Technology

information & communication technology

Online mind mapping

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Mindmeister is an online mind mapping application, similar to tools like Gliffy (diagramming) which offer a single type of application for free or a with a paid premium service. Like many Web 2.0 services, it’s easy to learn and gives you many export and sharing options. I created this map in a few minutes and exported it as a *.jpg.

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It won’t be long before most of our applications migrate off the desk top to the web. Here you can see several of the web applications I use to manage my online work. What I really like about these tools is that they are exceptionally easy to learn and they have collaboration built in. Oh, the fact that most are free sure lowers the barrier to trying them out :-)

Friday Links

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A few things that I’ve noticed recently that don’t really fit into one category or post, but worth passing on:

  1. SocialText is offering a free chapter of the book Wikinomics, so you can try before you buy.
  2.  If you don’t use a feed aggregator, but want to keep up with the training & edtech world, Trainingblogs has put together dozens of feeds, in several categories – mine is on the elearning/technology tab :-)
  3. If you’re coaching or helping with soccer (aka football) this summer, you can use YourTeamOnline as your team’s free private community to share information about games, practices, drills and car pooling.

Gaming, animation & simulation in Moncton

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I attended a gathering of the nascent New Brunswick Gaming, Animation & Simulation (GAS) industry yesterday. Companies included FatKat Animation, the largest animation company in the region; GoGii Games, a start-up with experienced leadership; Pitch Mobile, games for wireless; and Vinland Studios, games with historical significance.

Many of those present then headed to the seaside resort town of Shediac for the local knowledge industry ‘s final cybersocial of the season with an evening cruise on the bay.

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One group of visitors was a small company from BC that is opening an office in Moncton. Terra Cognita has a couple of products, focused on land knowledge systems, and also creates custom software applications for small and medium sized companies.

Newer members of the industry were also there, like designer Christine Lund. All in all, a pleasant way to spend a day.

Update: The GAS industry now has its own blog.

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Need Firefox-Thunderbird Help

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I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.4 and Thunderbird 2.0.0.4, both with default themes on Win XP SP2, and recently the “File-Send Link” function stopped working. I checked the forums and found out that this was a problem with the Beta release but can’t find any info on later problems or issues. I’ve checked both programs for updates.

Any advice out there? No, I don’t need advice to switch to Linux or to Mac, as I plan to leave Windows completely next year. For now, XP suits me fine.

Net Neutrality Now

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I’ve advocated that Net Neutrality is a critical issue for our society to prosper culturally and economically. I don’t understand how any reasonable person would advocate that Internet Service Providers should decide which information packets get priority. To be a carrier and offer digital media or services for sale is an obvious conflict of interest. Luckily, we have the Canadian Net Neutrality website as a focal point on this issue, but the mainstream media are not covering it to the degree that they should (funny, isn’t it?).

Today, Susan Crawford (via Dave Weinberger) had a strong and clear message on Net neutrality to the US Congress:

In an ongoing regulatory factfinding mission (undertaken because the Commission didn’t have the political will or sensitivity to actually act), the FCC is asking whether anyone using a U.S. network operator has been blocked from accessing particular sites. That’s the wrong question, as Consumers Union and its colleague advocates have told the Commission. The FCC should instead be asking why we haven’t mandated competition for highspeed access by requiring that all providers sell unfettered transport services at wholesale rates into a competitive market for retail transport. Even better, Congress should take the reins and demand that the duopolies divest themselves of their transport services so that they aren’t tempted to try to monetize internet access in favor of their own movies and phone services.

Having the major ISP’s (Bell, Telus, Rogers) in control of the priority of Internet traffic for Canadians is the same as allowing the Big 3 automakers to decide which cars have priority on our highways. It just doesn’t make sense, and our politicians should know where we stand on this.à

Update: and then on the national news, I read:

The country’s No. 2 telephone company, Telus Corp., confirmed Thursday it is in merger talks with BCE Inc., the parent company of industry leader Bell Canada.

Yikes! The time for regulation is now. 

My Virtual Office

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In Rolling Your Own Online Office, R/WW suggests several tools for telecommuting, including e-mail, forums, wikis, chat, document sharing, flowcharting and files. As a permanent telecommuter, I’m always looking for better productivity tools and I need some choice, as my clients have different needs and IT requirements.

I have several e-mail addresses and use one of my g-mail accounts as a spam filter, which transfers to my main account. I also have my domain name account, which can move with me, even if I change ISP’s. This is handy if you decide to change ISP’s and have to abandon something like the included @sympatico.ca account. Of course, I don’t want to keep all of my stuff on g-mail, so I forward my mail to the e-mail client on my computer. Currently, I use Thunderbird, which is simple & easy but I’ve been poking around with Evolution, which includes a calendar function and will probably use it when I transfer my main computer to Linux.

So far, most of my document sharing is with Google Documents, as this seems the easiest to get my clients to accept. I’m also looking at Coventi and have downloaded Zoho Office, but haven’t found any partners or clients to play with yet. Google Calendar works well with virtual teams, too. Also, I haven’t been doing much flowcharting lately, but have done a few designs on Gliffy, which is basic but is getting better.

With Gmail, I don’t have much need for sending large files. There are several file-sharing programs available, and I get offers from many of them on a regular basis. I’ve used Izimi for some files and find it works well. It’s only limitation is that your computer has to be connected for someone else to get the file, as Izimi doesn’t store your files online. This can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending on your needs. I’ve also used Filezilla for basic FTP as well as the YouSendIt service.

Of course, my blog and website is still the best virtual work tool. It lets me stay in touch with a large group of people – on their terms, not mine. My blog also includes a short version of my CV, listings of clients and everything else I want to share. This information decreases any friction with potential clients, as they can poke around without having to talk to me or send me an e-mail which is one less step needed in getting to know me.

Even in the short span of four years that I’ve been working in my virtual office, the tools have become simpler, cheaper and more plentiful. This is a good thing for anyone considering the path of the self-employed or freelancing.

Yugma free web conferencing

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I came across the Yugma web collaboration application a while back but haven’t had time to test it out. Chris Nadeau has been using it and says that it compares favourably with applications like Webex and Vyew. Yugma requires a download (thin client) which may limit its use for those behind the firewall.

What really interests me about Yugma is that it offers free tele-conferencing, something not available on the free/low-cost Vyew application and much too expensive on Webex. Yugma may have found the sweet-spot for free web conferencing.

Open Source Model for Developing Bids

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Nick Booth passed this on to me a while back. It’s about a bid to government that was developed in a completely open and transparent manner. The entire story and process is available at the Open Innovation Exchange:

This Open Innovation Exchange site was launched on April 22 2007 and used until May 14 2007 to develop an “open source bid” to the UK Cabinet Office, which invited proposals for a Third Sector innovation exchange. The invitation to tender for a £1.2 million three-year programme said:

“The innovation exchange will pilot new approaches to fostering, exchanging and replicating third sector innovation, ensuring that public services benefit from the approaches they pioneer. The innovation exchange will seek to connect innovators to one another, to those who might benefit from their work, including public service, commissioners and third sector organisation, and others who might invest in their work.”

We believed that we could develop a better proposal by sharing our ideas with others, and inviting comments and contributions. We succeeded in that, and delivered the final proposal on May 14. It is available here.

However , we aren’t are stopping now, and we invite people to continue to contribute ideas on how the exchange – and other collaborations in the field – could work.

Below are a set of question and answers on our original approach to the bid. Simon Berry answers some challenging questions here.

You would never see a corporation opening up its bidding process to the world and if it tried, its lawyers would strongly advise against it. But in this case, it worked. Once again, an industrial model has been flipped on its head by the Net.

I believe that this is an indicator of the future of collaborative work and shows how the open source model is not just for software development but can be used in almost all work endeavours.  The Internet is a revolutionary and powerful tool for all of us, as long as we keep it open and neutral.