Keeping customers informed when there are problems

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If you are a service provider and your service is interrupted, then you could say nothing and try to deal with the issue as fast as possible. On the other hand, you could tell the truth to your customers. I much prefer the latter:

PBwiki is temporarily down due to a networking hardware problem at our upstream internet provider. We aren’t the only customer offline and the operations staff onsite are working with a technician from the hardware vendor and their upstream link to resolve this problem as soon as possible. We’ve been advised that it may not be possible to fully restore operations for several hours while replacement hardware is located and installed. The fiber optic connectors and transceivers used for these core network systems aren’t for sale on every street corner, unfortunately, at least not before sunrise.

Your wiki is safe, and there is no risk of data loss. Our servers are fine but they currently can’t connect to anything outside of their building. Yes, we love you and yes we miss your wiki as much as you do. It’ll be back in a flash.

Our production servers are located in San Jose, California. You are reading this message on a development machine located in San Diego, California. There’s currently no wiki data here but we have enough offsite infrastructure to show this message. We’ve temporarily remapped all *.pbwiki.com addresses to this message — otherwise you’d just get a timeout in your browser. We have a roadmap plan which will allow us to cope more gracefully with this type of (rare) event in the future.

Thanks for your patience,
–Nathan Schmidt / PBwiki CTO

Last update: Thursday, July 13 2006 4:23am PST (11:23 GMT)

“the broadcaster formerly known as the CBC”

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Michael Geist thinks that the CBC needs to be reformed, or it may become, “the broadcaster formerly known as the CBC”:

The CBC can chart its own path by rethinking what it means to be a public broadcaster in the Internet era. Notwithstanding the importance of providing greater access to its content on all media platforms (the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation provides a model by featuring an online portal with more than 20,000 video clips and access to 12 radio channels), the CBC would do well to innovatively collaborate with Canadians to bring their creativity to a wider broadcast audience.

Robert Paterson has just gone through a process of looking at the future of public radio in the US – a different kind of public radio from our publicly-funded model. Robert and his team worked for 10 months in engaging over 1,000 members of the NPR family and engaged them to create their own future, in light of their current situation:

The audience for public radio has grown substantially in the last 10 years from about 15 to 30 million. It is comprised of well educated people on the whole but its main characteristic is that its audience are curious. They have become fed up with the pablum, inanity and spin of commercial radio. Public Radio has become the most trusted source of news in the US and has been attracting some of the best journalists to its ranks such as Ted Koppel – who themselves are fed up with spin and trivia.

In the last year however, listener growth has halted. Some say that public radio has become too middle aged and too bland. With more choice, maybe people are going elsewhere? Many stations and NPR are trying new avenues such as Podcasting and Vcasting. Some are trying Blogging. Some like MPR have enlisted 17,000 volunteer Public Insight Journalists to help augment their newsroom.

I know that in its early days as a our national radio broadcaster, the CBC actively engaged a broad segment of the population. Two of the more populist programmes on early CBC radio were the Citizens’ Forum and the Farm Radio Forum.

Farm Forum innovations included a regional report-back system, whereby group conclusions were collected centrally and broadcast regularly across Canada, occasionally being sent to appropriate governments. In addition, discussion – leading to self-help – resulted in diverse community “action projects” such as co-operatives, new forums and folk schools. Farm and community leaders claimed that the give-and-take of these discussions provided useful training for later public life. In 1952, UNESCO commissioned research into Farm Forum techniques. Its report was published in 1954, and consequently India, Ghana and France began using Canadian Farm Forum models in their programs. [source no longer available]

Even as a one-way medium, CBC used innovations such as programme guides by mail one week in advance, local discussion groups and national feedback on individual responses that kept people actively involved. Imagine a group of farmers gathering at a neighbour’s house, bringing food for a communal supper, and then discussing issues of great social relevance, like the possibility of medicare.

If the CBC is truly to rethink its role in our society then it needs to engage in a process similar to what Robert did with NPR. The last thing we need is an internally focused review or something akin to a royal commission (remember how the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was lampooned on the Dead Dog Cafe?).

So here’s my question. Can our government and the CBC establishment actually carry off something that is open, engaging and transparent and truly rethink the CBC?

Learning through Storytelling with the PPCLI

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Via Luis Suarez is this story on CNEWS [dead link: see comment below] about a cultural anthropologist, Anne Irwin, who has been studying soldiers in the field and how they learn and bond through storytelling. The soldiers of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry battle group are in Afghanistan and Prof. Irwin is there to watch and understand:

When they are out in the field and return from a patrol, the exhausted soldiers relax together in small, tightly-knit groups – Irwin calls them “nesting circles” – and recount the events of the day or the mission.

Each soldier contributes a story, an anecdote or even a joke, adding stock and spice into what becomes a collective stew of experiences, she said. They also playfully insult each other.

The storytelling not only helps forge the individual identity of each soldier, it builds interpersonal relationships that can have a bearing on how well the unit performs on the battlefield.

Having served in the same regiment and having been active in training and learning for many years now, I can say that this is the perfect example of the importance of informal learning. It’s a fact that these soldiers have all been formally trained in the skills of the infantry. However, the unit is not an effective fighting force until individuals have worked together. Informal learning is the glue that helps keep them together during the tough times. Support for these “nesting circles” and other ways to facilitate group learning is essential.

Let’s take a similar, but much less dangerous situation. Imagine a company that has a project team that has had a difficult client with tight deadlines and then managed to pull it off. Immediately after the last deliverable, the team is redistributed across the organisation to get to the next project, because “time is money”. There has been no time to talk or to swap stories or to find out what Bob was doing while Mary was dealing with a certain crisis. There are no “nesting circles” here to develop the group’s learning.

Civilian organisations might not be able to devote down time to informal learning, but they can ease the way for other kinds of communication that may help informal learning. Storytelling through blogs is possible for those who want to write. Sharing pictures on the Intranet can evoke memories and encourage people to revisit an event and learn from it. The key is to create environments that support these types of communication and learning — just as a dozen soldiers in a tent are going to tell stories, bond, and learn.

3ppcli afghanistan
3PPCLI in Afghanistan — Wikimedia Commons

Attracting Young, Educated People to Small Towns

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CEO’s for Cities has a recent report on Attracting the Young, College-educated to Cities. I l looked at the summary data (this is US data, not Canadian) from the perspective of a small town trying to attract this demographic (the new generation of knowledge workers), which is part of what our Commons is about. The report covers responses from 1,000 college-educated 25-34 olds.

“Two-thirds of college-educated 25 to 34 year-olds report that they will make the decision of where they live first, then look for a job within that area.” To be considered, small towns had better get on the mental maps of young people. In Sackville, we have a university where we can make a positive impression on a select group of young people.

Half of married people or those with children under 18 would definitely/probably consider a small town. Therefore small towns should focus on being family-friendly and consider what resources couples, parents, and children need.

In response to, “If you were to consider moving to a city, which of the following sources of information might you use to find out more about the city?”, 65% cited Go to local website. Towns need comprehensive, accurate websites, and I believe some two-way interaction such as blogs or social networking to connect real people with real needs; not just marketing hype.

The report shows a hierarchy of needs (à la Maslow) of this group:

  1. A clean and attractive, safe and green place to live the life I want to lead.
  2. A place that will allow me to grow professionally and personally, and raise a family
  3. I want an interesting and diverse place to live that has space for social interactions and is close to family.

I think that the major challenges for small towns are the second and third points. We have to show that it is possible to grow professionally. This requires a critical mass of professionals in the area (a subjective number, depending on individual needs) as well as an excellent networking and Internet connectivity infrastructure. We also have to diversify our population by attracting more immigrants from other regions and cultures. These are our challenges, if we want to be viable Internet age communities.

Skype 101

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I’ll be hosting my last skypecast for our informl learning unworkshop tomorrow. The availability of Skype and now skypecasts has simplified the process of hosting audio conferences with people distributed around the world. Here’s what I’ve learned this past month about hosting free skype conferences and skypecasts.

Skype Conferences

  1. Skype conferences are the simplest way of getting up to five people into a conference call. Just right-click on the contact you wish to “Invite to Conference” after you have started a call with one person.
  2. The host cannot mute other particpants in a skype conference, but each person has a mute button on the skype application (top right).
  3. If you have an Intel dual core processor powered computer, you can invite up to ten people to your skype conference.

Skypecasting

  1. For more people, you can create a skypecast which will allow you to have ~99 participants in a call.
  2. To create a skypecast, the host goes to the Skypecast website and logs-in with his or her skypename and password.
  3. The host creates a session, either to start immediately, or for a later time. Provide a title and description and set the time (after the set time period, no one can join or rejoin the skypecast so set a sufficient time period).
  4. As the host, you can mute anyone/everyone, which you should do, as it keeps the excess noise level down. Imagine the sound of a cocktail party coming through your headset. I would strongly suggest that all participants use a headset and microphone.
  5. Muted participants can “ask for the microphone”, which the host will see as the icon beside the participant’s name turning from green to orange.
  6. Note that skypecasts are open to the public and anyone can drop in. The host can eject anyone, but be sure to read the terms set by Skype.
  7. With most people muted, the sound is usually quite good.

Recording

  1. I used Pamela to record our skypecasts. Pamela Pro is required and it’s available for a 30-day trial or can be purchased for $25.
  2. Once you’ve downloaded and installed Pamela Pro, go to “Tools – Options – General” and uncheck the box marked “Automatically start on Windows start-up”.
  3. When your skypecast is running and you decide to start recording, just open the Pamela Pro application (easy if you accept a shortcut on your desktop on set up). A window will open asking if you want to record the call and click yes. Pamela will record the call for as long as you keep it and the skypecast open.
  4. Pamela Pro will save the recording as a date stamped .wav file in “My Documents – Pamela – Callrecord”.
  5. To convert from .wav to MP3 and make the large file a lot smaller, you will need a converter application like Free CD to MP3 Converter. Using this application, click on “File – WAV to MP3” and it will do the rest. The resulting MP3 can be renamed and uploaded to a website or shared via FTP. An hour recording is about 40 MB.
  6. There are many other ways of recording a skypecast, including more complex audio edit suites, but this is the simplest method that I’ve found so far.

Skyping & Learning

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Yesterday was a skype-filled day. It started with a conference call for seven people to discuss a new business idea. During the session I learned that the skype conference limit of 5 people can be doubled if the host uses an Intel dual core processor.

Later in the day I hosted a skypecast for our Unworkshop where we discussed podcasting and had a great conversation about wikis in the enterprise with Peter Kaminski of Socialtext.

At the end of the day I joined the regular Thursday EdTech Brainstorm where the conversation ranged from learning scripting languages to blogs in school. There is still a need for more “how-to” resources for those interested in using the Web for learning. Some of the casting resources discussed were:

We also talked about various platforms for web-based learning and blogging and these applications seem to be the current leaders of the open source pack:

The people formerly known as students

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The people formerly known as the audience do not believe this problem “too many speakers” is our problem. Now for anyone in your circle still wondering who we are, a formal definition might go like this:

The people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another and who today are not in a situation like that at all.

The above is from Jay Rosen’s article on “The people formerly known as audience“.

I’m in a playful mood, so here is what the people formerly known as students might have to say:

The people formerly known as students do not believe this problem “too many individual learners” is our problem. Now for anyone in your circle still wondering who we are, a formal definition might go like this:

The people formerly known as students are those who were on the receiving end of an oligopolist educational system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and few options, and accredited institutions competing to speak their truths while the rest of the population learned in isolation from one another and who today are not in a situation like that at all.

“OpenOffice.org challenges Microsoft’s Office Test Drive”

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Microsoft today announced the opening of a “test drive” so that people can see what Microsoft Office 2007 might look like when it finally goes on sale.

The OpenOffice.org Community invites potential upgraders to go one better – download the full OpenOffice.org 2 office suite today for a test drive, and if you like it, use it free for as long as you like. It’s the ultimate no-strings-attached test drive – if you enjoy the test drive, keep the car!

As office software becomes a commodity product, Microsoft has been forced to make significant changes to the ‘look and feel’ of MS-Office 2007. Because of this, analysts now agree that migrating to Microsoft Office 2007 will be a major upheaval with a significant cost impact.

Unlike changing to Microsoft Office 2007, changing to OpenOffice.org 2 does not require learning how to use office software all over again. Indeed, reports have shown migration to OpenOffice.org 2 is 90% cheaper than migrating to Microsoft Office 2007.

For more information and references to the reports, please see http://why.openoffice.org

As announced by OpenOffice.org, open source makes sense when you need a commodity product like office software. Combine OpenOffice with a few web applications like Writely, Google Spreadsheets and Gliffy and you’re all set for your business needs.

Open Source LMS

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A lot of people come to this site searching for “open source LMS”. These are some of the web-based learning systems that I have used, and would recommend:
  • Elgg – for informal web-enabled learning where the learner is the centre of it all. Though still in its early development, I would recommend Elgg as a virtual space to foster community outside of the course-based LMS.
  • Moodle -a constructivist web environment for more formal learning with an extensive user base worldwide. Combining Elgg and Moodle makes an excellent choice for formal and informal learning.
  • ATutor – a Canadian-based web learning system designed for accessibility and with a number of easy to add modules, such as collaboration.

There are many others, many of which are reviewed on EduTools, and I’d suggest that you go to my Open Source for Learning lens for further links.

NB schools to receive more laptops

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It looks like the New Brunswick public education sector is slowly advancing into the 21st century. The government announced today that, “About 2,900 grades 7, 8 and 9 students at 27 New Brunswick schools will have a notebook computer in the fall of 2006 …”. On a personal note, this is not that positive, because only one school in our district, and no schools in our town are on the list. Oh well, we get to continue enjoying the 20th century and the industrial era for a while longer.

Update: After a little more digging and a few conversations, I think that a few factors in this school laptop initiative have to be raised.

All of the computers in the school will be loaded with Microsoft Windows and MS Office. This may seem like a real deal for our education system but it is really creating a continuing market for MS products. The students get used to using the Win/Office combination so that’s what they’ll use at home or after graduation. MS has even offered this great deal:

Partners in Learning School Agreement – offers upgrades for Microsoft® Windows® operating system for free and Office software for no more than $4.00 per year, per desktop to Canadian schools considered disadvantaged.

Given that the initial laptop program had 500 computers, and this initiative has an additional 2,900 plus the 6,000 notebooks provided to all NB teachers, there are at least 9,400 new computers in the system. Paying $4 per year per computer for Microsoft products costs – $37,600. Had the government decided to use a basic Linux system, complete with ALL the necessary applications, such as the free and open source UNESCO Young Digital Creators CD, the cost would be $0.00 (zero). It would also be free to copy and put on home computers and it would be free forever.

Even my own public education district, financed by Canadian taxpayers, is using paid staff to train teachers on American produced proprietary software applications. This is not a rant against our US neighbours, but I would rather have seen the money go to developing some “made-in-New Brunswick” capacities.