Do you Google?

If you don't already have a Google account, you might want to consider getting one after reading this!

Have you heard of Google Voice?
If not, I suspect you soon will. Google Voice is currently an invitation-only service - that means you cannot immediately sign up for Google Voice, but have to request an invitation. I requested one a few weeks ago and received my invite this week.

So what is it, what does it do?
During the setup process, I had to choose a phone number for my account (I chose a California number) and agree to a typical Terms of Service Agreement. After that I configured my profile by adding a couple of numbers for phones I regularly use. I can now share this phone number and have all calls to that number ring one or all of the numbers in my profile. Kinda cool but so what, right?

Well, for those within the local calling area for the number I chose, it allows them to call me without incurring long distance charges. Not bad, but it gets better. In addition, when logged into my Google Voice account I can enter any number in the United States, select which phone I want to use, and press a button to connect the call. For example, tonight I did this to place a call to a Colorado number and connect it to my home phone in Tallahassee. Upon doing so, my home phone rang. When I picked up the line, I heard a couple of ring tones, then the person I was calling in Colorado answered. To summarize, I used the internet to setup a call (that showed up on Caller ID as a California number) between Colorado and Florida - and talked as long as I wanted to for free (e.g. no long distance rates)!

Google Voice is cool in other ways, too!
Google Voice supports SMS, so you can use this number to send and receive standard text messages. This might be useful for those coupon code subscriptions via SMS (?).

Google Voice also has some cool voice mail features. Besides the standard features, you can set it up so that a text transcript of all voice mails is sent to you either as an email or a text message. You can also screen calls by listening in on a voice mail message as it is being recorded, and choose to break in if you want.

Is it Web 2.0?
By the definitions we have been using, probably not - there really is not much that is collaborative about using the service, and I don't think the code is open source. Even so, it is a pretty amazing technology that could have a huge impact on the long distance industry. There have been some recent reports in the news about Google Voice enabled applications being removed from Apple's App Store. Speculation abounds on whether Apple or AT&T is behind this...

What is an expert? A genius?

If you go to an Apple Store, you can spend a few minutes with a bona fide Genius. I know this because I ventured out to Jacksonville last week to get an iPhone serviced. The person who helped me was a Genius - it said so on his shirt!

The whole concept of genius and expertise are morphing before our very eyes. These are interesting times, indeed!

Expertise?

How often do you step outside yourself and objectively evaluate what you see? I mean this as a rhetorical question, but the point is that we too often coast through life with our perceptual blinders on.

In determining expertise at face value - in the absence of research and references - I believe we often ascribe value to opinions, statements, and views that fit well with our perception of the world. In ascribing that value, do we risk elevating someone to expert status?

The example of advice from a car salesperson and a parent was recently used. If both people gave the same sound advice, would we take notice of that fact? If they gave differing advice and the salesperson had better facts and reasoning behind that advice, how would we respond - especially if that expertise was not known?

How do you judge the value of expertise on the Web? Does it differ from your notion of expertise in face-to-face settings? Why or why not?

I really liked Charlene's comments about meeting Gloria Steinem. It has been true for me, too, that meetings in person are more meaningful.

In either situation, it is about building trust in a relationship. The web tends to be more conducive to people developing alternate personas. In the non-virtual world, that practice might be considered pathological! But, usually, our judgment about people seems to be fairly reliable in personal interactions. I doubt the success rate runs as high online. It would be interesting to read study results on the topic...

So, I tend to develop trust quicker when there is a face-to-face meeting involved - even if the other interaction is virtual.

So I was thinking... If del.ic.io.us and others are collecting meta data, no big deal - right? It's anonymous! So far, I would agree. But what are they doing with this information? Google and Amazon deliver statistically more relevant results to your individual searches. Or do they? The results they provide are determined by the vast collective date they have collected on all users.

What does this mean?

One way of interpreting this is to realize that our technology and economy are operating in opposition to our stated values as a nation. As a nation we support - and legally bind ourselves - to values such as diversity, equal opportunity, and freedom of expression, among others. When we start basing our technology and economy on compilations of metadata, we are choosing the mass-majority section of the bell curve and ignoring the fringe. It reminds me of the concept of the "melting pot." We have realized that a better description for our nation is a tossed salad that has many unique, identifiable elements rather than a bubbling pot that has no uniquely identifiable elements.

Aren't these tools finding the middle of the bell curve? Aren't major business decisions being influenced by this metadata?

Coast Guard Moving Forward With Web 2.0

I mentioned elsewhere that the Coast Guard is moving to adopt Web 2.0 technologies. Our Commandant and other senior leaders have blogs and there are other external resources out there. We are also moving to put Web 2.0 technologies into our internal tools and culture. There was an announcement about this a while back (located here and pasted below). I know all caps is considered poor etiquette on the net these days, but this is the original text which is a holdover from the days of teletype and morse code.

ALCOAST 128/09
COMDTNOTE 2800
SUBJ: CG PORTAL UPDATE
1. CG PORTAL WILL BE THE ONE-STOP SHOPPING PLATFORM FOR MEETING CG
INTERNET, INTRANET, AND EXTRANET NEEDS. CG PORTAL WILL REPLACE CG
CENTRAL STARTING EARLY APRIL 2009 AND FUNCTIONALITY WILL BE
INTRODUCED IN PHASES. PHASE I WILL REPLACE CG CENTRAL MICROSITES
AND COMMUNITIES. PHASE II WILL REPLACE THE REMAINDER OF CG CENTRAL
CONTENT. SUBSEQUENT PHASES WILL REPLACE OUR WWW.USCG.MIL INTERNET
PRESENCE AND ADD NEW CAPABILITIES.
2. IN EARLY 2010, BOTH CG CENTRAL (INTRANET) AND WWW.USCG.MIL
(INTERNET) WILL BE RETIRED. CG PORTAL, WITH ITS NEW FUNCTIONALITY,
WILL PROVIDE EXCITING NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNICATIONS USING
ADVANCED WEB PORTAL TECHNOLOGIES. ALL EXISTING FUNCTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS WILL BE REPLACED IN CG PORTAL PRIOR TO RETIRING THE
LEGACY SYSTEMS.
3. THE DECISION TO DEPLOY IN PHASES IS BASED ON TWO CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS: DATA TRANSFER AND USER FAMILIARIZATION. FIRST, A
PHASED RELEASE FACILITATES CONTENT MIGRATION. THERE ARE 1,300 CG
CENTRAL MICROSITES, 13,000 CG CENTRAL CONTENT AREAS, AND 800
WWW.USCG.MIL WEB SITES THAT NEED TO BE MANUALLY MIGRATED TO CG
PORTAL. IN ADDITION TO MANAGING THE LOGISTICS OF MOVING SUCH A
LARGE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION, ACCURATELY MIGRATING INFORMATION TO A
NEW PORTAL IS PARAMOUNT. SECOND, A PHASED RELEASE ALLOWS END USERS
AND WEB PUBLISHERS TIME TO FAMILIARIZE THEMSELVES WITH THE NEW
PORTAL. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE HOW IT FUNCTIONS, PROVIDE FEEDBACK
AND ASK QUESTIONS, RECEIVE TRAINING, AND BEGIN TO INTEGRATE THE
PRODUCT INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE.
4. THE PHASE I RELEASE OF CG PORTAL IS TARGETED FOR EARLY APRIL
2009. THE PRIMARY PRODUCT BEING DEPLOYED IS QUICKR, SERVING AS A
MUCH ANTICIPATED REPLACEMENT TO CG CENTRAL MICROSITES AND
COMMUNITIES. WHEN PHASE I OF CG PORTAL IS DEPLOYED, QUICKR WILL BE
FULLY FUNCTIONAL AND THE AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE OF INTERNAL COAST
GUARD COLLABORATION CAPABILITY. CG CENTRAL MICROSITES AND
COMMUNITIES WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION. QUICKR OFFERS A DIVERSE SUITE
OF WEB 2.0 FUNCTIONALITY THAT INCLUDES BOTH BLOG AND WIKI
CAPABILITY. WE ANTICIPATE QUICKR TO BE HEAVILY USED FOR TEAM
DISCUSSIONS, PROJECT TASK MANAGEMENT, AND INTERNAL COAST GUARD
COLLABORATION. ACCESS TO QUICKR WILL INITIALLY BE AVAILABLE AS A
LINK FROM CG CENTRAL.
5. QUICKR PROVIDES COLLABORATION AREAS KNOWN AS CG PLACES. ALL OF
THE CONTENT FROM CG CENTRAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE AVAILABLE UNDER THE
SAME COMMUNITY HEADINGS. EVERYONE THAT ACCESSES QUICKR WILL SEE
THESE COMMUNITIES AVAILABLE IN THEIR LIST OF (PUBLIC PLACES) AND
HAVE PERMISSION TO VIEW THE CONTENT. A CORRESPONDING CG PLACE WILL
BE CREATED FOR EVERY MICROSITE. IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY A MEMBER OF A
CG CENTRAL MICROSITE THEN WHEN YOU ACCESS CG PLACES YOU WILL SEE AN
EXACT REPLICA OF THOSE SAME MICROSITES UNDER (MY PLACES). WHILE
EACH PLACE WILL BE AVAILABLE AND WILL ALREADY BE POPULATED WITH ALL
OF THE SAME MEMBERS THAT CURRENTLY EXIST IN THE MICROSITE THERE MAY
BE NO CONTENT IN THE NEW PLACE. CONTENT MIGRATION FOR CG CENTRAL
MICROSITES WILL OCCUR AUTOMATICALLY AS PHASE I IS IMPLEMENTED AND
IS DUE TO BE COMPLETED BY MID-APRIL.
6. CG CENTRAL STATIC CONTENT WILL APPEAR ON BOTH CG CENTRAL AND CG
PORTAL FOR A PERIOD OF THREE WEEKS AT THE BEGINNING OF PHASE II IN
LATE AUGUST 2009. MORE IMPORTANTLY, CG CENTRAL WILL REMAIN THE
AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE OF INFORMATION DURING THIS PERIOD. AS A
RESULT, ANY CHANGES TO CG CENTRAL STATIC CONTENT WILL NOT BE
AUTOMATICALLY UPDATED ON CG PORTAL DURING THIS THREE WEEK PERIOD.
DURING THIS TIME, UPDATES TO CG PORTAL MUST BE COMPLETED MANUALLY
BY THE END USER OR WEB PUBLISHER.  MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ON
THIS PROCESS WILL BE RELEASED AS WE DRAW CLOSER TO AUGUST.
7. FOR PHASES I AND II OF CG PORTAL DEPLOYMENT THERE WILL BE NO
IMPACT ON INTERNET SITES SUCH AS WWW.USCG.MIL. PHASE III WILL BEGIN
THE TRANSITION OF CONTENT FROM WWW.USCG.MIL. WE ANTICIPATE THIS
PHASE TO BE COMPLETED IN EARLY 2010.
8. THE HOMEPORT INTERNET PORTAL WILL REMAIN IN PLACE AND CONTINUE
TO SERVE AS THE CG COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION
SHARING PORTAL FOR THE MARITIME INDUSTRY AND PORT PARTNERS.
HOMEPORT USERS SHALL CONTINUE TO USE HOMEPORT AS BEFORE.
9. WEBMASTERS SUPPORTING INTRANET WEB SITES HOSTED ON CG WEB
SERVERS INSTEAD OF CG CENTRAL SHALL MIGRATE THEIR STATIC CONTENT TO
CG PORTAL BEGINNING IN PHASE II. ANY CONTENT THAT CANNOT
TECHNICALLY BE MIGRATED DUE TO FUNCTIONALITY WILL BE ADDRESSED IN A
FUTURE ALCOAST.
10. LOW BANDWIDTH TESTING HAS BEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF CG PORTAL. WE WILL BE WORKING WITH A FEW OF OUR
LOW BANDWIDTH UNITS TO ENSURE THAT THE CG PORTAL APPLICATION
PROPERLY SERVES THIS AUDIENCE.  WHILE WE WILL ENSURE COMPATIBILITY
WITH THE APPLICATION IT WILL BE NECESSARY FOR THE PUBLISHERS IN THE
FIELD TO USE THE TOOLS PROVIDED PROPERLY WHEN ADDING CONTENT. AS WE
EXPAND THE USE OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS IT WILL BE POSSIBLE FOR PUBLISHERS
TO ADD A LARGE VOLUME OF CONTENT THAT CAN MAKE VIEWING DIFFICULT
FOR SOME OF OUR AUDIENCE. IT WILL BE AN ON-GOING EFFORT TO STRIKE A
BALANCE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND USABILITY.
11. TRAINING REMAINS A TOP CONCERN FOR ALL OF US. CG PORTAL IS
COMPRISED OF INDUSTRY BEST PRODUCTS THAT ARE BOTH EASY TO USE AND
FLEXIBLE. CG PORTAL WILL RELY ON WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES AND
TRADITIONAL MULTIMEDIA FORMATS TO DELIVER HELP GUIDES, JOB AIDS,
VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS, AUDIO INSTRUCTIONS, FAQS, AND POTENTIALLY
MICROSOFT LIVE MEETING WEB CONFERENCES. CLASSROOM TRAINING WILL BE
DEVELOPED AS NEEDED AND COORDINATED WITH REGIONAL TRAINING
CONTACTS. INFORMATION ABOUT CG PORTAL CAN BE FOUND IN THE CG
CENTRAL - FEATURED ITEMS - NEW CG PORTAL INFORMATION CONTENT AREA.
THIS INFORMATIVE BLOCK CONTAINS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ), A
RECENT ARTICLE FEATURED IN ENGINEERING, ELECTRONICS, AND LOGISTICS
QUARTERLY, AND A VIDEO DEMONSTRATION. AS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND
DOCUMENTATION FOR CG PORTAL IS DEVELOPED IT WILL BE POSTED TO CG
CENTRAL.
12. THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF KEY DATES AS WE LOOK AHEAD TO THE
FIRST TO PHASES OF CG PORTAL:
A.  13MAR09 - NEW CG CENTRAL MICROSITE CREATION REQUEST NO LONGER
ACCEPTED
B.  13MAR09 - NEW CG CENTRAL COMMUNITY REQUEST NO LONGER ACCEPTED
C.  27MAR09 - CG CENTRAL MICROSITE AND COMMUNITIES ENTER READ-ONLY
STATUS
D.  APR09 - PHASE I DEPLOYMENT
E.  AUG 09 - PHASE II DEPLOYMENT
13. THE COAST GUARD WEB PRESENCE IS RAPIDLY MOVING TOWARDS AN
EXCITING FUTURE AND EACH OF YOU PLAY A ROLE IN ITS SUCCESS. PLEASE
TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN THE SYSTEM, QUESTION ITS CAPABILITIES, AND
PROVIDE FEEDBACK. TOGETHER WE CAN DEVELOP A PREMIER WEB PORTAL.
14. CG-6 POC FOR THIS PROJECT IS: LT FELTNER AT 202-475-3580 OR BY
EMAIL AT KERRY.A.FELTNER2(AT)USCG.MIL.
15. RADM D. T. GLENN, ASSISTANT COMMANDANT FOR COMMAND, CONTROL,
COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, SENDS.
16. INTERNET RELEASE IS AUTHORIZED.

I have a feeling I will be involved with this either as a project during my studies, or in my assignment next year after graduation!

Produsage #1

Sometime in the next twelve hours I will post a link (via a comment to this blog entry) to my Produsage #1 submission.

I've been looking at some of the other projects and am very impressed! I'm also relieved this is not a competition where we will be rank-ordered!!!

Congratulations to everyone; such clever ideas. I would especially like to praise the project at http://isconferences.ning.com/. WOW!!! Very professional looking, with great application of our learning in the course. I now have a much better appreciation for NING and may consider it for my Produsage #2 assignment.

Thanks!

Week 3

What uses might a collaborative wiki or blog have in your chosen (current or desired) work environment? How would they support learning and/or performance? What would be the design and implementation challenges if management tried to do this? What would be the design and implementation challenges of a user-initiated effort?

As has been noted elsewhere, my online work environment exists behind firewalls and within strict policy. For the sake of argument, I will presume that hosting an internal wiki is achievable.

First, I see this of significant benefit to the organization - particularly the enlisted crew members who spend a significant amount of time pursuing knowledge to support their technical certifications. Currently, these endeavors are done via email and web sites. As such, the information one finds may not reflect current policy and procedures. Further, there are aspects of the mission which are sensitive and not consistent with a policy of transparency (e.g. law enforcement tactics and procedures, etc.).

With an internal wiki system, the study guides, discussion forums, and other information that currently resides on external web sites such as FredsPlace.org, CoastieChicks.net, and BoatswainsMate.net could be managed by everyone in the organization, with less concern about releasing For Official Use Only (FOUO) information. An additional benefit of having an internal system would be the ability to ensure wiki branding is politically correct.

I believe the design and implementation challenges would be relatively minor as there are current initiatives underway to re-design our intranet and internet. In light of senior leadership's commitment to embrace "social media" as one way to be more effective and more transparent to the American Public, the chief difficulty would be in not necessarily selling the idea, but getting it through the approval process.

The current initiative is being driven from the top. Many in the organization are embracing this - particularly the junior (e.g. younger) personnel. Fortunately, this initiative comes at a time when the current intranet is so unbelievably confusing and slow that even the skeptics are looking forward to the new system. In short, the environment is ripe for adoption from all levels of the organization. I am confident that if the design elements are in place, people would flock to use and contribute to an internal wiki.

Absolutely unrelated to the course

If you are only interested in readings that are relevant to our current course, please move along - there is nothing to see here.

*************************************************************

This week I registered for my fall courses. I am taking an ambitious course load since I must complete the entire program by next summer. Below is my schedule. If you are in any of the same courses, feel free to drop me a line!

	Course		Sec	Sess	Ref #	Title	Hrs	Bldg	Rm	Days	Begin	End
	1.	EDP5217	01		01102	LEARNER MOTIVATION	3	STB	3303	T	12:30 PM	03:15 PM
*	2.	EME5457	03		07258	INTRO DISTANCE LEARN	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	3.	EME5601	01		01271	INTRO INSTRCL SYSTEM	3	STB	3203	M	12:30 PM	03:15 PM
	4.	EME5603	01		01272	SYSTEMATIC INST DESI	3	STB	3203	W	12:30 PM	03:15 PM
	5.	EME6636	01		06717	SYS APPCH MGMNT CHGE	3	STB	3209	R	12:30 PM	03:15 PM
Total Hours Enrolled:							15

*Noted courses above are not displayed. 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM Monday EME5601 12:30 - 03:15 Tuesday EDP5217 12:30 - 03:15 Wednesday EME5603 12:30 - 03:15 Thursday EME6636 12:30 - 03:15 Friday

A departure from Web 2.0

Yesterday I recklessly abandoned the use of Web 2.0 tools. Believe it or not, I actually met with a human being in person and had an excellent conversation without the use of a computer or any other technology - although we did refer to some notes on a white board, a printed copy of an email, and a large (paper) map of the FSU campus. GASP!!! Even more astonishing was that we had meaningful conversation that involved an exchange of ideas, and shared understanding and appreciation of each others views.

Further, as we conversed we each contributed to the shaping of the others understanding of the topics at hand. So rather than one of us passively absorbing the knowledge of the other, our exchange of knowledge put us both in the roles of produser - no publisher, team coordinator, or other authority was needed.

Okay, I'll turn the sarcasm off!

But seriously, I realized after my very enjoyable visit that Bruns' incessant babbling about produsers is just old fashioned nonsense. Now before anyone feels the urge to pile on or defend Mr. Bruns, please understand that I am not personally attacking our author. As I continue to read his work at a glacial pace, I appreciate having this as our text. It is not enjoyable, but I find it entirely appropriate for our study - although probably not for the reasons he intended when writing it. (However, I suspect this was a factor when Vanessa chose the text.)

I have been a serious student of leadership since I began teaching topics of leadership in the middle 90s. I no longer teach those topics, but the experience of having done so has made me very observant of leadership behaviors (the term "reticular activation" comes to mind...). Someone once said Boss Watching is the number one observer sport in the U.S. When we watch our bosses we not only learn from their good examples, but also from their bad examples. I would go further to state that even bad leaders exhibit positive traits at times. This is how I view Bruns' book. There are some very good illustrations and examples buried in the muck of his writing - enough to keep me slogging along. But more than that, I have realized that for all the hoopla surrounding Web 2.0 hype the underlying principles are old ideas with a fresh coat of paint. What is new is their force in our economy.

Just as my conversation yesterday illustrates, the collaborative process and concepts like "synergy" have been around for a very long time - long before they became buzzwords or were wrapped up in complex ideas about wielding virtual tools to shape our world.

For that realization, if nothing more, I thank Mr. Bruns.

It's A Matter Of Time...

Last week

Last week I felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information I was trying to digest via the Bb Discussion, Electronic Journals, linked pages, and readings. Oh, and I was still unpacking and setting up the house!

The boxes are now unpacked and the house is mostly set up - enough so, that I do not feel compelled to spend a lot of time each day working on that. But that does not fully account for my improved state of mind this week! So what else is at play? And how (and what) have I managed to learn during week 2?

Time as a resource

First and foremost, I am reminded of a friend who once said, "You can't be the best at everything." The context in which that statement was made does not matter, but the core truth is relevant to this situation as well: I can balance being a good father, a good husband, a good classmate, and a good student with the time available in each day. What I cannot do is be excellent at all. So, I have dialed back my quantity of participation this week and striven for a moderated approach that is more focused on quality. My family is also very understanding, and knows that they are always first in my life!

In my reflections on time and time management, I thought of a statement that I unfortunately cannot attribute: "You can always make more things, but you can never make more time; time is a finite resource." This paraphrased quote came to mind while reading Cindy's blog on Second Life. If a tool is that difficult to learn and use, then how valuable will it be to the learner? In my own case, I have passed on the opportunity to learn about Second Life for now (although it sounds interesting from what Bryan described). Perhaps by then, the tool will become easier as promised.

Other tools we have looked at this week showed more promise both in the application to the learning environment and in the amount of time necessary to get up and running. Twitter, Flickr, Diigo, and YouTube are all simple to setup and begin using. For the instructor, these tools are also relatively easy to setup for a learning topic. For remote learners, I see YouTube as a reasonable substitute for a live instructor. I could see a scenario where a live YouTube feed with a Twitter return channel (monitored by an assistant) could be a simple and cost-effective alternative to some other remote video learning solutions. A combination of Flickr, Diigo, and YouTube would be especially beneficial for reading and interacting between class sessions. The ability to embed photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube make creating a wiki or a Site (a la Google) easy for most people with basic computer and internet skills.

Time-wasters

This past week I also found myself frustrated at some of the time-wasters of the web in general and with some Web 2.0 technologies in particular. Amanda's blog, "You go back Jack do it again…" caused me to write a rather long response discussing a few questions that I had. When I pressed submit I got an error because I forgot to enter the captcha code - more on that in a minute. So I hit the back button only to find my entire post was lost. If Web2.0 is so happening and now, the cutting edge of technology and society, shouldn't this problem be solved by now? And speaking of things that don't make sense: If I am a logged in user, why would I be required to enter a captcha code? Now I am not a registered EduBlog user, so the need to enter a captcha code makes sense to comment on her blog makes sense. Blogger does not require a captcha when logged in, but other sites do. I never noticed this until now!

Produsage

My final observations include some comments about Gina's blog entries and comment chains on Bruns' book. I agree with her in many ways on this book. His style of writing is very wordy and convoluted - I understand big words, but prefer a writer who gets to his or her point. In that vein, I've never understood the need to write "utilize" when "use" almost always does the job just as well. I'm still sticking with the book, although I am doubtful it will take 400 pages to convey the meaningful points! As I read and skim, I keep finding my inner dialog repeating, "okay, I get it - let's move on."

Activity log

I am taking Vanessa's advice on summarizing my activities this past week. I've tried to spread my activity around: making blog entries, commenting of others' blogs, participating in Bb discussions, contributing to the wiki space. So, rather than list them in detail here I am trusting that my presence and contributions have been noted! A more detailed list is available if needed...

A Personal Note

Despite my prior rants about posting personal data, I thought I would share with you all that I have been offline much of today enjoying my 15th wedding anniversary. I've checked in once or twice in idle moments, but have limited my coursework to reading Bruns while I was alone this afternoon.

Tomorrow - back to the salt mine!

From this week's "To Do" list...

Vanessa encouraged us to check out Twitter, Diigo, Flickr, and YouTube. Woohoo, I'm already halfway there!!!

IRT YouTube, I think it is a particularly useful tool for providing video clips in a training environment. The open nature and nearly universal access are definite plusses. However, my chief complaint is that there is no easy way to download or archive the YouTube content. I know there are third party plugins, but those are really only useful for individual users. In my work environment there are a number of security issues (government network). Copyright issues aside - and I am not taking them lightly - it would be ideal if video could temporarily be archived locally or distributed within an internal network.

Overall, I currently view Flickr and YouTube as useful only if the corporate IT policy permits direct access to this media so that links could be embedded in the internal learning material. Based on the UT-Dallas video we viewed last week, I see Twitter as potentially useful for out of class dialog on the course. I will have to get back to you on Diigo as I have no idea what it is!

Coast Guard Adopts Web 2.0

The Coast Guard is attempting to embrace Web 2.0 to benefit both our workforce and our customers. Here is a YouTube video from the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdEAY1XLapQ

Confessions of a Tab browser

I'm a tab browser. As I weed my way through the web, I filter interesting things I want to read closer by sending them to a new tab. I was doing this Sunday evening as I was frantically trying to catch up on all the work you all have been posting today. I had a dozen tabs open, including my Week One Wrap when my browser crashed.

So, I'm off to see if my update autosaved. And then I will try to determine what tabs were previously so compelling.

*sigh*

Weekly Wrap: 1

This week I have been busy as has everyone else. My most significant accomplishment was simply surviving the week. Here are some highlights of other accomplishments:

• Attempted to keep up with Bb and am up-to-date in all forums except the Week 1 discussions where I am about 40% current. Lurked in the Free Rider discussion.
  
• Finally bit the bullet and spent a couple of hours learning about twitter and will add that to my bag of tricks for this course.
• Added an entry for StumbleUpon to the Wiki (learning - on the fly - how to do so while also creating Yet Another User Account) and resisted the evil impulse to add an entry for Flutter. ;-)
• Subscribed to the Friend Feed with the hopes of surviving the flood of information in this first week. (I cannot possibly survive five more weeks of this without serious adaptation - and we haven't begun projects yet!!!)
• Failed to conquer confusion over produsage, but did develop aversion to the term.
• Shamelessly plagiarized Gina's format for this post. Thanks, Gina!

Note to Vanessa: If this week is any indicator, this class may need to be re-classified as a 6 (or more) credit class. I have gone WAY beyond 7.5 hrs of "classroom" time. My head hurts... ;-)

Weekly Wrap

Hello all!

I imagine that I'm not the only one to feel a bit overwhelmed with all the various ways we can engage with each other! So much so, that I find myself pondering what I've read in nearly all my idle moments: in the shower, while driving, and so on. On many of those occasions I have also pondered the scope of our efforts in this class and keep coming back to Shirky's illustrations of clusters (p. 27) to describe the Birthday Paradox. I feel we are challenged in much the same way to maintain all our connections. I shudder to think of Vanessa's (and Christie's and Woon Jee's) task to grasp the full cluster for this class! I did a little math on this and with 32 students, 2 TAs, and one instructor, that makes for 595 connections!

I found the dialog between Bryan and Vanessa very interesting and helpful for me to create purpose out of chaos! My aim is to use this weekly wrap to encapsulate my weekly experiences and activities.