Comments on: Started working for Sun, developing a collaborative learning environment http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/ Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:02:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Melanie McBride http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Melanie McBride Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:27:55 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-56 Congratulations! That sounds like a wonderful job and a great learning experience. I like the idea of this project a lot and see immediate usefulness as an educator. What do I want from a digital lifestyle aggregator? 1. Granularity of user defined fields and settings 2. Sophisticated privacy settings (otherwise I won't use it at all) 3. User friendly TOS 4. User focused UI (rather than developer focused UI) 5. Stability! Congratulations! That sounds like a wonderful job and a great learning experience. I like the idea of this project a lot and see immediate usefulness as an educator.

What do I want from a digital lifestyle aggregator?

1. Granularity of user defined fields and settings
2. Sophisticated privacy settings (otherwise I won’t use it at all)
3. User friendly TOS
4. User focused UI (rather than developer focused UI)
5. Stability!

]]> By: abo46n2 http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-52 abo46n2 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:39:09 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-52 @Janet - I think the best idea, keeping security a priority, would be to create the CLE modeled after the iGoogle, Netvibes environments, then pull in the public content instead of vice versa. Like I said, not sure what kind of security threat this poses, but it seems safer than pulling private content into a more open environment like iGoogle and Netvibes (although this would be much easier, of course, since the platform already exists and I'm all for using what I already have). Does your company have any sort of CLE like this? If so, how do they deal with these issues? @Kevin - I hear you. Do you think an online-status indicator would be beneficial in a closed work environment like the ones we've been discussing? I feel like they might give you more sense of community as you can "see" others "in" the virtual space with you. Here's an article I came across a while back, you may have seen it, that talks about the benefits of using IM @ work. You might find it interesting. http://tinyurl.com/3nb5yp @Janet – I think the best idea, keeping security a priority, would be to create the CLE modeled after the iGoogle, Netvibes environments, then pull in the public content instead of vice versa. Like I said, not sure what kind of security threat this poses, but it seems safer than pulling private content into a more open environment like iGoogle and Netvibes (although this would be much easier, of course, since the platform already exists and I’m all for using what I already have). Does your company have any sort of CLE like this? If so, how do they deal with these issues?

@Kevin – I hear you. Do you think an online-status indicator would be beneficial in a closed work environment like the ones we’ve been discussing? I feel like they might give you more sense of community as you can “see” others “in” the virtual space with you. Here’s an article I came across a while back, you may have seen it, that talks about the benefits of using IM @ work. You might find it interesting. http://tinyurl.com/3nb5yp

]]> By: Kevin http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Kevin Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:06:33 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-51 Seems to me, at least based on the work I do in the environment I'm in, you need two things: 1) A place to share things 2) A place to converse about what's being shared + talk about other things #1 is fairly easy. You set up blogs and wikis for a variety of purposes. One could be for sharing links another for collaborative ideas etc. Wikis can function pretty well for collaborative working space and for ease of use content management. #2 is a bit more complicated. I've written down <a href="http://docs.ksulib.org/index.php?title=Creative_Work_Space" rel="nofollow">some ideas</a> about the library I work in. This is a concept that I've wanted to try to develop for a long time now, but have never had the opportunity. Individual portals, as mentioned above, lack the social element. So, in a working environment I advocate attempting to create a communication portal. It would be based on the concept of creating a place for employees to go to communicate. The key here to me is integrating it with #1 and creating a variety of integrated forms of synchronous and semi-synchronous communication. In my work place everyone is sitting in their office working on something, usually email, only to emerge to go to one of many many meetings every week. I see a need to provide connection while working, especially while developing ideas, in an online format. An unintended boon to all this would surely be a shot at reducing the amount of email by providing places for more synchronous communication. It would also be an excellent way to teach/train employees about best practices in regard to what medium of communication is appropriate in what circumstance. These last two points I see as having an effect not far away from crippling the organization by making it very stubborn and inflexible. Seems to me, at least based on the work I do in the environment I’m in, you need two things:

1) A place to share things
2) A place to converse about what’s being shared + talk about other things

#1 is fairly easy. You set up blogs and wikis for a variety of purposes. One could be for sharing links another for collaborative ideas etc. Wikis can function pretty well for collaborative working space and for ease of use content management.

#2 is a bit more complicated. I’ve written down some ideas about the library I work in. This is a concept that I’ve wanted to try to develop for a long time now, but have never had the opportunity. Individual portals, as mentioned above, lack the social element. So, in a working environment I advocate attempting to create a communication portal. It would be based on the concept of creating a place for employees to go to communicate. The key here to me is integrating it with #1 and creating a variety of integrated forms of synchronous and semi-synchronous communication. In my work place everyone is sitting in their office working on something, usually email, only to emerge to go to one of many many meetings every week. I see a need to provide connection while working, especially while developing ideas, in an online format. An unintended boon to all this would surely be a shot at reducing the amount of email by providing places for more synchronous communication. It would also be an excellent way to teach/train employees about best practices in regard to what medium of communication is appropriate in what circumstance. These last two points I see as having an effect not far away from crippling the organization by making it very stubborn and inflexible.

]]> By: Janet Clarey http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-53 Janet Clarey Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:59:35 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-53 Oh no! You are being sucked into the vortex of the learning/id world with our seemingly endless use of acronyms. Yes, in this context I mean learning management system, specifically commercial systems that are either installed or hosted but that sit behind the firewall and are not open source. I suspect Sun has one or more LMS and was wondering how you were thinking about handling all the content that typically resides within the LMS (management of instructor-led classroom training, e-learning courses, physical resources, etc.) Security is always a big issue. That and corporate culture which often is hierarchal and siloed. Good luck in the new job. Looking forward to reading your blog. Oh no! You are being sucked into the vortex of the learning/id world with our seemingly endless use of acronyms. Yes, in this context I mean learning management system, specifically commercial systems that are either installed or hosted but that sit behind the firewall and are not open source. I suspect Sun has one or more LMS and was wondering how you were thinking about handling all the content that typically resides within the LMS (management of instructor-led classroom training, e-learning courses, physical resources, etc.)

Security is always a big issue. That and corporate culture which often is hierarchal and siloed. Good luck in the new job. Looking forward to reading your blog.

]]> By: abo46n2 http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-55 abo46n2 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:42:19 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-55 Hi Janet, glad to have you in the conversation. What exactly do you mean by LMS. I assume you mean Learning Management System? Can you flesh that out some more? Getting involved with ID is like learning a new language! I always have to have the "natives" explain things to me so I can translate them into my own language =). Just off the cuff, I think everything should be modular, it's own widget. So for web conferencing, a widget that houses the application would be ideal, or at least a link of some sort that would execute the application either on the web or from your computer. Not sure if this is possible, but it should be =). The grand vision is to have a portal to your life on the web and with your company. Since the OpenID options out there aren't quite solid enough yet, we still have to rely on bringing the content to us via feeds, etc. An inhouse portal built off iGoogle or Netvibes would be great. However, I wish I knew more about the security risks of importing outside feeds (e.g. from your favorite ID blog) because I think that's important to the whole environment. Because if you can't do that then the inhouse CLE just becomes Yet Another Social Network. Hi Janet, glad to have you in the conversation.

What exactly do you mean by LMS. I assume you mean Learning Management System? Can you flesh that out some more? Getting involved with ID is like learning a new language! I always have to have the “natives” explain things to me so I can translate them into my own language =). Just off the cuff, I think everything should be modular, it’s own widget. So for web conferencing, a widget that houses the application would be ideal, or at least a link of some sort that would execute the application either on the web or from your computer. Not sure if this is possible, but it should be =).

The grand vision is to have a portal to your life on the web and with your company. Since the OpenID options out there aren’t quite solid enough yet, we still have to rely on bringing the content to us via feeds, etc. An inhouse portal built off iGoogle or Netvibes would be great. However, I wish I knew more about the security risks of importing outside feeds (e.g. from your favorite ID blog) because I think that’s important to the whole environment. Because if you can’t do that then the inhouse CLE just becomes Yet Another Social Network.

]]> By: Janet Clarey http://www.adambohannon.org/started-working-for-sun-developing-a-collaborative-learning-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-54 Janet Clarey Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:21:43 +0000 http://abo46n2.wordpress.com/?p=66#comment-54 Hi Adam- I love what you're describing here; the many pieces loosely joined/mashup idea. To answer your question, I think that sense of community is what's also missing on my iGoogle. Although I'm a member of several social networks (like Ning and Facebook), and I tweet, blog, access internal company portals, use an rss aggregator, as well as email and Skype, use co.mment, and tag, etc. I just use the bookmark widget on iGoogle to access them all. I still have to go to each of them and login. So, my community is 'out there' but easily accessible. I believe part of the problem is SSO. Anyway, I believe that sense of community will be easier to foster within a corporation, even a large one like Sun, because you already have a group with a common bond - employment (or customers, whatever...). As an aside...I assume you have an LMS, off-the-shelf e-learning courseware, webconferencing, resources, etc. How is that handled in this mashup? BTW...welcome to ID. We need more anthropologists in the field. : ) Hi Adam-
I love what you’re describing here; the many pieces loosely joined/mashup idea.
To answer your question, I think that sense of community is what’s also missing on my iGoogle. Although I’m a member of several social networks (like Ning and Facebook), and I tweet, blog, access internal company portals, use an rss aggregator, as well as email and Skype, use co.mment, and tag, etc. I just use the bookmark widget on iGoogle to access them all. I still have to go to each of them and login. So, my community is ‘out there’ but easily accessible. I believe part of the problem is SSO.

Anyway, I believe that sense of community will be easier to foster within a corporation, even a large one like Sun, because you already have a group with a common bond – employment (or customers, whatever…).

As an aside…I assume you have an LMS, off-the-shelf e-learning courseware, webconferencing, resources, etc. How is that handled in this mashup?

BTW…welcome to ID. We need more anthropologists in the field. : )

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