Truth can be stranger than fiction!
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Social Media: Exploiting Knowledge in Networks
There are still some places available on the "Exploiting Knowledge in Networks" training event next week, Tuesday 4th October.
The training focuses on use of Social Media tools to support Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) and self development. The following is brief synopsis of the training and what will be covered:
Introduction:
There is a desire to develop more effective knowledge sharing and a culture of collaboration in most organisations, but little recognition of what this means in terms of staff development and overcoming barriers to change. The enormous growth of social media tools and social/professional networks over the past few years has created new opportunities and new challenges for people and organisations who want to embrace this dynamic world of social interaction and fluid knowledge flows. However, It is not widely recognised that collaboration and knowledge sharing are skills and practices that rarely get taught. It's something we may learn on the job in a hit or miss fashion. Some people are natural at it. Others struggle to understand it.
This one day course provides a practical and detailed introduction to social media and social/professional networks that will enable delegates to have a greater understanding of their context for use and deployment within their organisation and for personal and professional development.Outcomes:
- An understanding of social media tools and social networks, and their context for engagement and knowledge sharing
- An understanding of on-line privacy, reputational risk, and the dichotomy of personal and professional identities
- An understanding of the barriers to knowledge sharing and collaboration and how these can be overcome
- An understanding of the principles for creating a personalised social media toolkit to support on-going learning and collaboration
Programme:
- Overview of the social web
- Risks and rewards in the use of social media
- Creating and maintaining your personal profile
- Social media tools and their context for knowledge sharing
- Listening and observing; an introduction to aggregation, sentiment and tracking tools
- Developing your social network and making connections (includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+)
- Communities of Interest/Practice for personal and professional development
- Practical exercises and examples of Social Media in action
If you'd like to book a place on this training course, go to the TFPL website and click on the "book" link. If you'd like more information about the course then please contact me (e.g. use the comments facility in this blog).
If you can't make the 4th October event, the course will be repeated on 6th March 2012 and 2nd October 2012.
Saturday, 20 August 2011
A letter to Mr Cameron
Dear Mr. Cameron
May I suggest that as a punishment for all these hooligans on our streets you put all the criminals into nursing homes and allow the nursing home residents to go into prison.
This way us pensioners would be able to make ends meet,
Our bedding would be washed twice a week and all clothing ironed and returned to our rooms. We would not have to shop for food as all our meals would be in house, delivered to our cells. We would be relieved of finding the money to pay for all the increases in our bills.
We know we would be allowed family visits in a suite built for that purpose. In addition have access to a library, gym, swimming pool, gardens education and spiritual counselling, should we need it.
Sadly this enormous change would result in the criminals getting inferior food, being left alone all day unsupervised with no computers and internet access or free phone calls. However, they would get a weekly bath and hardest of all they would have to pay the enormous sum of between £700-£900 a week for these privileges – but no doubt you would find a way to subsidise this for them.
Also on another subject Mr Cameron, whilst writing I would like to know the real reason why we can no longer have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse or in Parliament. Is this because you cannot possibly allow commands such as ‘Thou shalt not Steal’, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ and ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’ to be visible in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians in case someone is offended!
May I suggest Mr. Cameron that as a starting point to correcting all that is wrong in our society, you pass a law that all schools teach the ten commandments in an effort to re-educate our society in the basics of respect, discipline and morality, and that you stop worrying about offending people of other faiths or no faith.
I feel sure Mr. Cameron, that if you could see your way to implementing some of these changes, you would be assured of the grey vote at the next election.
Yours respectfully.
S Dale
A letter to Mr Cameron
Dear Mr. Cameron
May I suggest that as a punishment for all these hooligans on our streets you put all the criminals into nursing homes and allow the nursing home residents to go into prison.
This way us pensioners would be able to make ends meet, have free unlimited access to central heating and hot water, medical requirements and hobbies. Each of us could have secure furnished rooms equipped with our computer, TV and radio and be allowed free daily phone calls and all this with the benefit of constant video monitoring so we could be helped instantly should we fall or need assistance.
Our bedding would be washed twice a week and all clothing ironed and returned to our rooms. We would not have to shop for food as all our meals would be in house, delivered to our cells. We would be relieved of finding the money to pay for all the increases in our bills.
We know we would be allowed family visits in a suite built for that purpose. In addition have access to a library, gym, swimming pool, gardens education and spiritual counselling, should we need it.
Sadly this enormous change would result in the criminals getting inferior food, being left alone all day unsupervised with no computers and internet access or free phone calls. However, they would get a weekly bath and hardest of all they would have to pay the enormous sum of between £700-£900 a week for these privileges – but no doubt you would find a way to subsidize this for them.
Also on another subject Mr Cameron, whilst writing I would like to know the real reason why we can no longer have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse or in Parliament. Is this because you cannot possibly allow commands such as ‘Thou shalt not Steal’, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ and ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness’ to be visible in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians in case someone is offended!
May I suggest Mr. Cameron that as a starting point to correcting all that is wrong in our society, you pass a law that all schools teach the ten commandments in an effort to re-educate our society in the basics of respect, discipline and morality, and that you stop worrying about offending people of other faiths or no faith.
I feel sure Mr. Cameron, that if you could see your way to implementing some of these changes, you would be assured of the grey vote at the next election.
Yours respectfully.
S Dale
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Think differently about the world and you will always do well
Loved this from Toby Moores, (now DR Toby Moores) - which I'll add to my list of favourite quotes:
There is no point in being in a straight foot race with people who are faster than you. But if you fire the gun you will always have a job and if you hand out trophies you will always be on the podium.
There's hope for me yet then!
If you are prepared to think differently about the world you will always do well.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Call for input on 'Apps' for Online Information Conference 2011
- Going mobile: Information and knowledge on the move
- Social media: Exploiting knowledge in social networks
- Building a framework for the future of the information profession
- New frontiers in information management
- Search and information discovery
Details about the programme and speakers will be announced shortly on the conference website.
We are still seeking some input to the 'Going Mobile' track, and specifically on the creative use of Apps for mobile devices (e.g. smart phones or tablets). If you have delivered an app that can demonstrate value to the user or more effective and efficient services for the provider, and you'd like the opportunity to showcase the app (or apps) to our global audience of information professionals, then we'd like to hear from you. Typically the app might be:
- an e-book lending service
- a location-based app for reporting problems
- an app for paying for a council service, e.g. parking.
- an app for health
- ....or something that no-one else has thought of!
Please respond to this post if you have a story to tell and would like a featured spot in the conference.
Many thanks.
Stephen Dale
Conference Chairman
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Google+ the Facebook killer?
Google has announced details of it's latest foray into social networking with Google+. The core components appear to consist of :
o Circles (equivalent to groups) - where information can be shared privately. With Circles you can put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another and your boss in a circle all on his own!
o Hangouts - lets friends know that you're free for a video chat or impromptu virtual meet-up.
o Sparks - a sort of activity stream subscription feature, It looks for videos and articles that it thinks you'll like, based on what your interests.
There's also a Google+ mobile app available in the Android Market, which will no doubt soon come to Apple’s App Store.
It seems that Google have put a lot of thought into making all of this hang together in a seamless and natural way, and this is clearly laying the foundations for Google's future presence in the social web. It will certainly make Facebook sit up and take notice, but I'm not sure whether it will pull many users away from Facebook. However, I do believe there is room for more than one social media behemoth in the market, and for the significant many who dislike Facebook or find it overly complex, Google+ offers a compelling alternative.
Google+ is currently in an invitation- only “Field Trial” period, so only a select few can access the service at this time. Google+ will be going live to the general public soon, the company says.
Amplify’d from www.digitaltrends.com
Google turned the world of social media on its head today with the much-anticipated unveiling of the “top-secret” Google+ project, a massive new type of service that essentially turns all of Google into one giant social network.
While Facebook, with its 700 million users, is a vast social network, made for connecting with as many people as you can get to accept a friend request, Google+ aims to redefine the way people connect online by letting users create a variety of smaller groups, called “Circles,” which allows people to share information and content with only the friends or colleagues they choose.
“We believe online sharing is broken. And even awkward,” said Google’s President of Social Vic Gandora in an interview with TechCrunch. “We think connecting with other people is a basic human need. We do it all the time in real life, but our online tools are rigid. They force us into buckets — or into being completely public.” By comparison, he says, “[r]eal life sharing is nuanced and rich.” With Google+, Google has tried to adapt the richness of real life interactions into an online software.
Like Facebook’s News Feed, Google+ gives users a dashboard with a flow of updates from their friends. Shared content, comments, photos etc are divided into “Streams,” one for each Circle of friends. Users can customize their security settings to allow some contacts to view personal information while hiding it from others.
Google+ can also be controlled through a newly redesigned navigation bar, which will appear at the top of the page of any Google product. Through this, Google+ users can access their profile, check notifications, and instantly share content to their various Circles.
Google has also built in a friend-finding feature called “Sparks,” which acts as a kind of search engine for hobbies. So if, say, you’re interested in single malt Scotch whisky, simply enter in “single malt Scotch” into the Sparks search bar, and Google will deliver content it thinks you might enjoy. (Google’s recently-launched +1 Button plays a role in what makes it to the top of these lists.) Find something you like, and simply click on it to add it to your list of interests. You can also connect with fellow enthusiasts in the “featured interests” area, and see what they are chatting about.
Next on the staggering list of Google+ features is what Google calls “Hangouts,” which is a group video chat feature. A Google+ user can simply launch a new Hangout session. Friends are alerted, and are free to join in. Up to 10 users can be in a single Hangout at a time. Any more, and they’re placed on the waiting list.
The final major feature to Google+ is its mobile functionality. The Google+ mobile app is currently available in the Android Market, and will soon come to Apple’s App Store. The Google+ mobile features include “Huddle” for group messaging, as well as an auto-upload feature that automatically adds any photo or video taken on your smartphone through Google+ to a private folder in the cloud. These files are then accessible the next time you log on to Google+ on a computer, and can be shared for up to eight hours after upload.
Google is currently in an invite-only “Field Trial” period, so only a select lucky few can access the service at this time. Google+ will be going live to the general public soon, the company says.
From what we’ve seen so far, Google+ seems like a giant leap in the right direction for Google — and far more robust than Buzz or Orkut. Obviously, there’s a lot here to sort through, so check back soon for more on Google+
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1693q
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)