Technology

information & communication technology

Dave & Dell

by

Dave Pollard recounts the terrible service he received from Dell. It seems that customer care at Dell means:

The so-called Customer Care department has absolutely no authority to do anything for customers. Their sole job is to explain and apologize for Dell’s idiotic policies, including the five above. They are instructed never to give out their full names, and never to give out names, addresses or contact information of anyone higher up in Dell. In other words, these lackeys are paid to run interference, stonewall and prevent aggrieved customers, and customers who have ideas for improvement, from any contact with the people in Dell who could resolve or act on them. Staggering arrogance, disgraceful and classic corporatist contempt for customers. Every customer has the right to complain, in writing, about bad service or bad products. And in the process to copy the regulatory authorities so that if the complaints are frequent, the conduct of the company will be investigated.

I own two Dell computers, and according to Dave, one in four Dell computers has a serious problem. So what can the small business operator do to get good quality products and at least fair service? I know many people who have had problems with their Apple computers as well.

Feedback on Course Management Systems

by

Scott Leslie is asking for specific feedback on any issues that you may have with academic course management systems (these include WebCT, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, eCollege, etc).

So here’s your chance – use the comments below to tell me, and others, what you think is wrong with the ‘majors’ right now, & more importantly what you need to accomplish but can’t in your existing CMS environment.

Robin Good’s Official Guide to SOHO Web Conferencing & Live Presentation Tools

by

Luigi Canali [AKA Robin Good] has released an e-book on affordable web conferencing tools. Luigi’s online presentations are fun and informative, and it’s good to see someone focused on the SOHO (small office, home office) market. From one of the reviews:

To help the reader understand the differences between such SOHO platforms and their enterprise-class counterparts, three of the latter are similarly evaluated. The outcome of the comparison, which is sure to delight you if you’re not the captain of a large enterprise, is a surprising conclusion: many of the features of the SOHO platforms, particularly the all-important voice conferencing, are better than the corresponding features of the enterprise platforms! The inescapable conclusion: your agile and thorough move to an online office facility will indeed help you in your struggle with the dinosaurs!

This book has been added to my list.

Free Content means Increased Sales

by

In a previous post I mentioned that Lessig’s book, Free Culture, was being made available free online, while the physical book could be purchased through the normal channels. This is a view of the potential future of publishing. Unfortunately, many people and organisations like the CRIA, don’t seem to understand the new medium. Creative Commons now reports that Lessig’s book has gone into its third printing. Making digital content freely available actually increases the sale of the physical product. If you don’t understand this, start with The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Commerce is accelerated by spreading ideas and encouraging openness. Innovation comes from the edges, not the centre, so ideas and content must get out to the edges. Many of those 180,000 downloads of Free Culture were made by people who would not have bought the book anyway. But now they are talking about the book, and that is accelerating its purchase. I had read much of The Cluetrain Manifesto online, and when I saw a copy at an airport bookshop, I immediately bought it for my own library.

Web Browsers

by

I switched to Mozilla Firefox as my browser a while back, as I was getting concerned about all of the IE security alerts. I like Firefox, especially the tab feature, and will stay with it. It seems that I’m not really an early adopter though, as Cory Doctorow points out in Boing Boing that a Microsoft presenter at the BlogOn conference asked how many people were using Internet Explorer, and no one raised their hand. Things can change fast on the Net.

Eduforge

by

Eduforge is “a virtual collaborative learning and exploratory environment designed for the sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open source educational software, and tools within a community of learners and researchers.” In the learning resources section is a case study about a hospital in Ireland that decided to shift to an open source IT infrastructure. This included e-learning, and the selected platform was Claroline. The case study provides figures (costs in Pounds) about the difference in total costs:

Claroline
Initial Cost: 1,000
Total Cost / 5 years : 4,000

Closed Source Solution (Name not disclosed)
Initial Cost: 35,000

Total Cost / 5 years : 175,000

Here is an interesting comment from the Beaumont Hospital IT manager:

If you have a product which costs $1 million, it may be appropriate to spend $500,000 on consulting. However if the product costs nothing then spending $500,000 somehow seems to be a more difficult decision to take.

Consulting services from qualified professionals were just as necessary as they would have been with closed source solutions. It’s not all free, but the Beaumont Hospital staff seem to be happy with their solution.

Articulate

by

I just saw a demo of a new product that allows you to conduct PowerPoint presentations online with synchonized audio, and file attachments for reference. It’s called Articulate, and is quite similar to Macomedia’s Breeze. Articulate Presenter sells for $(US)698.00 while you have to send an e-mail request to Macromedia to get a price quote. Both systems seem to be quick and easy ways to get information, such as product details, to a wide audience.

Update: I have found out that Breeze is only server-based, while Articulate works as a standalone as well as a server-based system, and is SCORM and AICC compliant. It seems that Articulate is a more flexible product, especially for SME’s.

701 Free e-Learning Tips

by

The MASIE Center has just released this free booklet (PDF) which is a compilation from the MASIE Center’s TRENDS readers and others. It’s a 13 MB download, and here’s an example:

#614 Long Live Gumby (The Eraser)
Expect mistakes and be ready to demonstrate your flexibility as an instructor/facilitator when they arise (Betsy Reynolds, Ingram Micro)

This is a real potpourri of perspectives, but the price is right, and it might be a good source to check once in a while. The text, being in a PDF, is searchable but the document is copy protected.

Blog Rules

by

I’m being asked more questions about the value of blogs and how they can help to engage customers, suppliers and employees. Via Dina is this story by Stuart Henshall on what happens when a dedicated blogger is engaged by a corporation:

Blog Rules:

  • For blogs to work there must be trust. Let it be a warning to you when an employer is critical of your blog, or implies that they must approve every post you make first.
  • Blogs are strategic, but the messages must be personal. Planning out a blog strategy and topics in advance fails to account for the immediacy of the daily events and the need for responsiveness.
  • Make sure the company is large enough to have "personalities" blogging — otherwise own the company. The blogger is likely to become an important public face.
  • Think through where the blog should be on what URL. Is it better at blogperson.com or under the corporate banner? What is best to harness the blogger and readers?

Warnings to other Bloggers:

  • Your blog may be perceived as a personal asset and not a corporate one. You personal blog can become a corporate asset but only if the conditions above apply.
  • Corporate positioning is a must. If the company isn’t mature enough or is afraid to enable the blogger to talk about "category" developments then blogging will be difficult.
  • If topics and content are limited then you may lose your friends, lose access to thought leadership and potential partnerships and associates for the company – or even simply good press.
  • If the company fears balanced perspective on other products then you will find life difficult.
  • Blogs require a time commitment, if you are not getting it or there is no time left over for it then it is not valued. My target has always been in the ten hours a week category. That includes the use of my newsreader. Make sure your employer signs off on the time commitment to the blog.
  • If the company asks you when you will transfer your blog URL to the company then they really don’t get it.

As the value of blogging as a medium to connect producers with markets becomes more evident, corporate blogging may move into the mainstream, just as telecommuting (which means less control over workers) is accepted in some areas but not in others.