approaches, there is also an important role for projects which exist solely to raise the profile of specific social problems. The use of compelling narratives and creative media allows larger audiences to understand and connect with issues; this in turn creates growing demand for market-based approaches to the same problems. There is a huge market for fair-trade products in the UK now, for example, because of decades of public education efforts on the subject from films to community gatherings...
Read more at Social Edge
Read more at Social Edge
TechSoup Digital Storytelling
These free webinars are archived for handy reference and offer great advice from experts on how to tell your own best story.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Web Design as Narrative Architecture
Stories are everywhere. When they don’t exist we make up the narrative — we join the dots. We make cognitive leaps and fill in the bits of a story that are implied or missing. The same goes for websites. We make quick judgements based on a glimpse. Then we delve deeper. The narrative unfolds, or we create one as we browse.
Read more by Jon Tan 陳
Read more by Jon Tan 陳
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Long Tail
Download Chris Anderson's audibook 'FREE' at The Long Tail Follow him on Twitter @chr1sa
The Eight Pillars of Innovation
Susan Wojcicki blogs about the eight pillars that support Google's innovation framework here.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Gamification: A Primer
The process of gamification involves the integration of typical game components into websites, online communities, content portals, or in general, other non-gaming contexts.
There are two different concepts to be considered during the gamification process: game-mechanics and game-dynamics.
* Game mechanics are the tools needed to create the gamification infrastructure that lies under any game.
* Game dynamics represent the human needs and desires that are inherently in every one of us and can be satisfied through game-mechanics.
Game-mechanics have evolved over the years, advancing with the recent innovations in the game design discipline. The core of this discipline, however, is composed of 5 very simple concepts that work together to assure to the user/player a compelling experience, boosting interest, driving participation and engagement.
The basic game-mechanics are points, levels, challenges, virtual goods, and leaderboards.
Every game-mechanic is tightly tied to and fulfills a different game-dynamic, but also influences others in a minor way. The game-dynamics involved in gamification are reward, status, achievement, self expression, and competition.
Let's take a look at every game mechanic, associated with its main dynamic (more)
There are two different concepts to be considered during the gamification process: game-mechanics and game-dynamics.
* Game mechanics are the tools needed to create the gamification infrastructure that lies under any game.
* Game dynamics represent the human needs and desires that are inherently in every one of us and can be satisfied through game-mechanics.
Game-mechanics have evolved over the years, advancing with the recent innovations in the game design discipline. The core of this discipline, however, is composed of 5 very simple concepts that work together to assure to the user/player a compelling experience, boosting interest, driving participation and engagement.
The basic game-mechanics are points, levels, challenges, virtual goods, and leaderboards.
Every game-mechanic is tightly tied to and fulfills a different game-dynamic, but also influences others in a minor way. The game-dynamics involved in gamification are reward, status, achievement, self expression, and competition.
Let's take a look at every game mechanic, associated with its main dynamic (more)
The Mobile Revolution
This on-demand webcast explores the dramatic shift towards mobile and tablets in the content management world. Don't forget to download the Mobile Revolution eBook here.
6 Easy Steps to Become An Influencer
#1 – Identify Your Focus Areas. What are the key topics of interest to you and the people and companies in your industry? My own key topics are “open innovation” and “social media”. I spent lots of time tracking this and especially the intersection between this.
#2 – Create a Twitter Account. Twitter is your key tool for becoming an influencer so you need to get familiar with Twitter. You will soon learn that a desktop application such as TweetDeck is great for filtering the Twitter information overload.
#3 – Setup Content Channels. You need to find all relevant information on your focus areas. Three easy ways of doing this is to 1) setup your searches on TweetDeck, 2) setup your searches on Google Alerts and 3) visit Alltop frequently to get an idea of good blogs
#4 – Become a Curator and Start Sharing. Spend a few weeks getting familiar with the many content channels that you have created and then start sharing (on Twitter) what you find of value. You should be able to send 5-50 relevant tweets everyday. It will take time, but soon other people will start following you and thus your influence is increasing.
#5 – Track Your Progress. Check out Klout. This is a service that measures our social media influence. To some, this will be a bit scary and creepy, but this is where we are headed. Nevertheless, it gives you a good tool to measure your progress beyond the mere number of Twitter followers.
#6 – Improve and Expand. Continue to improve your key words and content channels. Once you are familiar with Twitter, you might also want to look into how service media tools such as LinkedIn, Quora, SlideShare, FaceBook – and many others can help you become an influencer. At this time, you are perhaps also ready to start creating your own original content and start blogging about this…
6 Easy Steps to Become An Influencer | 15inno
#2 – Create a Twitter Account. Twitter is your key tool for becoming an influencer so you need to get familiar with Twitter. You will soon learn that a desktop application such as TweetDeck is great for filtering the Twitter information overload.
#3 – Setup Content Channels. You need to find all relevant information on your focus areas. Three easy ways of doing this is to 1) setup your searches on TweetDeck, 2) setup your searches on Google Alerts and 3) visit Alltop frequently to get an idea of good blogs
#4 – Become a Curator and Start Sharing. Spend a few weeks getting familiar with the many content channels that you have created and then start sharing (on Twitter) what you find of value. You should be able to send 5-50 relevant tweets everyday. It will take time, but soon other people will start following you and thus your influence is increasing.
#5 – Track Your Progress. Check out Klout. This is a service that measures our social media influence. To some, this will be a bit scary and creepy, but this is where we are headed. Nevertheless, it gives you a good tool to measure your progress beyond the mere number of Twitter followers.
#6 – Improve and Expand. Continue to improve your key words and content channels. Once you are familiar with Twitter, you might also want to look into how service media tools such as LinkedIn, Quora, SlideShare, FaceBook – and many others can help you become an influencer. At this time, you are perhaps also ready to start creating your own original content and start blogging about this…
6 Easy Steps to Become An Influencer | 15inno
10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure
• Companies have difficulties making innovation happen internally. Now they hear about open innovation and think of this as an approach that will make everything better. Not true. If you cannot make innovation happen internally, you will have even more difficulties doing this with external partners.
• Many companies start off with idea generation platforms hoping that external contributors will contribute with great ideas and/or technologies. Most do not deliver on the expectations as they get more trash than gold.
• Companies copy competitor’s initiatives rather than creating their own unique initiatives that match their business reasons for doing open innovation.
• Companies fail to make their employees, partners and customers understand what open innovation means to the company and they fail to explain the impact of such a new direction to the internal and external stakeholders.
• The various organizational units – and in particular the operational ones – are not fully aligned with the innovation initiatives, making it difficult to execute in full on otherwise well-devised initiatives.
• Executives fail to understand that issues surrounding handling risk and fear of losing control are key to successful open innovation and thus they don’t deal with them head-on.
• Companies put their “best people” in charge of open innovation failing to recognize that the “best people” who do great by doing things as usual are not necessarily what is needed in order to succeed with open innovation. It is a paradigm shift and you often need different perspectives to succeed.
• Companies focus more on their own gains rather than working towards creating a true win-win scenario.
Deborah Mills-Scofield, an innovation advisor and partner with Glengary LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm, has previously offered these reasons for open innovation failures:
• Management – “Trying to ‘manage’ the process vs. ‘moderating’ the process. While well-intended and rationalized, many open innovation ventures are not done on a level playing field. If it’s a large company starting it, they tend to be condescending or paternalistic instead of viewing the other ‘innovators’ as equals and this sets a very strong tone.”
• Trust – “This is somewhat related to above, but there is a fear of losing control over intellectual property (and hence money), and I’ve even had clients mention losing people – that the open innovation forum becomes a means of recruiting away their best talent (which in and of itself is a symptom of bigger issues).”
10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure | 15inno
• Many companies start off with idea generation platforms hoping that external contributors will contribute with great ideas and/or technologies. Most do not deliver on the expectations as they get more trash than gold.
• Companies copy competitor’s initiatives rather than creating their own unique initiatives that match their business reasons for doing open innovation.
• Companies fail to make their employees, partners and customers understand what open innovation means to the company and they fail to explain the impact of such a new direction to the internal and external stakeholders.
• The various organizational units – and in particular the operational ones – are not fully aligned with the innovation initiatives, making it difficult to execute in full on otherwise well-devised initiatives.
• Executives fail to understand that issues surrounding handling risk and fear of losing control are key to successful open innovation and thus they don’t deal with them head-on.
• Companies put their “best people” in charge of open innovation failing to recognize that the “best people” who do great by doing things as usual are not necessarily what is needed in order to succeed with open innovation. It is a paradigm shift and you often need different perspectives to succeed.
• Companies focus more on their own gains rather than working towards creating a true win-win scenario.
Deborah Mills-Scofield, an innovation advisor and partner with Glengary LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm, has previously offered these reasons for open innovation failures:
• Management – “Trying to ‘manage’ the process vs. ‘moderating’ the process. While well-intended and rationalized, many open innovation ventures are not done on a level playing field. If it’s a large company starting it, they tend to be condescending or paternalistic instead of viewing the other ‘innovators’ as equals and this sets a very strong tone.”
• Trust – “This is somewhat related to above, but there is a fear of losing control over intellectual property (and hence money), and I’ve even had clients mention losing people – that the open innovation forum becomes a means of recruiting away their best talent (which in and of itself is a symptom of bigger issues).”
10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure | 15inno
5 Key Elements for Making Communities Work
1. “Need”. Many community owners or initiators take it for given that their intended target group has a need for this group or community. This is not always true and they need to remember that they are asking for the most precious thing potential participants have – that is time. They need to find some good reasons for “bothering” them with yet another community or group.
2. Value. If there is a genuine need for connecting and enabling stakeholders within a community or ecosystem, you still have to point out the specific value. One little example could be to help provide an overview of what is going on in the given ecosystem. Information overload is a big problem leaving opportunities for community owners to help solve this.
3. People. You need to have people that really believe in the need of and see the potential value creation in such a community. They must listen to the stakeholders in order to build the features needed and they must act as facilitators helping the stakeholders get to know each other and helping them to get value of the community.
4. Communication. If you are selling a vision as you do when you launch such a community, you need to have a strong communication plan. What stories can be used to recruit the right members and make the current users even more active? Remember that communication on messages is just as important as communicating on products and services.
5. Persistence. It is very difficult to create successful communities that are worthwhile to the stakeholders while also bringing innovation or business opportunities to the owners. It requires lots of experimentation to find the right model and this requires lots of persistence – and time.
This is also caused by the fact that well-run communities succeed not only by delivering value for the stakeholders, but also because of the trust and respect it has gained. This takes time.
5 Key Elements for Making Communities Work | 15inno
2. Value. If there is a genuine need for connecting and enabling stakeholders within a community or ecosystem, you still have to point out the specific value. One little example could be to help provide an overview of what is going on in the given ecosystem. Information overload is a big problem leaving opportunities for community owners to help solve this.
3. People. You need to have people that really believe in the need of and see the potential value creation in such a community. They must listen to the stakeholders in order to build the features needed and they must act as facilitators helping the stakeholders get to know each other and helping them to get value of the community.
4. Communication. If you are selling a vision as you do when you launch such a community, you need to have a strong communication plan. What stories can be used to recruit the right members and make the current users even more active? Remember that communication on messages is just as important as communicating on products and services.
5. Persistence. It is very difficult to create successful communities that are worthwhile to the stakeholders while also bringing innovation or business opportunities to the owners. It requires lots of experimentation to find the right model and this requires lots of persistence – and time.
This is also caused by the fact that well-run communities succeed not only by delivering value for the stakeholders, but also because of the trust and respect it has gained. This takes time.
5 Key Elements for Making Communities Work | 15inno
The role of informal social networks in building organizational creativity and innovation
As creativity and innovation move to be even more central to value-creation in organizations, social network analysis will increasingly be used as a tool by those organizations that succeed in moving ahead. Read all about it atTrends in the Living Networks
Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News for a Networked World
Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News for a Networked World, a new policy paper by Michael R. Fancher, identifies five strategic areas and specific ideas for promoting experimentation, collaboration and public engagement that are critical for reforming local journalism. The paper calls upon a variety of stakeholders in business, the nonprofit sector, government and community institutions, and citizens themselves to each play a role in nurturing a revitalized and re-imagined local media ecosystem. Download the report here.
Worldchanging 2.0
Video interview with Alex Steffen, Planetary Futurist. A guest of the "Visions of a Sustainable World" Speaker Series at Yale, Steffen shows how the tools to transform our cities and suburbs into sustainable communities are already emerging, and why that transformation will leave us better off. Alex Steffen is a leading voice on social innovation for a sustainable future. He is the editor of Worldchanging 2.0, a user's guide urban sustainability and innovation. Watch the video here.
The Commons - Prosperity by Sharing
To recognise our collective ownership of the commons is to turn the dominant economic model on its head. We need to strengthen the commons as a distinct sphere of activity beyond the state and the market, in a manner that complements both, says a report by the the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Friday, August 5, 2011
A Roadmap to a Life that Matters - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review
In an economy dedicated to the pursuit of more, bigger, faster, cheaper, nastier, the greatest hidden cost and unintended consequence is that something vital, enduring, resonant, and animating has gone missing from our lives — and it might just be the biggest thing: meaning in what we do, and why we're here.
Read more by Umair Haque
Read more by Umair Haque
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Easily download YouTube movies via Safari
Next time, I'm going straight to Mac OS X Hints for help.
If you're using Safari, there's an easy way to download YouTube videos. Open the page with the movie and press Command-Option-A, which shows the Activity window. If you're also loading other sites, you'll see a list of them: scroll until you find the YouTube page and click on the arrow to show details about what is being loaded.
You will certainly notice an element whose size is over 0.5MB (most of the time, over 5MB). Double-click on it (even if it is still loading), and Safari will download it. When the download is over, navigate to the file in the Finder (which will probably be called get_video) and add the extension .flv to its name. Now you can play it with VLC or with QuickTime (only if you have Perian installed).
If you're using Safari, there's an easy way to download YouTube videos. Open the page with the movie and press Command-Option-A, which shows the Activity window. If you're also loading other sites, you'll see a list of them: scroll until you find the YouTube page and click on the arrow to show details about what is being loaded.
You will certainly notice an element whose size is over 0.5MB (most of the time, over 5MB). Double-click on it (even if it is still loading), and Safari will download it. When the download is over, navigate to the file in the Finder (which will probably be called get_video) and add the extension .flv to its name. Now you can play it with VLC or with QuickTime (only if you have Perian installed).
The Edupunks’ Guide to a DIY Credential (Free eBook)
An edupunk is someone who doesn’t want to play by the old college rules. Maybe you have interests that don’t fit the academic mold. Maybe you’re in a remote location. Maybe you have a family, a job, or other responsibilities and you can’t take on life as a full-time student. Maybe you love new technology and new
ways of learning. Or maybe you’re just a rebel! If so, read more here.
ways of learning. Or maybe you’re just a rebel! If so, read more here.
The new rules of persuasion
As we automate persuasion, we need to think clearly about what leads to behaviour change. Three elements must converge at the same moment for a behaviour to occur: Motivation, Ability and Trigger.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Video Editing in the Cloud
Good article from an awesome blog that talks mostly about JayCut but goes on to list the alternatives.
Elearning examples
This page links to samples of interactive graphics, simulations, and other materials that could give you ideas for your own projects.
The Innovation Process
The innovation process, in the business context, is a structured action that is remarkably easy to implement. It begins with a problem and ends with profit. As such, it is the ideal business process. So it is remarkable that so few businesses have actually implemented this structured innovation process. Fortunately, all you have to do is read this and implement it in your firm!
Ten ways to redesign design competitions
Because design challenges have such an important role in the transition to sustainability that it's worth improving them, radically. In that spirit, here are ten ways to make them better
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