Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
5 tips for building a collaborative community
I wrote the article below for an internal blog at work. Once I wrote it, I realized that it was pretty much applicable anywhere so I thought I’d try to get a little more press. I’m also posting it over at thevicenarian.com.
Collaboration is all the rage in Corporate America this year. With a globally dispersed workforce, much of this collaboration is taking place online. Web sites, wikis, blogs, forums, and even full collaboration suites are emerging on the scene.
Are you looking to tap into this collaborative energy? Want to form an online presence for your global team? Here are 5 tips that will help grow your collaborative community.
1. Get Personal. The web is often criticized for being too impersonal–but it need not be so. Most (all?) online collaboration tools have the ability to include small photos (sometimes called avatars) for users. Encourage everyone on the tool to add their own photo. We’re visual, personal creatures by nature so let’s make it personal! For example, there’s my photo. Doesn’t that feel more personal?
2. Respond. If you are trying to start a collaboration community online, you have the burden to check for updates frequently and respond as much as possible. This is especially critical during the first days/weeks as users are testing it out. If a colleague is going to take the time to pose a question or comment, you need to respond in kind. Yes, this is a time investment. Yes, it will pay off.
3. Reward/Recognize. Participating in collaboration communities is not a mandatory task. It’s not critical to our day-to-day jobs. Yet it has the potential to yield great results in improved efficiency and outcomes for businesses. The early adopters who are willing to stick their necks out and participate should be recognized and rewarded. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, and it can be done entirely within the online community, but some sort of recognition is key. As an example of free, easy recognition, Flickr.com (a photo sharing site) allows users to give each other virtual awards for outstanding photos.
4. Set some goals. Users will be encouraged to participate if they know why they’re participating. Set some goals for your collaborative community, making sure they’re time based, measurable, and significant. As an easy example, you could set the goal to reduce team emails by 20% through the use of an online collaboration community.
5. Show progress. Once you’ve set some goals above, track them and communicate progress. We all love trackers and metrics, so this should be second nature. Give your collaboration partners a sense of accomplishment by charting the groups successes (and/or failures).
Don’t be discouraged if your first attempt at collaboration is not wildly successful. As we all become more comfortable and aware of the opportunities of online communities we will work our way up the capability ladder. These tips will help you start that climb.
Filed under culture, technology, work : Comments (1) : Apr 17th, 2008
Is Twitter useful?
When Twitter first came on the scene, I was skeptical. How useful is it really to answer the question “what am I doing?” in 140 characters or less? I threw down a few tweets, didn’t get much return, and abandoned it after a few weeks.
Well let me tell you, my friends : Twitter is the real deal.
It’s incredibly simple. The interface has only a handful of links. And yet in spite of this, it’s incredibly powerful. Rather, because of this it’s incredibly powerful.
More so than other social networks, you’re encouraged to provide actionable information that’s locally relevant. (Some people use it to spam out links, but that’s lame.) Last week I found some friends through Twitter who were looking for coffee, so I joined them. I’ve found Milwaukee folks who share some of my interests. I’ve learned a bit more about the peculiar habits of my colleagues.
Twitter is not for everybody. (In fact, it’s probably not for most people.) But if you’re at all interested, I would strongly encourage you to give it a shot and try to find some new contacts through it. Here’s a start: twitter.com/tadfad
Filed under Milwaukee, culture, technology : Comments (5) : Apr 16th, 2008
Fidelity : This is broken
I had a laugh today when I checked my Fidelity account. I’d just made a trade and Fidelity was happy to report that I’d earned $0.01 since (aka rounding error). What’s better, they carried that out to 16 significant digits in the % column. Now that’s precise banking!
What’s funny about this is that I’ve made this sort of mistake at least a hundred times during my undergrad Computer Science studies. Glad to see that I’m not the only one.
Filed under technology : Comments (0) : Apr 15th, 2008
A N I M O T O is A M A Z I N G
In the last 24 hours, I’ve fallen in love with animoto. So much so, I’ve actually paid to get the unlimited service (you can make 30 second videos for free, or spend $30 and get unlimited videos for a year).
What a refreshing take on the boring old photo slide show. This blows the favored Ken Burns effect right out of the water. I’ll never make my friends/family sit through a boring iPhoto slide show again!
Here’s another one I put together.
Now what we need is Yahoo! to swoop in, purchase animoto, and roll it into their Flickr offering. (I would be shocked if Google & Yahoo aren’t already in talks to purchase this little upstart!)
Filed under sites i like, technology : Comments (4) : Mar 21st, 2008
A N I M O T O
I was referred to a very cool new Web2.0 service today : animoto.
You input some photos (upload or transfer from Flickr, Facebook, etc.); input some music (upload or choose from their library) and it outputs a flash video. It’s very quick, very painless, and very flashy. Check out my first attempt below.
Filed under technology : Comments (3) : Mar 20th, 2008
Server outage
Hi friends. I had a server outage recently that interrupted all web services. Apologies to everyone who was greeted by unfriendly outage pages.
As a little backstory, I use a hosting service called Nearly Free Speech. Their billing system is great–you only pay for what you use–but evidently their disaster recovery plan is a little slow to execute.
If you’re running a blog or another website I’d encourage you to take a look at NearlyFreeSpeech.net and their services. Other than this last outage, I’ve been very happy.
Filed under technology : Comments (0) : Mar 10th, 2008
80GB iPod : $190
Anyone looking to upgrade their iPod (or join the ranks of iPod lovers) should check out the Apple refurb store:
The Apple Store (U.S.) - Refurbished iPod via kwout
Filed under technology : Comments (0) : Feb 12th, 2008
Mac Book is still pretty small
Apple released their newest laptop : the MacBook Air.
I went to the Apple store today to check it out. It’s small. Really, really small. The clever Apple folks even left a manilla envelope by the display so I could practice sliding it in and out just like their ad.
Then I had a thought–the regular MacBook is pretty small as well. Would it fit in a manilla envelope?
The answer : yes.
So if you’re contemplating a new laptop purchase and “manilla envelope storage” is a key feature, you can save yourself about $2000 by going for the regular MacBook instead.
Filed under technology : Comments (6) : Feb 10th, 2008
USPTO is broken
In another example of capitalism-gone-wrong, the US Patent Office just issued an extremely vague patent for “A mobile entertainment and communication device in a palm-held size housing” (Read: smartphone).
The company filing this patent is a group of patent-trolls who prey on the success of others by filing patents for products they didn’t invent, then suing everyone with a bank account once it proves to be commercially successful.
Gigatec - Home via kwout
Patents are a crucial legal tool to protect innovators & inventors. When abused in this way, everybody loses. [Read more at Engadget]
Filed under technology : Comments (0) : Jan 26th, 2008
HD Radio : no radio required
I’ve been debating the purchase of an HD radio for some time now. The promise of HD radio is free radio with higher clarity & quality than FM/AM and additional stations that you won’t get anywhere else. Sounds pretty good!
The one downside is that you have to invest in a new radio with a digital tuner to get these signals. So instead of free, you’ll end up spending a few hundred dollars (each) for your home & car. Bummer.
But wait! You have a computer, right? (Of course you do, you’re on it right now.) Most stations offer a digital broadcast of their radio programs, offering you the benefits of HD radio without the additional equipment. All you need is a computer (and old one will do), some speakers (Apple’s Airtunes helps) and an internet connection and you’re all set. I use iTunes to play the stations, but you can also use WinAmp or your favorite audio player.
To get you started, here are a few of my favorite stations:
- 88.9 Radio Milwaukee [music]
- WPR Ideas Network [news]
- WUWM - Milwaukee Public Radio [news]
- WUWM-HD2 - Milwaukee Public Radio [music]
- KNOW - Minnesota Public Radio [news]
Enjoy!
Filed under Milwaukee, culture, technology : Comments (0) : Jan 24th, 2008
