Six months ago Thomas Suarez, a 6th grader from Los Angeles, spoke at a TEDS event about the making and sale of an “app”  he created on his own – “Bustin Jieber” (a whack-a-mole type anti-Justin-Bieber game.)  (There’s nearly 2 million views of the video on YouTube so you may have seen it.) Anyway, he’s quite eloquent and now owns his own company. While he’s clearly much further ahead than the majority of 6th graders I know, his actions offer a glimpse of our future workforce.

Suarez, who is self taught, started to build, create and sell his own apps and even created a club for fellow students where he shares what he knows about programming.  He thinks “students are a valuable new technology resource to teachers, and should be empowered to offer assistance in developing the technology curriculum and also assist in delivering the lessons.”

Amen. He’s taught himself Python, Java, and C “just to get the basics down” according to his bio.This DIY mentality is why online learning from CodeAcademy and Kahn Academy, are so popular.

Here’s his talk:

I had a glimpse of that kind of thing in my house two weeks ago. My son is a gamer. His current game of choice is Call of Duty (COD). He plays LIVE with various friends. He decided he wanted to record the game play so he Googled it (“How to…”) and ended up finding something called  Dazzle (about $50 US), a video capture device.

He asked ‘guilted’ me into buying it for him as repayment for the iPod Touch I accidentally dropped, cracking the screen. (He said since a lot of people have small cracks in their screen, he’d rather I not pay to get it fixed but instead buy this Dazzle thingy. This is extortion mixed with love and guilt.) So off we went to BestBuy  and, as it turned out, Radio Shack after that for the right connectors which we couldn’t find at BestBuy. (Dazzle is not created for the purpose of recording XBox play…it just does but you need to add some cords.) Oh, and we went to Wendy’s too. Why not make a day of it?

Back from the road trip….so my son often helps his friends out when they are first learning to play (they help each other) so he thought he’d record a tutorial. I’m not making this up.

Using Dazzle’s software, he couldn’t figure out why the audio control was grayed out (I suspect it had something to do with the default setting on the computer) and since I didn’t want to stop watching the Stanley Cup playoffs to mess with this audio glitch, I told him to look at Audacity (open source audio recording).

Unassisted (except for the Audacity tip), he recorded the audio, saved it as a file type he could import (because I later asked and learned Audacity saves with a AUP file type...so he figured that out) , narrated his video recording, set up his own YouTube channel and uploaded it. All in the  course of an evening…basically unassisted. He’s 13! Amazing since a few folks in the industry (no one reading this of course : ) still say “http what?”

So…later that night, I was watching some lame Stanley Cup Western division playoff game that was boring so I looked up his channel on the iPad and watched what he did. Did I tell you he is in middle school! Yes, these kids are our future workforce. Neither Suarez nor my son would have learned this in school. There’s no app class. There’s no live online collaboration and video recording class (and least in our school district in NY State).

Do you have a similar story?

(As an aside…I know there are people who would not let a 13 year old play a game rated “M” -whether live or not – but my personal approach is one of involvement  – Why is the game “M”? Is he mature enough? Do I know who he is playing with? Do I monitor that? Have guidelines and expectations been set along with what will happen if those are disregarded? Am I prepared to recognize the signs that the game is having a negative effect? Is he getting enough physical activity to stay healthy?, etc. The research is mixed on video games, especially violent games.)

I read the article Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years“  and, coupled with some research on mobile video I’m doing, paused because I suddenly felt like I was missing something. It was one of those “wait – what?” moments that I sometimes get as an analyst because you know, I have to know this stuff.

Anyway, the author of the article, Eric Jackson, shares two schools of thought – first, the outsized influence management teams have on organizational outcomes and second, the idea that managers don’t really matter all that much because organizational outcomes have more to do with industry effects. He admits to not thinking much of the latter (which comes from organizational ecology research) until recently. He believes that…

“More and more in tech, it seems that your long-term viability as a company is dependent on when you were born.”

In the tech world, Jackson identifies 3 generations: Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Mobile and suggests that prior generations of organizations can’t quite see the subtle changes between generations. He goes on to say that social companies born since 2010 (i.e. Instagram), view mobile as the primary (often exclusive) platform for their application.

[Those companies born since 2010] “don’t even think of launching via a web site.  They assume, over time, people will use their mobile applications almost entirely instead of websites.”

There’s an interesting tidbit in the article that comes from Tim Cook (CEO, Apple) about the speed of change…

“…through the last quarter [Q2 2012], I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones.”

We don’t know the reason(s) why Facebook bought Instagram (born after 2010) for $1 Billion. Plenty of folks have opinions about it. Perhaps it’s because Instagram’s mobile  app doesn’t blow. Perhaps it’s Facebook’s mobile strategy in action. That’s my take FWIW.

What does this mean for L&D? We  have e-Learning 1.0 and e-Learning 2.0 and now have mobile learning -but are we just taking the 1.0 and 2.0 elements and putting them in mobile form? It seems we have to make sure our mobile learning can stand alone…you know, not totally blow.

(NOTE TO SELF: Change  personal website name  to Flushing the Social Web)

Blackboard’s statement of principles about open source says it is

“committed to supporting the growth, development and use of open source technologies in education worldwide.”

Blackboard also says it

“expects to make significant contributions to the community to help ensure that open source options remain strong, reliable and sustainable for all.” 

To that end, Blackboard has launched a new business called Blackboard Education Open Source Services – a good thing, right? Read on…

In support of this broader vision, Blackboard announced on Monday that it had acquired two companies – the first, Moodlerooms and the second, NetSpot. Moodlerooms is a solution provider that hosts Moodle for organizations, integrates enterprise features for Moodle, and provides consultation service and training for organizations interested in the low-cost, popular open-source Moodle LMS (they call is a CMS) and also customization, flexibility and extended features for the enterprise.  So, a competitor in the LMS space made up of customers that likely were trying to avoid Blackboard in the first place. Can you taste the irony?

By way of background, and in the event you don’t know much about open source LMSs, Moodle came on to open-source scene several years ago as an LMS/CMS used primarily by schools (K-12 to higher education) often as an alternative to Blackboard. (Perhaps the strategy here is if you can’t beat them, join them.). Anyway, over the years, as more corporations started using Moodle as an enterprise LMS, not surprisingly a Moodle services market sprang up which today includes several solution providers – like Moodlerooms and NetSpot.

Back to the acquisitions… and moving on to the second one, NetSpot. Like Moodlerooms, NetSpot is a Moodle Partner however; it is located in Australia servicing the Asia Pacific region. Like Moodlerooms (which BTW is based in Maryland), NetSpot provides services like hosting, support and help desk and integration and migration. So a global move too.

What the heck does all this mean? I found myself agreeing with Christopher Dawson’s summary at ZDNet Education about these acquisitions. He wonders,

“Is this a major play for market share, a genuine effort to promote development and cross-pollination in the LMS market, or a bit of both?”

None of us are naïve enough to not realize that Blackboard is no longer publicly traded but owned by a private equity firm. But…still. ?

For now, enterprise users of Moodlerooms and NetSpot can rest easy knowing that Blackboard plans on letting them run as they are now vs. swallowing them whole as they did with Elluminate, the virtual classroom. Enterprise users of Blackboard might look forward to more options. That’s a good thing. I’m just  going to make a bag of popcorn and watch it play out.

Here’s some interesting reads on this topic:

•  This kids, is why hallucinogenics and the internet don’t mix by George Siemens at elearnspace  (higher ed-focus and funny)
• Blackboard Acquires Moodlerooms, NetSpot To Offer Open Source Learning Technology, Leena Rao at TechCrunch
• Blackboard buys Moodlerooms…And no, this isn’t an early April Fools by Christopher Dawson, ZDNet Education
• Evolution Unbound: Blackboard embraces open source. By Ray Henderson, President of Blackboard Learn
• Blackboard Confronts Erosion of Market Share, Makes a Major Change in Strategy by Phil Hill at e-Literate
• Blackboard Education Open Source Services – a personal view by Mark Drechsler, Director, Consulting NetSpot Pty Ltd

I have been playing around with Curatr for a few weeks now not only as a platform for social learning but as a social publishing tool as well. Curatr is a stand-alone or integrated (with API) cloud-based platform that allows you to browse content  in a more visible fashion and more…

Publishing research and publishing self-paced, text- and image-based e-learning are similar. Over time, you end up with a great deal of content. Search for something broad like “RSS” and you’ll likely find links to documents, videos, presentation, case studies, research reports, tools, answers to questions, etc. It can be a  bit onerous leaving one rummaging through links asking questions like ‘what should I read first?,’ ‘where can I find examples of how specific companies are using RSS?’, ‘what do analysts say about RSS in 2012?’. I found that with Curatr, I could arrange various research objects in such a way that they would flow together a bit better in a nice visual format (which looks great on an iPad BTW).

Take for example the topic of virtual instructor-led training. That’s a topic that goes back for years. I could lay out content as objects that one  could choose – from ‘primer’ to ‘case study’ to ‘definition’ to ‘research study’ to ‘video’ to ‘webcast’ to ‘benchmarking data’ to ‘training and development’ to ‘ask the expert’ question responses. These are some of our assets our members know well. What makes it social is that I can interact with each asset – leave comments, add content, share, etc. – they become more alive that way.

There are gamification elements as well – “leveling up” based on difficulty and interactions. Below is a pretty basic look of just a few Bersin & Associates assets. If you want to really see it in action, take a look at some  videos Curatr has produced or you could even set up a demo account and play around. Put a time limit on it though…it’s easy to get carried away.

Here’s a screen shot with just 4 assets. I could easily add our BersinBasics, Tools, Answers to “Ask the Expert” Questions, etc. (click to make larger)

Here is a recent video from founder Ben Betts and a link to the iPad app.

Have fun and let me know what you think of published content presented in this way.

Alternate Reality Game (ARG)…an interactive story-based game, delivered through multiple “real world” modes (i.e., text, phone, Internet, print, and others) within which players must participate interactively and work collectively to solve “real world” problems the story presents.

In our most recent High-Impact Learning Organization research, to be published shortly, we asked organizations to rate themselves from poor to excellent on their e-learning capabilities. Not surprisingly, the entry point for e-learning – the creation of simple, self-paced e-learning – isn’t viewed as something too difficult to do.

On the other hand, expertise in things like serious games is viewed by most organizations as very difficult to do. Over 81 percent of organizations rated themselves as either “poor” or “below average” and just 6 percent rated themselves as “excellent.” 81 percent. Wow. Why, do you think?

I imagine when I dig a little deeper I’ll hear things like “we don’t have the capacity,” “what’s a serious game?”, “we don’t have anyone on staff with specialized gaming skills,” “they’re too hard to create” and “the cost is too high.” I probably won’t hear someone say “they scare the bejesus out of me.”

I don’t know about you but just a few years ago if you said “serious games” to me I’d think about simulations in a 3D virtual world. Maybe even head gear. That would be cool. Head gear. Scary but cool.

Games. Fun for kids. Scary at work. What happened?

Let’s reminisce about games…

Remember playing games as children where you undermined the rules at the start of the game or even during the game (hey, you’re cheating!). It was fun – you could make the game entirely different just by changing a few of the rules.

Today, as technology has become ubiquitous in our lives, games have become more complex (even Lego games) . For instance, “Geek Dad” Daniel Donahoo recently wrote about an alternate reality game (ARG) his 7 and 9 year old boys played to learn how languages are structured .

The game started with a letter in the mail (a Chinese character with a URL) that would lead the boys to a “rabbit hole ” that then immersed them in a game  (FYI…the entrance point for an ARG is called a “rabbit hole.” It is usually an online site. “Down the rabbit hole” is a metaphor for adventure to the unknown, from its use in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You knew that but I thought I’d tell you anyway.)

Donahoo noted that through Skype sessions with “virtual agents” and missions, the kids felt they were part of the story; it felt real. That is the essence of an ARG.

Of course ARGs are not just for kids. Today we see them used extensively in marketing campaigns (Catch the Mini and Why So Serious ), events (the Olympics ) and now we see it in workplace learning.

ARG stands for alternate reality game (not to be confused with augmented reality). ARGs have been around for ten years. Back then (and today still) they were used to promote movies, video games and music. Dr. Jane McGonigal, a world-renowned ARG guru, defined ARGs in 2008 as

“an interactive drama played out online and in real-world spaces, taking place over several weeks or months, in which dozens, hundreds, thousands of players come together online, form collaborative social networks, and work together to solve a mystery or problem that would be absolutely impossible to solve alone .”

That is a great definition, especially for the type of ARGs Dr. McGonigal designs –games that focus on improving the quality of life and the greater good – but it may be a bit onerous for a group of 20 sales executives at an organization.

A simpler definition  for workplace learning might be something like…

“…an interactive story-based game, delivered through multiple “real world” modes (i.e., text, phone, Internet, print, and others) within which players must participate interactively and work collectively to solve “real world” problems the story presents.”

Based on my reading, talking to organizations and the research work of others, I see the following as elements of an ARG.

These games aren’t scary. While they can involve  3D virtual worlds, they can also be as simple as combining a page on your intranet and Skype (or any other communication tool for that matter) and a document.

Now designing ARGs can be challenging and requires special skills but it DOES NOT mean you need extensive technology skills. Web page + Phone +Piece of Paper + Sound Game Design + Whatever = Serious Game. It’s do-able.

This post is a tad long so we’ll call it part 1. In part 2, I’ll give you some examples of ARGs for workplace learning and share with you my thoughts on why they might be a great fit for L&D.

References

Bersin & Associates, The High-Impact Learning Organization 2012 (in press and you’re gonna love it!)

Büscher, M., Ellis, R., Ferrario, M., Kortuem, G., Whittle, J., Schorch, M. & Zimmerman, A. (2011). Collective Intelligence and CSCW in Crisis Situations. Retrieved December 21, 2011 from http://www.ecscw2011.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ws5.pdf

Kim, J., Lee, E., Thomas, T. & Dombrowski, C. (2009) Storytelling in new media: The case of alternate reality games, 2001-2009. First Monday, Volume 14, Number 6, June 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2011 from http://frodo.lib.uic.edu/ojsjournals/index.php/fm/article/view/2484/2199

Szulborski, D. (2005) This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming (2^nd Digital Edition) (2005) Lulu.com. Retrieved December 21, 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=M7VwtUa2TYAC&lpg=PP10&ots=QfFCDisjY2&dq=alternate%20reality%20games&lr&pg=PP10#v=onepage&q=alternate%20reality%20games&f=false .

EDUCAUSE: 7 Things You Should Know About Alternate Reality Games (2009) http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7045.pdf

This is a cross post. Original at Bersin & Associates.

We know from our LMS 2011 research that the LMS market is experiencing more fragmentation, specialization, and globalization. We also know that we primarily see this in three overlapping spaces: (1) integrated talent management suite providers (the fastest growing space, especially for large organizations and where we are also seeing mega LMS/TMS mergers), (2) social learning platform providers, and (3) providers specializing in niche solutions (i.e., specific vertical markets like healthcare, unique needs like extended enterprise learning, and specialized delivery methods like mobile).

However, for such a mature market, we also know that many buyers of LMSs are generally frustrated with their systems and that is one reason we are seeing these changes – you are driving them. As the character Howard Beale said in the movie Network, “WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.” That’s probably why I sat up in my seat a bit during my briefing with Intellum when I learned that they had a 98 percent renewal rate. 98. Percent. Not many frustrated buyers there.

Intellum has been around since 2000. My briefing was on its Rollbook LMS with a sneak peak at something call GroupDock.

Here are some of my rough notes from the Rollbook LMS briefing:

• Add users (or have them self register)
• Specify data capture requirements
• Put users in groups if needed (by manager, by geographic regions, etc.)
• Simple upload of courses (taken a YouTube and an iTunes-like feel) for learners. (i.e., what learners are used to)
• Don’t have to use “slideware” (built-in capabilities)
• They will host video courses (overcome the video issue organizations face)
• eCommerce capabilities
• 3P integration with Exam Builder (confirmation button or testing/assessment)
• Creator of content sees what the student will see as they are creating a course
• They sell everything offered and customer decides what to turn off
• Can send data to other systems
• Partner with several 3P COTS courseware providers. Can just buy courses.
• Create learning paths

Intellum also does custom content. Implementation is 1 day. My impression is that it is ridiculously easy to use. That’s really their value proposition.

Now if you’re a small or medium sized business shopping for an LMS to administer and track training and create and serve up e-learning you can use the following tips for avoiding long sales cycles and complicated comparisons.

• You must be able to answer these two questions: “What do I want the system to do?” and “What business problem am I trying to solve?” Do not pass GO if you can’t answer those questions. Do not collect $200. Go directly to jail and do your homework. Homework may involve the investigation of things like “What is an LMS and how is it different than an LCMS, virtual classroom, or authoring tool?” (We have a primer on that.)
• Make a decision on how much you want to spend. And remember even “free” solutions have a cost (support, documentation, add-ons, etc.). Our LMS report includes cost considerations.
• Look for easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain systems. In the words of Homer Simpson, Doh! Yes, that’s common sense but I am reminded of a quote from Steve Krug’s awesome book “Don’t Make Me Think”: “If something is hard to use, I just don’t use it as much.” So…when you’re “trying on” systems, move along if it is hard to use.
• Go with a hosted system. ‘Nuff said.
• Evaluate the system against your use case(s) not just an RFP response or demo. Comparing which-systems-do-what using a checklist can be a painstaking and futile exercise (OMG…all boxes are checked for all of these!). Use case = here’s what I need it to do (from Q#1), can you do it? Good. Now show me or better yet, let me try.
• Separate “must have” and “nice to have” features. “Nice to haves” are the tiebreakers. Must haves are well, *must* haves. You might just want a couple of basic reports not über analytics.
• Keep track of demos using some sort of scorecard. Have you ever bought a house? How easy is it to remember which one had the upstairs laundry room? So like that.
• Leverage industry research.
• Check references. Most companies have clients listed on their website or just ask them.

Yes, Intellum will accommodate any organization’s years-long sales cycle. Yes, Intellum can crank out an RFP response if that’s what you require (and you’ll find a wealth of info in that link). But you can also just test drive Rollbook, buy it online (SaaS), and be up and running without even talking to a sales rep. I once bought a minivan on my lunch break. Now I can buy an LMS that way. There are many organizations – especially small and medium sized – that won’t find that a maddening experience AT ALL.

This is a crosspost. I’m also writing here with this RSS feed.

The idiom “eating your own dog food” means you are actually using your own products. In my case the “product” is research, analysis, and insight.

Janet, how does one go about “eating” research, analysis and insight you’re probably asking. Excellent question, as always, and thanks for asking.

Next week at our IMPACT conference (streaming, if you can’t attend this year) David Mallon and I will be presenting new research from a 2011 study on High-Impact Learning Organizations (to be published later in the year). However, we’ll be presenting it as if it’s the year 2021.

We know that today, in 2011, we’re in the midst of a fundamentally changing workplace and workforce. We know there is a staggering amount of new learning technology tools, technologies, and services added to our “learning” toolkit. We know employees’ expectations with regard to learning and development are changing. And we all know that we’ve all got to step up our game to keep pace and stay relevant.

Now it would be crazy to present this session as if it’s back in the day where your big worry was “are there enough ashtrays/donuts/handouts in the conference room?” (Yes, ashtrays. Some of you remember the 70s I’m sure.) It would be a better experience to use the collaborative online tools and methods we advise our members on.

So…here’s what we did. First, David and I used Mindmeister to brainstorm and start putting some structure around the session. Mindmeister is a collaborative online mind mapping tool that is ridiculously easy to use. We then started building our session in Prezi. Prezi is an online tool that helps you collaboratively make insanely great web-based presentation maps that change how you navigate through content. We’ve found it a great way to present research online as a story and I can certainly see its potential as an instructional tool. Prezi helps you to think about content in a different way – how to bring things together on one screen and see how they relate.

We are also using an audience response system from Turning Technologies and Twitter to engage people in the research whether attending live or virtually. But wait! That’s not all folks. We also have three thought leaders presenting by video – Ellen Wagner from Sage Road Solutions will talk about changing roles,  Jay Cross of Internet Time Alliance will talk about supporting employees’ fundamental ability to learn, and Koreen Olbrish of Tandem Learning will talk about new approaches to learning like alternate reality games. We’ve embedded those in our online story/presentation.

Just like workplace L&D, the research field is evolving – the way it is reported, the way it is gathered, the way it is published. Exciting times to be in either industry! We hope you can join us.

We’ll be rockin’ the Vinoy Thursday April 28th from 9:30 to 10:45 am ET. Virtually attend here. Come help us “eat our own dog food” and find out what the High-Impact Learning Organization of 2021 will look like.

(This blog post is intended to be a factual statement. )

This is a guest post from Tiffany Fary, a Senior eLearning Instructional Designer in the corporate sector.

When it comes to the terms “Social Learning” and “Communities of Practice”, many people in the corporate learning realm are confused, myself included. We think we know what these mean one day, and then the next day a new theory or idea emerges that turns the whole idea of each upside down and inside out. Are Social Learning and Communities of Practice different? I think they are, but do you?

Social Learning

People in corporations are picking up Social Learning as one of the latest learning “buzzwords” without really knowing what it means. They hear it mentioned mostly through their own social networks and immediately think…”This is new and innovative! Let’s do this!”. It’s up to us then to figure out what to do with it. The scramble for research begins.

Here’s what I think Social Learning means:

Social Learning – Learning by observing, conversing, or questioning. This can take place in an informal or formal setting and sometimes may even occur without the learner realizing that learning is taking place or without making a conscious decision to learn. It’s organic and usually unorganized. Social Learning is more focused on the needs of the individual. In social learning, a participant might ask “What do *I* need to know and who knows how to answer this quickly?” Knowledge is primarily consumed or pulled from experts.

Social Learning is hard to track and it’s going to happen whether we try to implement it or not. It’s learning in the wild, via conversations, social media and the learning 2.0 technologies.

Communities of Practice

What corporations should really be focusing on are Communities of Practice (CoP) instead. Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave are the most well-known and respected experts when it comes to coining the phrase Communities of Practice and initially defining it more than 10 years ago. CoPs are recently gathering more traction the learning community and this is most likely due to the availability and wider acceptance of the 2.0 technologies in the corporate environment. We now have the tools, such as blogs, wikis and discussion boards, to really make this work…AND be able to track it.

Here’s what I think Communities of Practice are:

Communities of Practice (CoPs) – Groups of people with a common interest that are focused on collaboration and sharing of information related to that common interest. CoPs have a purpose, organization, and are usually tied to a business goal when used in corporations. A CoP is more focused on improving performance and enhancing knowledge of the group, as opposed to an individual. In CoPs, a participant might ask “What can I share with the group or how can we solve a problem together?” Knowledge is primarily shared or pushed.

Wrap-up

As the innovators and learning experts for our respective organizations, we need understand what our “customers” are asking for as well as be able to influence them into making the right decisions in relation to Social Learning and Communities of Practice. However, we can’t do that unless we’re able to understand these differences (if there really is any) ourselves. I’m not a learning expert, but I hope I got you thinking and perhaps I just turned your own theories upside down and inside out.

Tiffany Fary is a Senior eLearning Instructional Designer with more than 11 years experience in corporate learning. She is primarily focused on improving learning and enhancing learner performance through the use of technology. In her free time, Tiffany enjoys spending time with her son and is an avid video gamer. You can follow her on Twitter via @TiffanyFary.

Today I joined the staff of Bersin & Associates as a senior analyst focusing on enterprise learning.

If you’ve been in L&D for any length of time then I’m sure you know Josh Bersin. If not, you should and if you’re new to the industry, you’ll want to follow his work.

It’s a real powerhouse research team and I’m thrilled to be joining them. I’ve always had great respect for their research and am looking forward to sharing my own experiences and background. What I really like about Bersin is their intense focus on meeting the needs of clients. That’s how it should be at any membership-based research firm and I’m glad I found that.

It was a tough decision leaving both the independent practice I started to build up over the last year and my job at Elearning! Magazine (best people ever) but ultimately, I decided I really wanted to work as a full-time analyst again.

I’ve been working with David Mallon, who directs the research on learning for Bersin & Associates, for the past six months on some great projects and have become even more familiar with his work (and the rest of the firm’s work). I found myself shaking my head in agreement as I read research findings and recommendations. This is a sweet thing. I recommend following Dave’s work. He’s a top analyst in the learning space.

I will be writing about the work I do with them on their site (I’m not yet listed) but will still maintain this site. This makes total sense to me. I wrote about the analyst/blogging issue before when Forrester made a change in their policy. Josh Bernoff, at Forrester gets at the part of the issue: “Forrester is an intellectual property company, and the opinions of our analysts are our products. Blogging is an extension of the work…”.  I’m on that train.

Of course this two blog thing created an interesting sit-back-with-a-pipe-rubbing-chin-pondering episode (despite having limited chin hair). It got me thinking about writing style and blog attachment. Regarding writing style, I remember giving people advice on how to write on blogs. If it’s corporate, it should match the culture I would say. It should match the clothing one would wear to work. I expect to take my own advice and write in a “business casual” tone there. Safe for work. Here, on my own URL, I generally like to mix it up and sometimes write “business casual”, other times kind of  raunchy “3-day old hoodie and jeans”.   Point is, blog posts about my work with Bersin will be on their site, not this site. What you might or might not find here in the future:

• Social Web + life
• Working virtually including coworking / workshifting / cloud working
• Things that can be tagged WTF or FTW
• Interesting gadgets that are not pink
• Every bloggers favorite topic – blogging
• My own education and development
• Trials and tribulations of being an introvert
• Book reviews
• Other random crap

The other “issue” is blog attachment. I considered just getting rid of this blog but, after four years  writing here, I feel this space has been an outlet for most everything. I’m attached to it because I’ve put so much into it. Long time readers of this blog might know that I took my blog out to dinner at Applebee’s on it’s one-year anniversary ; ) <kidding>

So, to beat a dead horse, this blog is not ending; one topic area is just taking a different route. The Bersin blogs are currently organized by analyst and research area, which means that you can read entries by individual analysts and topics relevant to your interests. Get to know this group they’re top notch in their areas.

I haven’t answered a question on Quora even though I’ve had an account for about a year. I also haven’t viewed many answers. This is probably because I don’t yet have Quora running through my normal channels – Google Reader, email, Twitter, etc.

Now you may be wondering, “Janet, what is this Quora you speak of?” Good question, as always.

Quora is a social service where people ask questions and other people answer them. You can “upvote” good answers, bringing them closer to the top or “downvote” bad ones. You follow people and people follow you. Over 500 people follow me even though I have never answered a question. (If you want to see how Quora works, you can take a look at this question: How can e-Learning or computer-based training be more effective?) Poke around while you’re there you’ll see that it’s generally a big knowledge market. I’ll wait…

OK then. I think Quora gets at our thirst for expertise. We’ve gone through the “wow, anyone can write anything” and now are at the “there’s so much stuff, I don’t know where to find a decent answer.”

I can see the value in having a corporate Quora. Can you? It’s all about context. After all, to do your day-to-day job you pretty much need answers to questions.